What Doesn't Kill Me

Chapter 35

-Aizawa-

"Damnit this isn't going to be pretty." Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose as he saw what the randomizer had spat out. At least he hoped it was a randomizer. It could have just as easily been Nezu getting bored and making pairs he found amusing.

"I already had Cementoss and Midnight rig up an emergency system in case any students get too 'invested' in this." Kan whispered back, gesturing to a button on the console "That releases a stored version of Midnight's quirk into the building. They go too far, and we can end it that way."

"And I wasn't told becaaaause?" Aizawa's eye twitched.

"You were napping during the meeting." Kan didn't even bat an eye as he threw Aizawa, and his sleep schedule, under the bus.

"Damnit. Fine, let's see what they do. Their planning period should be over now anyway." Aizawa looked at the screen to see the Hero pair of Midoriya and Yanagi entering the building.

The villains meanwhile had split off. Todoroki was encasing the room with the bomb in a bubble of Ice while Bakugo was taking off to try and fight Midoriya and Yanagi. He just hoped that was an agreed plan and not Bakugo being a lose canon.

"I see Midoriya's taking point." All Might said softly as they observed the screens, the students behind them doing the same.

"Makes sense with his quirk." Kan nodded, "Yanagi will probably use her quirk to control the capture tape. Let Midoriya be the wall while she uses her telekinesis to attack from any direction."

"She studied with Captain Celebrity, right?" All Might observed the telekinetic girl who had both of the hero team capture tape rolls.

"Yeah, I'm just glad she didn't pick up any bad habits from that idiot." Aizawa nodded, "What about Bakugo?"

"He's been…subdued since his return." Kan answered before glancing at the screens "Now notwithstanding of course. I don't know what Jeanist said or did, but the kid's been switching between raging at people and being in silent miserable contemplation."

"Think we should talk to him?" All Might frowned as he saw Bakugo reach Midoriya, the blond's red eyes blazing with too many emotions to count or discern from here.

"I'm already on it." Kan assured as Bakugo reached them, launching an explosion that was a great deal more controlled than he'd done in the beginning of the year. Even still it wasn't even close to being enough to damage Midoriya while transformed.

"Oh, she's certainly improved." All Might smirked, Aizawa following the blond oaf's eyes to see that Yanagi was manipulating the ground with her telekinesis, preparing traps for Bakugo to fall into while Midoriya focused on defense. The two were a terrifyingly efficient team already. Added to that, while Bakugo was focused on the mountain of grey muscle that was Midoriya, plus the traps opening up in the floor, he was unaware of the capture tape slithering out of the vents before it wrapped around his limbs.

"Bakugo is captured!" Aizawa called out as the blond went limp, eyes vacant and unseeing as he seemed to be struggling to process something. Aizawa hoped that Kan's conversation would be both soon and effective.

"How do you think they'll handle Todoroki?" All Might frowned, "I'm not even sure what that girl's upper limit is anymore."

"I-" Aizawa trailed off as the two students reached Todoroki's ice bubble. Yanagi was concentrating, hands held out towards the ice as it started to vibrate, cracking apart as she used her telekinesis to vibrate the construct. The ice continued to crack apart, broken pieces being caught and hurled at the walls to force a way through, Midoriya helping by punching the weakened ice.

"The report from Captain Celebrity stated that he didn't focus on practical hero work." Kan supplied, "He did some lectures on that but stated given his history he felt we were better to teach her that than he was. No, he spent that entire week putting her through quirk boot camp, like what we typically do during the summer session."

As the blood hero spoke, the ice broke apart as Midoriya charged in, drawing Todoroki's attention while Yanagi simply used her power to bring the bomb to her partner.

"HERO TEAM WINS!" All Might called out, "WELL DONE EVERYONE! Alright, next groups will be Hero team of Eijiro Kirishima and Setsuna Tokage against Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Mina Ashido as the villains!"

-Izuku-

Grinning, Izuku stood beside Reiko, something she'd insisted he stick to calling her just before their match started, looking at the screens where more of their friends were preparing to fight.

"Is it just me, or do those two seem to have something on their mind outside the fights?" Shinso frowned in confusion as they looked at the four on the screens.

"They're always plotting something." Izuku sighed in fond exasperation at his friends, Reiko nodding beside him as she shuffled closer. "You were talking to them before; do you know what they're planning?" he asked the white haired telekinetic.

"I might be in the know of the reason as to why our friends are exceptionally enthused for their current bout of combat." Reiko answered, "Although you shall have to wait and see as to what the exact reason is for yourself. I believe the term is 'spoilers', is it not?"

"Sassy little meme queen." Izuku grumbled as Reiko smiled happily and scooted until she was shoulder to shoulder to him. It made him feel happy although he wasn't sure why.

-Nezu-

"I shall await your arrival then." Nezu nodded as he finished the call, hanging up and finally letting out the frustration he felt. The phone was dropped back into its sealed drawer, that line now only going to be used in relation to his potential new 'ally', so he needed a new one.

"Nothing is ever easy." Nezu rubbed a hand down his face. At the very least, Re-Destro had agreed to come and parley, he'd even agreed to meet at UA itself. Nezu wasn't sure if that was a sign of good faith, a sign of Re-Destro being arrogant, or what. Either way, he'd agreed to have only himself and Aizawa in the room during negotiations. He'd hoped to get Tsukauchi and All Might but the first was shot down on behalf of being a cop and their deal technically being illegal as it was designed to undermine the government's current actions. All Might on the other hand would have been far too aggressive of a play. In return, Re-Destro agreed to bring two of his allies, Curious and Trumpet. Admittedly, Nezu had fun commenting their real names when Re-Destro had used their coded titles, but the man didn't seem as surprised after Nezu had openly showed he knew who Rikiya was.

"It's for my students." Nezu repeated his mantra to calm himself down. He knew this could end in either brilliance or disaster with no middle ground available and just prayed he made the right call.

"It's for my students and my country…pissing off the commission is just a bonus." The last part he let a bit of his sadistic smirk shine through. If nothing else, this would be interesting.

Turning to the screens that showed his current problem child, a phrase he'd never thought he'd adopt from Aizawa, Nezu noted that the match of the two hardening students along with their friends were fighting. The boys were having another slug fest while the girls were testing ability dodge against ability to hit a moving target with streams of acid. The match, in the end, was a draw but the girls seemed happy about it, telling something to the boys who seemed confused but nodded.

Most of the matches were nowhere near as dramatic as the interclass trainings typically were, but then again this was just the students showing off what they'd learned in their internships. Seeing young Kendo knock out her own partner when Monoma ended up grabbing somewhere he shouldn't have to copy Yaoyorozu's quirk in the scuffle was funny though. He did hope it was an accident but that was for their teachers to figure out.

One thing that did grab his attention was Young Ida cornering Ururaka as their match ended, seemingly pushing for something. The girl was confused, and very on guard at first, but after a bit seemed to wilt and relent. How strange.

As they returned, theirs being the final match, he saw Ururaka approaching Midoriya, gesturing to Ida who was staying behind as everyone else began filing out to change out of their costumes and head home for the day.

"Now what is this about?" Nezu steepled his fingers, needing to know.

-Izuku-

"Ururaka said you wanted to talk to me?" Izuku crossed his arms as he stood in front of Ida, the engine quirk user having somehow convinced his friend to pass along the message as the rest of the classes filled out of the room, leaving the two alone.

Ida took a deep breath before getting on his knees, forehead pressed to the ground, "I wished to offer my deepest apologies."

"…What?" Izuku blinked, this being the last thing he'd expected today. Well…second to last, Bakugo doing it was more unlikely.

"I was wrong." Ida was trembling and Izuku wasn't sure if it was from self-loathing or having to force out the words, "I treated you like scum. I looked for the worst in everything you did. But when I…when I almost spat on everything my family raised me to do, to believe, you still saved me anyway. I don't expect friendship, I don't expect forgiveness. But I have to make it clear that I am sorry, that I regret what I've done, and that I intend to change."

"I…stand up Ida." Izuku gave a tired and confused smile as he pulled the tall teen up, "I…we both could have handled things better before. And what you did wasn't…I've been through worse." It wasn't the time or place to get into his past school interactions, "I'm willing to burry the hatchet though, to start over if you are." Ida's grateful smile let Izuku know he did the right thing.