Chapter 18:
Meeting class 3A was as overwhelming as Noriko had expected it to be, and bless his heart, Midoriya did his best to help her. Bakugo on the other hand wasn't as helpful since his solution was to yell at everyone to back up and mind their own business. Noriko's automatic reaction to laugh at his antics had caught the attention of the majority of the class.
They hadn't expected her to be so nonchalant about his attitude, instead expecting her to cower away from him like most. Because of that, she was swarmed almost instantly. With a total of 20 of them, it was a little daunting to try and learn everyone's names as well as keep up with all the conversations going on.
Of course, a few people did stick out to her, specifically the Bakusquad. Noriko had snorted at the name but was amused that they willingly had named themselves that. Bakugo had also thought the name was stupid, but just grumbled under his breath when Kirishima and Kaminari explained that that's what they called themselves.
They also mentioned there was a Dekusquad, which Noriko hadn't really understood for a second, until she remembered Midoriya's hero name. She had only nodded her head slowly, blinking blankly at the energetic blonde that was Kaminari.
Bakugo had been the one to shut him up, pulling them all deeper into the festival where Noriko had seen one of her favorite booth games. She immediately made a beeline for it, the Bakusquad trailing after her.
It was a ring toss game, which she won easily, earning herself some praise from the group. Of course, Bakugo had snorted and made a comment that sparked the competitive side of her. And that was how the competition between the two of them started.
"Hey Nori-Chan, what's the score between you two now?" Noriko turned to face the pink hared girl, who she had quickly taken a liking to.
The entirety of Class 3A had been very welcoming, except the little one with the weird purple balls on his head. He had practically drooled on her hand when he had introduced himself. She had also had to kick him when he had gotten too close to her from behind and made a comment about her ass.
But it was Mina who had really stood out to her, from the moment Kirishima tried to do the introductions. He turned to introduce his girlfriend, AKA Mina, when she jumped forward practically dangling over his shoulder. Watching the excited pink girl smash her boyfriend's face as she balanced herself on him to talk to her, Noriko knew they'd be great friends.
"Tied." Noriko muttered with a slight pout, sending a dark look at Bakugo from the corner of her eye.
He returned the look, also not amused at the fact that they were both tied, and they were running out of booth games to play. Not to mention the booth workers had apparently spread the word about them, and many were wary of letting them play.
Noriko couldn't really blame them considering Bakugo had let off a few explosions the times he lost. Granted, she wasn't any better, having made the air around everyone crinkle with sparks when she lost.
"There's one more game left, it's a shooting game. This will truly be the tie breaker between the two of you!" Kirishima pointed out with enthusiasm.
He had been extremely amused with the competitiveness between Bakugo and Noriko, much to Bakugo's annoyance. At Bakugo's scoff, Kirishima turned to shoot him a sly smirk, knowing that his best bro was having fun despite the sour expression he was sporting.
The red head had been curious about meeting the girl that had caught Bakugo's attention since the angry blonde had first mentioned her. It had been years since he had expressed interest in anyone, especially when the first girl he ever had a crush ended up dating Midoriya.
Ochaco and Midoriya had confessed to each other right before the end of their first year and had been together since. At first Bakugo had taken it badly, seeing as another loss against his childhood rival. Eventually though, he got over it and forgot all about his little crush, being genuinely happy for his friends.
It was why seeing him genuinely so perplexed and interested in someone else had caught him by surprise. The last female to catch his attention had been Burnin' and that had been a temporary thing, one Bakugo didn't even have the desire to continue after a couple times.
Whatever he had felt back then, didn't compare to how he seemed now while playing these festival games with Imai-san. Even the way they interacted with each other, Kirishima could see a difference from what he had felt for Ochaco and Burnin'.
"Alright, Bakubitch, let's see if you can finally beat me at something." Noriko said, straightening up and handing over her plushies to Mina.
"I told you to stop calling me that, you damn midget!"
"And I told you to stop commenting on my height, you oversized manchild!"
"Do you want to die?!"
Bakugo stalked after Noriko, who was strutting off towards the shooting booth. Both oblivious to the entire class trailing after them, with a mix of amusement and disappointment.
"Life so isn't fair." Sero sighed, looking at Noriko longingly.
"How is it we finally get a hot transfer student and she's into Bakugo of all people." Mineta cried.
"Noriko is a lot like Kacchan, which is why they get each other so well. She doesn't back down from him or get intimidated by his outburst. He appreciates how she goes toe to toe with him, since not many people do." Midoriya commented, smiling down at Uraraka when she hugged his arm to her chest.
"I think it's wonderful that he found someone that compliments him so well. It's amazing how well they get along for knowing each other for such little time." She added, smiling at the couple approaching the booth, while arguing about who would go first.
"What the hell happened to ladies first, you ass?!"
"Fuck that, I'm going to go first so you can see how it's done!"
The booth employee sweat dropped, having heard them arguing long before they reached the booth. He opened his mouth to say something when Noriko fully turned to face him, leaning her hip against the table separating them. It was almost as if he suddenly forgot how to speak, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly.
"Ignore the angry Pomeranian," She started, completely oblivious to the man's current predicament, focusing on something a little behind him. "Can we go play against each other at the same time?" she continued pointing at a second toy rifle she had been eyeing since she approached.
"O-of course!" He scrambled to grab the gun and hold it out to her. "This is the one the employees use for demonstrations. It's old, so the trigger gets jammed up most times, the trick is to pull it like this."
The employee leaned over closer to Noriko to show her but was roughly shoved back, while an arm wrapped around her waist to pull her away. Bakugo set her down in front of the original toy rifle and glared at the guy.
"What the hell?!" Noriko snapped, hitting Bakugo in the arm after he let go but he didn't even so much as blink.
No longer looking at the beautiful girl, the booth employee was now face to face with a literal demon. Bakugo's red eyes were blazing, his jaw set hard. He started sweating, gulping nervously while clutching the toy gun harder to hide the trembling in his hands.
"I'll take that riffle." He snarled, snatching the toy gun from the terrified employee.
"Think taking the defective gun, you'll prove how much better you think you are?" Noriko huffed but picked up the one that was already set up for players.
"Doesn't matter what I use, I'll always win." Bakugo declared, his voice lowering and softening when he addressed her.
Noriko scoffed, taking on a perfect shooting stance. Bakugo followed suit, the remaining students from class 3A that had decided to stay with them, crowding around them. Kirishima and Mina were barely holding it together, both wanting to squeal in excitement from seeing their best friend act like a jealous boyfriend.
They moved quickly to stand on the other side of Bakugo, while Midoriya and Todoroki stood on Noriko's. Uraraka and Yaoyorozu were peering over their shoulders, also interested to see how this competition would end as well as curious about the two of them.
"Racoon eyes, count us in!"
"On the count of three!" Mina called out from behind them. "One! Two!-"
Before they could reach three, a terrifying animalistic screech rang out. Bakugo whirled around first, Noriko only tilting her head back to look in the direction it came from. At first, she didn't see anything, only saw everyone else facing the same direction, with varying looks of concern and determination on their faces.
But then the sound came again, forcing their eyes skyward, where they found the source of the disturbing noise. On top of one of the buildings stood a creature Noriko had only ever seen on TV before. It was a weird olive green/greyish color, with an exposed brain on the top of its head, which was the creatures signature look.
"Is that-?" Noriko trailed off, her mouth falling open in surprise.
"Nomu." Bakugo confirmed, stepping closer to her.
A strong burst of wind blew through the area they were in, blowing them back as well as loose articles throughout the fair. Automatically, Noriko lifted her arm to block the wind and any debris from hitting her face while simultaneously activating her quirk. She stilled the molecules in the air around them, which stopped the air pressure from pushing everyone in the vicinity back.
Dropping her arm, she looked around to see that she had also stopped a few things that had flown off the stands, leaving them suspended in the air. When she determined nothing would hurt anyone, she flicked her wrist to deactivate her quirk and let everything fall to the ground.
"Figures the one time I take a night off training, something like this would happen." Noriko sighed, facing the Nomu that had dropped down from the building to stand a few feet away from them.
"We have to evacuate the area before civilians get caught in the middle of all of this! And everyone keep an eye out for Toga, Dabi and Shigaraki! I wouldn't be surprised if they were close by." Midoriya called out, his entire body lighting up with a neon green light.
She watched in amazement as everyone shifted from carefree teenagers, to battle mode so easily. Majority of the group broke away to usher people out of the area, while Bakugo, Kirishima, Kaminari, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu and Uraraka stayed behind.
Noriko didn't want to run from the fight, though she knew she shouldn't stay. She was undecisive, until she heard a cry for help. Her head snapped to the side to see a little girl, no more than 5, cowering a few feet away from the creature.
Her cries caught its attention, his head snapping to lock on her little form, inciting louder cries from her. Making her mind up, Noriko held her arm out in front of her, she focused on the structure in her mind. Almost immediately, a crystal-like barrier formed between the creature and the little girl.
It was still pretty translucent, so it didn't block their view of each other, but it served as a protection barrier to give the little girl a chance to escape.
"This way!" Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Noriko called at the same time, waving to catch the little girls attention.
The little girl took off, as fast as her little legs could carry her, triggering the animals fight response. He slammed headfirst into the barrier, cracking it. It was as strong as a diamond, or at least it was supposed to be. At the rate things were going, it was going to crack.
Uraraka was the one to intercept the little girl, picking her up and floating away with her. "I'll take her to the evacuation zone and try to find her mom! You guys be safe!"
"Go with her!" Bakugo nudged Noriko back towards them.
"Absolutely not, I'm not running away like a coward!"
"You can't fight dumbass." Bakugo snapped, grabbing her around her waist when she took a step forward.
"The hell I can't!" Noriko growled, pulling his arm to try and pry it off her.
"You don't have a provisional license; you can only act in self-defense! If you really want to do something, go help the other extras evacuate the area and call the heroes to come pick up the trash. We'll handle it until then." He tossed her back easily.
Noriko grit her teeth but had to admit he had a point. She backed away and started to turn when the creature let out another howl, turning its body to face her. Startled, she took another step back, her jaw dropping when the creature took a step forward.
Bakugo set off an explosion to turn his attention to their group, but still the creature didn't take his eyes of Noriko. Confused, she took a couple steps to the side to bring more distance between her and the rest of the group. Again, the creature continued to trail her with his eyes.
"It's focused on Imai-san." Midoriya whispered, his own mouth hanging opening in shock, while Bakugo's jaw clenched.
"So does this mean I can fight now?" Noriko chuckled nervously, not taking her eyes off the creature. "I can't really head towards where everyone is evacuating if this thing got a hard on for me."
The creature let out another battle cry and charged straight for Noriko, catching them all off guard. Bakugo and Midoriya moved seconds after, Midoriya aiming for the creature and Bakugo getting in between it and Noriko.
Noriko noticed that despite the attacks on it, the creature didn't take his eyes off her, moving determinedly towards her. Not wanting to get caught with her back to a dead end, she jumped, using her quirk to propel her high into the air, just barely getting out of the way of the Nomu's claws.
Midoriya landed a solid kick to the Nomu's face, throwing it off course, and towards Todoroki who lit the right side of his body to attack. Noriko hovered in the air, looking down at the battle ensuring below her.
Bakugo was sending blasts after blasts to corner the Nomu farther into an open space where Todoroki could unleash his flames without worry of causing any destruction. Midoriya was helping him, but their hits were barely doing any damage.
Noriko knew from everything she heard that it was hard to take down one of these creatures. As it was, they were lucky these seemed to be a normal Nomu and not a high end. Looking around, determining that the area they were leading the Nomu too, was big enough for her to help.
She raised her hair, pointing it at the Nomu, and began concentrated on the area around it. She was careful about making sure only the molecules directly in contact with his body were being activated. She didn't to risk affecting the area around Bakugo and Midoriya as well. The creatures skin started sporting a weird sort of rash, which indicated that her quirk was working.
"Sniffles! Bakugo! Get back!" She shouted when the creature was fully in position and Todoroki moved in.
Turning to look back at her, Bakugo noticed her outstretched hand and put things together faster than Midoriya. He quickly snatched his friend by the back of his t-shirt and pulled him back with him, using his blasts to move them back faster.
The second Todoroki's flames hit the Nomu, a small explosion went off. Noriko clenched her jaw hard, bringing her other hand up to try and keep the blast contained within a 5-foot radius around the creature.
It took longer than she anticipated, having realized how much she had charged up the molecules to cause the explosion. She was struggling to get in enough oxygen into her lungs, feeling the full drawback of her quirk due to the overuse.
She hadn't dropped down from where she had been hovering in the air, needing the height to keep a good view of what she was doing. On top of that she had charged the molecules and was now trying to contain the blast.
Yeah, she was reaching her limit, the edges of her vision were blacking out. Sucking in as much air as she could, she pushed through the unease, allowing the flames to die down. Thankfully, the Nomu was lying face down on the ground, seemingly unconscious.
"Didn't I tell you to get the hell out of here?!" Looking down, she saw Bakugo's angry face glaring up at her.
"You're… welcome." She wheezed out with a weak glare of her own.
She started lowering herself down when another animalistic howl rang through the night. All their heads snapped over to look at the Nomu they thought was unconscious. Noriko frowned when she saw he hadn't moved, only to let out a startled scream when something slammed into her side, snatching her right out of the air.
"NORIKO!" She heard Bakugo yell from far away but was more focused on the giant creature that had grabbed her.
The creature was the same color as the other one, but this one was much lankier and had bat like wings that were carrying them away from the festival grounds. Its large hands were completely wrapped around her waist so tightly, she swore she felt a couple ribs crack.
The pressure of the hold did nothing to help her breathing problems, which would affect her ability to use her quirk. She cursed her quirks weakness, trying to think about how to get out of this. The only thing she could think of was allowing the crystallization to completely cover her hands in something like diamond gloves.
The jagged ends made sharp claws she used to claw its face in a desperate attempt to make it drop her. Unfortunately, all it did was piss it off and squeeze her tighter until she almost blacked out. Even so she didn't stop, not even feeling the weird dark red- almost black- colored blood dripping down on her. It wasn't until she finally lost conscious that her hands dropped back to her side and the creature let up to let her breathe.
Its mission was to bring Noriko back no matter what, the only condition being, she had to be alive.
*Meanwhile*
"You know, I have to admit," Hawks began, stretching his arms over his head, gazing down at the city lights from the edge he was standing on. "I do enjoy night shifts better."
"Is it because it's quieter or because everything just looks so much prettier with the city lights?" Akari asked, leaning her chin on the hand propped up on her knee, her other leg stretched out in front of her.
They were keeping watch from one of the tallest towers in the city, completely unbothered by the occasional strong gusts of wind. Hawks enhanced eyesight helps he keep an eye out from this height, but Akari had had to add a temporary tattoo onto her ankle to help her.
She had tatted the vision rune onto her ankle after the last time she went out on patrol with Hawks. It wasn't done with her the special tattoo ink, and instead just with a vial of her own blood, as she wasn't sure if she wanted to permanently add it yet.
Akari was highly selective with the tattoos she decided to permanently put on her body, as eventually she would run out of space for them.
"Yes, and yes!" He smiled back at her.
"Even so, I would have though you enjoyed daytime shift better. You know, because all your fans enjoy seeing you during the day."
"Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, little bird." He sighed wistfully.
"You're the number two hero Hawks, you've gone through the worst of judgments and faced the criticism of the public for so long. I can see how the confidence and support of people now may be overwhelming, but regardless, I don't think you'd get tired of it." Akari murmured thoughtfully, looking down at the crowed of people walking below them. "The fans crowding you and visibly supporting you again, means that despite the constant threat of the Paranormal army returning, people are finally relaxing and trusting heroes again."
"You always know exactly what to say to hit in the feels, Akari-san." He said softly, smiling to himself. "And you can call me Keigo."
Akari smiled at him, feeling something in her chest flutter at the invitation to call him by his given name. She went to respond when suddenly both their phones went off. Startled, they knew that it was an alert of a villain attack, since that was the only alert that would sound during their patrol hours.
"Oh my god." Akari's heart dropped when she read the notification.
She barely put her phone away before she was diving off the building while simultaneously activating her wings. A few feet from the ground, her wings unfolded and she was soaring through the streets trying to get to the festival grounds as fast as possible.
Please be okay, please be okay, was repeating in her mind nonstop.
"Akari-chan, wait!" Hawks called from behind her.
"No!" She snarled, without looking back, knowing she sounded completely unlike herself. "My baby sister is in danger, and she can't use her quirk to fight!"
"She can if it's in self-defense!"
"No, you don't get it." She looked back at Hawks, her eyes wild with fear. "She can't use it in a drawn-out fight without her support gear. Her oxygen levels drop, and she could pass out."
Understanding lit up Hawks face, and he doubled his efforts to go faster, hopping that Class 3A was able to hold the creature off until they got there. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder why the hell the Paranormal Army decided to attack now.
And why the festival, where Noriko Imai just so happened to be with UA's big three?
It was all too much of a coincidence, and his gut was screaming that she was the target. He hoped to everything he was wrong, or else Akari and Yaeko were going to lose their minds. And if that wasn't enough, the Hero Commission might start suspecting them of potentially trying to join the Paranormal Army.
As they got closer, they saw a large crowd of people being directed out of the area by some of class 3A. Hawks caught sight of his protégé, Tokoyami, and was going to approach him when they heard the loud howl and a piercing scream.
"Fuck!" Hawks yelled, following Akari closely when she took off in the direction it came from.