Chapter 3 - A Lesson in Laziness

"I AM… coming through the door like a normal person!"

Tomo watched as Japan's number one hero, All Might, walked into the room with his usual larger-than-life smile. He looks even cooler in person. His presence is so commanding. I wonder what fighting him would be like... I hope I can fight him.

Tomo's classmates around him broke out into mutters of excitement at the thought of taking a class under the number one pro hero. He listened closely as All Might explained what Hero Basic Training class would entail. To his excitement, it was real combat training. To his disappointment, however, it was against each other instead of against the teachers like he was hoping. He really wanted to spar against All Might.

All Might then directed the students to their brand new costumes and told them to get changed and meet in Ground Beta.

As they were getting changed in the locker room, the red-haired boy who Tomo couldn't remember the name of snuck up next to him. "Hey, you excited? We're about to be taught by the number one hero! He's even more manly in person!"

"Yeah, the class sounds cool but honestly, I wanted to fight All Might instead," Tomo admitted with a touch of sadness in his voice. "Imagine how crazy it would be to fight someone that strong. No one has ever been able to beat him. It sounds exhilarating."

"You… want to fight… All Might?"

Tomo nodded, a serious expression on his face. "What? You don't?"

"No… Wouldn't he just wipe the floor versus any of us?"

"Probably," Tomo replied with a shrug. He finished putting on the last piece of his costume before adding, "Doesn't mean it wouldn't be fun. I think I'm pretty strong but against a foe like All Might, I just want to see him in action personally. The pit of despair in your stomach when you know you are absolutely outclassed sounds exhilarating. I want to feel that rush."

Red Hair looked at him like he grew a second head. "Dude! That is so manly!"

Tomo eyed the strange boy. What's the deal with this guy? Is manly the only way he knows how to describe things? And why is he acting like wanting to fight All Might is such a strange idea? Is it? I dunno. And he keeps clinging to me like he's my friend. Whatever. He's not too annoying, at least.

An angry looking blond boy whose name Tomo also forgot walked up to him. "Hey, extra," the boy greeted him with a scowl.

Tomo replied with his own suspicious scowl. Extra?

"Listen here, if anyone here is going to fight All Might, it'll be ME. And I'll win. You got that? None of you extras here are even close enough in skill to put up a fraction of a fight against him. None of you except me. Because I'll be number one. You better not get in my way." Then, the blond walked away without giving Tomo a chance to respond.

"Huh?" Tomo said in confusion as he watched the blond boy walk away. He looked to Red Hair to see if he knew what he did wrong. Red Hair just shrugged at his look.

The darkness boy with the bird face whose name Tomo also forgot walked up to them. Names were hard for him. The bird boy glanced at the blond boy walking away from them before turning to them. "That one casts a shadow so large that it will consume the light of us all if we don't keep up." He then walked away before they could respond.

Tomo shared another look of confusion with Red Hair. Their classmates were weird.

"They say the clothes make the man, young men and ladies. Be fully aware. From now on, you are heroes!" All Might yelled out to the class as they walked onto Ground Beta.

Tomo looked around at some of his classmates. Some of them had costumes that were plain and simple in design. Costumes of bare necessities much like his own. Others wore more personalized costumes that reflected a lot of their personalities.

Tomo was wearing a plain, black vest that was outlined in blue. Over it was a long, black cloak that reached down to his knees, hints of blue outlined the edges of the cloak. His favorite part of the costume was an oversized black hood that connected to his cloak. Putting his hood up shrouded his face with the shadows. He knew heroes were supposed to be flashy and recognizable but just the thought of having his face be easily recognizable in public made him mentally exhausted. A simple pair of black pants and shoes completed the look.

"Are you supposed to be some kind of edgy wizard?" Toru asked from next to him.

Tomo looked over to see… a floating pair of gloves and boots. He quickly turned away and closed his eyes in hopes that what he just saw wasn't real. That he would open his eyes to see a normal looking costume from his invisible sister. A quick peak showed that to not be the case. Deciding suddenly that the sky looked very intriguing, he looked up and spoke, "Y-you were serious about that being your hero costume, Toru?"

"Yup! What do you think?" Toru replied with a tone that indicated that she saw nothing wrong with her costume.

"Nope. I don't think I can ever approve of it. I would just rather not think about it at all. I'm gonna go over there," Tomo said and walked back towards Red Hair.

"Oh well. It's not like I have much of a logical choice. Good luck!" Toru replied cheerily to his back as he walked away.

All Might called the class to attention again after they finished admiring each others' costumes and explained how the class would work. Two-vs-two indoor battles with a hero team and a villain team. Heroes had to simply touch the fake bomb that the villain team guarded to win. Villains had to defend the fake bomb until the time limit. Either team could also win by capturing the members of the opposing team.

Everyone drew lots to randomize the teams. Tomo drew into Team C along with the tall ponytail girl who placed first in the Quirk test. They were the villain team.

"Hello, I don't think I've formally introduced myself. My name is Momo Yaoyorozu. It's a pleasure to meet you," the ponytail girl cordially introduced herself to Tomo when it was time to make plans.

Tomo gave her a nod of acknowledgement. She doesn't look very powerful but she did place first in the test. Above me. I wish she would act like someone who finished first though. She's too unassuming. And boring.

"Tomo Hagakure," he replied curtly.

He eyed his opponents of Team G. The girl with the earphone jack ears and the nicer blond guy with the lightning bolt in his hair.

Tomo found himself quickly getting bored. Going from the anticipation of getting to fight All Might to instead fighting against his classmates drained Tomo's interest quicker than he thought possible. All he needed was one look at his opponents to immediately lose interest in their "fight." He felt confident that his assessment was accurate due to the training he got from his father after he got his Quirk. All Hagakures who had Darkness related Quirks had to get trained in order to control their powers. Part of the training involved judging other people's relative strength to provide a sense of self-comfort that the Quirk wouldn't rampage. This skill was also why the idea of fighting All Might exhilarated him.

"Well, Hagakure, before any plans, we should remind each other of our Quirks. Mine allows me to Create any non-living object as long as I know its molecular composition. What's yours?"

"First off, please call me Tomo. It makes it less confusing to know who you're referring to when my sister is around. And my Quirk is Darkness. I can control Darkness," he answered simply.

Yaoyorozu gave him a polite, yet unsatisfied look of confusion at his explanation. Tomo ignored it. Going into the details of his Quirk would require energy he currently didn't have. And it wasn't like she needed the details of his Quirk anyway. Not when they were against such boring opponents.

They were told to get inside the building to set up and make preparations as the villain team.

His partner picked up the conversation again as they walked inside. "Well, do you have any particular plan in mind? I have one in mind that could work if you don't have one."

"Yeah, I have a plan," Tomo said with a yawn. "I'm going to take a nap."

"W-what?" Yaoyorozu spluttered. "A nap?"

Tomo nodded as he walked around the building, eyeing each room in search of the perfect resting spot.

"Is… there a particular reason why you need to take a nap? Do you need medical assistance? Should we call off the match and get Recovery Girl?"

"No, that would just interrupt my nap," Tomo commented as he finally found a nice looking room. It only had two windows and several pieces of furniture scattered around.

He turned to her and sighed at her expression. "Alright, fine, listen. I actually do have a real plan. It's foolproof so I can take my nap. Let's move the bomb into this room. Then, you board up the windows with your Quirk so that this room is pitch black. I'll handle the rest. Trust me, when sleep is involved, I don't joke around."

Yaoyorozu looked at him skeptically but did as he commanded anyway. After they brought the bomb into the room and the room was darkened, Tomo pressed his hands together above the fake bomb. Then, he separated them and moved a hand down along each side of the bomb. Darkness flowed out of his palms like running water, shrouding the bomb in Darkness and making it completely unseeable with the shadows of the room aiding in camouflaging it. Even if a bit of light shone in from the door, Darkness would make it seem like the room was empty at a glance. Tomo yawned again and blinked some drowsy tears away from his eyes.

"There, happy?" he asked his partner as she studied his actions.

"You... covered the bomb? In Darkness?"

"Yeah, they can't touch it if they can't find it."

"What about us? They can just win by capturing the both of us too."

Tomo snuggled up against the wall and summoned a Dark Blanket to cover himself. "That sounds like a "you" problem. You're strong, right? Handle them yourself, or hide somewhere, I don't really care either way."

He wrapped the blanket completely around himself, making him also completely unseeable, and closed his eyes. Finally, an excuse to get a nice daytime nap. This might just be the single greatest idea I've ever had. I don't know why she's getting so fussy about it. The battle wouldn't even be interesting anyway. We would win in a few minutes.

Yaoyorozu said something that sounded like complaints but Tomo didn't hear any of it as he fell fast asleep.

A loud voice in his ear woke Tomo up.

"Hero team… WINS!"

Huh?

He unwrapped himself from his blanket to see his two opponents in the room with him. They both jumped at the sight of him.

"Wow, Jiro, you were right. He was in this room all along," the blond boy commented in shocked amusement.

"Of course I was right, Kaminari. Why would I lie about hearing his breaths?" the girl, Jiro replied.

"What happened?" Tomo asked in confusion. All Might said the hero team won but we're the villain team. And… they didn't capture me. So…

Jiro looked at Tomo with a look of both embarrassment and humor. "We found the bomb you covered in Darkness. By accident. This idiot here bumped into it when we came to investigate this room. I could hear the sound of your soft breathing with my Quirk."

"Oh," Tomo replied flatly as he started to take in what had transpired during his slumber.

At that moment, All Might spoke into their ears again, telling them to return back to the surveillance room.

When they returned, all eyes fell on Tomo. He didn't like the feeling in his gut as he saw their looks.

"Now that we're all here, let's discuss what went well and what went wrong. Does anyone have any comments?" All Might asked the class.

The frog girl raised her hand first. "The villain team, or Hagakure in particular, had a solid plan in theory. Hiding the bomb and himself from vision was a viable strategy that might have worked against anyone that wasn't Jiro. They also might have just won if Hagakure decided to fight with his partner. Instead, he just let the hero team walk up to the bomb without trying to stop them. It was almost like he was asleep."

All Might nodded in agreement.

The tall boy with glasses shot his hand up next. "I must disapprove of Hagakure's disregard for his teammate's safety. It was very unfitting of a hero-in-training and demonstrated a lack of respect towards his partner and opponents. He completely abandoned her to fight two opponents without offering any sort of aid."

"Interesting point, Young Iida," All Might commented. "How about some comments from our two teams? What went well and what went wrong?"

Both pairs of partners in each team looked at each other.

"Uh… We got a bit lucky, to be honest," Jiro said. "I guess the villain team didn't take into consideration the utility of our Quirks so we won."

*Yeah, what she said," Kaminari added. "Yaoyorozu did well to counter my Quirk but I guess she didn't expect to fight both of us by herself."

The class then turned to the villain team.

Tomo spoke first. "Uh… my bad."

*No, no. The fault is with me," Yaoyorozu interrupted. "I should have played into your plan more. I thought it wouldn't be right to not fight so I tried to defend the bomb but got overpowered. I will do better next time to play to your strengths."

Tomo stared at her, at a loss for words and a bit surprised at how easily she accepted the blame.

"Very well," All Might interjected. "As long as you know where you went wrong and try to not repeat it next time, that's what matters. To the hero team, don't feel bad about "being lucky." Sometimes, luck will be on your side and it is up to you to capitalize on it to your advantage. To the villain team, try to work towards your partner more. You are paired up for a reason. Okay, that will be all for this match. Let's move on to the next and final match."

Tomo frowned. The victory of his nap felt soured by the defeat in the exercise. He knew he messed up. All Might suggested he work with his partner more but his biggest mistake was relying on others to do their part. Next time, he would take a page out of the book of the guy with the ice Quirk and end the battle as soon as possible himself.

Bird Head walked up to Tomo while the next match was still getting ready. "Your embrace of the shadows was quite admirable." Then, he walked away before Tomo could respond.

A floating pair of gloves replaced the space Bird Head occupied. Toru waved a glove in front of his face to snap him out of confusion. "Hey, welcome to the loser's club, loser."

Tomo replied with a sigh when he realized she was talking to him. The loss left a bitter taste in his mouth. Victory was all but assured in his eyes. They could have won in a number of different ways and many of those ways could have involved him still taking a nap.

"This hero stuff is a lot harder than I thought it would be. My match wasn't even close. Everyones' Quirks are so much better than mine," Toru continued in sadness.

"Mm," Tomo replied in indifference, not really hearing her words. I'll just do things myself next time and I won't get this stupid feeling in my gut again. It'll take way too much effort but it's probably better than this stupid feeling I feel right now.

"Good work on yesterday's combat training. I saw the video and the results," Mr. Aizawa announced to the class the next day.

Tomo was half asleep in his seat. Last night was torture. I… I haven't slept since the train ride home yesterday. New moon nights are impossible.

Aizawa turned towards his direction. "Tomo, first of all, pay attention and don't fall asleep during class."

Tomo jolted straight up and blinked a few times to appear more awake.

"Second, you have talent. Don't waste it away by being lazy. I'm aware of your sleeping issues but that isn't an excuse to sleep through all of school. Next time I catch you sleeping during something you shouldn't be, you're getting expelled."

Tomo nodded slowly, which only served to make him more sleepy. Luckily, Mr. Aizawa seemed to move on.

"Speaking of talent, Bakugo, you're also talented, so don't act like a kid."

"I know," Bakugo replied in annoyance.

"And Midoriya. You settled it by breaking your arm again, huh?"

Tomo figured he must have zoned out while Aizawa spoke to whoever Midoriya was because the next thing he knew, the entire class broke out into loud chatter. He turned around to his sister. "Toru, what did I miss? What are we doing?"

"We're voting for who we think should be class rep," she whispered to him.

"Oh, okay, you have my vote. Good night."

"What?! No, I don't want your stupid vote! Vote for yourself or something!"

Even though he was just warned by Aizawa to not sleep during school, seeing his teacher fall straight asleep in his sleeping bag gave Tomo the green light he needed to follow his example. Any protests Toru was making behind him fell on deaf ears as Tomo fell asleep as soon as he put his head down.

Toru decided to grace Tomo with her presence at lunch that day.

"Hey, not sitting with anyone?" Toru asked as she took the open seat across from him.

Tomo replied with a shrug as he took another bite of his turkey sandwich.

Toru continued the one-sided conversation. "Are you excited for training? I heard a rumor that we're having a special class soon! What do ya think it'll be on?"

He shrugged again.

Toru huffed in annoyance. "Can you at least try to make conversation?! You're so boring!"

"You act like this is something new from me," Tomo finally replied.

Toru ignored his comment as she continued her rant. "How are you going to make any friends with that attitude?! I know you don't really care about it but you should! Some company once in a while will do you some good!

Tomo finished eating his sandwich and put his head down. "I'll think about it. I'm going back to sleep. Good night."

She sighed in defeat. "I guess I should have seen that coming… Good night."

He was allowed two minutes of bliss before a loud alarm went off. Tomo shot straight up in annoyance at the sudden loud noise. "What is it this time?!"

Toru shrugged across from him. A small part of Tomo was surprised she was still there at his table while he napped. Toru looked around at the other students. "I don't know. Is this some kind of drill?"

All around them, students were rushing towards the cafeteria exit in panic. The twins heard someone shout something about trespassing and the alarm being serious, which sprang them into action.

Tomo turned to his sister with a serious expression for once. "Stay close to me."

"Yeah." She grabbed his hand to stay close to him.

The two made the difficult journey towards the exit. In the sudden panic, the hallway became completely full as every single student tried to leave the building at the same time. All it took were a few rough shoves and bumps before Toru lost her grip on Tomo and got separated from him. Her invisibility made it even more difficult to pick her out from the crowd.

Tomo's heart started racing. Would anyone even notice an invisible girl in this crowd? All it would take is one shove for her to fall and get trampled on. I have to do something…

"Toru?!" he yelled out with no response.

It's so congested here I can't even gather Darkness to fly up and look for her without hurting someone else. Should I just release all of my Darkness?

There was absolutely no sign of Toru anywhere near him.

I have to. Consequences be damned. At least this'll get them to stop moving.

Tomo closed his eyes in concentration, his entire focus lasered on his Quirk to come out. Right as the first bits of Darkness started seeping out, he heard a familiar voice, causing him to open his eyes.

He turned his head to the source of the voice and was blessed by the sight of Glasses Boy flying in the air.

"Everyone, everything's fine! It's just the media! There's nothing to panic about; everything's fine! This is UA. Let us act in a way befitting the best of the best."

His words seemed to have an immediate effect as the constant shoving stopped and the crowd calmed down. Tomo was finally able to take a deep breath.

"Toru? Can you hear me? Toru?!" Tomo scanned the crowd, hoping to find an odd gap among them that would indicate Toru's presence. When that failed, he reported back to their class's homeroom in the hopes that Toru was there as well.

Once inside, he spotted the familiar sight of floating clothes in Toru's seat, shaking. A few of the girls and guys in their class were gathered around her, whispering and comforting her.

Tomo rushed over and hugged her. "I was so worried…"

Toru choked a sob and leaned into him. "I w-was so scared, Tomo. As soon as I lost you, it felt like I was all alone again! I know you said to stay close b-but I couldn't help it! The shoves were so hard and I'm kind of weak so I couldn't hold on. I just had to follow wherever the crowd took me. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. You don't have to be sorry for anything. I'm just glad you're unhurt."

Toru sobbed harder into him as their classmates gave them some space.

A/N (Random ramblings): (Super random/I understand why it's done/It totally doesn't matter at all) but does it irk anyone else that everyone knows everyone else's names RIGHT AWAY in all these shows? If it were me, half of my conversations would be me trying to converse without ever having to say the other person's name because I totally forgot and don't want to ask again. Therefore, Tomo is the kind of guy who is too tired/lazy to learn anyone else's name. He'll eventually learn them but for now, he's taking a page out of Bakugo's book.

Tomo napping during the Battle Trial was one of the first scenes I imagined during the creation of the story. I thought it would be pretty amusing to have someone win by doing nothing but hiding. Sucks for Tomo that probably the only person in the class who could counter this, Jiro, was against him, or else he probably would have won with his strategy.

Also, I'll talk about this now: Tomo does replace Mineta in the story, but I also have a valid reason for it besides "I don't like him so he won't be in my story." I wanted to place Tomo in front of Toru in class and since they sit alphabetically, the only way to accomplish that is to have him replace someone who sits behind Toru in canon. Since my candidates for that are Bakugo, Midoriya, Mineta, and Yaoyorozu, the choice isn't that hard.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Any thoughts, comments, or feedback are always appreciated. Next chapter on Friday, which will be the usual update day.