Ignited Spark

by 3PeopleInACoat

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero. But with the help of two girls, Izuku finds the inspiration to fight and become a true hero!

21. Pranks, Naked People and A Request

"Alright," Tensei nodded with a small sigh, watching as the bus slowly slid to a complete stop near the sidewalk and walking forward towards it, his head turning to look back at the rest of the waiting class, "the bus is here, guys - let's hop on."

Everyone that had been standing around the small bus terminal on the side of UA's main building, waiting for the vehicle that would take them to their rescue training, nodded as Tensei moved to get on the bus, althoguh not everyone was so quick to head over. Itsuka, for one, only let out a small sigh as she stood up from the bench she and Setsuna had been sharing, glancing around at her classmates as they walked slowly towards the bus so they could head to their destination - the USJ.

As it had turned out, their first Hero Basic Training lesson following the invasion of the USJ would be taking place at the USJ itself, in order to make up for the lesso nthat they had missed because of the villains who had attacked them. Of course, it seemed to not have been considered by the teachers that Class 1A probably wouldn't want ot see the USJ so soon after what had happened there. That tended to happen at places that they had nearly died in not four days ago.

So ... well, to say that everyone wasn't really looking forward to going back there so soon would be an understatement.

As she looked around, she could see the obvious reluctance on her classmates' faces as they moved towards the bus. Even Eijirou, manly guy as he was, seemed hesitant to jump onto the bus behind their teachers, watching as Aizawa awkwardly and stiffly got on after Tensei despite the substitute teacher's protests. So far, Katsuki was the only one who didn't seem as bothered, scoffing at everyone as he stomped over and got onto the bus after the teachers, while everyone else was attempting to muster their courage to follow him on.

Frowning, Itsuka looked around as she slowly made her way to the front of the class, patting Pony's arm on the way when she was looking more a little scared to get onto the bus, although Mezo was there to thankfully pat her other arm, prompting her to look up at him and see him creating a smile on his arm. Itsuka was at least thankful for that, smiling gratefully at the tall boy as she moved towards the vehicle. Putting her foot on the bottom step, she took a moment to pause, looking around at the clearly hesitant group that seemed to be either looking at the bus or the sky, as though watching for sudden storm clouds, and she gave them all a gentle smile.

"C'mon, guys," She encouraged them, making them all blink and look around at her as she put her hand down on the railing, "let's do this - no matter what, we're going to be fine."

It wasn't much to encourage them, of course, but it did seem to get a few people to slowly nod as they follow her into the bus, Momo stepping on after her and giving her a smile as they both took their own seats near the back. Soon, Mina, Yosetsu, Reiko, Tsuyu and Mezo got on as well, sitting down in various spots on the bus, and Tenya, Ochako, Hanta, Setsuna and Yui moved into their own seats, Ochako sitting beside Itsuka as the two girls smiled at each other, and Yui was quick to plant her butt in the seat next to Tenya, looking up at him expectedly while he sat down with a blush, which made Setsuna raise an eyebrow as she sat down on Tenya's other side.

Soon enough, the bus had been filled up with the students sitting together, with Katsuki being the sole one on his own as he put his foot up on the railing ahead of him, and stared out the window with a frown.

"Okay, so that's … everyone accounted for except for Izu- I mean, Midoriya," Itsuka finished her roll call, looking up at Tensei as he turned in his seat to look around, and let Aizawa stare out the window. "Uh - Ingenium-sensei, Midoriya is the only one who isn't here - should we -?"

"Here he comes." Aizawa's voice suddenly droned her out, which made the students in the bus quickly look around and out the windows (no one noticing Nejire quickly whipping around, her small disappointed look being instantly replaced with a smile) as they saw Izuku running out the doors, looking panicked and relieved that they hadn't left without him, and coming right behind him was a familiar teaching assistant dressed in a black bodysuit and a red cape fluttering behind him.

Itsuka and Ochako, watching their training partner approach from their seats, blinked at his appearance - he was just wearing his gym clothes, no Gauntlet (which was still being repaired at his apartment) and no hero costume in sight. Of course, they couldn't really judge seeing as they were in the same boat - the trio's costumes were still under repair at the support studios, and they themselves were getting ready for the sports festival (according to Power Loader when Itsuka had asked him at lunch) so at the moment they would have to be stuck in their gym clothes for their assignments.

Although they still felt a bit embarrassed - everyone else had chosen to suit up today, so not only did they look out of place in comparison to everyone else, they were matching.

"I - I'm sorry!" Izuku gasped as he jumped onto the bus, panting a bit as he looked around frantically at the teachers sitting in the front seats staring up at him, "The - uh - my thing - uh -"

"It's fine, Midoriya," Tensei grinned up at him, leaning back in his seat as he kept his helmet in his lap, "I'm just happy to see that you made it in time! I was just starting to think that you'd have to find another way to the USJ."

"Go get in your seat, Midoriya," Aizawa grunted as he looked back out the window, "so we can get going."

Izuku quickly nodded, moving back so Tenko could take his seat at the front of the bus (the teaching assistant panting as well and looking like he was barely resisting wiping his sweaty brow on his cape), and quickly began scanning the bus for any open seat. Unfortunately for him, since he was very late to the party, he was kind of limited in the places he could sit - and by 'kind of limited', he meant there was pretty much nowhere for him to sit. Momo was seated next to Kyouka, Tenya was sitting with Yui and Setsuna was sitting on his other side, Ochako and Itsuka were sitting together near the back, Eijirou was flashing him an apologetic look while sitting next with Denki, and Nejire was waving happily at him from her spot beside Tsuyu.

Nearly everyone else in the class was paired up as well, which meant that the only seat available to sit in was next to …

… uh oh.

Er …h-hey, Kacchan," Izuku gulped nervous as he slowly moved to sit down in the seat beside Katsuki, awkwardly staring at his feet and getting ready to jump up at a moment's notice. Katsuki, for his part, didn't even bother looking around at him, merely growling lowly under his breath and glaring out the window. Izuku still took that as a hint to not speak at all, continuing his staring contest with the floor while everyone around him winced in sympathy, and prayed that nothing would set off the living personification of dynamite as the bus began moving down the road towards the USJ.

In the back, both Itsuka and Ochako frowned at the sight of Izuku folding his hands awkwardly together, looking incredibly uncomfortable while Katsuki threw him a dirty look before looking back out the window. With a small exhale, Itsuka sat back a bit, glancing at Ochako out of the corner of her eye.

"So," She decided to throw out there, "on a scale of one to ten - do you think Izuku would change seats with me if I asked if he wanted to? Just so he can sit away from Bakugou."

"One to ten?" Ochako shrugged, glancing out the window and sighing, "Probably like ... a one or two. I don't think he would, he'd probably think it's something like - we're babying him, or whatever. Boys are kinda weird about - I don't know, pride or whatever."

"Yeah," She slowly nodded in agreement, pouting, "I just wish he was like - five minutes earlier. I would've taken one for the team if that meant he didn't have to sit next to Bakugou."

"Well, let's keep an eye on him anyway - I swear to god, the moment Bakugou starts his shit, I'm gonna jump over the seat to slug him in the face."

"Why wait?" Itsuka giggled, "Just go up and do it now."

"Nah, Ochako chortled, "I wanna keep my fingers for now - I don't want him biting me and giving me his rabies."

As they giggled together, Izuku awkwardly tapped his fingers together from his spot at the mid-section of the bus, not entirely sure what to say or if he should say anything at all as everyone started talking amongst turned in his seat slightly so he could look behind him at the back of the bus, seeing Itsuka and Ochako chuckling together briefly before they both glanced up at the same time, blinking when they saw him looking back at them.

Barely surpressing a squeak, Izuku went a bit red, and mouthed 'Sorry.'

Both girls raised eyebrows at how embarrassed he looked being caught looking at them, and giggled together, Ochako smiling at him and mouthing back, 'It's all good.'

Itsuka nodded as well, and then, after a moment, pointed over to where Katsuki was sitting, and mouthed, 'You okay there? Want to switch seats?'

Izuku blinked at that, taking a moment to turn back and glance at Katsuki as the other boy continued to glare out the window. Thinking for a moment, Izuku let out a small sigh, and looked back at them as he shook his head and mouthed back, 'I'm okay.'

Neither girl seemed quite convinced at that, glancing over at Katsuki as well before turning to each other, but they both still nodded and flashed him a thumbs up, although Itsuka was sure to point at Katsuki and punch a hand into her fist, a clear sign of what'll happen if he acted up.

Unable to suppress a small chuckle, Izuku nodded as well, and moved back to face forward in his seat with a small smile, trying to make himself comfortable.

"God, you're pathetic."

Izuku felt the smile on his face slip off at the voice coming from his right, and glanced around. Katsuki was still staring out the window as the bus moved throughout the school grounds, but there was a noticable scowl on his face as he crossed his arms, the grenade gauntlets he always wore tucked safely under his legs.

"H-huh?" Izuku felt his defenses raise slightly, glancing away from Katsuki before looking back, trying to awkwardly grin through what he knew was going to be an unpleasant conversation. "What was that, Kacchan?"

"What, you deaf now, nerd?" Katsuki huffed, narrowing his eyes slightly. "You. You're fucking insufferable. Every time something starts going wrong for you, you go running to those two. Honestly, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if you can't even go to the bathroom without holding their hands."

Well, the small, awkward smile that Izuku had been trying to keep on his face completely slipped off, and he turned to look at Katsuki properly in his seat, frowning. Before he could say anything, though, a small smirk appeared on the blonde boy's face.

"Maybe it's better I bring this up now," He let out a small chuckle, "seeing as they're both already moving on from you."

"... what?" Izuku blinked.

"What do you mean, 'what'? It's obvious, nerd. Those two do everything together now," Katsuki pointed out, still not looking at him at all as he smirked, "and the best part is that they do it all without you. They eat together, go home together, all that stupid stuff. Isn't it obvious? You're the third wheel."

That, for some reason, made Izuku's stomach tense slightly.

"You can keep trying to get their attention and make them dote on you, but eventually they're gonna forget about you and tell you to fuck off. Just like everyone else did back in middle school. I'm just surprised it took Round Face this long."

"Occhan -"

"But maybe I shouldn't be, though. She just didn't have any better options than you before we started high school."

Izuku felt himself falter at that, not exactly sure how to respond or where this was even coming from - since when did Katsuki know Itsuka and Ochako? Izuku thought that he hated them - but before he could think to ask, he heard the sound of foosteps coming up behind him, and a hand suddenly grabbed the back of his seat. Izuku quickly looked around to see Itsuka glaring down at Katsuki, with the boy turning slightly to give her a glare in turn.

"Everything good here?" She raised an eyebrow, clearly not in the mood to be cordial and just barely being so. "If Midoriya's bothering you, Bakugou, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if he and I switched seats."

"I - huh?" Izuku faltered briefly, glancing up at his friend while she spared a glance down at him, her expression softening slightly. However, before he could ask her what she was doing, Katsuki scoffed.

"Well, Deku?" He turned fully in his seat to look at him for the first time, giving him a smirk that made Izuku's lips thin and Itsuka's glare intensify at him. "You heard her. Your mommy said you don't have to sit with the mean kid anymore."

Izuku stared at him for a moment, taken aback slightly while Itsuka straightened up, her fist clenching at her side while everyone around them glanced at the interaction a bit fearfully - and then he let out a small breath, and looked back around at Itsuka.

"Thanks, Kendou," He smiled up at her, "but … I'll be fine."

Itsuka didn't look quite sure about that, glancing between him and Katsuki again as the other boy scoffed one more time and turned to look back out the window, but she knew better than to argue with Izuku about this. With a small sigh, she patted his shoulder one more time and began moving back down to her seat, moving carefully so she didn't trip, and sat back down beside Ochako, who had been looking between both boys in concern.

With a small sigh, Izuku leaned back in his seat, and looked back around at Katsuki. The scowling boy glanced back at him, and blinked at the small, unamused look on Izuku's face as he looked him right in the eye.

"Kacchan," Izuku crossed his own arms, "I … don't exactly know what your angle is here. I thought you didn't care about me or Occhan."

"I don't." Katsuki growled, looking back out the window as his arms tensed slightly, and he gritted his teeth. "It's you two fucks that keep messing with me."

"What?"

"I was supposed to be the first student from that little, insignificant school to go to UA." His glare intensified. "That was my fucking dream - I was supposed to be the first and only to go to UA, that was a part of my plan. And you and fucking Round Face tore my dreams to pieces. I told you two fucks to go literally anywhere else!"

"And we didn't." Izuku stared down at his feet, feeling himself begin to shake slightly - he had never talked back to Katsuki like this before, usually getting an explosion to the side of the head for standing up even slightly for himself, but there was no way he could let this go. "We both wanted to aim for UA, and that's what we did."

Katsuki stared blankly at him for a moment, his face twisting slightly for Izuku standing up for himself and Ochako - and then he let out a small chuckle and shook his head, turning to glare back out the window.

"Well … I guess that doesn't matter now," He shook his head, "I'm already over it. And now that I know Ginger's just a fake -"

"She's not a -!"

"- it'll just make it more pleasurable for me to crush all three of you at the same time." He turned back to look at Izuku, his red eyes meeting his for the first time, and Izuku faltered slightly at the cruel smirk on his former friend's face. "Everything that's happened to you three so far is just because of luck. Everyone can act like the sun shines out of Ginger's ass while they look down on me, just like you and Round Face did in middle school. I'll show them soon, though, that they should be looking at me."

"Kacchan, no one -"

"So just wait for the sports festival, nerd," He turned to look back out the window again, his hands clenching his biceps tightly, "and pray that you don't make it to the final round. So I don't fucking crush you on my way to the top."

Izuku wasn't quite sure how to respond to that 'implied' threat, so ultimately, he decided not to. He turned back in his seat so he could rest his head against the back of his seat, and let out a small sigh as he closed his eyes.

He was, of course, unaware of the few people in the bus looking at him and Katsuki, from Ochako and Itsuka sitting in the back and frowning, not sure what htey were talking about but knowing they weren't going to like it, to Nejire glancing around from her own seat near the front, her normally happy smile nowhere in sight as she stared right at Katsuki, to Eijirou who was glancing worriedly between his two friends. But no one in the bus noticed Aizawa glancing between both boys, the bandages around his face hiding his small frown.

Feeling his eyes narrow slightly, he glanced around at Tensei and Tenko sitting together on the opposite side of the bus, both men somehow doing as good a job of hiding their expressions as the guy with gauze wrapped around his face. It was clear that all three of them had been watching the small interaction between both boys, even if they had been speaking so quietly no one could hear what they were talking about - but the expressions on both boys' faces had been enough to alert the teachers that they weren't exactly talking about sunshine and butterflies. Letting out a small sigh, Aizawa leaned back slightly in his seat, closing his eyes and scowling under the bandages.

Honestly, Aizawa had mixed feelings about returning to the USJ so soon after the invasion. On the one hand, he knew that they needed to make up for the time they lost on Friday - rescue training was just as important as basic hero training, and it would hurt them in the long run if the teachers tried to baby them - but on the other hand, he had been the one most vocally against All Might's idea of 'testing' Class 1A during their lessons, if one of their teachers dressing up as a villain to try fighting with the class could be referred to as a test. Of course, the Number One Hero had raised enough good points to make him reconsider, with the understanding that All Might would be responsible for anything that would go wrong. Perhaps this could even be benefitial in bringing up any traumas the students were trying to hide, as much as Aizawa didn't like thinking about that.

But perhaps one of the bigger factors into why Aizawa had agreed to All Might's plan had been what they had discussed during their meeting yesterday as well …

"… excellent," Nezu had happily said as he sipped on his tea, looking around the meeting room filled with teachers as they read over the notes Tenko, Midnight and Hound Dog had made this morning, "so Tokoyami may need some additional quirk counselling after what happened with his sentient quirk … but if Yanagi did forgive him, we might have an easier time to help him understand his own issues. With that out of the way, we're moving onto Bakugou now, correct? I believe this almost finishes our reviews."

"That's right," Hound Dog nodded, crossing his arms, "just Bakugou, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu and Yanagi left to cover."

The teachers in the class nodded and flipped to the page that Tenko had written up this morning, Aizawa grumbling as Present Mic helpfully flipped his own copy for him, but perhaps he should just be thankful that Mic wasn't yelling his ear off about the spider incident this morning. The meeting had been called during their first break so that they could go over the analysis of Class 1A that the three teachers had conducted this morning, and cover any important notes that they might have to consider when moving forward. While all twenty students had been cleared to return to class this morning by the teachers who had spoken to them, Nezu still wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything they didn't consider while getting the students back on track after what had happened at the USJ.

So far, the meeting was going pretty smoothly, with Aizawa, Present Mic, Tenko, Midnight, Hound Dog, Tensei, Nezu, All Might (after arriving late, apologizing sheepishly and explaining that some students held him up), Cementoss, Snipe and Ectoplasm sitting down and discussing what they had all learned this morning. So far, there was nothing too serious to discuss - they confirmed that Setsuna had a few insecurities with her position as one of the recommended students, something that Aizawa knew would have to be coached out of her gradually, Pony was open to more sessions with Hound Dog, timidly admitting that she had a few problems sleeping the last few days, and Nejire … seriously needed some coaching with how to stay on topic and not go on tangents about random topics. That, and agreeing that, due to Midnight's teasing, this morning served as a reminder not to have her as one of their counselors ("Oh, please!" Midnight had protested, throwing her hands into the air. "They needed something to laugh about! So I teased them about finding their classmates attractive, they do it to each other all the time!").

And now, onto Katsuki.

"So Bakugou was cleared to return," Cementoss read through the notes with a raised eyebrow, or at least, with his block-ish forehead raising, "I have to say, this surprises me - I remember that you said something about keeping an eye on him, Aizawa."

"I did," The wrapped up teacher nodded, turning to look at Tenko as the young man flipped over to the student's page that he had written up this morning, "so, what do you think, Shimura? It's as I told you, isn't it?"

"You got that right," Tenko sighed, shaking his head as he frowned, "his was the quickest session I had today, but not for the reasons we wanted. He's anti-social, standoffish, and prideful to a fault. I asked him how he was feeling after what happened at the USJ and got quite the tongue-lashing in return. The only reason he got cleared to return to class is because you said it would be counterproductive to deny him."

"Mm-hm."

"And let's make one thing clear," Tenko turned to give the bandaged man a sharp look, "that is the only reason he's back in class right now. I would've wanted him to come back in for more sessions if his automatic reaction to people asking him if he was okay is to scream at them for looking down on him."

"I don't blame you for that," Aizawa sighed, "but Bakugou has a different response to his trauma than what would be considered normal."

"Which would make it more important to -"

"I do have a method here," The teacher leaned forward, sighing as the teachers around him looked to him and Tenko threw his hands in the air with a scowl, "from the first day in class, I pegged Bakugou as a potential problem child, and from what we read from the police statements Kaminari and Kirishima gave on Friday, I was correct."

"He refused to escape the zone they were trapped in," Snipe recalled, letting out a small grumble as he flipped through the pages of the report they had gotten after school on Friday, "insisted on stayin' to defeat the villains that were attackin' him. He only left when Yaoyorozu and Jirou came along to get him over to where the Consortium's leaders were."

"Normally, that's something we're used to dealing with," Present Mic grimaced slightly, "students with arrogance issues. But from what we read, Kirishima and Kaminari attempted to get him to flee with them when they had a chance to escape, but not only did he refuse, he scoffed at them."

"And from what I got from talking to Kirishima and Kaminari this morning," Midnight sighed, "neither of them were willing to leave him behind to face the villains alone."

"So he put his classmates in danger so he could prove he could win against a horde of Trigger villains?" Tensei balked, looking shocked. The other teachers knew what he was thinking - while his involvement in the Trigger case years ago wasn't as intimate as Aizawa's had been, there had still been quite a few villains infected with the drug that Tensei had faced, including them feeding a goddamn cat a vial, so he knew how dangerous one could be while on the quirk-enhancing serum.

Villains were dangerous, but under the right circumstances, could be brought down without much issue. Trigger-affected villains, on the other hand, were another breed of dangerous.

"Not to mention what you said you saw this morning, Tensei," Midnight continued on, "and his behavior after the argument on Friday, the one that you overheard. It's clear that there's an antagonism beginning to build between him and the rest of the class. From what I saw, he was crass and confrontational with Kendou in the group chat, and Midoriya and Uraraka didn't express any surprise at his reactions, indicating that they're used to that sort of behavior coming from him."

"I noticed his antagonism with Kendou," Aizawa nodded, "back during my tests, he kept glaring at her and looking pleased with himself whenever he outperformed her."

"Makes sense," Snipe nodded, "from what I remember, those two were the top students in the entrance exam - Kendou beat him by about six or so points. It makes sense with what we know Bakugou acts like - someone beats him at anything, he'll get competitive."

"Midoriya and Uraraka weren't surprised by his behavior …" Ectoplam looked over to Nezu, "... it's clear that there's a history there. Did your look into his records indicate anything, Principal?"

"Not much, unfortunately," Nezu chuckled as he tapped on his tablet, "from what I found, the teachers at Aldera Junior High called Bakugou a very talented and patient young man. Got along well with his classmates, attentive in class, was practically the star of their school. While with Midoriya and Uraraka, small notes about their performances in class and something about Uraraka getting into altercations with fellow classmates."

"And seeing as they called him 'patient' and 'gets along well with his classmates'," Mic scoffed, "we know that they're lying through their teeth about him."

"And from what I observed of Uraraka, she's a kind girl," Aizawa nodded, "albeit a bit hotheaded. So I would take what their middle school says about them with a grain of salt."

"That's not to say that Bakugou isn't talented," Nezu pointed out as he looked around the group of teachers, "from what little we've seen so far, he is rather skilled in combat, both from what we've seen in the battle trial and what we've gotten reported to us from the USJ, and his marks in the pop quizzes Aizawa has had have been high. It's more of his behavior that is the problem here - it's clear that from what we've seen of him that his pride is extremely high."

"That's definitely understating it."

"And what about Midoriya and Uraraka?" Ectoplasm leaned forward as Snipe and Hound Dog crossed their arms across their chests. "The three of them must've grown up together if they went to the same middle school and have addresses in Musutafu - they might have known each other since they were kids. What do you make of their relationship, if they have one?"

"They do seem to know each other," Nezu nodded, "and that is where this gets interestingly complex."

"How so?" Tensei leaned forward in his seat.

"On the one hand, from what little we saw of them together last week," Aizawa explained, "there's no love lost between Bakugou and Uraraka. The recordings we saw after the first battle trial between Midoriya, Hadou, Uraraka and Kendou showed Bakugou confronting them both - the sight of them being praised clearly made Bakugou angry, and Uraraka was giving him some rather dirty looks as well. They haven't said anything to each other yet, but it's clear that there's history between them - and I'd bet my sleeping bag that it's filled with bad blood."

"Okay … and on the other hand?"

"On the other hand, Midoriya's an interesting case in that we've barely seen him react to Bakugou," The wrapped up teacher narrowed his eyes beneath his wrappings, "Bakugou did charge him during my tests on the first day, and Midoriya's obviously wary of him. But unlike Uraraka or even Kendou, he doesn't show much reaction to Bakugou at all. It's a case where the antagonism is one-sided - but I'm not entirely sure what Midoriya feels for him. Does he dislike him? Is he scared of him? Does he ignore him? I'd say that Midoriya has thick skin, but I think we all know that isn't true in the slightest."

All Might, who had been quietly listening for the last few minutes, winced at that.

"I'm … apologies for backtracking a bit," Tenko raised his eyebrows as he glanced around at the other teachers, "but if Bakugou's having so many problems, I don't see why you insisted on having him return to class."

"No," Aizawa shook his head, "one thing we do know is that Bakugou isn't traumatized from what happened at the USJ, so we can't not approve him because of entirely different reasons. However, it's the fact that he clearly put his classmates in danger out of his own pride, and the behavior that he's shown thus far, that's making us realize that this is going to be a problem that we'll have to deal with sooner rather than later."

"To be honest," All Might finally spoke up, frowning, "there's a part of me that wishes that Young Bakugou had lost his match in the battle trial."

"That isn't something you should be saying about your student." Aizawa began to sharply reprimand, but All Might quickly raised his hand in order to continue.

"That's not what I meant, Aizawa," He clarified while the teachers looked around at him, "it's clear that from what we've observed of him that Young Bakugou is extremely prideful - and while there's nothing wrong with having pride in his abilities, it means that he has difficulties trusting others and making meaningful connections. When I didn't declare him the MVP of his match, he loudly protested. When Young Midoriya outperformed him in one of your tests, Young Bakugou charged him. And now we have Young Kirishima and Young Kaminari noting that he refused to leave the zone they had been trapped in until he defeated all the villains."

"Meaning …?"

"I've seen this behavior in heroes before," All Might frowned, "heroes that just started, and heroes that have been working for years. He's got something to prove, but he's taking the wrong lessons in what we're trying to teach him. Had he lost in the battle trial, perhaps he would've been given an outside perspective, and been given a chance to see that he isn't the top dog -"

"Hey." Hound Dog growled.

"Er - no offense, Hound Dog. Anyway, as I was saying - Young Bakugou instead won his match, and was furious when I didn't give him the praise that he thought he deserved. If he continues to succeed but doesn't get the results he desires, he may double down on his behavior."

"Not to mention the argument on Friday," Tensei sighed, "he made it clear that he blamed the rest of the class for the Villain Consortium's escape, and from what I saw this morning, it only alienated him from the class more - there was quite a few dirty looks being thrown his way."

"In that case, is it possible for us to wait for him to face consequences for his actions in the sports festival?" Ectoplasm threw out there, "There's always a challenge that has the students team up so they can proceed to the final round - Bakugou would have to see that his way of doing things is getting him nowhere if no one wanted to team up with him, right?"

"I wouldn't bet on that," Midnight disagreed, shaking her head, "the students are far more pragmatic than you would expect during those games. They would know to put aside their own differences to advance to the next round, so Bakugou shouldn't have any issues getting partners for whatever game we decide to do- albeit unwillingly."

"I agree with what All Might is saying," Nezu folded his paws together, "sooner or later, Bakugou will need a reality check - and we would much rather it happen in the safety of school rather than out in the field, or in front of several pro heroes."

"So what can we do, then?" All Might glanced around, "From the sound of things, at this rate the divide between Young Bakugou and the rest of his classmates will grow wider by the day. What can we do to make him stop considering his classmates as extras?"

"I … might have something in mind," Aizawa narrowed his eyes as he looked around at the pro hero sitting on the other side of the room, "since the students are heading back to the USJ tomorrow, and since I'm 'on bed rest' -"

"You are on bed rest," Present Mic rolled his eyes and scolded him, "stop over-stressing yourself and let Tensei handle things for a week."

"Never. Anyway, tomorrow's class will have to take place at the USJ, if they're all cleared to return." Aizawa glanced around, seeing everyone looking uncertain about that as he leaned back. "You all know that I have my own reservations, but like it or not, those kids will eventually have to come to terms about what happened there. If they don't want to go into the building, that's fine - we'll be having at least four teachers there, if no one wants to go in we can't make them. But eventually, they'll need rescue training, so we won't be able to baby them forever."

"That'll be a discussion for another time," Nezu sighed as he flipped the page, "for now, we'll put Bakugou on the backburner. We still have Midoriya, Yaoyorozu and Yanagi to discuss. Now then, Tenko - I believe you were the one who had the discussion with Midoriya this morning?"

"I did," Tenko nodded, a bit unsure as to whether or not they should stop their conversation about Katsuki but knowing that they needed to move on as he flipped through his notes, "and … well, he's doing a lot better than what we were expecting, but … well, he still has a few issues that we'll need to deal with. But speaking of that, Ectoplasm - I was wondering, would the Big Three be able to help me out with something tomorrow afternoon?"

"Hm … they're just getting back from their internships, so I was planning to take them to Ground Gamma for an exercise. What do you need Togata and Amajiki for?"

As the memory of what they had discussed played in his head, Aizawa found himself frowning as he leaned back, sighing and looking back out the window to see the USJ approaching in the distance. It was clear from their conversation about Katsuki yesterday that they had a lot of things to work on with him - but perhaps what All Might was planning today would shed some light on how they can approach the trouble child going forward.

Or perhaps, somehow a miracle would happen, and Katsuki would magically find the will to work with his classmates as a team.

Quite honestly, though, he doubted it.

---

"Hello, everyone," Thirteen opened her arms from where she stood outside the USJ, "I've been waiting for you all to get here."

Several people let out small cries of surprise and relief at the sight of their teacher, and Mina, Pony and Ochako quickly ran over to greet her, the pro hero letting out a small chuckle as she put her hand down on Pony's shoulder while she teared up. They had just arrived at the USJ, everyone slowly getting off the bus while keeping their eyes on the large oval building with their hearts thumping uncomfortably in their chests, but thankfully, the sight of Thirteen standing there waiting to greet them drove a lot of their small angsting out of their minds.

Now, most of Class 1A were standing just outside the large blue doors that would lead inside, with Tensei, Aizawa and Tenko moving to the front of the group to stand with Thirteen, with Izuku standing between Itsuka and Ochako while their classmates surrounded him - although no one noticed him subtly moving to the back of the group, glancing around as though looking for someone else to approach them.

"Alright guys," Tensei looked around the class standing before them, Thirteen moving back slightly so she could rub her shoulder absently, "so as we told you back before we got on the bus, today's lesson here will be covering both what you would've gone over last week, doing a tour of the facility, and then beginning your first proper lesson in hero training. Well … I know that a few of you got a look around after … well … yeah. But essentially, we just want to make sure you can do a few lessons in here before the sports festival."

There was a small silence, in which several people glanced uncertainty between each other, feeling their eyes flicker back to the large building. Nejire seemed oddly quiet, tapping her fingers together, Pony gulped and looked down at her hooves, and Yosetsu absently tightened the bandana around his forehead, but before anyone could think to speak up, Tenya raised his hand.

"Er … brother - I mean, Ingenium-sensei," He quickly corrected, which made Tensei chuckle as he looked over at him, "I … well, normally I would not question the actions of our teachers -"

"But you're going to anyway?" Tensei raised his eyebrow, which made Tenya freeze in shock, before he laughed and shook his head, "I'm just kidding, Tenya, go ahead. What's up?"

"Er - of course. I - I mean no offense when I ask this, of course, but - well - are you sure that a lesson here at this time would be the best course of action? I realize that I don't exactly speak on behalf of the class, but …"

He trailed off at that, not entirely sure whether or not to continue that line of thought, but thankfully it didn't seem like he had to, what with everyone awkwardly not looking at each other, or tapping their fingers together, or in the case of Katsuki, looking absolutely bored. Aizawa let out a small sigh as he took a step forward, walking a bit stiffly forward.

"We acknowledge that what happened on Friday would make you all hesitant to be here, much less go inside," He looked around the group, from Nejire glancing at the round building while gulping, to Ochako patting Izuku's shoulder, to Fumikage and Reiko standing together while Dark Shadow nervously played with Fumikage's hair, "part of the reason why we spoke with you all individually yesterday was not only to gauge how you were feeling after last week. It was also to test if you were all mentally ready to come back here."

"B-but …" Pony gulped, glancing around at the clear blue skies as though expecting a dark cloud to suddenly appear, and Aizawa looked around at the small girl. It was impossible to know what he was thinking with the bandages wrapped around his face, but his voice, when he spoke back up, was a tad bit softer.

"Like it or not," He said in a quiet voice, "you will need the training we do here at the USJ to become heroes. If you really don't want to go in today, we can't make you - I'm sure one of the teachers here will be happy to stay outside with you. But keep in mind that missing any lessons today may not be covered again down the line. In any case, time is valuable, and we can't waste it. Make a decision if you're going inside or not, and let's go."

"Aizawa …" Tensei groaned at his utter lack of empathy - he had started off so comforting, too - but alas, Aizawa had already turned to begin awkwardly walking towards the facility. With a small sigh, the speed hero turned to look back at the rest of the class, giving them a sympathetic smile.

"Don't mind him," He comforted the teenagers, "he's just … well, I'm sure that Aizawa has a big 'do as I say, not as I do' thing going on - he wasn't quite looking forward to coming back here so soon either."

"Watch it, Iida." Aizawa grumbled as he moved through the doors and into the facility.

"Anyway, guys," Tensei turned to follow Aizawa in, still smiling kindly at the students behind him, "as Aizawa mentioned, if any of you don't want to head in with us, we can have a teacher stay outside with you. For those who -"

"Oh, for fucks' sakes," Katsuki growled, stomping forward from where he had standing outside the group and making the entire class blink in surprise as he threw them a dirty look, "stop being such fucking pussies and let's get this over with. This class is already a waste of my fucking time as it is."

"Bakugou, I must protest!" Tenya reprimanded, chopping his arm and quickly moving to follow him inside, Katsuki gritting his teeth tightly in annoyance - it was pretty clear that the blonde boy didn't like Tenya, especially after yesterday's interesting morning where he attempted to lecture Katsuki on how to address his classmates in the group chat. "You shouldn't be looking down on certain parts of your education! Learning how to rescue civilians is just as important as learning how to defeat villains, and it would be unwise of you to not care to educate yourself on -"

"Shut the fuck up!"

Letting out her own sigh at the sound of the two boys arguing fading away as they entered the USJ, Itsuka glanced over at Izuku and Ochako as they both likewise stared up about the building, clearly hesitant about heading in. Not that she could blame either of them - Itsuka was pretty sure that they were both feeling the same way she was. Not a few days ago they were in there, fighting for their lives, and Izuku nearly ended up dying, and they were supposed to … what, go on in and pretend it didn't happen?

No, she quickly shook her head as she tried to concentrate on something else - forcing herself to think about what they had gone through with the hooded man would only lead her down to some pretty bad thoughts. She just needed to concentrate on the here and now. And that meant that she had to lead everyone else inside.

However, before she could turn to ask Izuku and Ochako if they wanted to follow her in, she blinked as Izuku suddenly straightened his shoulders, continuing to look … weirdly nervous, for some reason, but before she could ask him if he was okay, he suddenly moved forward, everyone looking around in surprise as he began strolling through the large blue doors of the USJ without a moment's hesitation, although the way he stiffly walked indicated how nervous he must've been feeling at the moment.

Staring after him in shock, Itsuka turned to share a confused glance with Ochako, who was likewise looking taken aback by Izuku's sudden movement into the USJ.

"So, uh …" Itsuka faltered for a moment, before she shrugged and gestured with her head towards the doors, "... you wanna head in with me?"

"H-huh? Oh, uh -" Ochako blinked, realizing what she was talking about, and let out her own sigh as she absently bit her lip, "- I - I guess. Yeah, let's … let's go."

"It'll be fine," Itsuka comforted her as they began walking in together, seeing the worried look on Ochako's face and trying to smile as kindly as she could, aware of everyone behind them likewise began moving, "we've got Ingenium here just in case anything goes wrong. We'll be okay - just stick close to me, okay?"

"R-right," Ochako nodded stiffly, moving through the doors with her, "we'll - yeah."

"Hey, hey!" A voice came behind them, and they looked around to see Nejire hurrying forward to walk with them, folding her hands behind her back as she gave them a curious look, "I was actually wondering, where do you think Midoriya went during lunch? I know he got pulled away right when the bell rung, but he almost missed the bus! Do you think he's in trouble?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I don't think so," Itsuka shook her head, but she still bit her lip a little bit as they walked into the USJ, seeing Aizawa, Tensei, Katsuki, Tenya and Izuku standing near the stairs and waiting for them, "if he was in trouble, I think we would know, Hadou."

"Hmm … I guess that's true. But where would he have gone, then?"

"Well, uh … Toga-senpai did mention that it was Tenko who summoned him," Ochako pointed out, although she likewise didn't look sure, "so maybe he was doing another therapy session with him? Deku did mention yesterday that he might be asked to come in again."

"Still, I would've thought that they would wait for before or after school to ask him to come in," Itsuka put her hands in her pockets as they all moved inside, Thirteen and Tenko taking up the rear, "it's kinda weird that they asked him to come in at a time he could've potentially missed class - anyway, we'll ask him later if there's anything going on."

"Sounds pretty good!" Nejire agreed, more than happy to continue talking with her friends as they began walking down the stairs, her eyes automatically trailing away from the lake on the side, "But speaking of that, how did your sessions go yesterday? Were they good? I got to talk to Tenko, he's pretty friendly! But he seemed really taken aback by me when I kept asking him questions, so he just kinda said that I was okay to go back, but I should talk to him if I had any issues."

At the back of the group, hearing the energetic girl talking about him, Tenko suppressed a small, awkward chuckle.

"And … do you need to in for more sessions, Hadou?" Itsuka looked around at her, feeling slightly concerned as she noticed Nejire obviously keeping her back to the shipwreck zone, "It's okay if you're not okay, you know."

"I mean, I'm not at a hundred percent, but I'll manage!" Nejire smiled at the orange-haired girl for her concern, reaching over and patting her shoulder. "It really sucks to drown, and I might have a few more nightmares about it, but being here with you guys really helps! And if I do have a nightmare, I'll just sneak into Yuuyu's room and cuddle with her. She likes to complain, but she always cuddles back when she knows I need it. But anyway, thank you for asking, Kendou! Are you guys going to be okay?"

"I'm sure we will, Hadou," Itsuka smiled kindly at her, "don't worry about us."

"Alright!" Thirteen clapped her hands together behind them, quickly moving around them so she could hurry down the stairs to the front of the group as they continued moving into the USJ, "we'll start the tour with the ruins zone, then the landslide zone, and then the mountain zone. So those at the front, start heading down the path towards the ruins zone to start."

The three girls in the middle of the stairs paused at the mention of the mountain zone, with Nejire looking around at Itsuka and Ochako as they stared blankly ahead for a moment - and then Itsuka took a deep breath, and reached out to take Ochako's hand in hers, squeezing gently and making Ochako blink and turn a bit red as she glanced down at their conjoined hands.

"Just … for a bit," Itsuka excused lamely, but Ochako didn't mind, smiling and using her four fingers to squeeze her hand back as they continued to follow the teachers down the steps.

Unbeknownst to them, however, their little hand-holding got the attention of the two girls moving behind them, walking slowly down the stairs with the rest of their class chatting amongst themselves, seemingly following Itsuka and Ochako's idea of trying to distract themselves from their surroundings by looking anywhere but at the zones they had been trapped in.

"So … Yui." Setsuna absently hummed.

"Mm." Yui slowly nodded.

"I suppose we've gotta address the elephant in the room, right?"

"And what elephant would that be?"

"Well," Setsuna snorted, "how about we talk about the fact that we can't exactly pretend Uraraka down there hasn't been checking Ken out for the last two days in a row."

"No, we can't," Yui shook her head, glancing down at the two girls as they made their way down the steps, adjusting her hat, "I'm actually kind of impressed - she's checked out Itsuka's ass more times than I have today."

"Which … is admittedly kind of annoying," Setsuna pouted, glancing between the two girls as well as Izuku chatting with Tenya a bit further down the stairs, "I thought I had this weird thing they're doing all figured out, with how much Ken's iching to climb Midoriya like a fucking tree, but … look, I'm dumb, but I'm not that dumb."

"You are pretty dumb."

"Shut up, dumbo."

"Mm," Yui pretended to hum pleasantly, "you always know how to talk dirty to me, Set."

"Okay, horny girl, calm down," Setsuna snorted, "anyway, back to what I was saying - it's obvious how much Ken's crushing on Midoriya. And as much as I don't like to admit the existance of the opposite team, I know that Uraraka's probably liked Midoriya even longer than our girl has. But now we've got her and Ken blushing over each other more times than I could count today.

"Mm-hm," Yui nodded, seeing where her friend was going with this, "something happened between these two."

"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Setsuna smirked, poking her lip with her finger, "our two girls down there had something happen with each other. Something … perhaps a little … non-hetero."

"Oooooh," Yui tilted her head some, clearly fantasizing, "that's something nice to think about. So what do you bet?"

"If I had to guess, based on what we've seen …" Setsuna guessed, smiling mischievously, "... I'd say that sometime this weekend, our girl down there got into a situation with Uraraka that got a little … shall we say … lesbian in nature."

"Kissing?"

"Oh, please. The way Uraraka's been checking Ken out? They probably made out, and our little innocent bean got to cup a feel. Or they made out and she wished she got a feel."

"Oooooooh," Yui clapped her hands together, already thinking of that kinky scenario while nodding slowly to herself, while Setsuna snorted and poked her cheek, "I'm so hurt she didn't tell us."

"God, tell me about it. Ken down there probably got to suck face for the first time in her life, and she hasn't even told us about it! Especially when it was with another girl!"

"I was gonna say, this time last year I would've made a bet that it would be either you or me that eventually kissed Itsuka for the first time, right up until she met those two. And then it was just us counting down the minutes until she finally had enough and pinned Midoriya against a wall."

"Yep," Setsuna pouted a little, "so it being Uraraka she's probably been making out with is kinda … well, it's a surprise, isn't it?"

"I mean," Yui raised her eyebrow, "far be it from us to judge Itsuka for kissing girls, seeing as the both of us aren't exactly exclusively tied to boys."

"That's true, but Ken's never shown an interest in guys or girls! And then Midoriya comes fumbling along and Ken's pretty much in denial about how much she wants to drag him into a broom closet and give her little sparring partner a few bruises along the neck."

"Ooooooooooooooh."

"Calm down, horny girl. Anyway, one second she's awkwardly crushing on him, but then the next, she's calling Uraraka by her first name and holding her hand while Uraraka's been so busy checking out her ass, I'm surprised she hasn't walked into any walls." Setsuna crossed her arms behind her back, tilting her head as she thought. "Something's obviously happened between these two, and it's killing me not to know."

"Mm," Yui slowly nodded, watching Ochako and Itsuka making their way down the stairs while putting her hands down near her skirt, "so you're probably going to bug Itsuka about it, aren't you?"

"Oh, of course I am. Who do you think you're talking to?"

"Alright then, I should make sure you don't end up making things anymore awkward than they probably already are. How about after school on Friday, we can ask her to go out for dinner - I bet if we sat her down, we can get her to admit that she and Uraraka were being 'really good friends'."

"Just gals being pals."

"Friends that totally kiss, platonically."

"Silly Yui, it's not gay to kiss your best friend on the mouth."

"You're so right. As long as they say 'no homo' before -"

"Okay," A sharp voice suddenly spoke up from behind them, making them both blink and look around at an annoyed Kyouka with a faint pink on her cheeks, while Tsuyu was letting out a few ribbiting giggles, "I get it. Please, stop, both of you."

"I mean," Setsuna suddenly smirked at her, and Kyouka immediately realized that she had made a huge mistake getting herself involved, "in that case, Jirou, if you don't want us talking about Ken and Uraraka, we can do that! How about we chat about why you seemed so excited to join us for lunch yesterday with Yao-"

She unfortunately couldn't finish that teasing remark, however, due to Kyouka blushing a bright red and immediately zipping out one of her earphone jacks to hit Setsuna right in her armpit, causing her to jump with a loud yelp while Yui merely raised an eyebrow at the blushing punk girl.

Once everyone was accounted for at the bottom of the steps, Tensei beaming in pride at everyone being present, the tour of the facility immediately began, with Thirteen walking them over to the various zones to look around, either standing right outside the zones and explaining their purposes or letting them walk inside to have a look around. Thankfully, she left it up to the students whether or not they wanted to walk in, with Itsuka, Ochako, Momo and Kyouka pointedly not wanting to go into the mountain zone until they absolutely had to, and Fumikage and Reiko likewise glancing at the downpour zone and deciding that they didn't need to look in so soon.

Once they had reached the conflagration zone, Izuku, Pony and Yosetsu ended up being in agreement that they didn't need to tour the fire zone again, and chose to wait outside as everyone else walked in to have a small look around, Tensei standing to the side with them just to be safe.

"So, uh…" Pony glanced over at the two boys she had been trapped in the inferno zone with, awkwardly fixing the halter around her head as she gave them a nervous grin, "… you guys are doing okay, right? Or, uh - am I the only one kinda nervous being here?"

"I … nah, it's not just you," Yosetsu grimaced slightly, leaning up against the wall as he looked around at them, "I'm not exactly excited being here, either. It's just … y'know, I didn't want to be the only one that stayed outside, so I'm just kinda sucking it up."

"Oh, same! I really didn't wanna get left outside."

"Besides, I guess Aizawa-sensei's got a point, doesn't he? We're gonna have to be in here anyway, so might as well do it as soon as possible. It's better to get this dumb stuff out of the way so we can get back to work."

"What about you, Midoriya-kun?" She turned to look at Izuku as he likewise looked around the USJ, "I'm … actually kinda surprised you were so cool with coming in here!"

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, looking around at the both of them looking at him curiously, and he quickly fixed an awkward smile on his face, "O-oh, yeah, I'm - I'm good, guys. Just … kinda wanted to get it over with, l-like Awase said."

"Exactly," Yosetsu nodded, and turned to continue talking with Pony.

Grimacing slightly, Izuku looked back around at the USJ, feeling his heart thumping a bit in his chest - but for an entirely different reason than one would suspect. It was true that it wasn't exactly … well, it wasn't exactly easy to just stand around after what happened, what with him not looking over at the foyer at all to remind him of what happened. He had nightmares about it enough already, he didn't need any fresh reminders about how he nearly died not a few hundred meters away.

No, why he was feeling so nervous, he thought with a small blush, was because he kept recalling the instructions that All Might gave him before he and Tenko had to hurry to the bus, reminding him of what he was going to be doing once they went over to the ruins zone.

"One of the exercises Thirteen has planned for today is a small game similar to hide and seek. Just make sure you're well hidden, Young Midoriya, and I'll come find you. Then we can get started with the real test!"

Yep, Izuku sighed quietly to himself, he had ended up agreeing to serve as All Might's 'hostage', agreeing to help him out with his plan after he had made arrangements with Tenko and Mirio to meet with them after class, seeing as there wasn't enough time for them to do whatever it was Tenko had in mind during the lunch break. From what All Might had described to him, the pro hero was dressed up as a villain, and had plans to head to the USJ while the rest of the class was busy in another zone so he could hide in the ruins zone. Then, once Izuku was isolated, he would come collect him, pretend to have 'beaten down' Izuku to sell to the rest of the class that he was a serious threat, and then would confront the rest of his classmates.

He was admittedly unsure about his job of 'hanging limply from All Might's grasp and try not to move', but it was All Might that needed his help, so … well, he couldn't just turn him down! So Izuku guessed that it would be his job to pretend he was beaten up, and be presented as someone his classmates needed to rescue from the big, scary villain.

Only …

Hearing the sound of the class beginning to come back out from the conflagration zone, Nejire asking Thirteen question after question, Izuku looked back around at them from where he was standing off to the side - and he found his gaze trailing to Itsuka and Ochako as they chatted amongst themselves, unsure why they were still holding hands and feeling his stomach kind of twist for some reason. Seeing their happy faces turn to look at him and smiling as they hurried over to him, Izuku tried to smile back, hoping that he didn't give away how nervous he was about what he'd be doing with All Might soon - and feeling himself gulp a bit.

His mind kept trailing back to what he had heard yesterday, when the rest of their class had been discussing what had happened to the USJ to Nejire - who had apparently been unconscious the entire time, Izuku remembered and couldn't help but worry for his friend when he heard that she had nearly freaking drowned. He remembered what Pony had told Nejire about happened to him - that he had been beaten down by the hooded man, and that had been Itsuka and Ochako who had found him and saved him. He remembered their reactions after he had returned from the hospital room - how Ochako had clung desperately to him, how Itsuka, normally calm and collected, had broken down and hugged him tightly.

And … Izuku essentially agreed to help All Might do the same thing to them again. Force them to find him at the mercy of a villain. Only this time, he would be intentionally tricking them into thinking he had gotten hurt.

Feeling guilt stab him in the heart, Izuku began walking with his friends as the group began moving towards the lake zone, Nejire immediately turning away and letting Tsuyu hold her hand to comfort her. No, he couldn't do that to them again. So he just needed to … okay, as much as he hated the mere thought of betraying All Might's trust, he had to tell them what they were planning to do.

But how? Ask them to talk privately? Maybe that would be the best course of action - both to bring them in on what was going to happen so they didn't think he was going to get hurt, and to also make sure both girls didn't rip his and All Might's heads off of their shoulders.

---

"Now then," Thirteen nodded happily as she clapped her hands together, "with our tour out of the way, let's get started with the rescue training!"

Ochako gulped as she looked around at their surroundings, feeling herself shake a bit as she kept her hand in Itsuka's, the orange-haired girl seemingly sensing her distress and giving it a comforting squeeze, her thumb running against the back of her hand and making Ochako's cheeks feel a bit hot. As Thirteen had said, the class had finished their small tour of the facility, and now were about to get to work at long last, doing the class that they missed on Friday due to stupid villains invading. Unfortunately for Ochako, Itsuka, Momo and Kyouka, the first zone they were going to be working in happened to be the one they had been trapped in, with the tall, sharp rocks surrounding them and the deep chasm they were standing in front of making Ochako nervous as the broken mountain Itsuka had smashed to pieces loomed in the background.

It at least looked like Momo and Kyouka were doing okay, though, with both of them looking around the mountains with small frowns but other than that not looking at all uncomfortable, Kyouka rubbing her arm and Momo pursing her lips briefly before she took out her notebook to write down anything Thirteen was going to explain. Itsuka, meanwhile, seemed to be doing fine as well, letting out a small sigh as she squeezed Ochako's hand again and listened to Thirteen as she gestured to the large hole in the ground, which made everyone gulp nervously and prompting Yosetsu to give it a wide berth, sweating a bit.

Still though, Ochako felt her brow scrunch up a bit as she looked around - there was something weirdly familiar about this spot in general. But that felt ridiculous - she was pretty sure that she had been here before, but she couldn't even recall -

- and then she found herself glancing over at a small incline in the rocky hills, a bit far away but still close enough that she could probably jog over to it, and she felt herself blink.

Wait ... this is where Itsuka and I ...

With that realization, Ochako felt her cheeks instantly go red, and quickly whipped her gaze back to Thirteen, desperately trying not to think about what she and the girl she was still holding hands with did over there, while Itsuka glanced at her blushing face in confusion.

"For this exercise," Thirteen explained as both Tensei and Aizawa stood off to the side, Tenko standing beside his mentor as she clapped her hands together, "there will be three students waiting at the bottom of this chasm while pretending to have certain injuries. One of them will have an injured leg, one will be unconscious, and one of them will be very hysteric. We will be having you all work in groups of four to get the three victims out of the chasm safely, using this stretcher, harness and rope." She gestured towards the three objects laying beside the chasm.

"Whoa," Eijirou's eyes bulged, both he and Denki carefully moving towards the edge while Yosetsu kept very clear of the gigantic hole, gulping very nervously while wiping some sweat from his brow, "this is so freaking deep! How are we even supposed to get down there?!

"What are you saying, Kirishima?!" Tenya suddenly barked, making both the red-haired boy and Denki jump a bit as he quickly skidded over to the ledge and fell to his knees, "There are people down there! We can't be hesitant about how we're supposed to get down to save them! Hello?!" He whipped around to face the chasm, shouting so loudly that his voice echoed around them. "Are you down there?! Can you hear me?! Please, do not worry! We'll save you!"

"The exercise hasn't started yet," Yui pointed out, raising an eyebrow and tapping Tenya's side with her foot, "calm your horses."

"Jeez," Setsuna laughed nervously as she peaked over the ledge, absently reaching down to pick up a rock to throw down there, only for Hanta to take it from her before she got any bright ideas, "y'know, I'm with Kirishima - how are we getting down there, sensei? Or - y'know, how will the people who'll be playing the victims get down there?"

"There's a slope that we'll be having the students playing the victims go down," Tenko explained, chuckling at the students' clear nervousness at the chasm, "and you guys don't need to worry about falling - Thirteen and I will be here to make sure no one slips. We've done this exercise a hundred times with other classes, we'll be able to help you out."

"That's not to say," Thirteen pointed out, "that you should be reckless. Treat this like a rescue that you're conducting out there in the real world - be careful not to make yourselves a victim either, and watch where you step."

As more students began asking questions, Katsuki growling and crossing his arms at the side and Nejire hopping over to ask Tenko more about the other classes, Izuku let out a small sigh as he put his hands in his pockets, glancing around while frowning slightly - he knew that they had all afternoon, but he was feeling a bit nervous about what will happen when they finally head over to the ruins zone - but a finger poking his arm suddenly caught his attention, making him blink and look around.

"So," Itsuka smiled at him, walking over with Ochako as his best friend likewise looked up at him curiously, "we didn't see you at all for lunch."

"H-huh?" Izuku blinked, confused for a moment before he realized what she was talking about, "Oh, uh - r-right. Yeah, I - I ended up, uh - getting back late, so … yeah."

"Getting back late from what?" Ochako asked, brushing some of her hair out of her face and behind her ear.

"Oh, uh … it's …" Izuku hesitated again, feeling himself go a bit red -he knew that this was kinda the opportunity he had been waiting for, a chance to tell them what All Might was planning, but seeing as they were still kind of surrounded by their classmates, he was a bit hesitant to explain everything while surrounded by anyone who could overhear and have All Might's surprise spoiled for them.

But luckily, fate would smile upon him that day.

"Alright! With that out of the way, our first batch of injured students will be …" Thirteen looked around, humming as she wondered who would be going first, and then pointed right at them, "... the three in their gym clothes!"

Izuku, Itsuka and Ochako stopped their quiet conversation, blinking slightly. They glanced at Thirteen as she pointed straight at them, and then, as though confused, they looked around to see if there was anyone else suddenly wearing their gym gear that Thirteen was pointing at.

"Oh," Itsuka slowly nodded, "okay then, I … guess we're going first."

"Mm-hm." Ochako shrugged a bit.

Thank you, Thirteen-sensei! Izuku silently praised her.

After about ten minutes of carefully climbing down a slope some distance away from their class, assisted by Thirteen and Tenko so they didn't slip and tumble the rest of the way down, the trio stood in the wide space at the bottom of the chasm, looking up and seeing Aizawa staring down at them so that they were sure that they were in the correct spot and moving away when Izuku waved up to him to signify that they had arrived. Itsuka let out a sigh as she moved to sit down against a large boulder, looking up at her other two friends as they likewise looked around awkwardly, not really sure what to do now, and Itsuka let out a giggle as she leaned back.

"Alright, then," She shrugged, "I guess … Ochako, you can be the unconscious one, I'll be the one with the broken leg, and Izuku will be … the one who's panicking."

"That definitely tracks." Ochako giggled, while Izuku merely grumbled but said nothing in his defense, which kind of said all that was needed to. Together, the two of them sat down on the rocky ground, Ochako laying back so she could pretend to be unconscious and Izuku sitting down on the ground beside Itsuka.

"Anyway, uh …" Ochako turned her head to look at him, "... everyone's probably going to take a while since Thirteen-sensei has to show the first group how everything works. So, Deku - back to what we were talking about before. What were you doing at lunch?"

"Oh, uh - right," Izuku nodded, sitting up a bit as the two girls looked curiously at him, "well, it was, uh … it had something to do with my quirk. Do you remember what I said yesterday about him having me back in for another session, Occhan?"

"Mm-hm. I kinda figured it had something to do with that."

"Yeah. Well, pretty much … we were meeting up so we could talkabout me using my quirk against someone else."

Both girls blinked at that, looking around curiously at Izuku as he likewise leaned back slightly on his hand and sighed.

"So … well, Tenko-sensei and I talked about it yesterday," He explained, "and I told him that I was … I was unsure if I could use my quirk against someone else after what happened here."

"Okay …" Itsuka nodded along.

"So he told me that he may have had a way so that I could practice my quirk against someone else without the threat of injuring them. And … well, that's kind of what I'll be doing once class is let out for the day," He grimaced slightly, looking a bit nervous, "the person that Tenko had in mind is having his own class right now, and Tenko wanted me to meet him during lunch so we could make a plan. I'm supposed to head back to Gym Gamma after school so I can practice using my quirk on him."

"Oh," Itsuka looked interested, leaning back and adjusting herself on the ground, "okay, so, uh … I guess that means we're going to be sticking around at the end of the day?"

"Er - oh, no, guys, you don't have to wait -"

"Izuku."

"Deku."

Izuku winced at both deadpan girls speaking at the same time, seeing Itsuka and Ochako turn to look at him with raised eyebrows. Rather than pursue an unwinnable argument, he instead nodded, sighing and waving his hands in the air with a small smile.

"I - okay, okay, I - I guess you guys want to wait for me, you can … uh … stick around and watch?"

"How kind of you." Itsuka snorted, smirking a bit when Izuku lazily kicked her ankle with his foot. "Ow, Izuku, that's my injured leg."

"Your injured -? Oh, r-right. The assignment."

"Yes," She giggled, "so please don't make my wound worse."

Izuku only sighed and shook his head, unable to stop his own smile as Ochako giggled beside him.

"A-anyway, yeah, that's - that's why I was dragged away for lunch," He scratched the back of his head, wincing slightly, "I pretty much stood back and let Tenko talk to our senpai for about half an hour, and then we remembered that I still needed to eat, so All Might …"

At the mention of their mentor, however, Izuku found himself pausing, blinking as he looked back over at the two girls. Ochako and Itsuka, who had been lazilly sitting around, watching him curiously as Izuku suddenly closed his mouth, staring blankly ahead for a moment - and then he let out a small sigh, sagging his shoulders and grimacing again.

"… er. I just … remembered that I was … well, I gotta tell you both something else."

"Huh?" Ochako sat up, feeling concerned, "What's up, Deku?"

"I - well, uh - okay," He shook his head, giving them both an awkward smile as he wrapped his arm around his knees, "All Might wanted me to keep this a secret from everyone, but, uh … well, I realized that …"

"Oh, no," Itsuka sighed, sagging her shoulders and already knowing that she wasn't going to like this, "what's he up to?"

"I … well, All Might …" He paused again, clearly attempting to gather up his thoughts and phrase this in a way that didn't throw their mentor under the bus, "... he's got … an exercise planned for today."

"Oh, no."

"Oh, crap."

He couldn't help but let out a small laugh at both his best friends groaning under their breaths, but decided to continue on.

"A-anyway, All Might is … well, he's planning an exercise," He began to explain to them both, "where he dresses up as a - a villain that managed to slip away from the police and the heroes, and hide himself in the ruins zone. He told me that it was going to be something like - like he's testing us to see how we react to something happening twice in a row."

"So he's going to dress up and attack us?" Itsuka raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the rock she was sitting in front of and frowning, "Okay … I mean, I guess I get it. It's kinda stupid, but I guess I can kinda see where he's coming from."

"But … why are you telling us?" Ochako wondered out loud before blinking, "Wait, why do you know what he's planning in the first place if he's trying to surprise us?"

"Because … uh …" Izuku glanced away, scratching the back of his head while being unable to meet their gaze, "... I'm … supposed to help him?"

There was a small moment of silence in the pit, with Izuku looking anywhere but his friends while Ochako and Itsuka stared at him, their expressions turning blank. And then Ochako, with a small note of unamusement in her voice, said, "Elaborate on that, Deku."

Izuku found himself gulping and nodding quickly. He recognized that tone of voice - the 'you have five seconds to convince me not to kick your ass' voice she reserved for times she knew he was about to mess up. And he'd much rather not have to deal with their classmates asking why he would be returning to them with a black eye he didn't have when he climbed down into the chasm.

"W-well - uh -" He cleared his throat, leaning back slightly and looking up at the sky as Itsuka began tapping her finger against her knee while likewise giving him an unamused glare, "- the plan is - uh - for me to get separated from the group, and - and All Might - a-as the villain - is supposed to jump out and take me hostage. Carry me around, show me to the rest of the class. I'm - I'm pretty much supposed to pretend to be unconscious the whole time, to prove that the 'villain' is serious."

"Okay …" Itsuka slowly nodded, glancing at Ochako and sharing a confused look with her as they glanced back at him, "... I … guess I get that. But … in that case, why are you telling us what All Might has in mind?"

"Because …" Izuku hesitated, and then let out a small sigh and looked back down so they could see the guilty look on his face, "... because I just … I remembered that … that this wouldn't be the first time for you two to see me like that."

Both Itsuka and Ochako stopped at that, staring blankly at Izuku in turn for a moment before they slowly glanced at each other in confusion, as though wondering what on earth he was talking about - and then, Izuku saw it come to both of them at the same time, making them both blink, and realization came to their eyes.

They both turned and looked at him properly again, Itsuka's mouth dropping open slightly, and Izuku slowly nodded in confirmation, already knowing what they were thinking about - it was pretty clear that they both were remembering the last time a villain had carried an unconscious him around.

"... oh." Itsuka said in a quiet voice, looking a bit pale as Izuku turned to stare down at his knees. "You - oh."

"A-ah," Ochako likewise seemed at a loss for words, looking away from him as she slowly laid back down, "I … I get what you're saying, Deku."

"Y-yeah," Izuku slowly nodded, frowning down at his feet, "I just … I didn't want you both to see me like that and - and be forced to relive that. So - a-and I know that this kind of blew apart All Might's plan, but - but I couldn't let you both go through that again. I'm - I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Itsuka repeated, letting out a small laugh and shaking her head, "Sorry about what? About … about not wanting to traumatize us again?"

Izuku winced at that, feeling some tears well in his eyes, but before he could apologize again, Itsuka reached out and patted his shoe, making him blink and look around as a small smile appeared on her face.

"I'm … well, I'm not sure if I speak for the both of us," She absently scratched her cheek while Ochako nodded in agreement to whatever she was going to say, "but … thank you, Izuku, for telling us. We'd … now that we know, we're … well, I guess this means we're not going to be kicking in the head you once the truth comes out."

"Er … that's …" Izuku felt a bead of sweat fall down on his forehead, "… that's … a joke, right?"

"Nope," Ochako giggled, "we'd be kicking you until you're black and blue. Don't worry, though, we're definitely giving All Might crap for this too."

"Er … right."

Itsuka laughed as well, opening her mouth again, but before she could speak, a sudden shout came from above them. Blinking, they quickly looked up, but no head poked out from above the cliff's edge - but listening closely, they quickly recognized the voice of whoever was yelling.

"That's … Kacchan," Izuku grimaced slightly, sighing and leaning back while Ochako and Itsuka rolled their eyes.

"Wonder what he's shrieking about this time," Itsuka tossed her ponytail behind her shoulder as she leaned back and looked up at the cliffside, "probably something along the lines of 'why do I have to help people who need help? Why can't I blow them up?'"

Ochako merely huffed while Izuku chuckled awkwardly and conceded that. While Ochako leaned back and stared up at the sky, Itsuka sighed again and glanced at Izuku.

"Hey, uh … speaking of him, I'm sorry for - y'know, kind of putting you on the spot on the bus," She apologized, looking a bit guilty, "I wasn't really thinking when I came up to confront him, I just -"

"O-oh, no, it's fine," He shook his head, smiling at her, "I wasn't - well, Kacchan will be Kacchan. I'm … kinda used to it by now."

"Hm," Itsuka hummed, not looking very pleased by that.

"A-anyway, Kendou, I'm - I was wondering," He straightened up a bit, giving her a curious look, "on the beach yesterday - what did All Might want to talk to you about? After we left."

"Huh? Oh," Itsuka blinked, realizing what he was talking about and nodding, leaning back again as her other two training partners gave her a curious look, "it - well, it wasn't much, honestly. He pretty much told me that everyone's gonna be looking at me once the sports festival comes around, and that I should … er … be ready to tell them that 'I'm here'. Honestly, I probably should've expected that kind of talk," She giggled as Izuku suddenly looked very interested, "Aizawa-sensei goes on and on about how we're supposed to stand out at the sports festival, so naturally All Might wants to pull me aside to tell me to stand out as well. Well, either way, I'm gonna have to work on my speech soon - apparently, everyone who came in first at the entrance exam has to give one at the sports festival, so that's what I'm working on this weekend."

"O-oh. Well, in that case -"

"Everyone!"

The three of them jumped in surprise at the sound of a familiar voice speaking above them, and quickly looked back up at the cliffside again. Kneeling at the edge of the cliff, Momo was looking down to them, raising her hand to the side of her mouth.

"Please keep calm!" She yelled down to them, "We'll be down there soon!"

"O-oh," Izuku blankly said for a moment, almost forgetting that they were technically doing an assignment right now, and then jolted up. "Oh, I - I mean - t-thank you! P-please hurry! Occhan is - she's - uh -"

"Dying." Itsuka whispered to him, feeling mischievous.

"She's dying!" Izuku shouted up to Momo - and then blinked, and looked around in shock at the two girls as Itsuka began snorting with laughter, and Ochako wrapped her arms around her mouth to hide her increasingly failing attempts not to laugh.

It only took a few more minutes of them sitting around and waiting to be 'rescued', but eventually, the sign of spiraling yellow light shined above them, signifying that their classmates were getting to work. Carefully, Nejire floated her way down into the chasm, looking around for the three of them at the bottom and lighting up when she spotted them, and landed with a small 'oof'.

"Hi, guys!" She waved to them, hurrying over while Ochako played dead on the ground. "I'm supposed to come down here to assure you! So, uh - are you guys okay? Can you stand? I mean, I know you can't because that's the exercise, but I thought I'd ask just to be safe."

"Er -" Izuku glanced around while Itsuka shrugged and Ochako laid still on the ground, "- O-Occhan here is - she's unconscious, and - and both me and Kendou have broken legs."

"You're supposed to be panicking right now," Itsuka reminded him in an amused mutter.

"O-oh, I mean - p-please - please help us, h-hero."

"Nice," Itsuka smirked. Izuku stuck his tongue out at her while she giggled.

"I'd be more than happy to help!" Nejire quickly saluted them both, kneeling down and patting Izuku's arm while smiling, "We're just waiting for Yanagi to come down here to help me! I'd carry you out, Midoriya, but I don't have super strength! It was really hard to carry you back during the entrance exam, remember? And it was also really hard to carry Kodai and Tsuyu at the same time a few days ago, I thought my arms were gonna get ripped out of their sockets! But hey, maybe if - or when! - it's your turn to rescue and I'm down here, you can carry me out! Trust me, I'm not that heavy."

"Uh … r-right," Izuku slowly nodded, feeling his face go red while Nejire beamed, and Itsuka's teasing smile slipped from her face, tapping her 'broken' foot against the ground while flickering her gaze between the two of them while frowning.

"Oop!" Nejire suddenly looked up, blinking in surprise, and then pointed. The three of them followed her finger to see a familiar girl in a kimoto, with orange straps wrapped around her, began to slowly climb down the wall of the mountain, carefully tied with a rope around her to prevent her from falling.

"Yanagi," Momo said, staying near the cliff's edge but having her own hands on the rope, "please take your time descending - Tokoyami and I will keep feeding you the rope."

"Understood," Reiko grunted, slowly walking down as she braced her feet against the side of the gorge. Itsuka, Izuku, Nejire and Ochako watched (Ochako laying down and squinting through her closed eyes) as the ghost girl carefully made her way down the wall of the chasm, supervised by Dark Shadow flying down with her and raising its arms to make sure that it would catch her in case she slipped. Finally, she managed to reach the bottom.

"Hi, Yanagi," Izuku gave her an awkward wave as she hopped down onto the ground, keeping the harness on and looking up as Dark Shadow began lowering the stretcher down.

"My apologies for the long wait," She walked forward, using her quirk to float the orange board needed to bring Ochako to the top and putting it down beside her as she looked around at the three teenagers, "we had a few … er … issues above."

"We heard," Itsuka giggled, smiling up at her, "anyway, nice to see you. Ochako here is … uh … concussed, and we can't move her - our legs are hurt."

"Very well," Reiko nodded, and lifted her hand, "in that case, I will be more than happy to assist."

Ochako tried not to yelp as she felt her clothes suddenly stiffen around her, and then slowly began to rise in the air, as though she was being pulled by invisible strings. Reiko hummed as she telekinetically brought the other girl over to the orange board, carefully placing her on top, and once she was sure that Ochako was secure, Reiko released her quirk, and turned to look back up at the top of the chasm.

"Yaoyorozu! Tokoyami!" She called out in a loud voice, "Uraraka is now secure, I'm sending her up! Hadou, please help me keep the board balanced - I will lift her up half-way."

"Gotcha!" Nejire quickly hopped up, beginning to float in the air with her quirk.

Both Izuku and Itsuka watched with interest, Izuku quickly whipping out his notebook to begin jotting down notes, as Reiko lifted up the board with Ochako on top of it, Ochako giggling a bit nervously at the wobbling, but thankfully Nejire flew beneath it and kept both hands on it to prevent her from slipping off, keeping the board balanced as it floated up in the air. Midway, Dark Shadow flew back down over the side to help the blue haired fairy out with making sure Ochako didn't fall out, helping keeping it balanced as she was brought to the top of the chasm and pulled in by both Momo and Fumikage.

Once she was off, the board was sent back down for the other two, with Itsuka trying not to move too much as she was floated up, and Izuku had to pause his note taking so he didn't accidentally fall off in his excitement - that, and awkwardly glancing away as a pair of beautiful blue eyes peeked over the side of the board to look at him as Nejire helped push the stretcher to the top. And soon enough, all three of them were back at the top of the chasm, greeted by their classmates as the exercise continued, with the trio being paired up with Tenya so they could repeat the exercise with Yui, Mina and Hanta at the bottom of the chasm, Nejire pouting off to the side for some reason as Ochako and Izuku carefully floated their way down, Izuku with the rope around him and Ochako wrapping her arms around his neck to prevent her from floating off.

Soon enough, they were back down at the bottom of the chasm, this time as the rescuers as Izuku helped wrap up Yui's leg with a stick and two pieces of fabric as Ochako knelt down beside her, tying the rope around her waist just to be safe.

"Kodai," She said kindly, "this might be a little scary, but try not to move."

"Gotcha," Yui nodded, and allowed Ochako to press all five fingers to her back, taking away her gravity. Izuku and Ochako helped push Yui up into the air where Tenya and Itsuka were waiting at the top, Itsuka hanging onto the rope just to be safe, and they watched as Yui floated up near Tenya, looking uninterested with even the loss of her gravity.

"We've got her!" Itsuka yelled down to Ochako, "You can let her go!"

"Release!"

Yui only fell for a split second before Tenya reached out with both arms, grunting as he caught her easily, and let out a relieved sigh as he turned towards Tensei, who was watching the class off to the side with Aizawa while Thirteen and Tenko helped out with the class.

"She is safe!" He confirmed to his teachers, smiling at a job well done - and then he heard the girl in his arms clear her throat.

"Iida," Tenya looked back down, and felt himself suddenly freeze at the sight of Yui being held securely in his arms, staring blankly up at him while a tinge of red began blooming on her face, "as nice as it is to have you carry me around, I kinda want to be put down now."

"A-ah! Of - of course, Kodai! My apologies!" Quickly, Tenya helped Yui down to her feet, the stoic girl raising an eyebrow at his fluster - and neither of them were aware of Tensei straightening up a bit, glancing between his brother and the smaller girl while a small, teasing smile began to appear on his face.

The next half hour of saving their classmates again and again went surprisingly smoothly, with Katsuki not bothering to growl any threats out loud while Setsuna and Hanta poked fun of him behind his back ("Thirteen-sensei said he'd be a beautiful hero," Setsuna cackled, while Hanta chortled, "But he'll never be beautiful!"), and Nejire managed to restrain her endless questions so as not to distract her classmates from lifting her into the air, being put down on the edge of the cliff and giving everyone a thumbs up when she was safe. Once everyone had a turn, Thirteen announced that there were more battle scenarios prepared, and led them out of the mountain zone in high spirits towards …

Izuku felt himself gulp as they gathered within the ruined city, Eijirou likewise looking a bit uncomfortable while Denki looked crossedly at Katsuki, who was giving the destroyed city an unimpressed look. Itsuka and Ochako, meanwhile, had to actively resist giving Izuku a deadpan look as he tried to subtly make his way to the back of the group as Thirteen began to pick out who the 'rescuers' of the exercise were, giving Mezo and Pony an apologetic look as he squeezed in behind them, and prompting a curious 'kero' from Tsuyu as he stood beside her.

"Now then, for this exercise, we'll be having Bakugou, Yanagi, Kaminari and Awase as our first 'rescuers'," Thirteen explained, ignoring the subtle shaking of Katsuki as he looked more and more annoyed by the second, "the purpose of this scenario is to give you all a more genuine experience rescuing others. You'll all be playing the injured while our rescuers try to search for you. The rescuers will not have any idea what state they'll be in, and the rest of you will have eight minutes to spread out and hide. Once those eight minutes are up, the rescuers will begin to look for you in whatever place you wished to hide. Just keep in mind that of the sixteen of you, eight will not be able to speak, so about half of you will not be able to call out for help. Understood?"

"Yes, Thirteen-sensei!"

"So we're basically playing hide and seek?!" Mina excitedly bounced.

"Pretty much," Tenko laughed as he put his hands in his pockets, nodding to Mina's question while Tensei and Aizawa stood back, "just keep in mind that there'll be a time limit too for you guys to hide and for the rescuers to find you. Also, no moving around once you find a spot! That wouldn't be fair."

"Why the fuck do I have to do this?!" Katsuki suddenly barked, while Tenko sighed exasperatedly, Thirteen groaned lowly, Tensei sagged his shoulders and Aizawa merely glared, "This is fucking useless. I came to UA to be a hero, not to play fucking hide and seek!"

"You'll do it because if you don't, you'll fail the test." Aizawa said in a deadpanned voice, and Katsuki merely grinded his teeth together, but luckily for them he offered no more complaints.

"Now then!" Thirteen clapped her hands together, "As I said, you all have eight minutes to hide. Let our next exercise begin!"

Realizing that they had just been excused, the sixteen students quickly began to scramble away to run throughout the city, leaving behind Katsuki, Reiko, Yosetsu and Denki as they quickly began to look for places to hide. Izuku carefully kept to the back of the fleeing group, slowing to a light jog as he made sure that his classmates weren't looking at him - and thankfully, or un-thankfully, the only ones who were staring at him at the moment were Ochako and Itsuka, who gave him teasing looks as they both separated down two alleyways and vanished from view, and he let out a small sigh as he turned down another street.

It didn't take very long for him to find a small, secluded spot - a broken lobby with a few treadmills lying on their sides, some sunlight shining through the broken windows. With a small grunt, Izuku entered the building, glancing around a bit as he moved to sit down on one of the abandoned pieces of rubble, and bit his lip as he he tried to make himself comfortable.

All Might had told him that it wouldn't have mattered where he hid, because he would be able to sneak through the city and find him anyway, so Izuku knew that it might take a little while for the pro hero to find him. Well, not that Izuku was worried - All Might was a lot quicker than he looked, and while Katsuki might be the fastest of those selected to find the hiding students, Izuku had chosen to hide pretty deep in the destroyed city, near the wall of the USJ. So really, all he had to do now was wait and -

"Hm? Wait for what, Midoriya? Something exciting?"

At the sound of a very familiar voice right behind him, Izuku felt himself go still. His eyes widening slightly, he slowly turned his head, and his heart skipped a beat at the sight of a girl sitting on the piece of rubble behind him cross-legged, leaning forward so their noses were almost touching, while she gave him a very interested look and absently reached behind her to pull at her long blue hair.

"So? Whatcha thinking about, Midoriya?" Nejire asked in a curious voice, beginning to tug her hair up to the back of her head, "I know you like to think fast, but I'm curious! Is it about class? Or after class? Or maybe even before class! Actually, while we're on that topic, why were you almost late for class? What did Toga-senpai want at lunch?"

"H-H-Hadou!" Izuku quickly jumped to his feet, his face bursting into flames as she grinned up at him.

"M-M-Midoriya!" She quickly imitated him, giving him a wave. "Hi!"

"I - wha - what are you doing?!" He managed to squeak out at last, watching as she began to tug her hair up, pulling a scrunchie out of nowhere so she could fix it into a ponytail, with a part of him internally wondering how the hell she did it so easily with how much hair she had, "I - I thought we were supposed to -"

"Hide!" She finished for him, nodding and grinning up at him. "I know! That's what we're doing, isn't it? Hiding? Thirteen-sensei didn't say anything about us hiding together, did she? Or maybe she did, though, and I wasn't listening carefully enough? But that doesn't matter, since I'm here now! I think eight minutes have gone by, so I don't think I can go find a new spot. Unless …" She suddenly faltered, looking unsure, "... well, if you don't want me here, I can leave."

"I - uh -" Izuku stammered, knowing that this is probably screwing up All Might's plan enormously - it would be hard to do a surprise with one of the people he's trying to surprise here - but at the slightly uncertain look on her face, Izuku acted automatically, shaking his head.

"I - n-no, Hadou, I - I don't mind -"

"You don't?!" Nejire gasped, delight suddenly blooming on her face, and quickly reached out to take his wrist. Izuku squeaked, but did nothing to resist as she pulled him down to sit beside her, automatically making Izuku blush redder as she sat a little closer than what he was expecting, close enough that their knees were pretty much touching.

"Okay, so! I have questions!" Nejire finished putting her hair up in the ponytail, patting her scrunchie once, and then leaning back as she gave him a big smile, seemingly oblivious of Izuku's fluster. "First things first - well, it's okay to talk, right? I don't think either of us were going to be those eight people who couldn't talk, right?"

"I - uh - I guess?"

"Great! Okay, so - I've been wondering. How do you know that Melissa girl who's in our group chat now? I'm not complaining, by the way, she seems really nice! Very happy! Very American! But that raises further questions - like how do you know someone from America? Did you go on vacation? Is that what your family does over the summer? But wait -" Her eyes widened, "- is she your girlfriend?"

"H-huh?!" Izuku squeaked again.

"Yeah! Your girlfriend!" Nejire continued to poke, flustering Izuku so much he didn't notice a strange level of anxiety in her voice. "Like - you went over to America for vacation, met her, and started flirting with her! Is that it?"

"Why do people keep asking me about my lovelife?" Izuku groaned to himself, feeling embarrassed, and quickly blinked as he realized Nejire had heard that, tilting her head. "A-ah, I mean - n-no, Hadou, she's - she's not my g-g-girlfriend. She's - she's the one who made my support item for me. We - no, I'm - I'm not d-dating her."

"Oooooh!" Nejire clapped her hands together, smiling in delight, although there was something … weird in her gaze that made Izuku falter for some reason. "So she's not your girlfriend? Okay! I had thought it was kinda weird, since you never brought her up before, but - well, we have only known each other for a week! Oooh, but wait a second, that makes me even more curious! New question -" She leaned forward, "- do you have a girlfriend? Not Melissa, just - anyone?"

"N-no!" Izuku quickly shook his head, and Nejire blinked in surprise.

"Oh - really? Have you ever dated before? Like - do you have an ex-girlfriend?"

"N-no! I - I've never- I don't - n-no."

"Really?" She looked surprised by that, which Izuku … didn't really understand, feeling his cheeks go red as she leaned slightly in. "But … well, that's weird, Midoriya."

"Huh?" Izuku faltered at that, looking at her in confusion - it was weird that he didn't have an ex-girlfriend? - and felt his mouth open to ask why she was so curious about -

"You're both so noisy."

Both teenagers felt their words die in their throats at the sound of a rough voice coming from the doorway - Nejire, realizing that something was wrong, and Izuku, realizing that he had gotten so caught up in the chaos of the girl in front of him that he had forgotten why he had been trying to hide by himself in the first place.

Slowly, they both looked around as the shadow of a large, spiked villain came into view, glaring down at the two of them through his gas mask as he cracked his knuckles.

"Heard you both a few hallways down," He let out a sinister chuckle, while Nejire's eyes widened at his size in comparison to them, "thought you two could hide away from your classmates for a little one-on-one time, huh?"

"A villain?!" Nejire gasped, and quickly leapt to her feet, moving quickly in front of Izuku as he likewise stood up, and raised her hands, a dangerous pout on her face as she began activating her quirk, and the villain threw his hand into the air -

- and then let out a familiar laugh, and used his hand to grab his mask and begin to lift it up, much to Izuku's surprise.

"No need to worry, Young Hadou, it's just me," All Might's grinning face appeared beneath the mask as he lifted it up to rest on the top of his head, smiling down at the two students as Nejire blinked in surprise, her quirk immediately dissipating, "my apologies about the surprise, but I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"Oh! All Might!" Nejire's battle-ready pose immediately vanished, hopping down from the perch she and Izuku had been sitting on so she could run over to her teacher with a bright smile. "It's just you! Hi! But wait - why are you dressed like that? So many spikes! You could stab someone's eye out with your shoulders! And your mask too! Wait, back to my first question, why are you dressed like that? What's going on? Did you get a new costume? Are you doing that 'darker and edgier' thing?"

"No, no," He chuckled, patting Nejire's shoulder while Izuku continued to look incredibly nervous behind her, "the truth is, Young Hadou, Young Midoriya here is actually going to assist me in an exercise I have planned - I'm going to be pretending to be a villain holding him hostage, while the rest of the class has to work together to defeat me. Unfortunately, I didn't quite account for Young Midoriya having a partner in this exercise when I came to collect him!"

"Oooooh," Nejire slowly understood, looking disappointed in herself, "I'm sorry, All Might. I ruined the surprise, didn't I?"

"Not at all!" All Might grinned at her. "Rather, Young Hadou, I think we can adjust our plan a little bit. How good are you at keeping secrets?"

"Pretty good!" She quickly perked up, looking excited as she clenched both her fists, "I can keep a secret, All Might, like when Yuuyu asked me to - wait, no, I can't tell you that, a secret's a secret. Oooh, but what do you want me to do? Can I change into a costume and be a bad guy too?"

"Well, not exactly," All Might chuckled, moving over to where Izuku was standing and looking confusedly between both of them, "what I have in mind is that you can head out to find your classmates, and yell about a villain appearing. Essentially, pretend that I just came out of nowhere and attacked! Do try and keep our secret, though, alright? Just so things don't get spoiled before we even arrive."

"Okay! Sounds good!" Nejire quickly saluted him, and began to run over to the entrance of the building so she could 'warn' her classmates - and then, just as she took one step outside, she paused, looking back at where Izuku was standing, and Izuku blinked as their eyes met. He felt a bit confused at the look on her face - one that looked slightly hesitant, and the way her mouth opened slightly as though to ask him something - before she quickly shook her head again, and took off, activating her quirk and flying away.

"Whew!" All Might chuckled, patting Izuku's shoulder and getting the smaller boy to look around at him, "Well, that was a close one, Young Midoriya - I had thought for a moment our surprise was in the gutter."

"Uh - y-yeah."

"In any case, I'm thankful that Young Hadou will be the only one who knows what we're up to - and that she'll be keeping our secret."

"… er … about that, All Might …" Izuku winced, looking away when All Might blinked in surprise, "… I … might have told Occhan and Kendou about - well, about what we're up to."

"Huh?" All Might felt his eyebrows raise. "But why?"

"So … uh … they don't see you holding my unconscious body and try to rip your head off."

"…"

"…"

"… that's … fair," All Might gave him, grimacing slightly, "I didn't … quite think of that."

"Y-yeah." Izuku awkwardly nodded, "And … also so they don't … you know … kill me for making them think I was in danger again."

"That's … also a good point. Well, in any case, Young Midoriya, Young Hadou will be on her way to warn your classmates - so let's get this started!"

Nodding in confirmation, Izuku loosened himself up as All Might grabbed the back of his gym shirt, carefully picking him up while Izuku went loose. They had gone over the plan while he was eating with Tenko, so All Might felt that they were both ready, lowering the mask over his face again as he began walking out of the destroyed room.

Still though, Izuku hoped All Might would take it a little easy on their classmates as the disguised pro hero walked out from Izuku's hiding spot, moving to stand at the end of the street.

"Are you ready, Young Midoriya?"

"Uh …" Izuku wasn't exactly sure how to answer that, seeing as his job was pretty much just to be limp in All Might's grasp and pretending to be unconscious, so he shrugged, "… I … guess so, All Might."

"Alright, then! Let's get this started!"

And with that, All Might raised his foot into the air, and then stomped down.

Hard.

Hard enough that a strong gust of dust and wind blew away from where he had slammed his boot against the ground, making Izuku squeak as he was temporarily blinded. The ground itself rumbled by the force of All Might's foot stomping down, shaking the entire ruined city as All Might began sauntering down the road, swinging his arms back and forth and making Izuku swing in his grasp.

Distantly, Izuku heard the sound of surprised shrieks and yelps down the road, indicating that he either ended up not hiding himself far away enough or that his classmates had been making their way towards his hiding spot. Still though, he gulped and tried to pretend to be unconscious as All Might walked menacingly down the street, praying that he didn't give away the game as he swung uselessly from All Might's grasp.

"It's a villain!" He heard Tenya shouting, and he tried hard to keep himself limp as he heard several footsteps moving towards them.

"What?!"

"They didn't catch him?! How?!"

"How can he be here?!"

"Was one of them hiding?!"

"W-wait - in his hand -!"

Izuku knew what they were talking about in that moment as the disguised All Might stomped closer, keeping himself limp and his head down as he heard several gasps and calls of his name, which made him feel very guilty. Oh, he was so getting his ass kicked after this.

"Someone, quickly! Hurry to Tensei!" Tenya ordered, and Izuku heard the sound of feet quickly beginning to run away - by the sound of the loud clopping, it was Pony who had decided to flee as All Might let out a low, menacing laugh.

"I won't let any of you escape," He shook his head, dropping his voice down to a far more menacing growl as he lifted his foot up again, and Izuku quickly squeezed his eyes shut so that the dust wouldn't kick up in his eyes, "I'll finish you all here!"

After some more rumbling and shrieking from the force of All Might's foot slamming into the ground, shaking the city again, Izuku dared to squeeze his eyes open slightly as All Might turned to look around - and gulped as he saw the nice big hole created by the impact of one freaking kick, creating a small arena trapping the entire class inside.

"Good," All Might continued to act as the confident and menacing villain, chuckling darkly, "now the terrain is clear. No one's going to be escaping now!"

"Everyone!" Izuku heard Thirteen calling from a distance away. "Run!"

BOOM

As entirely expected, the sounds of explosions blasted throughout the air as Katsuki rocketed towards them, a feral grin on his face. Izuku squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the loud boy shout in excitement and rage, and brought his arm down to blow All Might away - although the pro hero saw it coming from a mile away, quickly raising his arm to block the blow, albeit with a small wince as he easily threw Katsuki away.

"Well, would you look at that!" Katsuki sneered, bracing himself as he landed on his feet and threw his hands back up in the air, "One of you annoying fucks decided to hide. I made a promise, scum - I wouldn't be leaving this zone without you little Trigger idiots being in multiple pieces! The rest of you extras can run if you want - I'm taking this freak down!"

"Bakugou!" Itsuka shouted from where she was standing between Tenya and Momo, both of them looking fearful of the arriving threat and Itsuka looking annoyed because she knew exactly what was going on. "Get back over here! We need to come up with a plan!"

"Fuck that!" He barked, whipping a glare at her as explosions ignited in his palms. "The last time I trusted you fucks with a plan, the villains got away! You were in my way the first time - so sit back and watch how a real hero works!"

"As expected," All Might muttered to himself as Katsuki blasted towards him again, throwing out his fist to strike the disguised pro hero in the face. All Might easily blocked it, however, as he carefully kept Izuku from getting hurt as a side effect of his classmate's rough behavior, and threw out his own punch. This time Katsuki wasn't quick enough to dodge, grunting as All Might's large fist hit him in the shoulder and sent him spinning away, crashing against the ground as Eijirou quickly hurried over to help him up - but Katsuki shoved him away, snarling.

"I don't need help!" He shouted at him, making Eijirou blink down at him in surprise before the blonde boy blasted off again, making Eijirou stumble away from being hit by the recoil of the explosion, and All Might let out a small sigh.

"Well, Young Midoriya," He muttered to the student pretending to be unconscious, "looks like this is going to be rough. Hold on tight."

"Er … right."

"Don't worry - I imagine we're all going to have a good laugh over this after it's done!"

---

"YOU WENT OVERBOARD, MORON!"

Soon, the sounds of fists being thrown, yelps, and pleads of mercy filled the air of the ruins zone as several members of Class 1A, minutes after the supposed 'villain' had attacked them, began a rather merciless beatdown of the disguised pro hero, All Might letting out several cries of pain as he disappeared into a cloud of dust being kicked up by Hanta, Eijirou, Setsuna, Yosetsu, Pony and Denki continuing to pummel him with their fists and feet, while Itsuka and Ochako sighed and helped Izuku up from where he had been 'rescued' - although he would also like a 'rescue' from his very angry and tricked classmates.

The fight had turned out to be … well, no one really knew what All Might's ultimate goal was for this, but thankfully it seemed to have worked out. Class 1A had come together, despite Katsuki flying all over the place and knocking them around, to fight this mysterious villain holding Izuku 'hostage', with Itsuka eventually getting a bit of revenge in for her mentor's stupidity by grabbing Izuku and punching All Might in the chest with her enlarged fist, and thus gave the class an opening to go all out on the disguised teacher. Eventually, All Might had gotten pinned to the ground by Yosetsu sticking his arm there, with the pro hero unable to move, and one dramatic unmasking later revealed the grinning, disguised teacher, who admitted the surprise, and all of Class 1A figured out Izuku's involvement as he was sheepishly sat down on one of the broken pillars by his two training partners.

Which then followed was a beatdown of epic proportions, All Might unable to do anything to stop his students from kicking him other than pleads for mercy, while the rest of the class stormed over to Izuku and began yelling at him.

"That was utterly disgraceful, Midoriya!" Tenya lectured him, making several wild gestures in the air while Yui hummed in annoyance and gave a half-hearted smack to Izuku upside the head. "To trick your classmates so ruthlessly! Making us think that you were being held hostage! Did you not consider the feelings of Kendou and Uraraka?! To see you in such a state?!"

"Well, uh …" Ochako gulped nervously.

"We … kinda knew," Itsuka admitted, drawing several gasps from the class surrounding them while Ochako winced and looked sheepish, "he told us before so we didn't freak out."

"An' you decided not ta tell us?!"Pony yelled out in English, throwing her fists angrily into the air while Yui reached out and pinched Itsuka's cheek, making her grumble in annoyance and pain but did nothing to resist since she kind of deserved it. "This is all one big conspiracy, huh?! Makin' me look like an idiot for panickin'! Wha's next, Aizawa's gonna be all nice to us?! Bakugou's not gonna scream like a little bitch?! What else can I expect?!"

"I knew too!" Nejire threw her hand into the air, while Setsuna's head and arm came over to smack Izuku as well so the rest of her body could continue kicking All Might. "I ended up running into them while I was trying to hide."

"What?! Nejireeee!" Mina whined, running over to half-heartedly beat on the chest of the giggling girl while Yui poked Ochako's cheek, grinding it in and making the brown-haired girl weakly grumble. "You freaking knew?! Why didn't you say anything?!"

"Sorry, sorry! All Might made me promise not to tell! It's his fault!"

"What?! Young Hadou, I recognize I messed up, but please, there's no need to push me under the bus -!"

"You be quiet!"

"Come on, Hadou!" Kyouka groaned while Momo stared down at Izuku with such disappointment he felt a shame he hadn't felt since Miwa had found him and Ochako spilling juice on the carpet when they were kids, "We can't freaking pay you to shut up, and the only time you did was when All Might wanted to scare the crap out of us?"

"It was hard!" Nejire giggled as Mina continued to shake her, no one seeing Katsuki aiming a dirty look at Izuku as he began to stomp forward. "I wasn't even supposed to be there! All Might snuck up on us, and he made me promise not to tell anyone before he sent me running! Do you know how hard it is not to say anything? Huh? Huh? Midoriya, are you proud of me for not saying anything?"

"I … really don't know," Izuku sighed, grimacing as Eijirou paused his beating of All Might so he could come over with the clear intent of nuggying his friend, "I … definitely think I would be getting at a lot less."

"I wouldn't count on that," Reiko shook her head, pouting a bit as Fumikage likewise gave him a dramatically annoyed look and Dark Shadow shook its head, Tenko, Tensei and Thirteen watching on the side with amused looks as All Might got beat on, "I imagine that you'd probably be getting yelled at either way."

"I … guess so," Izuku sighed, shrugging to himself, but then the sound of feet stomping towards him made him realize that someone else was approaching, and glanced up to see Katsuki standing before him, glaring down at him with barely disguised contempt. Itsuka, who was getting her cheek pulled by Yui, and Ochako, who was awkwardly laughing off Tsuyu poking her in annoyance, quickly looked around at the taller boy as he glared down at Izuku, who felt suddenly uncertain and on edge.

"Er … hey, Kacchan," He found himself gulping, glancing up at Katsuki's face twisting slightly and feeling nervous, "I'm … well, I'm sorry for … yeah."

The expression on Katsuki's face only turned stormier and uglier by the second. His fist clenched slightly, sweat coming down his bare arm beginning to spark in tiny explosions, and Itsuka and Ochako quickly sat up, knowing the look on the boy's face as he gritted his teeth -

"Alright, that's enough," Aizawa suddenly stepped forward, causing everyone to jump a bit as they looked around at him, seeing their bandaged teacher walking towards them while Tensei and Thirteen shared a glance and Tenko quickly jogged over to their group, which quickly hid how the explosions on Katsuki's arms faded away at once as Aizawa looked at him, "you've all reprimanded Midoriya enough. Keep it verbal, not physical. Tokage, as funny as it is, stop hitting All Might with your foot."

Setsuna grumbled, and lowered the disembodied foot she had been using to wallop All Might in the head to reattach it to her leg.

"With that, class is dismissed," Aizawa looked around at the students, "you're all free to go and get back on the bus outside. Midoriya - Tenko here tells me you've got a fight with an upperclassman coming up, so don't bother changing out of your gym clothes. Head straight back to Gym Gamma, and make sure you don't keep him waiting."

"I - uh -" Izuku stammered, quickly straightening up from his spot - it wasn't exactly a fight he was about to get in - but unfortunately for him, many of his classmates blinked.

"What - a fight?" Yosetsu looked around at him from where he was refusing All Might's weak requests to be unweld from the ground, "You're fighting an upperclassman?"

"Uh - oh, n-no, I -"

"You mean," Momo raised an eyebrow, her normally kind voice sounding very cold, "that after you helped trick us into fighting All Might, you'll be getting into a fight in turn?"

"That," Denki grinned sinisterly, "I'd like to see."

"Yeah," Kyouka likewise smirked, "sounds like the perfect revenge, doesn't it?"

"I - I just -" Izuku tried to correct the misunderstanding, as more and more sinisterly grinning faces appeared on his classmates' faces, but before he could, Itsuka grew out her hand with her quirk again and wrapped it around him, lifting him up into the air as everyone looked up to her smirking face.

"Well, I guess that's that," She shrugged, smiling up at Izuku's paling face as she kept him in the air, "c'mon, everyone - we've gotta get this guy over to Gym Gamma for his little meeting with our senpai."

There was a large, collective cheer at that, while Izuku groaned and realized how much of his life was going to suck for the next hour or so as everyone began moving in a group towards the exit of the ruins zone, chatting excitedly about how much fun it was going to be to watch Izuku get the crap punched out of him just like he had sat back and watched them getting beaten up. With Tenya acting as the voice of reason, telling them that they shouldn't be taking too much pleasure in watching Izuku getting beaten up, the green-haired boy merely resigned himself to his fate, aware that telling them that he wasn't actually going to get beaten up wouldn't save him at all as he was carried away.

With Tenko jogging behind them to escort them out of the zone, Aizawa let out a sigh as he and the other three teachers stayed behind, his gaze flickering to the one person flagging behind the group while stomping his feet and gritting his teeth. Around him, Thirteen, Tensei, and All Might awkwardly rising from the ground by cracking the concrete he was welded to so he could get up, watched as Katsuki stormed away, turning to look at each other as they knew what Aizawa was clearly thinking, even with his entire face hidden by the bandages.

"So," Tensei sighed, leaning against one of the broken building supports as they watched the group of students leave, "I think I understand what you were saying about Bakugou now, Aizawa. He's really … what's the word …"

"Pigheaded?" Aizawa guessed for him, sighing and shaking his head, "I wouldn't say that, Iida, but what happened here really highlights what I was saying, doesn't it?"

"Especially with his 'watch me you extras' speech," Thirteen grimaced, shaking her head.

"Young Bakugou acted exactly as we suspected he would," All Might sighed, managing to break the ground he was stuck on into much smaller pieces, and checking that the students were far enough away before before he shrunk down in a burst of smoke, coughing as his shrunken form appeared, "he didn't work with his classmates at all to suppress me. Had this been an actual villain attack, I have no doubt that there would be injuries."

"So what do we do now?" Thirteen looked over to her coworkers, "Should we be taking him aside?"

"I don't think that would work," Aizawa shook his head, "all it would do is make him double down on his behavior, just like he's been doing the last few times he's been called out on it. As much as I hate to admit it, All Might, you might have a point - this is behavior that we'll have to squash before it grows out of control, and just reprimanding him will probably not work. He needs a reality check. Events like today, where he wasted time yelled at his classmates in a dangerous situation - that'll just end with people getting hurt. I think … I do have an idea, though."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"I'm thinking," Aizawa tilted his head, "that we'll have to force Bakugou into the one situation that he's probably more afraid of than anything - a situation where there's no chance of him winning on his own. Where he has to rely on someone else. Where there's no way he'll be able to succeed without the help of someone he considers beneath him."

"And …" Tensei looked confused, "... what would that be?"

"Well ... we're still planning the events for the sports festival. I've got an idea for the teams of our second round."

---

"Whoa!" Mirio's eyes went wide, giving the large crowd on the side a big grin as he put his hands down on his hips, "I didn't expect such a big crowd!"

"Uh … y-yeah, sorry, um - T-Togata-senpai," Izuku grimaced slightly, glancing over to where all of his classmates, with an exception of Katsuki, were chatting and giggling amongst each other as they stood with Tenko, Himiko and the guy who said his name was Tamaki, watching both Izuku and Mirio as they stood a few feet apart from each other in the middle of the gym, "I may have … uh … helped All Might prank them during our class today, so they're here to - uh -"

"Oh, I get it," Mirio nodded, flashing him a big thumbs up and grinning happily, "they want to see me kick your butt."

"Yeah, pretty much."

It had been about a half hour after they had left the USJ, and Izuku couldn't help but still feel like he was about to make a giant idiot out of himself in front of his entire class, glancing down at his hands and gulping. They had pretty much made their way here at once, everyone not bothering to change out of their costumes either as they convinced Tenko to let them watch, although Tenko had made it clear that if Izuku really didn't want them there they would have to leave, and their classmate wasn't actually going to fight Mirio. Thankfully, Izuku didn't mind them all watching, even if the reason they were doing this was pretty private.

At the moment, Izuku was standing on one side of the gym while his upperclassman stood on the other, taking a quick moment to stretch his legs, as though he was actually capable of dodging a lightning bolt, while the rest of the class stood on one side and out of firing range, watching curiously.

Well, most of them were, anyway.

"So! So, so, so, so, so! You're our upperclassman, right?" Nejire poked Tamaki's shoulder as she asked him question after question, making him shrink as he pressed his face firmly into the wall. "That's so interesting! Like, how are your classes? Are they hard? Ooh, actually, I have a question about the battle trials we did a week ago! We used fake bombs, but do you use real ones? I was curious about that! Wait, what's your quirk like? Is it good for disarming bombs? Huh? Huh?"

"Mirio," Tamaki quietly whined, "please come save me."

Unfortunately for the shy boy, there wasn't much Mirio could do, seeing as he was too busy doing a couple of side steps, grunting comedically as he threw out his arms, while Izuku looked more and more unsure about what they were doing by the second.

"So - this guy is gonna help Izuku out with his quirk?" Itsuka asked in an uncertain voice, glancing at Ochako who also likewise shrugged, and both girls looked around at Tenko curiously. But for Itsuka, she couldn't help but feel her brow furrow as she looked back at Mirio, seeing him goofily dancing around. For some reason, her mind kept going back to when they had come into the gym, when Tenko had pointed at the surprised Mirio and introduced him to the class.

Mirio Togata. She had definitely heard that name before, but from where?

"Is there something wrong with Midoriya's quirk?" Momo likewise looked curious and concerned, while Kyouka leaned against the wall beside her and tapped her earphone jacks absently together, "Is he alright?"

"Oh, no, Midoriya's fine - physically, that is," Tenko assured her while shaking his head, looking a bit awkward as he leaned against the wall, "I can't quite go into it due to Midoriya not giving me permission to, but essentially, we just want to make sure that Midoriya can use his quirk offensively against someone else after what happened at the USJ - and Togata here is the best candidate for us to do so safely."

"Right," Itsuka nodded, glancing over at Himiko and Tamaki, "and, uh … why is Toga-senpai and - uh - Amajiki-senpai - here for?"

"Well, Himiko is here just in case Midoriya injures himself -"

"He better not," Ochako pouted, staring straight at Izuku while he grimaced weakly at her.

"- and Amajiki is … uh …"

"He's here for emotional support!" Mirio laughed, jumping up and down one more time before landing and striking a pose.

"Er …" Setsuna glanced between both of them, eyeing the energetic guy and the one who looked like he was going to die if anyone met his eye, "… emotional support … for who?"

"Eh - kinda for me, kinda for him, that kinda thing."

"I wanna go home."

"After this, buddy! Now then, Midoriya - come at me!"

"Uh …" Izuku faltered as Mirio continued to pose dramatically, feeling more and more confused by the second, and then glanced over at Tenko as the rest of the class quieted down, "… before I … do that, uh - can I ask you one question, Tenko-sensei?"

"Sure, Midoriya. What's up?"

"Am I …" He pointed unsurely at Mirio, "… supposed to just … shoot at Togata-senpai?"

"Yep!" Tenko nodded happily. "That's the plan."

"O-oh, okay. Just, uh … well … I do have one problem with that plan."

"Hm? What's up?"

"I do not want to kill him."

Izuku winced at how blunty that had come out, but quite honestly he wasn't exactly sure about what exactly Tenko's plan was to get over using his quirk against others, other than it apparently required him to shoot someone in the face. So perhaps a bit of bluntness was necessary.

However, before Tenko could explain, blinking as he realized that he did kind of skip over that part, Himiko let out a loud laugh from where she was leaning against the wall, crossing her arms while Nejire glanced around interestingly at him and the entire class blinked at the apparent possibility of Izuku killing someone.

"Yeah, Tenko, I was wondering when you were going to get to that part," She poked fun at him while the dark haired young man blushed in embarrassment, and quickly glanced away as Itsuka and Ochako gave him a pair of unamused looks, "you can't really just tell one student to shoot another without explaining your thought process."

"I just thought it was going to be a demonstration," Tamaki muttered, pressing his forehead a bit firmer against the wall, "and he'd explain it as it went on."

"I think you'd be wrong about that, Tamaki baby."

"P-please don't call me that, Toga."

"Oh, hold on, did no one tell you?" Mirio asked interestingly, catching Izuku's attention again as he turned back towards him and saw the large grin on his senpai's face. "It's totally cool, kohai! Just shoot me with your quirk, it's all good."

"I … uh, well …" Izuku awkwardly glanced around, seeing his classmates beginning to look very confused as to what was going on before he looked back to Mirio, seeing Yosetsu and Denki raising their eyebrows a bit, "… I'm not … exactly sure about this, Togata-senpai. My - my quirk -"

"You can blast lightning out of your hands?" Mirio guessed, grinning when Izuku gave him a surprised look, "Yeah, Tenko ran it by me! You have difficulties using your quirk, and because of reasons that he didn't get into, you don't want to use it against other people because you're afraid of hurting them with it."

"I … well, yeah."

"Cool! Like I said, Midoriya, it's all good - I won't get hurt. Shoot me in the face!"

"U-uh -"

"Or - okay, how about we do this instead?" Mirio suddenly changed tactics, hopping up from where he had been doing his weird poses, and Izuku blinked as he brightened up and raised a finger into the air. "The future's gonna be …?"

Izuku stared blankly at Mirio as he leaned forward, a hand to ear as though waiting for him to shout something back to him. On the side, the entirety of Class 1A began feeling like they were missing something, with Yui tilting her head, Momo wrinkling her brow in confusion, Tenya pausing his notetaking to glance between them with uncertainty, Pony raising her eyebrow, Eijirou wondering why they weren't fighting yet, and Ochako and Itsuka beginning to feel exasperated for Izuku's sake.

"…"

"…"

"… grim!" Mirio finished his apparent one-liner, the confident grin never leaving his face. "That's what you were supposed to say, right? Alright! Looks like my attempt to break the ice totally failed."

"T-that was supposed to break the ice?!" Izuku's jaw dropped, completely and totally exasperated. Tenko grimaced weakly at the side, realizing that this had gone completely pear-shaped, while Setsuna and Mina had to continuously fight down their giggles at how goofy this had turned out to be, while Himiko wasn't bothering to hide her snorts. The rest of the class, meanwhile, were seriously starting to wonder if they were being punked.

"Okay! Well, this is getting us absolutely nowhere!" Mirio put his hands down on his hips, smiling at his very confused kohai. "I mean, I can't really blame you - from an outside perspective, this would look kinda weird, right? Your senpai just kinda showed up and is asking you to shoot him in the face! That'd make anyone hesitate, wouldn't it?"

"Uh … yeah, kinda," Izuku slowly nodded.

"Hmmmmm …" Mirio thought for a moment, looking off to the side - and then he blinked, and quickly dropped his fist into his open palm as something obviously came to him. "I've got it, Midoriya! How about this …"

Izuku suddenly felt a chill crawl up his spine as MIrio turned to look at him again - but no kind smile was on his face now. Now, it looked like Mirio had just seen something he really liked - and in a rather bad way - and was slowly moving down to a crouch, his grin growing more confident and his eyes narrowing slightly. Ochako, who had been leaning against the wall beside Itsuka, suddenly straightened up, feeling a disturbance in her 'Izuku's about to get in trouble' senses, and Nejire likewise finally silenced her rapidly increasing questions to Tamaki, looking around feeling her own smile fade as Itsuka also seemed to realize something was about to happen, her shoulders tensing slightly.

"If you need motivation to shoot me in the face," Mirio's voice had dropped some, making Izuku begin to shake at the sudden menace, "then why don't I just give you some? It's not like you can hurt me anyway …"

"Uh …" Izuku gulped, "… T-Togata-senpai?"

"I've got it, Midoriya," Mirio nodded, "let's fight! For real!"

"F-fight?!"

"Yep!"

And without any more warning, Mirio charged. Izuku felt himself flinch in surprise as the much larger boy came running at him a lot faster than he expected, his fists throwing back as he crossed the gym in an instant it seemed. Everyone near the wall jumped in surprise, Itsuka and Ochako having to immediately restrain themselves as the much taller boy threw his fist towards Izuku's face. Izuku let out a squeak and ducked out of reflex, barely dodging his senpai's thrown blow as he jumped back, and Mirio let out a laugh.

"Don't worry! I won't go all out just yet!" He leapt back at Izuku as the smaller boy barely moved out of the way again, "That's not the point of this exercise, anyway! If I wanted to fight for real -"

"T-Togata-senpai! Just - wait a sec -"

"- then this fight would've already been over! But you use your quirk whenever, Midoriya!"

"Whoo!" Eijirou cheered at the side. "Kick his ass, Mido-bro!"

"You got this, Midori!" Mina encouraged him.

"Break a leg," Mezo nodded, although he blinked as he realized this may or may not be the wrong thing to say during a fight.

"Rip his shirt off." Yui requested, her eyes on Mirio's arms, which made Tenya pause as he realized what she said and then immediately whip around to start shouting at her for her pervertedness.

"Kick his butt!"Pony threw her hands in the air and cheered him on.

"Kick him in the nuts!" Yosetsu yelled.

"Don't die, kero." Tsuyu decided to offer.

Izuku wanted to try to protest all the shouts of encouragement that were being sent his way, but Mirio wasn't exactly giving him much chance to think as his fist was thrown back out, and this time Izuku wasn't able to jump out of the way in time. He grunted as he was punched straight in the shoulder, and was spent spinning away with a noise of pain and surprise - good god, that hurt!

But Mirio wasn't giving him much chance to recover, leaping up into the air with his feet angled at him -

- and as Izuku looked up at him, eyes widened in shock and pain, he found himself stopping.

Instead of seeing Mirio leaping into the air, his feet angling down to kick Izuku directly in the chest - instead, Izuku found himself envisioning someone else immediately coming to his eye, making him stop in his tracks. The vision of a man in a ripped black sweater and ripped jeans, blood flying from his flayed skin. The hood around his head casting his face in shadow, but the bloodthirsty grin and insane yellow eyes still somehow visible.

Izuku only paused for a moment, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping slightly as a shudder passed through him - and then quickly jerked to the side as Mirio stomped down, his feet hitting the floor with a loud clap. As soon as Izuku hit the floor again, grunting as he skidded away, the apparition of the hooded man disappeared, and Mirio was back in his place, looking around at Izuku with an excited grin as the younger boy quickly scrambled to his feet.

Izuku quickly shook his head, attempting to refocus - he had no idea what that was all about, but Mirio was still coming at him, and -

BAM

Izuku grunted, and the crowd let out a few 'oohs' and cringes of sympathy, as Mirio rewarded his kohai for his hesitation with a fist right to the side of his eye, his head jerking back. Himiko let out a small hiss, and both Itsuka and Ochako felt their fists clench, having to pretty much restrain themselves from charging out and helping their training partner, as Itsuka grabbed Ochako's wrist and gave it a small squeeze, and Nejire found her smile falling, her eyes widening, and a small pout appearing on her face as Mirio let out a triumphant laugh.

Izuku stared blankly ahead for a moment, his hand automatically raising up - and then he glanced back up at Mirio as he threw his fist back again, ready to give him another good punch. Once again, Izuku found his mind wandering as he stared up at his senpai - and then he blinked, and he was gone. Instead of a joyful, happy Mirio about to punch his lights out, again, it was the large, terrifying hooded man glaring down at him, a wide, bloodthirsty grin beneath the hood. The bright eyes that showed how excited he was to make Izuku suffer.

A large, cold bolt of fear ran through Izuku.

And a slight buzzing sound, accompanied by a flicker of electricity on his palm and a sudden pop of sparks, was all the warning Mirio got about what was going to happen.

KRACK-BOOM

All of Class 1A, Himiko, Tamaki and Tenko practically jumped out of their skins as a sudden blast of green lightning shot out of Izuku's palm and straight towards Mirio, the older boy too close to dodge out of the way in time. The bolt of lightning curved and struck the ceiling of the gymnasium, a loud explosion of sound immediately blasting in their eardrums and making Kyouka cringe as she held her hands over her ears in pain, and a large cloud of dust kicked off from where Izuku had fallen over, hiding him and Mirio from sight.

For a moment, Izuku stared blankly ahead, not even noticing the sting of his arm from the blast - and then the realization of what he had done came to him. He couldn't see or hear Mirio, and he had just shot him point blank in the chest. Immediately, panic filled him.

"T-Togata-senpai!" He gasped out, sitting up at once and beginning to scramble to his feet. "Are - are you -?!"

"Whew! That was a close one!"

Izuku blinked at the sound of a boyish, happy voice coming right in front of him - not sounding at all like he had been hit by lightning.

"Togata-senpai?"

"Yep!" Mirio laughed within the dust, and Izuku felt his jaw drop at a familiar silhouette beginning to appear in the cloud of dust, feeling himself begin to stare in shock. That - that wasn't possible. The bolt of lightning had been aimed right at Mirio's chest, and - and there would've been no way to dodge out of the way in time.

So how - how did he -

Feeling himself shake his head lightly, Izuku quickly waved his reddening and stinging hand in the air, attempting to get some of the dust cleared as the familiar shape in the cloud shifted - and then, as Mirio came back into view, Izuku let out a squeak, his face going red at once.

As the dust cloud finally dissipated, Class 1A and Tenko felt a bit of relief pass through them as the two boys came into view - and then every student in the class felt their jaws drop, and Tenko let out a small groan of exasperation.

"Whew! That was great!" Mirio gave Izuku a big thumbs up, completely unharmed from the blast of lightning while being very naked all of a sudden, putting his other hand on his hip as he smiled down at his kohai staring up at him in silent shock. "I know what Tenko was talking about now - hoo, boy does your quirk pack a punch!"

"Oh, whoa!" Itsuka shouted, her own face exploding in a blush as she quickly averted her gaze to the ground, Ochako squeaking and doing the same while Nejire went a bit red.

"Ho-ly shit!" Setsuna likewise yelled, not exactly looking away but feeling hot around the collar all of a sudden.

Yosetsu, Denki, Fumikage and Hanta quickly looked away, although Hanta saw Setsuna staring at the naked older boy in shock and felt himself frown.

Pony quickly covered her face, although she subtly let one eye poke out.

Tenya felt his jaw drop, completely taken aback.

Yui tilted her head, heat filling her cheeks.

Momo very politely turned right around and faced the wall, while Kyouka let out a high-pitched squeak and quickly covered her eyes with her arms.

Fumikage and Reiko, who had been standing together at the side in silence, took one look at their naked senpai, and immediately turned on their heels and walked out of the gym.

Tsuyu let out a gasping ribbit, and quickly looked away, Mezo raising his multiple arms to block her from the sight as he cleared his throat.

Eijirou knew, right then and there, that he was going to be questioning a lot of things about himself that night as a blush began burning on his cheeks.

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-you're -" Izuku stuttered out before he whipped his gaze to the floor, his face burning bright red, and quickly wrapped his arms around his head as Mirio stood there in slight confusion, glancing up at the rest of the students and blinking at them all averting their gazes.

"Huh?" He glanced around. "What's up?"

"Mirioooooooo," Himiko called from the side in a sing-song voice, giggling, "we can see your peepeeeeee!"

"My what?" Mirio wrinkled his brow, looking around his friend in confusion, while Tenko slapped a hand to his face - and then he seemed to realize what everyone was deliberately not looking at, quickly looking down and realizing that he was, by all extents and purposes, suddenly flashing nearly everyone in Class 1A, who were looking more and more traumatized by the second while Mirio's gym clothes pooled around his feet.

"Oh! S-sorry about that, Midoriya!" He quickly scrambled to grab his pants, putting them on in a hurry as Tamaki glanced behind his shoulder, blushed, and then looked back at the wall. "My quirk is just kinda - well, yeah, the fine-tuning's pretty tricky! Sorry about giving you an eyeful there."

"Y-your quirk?" Izuku mustered up the courage to glance up at Mirio, thankful that he was now at least wearing a pair of pants as the older boy extended his hand down, and Izuku felt at least safe enough to accept it as Mirio pulled him up to his feet, Izuku wincing at the bruises on his face and where he had been kicked in the side. "W-wait a second …"

Izuku found his gaze whipping down to Mirio's midsection, expecting a large burn mark there but he was unharmed. Mirio looked completely fine, despite being shot point blank by his quirk. But how -?

- wait a moment.

"Your quirk …" Izuku slowly said, putting the pieces together in his head as he looked back up at his senpai, "… it's …?"

"Permeation!" Mirio cheerfully explained. "I'm sorry about making you see my willy there, but you kinda caught me off guard, so I didn't have time to just lose my shirt! Anyway, I can totally see what Tenko was talking about - your quirk is crazy strong! If I had just been a second too slowly, I would probably be in the ceiling right now! And not warping through it, by the way, but like - actually stuck in it. Like those cartoons where you fall out and there's an imprint of you left there from how hard you hit it."

"Permeation …" Izuku slowly brought his hand up to his chin, staring at his senpai in wonder, "So - so you have the ability to slip through things? That's - that's amazing!"

"Oooooooooooooooooh!" As entirely predicted, Nejire immediately charged across the gym towards them, sliding up next to Izuku and looking up curiously at Mirio as he looked around at her with an interested grin. "So does that mean you can walk through walls? But wait, you were just naked, so - oooh, that makes sense! But back to my question, you can walk through walls, right?"

"That I can!" He laughed, more than happy to indulge Nejire as she hopped up and down. "If I activate my quirk through my entire body, I'm pretty much intangible - my body can go through anything. The floor, the wall, even you! I think that's why Tenko wanted us to spar today, Midoriya -" He turned back to Izuku, "- there's no way that you would be able to hurt me with your quirk. By the way, did you know that when you use your quirk, your hands spark?"

"Y-yeah, I - I do know. It's - it's how I know my quirk's about to activate - sparks before lightning."

"So that's your tell! I was thinking before you blasted me that you were about to do something, so that's good to know for later! Palms spark, lightning comes out."

"But - but what else can your quirk do?!" Izuku excitedly asked, while Mirio grinned and crossed his arms and Nejire bounced around beside him. "You said you could go through anything - so you're able to go underground? How can you see? Or breathe?"

"Oh, I can't! You see …"

As the three of them blabbered on, Izuku whipping out his notebook to write and Mirio not missing a step as he moved around to have a look at what his kohai was writing, Itsuka and Ochako let out a few relieved sighs as they tried to calm down their red faces, and looked around at Tenko as the teaching assistant likewise began writing down a few notes on his pad while humming to himself.

"So, uh …" Ochako glanced between Izuku and Mirio, relieved that their senpai had his pants back on, and then turned back to their teacher, "… was that what you were expecting, Tenko-sensei?"

"Hm … not exactly," Tenko admitted, shaking his head while glancing back up, "Midoriya was clearly in a state of panic when he fired at Togata, and … well, that's not exactly what we were aiming for. We want to make sure he can fire one off while he's calm and collected, so …"

Clearing his throat, he called out to the two talking boys.

"Midoriya!" Izuku quickly looked around at the teaching assistant, seeing most of the girls in the class still awkwardly looking away from Mirio's half-nakedness (with the obvious exceptions of Yui and Pony) and Himiko leaning up against the wall to poke Tamaki's cheek again, the shy boy quickly turning away from her as she teased him. "Before we stop for today - good job, by the way, Togata, even if it's not exactly what we had in mind -"

"Thanks!"

"- but anyway, Midoriya - now that you know how Togata's quirk works, do you mind trying to fire off your quirk again?"

"Huh?" Izuku blinked, and then realized what Tenko was asking him to do, quickly nodding. "Oh - oh, yeah! Y-yeah, we can - let's try again."

"Great!"

With that, Nejire quickly ran back over to the rest of the class leaning against the wall, everyone watching as Izuku hurried back to his spot and Mirio tossed his shirt aside for Himiko to snatch out of the air, laughing a bit as he jumped back down to a pose, and Izuku took a small breath as he raised his hand again, aiming it directly towards Mirio. Everyone quickly quieted down, watching as Izuku squinted one eye closed, taking careful aim as Mirio grinned confidently - and then he faltered.

Izuku was … admittedly still unsure about this, but … well, he could definitely see where Tenko was coming from, fighting against someone who could literally phase through his attacks. It was just … well …

"Uh … Tenko-sensei?" He glanced back over at the teacher on the wall, "Can I ask you something?"

"Hm? What's up?"

"It's just … well," He sighed, and straightened up slightly, lowering his arm, "I - I can see where we're going with this, but - well, would it really help me if I already know that Togata will just phase through my attack? I mean - most of the people I'm gonna go up against can't do that so … agh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to question -"

"No, no," Tenko shook his head, a smile appearing on his face as he straightened up, "I think I see what you're trying to ask here, Midoriya. You're right, in the long run, fighting Togata here isn't going to be the same as fighting someone in your class, and we might run into a similar problem down the road. But I want you to consider a few things."

Jogging forward, Tenko stood beside Izuku, while the entire class glanced between the both of them curiously, and Mirio straightened up where he had been posing.

"First of all, we've established that you don't have any problems using your quirk at full blast," Tenko reminded him, "but only if it's not against someone else - you're alright with firing it in the air, but not against anyone. Secondly, you might not have it right now, but you have the Full Gauntlet, which minimizes your quirk's output and allows you to use it safely - but you've only ever really used it against robots. Fighting Kendou and Uraraka in the battle trial, you didn't use it at all. And thirdly, the only time that you've been able to use your quirk against someone else was at the USJ, and that was in a life-or-death situation."

While Izuku frowned at the reminder, Tenko put his hands in his pockets, "The reason you use the Full Gauntlet, let me remind you, is that you want to use it until you have a handle of your quirk. And as much as I hate to admit it, full mastery of your quirk isn't going to happen by the end of the week. It's something that we'll have to work with over time - both control of your quirk, and your mindset while using it. What we're aiming for here, Midoriya, is to get you into the mindset of using your quirk offensively against someone else. While using Togata here might be considered cheating since he's able to make himself intangible, he's still the safest student here to help you out with your quirk. Once you're comfortable fighting him, and we help you figure out how to use your quirk offensively, we can start experimenting with fighting against other people."

Izuku slowly nodded, while everyone glanced between each other - and then Mirio let out a small noise, prompting everyone to look at him as he smacked one fist into his open palm again, looking like a lightbulb popped over his head.

"I got it!" He jogged over, grinning down at his kohai, "How about this, Midoriya - if you don't want to shoot me in the face, I guess I can't make you - well, I can make you, but I don't think you'd appreciate it if I'm trying to make you shoot me with a bolt of lightning while I'm trying to punch you. So how about we spar a few more times next week? My internship is going on a break, so I'll be around the school more often."

"I - really?" Izuku blinked, staring up at his senpai in shock. "I - I wouldn't want to -"

"You wouldn't be bothering me," Mirio shook his head, grinning, "I'd be more than happy to help you out with this. And that extends to the rest of you as well!" He suddenly wheeled around, all the students on the wall blinking as he pointed to them. "My offer isn't just for Midoriya - I'd be more than happy to help you guys out if you wanted to spar, and I'm sure Tamaki and Himiko over there would love to as well!"

"Yes!" Himiko grinned happily, hopping a bit as she smirked and looked around at a few select students, "I'd love to get some one-on-one time with a few of you."

"You mean all of you." Tenko raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that thing."

"S-sparring?" Tamaki muttered, looking more and more awkward by the second as a few people looked at him, "I - I don't know - uh -"

"Oh, man," Eijirou pumped his fists, "no way I can turn something like that down!"

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good to me," Hanta chuckled, glancing at Setsuna as she straightened up as well, "getting a few pointers from third years? That sounds pretty good, doesn't it, tush bro?"

"Dude," She leaned over and muttered to him, her eyes alight with delight as he grinned at her, "this is exactly what I need. Hell to the fucking yes I'll try and kick our senpai's ass."

"Just don't be surprised if - or probably when - he ends up kicking your ass."

"Hey, it is an ass worth kicking."

"…"

"… okay, I'll admit, that one sounded a lot better in my head."

"I mean," Itsuka shrugged, glancing at Ochako with her own grin, "… I guess experience is experience, no matter how we get it. If one of our senpai's is offering to spar with us, we probably shouldn't turn it down. How about you? Interested?"

"Of course!" Ochako clenched her fist, while everyone else began muttering excitedly about getting some bonus training in. "I'm getting pumped up just thinking about it!"

"Alright!" Tenko suddenly called for attention, causing everyone to falter in their conversations as he put his notebook under his arm and looked around, "I guess if we've got that out of the way, and if you're all cool with eventually doing some training with Togata, Amajiki and Toga here -"

"Oh, please, no," Tamaki whined silently.

"- we should probably wrap it up! School let out a half hour ago, so I imagine that you guys'll want to be heading home soon. So head to the changerooms and start getting changed, and I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow! I start working with Ingenium and Aizawa on times you guys can meet up with Togata - and maybe I'll talk to Vlad King as well to see if we could extend this to Class 1B as well. A few early joint-training lessons here or there would probably do you guys a world of favors."

Everyone quickly nodded and agreed to start heading home, and from there, their small 'class' was dismissed, with Mirio hurrying forward to grab both Tamaki and Himiko around the shoulders to hurry them out, Himiko complaining about him pressing his sweaty naked body up against her while Tamaki wasn't sure if he should feel embarrassed or thanking every god above. Once they were out, with Mirio giving their underclassmen a wave as they left, Class 1A started to head towards the changerooms, realizing they were still in their hero costumes covered in dust from their fight with All Might, and in desperate needs of a few showers.

As they all moved out of the gym, Izuku let out a small sigh and jogged over to where Ochako and Itsuka were waiting for him near the wall, Itsuka looking around at where Mirio and his friends had went with a small, unsure look on her face.

"So, uh …" Izuku rubbed the bruise on his eye, wincing slightly, "... that was … certainly a thing, huh?"

"Yeah," Ochako nodded, reaching out and brushing her finger against the bruise on his face and making him wince, quickly withdrawing her hand and giving him an apologetic look, "Oh, uh - sorry, Deku. Anyway, we should probably -"

"Hey, guys."

Both Izuku and Ochako blinked at how quiet Itsuka's voice was, looking around at her in confusion. She was still staring after where their upperclassmen had vanished, a small frown on her face as she scrunched her brow slightly, clearly thinking.

"Uh … Kendou? What's up?"

"Nothing, just …" She slowly shook her head, biting her lip slightly before glancing back over at her friends, "… Mirio Togata."

"Er …" Ochako glanced at Izuku unsurely, "… yeah? What about him?"

"I'm … I was just thinking, but … is it just me, or have we heard that name before?"

Izuku and Ochako blinked at that, glancing between each other again as Itsuka glanced between them - and then they faltered again, feeling their eyes widen.

"Wait …" Izuku glanced down at his feet, his mind beginning to work, "now that you mention it … I … think we have?"

"Yeah," Ochako slowly nodded, thinking, "I - yeah, we have. Now that you mentioned it, Kendou, yeah, we - we've definitely heard his name before. But … from where?"

The three of them quietly glanced down at their feet, attempting to remember where exactly they had first heard Mirio's name and drawing a blank - but then Itsuka shook her head, letting out a small sigh as she reached out to lightly punch Izuku's shoulder, getting both their attentions.

"It's … I guess it's not too important right now," She laughed a bit, "it'll probably come to me in the middle of the night and I'll feel stupid. Anyway, I really need a shower - Midoriya, do you mind waiting a little bit longer for us? We might take a while in the changing room."

"Huh? Oh, uh, right," Izuku blinked, quickly nodding, "I don't mind waiting. You guys can take however long you need."

"Well, when you put it like that," Ochako giggled, "I guess we'll see you in half an hour, then, Deku."

"Half an - no, never mind, I'm not waiting that long."

"Ouch!"

Laughing, the trio walked together out of Gym Gamma and towards the changing room, both girls splitting away from him as Itsuka pushed the door open, Izuku distantly hearing the sound of showers going.

"We'll probably take about ten minutes, Deku," Ochako promised as she waved to her best friend, and Izuku smiled as they both headed inside. Taking a second to sigh and stretch his back slightly, he began walking towards the guys' changing room, wanting to take his own shower and wincing as he brushed his hand against the bruise on his face.

He was a bit stiff and sore after everything today - from being manhandled by All Might carrying him around like a sack of potatos, to getting into a fight with Mirio that resulted in a black eye and a bruised side, and the fact that he fired off a bolt of lightning at full blast was catching up to him, making him wince as he waved his hand in the air. Maybe a warm shower would help him out with the bruises -

"Oh, does it hurt?"

At the curious voice behind him, Izuku straightened up quickly, his eyes going wide as he looked around. Sure enough, Nejire was watching him waving his hand in the air, blinking curiously at how red his arm looked, and moved out of the gym to give it a closer look.

"Oh, uh - Hadou," Izuku quickly blinked, taking a step back from the changing room door, "I - I thought you had already -"

"Left?" She guessed, giggling when he went a bit red, and she shook her head. "Nah, I think everyone kinda needs a shower today after what happened at the USJ, and there aren't a lot of stalls in the showers, you know? Like, did you ever notice there's more girls in class than there are boys? So I'm okay with waiting! I'm not sure if anyone in our class would be okay with me sharing their showerhead, and I take a while to wash all my hair."

"Er - yeah," Izuku slowly nodded, although he could feel his cheeks burning at their topic of discussion - really, he had no business talking to a girl about showers - but then Nejire caught his attention again by smacking her hand into her open palm, reminiscent of when Mirio had done it.

"But anyway!" She suddenly hopped forward, standing right in front of him and putting her hands behind her back as she smiled up at him. "Midoriya, I remember what I was gonna ask you earlier."

"Huh?" Izuku blinked again, staring down at her in surprise. "Earlier?"

"Yeah! When we were hiding together! And then All Might interrupted us and made me run away. Which kinda sucked, because I was asking you questions, but anyway! That doesn't matter right now. So - Midoriya."

She straightened up, and Izuku - well, for some reason, he felt like something was off. Nejire was giving him a look of such utter seriousness, it took him aback - he was so used to seeing her peppy and joyful, seeing her without any kind of smile on her face made his heart quicken slightly - but for some reason, it wasn't an uncomfortable feeling.

"So - I have a question for you."

"Uh …" Izuku faltered a bit - he had the strangest feeling that something was going on here, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what - "… y-yes, Hadou?"

"I was wondering …" Nejire hesitated, and then glanced away, her cheeks going a bit pink. Izuku was feeling more and more confused by the second, and was about to open his mouth to ask if she was feeling okay, when she suddenly asked, in a hurried tone, "… are you doing anything this Friday? After school?"

"Uh - F-Friday?" Izuku repeated, blinking a bit at the odd question, and glanced to the side, trying to remember if he had anything going on that day after school - and being completely unaware of Nejire stealing a small glance at him, looking hopeful. "I … uh … I don't think so. I - I assume training for the sports festival, but - n-no, I - I don't think I have anything planned."

"G-great!" Nejire stuttered a bit, a smile slightly reppearing before she saw Izuku's confused look, "I mean - well, not great, but - uh - well, I was wondering, um - if you aren't busy - maybe you'd wanna - uh -"

Izuku felt his own cheeks starting to burn, for some reason, staring down at Nejire as she clearly tried to muster up the courage to say whatever she wanted to say - and then she let out a tense breath, and nodded to herself.

"- I was wondering if you … maybe … wanna do some training with me?" She offered, which made Izuku blink in surprise. "I was thinking of going to a beach near my house to do a few laps on it - I do a bit of running, you know - and I thought that I'd - y'know, maybe ask if you wanted to come with me. Yuuyu's got a meeting with her class on that day, so it'll just be me, and it's kinda a busy beach, so I thought if you came with me, I wouldn't have to worry about guys trying to hit on me -"

"Uh …"

"Oh! Wait, I'm - I'm just rambling." Nejire giggled nervously, which made Izuku more and more confused - since when had she ever been nervous? "W-what do you say, Midoriya?"

"Er - uh -" Izuku stammered for a second, feeling his face continue to go red as Nejire gave him another hopeful look - but still, he found himself nodding. "- I - I guess so? I - I mean - y-yeah, we can - if you wanted to do some training, I can - I can come with you?"

"Really?!" She suddenly gasped, surprising him as her eyes lit up, and he gave her another awkward nod.

"Y-yeah," Izuku confirmed, trying to give her a shaky smile, "it - it sounds like fun."

"Great." Nejire slowly nodded, speaking in a quiet voice - and then she straightened up, her wide smile returning full force and making him wince at the sudden brightness emmiting from her. "Great! That's - that's super! Awesome! I'll send you a text later about where we're going, and what we'll need to wear!"

"I - uh - s-sure. Yeah."

"Oh, and bring your wallet, too! If you want, we can go out for dinner afterwards! I'll buy, but y'know, you shouldn't go anywhere without your wallet, just to be safe! Because I've forgotten my wallet before, and it was super embarrassing when I went grocery shopping and I didn't have any money to pay the cashier. Oooooh, that's a bad memory."

"Er - I - I guess so," Izuku nodded, letting out a small laugh at the thought of Nejire having no wallet to pay an unamused cashier while Nejire giggled along with her, and she quickly moved away over to the changing room, Izuku looking around to see Tsuyu exiting the showers and giving them both a wave as she headed out of the gym. Izuku couldn't quite concentrate on that, however, as he found himself taken aback by the odd pep in Nejire's step as she opened the door.

"But anyway, we're going to have so much fun on Friday!" She gushed, giving him a big smile as she leaned against the door, "I'm really excited! We're going to have an awesome date!"

"Yeah," Izuku nodded, smiling and laughing as she beamed back at him, "that sounds -"

And that was when what she had said finally registered to him, making Izuku stop right in his tracks.

Nejire, of course, didn't notice as she practically skipped into the changing room, humming happily to herself as she shut the door behind her, while Izuku froze where he was standing, the last word the blue-haired fairy had said echoing around in his mind. He stood there for about a minute, not even noticing Yosetsu and Denki awkwardly coming out of the changing room and having to move around him, giving him an odd look as he stood there, blinking - and then, slowly, all the blood in his body went to his face as his jaw dropped, making him feel suddenly light-headed.

"- we're going to have an awesome what?" He squeaked.