Disclaimer: I do not own MHA nor am I earning money from writing this. As a rule of thumb, if you recognize something in this fic, I probably do not own it.

"I might be going insane" – Normal speech

'It isn't normal to have voices in your head' – Thoughts, Writing

True – The voices in your head

"You will never forget this day" – Remembered speech

Chapter 25

When Katsumi pushed open the door to the observation room, she didn't know what she was expecting. Perhaps the brief congratulations that teams before them had received, maybe scolding from the teachers or Tomoyo for destroying the building they had been using, maybe even praise for one team or the other.

Instead, the room's occupants were all staring at their teacher, who had finally gotten out of her sleeping bag. She had a tablet in her hand with a wire linking it to the main computer and from the sounds coming from the speaker she was skipping through the footage of the previous round. Even All Might, who had been trying to maintain an air of professionalism, had joined them in staring at the usually disapproving woman. The woman in question was well aware of the eyes on her, but she simply ignored them. If they were willing to disturb her nap with their cheers and screams during the activity, then they could certainly deal with her seemingly illogical actions afterwards.

The gentle thud of the door closing drew her attention away from the screen. Aizawa-sensei, who she still hadn't figured out the heroic identity of, turned towards the four of them and nodded. "That was very logical, all of you."

The room descended into chaos.

Even having only known her for two days, the class had already picked up some of her verbal tics and other eccentricities. The theories on why she was always in her sleeping bag and how she managed to store so many supplies inside of it. One theory was that she had a space-expanding quirk that made her tired the more she used it, but that was merely one of the many suggestions that had been made overnight.

Only Izuku knew for sure, and despite her asking he hadn't even given any hints, instead telling her to be more observant. If she hadn't known him for her entire life, she would have been annoyed and tried harder.

What they had picked up on after an hour of class, however, was her habitual use of the word 'logic'. She used it to describe their failed attempts to use their support equipment, nearly all of her criticisms describing an action or choice containing the word 'illogical' at least once. Additionally, she had never praised anything they did directly. Sure, she had mentioned that they had potential at the beginning of class, but that was followed up with a warning about being sent to the support course if they didn't act on it.

So, to be told that something they did was logical sent them all into a state of confusion, especially with how disjointed the whole affair had been from their perspective. From what she gathered from the random questions coming from around her, Izuku and M4 had engaged in a similar information-silent approach at the beginning of the activity, likely intending to reuse the building and hiding place after the fact.

From that perspective, she could easily see why they were so confused about the last round. The prep time had been silent and unrevealing, the timer had started explosively with her and her spar with Izuku had only gotten more intense from there, and the ending to their fight was an unexpected double knockout. From what she had heard from her teammate, the bottom half of the building had been far less eventful than the top, only getting interesting after she and Izuku were out.

Even she, who had been through the experience first-hand and had likely made some of the decisions that were being touted as logical, was having a hard time believing her ears.

When the noise level of the room calmed down enough for All Might to continue speaking, the heroine began her judgment of the round.

"Team A did a wonderful job with operational security and thinking outside the box from the get-go, and you should feel good about that! Your strategy, as nearly as I could tell, was also spot-on, playing to your strengths wonderfully. Bakugou, the powerhouse, went to take down an opponent that she knew would cause problems immediately, while Sero used her impressive mobility to search her half of the building efficiently. The only criticism that I have for you individually is that Bakugou overused and destroyed her support gear in the first few seconds instead of using it at a sustainable rate throughout the match, while Sero was too cautious in approaching Midoriya."

"Creativity and security were not only limited to the heroines, however! Team K did a wonderful job in concealing the hiding place of their bomb, and reacted well to the unorthodox strategy employed by their opponents. While the strategy of sacrificing yourself to take down an opponent is inspired, it is not an action I would recommend in the field. The monologue that Midoriya gave served its purpose wonderfully, burning the little time that Team A had left while also forcing his opponent into a limited set of choices!"

"Although monologuing sees little use in heroics, making your opponent doubt themselves or act in a way that you can predict or control is an invaluable tool in the hands of the right person. However, Sero, you shouldn't doubt yourself because of what Midoriya did. As he said in the last seconds, heroism is about making a choice to do better, to go beyond your limits in every way!"

Even through the slightly pessimistic mood she was in due to losing the match, Katsumi could feel All Might's charisma in every word that she spoke, reassuring them and bolstering their spirits. It was the same kind of feeling she got when Izuku got passionate about what he was doing when he got too in-character during one of their play-fights as kids. She couldn't put her finger on it or replicate it if she tried to, but it was the kind of magnetism that made you glad that they wanted to be heroes and not villains.

At this point, Aizawa chimed in. "Midoriya, it was a horrible decision to engage with Bakugou but it was the best option you had. I expect you to get better to create more options in the future. Sero, if the robot wasn't moving, you didn't have to stay there and set up all the tape. You should have gone and assisted your teammate or brought her to the first floor."

The unfair criticism towards Izuku riled her up for a moment, but Izuku's arm around her shoulders kept her from voicing her displeasure. On the other side of her, Hana nodded in acceptance of the criticism that she had been given.

After waiting for a few seconds for their names to be mentioned, Katsumi was happily surprised by the silence and implied approval of her actions. None of the class was surprised by M4's non-inclusion, though the reason for it was of much debate. Whether it was that the artificial intelligence wasn't one of her students and she felt no need to criticize him or his inherently logical nature and ability to make the most informed choice in almost any given scenario, none of them knew, but their teacher had never once spoken to or about him.

The blissful silence in the following moment was soon to be broken by Minerva. "I'm sorry, what? Neither of you are saying anything about how they just destroyed the fucking building? That was insane! What about how they were beating each other up at the beginning? You can't tell me none of that warrants at least a mention!"

Tsuyu's croak from across the room followed up the statement. "As much as I hate to agree with the pervert, she has a point. Izuku and Katsumi could have seriously injured or even killed each other back there and neither of the two of you stepped in to intervene or are even mentioning it."

Very carefully avoiding looking at her tablet, All Might gave her reply. "Both of them have achieved recognition for their accomplishments in their respective martial arts, and as such, they were not stopped when they engaged in hand-to-hand combat despite the intensity of their actions. They know how to minimize the damage to themselves and safely incapacitate their opponents. If one of them were to face Ojiro or Yaoyorozu, the same policy would apply. If any of you have a similar level of expertise that you did not include in your application, you can approach your teacher after class and she can help you register that with UA."

Seeing the nods from around the room and the thoughtful expressions on several faces, All Might let out a sigh of relief. Looking down, she read the two notes for what must have been the hundredth time since the beginning of the last round.

'Allow the students to bend the rules so long as none of them are seriously injured. – Nozomi'

'Don't interfere with Izuku and Katsumi when they inevitably fight each other, Katsumi needs the fight and Izuku needs the challenge. – M4'

She hadn't put either of them there, and though she knew how both of them had likely appeared she didn't particularly feel like annoying either the rodent queen or the digital sovereign for something so simple. If any of her students were truly in danger at any point, she would have had no issues breaking out One for All and breaking up the fight faster than any of them could perceive her absence from the observation room, but for the few harmless requests that they had it was worth having the two of them be on her side.

She continued speaking despite the doubt she could clearly see on Melissa's face. "Anyhow, the camera feeds from Zone D are beginning to boot up, so if Team K would begin to walk to the building in the same relative location as the previous location was in Zone E. Your prep time will begin as soon as you enter, begin to climb the outside of, or otherwise arrive at the building. Please don't destroy this one as well."

As soon as Izuku and Midoriya had left the room, All Might reached over to the main screen and pressed the button labeled 'Choose a Team!' once more. "And… Team F, Todoroki Shoko and Minoru Minerva! As soon as Team K arrives at the building, you may leave the room as well! Remember, go to Zone D this time and not Zone E!"

Midoriya Izuku POV

As the two of them made their way through the identical city, Izuku was thinking about the rest of the activity. Sure, the two of them had done well, but the previous round had revealed that they couldn't be playing the role of passive defenders and expect to win, even with their extensive planning.

Thinking through the various ideas that he had bounced off of his quirk and M4 over the years, one, in particular, had been brought back to mind by the sight of one of his classmates. After a brief confirmation from his quirk that it wouldn't be detrimental to his outcomes, Izuku spoke up. "Hey M4, you want to try something out?"

Despite the condition of Midoriya as a puddle of nanobots transporting the bomb, his voice was still there across the earpiece. "Always, Izuku. What would you suggest?"

Izuku smiled as the next words came out of his mouth. "Do you remember Project Asura?"

Bakugou Katsumi POV

The five words that came from her boyfriend's mouth brought back memories of one of her spars against Izuku about four months ago. When she had seen him walk into her backyard with two extra heads and four additional arms, she had laughed at him for a solid minute before they had begun to spar for the day. When she had thrown him to the ground in less than three seconds because he was off-balance, the laughter had gone on for another two minutes.

By the end of the day, however, he had begun to hold his ground in their sparring. The next time they met, however, she would never forget.

Overnight, he seemed to have both gotten used to synchronizing M4's movements with his own and had invented an entirely new style of fighting to make use of the four extra limbs that he had grafted onto himself. She hadn't gotten close to him without the use of her quirk, and even when she got within arms' reach of him she was also within reach of all six of his arms, two of which were invariably countering her while the rest went on the offensive.

Afterwards, she had asked him where he had found the inspiration for the idea and he had pointed her to the Asura, a six-armed and three-headed demigod in Buddhism. The two of them had spent a few minutes talking about how he could improve the appearance of his latest idea. She had focused on their power-seeking, warlike nature while he had thought about painting faces that could inspire different emotions in his opponents and then having the nanobots replicate them.

That had been the end of her consideration of the idea, but as she watched the screen and saw Izuku's transformation she couldn't help but wonder how long he had spent perfecting the image.

Once the bomb was set down on the first floor of the building and Shoko and Minerva had left the room, the two clasped hands and one began to flow into the other. Izuku's skin turned silver, the green of his hair and eyes becoming the only color in his body as his shirt faded into his shin and his pants turned black. Two pairs of hands appeared from his shoulder joints, arms pushing outwards as more and more of Midoriya disappeared.

The nanobots began to gather near his neck, splitting off into two additional necks and heads as the class watched in a combination of interest and horror. His torso thickened to accommodate the positioning of the necks, and the shoulders of his two new pairs of arms shifted back as the room became available.

Izuku's figure in this form was far more muscled than he was in reality, projecting an image of strength that only worked because the nanobot muscles could collapse into one another to maintain the flexibility that she knew Izuku valued. She had advocated for that, pointing out the powerful image that they presented. What drew gasps from her and her classmates, however, were the faces.

Though the asuras were described as having three heads with three faces each, each of Izuku's heads only had one face. The quality, however, more than made up for it. The front-facing head, the only real one, was meant to portray benevolence if she was remembering correctly. It was unmodified from his true visage, only holding a peaceful smile as it faced the camera with closed eyes.

The back-right head, which the camera switched to a moment later, was meant to symbolize the characteristic aggression of the asura. Its face was twisted in rage and anger as it stared at the camera. Some of her classmates shrunk back in their seats for a moment, feeling the fear that his artwork was meant to instill in the viewer.

The final head, facing backwards and to his left, could only be described as determined. The face had been taken from one of his unsold artworks, 'The Struggle of Humanity Against Nature', before being modified to fit Izuku's features. It was both inspiring and humbling to look at, portraying the grit that had pushed their species onward since before recorded history. It was the face of the inventor, the leader, the teacher, the common person as they toiled away for a brighter future that they would never see.

Despite their imposing appearance, she knew from experience that they were little more than hollow shells. The majority of the nanobots from Midoriya had gone into reinforcing the armor around his main body and filling out the arms, with a shell only a few layers thick giving him the rest of the unnatural appearance that he was taking.

As the last remnants of Midoriya disappeared into him, Izuku began to move once more. Picking up the bomb with his arms, he passed it to one of the extra sets before running towards the stairs. Jumping up with a little magnetic aid, Izuku caught the railing halfway up the first flight of stairs and jumped off, latching onto the first landing before something interesting happened.

On the camera from the stairs, she watched as a copy of Izuku slipped out from his body, holding a second bomb. The new figure flipped over the railing and entered the doorway leading out to the rest of the floor as the original jumped upwards twice more, repeating the process.

Though Izuku's camera had faded to black as the first split occurred, the cameras throughout the floor showed the process repeating, copies branching out and placing their own bombs in each and every room of the building. Once the final bomb was placed on the top floor, all of them returned to the stairwell, merging back into one as they neared each other.

Starting from the top floor, the figures began to jump from railing to railing back down, merging back into each other as they met on their descent. By the time they had all returned to the same position, Izuku's camera feed returned, showing his view as he walked back to the center of the room. Each face opened its mouth, speaking three different phrases at once.

"Hiding is for cowards."

"Reality and illusion are not so different."

"Only through hard work can the truth be revealed."

In the silence of the observation room, Katsumi began to laugh.

Midoriya Izuku POV

Izuku was rather proud of the confusion that he had no doubt created. There was still only one bomb, yet to his classmates, it could be in any of over two hundred places. The credit for the work went to M4, who had done the heavy lifting of manipulating the cameras to show all of that, to be sure, but the strategy was something he would take pride in.

As he twitched one finger in a specific pattern, he could feel three of the artificial arms reaching up to the space between the three necks, weaving between the heads. Each one grasped a hilt and pulled, bringing a sword out of each one.

The two arms under the control of his wrathful head each pulled out shorter blades than he normally used, both the same shade of black as his pants. The lone arm of his determined head pulled out his preferred blade, a slightly brighter coloring of silver than his skin. Both hands grasped it, holding it in a nonstandard grip with two left hands. His arms, both still empty, raised and cupped each other, mimicking the mythological being that he was imitating.

His head, the peaceful one, widened its smile for a moment before returning to the image that he had so carefully perfected. This would be fun.

In the same moment that All Might announced the beginning of the round, Izuku noticed the abrupt drop in temperature around him. Jumping a fraction of a second before the ice entered the doorway, his instincts were rewarded with a wave of ice flooding the surface he had been standing on in a layer nearly ten centimeters thick.

He landed a second later, still facing the door as he watched both members of Team F walk through the entrance.

"That was a cowardly move."

"Welcome."

"I shall not fall."

While Minerva was put off by the declaration, Shoko was undeterred. With a single hand gesture, spears of ice went flying towards him from all directions. As spikes dig into the ice beneath him, Izuku reacted to everything within his hundred and twenty degrees of responsibility. Each spear that approached his benevolent face was redirected with a palm strike, while the other two reacted in their own ways. The wrathful head cut them apart with his swords, while the determined head mimicked [Jirou]'s trick and vibrated his sword at the resonant frequency of the ice, shattering the ice upon the slightest contact.

After a few seconds of the assault, Izuku lunged forwards at the pair. While the assault from Shoko continued, Izuku pushed forwards, grabbing one of her arms with one hand and nearly continuing before he felt a sense of danger. Letting go and jumping to the side, placing himself closer to Minerva, he watched as a burst of ice erupted from the arm he had just grabbed, filling part of the room with a floor-to-ceiling block of ice.

His closer proximity to Minerva gave him an opportunity, and he pounced on it before she could react. With the determined head facing her, it released the handle of the sword with one hand and grabbed the capture tape at his side, securing it around her torso before she could move away.

The combat lapsed into an uneasy moment of calm. Izuku thought back to what he recalled about Shoko and her quirk. She had a very reserved personality, only speaking when she had to and never more than necessary. She reacted poorly to authority figures, which his quirk confirmed was a result of her upbringing as the daughter of Endeavor. Her quirk was dual-natured, though she refused to use the fire aspect of her quirk out of hatred for her mother.

According to his theory of how quirks affected the user, she should have had a more neutral personality that got more aggressive with the use of her fire and calmer with the use of her ice. With her refusing to use her fire, however, her personality shifted over time much closer in line with the ice aspect of her quirk.

This left her with three weaknesses, two of which overlapped each other. The first way that he could win this fight would be to make it a battle of attrition, forcing her to create more and more ice until she ran out of energy or began to suffer from overuse of the ice aspect of her quirk. The other way that he could win was to end the battle decisively while avoiding contact with the side of her that produced ice.

Opting for the second choice, Izuku lunged forwards just as Shoko raised her hand once more.

Nozomi POV

Nozomi was not having a good time.

The cameras, the microphones, the virtual omnipresence that she prided herself on were falling apart. She had managed to send out the teams for the day's activity, but after that point, things had gone downhill. The cameras that she was looking through were manipulated, cutting off vital portions of information. Even the students had cut off their microphones at one point, only referencing an 'M4' that she had never heard reply.

The copy of Midoriya Izuku was within her knowledge, having been presented to Power Loader in his application to the Support Course, but even as the cameras switched between ones the problems remained. In fact, they worsened, going from obstructing information to creating false information, showing hundreds of copies of the boy and the bomb as they spread throughout the building.

Worse, when she tried to fix this or check for interference, the system showed no signs of tampering at all. If what she was looking at was correct, then everything that she had seen had truly happened.

Attempted communication with All Might and the city simulations was blocked off on her side, and she could only watch as her data collection fell apart before her. The boy, Midoriya Izuku, was doing far too well, ending the rounds before the rest of the class could even fight back.

The only saving grace was Team A getting selected once more, causing him to forfeit the round for, most likely, fear of the destruction of his equipment. Though the girl with the explosion quirk was similarly prone to ending her matches early, she at least allowed for some interesting fights when she was facing an equally powerful quirk.

Apart from the two of them, there were a few other students that she made a note to keep an eye on. Melissa Shield, Toshiko's adopted niece, had a particularly versatile strength enhancement quirk and support gear of her own. Todoroki Shoko, the daughter of Endeavor, had a wonderfully versatile quirk if not the will to use it. Yaoyorozu Momo, Kirishima Eiko, and Ojiro Makaira all caught her eye as well for one reason or another, and she took solace in the little information she was able to acquire while she planned improvements to her setup.

Nobody got one over on her, not without retaliation.

Midoriya Izuku POV

Izuku smiled as he sat in the observation room, watching Katsumi face off against Shoko and Hana against Minerva. The two teams were very evenly matched, all things taken into account. One member of each team was a powerhouse, capable of causing massive amounts of damage if they so wished, while the other was more mobile, able to capture the other with their quirk.

Shoko's refusal to use the fires of her quirk even to warm her body meant that the tide of the battle was slowly slipping in Katsumi's favor. It wouldn't have won her the battle had she used it, seeing as she had to decisively beat Katsumi in order to search for the bomb. Neither of their teammates was out yet, each having built their own domains and sending probing attacks at the other. Whenever Katsumi or Shoko tried to eliminate the other's teammate, the other would step in to stop them.

He was back in his normal appearance by now, the intimidating form of the asura not doing much when he was sitting down and watching other people fight. He had received quite a few questions about it when he returned to the observation room for the second time, but he had shrugged most of them off by telling them that it was mostly cosmetic in nature. He was far more interested in Melissa's 'living metal'.

As far as he could tell, it was a steel alloy under the effect of a quirk that slowly reversed time on a non-living object. This gave it a degree of self-repair, while the properties of the alloy allowed it to expand more than usual before cracking or breaking. While self-repair would be a useful property for any inventor, the quirk in question could only affect a limited number of objects per day. The quadrillions of nanobots would take longer to finish enhancing than quirks had existed under the most optimal conditions, so that train of thought was discarded.

While he was sitting there, the timer for the round hit zero, bringing an end to the activity. After a minute of Katsumi breaking the remaining ice scattered throughout the room, the four of them left the building, making their way back to the observation room at a rather slow pace. Shoko's quirk-induced slowness paired with Minerva's short stature worked out well for the two of them in this instance, but both Katsumi and Hana were forced to slow down to keep pace.

When the four of them made it to the observation room, All Might gave her review of their performance before closing out the activity. "First of all, Team A's performance this round was equally as good as their previous six! Katsumi, you did a wonderful job of engaging the opponent and keeping them from progressing through the building, and Hana, your defense of the bomb itself was outstanding as ever. When faced with a team that has a similar composition of roles, your teamwork and planning paid off."

"Team F, your performance was equally as good as that of Team A's, forcing them into a stalemate. While this would be a preferable outcome if you had other heroines on the way to assist you, as you would in real life, in this exercise you were on the villain's schedule, and this led to your loss. In the future, I would recommend trying to change the tempo of combat as a team instead of individual efforts, as that would have been much more effective than sending some ice or a ball into your teammate's conflict without communicating."

"And to all of you, congratulations! Whether you won or lost the rounds you participated in, I hope that this exercise gave you some insight into the areas where you could improve the usage of your quirk or your communication with your classmates. Now, unless your teacher has anything to say, you all are dismissed!"

After a few seconds of silence from Shiko, who had crawled back into her sleeping bag at some point, All Might packed up her things in a flash and hoisted the sleeping bag containing Aizawa over one shoulder. As a squawk of indignation sounded from the bag, All Might gave one of her signature smiles to the class. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go now. I'll see you all in a few days!"

With a flurry of yellow lightning, the two teachers disappeared from their spot, the doors hanging open behind them. The class, momentarily surprised at the reminder of how powerful their teacher truly was, made their way down the stairs and out to lunch.

It was quieter at the dining hall than it had been last night at dinner. Because of the way that different classes were scheduled, lunch was available for a span of nearly three hours with different classes coming and going at different times. While Katsumi was bemoaning the loss of her gauntlets, a train of thought began to form in Izuku's head.

'Katsumi needs new gauntlets.' True.

'Mei is the one assigned to make Katsumi's support gear.' True.

'If Mei has Katsumi there to test the gear as she makes it, then the gear will be better for it.' True.

'It is a good idea to introduce Katsumi and Mei to each other.' False.

Izuku sighed. 'It is better to involve Katsumi in the creation of her support gear than to leave her out of it.' True.

Once their conversation entered a lull of silence, Izuku asked a question that he was uneasy about. "Kacchan, would you like to come over to the labs this afternoon?"

Her smile in response was an odd mixture of predatory and caring. "I'd love to, Izuku."

Author's Note: Many thanks to my new beta reader, who goes by Wintersand on AO3.

Sorry if the ending of the chapter felt rushed, but I didn't want to drag this activity out for too long. All information about the Asura form is accurate to the best of my knowledge, but if I missed or misinterpreted something please let me know.

Here's the discord, join if you want to talk about anything related to this fic or fanfiction in general: discord. gg /8cVAg4rgyt (remove spaces)

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment or review if you have any questions or if there's anything you'd like me to know.