A/N: So my spelling of names is as consistent as the weather - I apologize for that. At this point whether or not I use a u or not depends entirely on aesthetics. Hence Bakugou is spelled with a u, but Shoto is not.

"Uhm…" Momo said, "no, no, don't 'uhm'. Be confident."

She pulled her shoulders back to an unnatural degree and tried again.

"Good morning. Where do I sign in? Ah, I see you have a sword. I have one too. They're very tough and manly - no, no, what am I doing? A guy wouldn't say 'manly'."

She groaned, looking down at the camp below her.

"Maybe I should just pretend to be deaf so I won't have to talk to anyone. What do you think, Shadow?"

Her horse gave her a thoroughly unimpressed look.

"You're right," she sighed, "I'm barely going to be able to pull off one lie. Maybe I could pass for mute though."

She started to pace back and forth. Going home wasn't an option, but succeeding at her plan was beginning to seem just as unlikely. Had she been crazy to do this? Probably. Actually – hold on – maybe the craziness was just beginning because now she was hearing voices.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?"

There was a pause as though someone was replying, but Momo couldn't hear that.

"Of course I trust you. It's just – if I fail… Midoriya's going to kill me. Or well, not really. He's too nice to kill anyone. But he'll be really disappointed and that will be so much worse. Oh wait, we're here!"

A cricket and what looked like a lizard emerged from behind one of the bushes. Momo shrieked and jumped backwards; she couldn't help it.

"Oh, don't freak out," the lizard said hurriedly, "it's okay. We're here to help."

"What?"

Momo looked over at Shadow to see whether he was also seeing this. Her horse was pawing nervously at the earth so presumably the snake-like creature wasn't a figment of her imagination.

"Who are you?" Momo asked, "and what do you have to do with my brother?"
"I'm the family shrine's dragon, Ochako. Your ancestors – including your brother – sent me to help you. Oh, and this is Jirou," she gestured to the cricket, "she helped me find you."

"Wait, Midoriya – he's… alive?"

"Uh, well, no. He's very dead. But just as much as the other ancestors who are kind of not alive… but uh – not dead-dead. Just like ghost-dead."

Momo decided that she needed to sit down. Preferably before she fell down.

"But he sent you?"

"It was his idea that I come here, yes."

There were a thousand questions she wanted to ask. Was her brother all right? Obviously he was dead, but was he… okay? At peace? The question she most wanted an answer to however was the one that she didn't have the courage to ask. Has he forgiven me?

So instead she asked something else entirely.

"If you're one the shrine's guardians, then you've done this before, right? Helped members of our family?"

"Actually, this is my first time on - uhm, guardian duty. If I'm perfectly honest," a dragon's expression shouldn't be able to look so human, but it did, "I have no clue what I'm doing."

Momo looked back at the camp and sighed.

"That makes two of us then."

To someone who had actually been there longer than two seconds, the campground probably resembled organised chaos. To Momo it just looked like chaos. She was still trying to figure out where she was supposed to go when she accidentally bumped into someone coming around the corner of one of the tents.

"Sor-"

"Watch where you're going!" the person shouted. His scowl was impressive. Momo hadn't known that people could make their faces do that.

"What are you looking at?" he snarled.

"No-nothing."

"Don't let him talk down to you like that," Ochako whispered in her ear, "you have to assert dominance."

Momo squared her shoulders and tried again.

"You - uh, you should move. You're in my way."

"That's better," Ochako said approvingly.

The guy's scowl intensified. He held up his hand and something exploded in his palm. Momo began to think that maybe taking advice from a dragon wasn't the best idea.

"What did you say?"

Just then a red-haired boy and a black-haired boy came running up to them. They seemed to be the guy's friends.

"Oi, Bakugou! There you are."

The guy - Bakugou - ignored him.

"I'm going to kill you," he threatened Momo. She took a step back.

Before he could attack her however, his friend picked him up, holding him in the air as though he weighed nothing at all.

"Calm down, Bakugou. Just relax and chant with me. Na-mo-na-mi-"

"I told you! I'm not doing that stupid chant!"

Bakugou started to attack his friend instead, who didn't seem the least bit bothered by the shouting and explosions. Momo could only stare at the bizarre spectacle.

"Is he always like this?" she asked the black-haired boy next to her.

"Oh no, no. Usually he's worse. Kirishima has been taking him to anger management classes lately. He's gotten much better."

The blond boy was now trying to bite his friend - Kirishima, she assumed.

"At least, so I'm told. I'm Sero by the way. And you are?"

Momo was about to answer when a particularly large explosion knocked Kirishima into one of the people standing behind them.

"Sorry," he said.

The guy he had knocked into gave a scowl similar to Bakugou's.

"Oh, really? Well you will be."

Momo hadn't expected to find herself in a warzone quite so soon after joining the army, but within moments that was what the camp grounds became. She ducked her head and wondered where in the world the person in charge was.

Shoto zoned out as his father droned on about family legacy and military lineage, only noticing the silence when it had already stretched on for several moments. In fact, if Iida hadn't subtily cleared his throat from the sidelines, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"Yes, Father," he supplied.

His father frowned.

"Pay attention, Shoto, this is important. Heavens! I can't believe I'm leaving you in charge."

"I can't believe it either."

That was probably the wrong thing to say. His father's scowl deepened. Shoto tried his best not to smile at that.

"I'm counting on you to have the new recruits ready by winter and to meet me at this village," he pointed at it on the map with his riding crop, "a month later."

"Got it."

"Iida will stay and help you," he turned to the scribe, "I expect a full report when I get back."

"Of course, General Endeavour! I will make sure to compile a thorough report!"

Shoto and Iida had gone to the same school and while he trusted the other man with his life, his friend did tend to take his job way too seriously.

"Good. I'll see you in six months then."

Shoto didn't say anything as his father left, leaving the greeting and bowing to Iida who was certainly doing enough of it for both of them.

As soon as the general left Iida turned to him. His friend gave him a look.

"What?"

"I know you and your father have your - issues with one another. But for the sake of the war effort you should at least try to get along. Victory relies on co-operation between officers."

"I'll work with him, but I won't show that man a shred of respect. He doesn't deserve it. I'll forgive him when hell freezes over and he actually apologises for what he's done."

Iida sighed. He knew that while Shoto could be pretty easy-going about most things, his father was the one subject that he was unmovable on.

"We should go check on the new recruits. See what we have to work with."

What they had to work with was a mess. Shoto checked the position of the sun. It was barely noon and they had already started a fight. Somehow they had even managed to knock over the cook's pot and scatter rice across most of the training grounds.

Iida was shouting to get their attention, but the recruits either didn't hear or flatly ignored him.

Shoto didn't bother shouting. He froze the ground under their feet and those who weren't immediately stuck soon fell on the slippery surface.

That got their attention. All the recruits turned around ready to face their new foe. When they saw that it was their captain they quickly scrambled to attention. Or rather, a civilian's imitation of attention.

"Who started the fight?" he asked.

All heads swiveled to a spiky-haired guy with a glare to rival Endeavour's. He opened his mouth but before he could say anything the top-knotted boy next to him stepped forward.

"I did, sir."

The boy looked too young to be in the army. His voice hadn't even broken yet.

"Let me see your papers," Shoto demanded.

The boy handed him his conscription notice. Shoto frowned at the form, wondering if his bad eye was making him see things.

"Yaoyorozu? Are you All Might's secret love child or something?"

Iida coughed, trying to cover for his superior's very inappropriate question.

"Uh, I didn't know that All Might had a son. And your name is?"

"Midoriya."

Iida made a note on his ledger. Midoriya. Something about that name seemed familiar. He'd have to go check the records.

Meanwhile Shoto turned his attention to the rest of the recruits.

"All right, men. Thanks to your antics here, you will spend the rest of the day picking up every single grain of rice."

If they worked together it shouldn't take too long. Plus, if they left it, the camp would have an ant problem by morning and that would take considerably longer to deal with.

"Tomorrow the real work begins."