"Team building with 1-A? Hardly sounds like good use of our time," Monoma said petulantly as Kendo dragged him towards the training grounds.

"It'll be fun, dude!" Tetsu said, bumping Monoma's shoulder gently with his fist. "You said you wanted to practice using new quirks, right? I bet if you ask, some of the people from 1-A would let you!"

"I don't need their quirks."

"Just try to play nice, okay?" Kendo said, releasing his arm as they got closer to the training grounds. "I don't want to have to pull you out of trouble."

"I'm hardly the one you need to worry about causing trouble. You should go warn off the villain girl," Monoma snapped, jerking his head towards Toga, who was trailing at the back of the class as they walked across the UA campus, Vlad King by her side. She was the only one in the class wearing her gym uniform, everyone else having dressed in their hero costumes.

Kendo glanced back at the other girl. "Do you think she'll ask one of us for blood to use for her quirk?"

"She's probably not allowed to," Tetsu said. "Like, what if she drank some of our blood and went into a frenzy or something? It's probably safest if she didn't have any blood."

"She's not a shark. She won't go into a blood frenzy."

"You don't know that. We're going to have to keep an eye on her if anyone gets hurt and is bleeding. Don't want her freaking out and hurting someone."

Monoma sneered. "If she can't control herself around a little blood, then she's even weaker than I thought."

As the class reached the observation room of the training grounds, they saw that 1-A was already there. Aizawa was standing off to the side, Deku hovering behind him. Toga rushed past 1-B and hurried over to his side, the two whispering to each other in hushed tones.

Monoma narrowed his eyes at the two and saw more than a few others in both hero classes doing the same. Everyone was thinking the same thing: what were those two planning?

Little did they know, Toga and Deku were simply babbling away about whether or not they could convince Vlad King to dress Captain up in little sweaters. Toga firmly believed they could beg Vlad into agreeing but Deku thought that they would need to bribe or barter. Aizawa, who was listening in, had to suppress the urge to smile.

All Might, in all his muscled glory, approached the gathered classes, Midnight at his side. He gave the hero course students a wide smile as he placed his fists on his hips.

"I am here! To teach you about the importance of teamwork!"

Both Deku and Toga flinched at his bellowing voice, which didn't go unnoticed by Midnight. She quickly stepped in, speaking in a quieter tone.

"You will all be put into teams of two. Two teams will be released into the training grounds at a time. There are three flags total hidden in the training grounds and the team with the most when time runs out wins. You can steal flags from the other team. Try to avoid outright fights with each other, but you can if it means stealing a flag. You have free use of your quirks and support gear. You need to work with your teammate on this, alright? No running off on your own."

Kaminari raised his hand. "Do we get to choose our teammate?"

"No, we will be drawing names to partner you off. Eraserhead, Vlad, we've got it covered from here if you want to head back."

The two teachers nodded. Aizawa pulled four small cylinders from his belt and handed two off to Deku and Toga. Toga cocked her head curiously while Deku frowned down at them.

"These aren't mine."

"No, they aren't," Aizawa said gruffly.

"Why can't I use mine?"

"Because I don't want you electrocuting anyone."

"So Discount Pikachu gets to shock people but I don't?"

"Hey!" Kaminari snapped, shooting Deku a dirty look.

"Kaminari, not now. Midoriya, your's are also made of carbon fiber and I don't much feel like watching you knock someone's brains out because you don't know how to use them properly."

Deku glared up at him. "I know how to use them just fine."

Toga pressed a button on one of the cylinders and it expanded into a full sized escrima stick. She looked at it, pouting.

"This isn't a knife," she whined. "I fight with knives."

"Not today, you don't."

She continued to pout as Deku shuffled off, pulling her along behind him. He grumbled the whole way about how he hated fighting with shitty gear. Aizawa watched as Deku tossed his backpack to the ground and sat down beside it, fiddling with the escrima sticks and inspecting them closely. With a sigh, Aizawa left, an unsettled feeling washing over him.

Midnight and All Might stepped back, still within view of the students, to draw the lots and determine the partners. The kids milled about, talking and laughing as they stretched in preparation for the game. Monoma was sitting with Kendo and Tetsu, though he wasn't listening to what they were saying. His eyes were fixed on the two villain transfers, watching them talk.

As Monoma watched, Deku reached into his backpack and pulled out a water bottle from the cafeteria. He drank down a few swallows before handing it to Toga, who downed the last of it. Then, as she turned back to Deku, he pushed up his sleeve and held his wrist out to her. In one swift move, she cut him with one of her fangs, just on the inside of his arm. Squeezing at the cut, she got the blood to bubble to the surface and track across Deku's skin. Quickly, she held the water bottle up to the dripping blood and let it flow into it.

Monoma let out a startled squawk, catching his friends' attention. When they turned to see what he was staring at, they both let out startled noises.

Kendo was on her feet and running over before any of them could say anything. Her sudden movement caught other's attention and caused them to look around. A few gasps went up when people from both classes saw what the villain kids were doing.

"What are you doing?!" Kendo asked shrilly, trying to grab Deku's arm from Toga.

Deku jerked away from Kendo, glaring at her. "Back off."

"You're bleeding!"

"No shit. She needs blood to use her quirk. So I'm giving her some."

Shinsou and Todoroki had both gotten to their feet and hurried over when they heard the ruckus. Todoroki was digging through one of the canisters on his belt to pull out gauze and medical tape.

"Aizawa-sensei leaves for two minutes and this is what happens," Shinsou grumbled. "Deku, let Todoroki bandage your arm."

"Fuck off, Mini-Eraser."

Kendo was looking green in the face as she watched the blood pooling in the bottom of the water bottle. "You're just going to give her your blood?"

"I've done it before. Not really a big deal."

"You're… You're giving her an edge in the game though. What if you get paired against her and she beats you?"

Deku raised an eyebrow at that. "Seriously? Is that all you guys worry about? Who wins and who is the best? I thought the point of being a hero is to save people. I don't see how that is a competition. Besides, you know damn well whoever she gets partnered with isn't going to give her their blood."

As he finished speaking, Toga pulled the bottle away from his arm and leaned down again, drawing her tongue across his skin. When she pulled away, the bleeding had slowed, turning sluggish. She turned and gave Kendo a smile.

"My saliva can slow and stop bleeding. Kinda the opposite of what bat's saliva does, but it works! It does have some pain killer in it, just like a bat's. And don't worry, this isn't too much blood. Deku-kun won't get sick or weak or anything and this isn't enough to be him for very long," she explained, putting the cap back on the water bottle.

"That can't be sanitary though."

Deku let out a loud snort. "Sanitary, that's funny."

"Yeah, my mouth is probably cleaner than most of the places we've lived. Remember that one warehouse by the fish market?" Toga giggled.

"Ugh, don't remind me."

Shinsou continued to frown. "Don't care. You're still going to let Todoroki wrap it."

Deku huffed but didn't fight, holding his arm out to Todoroki. He kept his eyes averted as the taller boy worked, spraying some antibacterial medication on it before applying gauze and tape. When he finished, Todoroki sat back, giving Deku a cautious look.

"Is it comfortable? Not too tight?"

"It's fine. Thanks, I guess," Deku grumbled. His expression had gone carefully blank, as though he had slipped on a mask. Todoroki gave him a nod as he stood back up, sending Shinsou a pointed look. Shinsou gave him the same look back.

Neither liked how emotionless Deku had suddenly become.

Midnight and All Might had turned to face the students again, catching their attention.

"We have the groups decided!" All Might said, his voice echoing across the vast space. "Please listen for your name and group number! Group 1 will be Kendo and Komori. Group 2 will be Midoriya and Sero. Group 3 is Kaminari and Tokage. Group 4 will be Todoroki and Bakugou."

All Might continued, listing off the groups, until he got to the last one.

"Finally, Group 20 will be Monoma and Toga. Please find your partner and sit with them. You are free to discuss strategy during the next five minutes while the flags are hidden. This will be your only time to plan. During the matches, I want you all to watch and learn from your classmates. On the screen behind me is the breakdown of the matches. Good luck!" All Might said before stepping away, the screen lighting up to detail the pairings.

Midnight was reviewing the screen and noticed something off right away.

Deku was paired against Bakugou.

Quickly stepping over to one of the computers, she started to log in so she could rearrange the matches.

"I want to go against Deku."

She looked up to find Bakugou standing in front of her, his face serious and eyes fixed on his feet.

"I don't think I can allow that."

"Besides Toga, I am the only other person here who knows him. I'm the only one who knows his limits. I know how to hurt him. But that also means I know how to not hurt him. If you pair him with anyone else, they are going to go all out. I'll hold back against him and I'll make sure IcyHot does the same," Bakugou said. "Deku is quirkless and he just got here. You might as well be signing his death certificate if you throw him in there against a different group."

She studied Bakugou for a moment, before turning to call over her shoulder. "Midoriya, could you come here for a moment?"

Deku jumped slightly from where he was sitting, startled out of his conversation with Toga. He looked past Midnight at the screen, to Bakugou, and then back to the screen again before nodding and making his way across the room.

"The randomized system paired your group with Bakugou's. Personally, I would rather not send you two in there against each other. I honestly don't think either of you should work on anything together for quite some time. I brought it up to Nezu already and he has stated since neither of you will tell us the extent of your past… disagreements, we can't really do anything to set boundaries for you both. So I am leaving it up to you, Midoriya, on whether you are comfortable being around Bakugou. Bakugou has shown concern about you being paired against another group, since some of the others in the hero course may be aggressive towards you due to your history with the League."

"He was aggressive towards me when he found out too," Deku mumbled, looking away from them both.

"I know, but from what I have seen, since those first few days, he hasn't done anything besides ask questions, though it has been in an aggressive manner. If he has done anything besides that, or does in the future, tell me and I'll take care of it. But for today, do you want to go against Bakugou's team or would you rather I change it?"

Deku paused, his frown deepening slightly as he thought. With a furrowed brow, he turned around and looked at the hero course students, who were all moving to stand with their partners. "Who am I working with?"

"Soy-sauce Face!" Bakugou shouted, making Deku flinch. "Raise your hand!"

"I have a name!" Sero shouted, though they still raised their hand.

Bakugou turned on his heel, glaring at Deku. "That's Sero. They have a tape quirk. Comes out of their elbows. If you watched the sports festival, you saw them."

Deku had his eyes fixed on Sero, who gave an awkward wave. Nodding, he turned back to Midnight. "I'll be fine going against Bakugou's group." With that, he marched off, gesturing for Sero to follow. Looking hesitant, Sero walked after him, rubbing awkwardly at the back of their neck.

The pair settled in a corner at the back of the room, away from everyone else.

Sero opened their mouth to say something, though they weren't sure what yet, only to be cut off.

"You can shoot your tape pretty far, right?" Deku asked, riffling in his backpack again.

"Oh, uh, yeah."

"And is it strong?"

"It's pretty strong, but not indestructible."

"I wouldn't expect it to be," Deku said, a grin forming on his face as he pulled something from the depths of his backpack. Holding it up, he revealed a small, folding multitool. "I know I'm not supposed to have this, but if you wait until after our turn to tattle on me to the teachers, I promise you we'll win."

Sero cocked their head curiously. After a pause, they nodded. "I'm morbidly curious, so sure. You've got a deal. Where'd you even get that?"

"Stole it from Aizawa's place. Now, here is my idea."

--

Monoma was pissed.

Not only was he paired up with a villain, he was paired up with Toga . Sure, neither of the villain kids had a quirk that was useful to copy, in Deku's case he had no quirk, but at least Deku was smart enough to listen to whatever plan Monoma came up with. Toga was batshit crazy. As soon as they got onto the training grounds, she'd probably take off. She was useless as a partner.

Stomping over, he jerked his head at her to follow him. Scrambling up, she ran after, trying to keep up with his long strides. They stopped by the wall, with only a few others near them.

"Listen closely," he snapped. "Do as I say, and maybe we won't fail. Think you can do that?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Good. Looks like we are first up, so we better be ready. You know how to fight?"

Toga nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I didn't have fancy lessons but I learned. I'm not as good with these stick things as I am with my knives, but I know how to use them since I helped with teaching Deku. I'm good at climbing, running, and jumping though. Makes me good at parkour. I taught Deku that too!"

"Do you ever stop talking about Deku?" Monoma snapped harshly. When he saw Toga's startled, slightly hurt face, he paused. She quickly schooled her expression. Monoma continued, "Listen, the plan is you stay where I can see you and you don't do anything stupid. We are up against Shoda and Ojiro. Both of them are good at hand to hand combat, so be ready. If you hurt them though, you'll have me to answer to, understood?"

"Shoda is the vice rep, right?

"Yes. Do you not pay attention?"

Looking away, she scuffed her foot on the ground. "No one has introduced themselves to me. I'm still trying to figure out names and quirks and stuff."

"Hell. Fine, Shoda's quirk is called Twin Impact. When he hits you, he can make a second, stronger impact hit where he just hit. Ojiro has a tail and is skilled in martial arts. Can your quirk do anything besides make you look like someone else?"

Toga shook her head. "Not that I know of. But I have some of Deku's blood here," she said, holding up the bottle.

"What good will that do us?"

"Well, Deku-kun is a little taller than me and has a bit more muscle. His reach will be better in a hand to hand fight and his muscles are stronger than mine, so if I am him, I can jump better, climb further, and hit harder. I know it won't trick any of them, but not everyone can have a fancy hero quirk like you and the others."

Monoma frowned. "Do you even know what my quirk is?"

She shook her head. "Something flashy and cool? I don't know. You're a hero kid, so you have to have something special," she said, her tone bitter. "Bet everyone thought you were really cool growing up, huh?"

"You really don't pay attention," Monoma chuckled darkly. "My quirk is called Copy. When I touch someone, I can copy their quirk for a few minutes. People hated me. Some still do, especially those 1-A bastards."

"Oh… so we're kinda alike."

"We are not alike," Monoma snarled. "You don't know anything about me."

"But I do. All the other kids on the playground avoided you, didn't they? Called you weird? Said you were creepy? Did they say you were destined to be a villain? Because that's what happened to me. Even my parents said that, just before they kicked me out on the streets."

Her words gave him pause. Because, in the end, she wasn't wrong. He had been treated like that growing up. The only difference was that he had his parents' love and support. They both were there for him, wiping his tears and bandaging his scraped knees. His dad would take him to the library nearly everyday to read about heroes and learn about quirks. His mom talked to him about strategy, and how to make a plan and see it through. When he told them he wanted to go to UA, they would take turns staying up all night, helping him to study and prepare for the entrance exam. They let him practice using their quirks so that he would know how to adapt quickly. He would work with them to lengthen the time he could hold onto the quirks, and he worked to hold onto more than one quirk at once. That didn't stop the kids at school from laughing at him, poking fun at him for not being able to be a hero without using someone else's power. They'd call him a thief, asking him when he would stop stealing quirks and start robbing banks.

So really, Toga was right. They were alike.

When it looked like he wasn't going to respond, Toga twisted the cap off the water bottle and raised it to her lips, about to guzzle down Deku's blood.

Monoma's hand came up, smacking the bottle to the floor. Blood spilled out on the floor, staining the tile red and splashing her shoes.

Her head whipped up to look at him, her fangs barred in anger. "What the hell was that for?!"

"We're going to prove them wrong."

"What?"

"All the people that said we'd never amount to anything. We're going to prove them wrong. We are going to prove that we can win regardless of what quirks we were blessed with. We're going to beat them without our quirks. With my planning skills, we'll be able to take them out. I know you've been pretending to be sane now, but you think you can bring out the crazy again?"

She pouted, glaring at him. "I'm not pretending. With my new diet, I've been doing better."

"Yes or no?"

"Ugh. Yes, I can act crazy."

Monoma smiled, looking slightly crazed with the way his pale blue eyes sparkled. "Perfect."