Beneath the Hero's Mask

Chapter 7

Class 1-A, with the addition of their homeroom teacher and Thirteen, were now inside the Unforeseen Simulation Joint.

"Is All-Might late again?" Mr. Aizawa asked.

Thirteen walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. The teacher rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else. The Space Hero proceeded to tell the students the importance of this exercise: to teach them about the responsible and safe usage of their Quirks.

When she was done, Eraserhead spoke. "Alright. Now that we're done with introductions, let's start—".

Out of nowhere, the lights of the facility dimmed. A dark purple cloud appeared on the ground level of the USJ, and from within, a large mass of people emerged. The teachers were immediately on high alert, the students did not understand what was happening.

"Wow, are those more robots? This rescue simulation is totally realistic."

"This isn't a simulation." Mr. Aizawa said. "Those are real Villains."

The kids gasped in horror; some started quivering, while others could still not believe the situation they found themselves in.

Eraserhead put on his goggles. "Thirteen, get the students out of here and alert the main campus. I'll hold them off while I can."

Ren saw the mob of Villains coming closer. They were too many to count, there was no way their teacher could take on all of them alone. He knew it was time to put his experience in Vigilantism to good use.

Thirteen started escorting the class back to the building's entrance atrium. Eraserhead dashed towards the villains, Ren following right behind him. The teacher stopped abruptly when he noticed the student in his heels.

"Stand back!"

"What?! There's no way I'll just sit back and watch. You know what I can do; let me help!"

"That's exactly why I need you to stay back. Protect your classmates." The teacher said. "That's an order."

Before he had a chance to protest, Eraserhead quickly descended down the stairs into the central plaza where the intruders had spawned.

A group of Villains surrounded the pro Hero; confident in their numbers advantage, they launched a simultaneous first attack with their quirks, only to find they were unable to use their power. Eraserhead took advantage of their initial shock to counterattack; he used his capturing weapon to bind one of his attackers before swinging him around to take out the rest.

Ren spectated in awe from a distance. He was aware of Eraserhead's reputation but seeing him fight with his own eyes confirmed it was not at all exaggerated. Nevertheless, his fighting style was not suited for drawn-out fights against many opponents, and he could only use his Erasure so much before needing to blink. Ren knew his teacher could not keep this up for much longer, he needed support. He decided to go in and took a step forward before something pulled him back.

"Amamiya. We have to leave now!"

Thirteen used a small burst of her quirk to drag Ren back into the group of students. He knew there was no point in struggling. Reluctantly, he acquiesced to the command.

Class 1-A started their retreat, but just shy of reaching the entrance, their path was blocked by the appearance of a dark purple mist.

"Greetings. We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but... today, we've come here to U.A. High School—this bastion of heroism...to end the life...of All-Might, the Symbol of Peace." A voice called from within the darkness. "Although, it appears there has been some sort of scheduling conflict. Wasn't he supposed to be here today? Well, I guess it makes little difference now; the show must go on."

Kirishima and Bakugo attempted a frontal assault to clear their escape route, causing a big cloud of smoke from Bakugo's explosion.

"You talk way too much, purple fart."

The smoke dissipated to reveal the hazy Villain still intact.

"I didn't expect any less from U.A. students. But you reckless children should be more careful, otherwise you might end up hurting someone." "Don't worry, I'll take you all somewhere where you won't be such a nuisance."

Dark clouds shot from the Villain's body to surround them. The mist started to converge until Class 1-A was completely swallowed by the darkness.

The next thing Ren felt was a forceful impact on his front side, followed by intense heat. He stood up and looked around to see he had landed face first in what appeared to be an urban area reminiscent of the backstreets of Tokyo. He discovered the source of the heat; the buildings and the streets were burning, as if a great fire got out of control and took over the whole city. A voice called from behind him.

"Are you alright?"

When he turned around, he found the voice belonged to one of his classmates, Fumikage Tokoyami.

"Yes, thank you." He answered. "Where the hell are we?"

"This appears to be the conflagration simulation area inside the USJ."

Ren took a moment to examine the flaming surroundings. "That smoke Villain transported us here. He must have some sort of warping Quirk"

"We should head back to the entrance and try to contact the U.A. staff."

Ren looked up and down his companion. "I don't suppose you can fly?"

Tokoyami responded with an unamused look.

"Sorry, it's just that the entrance is on the opposite end of the facility. We would have to cross the central area, that's where the Villains are. It's better if we go around to avoid fighting."

Ren knew that there were many talented kids in U.A., but none of them had fought any actual Villains before. This wasn't a mere training exercise; their lives were at stake here. The safest plan was to stay away from confrontations.

"Here they are. It's those wannabe-Hero kids. Let's get them."

Both of them looked to their side and saw a trio of rough looking men. Villains, without a doubt; and they were out for blood.

"It seems there's no avoiding this one..." He sighed.

Ren summoned his blade and gun and adopted a fighting stance. The slightest hint of a twinkle appeared in his eye; deep down he had missed the action of battle these past couple of weeks.

The Villains charged towards him with their own weapons in hand. He prepared to swing his blade when an enormous black arm crushed the attackers against a nearby wall.

Ren blinked for an instant. His eyes followed the trajectory of the arm back to its origin, Tokoyami.

"Nice one." He said, impressed by the power of Dark Shadow.

"There's more on the way."

Surely enough, there was an even bigger pack of thugs incoming. Ren gripped his mask.

"Milady!" He called upon the legendary femme fatale. "Triple Down!"

The Persona's dress opened up to reveal an arsenal of artillery, the centrepiece of it being two large gatling guns, which promptly started spinning to unleash a barrage of firepower on the Villain's frontline.

Tokoyami followed up by sending Dark Shadow to wreck the backline; one swipe of its claws was enough to take out most of them. The shadowy being then grabbed a hoodlum in each hand and proceeded to smash them against each other.

The low-level criminals were no threat for the two Heroes in training, especially one with as much combat experience as Ren, but their numbers replenished as fast as they were taken out.

Milady continued to decimate the enemy forces at same time as Ren scrimmaged with his own weapons. He made each one of his strikes count; each shot, each cut, a downed enemy. Tokoyami stayed behind, using his Quirk to fight off the villains. He opted for area attacks with the help of Black Shadow's shapeshifting ability to knock multiple thugs out at the same time. The dark entity slammed down its fist against the concrete to squash a Villain. When the fist was lifted, its victim laid flat on the ground. Tokoyami moved on to another target, but after he diverted his attention, the flattened Villain regained his original shape. He extended his legs out to an inhuman distance and walked over the Shadow monster; he apparently had a stretching Quirk. The villain thinned himself to sneak under Ren and go after Tokoyami, who stood defenceless in the rear. The attacker took out a knife and stretched his arm to stab him. The boy closed his eyes, preparing for his untimely demise.

"Tetrakarn!"

The blade stopped mere centimetres away from Tokoyami's neck. It collided with a translucid wall that shattered on impact, blowing the villain away and knocking him unconscious.

"I think that was the last of them." Ren said between pants. "Are you hurt?"

Tokoyami was in shock from his close encounter with death.

"I-I… You saved my life. I can't thank you enough." He managed to say. "He got away from my Dark Shadow and I just couldn't do anything. I just stood there, helpless… "

Ren put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know what you mean. Our Quirks are actually very similar. You can let someone else do the fighting for you while you don't have to move a muscle. Because of that, they excel at long range combat, but they leave you exposed in close quarters. That's why I use this." He said as he twirled his dagger on his hand. "I could teach you some hand-to-hand combat, if you're interested."

"I will gladly take you up on that offer… if we make it out of here."

Right, there was no time for idle chat. They were in the middle of a critical situation. Ren hoped Izuku and the rest of his classmates were safe.

"We should keep moving."

"Drop your weapons, hands where I can see them. And don't even think about using your Quirks or I'll off your friend here."

Yaoyorozu and Jiro followed the man's orders and raised their hands. After being warped form the entrance, the two girls and Kaminari had landed in USJ's Mountain Zone, where they were ambushed by a group of Villains. They successfully defended against them, but one managed to sneak through and take Kaminari hostage.

The pair were mentally chastising themselves for falling into the trap. The rest of the downed Villains were starting to stand back up; all their efforts were for nothing.

"I would really hate to kill your friend, so don't make me do it. If you want him to live, you'll have to—"

"Goemon! Mabufula!"

Out of the blue, a blizzard stormed the area. In a flash, all the thugs were left encased in solid ice.

"What the hell?! Is Todoroki here?" Jiro asked.

"Sorry to disappoint you, it's only us."

Ren responded as he and Tokoyami approached from a distance.

"You came just at the right time."

"I always arrive precisely when I'm meant to." Ren said with is characteristic overconfident tone. "Is any of you hurt?"

"Kaminari overloaded himself again, but other than that we're fine."

"I'm glad to hear that. Are you three the only ones here?"

"Yes. We appeared here after that purple mist monster trapped us. Then a bunch of Villains attacked us."

"I see. We landed in the Conflagration Zone. And similarly, we were attacked shortly after. "

The group glanced around to admire the newly-built Ice sculpture display, courtesy of Ren.

"Hardcore…" Jiro said under her breath.

"What's our next move?" Tokoyami asked.

"It seems our class was split and scattered around the USJ. And we have to assume the others have been confronted by Villains as well" Ren said. "Not all of our classmates have a Quirk suited for battle. You should try to find them and make sure they're safe. These intruders seem to be mostly low-level street Villains, but there are still too many of them. The best strategy is to group up."

Yaoyorozu appeared satisfied with the idea. "That seems like a sound plan—wait, us? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going back to the centre to help Mr. Aizawa."

"No, you can't go in alone! It's too dangerous!" She said with an unintentionally shaky voice.

She noticed her body was shivering, affected by the sudden shift in temperature brought by Goemon. She instinctively crossed her arms to try to conserve some body heat, then she felt a warm sensation on her shoulders.

She looked up to see Ren had taken off his coat and draped it over her to shield her from the cold.

"That outfit doesn't look very warm." He said with a playful smile.

She opened her mouth to thank him, but the words didn't come out. She was distracted by the realisation of Ren's coat-less look. He was now only hearing his grey vest, leaving his broad shoulders and toned arms exposed. His pale skin accentuated the striking red colour of his gloves. A deep blush took over her face.

When Jiro noticed her friend had been staring for far too long, she used one of her earphone jacks to nudge her in the back, snapping her out of her daze.

"S-sorry! I-I mean, yes.… thank you."

"Don't thank me, I have no intention of gifting it to you." His tone turned more serious. He looked at her firmly in the eyes. "I'll come back to get it. I promise, alright?"

The girl nodded to convey she understood the meaning of his words. She could tell that Ren Amamiya was not one to make empty promises. She saw the look of determination in his eyes and knew that he had already made up his mind. It was not a look one would expect form a high school student, but someone who had been to hell and back. Seeing him so full of conviction took away her worry. She wondered if Ren had always had that aura about him.

Ren gave her one last confident wink before taking off. The remaining quartet watched as he headed towards the central plaza. Once he was out of sight, the focus shifted to Yaoyorozu; the red hue had yet to leave her cheeks. She quickly shook her head clear and regained composure.

"Tokoyami, you two came from the Fire Zone and saw no one else from our class, right? Then we should move onto the next adjacent area, the Landslide Zone."

Tokoyami used Dark Shadow to carry the still indisposed Kaminari and started walking to the new destination.

Once the two girls were alone, a knowing grin took over Jiro's face. "Amamiya looks pretty good in a vest, doesn't he?" She teased.

"Let's go find the others!" Yaoyorozu tried to deflect the question before quickly hurrying to catch up with Tokoyami. Ren's coat was still dangling on her back.

Ren ran towards Eraserhead's last known position, swiftly taking out any Villains he came across on the way. When he finally reached the centre of the USJ, he saw his teacher laying on the ground, beaten and bleeding. He was being pinned down by a gigantic black monster that looked like a mutated body-builder; next to him stood the purple mist villain from before, as well as an unfamiliar man with greyish-blue hair and dishevelled appearance, he had several severed hands gripping different parts of his body.

Ren took cover behind a bush to avoid being spotted, then he activated his Third Eye to listen in on their conversation.

"Tomura Shigaraki"

"Kurogiri, did you kill Thirteen?"

"The Space Hero has been taken care of. But unfortunately, I was not able to warp all the kids; one of them managed to flee the facility."

Shigaraki was infuriated by the news. He started manically scratching himself. "Kurogiri… you fool." He said seething. "If you weren't our way out of here, I'd tear apart every single atom in your body."

Someone was able to get outside! That meant Ren only had to hold them back until the cavalry arrived. The best way to get the upper hand was to surprise them now that they were distracted.

"Zorro! Garudyne! "

The masked swordsman summoned a tempestuous gale that dissipated Kurogiri and sent Shigaraki flying back. The overgrown monster remained on top of Eraserhead, unphased by the air current. Ren fired his gun at it six times in quick succession, but the shots didn't even scratch the abomination's skin. They did however, serve to make it angry.

The monster pounced forward and landed fist first into the ground, leaving a crater where Ren would have been had he not dodged with a one-handed backflip. The attack didn't connect, but it did injected fear into his veins. Not only was that creature inhumanly strong, its speed was comparable to that of All-Might himself.

He sent Zorro to confront the creature. He delivered a continues assault of rapier slashes, wind magic, and even a Miracle Punch, but nothing had any effect on the monster. It responded to Zorro's offensive by throwing a single punch with meteoric strength. The Persona took most of the impact, but Ren could still feel the blow on his own body.

Ren dropped to one knee due to the unbearable pain. He started to panic; years of fighting petty crime and mid-grade Villains had made him overconfident in his abilities. He was no pro Hero, there was no way he could defeat this monster by himself.

That's when it occurred to him. It was a last resort; it would definitely drain all his remaining energy and hinder his fighting ability, but one and a half versus one was still better than one versus one.

Ren made Zorro back away from his opponent and turned to face the still unconscious Eraserhead.

"Samarecarm"

A pillar of green light shun over the pro Hero, restoring his vitality and healing his wounds before vanishing in a blue flash. He opened his eyes and rose to his feet. There were still visible marks of his injuries, but his body moved surely and unimpaired.

"That's going to leave a scar." Ren said.

"Never been one for vanity." Eraserhead said drily. "I feel fresh as a daisy, though. I assume I've got you to thank for that. I thought I told you to stay behind."

"Never been one for respecting authority." Ren replied. "In all seriousness, I used up all my juice to heal you; that means I can't call on my Personas anymore. We're gonna have to fight this one out the old-fashioned way." He said as he cracked his knuckles.

They turned to face the monster that was now running towards them. The two of them jumped out of the way and countered with a joint attack. They could not beat the creature with a frontal assault, but using Hit-and-run tactics they started to wear it out.

Eraserhead briskly maneuverer around the monster, evading its attacks while patiently entangling it in his scarf; he then pulled from the cloth to bind the colossus. Ren was quick to follow up by climbing on the creature's back and used all of his strength to stab its exposed brain with his dagger, bringing the beast down to its knees.

Mr. Aizawa and his student stepped back and a long exhale escaped their mouths.

"Piece of cake." Ren said sarcastically.

Their relief was short lived, for the monster slowly stood back up again. It reached its hand to its head, pulled the blade out, and dropped it on the ground.

"Son of a—"

"Nice try, though it will take a lot more than that to take out my Nomu…" Meanwhile, Shigaraki manifested from behind the monster, ready to join the fight.

The numerical advantage was no longer on their side, and both of them were already exhausted from fending off the black behemoth. This much was apparent for their only talking opponent.

"… now it's my turn."

Shigaraki dashed ahead with his hand extended aimed towards Ren, but before it could make contact, it collided with a pillar of ice. A cry of outrage from Shigaraki was followed by a deafening explosion that forced him to back away.

"Get out of my way, Tuxedo Mask. Let a real Hero do the work." Ren recognised the insult came from Bakugo's voice.

He looked around to find Todoroki, Bakugo and Kirishima had arrived in the nick of time to save them. Right behind them he also saw Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and Toru, as well as Izuku and Tsuyu… the whole class was there!

"Ren! There you are!" Toru exclaimed as she ran to Ren.

"Toru! I'm so happy you're okay. Is everyone from our class here?"

"Everyone but Ida, he managed to escape and went to get help."

"We went to find everyone else and rushed back here to support you." Yaoyorozu added. "Just making sure you kept your promise." She said as she handed him back his coat.

Ren took the coat in his hand and their eyes met. His heart warmed at the gesture; there was more he wanted to say, but their moment was interrupted by the sound of explosions.

Bakugo, Todoroki, and Kirishima jumped on the Nomu, using the combined power of their Quirks to keep him at bay.

"Stand back, kids. This is not a game." Eraserhead said while he fended off Shigaraki.

"As if we'd let you take all the action for yourself." Bakugo said.

Suddenly, the sound of far footsteps grew increasingly loud. From the distance, they saw a horde of Villains approaching them.

"Oh, no! They must have followed us here."

"There's nowhere to run now" Ren said. "We have no choice but to fight them head on."

While Mr. Aizawa fought Shigaraki and the trio took care of the Nomu, the rest of the class supported them by keeping the rest of the villains occupied. Once again, Ren's weapons appeared in his hands surrounded by blue fire, and Yaoyorozu crated a bō staff to wield.

Despite their lack of training, the students managed to handle most of the Villains thanks to raw power and teamwork. Nevertheless, they were still heavily outnumbered; each one of them would have to defeat over 5 villains to finish them all off. They needed to tip the scale in their favour somehow. Ren lamented having spent all of his energy, he could've used his Quirk to… An idea started forming in his head.

"Yaoyorozu, you can create any non-living thing, right?"

"That's correct, why?" She said as she hit a Villain in the crotch with her staff.

"I need you to make me a cup of coffee."

"What?! This isn't the time for—"

"Just trust me!"

She hesitated for a second, but there was no doubt in her mind that she did trust him; she created a helping of coffee served in an unnecessarily ostentatious ceramic cup and handed it to ren.

"Cover Me." Ren took the cup, swallowed its content in one large swig, and smashed it on a Villain's head. He felt the instant rush of caffeine and the new energy coursing through his body.

"Captain Kidd! Matarukaja!"

A red glow engulfed the students. Ren used the power of his persona to increase his classmates' strength. numbers. They all could feel the new power coursing their veins right away. Their punches hit harder and their Quirks were slightly enhanced. With this boost, they started to make a dent in the Villains' numbers.

The brawl went on; Ren and Yaoyorozu in the middle of it. They combined and synergized their movements to efficiently take out their opponents. Yaoyorozu extended her staff to trip a thug Ren had kicked towards her. She went to finish him, but a blur zoomed by and hit her on the side. She looked around to see where it came from when she felt another hit from behind. Her attacker finally stood still and she saw it was a Villain with rocket like protuberances on his elbows, he used them to propel himself at massive speed while riding roller-skates. Yaoyorozu tried to hit him, but he kept spinning around.

The criminal dashed into her, disrupting her balance and disarming her in the process. He charged a rocket-powered punch to finish her off, but Ren jumped in between them to take the blow for her. The hit took the air out of his lungs and the boy fell to the ground.

"Taking a punch for your girlfriend, how noble of you." The Villain rested a foot on Ren's chest and looked at him closely.

"Hey, I've seen you before..." He said "Yeah, I remember you, you bastard! About six months ago… I was just having fun robbing some banks, but then you came, beat me up, and left me for the police to find. You don't look so tough now, huh?"

Ren started hyperventilating. That was impossible! But he had fought too many Villains in during his vigilante days to remember this one specifically; he couldn't know for sure. No, there's no way this guy could have recognised him. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"You can't fool me, I'd recognise that ridiculous costume anywhere. You even had an equally ridiculous name. What was it again? Prankster? Jester? No…"

"… Joker."

The mention of his Vigilante name made Ren's blood freeze in a flash. For a moment, it seemed as if time had stopped. At last, the last piece of the puzzle fell into place for everyone in class 1-A. It finally made sense; the rumours at school, Ren's advanced experience over his peers, his eclectic elemental powers and mysterious past in Tokyo. It all lined up. Ren was the Vigilante admitted into U.A.'s hero course. He was Joker.

Ren was too stunned to do anything; his classmates were equally stupefied by the revelation. Before anyone could react, a loud bang echoed from the entrance, and the Villain collapsed unexpectedly.

"We are here!"

The variation of All-Might's signature catchphrase signalled the arrival of the teachers. Cementoss, Midnight, and even principal Nezu were there; Ida stood next to them.

"Hello, everyone. Sorry for the tardiness, but we came here as fast as we could. Let's go fellow teachers, our priority number one is to protect all of our students."

Snipe had used his homing bullets to take out a number of Villains while All-Might immediately jumped straight down into the fray.

"Don't worry kids, I'll take it from here." The number one hero said before lancing against the Nomu.

The monster absorbed the impact and retaliated with a hit of its own, which All-Might promptly blocked. The two of them engaged in an exchange of punches; the Nomu was resistant, but All-Might was slowly whittling away with his persevering assault. He eventually gathered the strength to deliver a devastating uppercut, sending the monster flying through the ceiling of the USJ.

The rest of the Villains realised the tables were turned and consequently panicked. Seeing the disarray in his forces, Shigaraki knew that the chances of success for their plan had been extinguished.

"All-Might's finally here, but he brought all the pros along with him… It's game over. Let's go home, Kurogiri."

The misty Villain obeyed the command and opened a warp gate to function as an escape route for Shigaraki.

As they entered the portal, the leader of the Villains said his final words to All-Might. "You might have won this battle, but know this, symbol of peace… Your days are numbered."

With the main bosses gone, the teachers easily took out the rest of the villains. The students sat back and let the pros take care of it.

"Sadly, the main perpetrators of this attack managed to escape. They caught us completely by surprise. For now, let's evacuate the students and call the police to arrest all this Villains."

Class 1-A started heading outside the USJ. Ren was still on the ground when he saw a familiar gloved hand helping him up.

"Ren, are you… are you okay?" Izuku asked.

Ren observed his friend as he took his helping hand. He had broken his other arm using his quirk during the fight. Once he was finally on his feet, he looked at Izuku in the eyes and saw that he was looking at him differently. He discerned a hint of worry, as well as sadness, but there was something else, something he could not decipher… could it have been fear?

Ren sighed. What he had feared since before his first day of class had finally transpired. People not seeing him Ren, but as Joker. The inability to escape his past.

"We should meet with the rest outside…"

The crossed the main gates of the USJ and were met with the sound of police sirens. Law enforcement had started loading in the apprehended Villains into vans, the students were waiting by the side for the officers to take their statement.

As Ren and Izuku walked towards the group, all eyes were fixated on the black-haired boy. One didn't need to be a medium to know what was on their minds. There was no doubt, everyone was looking at him differently, and they were all thinking the same thing.

They had survived a deadly encounter against the Villains, but trouble was far from over for Ren. His secret identity was finally out, and now it was time to deal with the consequences. He knew that hoping for a normal high school experience was too much to ask.