Okay, I may have manually chosen who ended up on which team, but for the record, I completely randomized the matches with dice, from which team was a villain or hero to who they were up against and what order they went in. Things worked out far better than I could have hoped.
Also, please no one yell at me for Momo being uncomfortable in her hero costume. Sexual harassment is no laughing matter and it takes a lot longer to get over than you might think. I still struggle with an incident from over two years ago.
Enjoy!
Kyoka was going to fall asleep if this kept up for much longer. How was she supposed to keep track of the difference between a relative pronoun and a subject pronoun? It was only the second day of school for heaven's sake! English was stupid. And it had nothing to do with hero work anyway! (She chose to ignore the voice in the back of her head reminding her that most international heroes affairs were conducted in English anymore.)
In an effort to stay awake, Kyoka allowed one of her earphone jacks to wind downward and fit itself between a pair of the cracks in the floorboard. Instantly, about twenty heartbeats resounded through her body, creating a veritable tattoo of complex polyrhythms that had her smiling quietly and tapping a finger to the beat. Slowly, she expanded her awareness, taking note of the pencils scratching across paper, students shifting in their desks, that electric guy snickering about something on his phone under his breath, Present Mic's amplified voice asking them which of the example sentences on the board contained a mistake.
Then Kyoka heard something rather odd. A new voice, one that she didn't think she'd ever heard before, mumbling too quietly for anyone else to hear, "The relative pronoun is incorrect in the last one," a moment before Yaoyorozu raised her hand to say the same thing. Well, more or less. She said it in a much more formal manner than the mumbler. Not to mention she expanded the answer significantly. Even if she hadn't, it couldn't have been her; this other voice was male.
Curious, Kyoka cast a cautious glance around the room, wondering who it may have been. She'd heard most of the boys speak at some point. The only ones that she hadn't paid much attention to were that triangle-headed boy, the six-armed guy, and the one with wild indigo hair, all of whom sat towards the back.
Hm… she'd have to pay closer attention in the future.
By the time lunch ended, she'd marked off Shouji and… Shinsou? Yeah, Shinsou. The triangle-headed kid, Kouda, still hadn't said a word. He seemed to use sign language though, so maybe he just… couldn't talk? But in that case, who the heck had she heard speaking in English class?
"I AM HERE! COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A HERO!"
The entire class burst into excited squeals and whispers as All Might himself entered the room. So the rumors about him being a UA teacher were true after all.
He is one heck of an awkward teacher, though, Kyoka snickered to herself as he glanced over his notes with that iconic smile fixed into place.
They were starting off with a bang: battle training, and in costume, too! She was impressed that the support teams had churned them out so quickly, but then again they were professionals. She quite liked her own outfit; it had a distinctly punk rock vibe, and the speakers fitted to her legs were gonna be sick for weaponizing her quirk. The other girls didn't look half-bad either, although Yaoyorozu looked somewhat uncomfortable.
"Something wrong, Yaomomo?" Mina-as she'd insisted on being called-asked curiously, her head cocked to one side as she pulled her sleeveless, fur-collared jacket on over her vibrant jumpsuit.
"Oh. Y-Yes, I'm fine. Just feeling a little… exposed after the incident with Mineta," the other girl confessed, glancing over her own costume.
Kyoka could understand what she meant. The bright red leotard in her briefcase had been cut to leave her skin uncovered from stomach to throat, leaving only a thin band over her chest to keep her… er… assets in place. Otherwise she was only provided with a stiff yellow skirt-thing that hung low on her hips and left her legs bare from the upper thighs down, equipped with a small shelf for her to keep a book filled with chemical and mechanical processes that Kyoka couldn't have kept straight even if she'd wanted to. Frankly, she looked great, and the exposed skin was very much necessary for her quirk, but after being singled out by the class pervert so recently, it was probably a bit much.
"Yeah, I get that," Uraraka sighed. "Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable in my costume, too. It's a bit more skintight than I would have liked."
"Well, you could always request a change," Kyoka shrugged, pulling on her own leather jacket and smoothing out the collar. "Like Yaoyorozu, maybe you could ask for something more like a sports bra? It could cover your chest a bit more and still leave your stomach and back free to create."
"Yeah, and maybe shorts instead of the skirt?" Tsu-chan-as she'd insisted on being called-piped up, tilting her head to one side and resting her finger on her chin. "Or at least biker shorts to put underneath the skirt? Kero. But either way it's up to you."
Yaoyorozu smiled, a flicker of relief entering her dark eyes. "Thank you, Jirou-san, Tsu-chan. I'll consider it."
Kyoka shrugged again, but smiled just the same. When they'd first met, Yaoyorozu had seemed like your typical arrogant, slightly snooty rich girl, and the fact that she'd been accepted into UA on recommendation hadn't helped her case. But then the Mineta thing had happened and suddenly she'd been humanized, seeking support and friendship among the other girls and smiling with a genuity and gratitude that was frankly dazzling when they freely gave it. Since then, she'd quickly shown herself to be kind, too, offering to help anyone who wanted it during study hall and eagerly engaging them all in conversation during lunch, focusing far more on asking about their lives than telling them about her own. In a weird way, Kyoka was grateful to Mineta for that. If it hadn't been for him, she might not have become friends with Yaoyorozu so quickly.
Soon after that, they headed outside. The boys looked great too. Even Mr. Pikachu. Actually, she was a little surprised by how much his aesthetic complemented her own, all the way down to the leather jacket and cargo pants. She found herself wondering what kind of music he listened to as she turned her attention back to All Might.
"ALRIGHT, YA NEWBIES!" he boomed, fists planted on his hips in a power pose. "LET'S GET STARTED!"
The class was randomly split into six groups, mostly of threes, but there was one group of four. (She overheard All Might grumbling under his breath about how inconvenient it had been to have to split a class of nineteen instead of twenty into an even number of groups and smirked.) She herself ended up in Group A with Shinsou and Bakugou. Group B was Iida, Uraraka, and Tokoyami, C was Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Kirishima, D was Kouda, Satou, Ojirou, and Hagakure, E was Shouji, Aoyama, and Mina, and F was Tsu-chan, Pikachu, and Sero. Iida complained a bit about the randomness of the groupings, but Uraraka looked thoughtful.
"I mean, if you think about it," she pointed out slowly, "Heroes often have to team up with whoever arrives on the scene. They don't always have a choice of partners."
"Ah, I see," Iida mused, his voice muffled by his medieval-style helmet. "I understand! Please forgive my rudeness!"
"NO SWEAT!"
From there, the groups were to be randomly matched against each other as 'heroes' and 'villains', with the latter hiding and defending a fake nuke while the former tried to find and capture them. The groups had ten minutes to plan between exercises, then fifteen minutes to reach their objectives.
"Huh. So it's basically an expanded version of our entrance exam," Hagakure had commented to Shinsou. "Except, you know, not working alone and not going up against third years."
The first pairing pitched Group C as the heroes against Group E as the villains. The two groups were given ten minutes to strategize and otherwise prepare. In the meantime, Kyoka and the rest of the class followed All Might to an observation room lined with screens showing dozens of views of the building from a variety of angles. Together, they watched as Shouji carried the 'nuke' to the top floor, then, after a brief discussion, Aoyama was left behind as a defender while Ashido and Shouji rushed back to the ground floor. There, they watched as Shouji's extra arms transformed into extra sets of eyes and ears that waved through the air and Mina knelt down at the top of the first flight of stairs, pressing her hands to the floor. A moment later, smoke began to rise from the concrete.
"What's going on?" Pikachu frowned, glancing towards the group still strategizing outside.
Bakugou rolled his eyes. "She's setting traps, ya' idiot," he deadpanned. "Her quirk is Acid. Obviously they're going for a time game, using Pinky to keep them busy and Six Arms to keep a lookout while Laser Boy watches the weapon."
"VERY GOOD, BAKUGOU-SHOUNEN!" All Might beamed. "IT'S AN EXCELLENT STRATEGY, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF EACH GROUP MEMBER'S STRENGTHS! WHEN TIME ENDS IN TWO MINUTES, WE'LL SEE THE HEROES' RESPONSE!"
The 'heroes' response', at least initially, was to send Todoroki forward. The dual-toned boy laid one hand against the wall, and Kyoka and the rest of her classmates gaped as ice swept from his fingertips, rapidly encasing the entire building. Like, they could feel the cold from the observation room it was so intense. "T-TAKE NOTE OF T-TODOROKI-SHOUNEN'S T-TECHNIQUE, CLASS!" All Might called, shivering. "HE USED HIS POWER IN SUCH A W-WAY THAT IT WOULD HOPEFULLY N-NEUTRALIZE THE VILLAIN TEAM WITHOUT COMPROM-M-MISING THE WEAPON ITS-SELF!"
"Yeah, on most teams that would've worked," Bakugou agreed, pointing at the screen, "but against these guys…"
Kyoka quickly saw what Blasty meant by that. Mina's acid easily melted through Todoroki's ice, and she quickly freed Shouji as well. Aoyama had a harder time of it, but he could shoot lasers from his stomach, so he managed to get free, too. Still, the ice would slow them down, not to mention muffle sounds so that Shouji would be less effective at identifying the locations of their pursuers, so it wasn't like it had been a wasted strategy. The heroes walked through the front door, Kirishima in the lead and Todoroki at the rear, while Yaoyorozu walked between them, pulling a strange device right out of her stomach.
"What's that supposed to be?" Sero frowned now.
"It looks like one of those spy thingies in movies," Hagakure commented. "The hearing whatchamacallits."
"She's trying to figure out where the villains are!" Uraraka realized.
"THAT'S RIGHT, URARAKA-SHOUJO! IT'S A SMART MOVE! A HERO SHOULD ALWAYS GATHER AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE WHEN WALKING INTO A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SITUATION!"
Things progressed steadily from there. Mina and Shouji continued higher and higher through the building, the latter informing the former of the heroes' whereabouts, while they continued setting traps throughout the various hallways and stairwells. Mina got them good a couple of times, like at the first stairwell, where she weakened and carved away a portion of the cement so that it collapsed underneath them. Kirishima managed to quickly harden his hand, driving it into the cement to keep from falling before reaching back to try to catch Yaoyorozu's hand, but he missed, so Todoroki-who hadn't yet reached that portion of the staircase-had to catch her instead. But Todoroki's ice slowed the villains down, and almost ten minutes into the battle trial and on the third floor, Mina tried to get too ambitious-melting away an entire portion of the floor-allowing the heroes to catch up. Instantly, Todoroki stepped forward, ice flashing out from his right foot and immobilizing Shouji and Mina in seconds.
Mina tried to use her acid to free herself, but Kirishima got there before she could. Kyoka couldn't hear them from this distance, and their voices weren't projected on the screens, but she could tell that the pink-haired girl was yelling dramatically while the redhead wrapped her and Shouji in capture tape and let Todoroki and Yaoyorozu run ahead. Without any traps blocking their way, they reached Aoyama and the 'nuke' in no time. Another flash of ice and some tricky maneuvering from Yaoyorozu to avoid Aoyama's last-ditch attempt at firing his laser later, they had captured the weapon.
Kyoka's classmates cheered as All Might announced the hero team's victory. Kirishima used his Hardening to chip Shouji out while Mina just used her acid. Todoroki meanwhile stepped forward to press his left hand to the ice encasing Aoyama, and it instantly transformed into steam.
"Dang, that guy has two quirks?" Sero and Pikachu gaped.
"NEXT UP, THESE GUYS!" All Might announced, holding up Group D as the heroes, and Group B as the villains. Hagakure cheered, and Iida groaned.
"It may be for training," he sighed as he, Uraraka, and Tokoyami began to make their way towards the next building, "but it still pains me to be aligned with the villains."
This fight was considerably more one-sided than the last. Uraraka had the brilliant idea of making the nuke float, then wrapped the capture tape around it and had Tokoyami's Dark Shadow attach it to the building's outer wall, out of reach from any window and just too far down to grab from the roof. With that done, the three of them took up strategic positions around the building to spy on and ambush the hero team.
Iida took Kouda down first, since his ability to control animals made him an excellent spy, and they didn't want to risk him discovering the location of the bomb too soon. He was fast enough to zip in, snag him with the capture tape, and zip away again before the other heroes had a chance to react. After that, it was three on three.
Uraraka took down Satou, darting in when he and Ojirou split up to look for the weapon on the second floor. One touch, and he was floating up by the ceiling. Iida arrived a moment later with the capture tape, then he and Uraraka set off to look for Ojirou together.
Tokoyami found Hagakure trying to sneak up the stairs to the fourth floor. Or rather, Dark Shadow did. Honestly, Kyoka had lost track of her. She only found out later that she'd squeaked in surprise when Dark Shadow swooped overhead and that was the only reason she was caught.
Surprisingly, Ojirou gave them the most trouble. He managed to take Iida by surprise by leaping through the window of one of the rooms and bringing his tail down on the back of his head hard enough to give him a concussion before darting away again, seconds before Uraraka managed to tag him. Ojirou used his tail as a climbing tool, getting to the higher floors by climbing out the windows and skipping the stairs entirely, on top of which it meant that he very nearly captured the weapon before the villain team could get back to it. Fortunately however, Dark Shadow managed to get him around the waist and haul him back a few feet away from the paper mache nuke, holding him firm until Uraraka could float herself out the window and get him with the capture tape as well.
Uraraka threw up and very nearly passed out after that, but still grinned and managed a shaky, "Worth it!"
Then it was Kyoka's turn. Pikachu, Tsu-chan, and Sero as the villains, and her, Bakugou, and Shinsou as the heroes. It was an… odd dynamic, to say the least. Both of her teammates clearly didn't like interacting with people much, and even showed it in similar ways-clipped, sarcastic, abrasive comments and lots of grumbling under their breath. Unfortunately, the combination of two people like that on the same team was not a good one. The result? Jirou was forced into the awkward position of mediator.
"So, let's talk quirks!" she declared loudly, clapping her hands together in an effort to break off a glaring contest between the two boys. "Mine is called Earphone Jack. I can use these both for scouting, by plugging into a wall and listening to the vibrations, and offense, by plugging them into the stereos on my boots and amplifying my heartbeat. You guys?"
Lord Grumpy spoke first, sighing with a world-weary air. "My quirk is called Explosion. It's basically what it sounds like: I sweat somethin' like nitroglycerin and then fire explosions from the palms of my hands. I can use them to increase attack power or mobility. And I don't half-ass anything, especially a fight."
"My quirk is called Brainwashing. When I ask someone a question and they give a verbal response, I can control them. I can't force them to do anything that requires high brain functions, like speaking or writing, but I can get them to do just about anything else."
"Great. So what do we know about the villains' quirks?"
"As I recall, Asui's basically a frog. Sero has tape arms, and Kaminari is-"
"Basically Pikachu?" Kyoka smirked.
"Yeah," Shinsou agreed, the barest hint of a smile touching his lips while just Bakugou snorted. "Any idea what sorts of strategies they might use?"
"Not a clue," Grumpy shrugged, looking over the floorplan they'd been given of the building. "We don't know enough about their quirks. But I bet Jacks here could figure that out once we get started."
Kyoka nodded in agreement.
"Then what?"
"Like I said, I'm pretty combat-oriented. You don't look like you could throw a punch, but your quirk's useful. If you can control 'em, we can wrap everyone in capture tape pretty easy. Then I'll take care of anyone who wises up to how your quirk works."
"Sounds pretty solid to me."
"Yeah, alright," Shinsou agreed, and the plan was set.
Once the ten minutes were up, Kyoka and her teammates slipped carefully inside. Remembering the ambush that Iida pulled off, they snuck in through a window instead of going through the front. Shortly thereafter, Kyoka found a load-bearing wall and stuck in her jack. "Fourth floor," she murmured softly, "by the north-facing wall, maybe twenty-five or thirty meters from the staircase? Someone's defending, but moving carefully, like there are obstacles around him-maybe it's Sero setting traps? But then again, there's also someone near the front, hanging from the ceiling that's probably him, so they must have left Pikachu with the weapon instead." Mina and Shouji really set a precedent by splitting up from Aoyama.
"Are you sure it isn't the frog girl? Asui?"
"Yeah, Tsu-chan is by the stairs; she has a unique gait."
"Alright. Which punk do we destroy first?"
"Taking Asui would clear the stairs, but then we run the risk of Sero sneaking up on us."
"So we take Sero first?"
"Probably for the best."
"Alright. Let's go get Tape Arms," Blasty grinned fiercely.
Kyoka smiled, shaking her head slightly as she rose to her feet. Then she froze, pressing close to the wall again, her face contorted in concentration.
"Eh? Jacks? What's up?"
"That's odd," she muttered under her breath, ignoring him.
"What is?" Shinsou frowned, sizing up the wall as though it would tell him what she hadn't yet.
"There's… someone else," she said slowly.
"Someone else?"
"Yeah. I swear I heard them earlier in class, too. Somebody mumbling."
"Mumbling?" Lord Grumpy asked, his expression suddenly sharp and even fierce. "What kind of mumbling?"
"It's… not super clear. It's quiet and at a distance… I think they're near the stairs?"
"So what the frick is he saying?!" Blasty demanded.
"Calm down," Shinsou growled warningly. "You're going to give us away to the other team."
"Dammit, Bags, this is more important!" he snapped back, a flash of danger in his red eyes.
"'Bags'?"
"Jacks, what is he saying?!"
"U-Uh, something about… range?" Kyoka stuttered, taken aback by Bakugou's ferocity. "Uh, tongue extension? And… stealth? I-I don't know, it's too quick and quiet to tell details."
Bakugou released a shaky breath. He looked dazed. "I'll go check it out. You guys stay here."
"What? Bakugou, you can't just rush off and abandon the mission!"
"Mission? We're frickin' heroes Bags! If there's something happening during the test, then we need to know what's going on!" he snapped, and suddenly Kyoka and Shinsou both froze. He had a point. If someone had somehow infiltrated the test, then they could potentially be in serious danger. Evidently, All Might thought the same thing.
"Jirou-shoujo, I overheard the situation over your earpieces," All Might's voice sounded in their ears.
Thank God he had the foresight not to use the PA system, Kyoka thought.
"I need more details about the intruder's location. How close to the stairwell is he? Is Asui-shoujo in danger?"
"Um…" Kyoka frowned, closing her eyes in concentration. "Actually, judging by the few words I've been able to catch, he may be talking about Tsu-chan's quirk. I think… I think he might actually be watching her."
A heavy breath came through the comm system. Kyoka couldn't blame him. She was starting to feel pretty freaked out herself. What the hell was going on? "Bakugou-shounen. Shinsou-shounen. Get out of the building. I'll relate this information to the other team. Jirou-shoujo, I want you to stay where you are until everyone else is out, keeping a close eye on the intruder's position. Continue to share whatever information you can on him, but if you hear him getting close to you, get out. Understood?"
"Yes sir," Kyoka nodded, glancing towards her teammates. Shinsou nodded, but Bakugou looked downright revolutionary.
"I'm stayin'," he snarled.
"Bakugou-shounen-"
"I'm stayin'!" he snapped again. "There might be more of 'em, and Jacks is gonna need someone to watch her back, especially when we have no idea what their quirks are! And anyway, if this guy suddenly attacks Frog Face, we're gonna need someone on hand!"
"Bakugou-shounen, I can handle-"
"Don't be stupid! I'm already on site-you're not! And if you show up out of the blue, they'll know their operation's in the hole! We've gotta keep this on the down low until everyone's out!"
Kyoka stared at him. Did… Did Blasty just call All Might stupid?
"…Very well. But as soon as the building is cleared, you and Jirou-shoujo need to get out."
"In that case, I-"
"Don't even think about it, Bags," Bakugou growled, glowering at him. "We don't need any liabilities."
Shinsou's eyes narrowed. "What are you implying?" he hissed.
"Nothing like you're thinking," he rolled his eyes in turn, "but we have no idea how much he knows. If this guy's been watching us, then he might already know about your quirk. If that's the case, then face it: there's not much you can do. But even if he knows my quirk, even if he has a way to counter it, I can still fight."
Kyoka's eyes flicked back and forth between her two partners; it was like watching an especially intense battle between a pair of alpha dogs. She was a little surprised when Shinsou was the first to sigh. "Fine," he bit out. "Don't get yourselves killed, got it?"
"Tch. I told you already: I don't half-ass things."
Shinsou made his way back to the window they'd come in through, leaving Kyoka and Bakugou crouched by the wall. She could hear Sero leave, too, feel the vibration as he dropped to the floor and slipped out the front. Kaminari had a harder time of things, but judging by the route he was taking, it seemed he actually pulled a smart move and used Sero's tape like a rope to climb down to ground level instead of risking the stairwell. Asui moved more slowly, obviously trying not to alert the intruder that they were aware of his presence as she made her way higher into the building.
It seemed the only thing left to do was wait.
"Jirou-shoujo, be advised that the intruder may have some form of invisibility quirk. Asui-shoujo couldn't see any sign of him. Can you still hear him?"
"He's gone quiet," Kyoka replied, hoping that wasn't significant, "but I haven't heard any footsteps either, so he should still be in the same place."
"Understood. Keep listening."
"Yes sir."
Trying not to concern herself with it too much, she expanded her focus further outward, searching for anyone else but finding no one. Just Blasty, shifting restlessly behind her. True to his word, Bakugou watched her back, but she could tell there was something more going on. His reaction to the situation, his twitching fingers, the tightness in his jaw… not to mention the way his heart had leaped when she first told him about the mumbling and the way it was pounding as fast as a rabbit's even now.
With a slight grimace-she was going to regret this; she just knew it-Kyoka pulled out her earpiece. "Hey. Bakugou."
"What."
"What's really going on here?" she asked softly. Blasty didn't answer; he just tightened his jaw and glared at the floor. Kyoka glowered at him, narrowing her eyes. "Bakugou, come on. I know there's something more to this. Why did mumbling mean something to you?"
This time, Bakugou visibly grit his teeth, a flicker of pain passing through his eyes. "That's none of your business, Jacks," he growled. "Just focus on making sure there aren't any more of 'em."
Kyoka frowned, but she knew a losing battle when she saw one. Sighing quietly, she put the earpiece back in just in time to hear All Might declare, "Jirou-shoujo, Bakugou-shounen, your classmates have made it back. Get out of there now."
"Yes… sir?! Bakugou, what are you doing?!" Kyoka shout-whispered as the explosive boy took off running, headed directly towards the stairwell where the intruder had been. "Bakugou!"
"Jirou-shoujo! What happened!?"
"Bakugou's gone AWOL! He's headed towards the intruder! I'm going after him!" Kyoka replied, dashing after her classmate.
"Jirou-shoujo, stand down! Get outside; I'll take care of him! Jirou-shoujo!"
She took out the earpiece and shoved it in her pocket. Stupid move probably, but she needed to hear. Bakugou was easy to follow-his footsteps were heavy and his breathing was almost ragged-but the stranger was another matter. If she wanted to hear him over Bakugou's noise, then she really had to concentrate. On an impulse, she skid to a stop, slamming her earphone jack into the nearest wall.
"-'s up, Kurogiri. I'm gonna need pickup."
It was him. It was him, and he was asking for pickup. Pickup meant backup. "Bakugou!" Kyoka cried, redoubling her pace. Her classmate was still somehow headed directly towards him, as though drawn by some unstoppable force. Judging by the sound of things, he would be there any-
The sounds of Bakugou's movement stopped. It was almost as though he'd frozen in place. What did that mean?! Was he okay? Was it worth it to stop and check, or was he in imminent danger and needed her help!? She kept running, frantically trying to reach him before it was too late. Then all at once she rounded the corner and there he was, standing stock-still, every muscle coiled like a spring. After another meter, Kyoka saw the cause.
A boy stood at the other end of the hallway, tucked in the shadow of the stairwell. Behind him, even darker than the shadows, swirled a mass of purplish smoke, growing steadily bigger as though to invite him in. He was dressed in gray sweats and a black hoodie, but the hood was down so she could just make out a tanned face, curly dark hair, and emerald eyes. But what stood out most was the expression on the boy's face. It was as though he had somehow managed to combine shock, excitement, horror and longing all into one glance. Then, slowly, the light in his eyes darkened, turning dull and empty all at once.
"Well now," he murmured. "This isn't how I expected to see you again, Kacchan."
Kacchan? Kyoka frowned, glancing towards Bakugou.
She stiffened.
The look on the blond boy's face could only be described as stricken. His mouth moved, but he couldn't seem to summon his voice. Kyoka looked back to the greenette. As though sensing the movement, his eyes flashed over her briefly as well, but then returned to Bakugou.
A crash resounded through the building, as though a door had been knocked off its hinges, shortly followed by All Might's booming voice. "BAKUGOU-SHOUNEN! JIROU-SHOUJO!" he bellowed through the halls. Kyoka knew that she should shout back to him, alert him of their location, but she couldn't bring herself to break the tension sparking through the air.
The boy meanwhile sighed quietly, regret coloring the tone. "I suppose that's my cue." It was a soft voice, one that could be mistaken as timid if not for the look in his eye. He smiled, but there was something very grim in the gesture. "I'll be back," he promised, stepping towards the swirl of purple smoke.
"W-Wait," Bakugou gasped, finally regaining his ability to speak.
"BAKUGOU-SHOUNEN!" He'd gotten closer. Just a few halls away.
"See you 'round, Kacchan."
"JIROU-SHOUJO!"
"Izuku!"
The smoke closed around him, and the boy disappeared, leaving Bakugou with a hand stretched towards empty space just as All Might appeared around the corner. "Bakugou-shounen! Jirou-shoujo!" he sighed in obvious relief as he strode towards them. "What happened?"
Kyoka released a long, slow breath as she turned to face the number one hero. "That's what I'd like to know," she said shakily, glancing towards her classmate, her eyes narrowing. "Bakugou, what the hell was that!?"
"Did you see him?"
Kyoka blinked. That… was not what she'd expected him to say. "Come again?" Bakugou turned to her, and she took a half-step backwards when she saw something wild, almost manic in his eyes.
"Did you see him?!" he repeated harshly. "Did… Was he really… there?"
"The boy with the green hair you mean?" Kyoka frowned, and immediately heard two people catch their breath sharply. She glanced curiously at All Might, who was still grinning, but his eyes had blown wide, and every muscle in his body had grown stiff. Bakugou, by contrast, seemed to deflate, stumbling backward and slumping against the wall.
"He's real," the blonde mumbled, looking dazed. "I… I didn't imagine him. He's real."
Kyoka's concern grew at that, and even more so when a strange, choked laugh forced its way from the boy's throat, quickly followed by tears that he didn't even seem to notice.
"Bakugou-shounen?" All Might asked softly, stepping forward and placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Bakugou tensed briefly, but when he looked up, he wore a tired, crooked grin. "He's alive," he whispered. "Izuku's alive. And he said he's coming back."
And cue dramatic music!
What did y'all think?! What's going through Izuku's head right now?! What's going through Bakugou's head right now?! Heck, what's going through All Might's head right now?!
I'm always happy to respond to questions, just don't expect a straight answer. ;) Next chapter comes out May 11th, brought to you by Class 1-As resident gossip/match-maker. :D Until then! PLUS ULTRA!