It was supposed to be standard search and rescue training.

That was what Yagi would whine to his fellow faculty after everything was all said and done. His colleagues, oddly enough, seemed more amused by the whole incident than anything, with Vlad King giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder and a somber smile while Midnight comforted him with a teasing tone and Present Mic just laughed. Eraserhead, meanwhile, looked like he wanted to drown himself in his own coffee mug.

Yagi had been informed ahead of time that Ground Beta had been used for hero training with the third years not too long ago, though exactly how long wasn't mentioned, as far as he could remember. Apparently, they'd been separated in teams of two and battled it out, and the fight got so intense that half of the grounds were annihilated. Consequently, the team playing the villains won the exercise by a landslide, but it left Ground Beta virtually unusable for a while.

According to Power Loader and Cementoss, there were still a few somewhat dilapidated structures scattered throughout the mock-city, but it was otherwise completely safe for training. So, Yagi had marched class 1-A out for rescue training with little to no concern for any particularly problematic tomfoolery.

The usual chaos was there, though, with young Iida attempting to regain order and round his classmates up while young Ojiro tried to stop young Hagakure from strangling young Mineta to death, young Midoriya and young Bakugou argued loudly about the practicality of Ms. Joke's quirk, and young Bakugou's friends caused general mayhem with phrases and movements that left him utterly clueless.

Next to Yagi, young Yaoyorozu watched her friends' shenanigans fondly. "I envy their energy, sometimes." she admitted.

"As do I." Yagi chuckled, voice chipper and smile serene.

The exercise was simple: One student hides somewhere in the city and randomly chooses what state of health they're in. The next student then has to search for them using equipment and clues that pro heroes have available on the field. Of course, once they were pros, they would also have access to emergency personnel and detectives to speed up the process and help when needed, but if the next generation was able to handle a situation where they're on their own, then just imagine how unstoppable they would be on the field with all the help they can get.

"Got 'em!" Hagakure squealed over the comms, marching proudly out of a shed near the outskirts of Ground Beta with Uraraka in her arms. "No injuries, huh? You made it too easy!"

"I thought it was a good spot..." Uraraka pouted, cheeks puffed up and arms crossed. Yagi just shook his head. He had such endearing students.

"Good work, you two!" Yagi praised through the intercoms, watching proudly from the Ground Beta control room. "Next team: Young Bakugou and young Kaminari. You will now approach the main gate."

"Yeaaaaah, it's our turn!" Young Kaminari exclaimed. "We're gonna kill it, Kacchan!"

The sound of a loud swat! rippled through the comms, young Kaminari letting out a loud shriek. "Let's just get this glorified game of hide-and-seek over with."

"Fine, be that way. Imma make all my limbs broken so you can carry me around bridal-style."

There was more yelling muddling up the comms, but Yagi ignored it as young Kaminari disappeared into Ground Beta in search of his rescue location. As this was a simulation, Yagi himself could watch where young Kaminari would be hiding while acting as a detective with only bits and pieces of information when interacting with young Bakugou. It was a fairly solid setup, with even Eraserhead giving him a thumbs-up.

Perhaps old dogs can learn new tricks.

Of course, that being said, Yagi was not unaware of the vague, uncomfortable roiling in his stomach that was sending goosebumps running up and down his arms and shivers along his spine.

He'd been dealing with this heroic sixth sense, this innate instinct for incoming danger for as long as he could remember, and as such, he'd learned a long time ago to never ignore when that feeling came creeping back, no matter how vague or weak it may be. Before he could fully take in anything that was happening in front of him, he was cataloging every possible threat or scenario that he could possibly think of.

A villain attack? Unstable structure? A hidden ailment? Emotional troubles or personal conflicts? Which students were in danger? Because they were currently separated into three different groups and being divided like so would only weaken their defenses.

It was troublesome.

"HOW!?" Young Kaminari's indignant shout yanked Yagi right out of his thoughts. "How did you find me already?! You never even called in!"

"'Cause you're a fucking idiot!" was the immediate response. "I knew you'd go for the most obvious spot!"

"How is this obvious!? This is buttfuck nowhere, you freak!"

"It's the most dilapidated building on the entire grounds, Drooly! What were you expecting? Paranoia? Blindness? Stupidity? You're hopeless!"

Pulled from his thoughts, Yagi scanned the scene. Young Bakugou was correct. Young Kaminari had somehow managed to wedge himself between two slanted concrete walls in one of the most damaged buildings within the area of Ground Beta that had been the most affected by the third years' most recent training exercise. It was a bit out of the way, fairly close to Yagi's station but quite a distance from Young Bakugou's starting point.

There was a spike of something foreboding somewhere in the back of his mind.

Blinking from his stupor, Yagi fumbled with the comms. "Excellent work, young Bakugou! Your efficiency never ceases to amaze me, though I would recommend that you please check in with the operator or whoever may be playing my role on the field more often. Communication is key for a successful mission."

"Yeah, Kacchan. Communication~" Young Kaminari chirped, gesturing widely.

Young Bakugou looked less than pleased. "I will toss you out that window, Sparky."

"Nah, you'd have points docked." Young Kaminari waved him off, before holding his arms out to him. "C'mon, man. My legs are broken. Carry me like a pretty princess!"

Young Bakugou wordlessly stared at him, and for a moment, Yagi feared that he might witness a murder before his student turned to the camera in the room, expression completely blank. "All Might, if I throw his ass out the window, will I still pass?"

His classmate actually paled at that. Yagi, meanwhile, only hesitated for a moment. "Er-, I would prefer if you didn't, young Bakugou."

His expressionless face twisted into a snarl, and for whatever reason, Yagi felt relief when he turned away, marching to his classmate and scooping him up into his arms without so much as a warning. Young Kaminari only flailed for a moment before fist-pumping with an excited cheer and squirming to get more comfortable.

It was so subtle that Yagi, even with his years of experience, almost missed it, but perhaps that was because Bakugou's eyes tended to have a natural sharpness to them. Right now, however, as he looked closer, they were even sharper, almost like a cornered animal, and it occurred to Yagi all at once that he may not be the only one feeling something off.

Which was good, he realized with a sigh, because if young Bakugou had been the one in danger, he wouldn't be feeling anything off, at least not to this extent. If that was the case, then it would be one of the other groups.

As if on cue, Yagi's phone pinged.

2:07PM

Young Midoriya: Something feels wrong. Is everything okay out there?

So young Midoriya could feel it, too, so he wasn't in danger, either. He didn't know about young Todoroki, but with all of this coming together, the most logical conclusion would be that the students in the most danger were the two pairs waiting by the entrance to Ground Beta for their respective turns.

2:08PM

Me: All is well for now, my boy. Just stay where you are and remain vigilant.

Now, Yagi may be a retired pro, and once the best of the best of the best, but that didn't mean he wasn't prone to mistakes. He was human, after all.

However, you would think that with his career and background, he wouldn't find himself realizing such a massive oversight as the one he'd made just a few moments ago, and it wouldn't even hit him until it was too late.

A loud shudder pierced through the comms, and Yagi was whirling back around to the screen so fast that his head was spinning. Back in Ground Beta, young Bakugou had paused at the sound, staring wide-eyed and ruefully at the ceiling as it creaked and groaned uncomfortably. Young Kaminari blinked up owlishly, understanding slower to dawn on him.

It was here that Yagi realized.

The hero sense does not sense when the user is in danger.

It will sense if someone with them is in the same danger.

"Don't." Young Bakugou warned, voice low like a growl. "Do not."

"I was really hoping I was the only one hearing that." Young Kaminari's voice rose in pitch as he spoke, and a loud groan of concrete giving way was the response he got.

Young Bakugou, true to form, reacted instantaneously, darting out of frame before Yagi could even blink. The veteran hero scrambled to change cameras, either met with empty rooms or the static of damaged equipment. Outside, his station was close enough to the action that he could actually hear the thunderous crashing as the building began to collapse with little warning.

The camera switched again, and Yagi finally spotted them, young Bakugou skidding into frame while young Kaminari screamed incoherently in his ear. The ash blonde was staring intently at the ceiling, eyes practically glowing with anger, and with one quick glance, he was nearly dropping his classmate as he charged a nearby window.

"I said I was throwing you out a fucking window!" Young Bakugou yelled. "Now, die!"

Young Kaminari screamed as he was launched out of frame, a wall of smoke swirling in the air before something caved and that camera too went to static.

Outside, the sound was enormous.

At first, Yagi was stone solid, unmoving as the truth of what just happened slowly dawned on him. He'd seen this before, a dark part of the back of his mind whispered, when his sense went so haywire that he'd become sick, when he'd asked Recovery Girl for a favor, when thousands were dead and the reaper came knocking.

And he was spurred into action.

Yagi raced out of the room and towards Ground Beta as fast as his battered body would allow. He could taste copper on his tongue, but he didn't dare let it slow him down as he burst through the door, immediately met with a wave of dust blocking out the sun.

Fanning at the air, Yagi lifted his shirt over his nose and dove in, his footsteps falling heavily as he ran towards where the building had fallen, where the boys were. There was something pounding against his chest, and it was only a moment later that he noticed his own panic.

Reign it in, he thought. You're the hero. You're the adult.

It was distant, but as the noise died down, the sound of yelling entered his awareness. He followed it like a moth to light, wading through the sea of dust that did nothing but make his eyes water.

He was met with a pile of concrete.

It wasn't even part of the building that had fallen. The whole thing had come down, as if it had imploded on itself. It was like if someone had knocked over a Jenga tower, just lightly nudged it until the whole thing toppled over. He knew Cementoss and Power Loader would never lie to him, and they had warned him to some degree, but if he didn't calm himself down, he just might have some choice words for them later.

Approaching the mound of debris, he spotted a figure clumsily scaling it, digging aimlessly as he searched the rubble. Making his way up, his old, abused body screaming in protest, Yagi found himself faced with an utterly panicked young Kaminari, staring back at him with wide, watery eyes and he shook in fear.

"I- I didn't see him-!" His breath hitched, and Yagi realized all at once that he'd never seen the young man this close to falling apart. "I didn't see him get out!"

And he went right back to digging, cutting his hands as he waded through the debris and pulled at blocks and boulders of concrete. A part of Yagi feared that he may destabilize the mound and cause something to cave in, but his mind was spinning too fast to say anything.

Instead, after sending a quick message to Nezu, he found himself wordlessly joining him.

Because that boy has been crushed by fallen structures before. He's been beaten and bruised, stabbed and impaled, kidnapped and restrained.

(He thinks about that sometimes.)

This boy's been through so much, starting with a villain Yagi himself had failed to secure going on to attempt murdering him by asphyxiation as his hero stood there and watched.

In the face of everything, in the face of bleeding out and captivity and attempted murder, this seemed like such a mundane occurrence in comparison.

And it was terrifying, because this could be what kills a student under his watch and he didn't even have time to brace for it.

And this boy...

Just...

Please, not this boy. Not the one he has yet to make up to. Not like this.

He needs time. Time to repay him for keeping his secret, for staying steadfast in his beliefs in Yagi's name, for trying.

He needed time to convince him that he'd never let his hero down. If anything, it was the other way around.

He needed-

He needed-!

A hand burst through the rubble, right in front of young Kaminari's face.

The electric blonde shrieked, leaping back and tumbling down the mound of concrete to the street. It was like watching a zombie dig themselves out of their own grave as the hand clawed at the debris, pushing away whatever it could before Yagi finally snapped out of his stupor and clambered up towards it.

It took more effort than it might have once upon a time to roll away a large slab of concrete, and then another hand appeared, shoving at another slab as young Kaminari climbed back up to them and started digging like a dog trying to bury a bone.

And then young Bakugou appeared, pushing his classmate out of the way as he pulled himself from the hole they'd made, from an air pocket that just so happened to be right up by the surface of the mound, and Yagi didn't miss the blood dripping from jagged cuts or the massive bruises that littered his face and arms. There was dust in his hair and tears in his costume, and his mask was nowhere to be seen.

But he was alive, he dared to think, as his student stood hunched over, breath ragged and eyes hidden under matted locks. He was standing.

Young Kaminari was hovering, hands shaking. "You good, dude?!" he asked, and his voice was shaking, too. "You scared the hell outta-...me..."

He watched in confusion as young Bakugou shoved right past him, as if he wasn't even there. He didn't acknowledge Yagi either as he stumbled down the mound to the street below. He paused for a long moment, and neither Yagi nor young Kaminari knew what to expect as the explosive teen inhaled deeply, deeper than Yagi had ever heard from anyone that he could remember.

The wordless, rage-filled scream he let out could have shaken the Earth. Yagi flinched back at the volume, young Kaminari falling back as if he'd been impacted, plugging his ears.

"This fun to you, hah!?" he suddenly shrieked at the sky. "You think you're hot shit!? 'Cause this is the fifth fucking time and I'm sick of your shit! You hear me?! Whichever one of you chucklefucks is up there getting a kick out of dropping fucking buildings on me! I'm still here, jackass, you get that!? Fuck you, bitch, you can't kill me!"

Yagi watched on in complete bafflement as his student continued to yell and curse at the cloudless sky above until he'd screamed himself hoarse and the vulgar words pouring out of his mouth held little to no comprehensible meaning. Somewhere behind him, whichever students had gotten there first were met by young Kaminari, who was insisting that everything was alright and that no one was seriously hurt.

Which was good, very good, because Eraserhead would have hunted him down otherwise. Sometimes, Yagi forgot that young Midoriya wasn't the only one among the underground hero's students that was referred to as 'problem child'.

Releasing a breath he'd never realized he was holding, Yagi leaned back against a sturdy wall and let himself stop and try to calm his racing heartbeat. At this rate, he was gonna drop dead from cardiac arrest one of these days, all because he'd saddled these boys up with the biggest secret in all of Japan and trouble seemed to always follow them like a bad smell.

Though this was ultimately his own fault, wasn't it?

And the worst part was that if he could go back to the moment he made that choice, when he'd risked that secret and Japan's sense of security with it to save two middle schoolers in an alleyway and gave one of them one of the most powerful quirks in recent history, he wouldn't change a thing.