To Become a Hero

by jfpentsil

[Sexual of (To Save the World)] With Korosensei dead and the world saved, Midoriya, Shinsou and the rest of E-class just want to move on with their lives. However, with the media and public in constant fear of the child assassins who stopped the world’s Number One Villain, they find they don’t really get that option. Now they must balance the life of a student and an agent.

5. 5

Chapter 5: To Battle Against Monsters

It was hard to put into words what Izuku felt watching his friends, his classmates and team descend from the ceiling like guardian angels coming down from heaven, here to save them from the horror that this field trip became. Everything kept juxtaposing itself, canceling itself as quickly as it came. Relief. Panic. Thrill. Fear.

But no matter what he felt, one thing was absolutely clear as he saw the fury settled on Karma's face.

These villains were so screwed.

-.-.-.-

There was barely any time to process what was happening before END sprung into action.

Shinsou lashed out with his capture rings, flinging the U.A. three students and teacher far from the villains' reach. While their enemies were still focused on the newcomers, Yada skipped forward with a wide smile and waved at Kurogiri.

"You have a warp quirk, right?" she said, her eyes gleaming. "Mind sending groups of us to wherever you trapped the other 1-A students?"

It seemed the mix of END's shocking appearance and Yada's nonchalant approach meant Kurogiri was thoroughly distracted, his arms robotically lashing out. The dark purple warp enveloped his old classmates, save for Nagisa, Shinsou, and Karma, who pointedly stepped away from the swirling dome. When it disappeared, the assassin team was gone, supposedly sent to wherever Izuku's new classmates were trapped. Shigaraki took a step back so the Nomu blocked him, yet he cackled arrogantly.

"You — You fools!" he spat. "You send away your troops to deal with small fry and leave yourself to be smashed by the obvious threat? It would seem all the rumors about you are fundamentally false. You're just a bunch of stupid kids!"

"Hardly," Karma replied with a smirk. "Until now, END has never operated as a full team because we've never needed to. We usually only need one or two units to take down the biggest of opponents. The only reason you get the full treatment is because you targeted one of our own, and we don't take very kindly to that." Karma chucked. "Though don't feel too special; we're still missing our handler agent, who could totally kick your ass without trying. But he had family issues, and, well. He knew we could handle this on our own."

Shigaraki sputtered. "You think you three brats will be enough to take us down?!"

"Well, given Agent Quirk here has already done the honor of immobilizing your arm, I don't think it will be much of a challenge, no," Karma drawled, eyeing Shigaraki's limp limb. The hand-villain hissed and pointed at them with his usable arm.

"Take them out, and make it bloody," he ordered. The Nomu charged, appearing right in front of the three agents. As he smashed at them, they jumped out of the way, Karma going back while Nagisa and Shinsou went to the sides. As Nagisa took the opportunity to slash at the Nomu with a nerve knife and Karma shot at its brain, Shinsou sprinted over to Izuku and the three others.

"Shit, Jolly Green, that's a lot of blood," he hissed, eyeing the stain of coughed up blood on Izuku's chest. The green-haired boy shook his head fervently.

"I'll be okay. We have bigger problems to worry about," he insisted, gesturing to the injured Aizawa and his terrified classmates. His teacher, while not as badly injured as he would've been if Izuku didn't interfere, was in no condition to battle anymore.

"Aizawa-sensei, you need to get Mineta and Asui out of here. Kurogiri mentioned something about taking out Thirteen, we need to make sure he's okay!" Izuku exclaimed. His homeroom teacher scowled deeply.

"I'm not leaving a bunch of kids to fight that monster on their own," he deadpanned. Izuku was about to object again, but he was surprisingly beaten to the punch by Shinsou.

"All due respect, sir, but you can hardly see us as kids right now," the brainwasher stated, bravely holding Aizawa's intimidating stare. "You'd probably erase my quirk before I could use it on you, but if I have to force you to retreat, I'm not above dragging you."

Izuku tried not to squeak, deeply fearing for his best friend's life. It felt difficult to breathe, the two staring each other down, their similar auras mixing and suffocating. If Aizawa wasn't hurt, he probably would've tried to punch Shinsou in the face by now. Fortunately, he was, and after a painfully long time, the Pro-Hero conceded.

"Any of you kids die out there, and I'll kill you myself," he grunted before roughly trying to stand up, only to collapse. "D-Damn it…"

"Aizawa-sensei!" Midoriya cried, reaching out to catch his teacher, but stopped when Sugino and Okajima appeared out of nowhere, both wrapping an arm around Aizawa.

"We got this, Agent Quirk," Sugino assured him. "We were dropped in the shipwreck zone, but it looks like it was already taken care of. Agent Myth is doing one last sweep to double-check. You focus on taking down the big boss, and we'll get everyone else to safety."

The two agents led the teacher, Mineta, and Asui away, and Izuku breathed a sigh of relief before turning to his best friend with an incredulous stare.

"Hitoshi, are you insane…?"

The brainwasher shrugged. "He's not my homeroom teacher, so I guess I'm not as fundamentally scared of him as everyone else."

Before Izuku could point out how illogical such logic was ( did he have a death wish?), their conversation was cut off as the Nomu came pummeling at them, fists flying like crazy. They barely jumped out of the way. Shinsou rolled over next to Nagisa and Izuku had to basically be caught by Karma.

"This sucker is a little hard to take down, huh?" Karma muttered. "Our weapons barely have any effect on him."

His brain slowly catching up with him, Izuku grabbed onto his commander's arm. "Kar- I mean, Agent Devil. Those villains earlier, they called that beast—" He paused to pick Karma up and zip them away from another attack by the creature. Between hacking up more blood (wow, he really shouldn't be using his quirk this much), he got out "—th-they called this. This thing."

Heavy coughs racked his body, and Karma smacked his back, getting impatient. "Spit it out, Freckles!"

"They called it a Nomu!"

The battlefield went still. Nagisa and Shinsou, who were trying to hold the beast down with their grappling hook and capture rings, looked up in shock. It was clear they all recognized the term. After all, how could they forget about the beast that almost killed them all? That almost killed Korosensei?

"Nomu, you say?" Karma drawled, reaching into his belt and pulling out a nerve-gun. He turned to Shigaraki and Kurogiri. "And how on Earth did you two get your hands on one of these?"

-.-.-.-

Nakamura liked to think she was a pretty level-headed person. It's how she was able to keep her dumb-blonde facade up for so long; she could see everything so clearly, she knew exactly what to say in every moment to play down her actual intelligence. She also liked to think she was pretty good at dealing with impulsive meat-heads that couldn't be level-headed even if you beat their skull in with a hammer — it's why she's often teamed up with idiots like Terasaka. Someone's got to keep him in line.

So, when she was dropped into the ruins zone and immediately tranquilized a chameleon villain that was trying to get the jump on two U.A. boys, she wasn't too bothered when the blonde one turned around and started screaming in her face.

She was a little ticked off, though.

"You know, you could say thank you," she muttered, unimpressed. That only seemed to make him angrier.

"Thank you? For what, stealing my villain? I had it handled without your shitty interference!"

His fists were balled and sparking, but before he could do any real damage, the other student quickly stepped in. "Woah, Bakugou, you can't talk to a woman like that. Especially someone who just saved our asses."

"SHE DID NOTHING FOR ME!"

"Hey!" Terasaka, who also seemed to have been warped to this zone, screamed, jumping between them. Nakamura did a quick once over and spotted Maehara tying up downed thugs behind them, but that seemed to be it. "We're just here to help! So back down unless you want me to pummel your ass!"

"I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU FUCKING TRY!"

"Hey, a little less screaming, a little more strategizing, yeah?" Nakamura cut them off. "Now, it looks like you guys mostly cleared out this area of villains, but I wouldn't be surprised if your screaming attracted more to our location. The radio interference hasn't cut out yet, so there's no way of contacting anyone else. If we want to find out what's going on, we'll have to get out of here and see for ourselves."

Bakugou sneered. "And who said we want to work with END freaks like you guys?"

The E-class students tensed as the atmosphere turned dark. However, before it could escalate, the other U.A. boy cut in.

"Oooookayyyy, Bakugou, that's enough for today. They're not the enemy here, remember? So, let's just start over. I'm Kirishima Ejirou, and pouty here is Bakugou." The explosive boy growled threateningly. "You guys are Midoriya's old classmates, right?"

Nakamura relaxed at the mention of her ex-classmate. "Yup. Agent English at your service. This is Agent Roar—" she gestured to Terasaka, who was still baring his sharp teeth threateningly, "—and over there is Agent Blank."

"Codenames? So cool!" Kirishima squealed, earning him an elbow to his hardened stomach by Bakugou, which he ignored. "So, you guys are like, assassins, right?"

Maehara shrugged. "We were trained that way, I guess, but we have a pretty big no-kill policy if we can help it. I think the best term is to just call us agents."

"Awesome!" Kirishima cheered.

Bakugou crinkled his nose at the 'no-kill policy' part and muttered, "That's fucking lame." He paused for a long second, looking at Maehara scrutinizingly. His face suddenly turned indignant. "Hey, you're that shitty faced bastard!"

Nakamura blinked, turning to her fellow unit captain, who looked thoroughly offended. "Shitty face? I'll let you know that many women find me quite attractive. You wish you could look as good as me."

"Do you want to die—"

"Alright, that's enough!" Nakamura cut in, rubbing her temples. Her brain was going to explode by the end of this mission if they kept this up. "Goddammit, why'd that warp villain send me to the place with all the stupid boys?"

-.-.-.-

Nakamura was hardly the only END agent struggling with her mission. It was a pretty consistent issue across the board, though the reasoning varied.

Kataoka at first didn't get warped away, diving into the nearby shipwreck zone to make sure the villains captured there weren't getting away any time soon. Her speedy tail and mermaid-like abilities let her complete it pretty fast, and once she was done, she shot out to join Okajima and Sugino, who were escorting Midoriya's injured teacher and two new classmates. Sugino had an arm around the teacher, making sure he didn't collapse. Kataoka guessed the man probably had a few cracked ribs and maybe some other broken bones, but nothing totally life-threatening, thankfully.

"I tranquilized all of the shipwreck villains, so we won't have to worry about them breaking out," she informed her fellow agents the moment she touched land. Her tail instantly dissolved back into feet, her clothes thankfully appearing with it. She never really understood where her clothes went when she transformed, but she never questioned it.

Unfortunately, the weird purple grape student looked like he was, eagerly watching her fish-scaled top dissolve back into her END uniform. Kataoka uncomfortably folded her arms over her chest. Even Okajima had the decency to look away when she transformed. Hell, not even Korosensei was this indecent when dealing with his perverted ways.

"Your clothes…" the kid mumbled, and was he drooling? Even Okajima seemed bothered by the creepy boy, grabbing his ear and hissing, "Look, kid, keep your eyes to yourself, got it?"

However, the boy didn't seem to get the message and continued to shamelessly stare. Kataoka felt her patience wearing thin and tried to block it out. She's put up with worse, she didn't turn her back on Korosensei, she could—

But then she watched the grape-boy feign tripping so he could conveniently fall into her chest, and Kataoka snapped. She pulled out a tranquilizer gun and leveled it on the boy's head, letting the barrel stop his fall.

"You try that again, and I'll shoot your eyes out, pervert," she snapped. The grape-boy screeched and cowered behind the emotionless teacher.

"Aizawa-sensei, aren't you going to do something? She just threatened me!"

The teacher didn't even hesitate. "In my opinion, it sounds like it was self-defense."

"Aizawa-sensei!"

-.-.-.-

On the other hand, for Ojiro in the fire zone, it wasn't so much as him causing problems for the END agents as it was him being totally lost about what was happening. One moment, he was fighting for his life all alone in a fiery hell, and then next the warp gate that dropped him here appeared again and left three random teens.

"Hiya! Need some help?" a perky brunette asked, pulling out a knife Ojiro recognized was like the one Midoriya used. Upon further inspection, he caught a glimpse at the yellow E on these teens' collars and realized that they were END agents. But why the hell were they in the USJ? Was this their rescue? Where were the Pro-Heroes?

His train of thought was sufficiently cut off when he spotted a sword-wielding villain charging at the friendly agent's unsuspecting back. He was too far away to stop it, and could only helplessly shout, "Look out!" before the villain took his swing and...missed? But how, the girl was right there, where did she—

And then Ojiro realized the girl didn't go anywhere. Her upper body just disappeared from view when her spine snapped in half so she could dodge the attack.

The sword-villain screeched and jumped back, also frightened by the display, and that's when he was shot down by a serious-looking girl holding a large sniper gun.

"Who...what…?" Ojiro mumbled, earning him the attention of the agents again.

"Oh, sorry dude, I guess we should introduce ourselves," a kind-looking boy casually standing vertically on a building said. "I'm Agent Justice of END's Alpha Unit. This is my teammate Agent Bend—" he gestured to the friendly-girl who was snapping back up like it was a normal thing to do "—and that's Agent Balance from the Beta Unit. We're here to rescue you!"

"...right," Ojiro weakly said. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed movement and immediately sprung into action. "Get down!"

With practiced ease, he was just about to kick the woman down using his special move, but before he could even reach the thug, she was sniped down. Ojiro spun around to look at the sniper agent in shock.

"Aw, I was gonna get that one!" Agent Justice, now standing next to Ojiro — how did he get over here so fast? — cried. "Now Agent Balance has two and I have none. I need to catch up!"

"Not if I take them out before you!" Agent Bend challenged, and the two took off, smacking down villains left and right with moves that made Ojiro's martial arts heart quiver with admiration and jealousy. No thug stood a chance against the speedy and flexible duo, and on the off-hand one did escape, Agent Balance immediately shot them down. It was like Ojiro wasn't even needed anymore.

"That's four for me!"

"Ha, that's weak, Agent Justice! I have six!"

Were...Were they counting how many villains they could take down? Were they not concerned about more pressing matters like, who knows, getting killed?

"It doesn't matter," the serious girl agent deadpanned, hanging upside and taking down three villains with one shot. "I already have eleven."

It's official. END agents are actually insane.

-.-.-.-

"Eep!" Ashido screeched, jumping back from the figures that suddenly appeared from the warp. "W-What is going — you're END agents? What are you doing here?"

"Please tell me they're not here to kill us too," muttered Sato, and Sero elbowed him in the stomach (which hurts a lot given the size of Sero's elbows) and hissed, "Not cool, dude."

Yada rolled her eyes and rushed over to the downed teacher in front of her. "Agent Periodic, the hero is destabilizing fast! We need to do something!"

"Ah, right, Agent Honeypot. I don't want to do this because of how contaminated Thirteen is, but we have no choice. Agent President, you need to Merge the hero costume closed!" Okuda exclaimed.

"Hey, is that a good idea?" Uraraka asked. "Iida escaped, so the Pros should be getting here any minute. Maybe it'll be better to wait—"

"Bad idea," Takebayashi interrupted, pulling a slip from his belly button. "According to my Statistic, the chance of Thirteen's survival goes down by 25% if we wait. We have to act now!"

"Don't worry," Isogai said, giving the terrified students a reassuring smile. "We're here to protect you; that's our job, after all! We promise we'll do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe."

The U.A. students stopped objecting as they took in his famous smile. Agent President was well known to the public for being able to take down even the most hostile of people with his polite grin. Large pink hearts appeared in Ashido's eyes and she leaned over so she could whisper in Uraraka's ear.

"Wow, he's really the Prince Charming Aoyama wishes he was."

-.-.-.-

In the landslide zone, the situation was seemingly neutralized, all of the villains having been taken down by Kaminari — therefore mentally taking Kaminari out as well. Which meant when a portal opened up above the blonde's head and dropped three teenagers, he was in no way capable of dodging and ultimately became their landing mat.

"Oh, shit!" Sugaya exclaimed, rolling off the electric student. "Sorry, dude, are you good?"

Fuwa and Kanzaki, who were dropped with him it seemed, rolled away and peered and the blubbering student concerningly. Kaminari mumbled nonsensically and gave them a thumbs-up, but when he tried to stand, all he did was crash to the ground again.

"I think we broke him." Fuwa muttered while Kanzaki moved forward to make sure Kaminari was okay.

"Don't worry about it, he was already like that before you came. His quirk fries his brain apparently," Jirou said, peering out from under the insulated sheet. Unfortunately, she forgot who was also under the sheet with her — and more so, what state said person was in.

"OH MY KOROSENSEI, SHE'S NAKED!" Sugaya screeched, slapping a hand over his eyes. Fuwa, on the other hand, just reached out and touched the sheet.

"Wow, you really created this entire blanket with your quirk and took out the villains on your own," she noted calmly before spinning to two girls in question. "Your quirks look like they're so cool! You're true comic book protagonists!"

Yaoyorozu and Jirou looked equally freaked out, though it was probably more so because of the sudden appearance of END agents than Fuwa's fangirl enthusiasm. Yaoyorozu scrambled to cover up her chest from the strangers. Sugaya, still trying to navigate the world with his eyes closed, waved his arms around before he finally smacked Fuwa.

"Hey, don't go fangirling about someone without a top on!" he hissed, and Fuwa rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, my manga's have shown way worse."

"That really isn't something you should be flaunting, Agent Detective."

Their bickering was cut off by a series of gurgles from the third U.A. student, who still looked pretty down for the count. Kanzaki cradled his head in her lap gently, checking for a concussion.

"Mmmm," Kaminari groaned, blinking blearily up at the female agent. "G-God?"

Sugaya couldn't help it. He burst out laughing, leaning on Fuwa for support. Yaoyorozu (now fully clothed and fully embarrassed) eyed the two uncomfortably, wondering how they could be so calm and nonchalant surrounded by villains — even if they were all unconscious. Jirou, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes.

"Dumbass Kaminari would mistake God as a random woman."

-.-.-.-

When the END agents appeared and started taking out the villains, Dark Shadow was initially insulted. He didn't need their help, he could take down every villain in the world without even trying. He didn't need motorcycle boy, or no-eyes sniper boy, or overly bubbly ginger girl who was bonding with Kouda over animals, or—

He paused, watching an agent dressed differently from the others. Instead of wearing the blue combat uniform, she was wearing thin black clothing that almost perfectly blended in with her shadow skin. She rose from the shadows of the buildings, sneaking up on villain after villain and taking them down before slipping back into the darkness. Her moves were elegant and meticulous, and she wielded her darkness with expertise.

Nevermind. Dark Shadow decided he was alright with having these END agents around.

(Tokoyami eyed his shadowy companion. He seemed to be heavily distracted by the appearance of END, never taking his eyes off the shadow-quirk girl. Tokoyami was very concerned.)

-.-.-.-

"Are you kidding me? You've already taken them all down?" Muramatsu whined, eyeing the ice-laden field. "What's the point of us even being here then?"

"No kidding," Mimura muttered. "I'm missing out on my English quiz for this. It's gonna be hell having to make it up."

"English quiz?" Todoroki echoed. Villains were attacking, plotting to kill All-Might with their beast according to that villain he just interrogated, and these...kids were talking about school? Weren't they supposed to be top government agents?

"Yeah, buddy. You do know we're full-time students as well as full-time military dogs, right?" Muramatsu barked, chuckling quietly.

Todoroki filed this information away because, quite frankly, he didn't really know for sure. While Midoriya was obviously an agent and a student, he figured he was an exception since he was trying to be a hero.

"Whatever," he dismissed the issue. "There are bigger things to worry about. These villains have a beast they believe is capable of killing All-Might, which means we need to kill it first."

Itona hummed, brushing his watch, and sighed when all he heard was silence. "I remember seeing a monstrous form when we first arrived. There's no way of contacting our commanders or Sigma, who stayed behind to fight it; not until we can get the technology working again."

"We'll just have to get to them ourselves," Hara asserted.

"What?" screeched Hagakure. "We can't go after a beast capable of killing All-Might!"

Very slowly, the END agents turned to the invisible girl, just now realizing she was there. They eyed her floating gloves and boots, the dots slowly connecting.

"Ugh, it's like Hazama vs Best Jeanist all over again!" Muramatsu exclaimed, looking away while Mimura smacked a hand over his eyes, muttering about how he'd have that forever Recorded in his head.

Itona, completely unfazed, turned to Hara. "Take the idiots and the students and get them out of the building. I'm going to go find Agent Devil."

The Goat-Bite agent nodded, grabbing Muramatsu and Mimura by the collars and politely gesturing for Hagakure to follow. Todoroki stubbornly stayed behind, staring down the white-haired boy.

"I'm coming with you. I can guarantee my ice quirk is stronger than yours, which means you'll need my help," he deadpanned. Itona rolled his eyes, not really caring.

"Whatever. It's not my fault if you get hurt," he muttered, but then paused, eyeing the half-white half-red boy curiously. "Wait a minute. Ice quirk? Why would you think I have an ice quirk?"

Todoroki didn't say anything and just eyed Itona's frosty locks. Itona felt his brain short-circuit.

"Wha — You do realize hair color doesn't dictate everyone's quirks, right?"

-.-.-.-

THE MOUNTAIN RAID: How Did Junior High Students Defeat Japan's Top Heroes?

Published by UndergroundAnalysis

To be completely candid, when news broke that a junior high class took out and snuck past Japan's top heroes to get to where the Tentacle was being contained, I thought it was a joke. Kids? Random kids took out Pro-Heroes? I'd be surprised if even third-year hero students from U.A. could accomplish such a feat, but random middle schoolers? No way. Trained by the government or not, there's no way it was real.

But as reports kept coming in, reality settled in, and my questions changed. How did some kids that were trained for only a year take out Pros that have been doing this for years?

It's been hard to gather information, the government being extremely tight-lipped about the night, but I've narrowed it down to a few possible reasons.

They were not just trained as government agents. They were trained to be assassins to take out the Number One Villain. The work of an assassin is very different than a hero, or a villain, or an agent because they only follow one simple rule: take out the target. They're usually not going to hurt others to achieve their goals like villains, but they're not law-abiding heroes by any means. They don't feel compromised by rules of right and wrong.

Homefield advantage. That mountain was where they went to school, where they trained, where they spent the most time. For the Pros, however, it was a random location they were told to defend.

Superior intel and element of surprise. The student knew they were going to attack that night and they prepared for it accordingly. The heroes were none the wiser. The students could look up information on any hero they wanted, the quirks and strength just an internet search away. There was no way for the heroes to know what the kids were capable of, even if they knew they were coming.

A battle of wills. Those students were determined to get to the top of that mountain, and they had the mindset that nothing was going to stop them. They weren't afraid to fight heroes. The Pros, on the other hand, were uncertain how to proceed, unsure if they should be attacking these children. If these students, now END agents, ever develop such a resolve again, I fear for their opponents tremendously. Because above all things, that's what made them the most unstoppable.

-.-.-.-

Hitoshi eyed the villains warily as Karma confronted them while also keeping an eye on the beast — or Nomu, as Midoriya revealed. He tried not to shudder at the thought that the Reaper and this creature were technically one and the same. The last time they faced a Nomu, it (temporarily, at least) killed Midoriya, and almost killed Korosensei. And while this beast looked nothing like Shiro's creations, he still wasn't any less cautious.

"It makes no sense, really," Karma continued. "The creator of the Nomu is long dead, and the paranoid bastard took all of his research with him. I know this to be fact. Of course, maybe him being gone is the very reason for your beast's odd appearance. I don't recall Shiro's Nomu looking this ugly."

"It doesn't matter how we got one," Shigaraki sneered. "What matters is that it'll be the last thing you ever see. Nomu, kill him."

The Nomu lurched forward to attack, but just before the beast could move, a chilly frost filled their area. Hitoshi turned to Karma, surprised, because Karma avoided using his quirk on missions if possible and—

But then the Nomu's entire left side became totally covered in ice, freezing it in place. Which means it couldn't be Karma, since Karma could only control temperatures, so it could only be him.

"The villains I fought claimed you have a weapon capable of killing All-Might," Icy-Boy, Todoroki said, his expression unimpressed. "I worried the first help to arrive would be the Symbol of Peace himself, meaning he'd be in danger. I'm not sure if I should be any more worried that it was teenage assassin agents instead."

Hitoshi felt his eyes bulge out of his skull. Next to him, Midoriya squeaked, looking equally terrified, while Nagisa kept glancing from Karma to the newcomer with wide eyes.

Karma, on the other hand, looked concerningly hard to read as he took in his long lost twin for the first time. It's concerning, because usually whenever Karma wasn't being expressive (or outwardly sadistic), it means he was plotting, and that means he was probably angry.

"Well, look what we have here. First has arrived," Karma drawled, and Hitoshi blanched at the nickname. Karma laughed innocently. "That is to say, the first of the little hero kiddos to make their way over here, of course. That's a pretty cool quirk you've got there, First."

And that's why Hitoshi feared a blank-faced Karma. Because the nickname 'First' definitely wasn't because Todoroki arrived first.

Todoroki just looked confused, frowning deeply. But before he could retort, they were interrupted by Shigaraki's screeching.

"Don't just stay frozen, idiot Nomu, break out and kill these pests!"

The agents and students watched in horror as the Nomu broke free of the ice trap by ripping his frozen limbs right off, only for them to regenerate seconds later. Hitoshi filed that away as a quirk similarity this Nomu shared with the original.

"Agent Tentacle," Karma spoke up, bracing for another attack by reaching into his belt. Hitoshi took note of Itona for the first time; he must've been dropped wherever Todoroki was. "I need the comms back up to contact everyone else so we can take this bastard down. Find who or what is causing the interference and dispose of it, please."

"Yes, commander," Itona responded, but before he could run off, Kurogiri materialized in front of Itona.

"There will be no more interference from you children," he said, reaching out as if to grab Itona. Hitoshi frowned. If Kurogiri planned on grabbing Itona, that meant the misty villain had to have a solid body, right?

Going out on a whim, Hitoshi lashed out with his capture rings, feeling a satisfying pull as the wires went taut wrapping around the warp villain's arm. He pulled with all of his might, knocking Kurogiri off balance and distracting him long enough for Itona to run away.

However, there wasn't much time to celebrate. The furious warp villain lashed out with his quirk, clouding Hitoshi's vision with black mist. His capture rings retracted, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the glowing yellow eyes appear. Without hesitation, he reached into his belt, pulled out a nerve-knife and swiped, but Kurogiri dodged.

"You children are well trained, but you are still no match for the League."

Before Hitoshi could respond, something solid closed around his throat, cutting off his windpipe. An arm was wrapped around his throat and he could feel Kurogiri's body behind him, holding him tight in the triangle chokehold. Hitoshi squirmed, trying desperately to break free.

"It's time for you to die, little one."

His vision spotted in and out, and he felt like he was back with the Reaper, his throat being stepped on as his tooth was violently ripped from his mouth, the circular cuts on his body still fresh and bleeding and—

Oh hell no. Not again.

Overcome with a new tenacity, Hitoshi reached up so he was gripping Kurogiri's neck armor with both of his hands and flipped his momentum, vaulting himself over the warp villain and taking Kurogiri with him. The villain's choke loosened and that's when Hitoshi flung Kurogiri as far away as he could. His vision was still consumed by the dark warp, but he could finally breathe again, and for now, that's all that matters.

Just as he was about to go after the warp villain again, however, everything was filled with explosions. Hitoshi rolled to safety, breathing heavily, and looked up to find Poofy pining the warp villain to the ground.

Instantly, Hitoshi's pride kicked in, because no way in hell was he going to be saved by Poofy of all people—

"Woah, dude, you okay?"

Hitoshi turned to find a spiky red-haired guy and deduced that this was Kirishima, who Midoriya told him a lot about. He was basically the only person Midoriya saw as a friend in that class, if he recalled it correctly.

"Fine," Hitoshi muttered, standing up and rubbing at his neck.

"Looks like you guys got the fun targets," Nakamura commented smoothly. Hitoshi eyed the party she arrived with. Terasaka was bickering with Bakugou, and Maehara was screeching about being called 'shitty face' and Kirishima was having to act like the Great Wall to keep them from killing each other.

"Looks like you got stuck with babysitting duty," he shot back, and the blonde girl scowled.

"Hitoshi!" Midoriya cried out, running up to him (thankfully at normal speed. That boy can't take much more of his quirk). "Are you alright?"

"Never better, Jolly Green," Hitoshi answered before looking back at Nakamura. "Do you know where everyone else is? We're gonna need the whole team to take this thing — get down!"

He tackled Nakamura and Kirishima to the floor right before the Nomu took them out. The beast flew over their heads, not even bothered that he missed, and continued to head straight for —

"Kacchan!"

The area where the explosive boy was pinning Kurogiri down exploded into dust, and Hitoshi's eyes widened, thinking the worst. Sure, he hated Poofy's guts, but that doesn't mean he wanted him dead.

"Get the fuck off me, Deku!"

Nevermind. The Nomu can have his ungrateful ass.

Using his Mach-2 speed, Midoriya was able to beat the Nomu and pull Bakugou to safety before the beast smashed him to pieces. And Bakugou was fuming over it. He shoved Midoriya away with an explosion, his hands continuing to spark threateningly.

"I didn't need your damn help, shitty—"

Suddenly, Bakugou's when blank, sirene even, and the sparks in his hands went away. The anger and outrage on his face were replaced by relaxed calmness.

It was extremely uncomfortable to look at.

"Thank you, Agent Snake," Karma muttered. Hitoshi glanced over and saw Nagisa staring at Bakugou, his hand raised and face tight with concentration. It would seem Nagisa finally learned how to Project emotion only into one person. Good for him. "We don't have time to act like fools with our heads cut off."

Shigaraki laughed cruelly. "You stupid brats are an embarrassment. You can't even stop fighting each other; of course, what can be expected when END is involved? What kind of hero brat would want to work with killers?" The E-classers tensed at the jab. "After all, assassins are hardly any better than villains, if not worse. They commit violent acts for hire, but unlike heroes, they don't care who their target is. The plain one—" he pointed to Midoriya, "—tried to preach about how END uses non-lethal weapons and avoids killing, but that doesn't erase the fact that he can probably kill everyone in this building in seconds. But it's okay that he's that powerful, that dangerous, because not only is he being monitored by the government with END, but he wants to be a hero.

"The world openly admits they fear assassins more than villains these days, and you wanna know why? It's because while heroes and villains are always at each other's throats, it's the assassins who are holding a knife to everyone's back. Call them agents, call them kids, but they are murderers trying to disguise themselves as saviors. And I'll be doing the world a favor when I kill them all off!"

Shigaraki pointed at the END agents, and the Nomu, now fully regenerated, spurred into action and charged. And Karma, being the psychopath he is, charged back.

"Kar- Commander, don't!" Hitoshi shouted, but it was too late. The beast and the boy reared back to punch each other at the same time, and Hitoshi wanted to slam his head against the table, because not only was Karma's only hidden quirk a temperature one, but he's a certified genius, which means he should now he's about to freaking die—

But then Karma's punch ripped right through the Nomu's arm like it was jelly, and the brainwasher reconsidered his assessment of Karma's quirks and abilities, because since when was he like All-Might?

The Nomu crashed on the ground, writhing in pain and right arm completely missing, and Karma landed a few meters beyond it in a crouch, completely unscathed.

"I wasn't sure it was going to work, given how different your Nomu looks from Shiro's," Karma began, standing up and brandishing the familiar green plastic knife peeking between his knuckles. "Your Nomu is also at least slightly receptive to normal attacks, even if they don't do much damage. But watching it regenerate just like Korosensei could…I figured it was worth a try. Thank goodness I'm such a paranoid bastard and never gave back my anti-sensei knife, huh?"

Those who weren't END agents were openly gaping. "He…He did all that damage with a plastic knife?" breathed Todoroki, and Karma laughed harshly.

"Don't be silly, First. This is no plastic knife. This is the very weapon that killed the Tentacle." Ah, that explained why Karma held onto it, the sentimental bastard.

"Impossible," hissed Shigaraki, stopping his feet like a child. "Nomu's shock absorption should've stopped that attack entirely!"

"Clearly you haven't heard of the effects anti-sensei material has on beasts like your precious Nomu," Hitoshi retorted, and the mastermind villain sneered.

"You stupid brat—"

Shigaraki went blank-faced.

"Oops, what were you trying to say? Hey, my fellow purple man, you might want to check on your buddy."

Kurogiri growled, expanding his mist so he appeared a threatening size. "What have you done—"

Too easy, Hitoshi mused, taking control of both of their minds. "Well, that should buy us some time. Any plans on how to kill this thing?"

"It's regenerating at a slower rate than when half-and-half froze off its arms. I say we cut him up while he's down and explode the remaining pieces until he can never come back," suggested an uncomfortably soft, unnaturally calm voice that was so weird he didn't even know who said it. Midoriya did, jerking backward harshly.

"K-Kacchan? Are you alright?"

...wait, that was Poofy speaking?

"Of course I'm fine, Deku, don't ask stupid questions."

Indeed it was.

The explosive boy, now completely out of control of his emotions, stared at them blankly, as if he couldn't understand why everyone else was reacting weirdly. Hitoshi hid his cackles behind his palm.

"Whoa, Bakugou, my bro, I barely recognize you when you're not all, you know," Kirishima growled and sneered, perfectly mimicking Bakugou's usual deranged expression.

Maehara scoffed. "And he calls me shitty face."

"That's because it fits, Agent Womanizer," Terasaka mocked, and Nakamura piped up with an, "Ooh, I like that codename change, I'm stealing it!"

"Guys, we need to focus! The Nomu is standing back up!" interrupted Midoriya.

"Agent Devil, do you have any more of those anti-sensei knives?" Nagisa asked while staring intensely at Bakugou to keep the boy's emotions in check. Karma sighed, scowling at the creature.

"No. And as intriguing as Sir Explosion's suggestion is, I don't know if we have the power to make it work with just one knife. We need to find a way to blow this beast away, just like Korosensei did with the Reaper."

"Can't we just stab it through the heart like with Korosensei?" asked Maehara.

Nakamura clicked her teeth. "There's no guarantee that the Nomu's heart is located in the same spot, though. It's clearly a different generation of superbeast with a completely different format and appearance."

Hitoshi sighed. "Alright, so, blowing him away. How are we going to do that?"

At the same time the Nomu rose back to its feet, Midoriya snapped his fingers. "Yaoyorozu knows how to create cannonballs; I saw her do it once!"

"Jolly Green, we established that anti-sensei material will be much more efficient at taking this beast down—"

"I know, I know, but Isogai can merge two objects together, right? What if he were to take the knife and the cannonball and — look out!"

The warning came just in time for everyone to jump away from the Nomu's attack, but the explosion of it punching the ground knocked them down. Hitoshi smacked his head against Terasaka's, and he could feel his brainwashing hold on Shigaraki and Kurogiri slip away. Judging by the sheer amount of cursing and shouting that followed, Nagisa also dropped his quirk.

Karma was grumbling to himself from where he kneeled on the ground, "While we may have some powerful hero hopefuls and all of the unit captains here, it's still not enough to take this Nomu bastard down. We need to get this plan working…"

The END commander stood tall in front of the other teenagers. "Alright, listen up!" Karma called out, sounding similar to how he did giving orders the night of the mountain raid, and student and agent alike snapped to attention. "Here's the plan. Sir Explosion, First, Agent Roar and Fellow-Red-Head, you deal with the Nomu. Keep it busy and distracted. Agent Snake and Agent Blank, you two work on containing the warp villain; don't let him interfere at all. And Agent English, you go find Agent Tentacle and help him get my damn comms back up!"

"Yes, sir!" the female agent replied, taking off in the direction they saw Itona leave. Bakugou, now no longer being calmed by Nagisa, growled indignantly.

"I'm not taking orders from you, you Discount Shitty Hair!" His hands sparked threateningly, but before he could do anything, he was being dragged away by Terasaka.

"Let's go, Explodo Boy," the lion-boy grumbled, and the other two U.A. students cautiously followed while Nagisa and Maehara jumped into action, using their mental and emotional based quirks to incapacitate Kurogiri's ability to think and function for himself.

"Midoriya," Karma continued, spinning around and holding out the anti-sensei knife. "We've got about three minutes to make this happen. Until the comms come back online, I have no idea where anyone is. Hunt down whoever you need, just make that cannonball happen. Oh, and grab Sugino. We're going to need a good arm to launch that Nomu bastard to the shattered moon."

Midoriya nodded and took the anti-sensei knife. Hitoshi patted his best friend's shoulder, looking pointedly at the harsh bloodstain already covering his chest. "Don't push yourself too hard, Jolly Green."

Midoriya grinned. "Stay safe, Hitoshi."

The green-haired boy took off at Mach-2, leaving the two E-class masterminds alone. Hitoshi turned to his scheming friend, eyebrow quirked.

"And what are we gonna be doing?"

Karma grinned, his golden eyes gleaming. "Isn't it obvious? We've got the fun job." He pulled out a knife from his utility belt, a real one, not a plastic anti-sensei knife or one of Okuda's nerve-knives. "We're gonna go after the whiny hand-bastard."

-.-.-.-

Even though it felt like his lungs were turning inside out and his airways were drowning out completely, Izuku ran harder and faster than he ever had before. Karma guessed they had about three minutes before the fight with Nomu got out of hand, which meant he couldn't hesitate, couldn't wait, couldn't worry about himself when there were so many other lives at stake. The Nomu was likely strong enough to crush everyone if given the chance, and with Izuku holding the only weapon really effective against it, he needed to work fast to keep everyone safe.

He tried to think of a game plan, making a mental list of who he needed to find. They needed Isogai to merge the knife to the cannonball, but that meant they'd first need Yaoyorozu to create the cannonball. And Karma said grab Sugino, who he knew was taking Aizawa-sensei, Asui, and Mineta to safety. Logically speaking, the best course of action was to find Yaoyorozu first, have her make the cannonball, carry the cannonball to Isogai, make him Merge it with the knife, and then grab Sugino and return to the fight.

The only problem with that plan, however, was that he only knew the location of the person on the last step.

Gritting his teeth, Izuku took off, running at random, just trying to find where everyone was. Thankfully, his speed would let him check and clear the entire building in about ten seconds, but it was ten seconds he didn't really have.

He finally found the intelligent girl in the Landslide zone with Jirou, Kaminari, Sugaya, Fuwa, and Kanzaki. They all jumped when he suddenly appeared in front of them, covered in way too much blood.

"Midoriya!" His current classmates exclaimed while his old ones said, "Agent Quirk!" The two groups stared at each other awkwardly, but Izuku didn't have time for uncomfortable interactions.

"Yaoyorozu!" he said, facing the girl. "I need you to make a cannonball, preferably one the size of a baseball!"

The girl blinked widely. "Huh? Why?"

Before Izuku could answer, Fuwa cut him off. "Agen- Midoriya, what the hell is going on?"

Izuku pursed his lips. What wasn't going on? There were so many issues, he didn't have the time to even give her the shortened version. "Ka- I mean, Agent Devil is trying to get the comms up. I'm sure he'll explain everything then, but right now, I really need this cannonball, Yaoyorozu. I'm not really asking."

Yaoyorozu flinched as Izuku's expression grew serious, but she nodded. "Alright, sure." Her stomach glowed and materialized the item in question. "Here you go—"

"Thanks, bye!"

Not wasting another second (by his calculations, he was down to two minutes and thirteen seconds), Izuku took off, this time in search for Isogai. Considering he hadn't seen the ex-class president in his initial sweep, it made him a lot easier to find than Yaoyorozu. And it seemed the fates were at least slightly in his favor because he found him at the USJ entrance, the exact same place Sugino went.

"Midoriya! Are you alright?" Sero and Sugino exclaimed at the exact same time when Izuku ran up to them. They glanced at each other awkwardly before looking away, and Izuku was already so sick of this bizarre crossing of worlds; yes, they both know him, yes, they're assassin END agents, yes, you are now working together.

"I'm fin— eh? Is Thirteen okay?!" he said, noticing the injured and unconscious teacher laying on the ground. The Pro was being cared for by Aizawa, who was forcibly being cared for by a determined Okuda and Takebayashi under Yada's watchful eye. Izuku wondered if the girl had to Persuade his homeroom teacher into accepting the first-aid; it was highly likely that was the case.

"He'll live," Aizawa answered gruffly. "Your friend here—" he gestured to Isogai "—was able to close up the costume and stabilize Thirteen to prevent any further injury."

"Are you sure you're alright, Midoriya?" Kataoka asked, and Izuku nodded, trying to focus on the task at hand and not the blood spilling out of his mouth. He was down to one minute and fifty-one seconds. He didn't have much time.

"Doesn't matter," he dismissed, making the E-class class rep's face turn cross. "Agent President, I need you to Merge these two things together."

He held up the cannonball and the anti-sensei knife, and the END agents' eyes turned wide at the familiar weapon.

"Why do you need an anti-sensei cannonball?" Okajima questioned, the others staring him down sharply. Izuku sighed.

"Look, I don't have time to explain. The comms should come back on soon and Agent Devil will tell you everything, okay?" he repeated just like he did for the group before, resisting the urge to smash his head into a wall. "So, will you please stop asking questions and just listen to me?"

His ex-classmates exchanged glances with his new classmates, and Isogai took a step forward, holding his hands out. Izuku immediately passed over the cannonball and knife, and the dark-haired boy carefully pressed the two items together. His hands began to glow, and Izuku watched as the knife melted into the cannonball, completely encasing it with a green shell. He passed the new anti-sensei weapon back, and Izuku turned to Sugino.

"Agent Pitch, we're gonna need your quirk," he said. Sugino eyed the small cannonball with an arched eyebrow, but there was a knowing look on his face.

His new classmates, however, looked completely, utterly lost.

"Midoriya, what is that?" Uraraka asked while Ashido cried, "Dude, you're totally covered in blood!

"There's no way you're going to make it back to that fight while carrying someone else in this state, and there's no way you're going to stand a chance against that beast even if you get down there," Aizawa said, his eyes as sharp as they were exhausted, and Izuku should have known his teacher at least had a grasp of the situation. Aizawa was part of the mountain raid and hero response team, so he probably knew of the beast that attacked Korosensei, and he has already experienced the power and strength of this new Nomu.

Izuku sighed. "We don't have a choice."

Before Aizawa could react, Izuku picked up Sugino and disappeared. He arrived there seconds later, basically dropping Sugino and collapsing to his knees, hacking up way too much blood. With the last of his energy, he shakily took in the battlefield.

Kirishima, Bakugou, Todoroki, and Terasaka surrounded the Nomu and were barely holding the beast back by sheer brute force. Todoroki would freeze the beast, and that's when the other three would attack, punching and clawing and exploding the Nomu, but even that barely fazed the massive creature. Nagisa and Maehara exchanged blows with Kurogiri, who was clearly not as versed in combat as the teen assassins, and it seemed Nagisa was using his quirk to keep the warp-villain from getting overly aggressive. It seemed everyone was holding their own.

But then his eyes landed on Karma and Shinsou, and Izuku's heart dropped for completely different reasons.

Shinsou's capture rings were wrapped around Shigaraki's wrists, making it impossible for him to touch anything and use his quirk, while Karma held a knife at the villain's throat.

"I'm going to ask you nicely one last time," the END commander threatened. "Tell me where you got the Nomu."

Shigaraki laughed. "What, are you going to kill me? I thought you brats were supposed to be goody-two-shoes, stopping villains without killing. All in the name of your Korosensei, isn't that right? I guess since you've already killed the big-bad, you probably see no reason to sully your hands with us small fry."

The two agents tensed and Shinsou sent a zap of electricity up the capture rings, making Shigaraki scream. Karma pressed the knife against the villain's throat, just barely drawing blood.

"You know, you're pretty right about us," Karma drawled. "We do know how to kill, even if we choose not to. I'd guesstimate from the moment I meet someone, I've already figured out at least twenty different ways to assassinate them. This means no matter who I'm around, I always hold their life in my hands, which means I hold all the powers. Villains like you are always trying to use violence and fear to gain power, but there's always a hero to take it away; it's why you want to kill All-Might so badly, right? The Symbol of Peace pushes away any fear or terror you try to bring.

"You want to know why Korosensei was the ultimate Symbol of Terror? Why he was feared, unstoppable and unchallenged by any hero or villain? Because he too constantly held the power of an assassin, the power of people's lives. The moon, that was just to make a statement, but that's hardly what made his reign strike fear into the hearts of everyone. Because unlike you overly predictable villains, no one could ever figure Korosensei out. He wasn't constantly fighting All-Might or trying to kill school children; instead, he would avoid hero fights and taught students. He went against everything a villain typically tries to do, and through this, he brought more chaos than any villain before him."

Karma glanced over and made brief eye contact with Izuku, nodding in his direction and making a quick gesture to Shinsou. The brainwasher nodded and snapped Shigaraki back, flipping the villain to the ground and stepping on his back.

"There's another difference assassins hold from heroes and villains that you missed," Shinsou hissed, slashing the nerve-knife at all of Shigaraki's limbs, immobilizing him. "As Korosensei always said, assassins never fight without a second blade."

Shigaraki screamed, but with his legs nonfunctional, the villain couldn't do anything else. Karma and Shinsou sprinted towards Izuku and Sugino, Shinsou immediately pulling out his first-aid kit and rushing to his best friend's side. Izuku focused on not passing out, letting his friend manhandle his weakened body, while Sugino spun to Karma, gesturing wildly.

"Dude, what the hell is that thing?! What's going on?!"

Karma pursed his lips. "They call it a Nomu. I hope that explains everything else for now."

Sugino's eyes widened, but he nodded, and Karma turned to Izuku.

"You have it, right?"

Izuku nodded and passed over the anti-sensei cannonball. When he tried to stand back up, he was quickly pushed down by Shinsou.

"Not a chance, Jolly Green. You need to focus on not coughing up any more blood right now." His voice was firm and eyes challenging, meaning if Izuku tried to protest, Shinsou was just going to brainwash him into submission. The green-haired boy conceded and slumped against his best friend, getting flashbacks of their island vacation last summer.

"This Nomu's quirks seem to be regeneration, shock absorption, super strength, and enhanced speed. He's not as fast as me — I'd guess around Mach-1 or less — but he's crazy strong," Izuku explained, and Karma nodded.

"Well, we don't have to worry about the shock absorption, right?" Shinsou quizzed. "Karma's knife went right through him with barely any effort. We just need to throw that thing with enough force that it'll rip every piece of the Nomu apart."

The Alpha unit captain and END commander hummed. "By my calculations, I doubt Sugino's quirk alone will be enough. We need something to supercharge the energy in Sugino's throw."

A particularly large explosion went off as Bakugou smashed his fists into the Nomu's face. Karma grinned.

-.-.-.-

Before anyone could advise him otherwise (seriously, did Karma have a death wish?), the END commander marched right up to Bakugou and grabbed him by the hair.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Karma ignored the screams and, due to his temperature quirk, was barely fazed by Bakugou's explosions, which seemed to piss the boy off even more. He marched back to the other END agents, graciously dropped Bakugou on the floor, and punched him in the face.

"Listen up, Sir Explosion. You seem like a prideful one, so I bet you're dying to be the one to claim he took down the beast capable of killing All-Might," Karma began with little preamble. "So how about you do as we say, set off an explosion the same time Agent Pitch here—" he gestured to Sugino, "—throws this cannonball, and you'll be a hero. Isn't that supposed to be an appealing offer to you U.A. kids or whatever?"

Bakugou stared, blank-faced, as if he couldn't believe anyone would dare talk to him like this, before sneering. "Like hell I'd ever work with you END freaks."

Karma sighed. "Sorry, not an option."

Bakugou sputtered indignantly and Izuku tried his hand at appeasing his old childhood friend. "Please, Kacchan. If you set off an explosion while holding Agent Pitch's hand when he throws, then he can take the energy and manipulate the throw so it's supersonic and will tear the Nomu to pieces, just like you suggested."

He prayed the explosive boy would be more reasonable hearing it from someone he knew, but (of course) it only seemed to piss him off more.

"So what, you want me to do your work for you because you freaks are too fucking weak to do it and your own? Hell no! There's no way in hell I'm going to help you, and I'm never going to hold someone's fucking hand—"

"Too late." Karma smashed Bakugou's hand against the back of Sugino's and locked them together with wire. He then turned to the battlefield, where Todoroki was. Karma's eyes narrowed and it suddenly became extremely cold. Todoroki seemed the most affected, his ice wielding side suddenly throwing out a massive wall of ice encasing the Nomu, and the boy stared at his hand in shock.

Izuku blinked, realizing what just happened. He heightened Todoroki's temperature, not only making the ice more powerful, but forcing him to use his quirk against his control. The heterochromatic boy spun around, looking for answers, but Karma had already turned away, signaling Sugino to go.

Sugino (and a cursing Bakugou) winded up, and surprisingly Bakugou set off the explosion the same time Sugino threw the cannonball. It soared through the air, perfectly aimed at the frozen Nomu. Izuku, being the only one with kinetic vision that let him see things at supersonic speeds, was able to track the cannonball the entire way. Even if the Nomu wasn't frozen, there was no way he'd be able to move away fast enough. By Izuku's calculations, he guessed it was going upwards of Mach-3. Within less than a second of it being released, the cannonball smashed into the Nomu's chest and completely shredded the monster.

The impact itself would've torn apart any target, but the anti-sensei material coating it meant that not even Nomu's shock absorption stood a chance at protecting it. It practically disintegrated him, leaving nothing for the creature to regenerate back from.

There was silence on the battlefield. Student and villain alike stared in shock at the feat. The massive beast supposedly capable of killing All-Might, smashed to pieces with a single throw.

Izuku turned to look at the duo that made it happen. Sugino's hand smoked and his glove was completely torn off, but he didn't have any burns — likely Karma's doing, if Izuku had to guess. Bakugou looked constipated, like he wasn't sure if he wanted to start screaming or pass out. The wire connecting their hands was gone, and the two quickly stepped away from each other.

The silence was finally cut out by a crackling in Izuku's ear. "Comms are back on, Agent Devil."

Snapping out of his stupor (it seemed not even Karma predicted the plan to work so flawlessly), the red-haired boy touched the comm in his ear. "Excellent work, Agent Tentacle, Agent English. The main threat has just been neutralized."

"So that's what the massive explosion was," Kataoka mused. "Something tells me there's a big explanation behind this one."

Nagisa laughed harshly over the comm. "You guys have no idea."

-.-.-.-

At the same time Shigaraki started screaming ("WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY NOMU?!"), the front doors of the U.S.J. burst open, and the man of the hour finally arrived.

"Never fear!" All-Might declared. "For I am- huh?"

Immediately, the man was cut off by multiple END agents standing in his way, blocking him from moving.

"Agent Devil, the target has arrived. We're keeping a guard on him until all villain threats have been neutralized," Isogai informed them over the comms.

"Excellent job," Karma responded, while Kirishima whispered, "Uh...why are you stopping All-Might from saving us?"

"Because All-Might is the villain's target, which means he's in danger," Nagisa explained, pointing his nerve-gun at the downed Kurogiri's head. "And while we may have just eliminated their main weapon, it'd be foolish to assume the villains went through all this trouble and not have a contingency plan."

Shigaraki began laughing slowly, hollowly. "You brats got us all figured out, huh? Looks like you really are as good as they say — even if you did cheat." He looked up at them, his red eyes bulging from underneath the hand mask. He stared at Izuku and Karma specifically, and the green-haired boy shivered. "I can't wait until I make you all pay."

Izuku noticed the thugs starting to circle back up and instantly pulled out a nerve-gun from his belt, the other END agents doing the same while his classmates braced themselves for another fight.

But before they could move, a flurry of tranquilizers and knives rained down, taking out every thug in seconds. Izuku spun around and spotted Okano, Kimura, and Hayami coming out of the fire zone.

"That's twenty-three for me!" Okuda cheered, while Kimura bragged, "Oh yeah? I have twenty-four!"

"Will you stop bickering already?" Hayami hissed, cocking her gun. "Besides, you know you don't stand a chance. I have more than fifty."

"You're such a downer sometimes, Agent Balance."

"Hey, Agent Control!" Mimura walked up, waving nonchalantly while dragging an unconscious, tied up villain. "Think you can help me study for my English quiz later? Our local linguist refused already."

Nakamura jumped down next to Itona, scoffing. "Maybe if you'd stay more focused on the mission instead of schoolwork, I'd be more open to helping you."

Slowly, Izuku's ex-classmates circled up, all looking pretty unharmed. They were smiling and laughing like this was just another day on the job; like they hadn't just taken down an entire villain organization in a matter of minutes. Like, at the end of the day, the most concerning thing was catching up on missed schoolwork, not fighting to survive. E-class was pretty amazing sometimes, but sometimes, it's sad to think of why they're so good at what they do — why they can do the job as good as the Pros.

Shigaraki hissed, trying to move but unable due to his paralyzed limbs. "Looks like they're regrouping. How bothersome. Get us out of here, Kurogiri."

The warp gate opened again, sucking the two villains in, and Karma cursed. "Like hell you're getting away! Stop them!"

Shinsou lashed out first, his capture rings wrapping around Shigaraki's wrists and pulling him back out of the warp. Nagisa held out his hand and aimed his empath powers at Kurogiri, making the man struggle to move as his will to escape was ripped away from him and replaced with something else. Just when Izuku thought they might actually capture the masterminds, however, he noticed a warp open up behind Nagisa, about to suck him in.

"Agent Snake, look out!" Izuku warned, and without telling them too, his legs moved, finding the strength to run once more. Moving at Mach-2, he ripped Nagisa away from Kurogiri's clutches, saving him from any potential kidnapping disaster, but unfortunately letting the villain regain control of his emotions again.

"What pesky children," Kurogiri growled, turning his attention to where Shinsou was trapping Shigaraki. A warp appeared below his best friend's feet and Izuku screamed, trying to save his best friend, but found himself unable to move. He collapsed in a pool of his own blood and just tried to breathe.

When it seemed all hope was lost, however, two hands shot out and grabbed Shinsou at the same time, pulling him to safety. Unfortunately, it meant the brainwasher was forced to release Shigaraki, and the mastermind villains escaped in their warp. But for Izuku, all that mattered was that his best friend was safe.

But then he realized who saved Shinsou.

Each grasping a shoulder, Karma and Todoroki stared each other down with so much intensity it was oppressive. Karma quirked an eyebrow, almost amused, and the temperature of the room rose insanely fast. A flicker of flame danced across Todoroki's arm, and the moment the boy ripped his hand away, the heat vanished.

"Pretty fast reflexes, First," Karma drawled, and Todoroki gritted his teeth, meeting Karma's stare. Before the moment could get any more awkward, however, Shinsou — stuck in the middle — broke it up.

"Yeah, that's enough of that." The brainwasher shoved his way through the two estranged brothers and quickly ran over to Izuku. "Shit, Jolly Green, you okay?"

Izuku tried to reply but ended up gurgling his own blood. Needless to say, no one believed him when he later assured them he was fine.

-.-.-.-

By the time the rest of the Pros showed up, END was already wrapping it up.

The entire U.A. staff was stunned and mortified knowing such horrors happened underneath their noses again. Nedzu flicked his tail as he observed the scene, his expression darkened.

Shinsou and Sugino carried Izuku over to the entrance where everyone was rendezvousing. Thirteen and Aizawa were passed off to Recovery Girl, and All-Might stood to the side, basically on house arrest, and pouted. Managing to escape his escorts, Izuku snuck over to the Pro-Hero's side.

"I'm really sorry about this, Yagi, sir," he whispered, and All-Might jolted, taking in Izuku's beaten and bloodied form. "But it's for the best. You can't risk dying before...you know…"

All-Might sighed, glaring at his clenched fists. "Doesn't matter," he muttered. "I should've been here from the start; I should've protected you. What kind of Symbol of Peace sits back while child soldiers fight for your life?"

"The kind of Symbol of Peace that needs to keep living in order to make work easy for these child soldiers," Izuku said, grinning sheepishly. "We may be young, but we know what we're doing, and we've faced worse villains than this."

It was sad and true, and it only made All-Might scowl more.

Before they could talk anymore, however, Izuku was quickly whisked away by a nagging Hara and a hovering Okuda who were equally stressed over his current state. Which meant Izuku was dragged right in the middle of the '1-A formally meeting 3-E' mess.

"Hey, can anyone explain Planck's Constant to me? This chemistry homework is too hard for high school, I swear," Sugaya complained, and Yada laughed.

"This coming from someone who went to Kunugigaoka? Just what high school are you attending, Agent Ink?"

"Um…" Ashido interrupted, looking pensive. Much of 1-A was just standing on the sidelines watching while U.A. staff members perused around to check on them and END agents handcuffed and tranquilized thugs. "Are you guys really discussing homework while you tie up villains?"

Izuku's old classmates exchanged a few awkward glances. "I mean, why not?" Fuwa asked. "We're students, just like you guys. Most of us were in the middle of a class when we got the call to report for this mission, and we'll probably go right back to school when we're done."

"We don't all want to fight bad guys for a living like you guys," Mimura added, shrugging as he placed a tranquilizer in a thug's neck. "We've got other goals. I want to go into communications one day, not hero or military work."

And there it is. The side the media and public never like to acknowledge. The fact that these big, bad, scary END agents are just normal kids trying to pursue normal lives despite being forced to act for the government.

After all, it's easy to forget when you see what they can do; when you watch Nagisa spar five men at once and win; when you see Karma outsmart everyone in the room in a matter of seconds; when you hear Nakamura relaying intelligence not even most military personnel know. It's easy to forget when they are constantly being called 'Agent Whoever' and 'Agent Whatever' that they aren't even old enough to legally sign up for the military.

"Oh…" Ashido whispered, looking away, as did much of 1-A. Izuku sighed. Great. While his classmates probably won't fear him now that they've met END, they're definitely going to start pitying him.

Clearly just as annoyed, Karma pushed off the wall he was leaning against and sighed dramatically. "Oh please, don't look like that. It just means we get to beat up whatever assholes we want and the government will cover it for us. It's pretty great, actually. There's nothing more satisfying than slamming your fist into someone's skull and not worrying about the consequences."

He demonstrated this, brutally punching a nearby thug. Izuku's pretty sure Kouda fainted.

Nagisa rolled his eyes and sighed. "What our commander means to say, is that what happened here today needs to stay in here. As I'm sure you've gathered, we don't exactly want much information about us leaking, which means whatever version of this story the media is going to get is going to be very watered down, and you need to keep it that way. No telling anyone anything about us, our quirks, our techniques, our identities, or else there will be consequences."

Karma, just for good measure, kicked another thug in the nose, and all of 1-A nodded vigorously. Izuku sighed.

Karma, stop intimidating my classmates.

"Agent Devil," Isogai interrupted. "We've swept the facility, and it would appear every thug and villain is accounted for and captured, save for the two that escaped earlier."

"The police can take it from here," Cementoss stepped forward. "U.A. thanks you for the commendable work you've done here. You saved our students' lives today, even at your own risk."

Karma smirked. "It's hardly any risk to us, Blockhead." Everyone blanched at the rude nickname ("Don't go insulting Pros, asshole!" Shinsou hissed), but Karma continued, unfazed. "Save for the two who got away, everyone else was amateur at best, and even those two were questionable. Compared to who we used to target every single day, this was child's play."

"Child's play? We nearly got murdered!" Mineta hissed.

"Nonetheless, you worked quite flawlessly despite descending on the fight with little knowledge other than your friend and teammate was in trouble," Nedzu said. "It's quite impressive. Of course, what went on here will have to be hashed out in greater detail later. Please let Tadaomi know that he should expect a call from me very soon."

And then the mouse principal left to go check up on Aizawa, and Izuku breathed a sigh of relief knowing that's all he had to say. Karma pursed his lips, his face twisting inexplicably.

"Well, I guess that's our cue to leave. Gears, Dark, get the bird rolling, will you?"

"Got it," Yoshida responded, and he and Hazama left for the exit. That's when Izuku noticed something particularly odd.

"Um. Tokoyami? What's up with Dark Shadow?"

The bird-faced boy, who had been staring at his sentient shadow with unease, jolted. "I am...not sure myself."

The shadow bird was staring intensely at something and almost looked like he was...blushing? Can shadows blush? Hazama can't but that's probably because she doesn't feel normal human emotion—

And then, very slowly, all of the dots began to connect in Izuku's mind, and he wasn't the only one.

"Holy shit, does your shadow have a crush on Agent Dark?!" screeched Muramatsu, and all hell officially broke loose.

"Can sentient shadows have crushes?" wondered Yaoyorozu.

"What the hell is going on?!" Terasaka growled protectively.

"Someone finds Hazama attractive?" Shinsou muttered just loud enough for Izuku to hear, and the green-haired boy tried not to burst out laughing.

"Hey, don't act so surprised!" snapped Hazama, spinning around to face the group with her arms crossed. "I bet I could be a part of the Honeypot Trio if you'd let me."

"No, you couldn't," Shinsou, Yada, and Maehara deadpanned at the exact same time, making the shadow girl growl.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Wait, if your quirk makes your whole body a walking shadow, why do you wear clothes? Doesn't it get in the way of your quirk?" Hagakure asked innocently, and then squeaked as twenty-eight murderous stares turned on her. Why, just why did she have to bring that up? Who would've ever guessed 1-A would be the bad influence for 3-E?

"See! This class understands me! They're okay with her not wearing clothes because they know it's necessary!" Hazama argued, but she was already being dragged away by Terasaka's gang.

"Yeah, but she's invisible. We can still see you without your clothes on," Muramatsu explained, running his fingers up his snout in a soothing manner.

"Yeah. You're welcome."

And with that, E-class made their departure. Karma 'accidentally' dropped his knife on another thug's leg and grinned at 1-A innocently, making Mineta almost pee himself. Kurahashi waved vigorously to a shy-looking Kouda while Fuwa gushed her goodbyes to Yaoyorozu and Jirou. Shinsou rubbed Izuku's head comfortingly.

"Try not to get in any more trouble, Jolly Green, or else I'm putting you on laundry and dish duty for a month," he said, and Izuku pouted playfully.

"That's hardly fair; it's trouble that finds me, after all."

"I know, and my heart can hardly take the stress of that alone, much less the stress of chores too."

Shinsou and the rest of END left in the jet. Izuku watching them depart wistfully and wishing he could go with them, but he knows he's needed here, with his new class. He turned around and ran into Uraraka.

"To handle threats with so much professionalism and prowess, even though they're the same age as us. They're hardly as powerful as Pros like All-Might, but they still defeated the enemy just by clever teamwork and strategy…though I guess it's to be expected from the group that took down the Number One Villain," Uraraka mused to herself before looking up and making eye contact with Izuku. "Midoriya, your old classmates are really weird."

Izuku blinked and smiled softly. "Yeah. They really are."

-.-.-.-

Villains Attack U.A. Students Again! School's Ability to Protect Students Called Into Question — "The Students Are Safe."

Elite hero academy U.A. takes another blow today after reports of a gang of villains attacking a field trip for class 1-A broke out. The students reportedly defended themselves on their own for nearly fifteen minutes before END agents and later Pro-Heroes stepped in to save the day. Unconfirmed sources say that 1-A student Bakugou Katsuki succeeded in taking out the main villain threat… [Read more]

-.-.-.-

"Come again, Mickey Mouse? You want us to do what?"

Following the attack at USJ, Karma, Nagisa, and Karasuma met with Nedzu in his office to discuss what happened. It started out fairly typical — Karma throwing careless insults, Nagisa asking the pointed questions, Karasuma trying to rein them in, and Nedzu acting playfully unbothered. They discussed how the main enemy got away, how the Nomu seemed imperfect and unlike Shiro's, and how this was a problem. But then, after Nedzu went on some big spiel about having a "common enemy" and "the public fears U.A. cannot protect its students" while it also "is terrified of END, isn't this quite the conundrum," the principal asked the (seemingly) unthinkable.

"I propose that END act as extra security at the Sports Festival," Nedzu said. "Not only will your presence ensure public safety, but it will allow the people to see you up-close and make their own judgment of END, instead of just believing whatever the media tells them."

Karma and Nagisa exchanged a look of disbelief. The blue-haired boy shuffled, unsettled.

"You're not telling us everything, are you?" he asked. "Your emotional state is frazzled, desperate. There's some other reason you need us as security, isn't there."

Nedzu blinked, seemingly shocked, before smiling. "Impressive job, Nagisa. I've been told by other empaths that I am extremely difficult to read." The mouse reached under his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Unfortunately, you're correct. Following these attacks, my close staff has theorized we might have a traitor among our ranks — and I can only pray it's not a student."

Nagisa hummed. "That would explain why it took so long for the teachers to be made aware of Grip's infiltration."

"And how the villains knew All-Might was supposed to be on the trip. We know Grip couldn't be the source because he only stayed in areas with students, but it could've been a distraction for the spy," Karma added.

Nedzu eyed Karasuma sharply. "You've been oddly quiet, Tadaomi. Care to enlighten us?"

The senior agent scowled and sighed. "You say you and your staff hopes it's not a student, but has it crossed your mind that one of those staff members could be the traitor?"

The room was silent, and Nedzu's nose twitched. "Yes, I have. At this point, anyone could be a suspect, even heroes outside of the U.A. faculty."

"Which is why you are asking us to come instead of local heroes," Nagisa concluded, and Nedzu nodded.

"Indeed. You will be heavily accommodated for your services — I will supply a base of operations for you to monitor this new threat. I also suggest we allow you to...show off a bit. Not that you can participate with the students, but we do have intermediate activities between rounds. I'm sure a section dedicated to END would be quite enjoyable."

Karma smirked. "Sounds like a pretty good offer."

Karasuma, on the other hand, silently groaned at the thought of 3-E 'showing off' for the cameras. The chaos was going to be a massive headache — and so will the paperwork.

"Of course. Everyone enjoys a good show, after all." Nedzu smiled. "So, do we have a deal?"