Izuku had just barely avoided being elected class president. Iida had taken that job and Yaoyorozu
had earned her place as vice president .
"Why would anyone vote for me?" Izuku wondered as he sat down to eat with Ojiro, Shouji, and Katsuki. Kaminari, Kirishima and Ashido had settled into orbit about their group but were caught up in a conversation of their own.
"Well, you seem responsible," Ojiro said.
Izuku considered this assessment and found it ridiculous. "How would anyone know? We haven't even had a real homework assignment yet. We barely know each other."
"You just... seem responsible," Shouji said with a helpless shrug.
"You do, and I ought to know given how long I've been your neighbor," Kacchan said. Izuku gave him a half-hearted glower.
"Well..." he certainly didn't feel worthy of being class president, "even if I were, I've got way too many problems of my own. I wouldn't have the time to do a good job." He really did have enough problems already.
"It's not like it matters anymore, right?" Ojiro pointed out carefully, correctly surmising that Izuku was referring to the aftershocks of past kidnapping. "You're back and you're here to stay and nobody even knows about any of that except the four of us." And Aizawa.
"That doesn't mean it doesn't take up a lot of my time and energy," Izuku sighed. Shouji nodded understandingly. "I wouldn't just get over something like that, either."
"Seriously, they would have been much better off electing Shouji than me," Izuku said. "Wha--me?" the other boy responded, jerking back.
"Yeah. You're really nice and you always seem to know what you're doing, and what everyone else should be doing for that matter."
Shouji furrowed his brow. "I do not know exactly how you got this impression of me. I am... absolutely clueless and lots of people find me intimidating."
Katsuki snorted. "That's just 'cause you're tall."
"I think it's because I have a lot of arms and this funny mask," Shouji replied.
"Nuh-uh. It's 'cause you're tall," Kacchan insisted. Ojiro glanced between them, evidently unsure whether he should take this discussion at all seriously. Izuku wasn't sure, either.
An alarm abruptly blared from the ceiling demanding all students evacuate the building . Izuku found himself crouching on the floor, scanning every direction for threats. Shouji groaned, "god why is that so loud?" Well, the volume made the idea of ignoring the alarm and remaining in the building completely untenable... but exit seemed to be untenable, too, because the hallways were jam-packed with people already.
"Window," Izuku said, making his way to the nearest one. Katsuki raised a hand--"Don't blow it up! We can open it without destroying it!" Izuku protested hurriedly.
The greenette tripped the latches and Shouji pulled the window open. Izuku, as the smallest and most agile, swung himself out of the building and began to spider-climb down the bricks. He was going to have to drop most of the way, though-- there simply weren't enough handholds. Izuku tucked and log rolled as he hit the grass then jumped to his feet and cleared out of the landing zone .
Katsuki lunged out the window and broke his fall with Explosion. Shouji and Ojiro achieved egress in much the same way Izuku had, then Shouji caught three panicking general education students who had jumped out after them with no plan whatsoever to avoid injury .
"This may be getting out of hand," Ojiro said as Shouji dived to catch a fourth student who had attempted to climb down the wall and failed dramatically.
As quickly as the flow of fleeing students began, it ceased. "Huh. Wonder what happened?" Kacchan asked.
The alarm itself fell silent perhaps thirty seconds later. "Should we... go back in?" Ojiro wondered.
"Dunno." Katsuki launched himself into the air with Explosion, catching the edge of the windowsill and blinking. "Looks like everybody's going back to lunch? What the hell's going on?" The last question was addressed to someone inside the building. Kacchan turned back to the students outside, "it was a false alarm 'cause the press were trying to sneak on campus. Everything's good I guess. You can come back inside."
Kacchan climbed back through the window. The other students exchanged glances and, as one, decided to reenter the building through a door and take the stairs like normal people.
Katsuki was waiting impatiently for them when they finally made their way back to the cafeteria.
"Took you long enough."
"Well, not all of us are living rockets," Shouji retorted, taking back his seat.
"You said it was the press that triggered the alarm?" Izuku asked his old friend.
"Apparently, that's what people were saying. Or, what people said Iida said I guess."
"I wonder how much money they're going to have to pay to UA for breaking through the security," Izuku mused.
"Probably a good deal," Ojiro volunteered. "I've heard that Nedzu is a practicing attorney."
"That is... extremely frightening," Izuku decided. His brief encounter with Nedzu's hologram combined with what he already knew about UA's principal suggested one would not wish to be in a lawsuit with Nedzu representing the opposition. "Though I've heard that an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client." That probably didn't apply to people like Nedzu, though.
"I've been meaning to ask," said Ojiro as they packed up from lunch and headed for English class. "Why aren't you with us for English, Midoriya?"
"Oh, I'm fluent. I tested out." He wasn't trying to keep that ability a secret at UA. In middle school sudden fluency in English would have drawn unpleasant attention to the greenette equivalent to setting off a truckload of fireworks in the halls. At UA, everyone would just assume he had lived abroad for a year or done an optional, accelerated class... and he really didn't want to sit through three years of useless course work. "I have a study period for now, but I'll probably find something more useful to do with the time later."
"Cool."
Iida had been a sheep dog in a previous life, there was no doubt about it. The fact that the seating style on the bus didn't accommodate the organization the class president was trying to impose caused Iida to visibly wilt. What kind of sheep dog wilted ? Not a border collie... Izuku wasn't really a dog person and apparently a supernatural knowledge of dog breeds was not part of the repertoire of random information that someone had shoved into his brain.
Izuku took a seat in the back corner of the bus as the vehicle began a slow, steady drive towards one of the peripheral buildings on the UA campus. Kaminari and Kirishima argued with Sero about a video game Izuku knew nothing about and whether a certain cheat code was "evil" or not. Sero insisted a cheat code could not be "evil" whereas Kaminari and Kirishima were convinced otherwise. "Midoriya, kero?" asked Asui, leaning over the back of the seat in front of him.
"Yeah?"
"I was really impressed with your performance during our first heroics class, kero, and I hear you escaped from the cafeteria before everyone else, too."
"W-well... sort of? Y-yeah, thanks."
"I was wondering... do you have an intelligence enhancing quirk like Nedzu?"
No. No he did not. That was... not at all what he expected classmates to think his nonexistent quirk might be. He wasn't sure exactly what he had expected, but it definitely wasn't this. Izuku opened his mouth once or twice, closing it promptly like a confused fish. "N-no. I'm... flattered? But no."
"Just because someone's really smart doesn't mean it's a quirk," Jiro, who sat beside Asui, pointed out.
"Sorry for assuming, kero." Izuku sat there, dreading the followup questions where he would have to tell everyone he was quirkless, but they didn't come. Asui turned back to Jiro and the two of them began to discuss a genre of music the greenette had never heard of before. Why were all of his classmates such interesting people? Not that he was complaining, but Izuku had thought he was up to date on most aspects of popculture and yet he had no idea what anyone was talking about.
The class disembarked in front of a towering dome with broad doors. They stepped inside and Izuku felt his mouth drop open. The place was an enormous disaster simulator with a setup for every calamity imaginable.
"Welcome to the Unforseen Simulation Joint!" a clear voice said. The Space Hero: Thirteen stepped to the front of the class. Huh. It was just like Universal Studios Japan... Thirteen began to explain what sorts of skills students learned in the USJ as Uraraka jumped up and down, apparently overwhelmed by the excitement of meeting a favorite hero.
"Now, which of you know what my quirk is?" Thirteen asked the students. Uraraka, still bouncing on the balls of her feet, eagerly volunteered a description of Black Hole, a quirk that turned things to dust. Izuku, of course, knew all about Thirteen's quirk but had no interest in stealing Uraraka's thunder. "That's correct. It's an incredibly useful quirk for removing debris and freeing trapped people, but it can also be used to kill." Izuku blinked at the sudden change in tone. "Nearly all the quirks you see in heroics are dangerous, capable of being used for good or for evil." Izuku might not have a quirk, but he had skills and he had weapons and, at the end of the day, there was little practical difference. A quirk could kill, a knife could kill. "Now, All Might should be joining us in twenty minutes or so. He accidentally got caught up in thwarting a bank robbery this morning on his way in and nobody could cover for him." Aizawa rolled his eyes. Apparently there was no love lost between Eraserhead and All Might.
Izuku was the first to notice the dark circle forming in the center of the plaza. Aizawa, apparently, noticed only moments after him. "Well, that's probably not good," Izuku said, then blinked and exchanged a shocked glance with Aizawa. The two had spoken almost precisely the same line at precisely the same time (Aizawa had said "well, that's probably bad.")
"Is this part of the test?" asked Kaminari nervously as people began to step out of the dark portal. "No! Get back to the door, those are villains," Aizawa growled.
The door had sealed. Even Shouji and a sugar-high Sato working together couldn't get it to budge. Every attempt to get a signal out of the building failed. "Thirteen, protect the students," Aiazawa said, lunging down the stairs towards the oncoming swarm of villains.
Swarm... of villains... Izuku hadn't found the chance to be frightened yet. Now seemed like a good time to start. He expected himself to panic any moment, but for some reason panic wouldn't come to him .
Izuku had thought long and hard about whether he should bring his full costume--including knives and staff--for the field trip. He hadn't known where they were going or exactly what they would be doing so he had elected to take the whole shebang. His staff was secured diagonally across his back so as to be out of the way for running . Izuku pulled the velcro clasps free and held the most useful of his weapons at the ready. Thirteen certainly intended to defend the class to the best of their ability, but there were dozens of villains coming up the stairs and--Aizawa took out three of them like a whirlwind. Were all of their enemies poor fighters, then?
"Wow," said Kirishima.
"Small time crooks don't know how to adapt when their quirks suddenly fail to activate," Thirteen said smugly.
"Good morning everyone," a villain of sickly mist, like toxic ash rising from a refinery, teleported into the middle of the students and Izuku quashed the reflex to draw one of his throwing knives and aim for the villain's bow tie. The man was incorporeal. It wouldn't do any good. "My duty is to--" Izuku didn't hear the end of the speech because things rapidly devolved into chaos with Thirteen attempting to attack the villain, Kirishima and Bakugou lunging at the man, and everyone else scattering. Izuku followed some nameless instinct that demanded he dodge sideways--and was abruptly in midair. His heart leapt into his throat at the revelation that he was at least three stories up.
Flipping himself over like a cat, Izuku landed on all fours, the shock of the impact largely absorbed by the combined efforts of his gloves and boots. ACMX made good stuff. The student didn't even have a sprain. He gasped in a few desperate breaths, the terror of the fall not fading with his escape because if he had landed badly he would be dead right now . There were few revelations more terrifying than that.
"Where am I?" Izuku muttered, slowly standing. The patter of rain on his hair answered that immediately: the storm zone, still in the USJ.
"Argh! Oof." The greenette jerked and pulled one of the daggers from his wrist sheath. "Hi, Midoriya," Ojiro groaned from the remains of the bush he had just smashed.
"Are you okay?" Izuku demanded, stowing his dagger and running to his friend's side.
"Yeah, I'm alright... shocked a bit."
"You shouldn't be okay!" Izuku muttered. "I was more than three stories up and I--"
"I was only a few meters up," Ojiro said, dusting himself off. "Just wasn't expecting it or I could have avoided killing this poor bush." The tailed boy looked at the shredded plant sadly.
"Priorities, Ojiro," Izuku pointed out nervously, scanning rooftops and windows of the faux- building surrounding them. There were too many places to hide. There could be villains anywhere. "We need to get out of the open."
"Alright, let's go."
"Don't run. Walk quickly," Izuku said. "Running catches people's attention immediately, and if there are a lot of villains around and someone sees us at a distance, they might just assume we're other villains if we act like we're not in a hurry." Izuku wasn't sure if this was unaided logical reasoning or one of his mysterious combat instincts. Regardless, it made sense. The pair set off at a brisk walk towards a heavily wooded area, pausing for Izuku to pick up his staff from beneath the
bench where it had rolled. Neither student wanted to risk being cornered in an alleyway or worse guess which building might be safe to enter, so the nearby parklet seemed a good destination.
"Should we climb trees?" Ojiro wondered. "There's no better cover."
"Makes as much sense as anything else," Izuku said--and ducked by reflex as someone stepped out from behind a tree and a huge paw swiped at his head. The tapered talons missed the greenette by centimeters, cutting the end from one of his curls. Izuku jumped backwards, staff held in front of him and ready to deflect the next blow. Ojiro stood at Izuku's back. They had only practiced fighting two versus two against Katsuki and Shouji a handful of times. They should have done that more often, but at least they had some experience.
There were five villains that Izuku could see, and probably a few he couldn't. He chanced a glance upwards to confirm that no one was waiting to pounce from any of the nearby trees then returned his full attention to the woman with the bear mutation attempting to take his head off. She was strong but slow and unskilled. The man on her flank whose hands transformed into scissors was more of a threat. The villain to the right didn't really know what he was doing and stood about awkwardly as if searching for an opening but unsure of what an opening was actually supposed to look like.
"Duck!" Ojiro called. Izuku fell into a low crouch and took the opportunity to slam his staff into scissor-hands' knee joint with enough force to crunch something sickeningly. The man went down with a strangled cry and Izuku used the momentum as he stood to full height to stab the end of his weapon into the soft underside of bear-mutation's chin. She reeled back, choking, and Izuku shuddered with cold dread at the revelation of just how serious such an injury could be as he seemed to have overestimated how heavily armored she was. No time for that now.
Ojiro had sent two of his opponents to the ground already. The remaining three, none of whom had obvious quirks, circled the students like wary sharks. "Make a run for it?" Ojiro asked, panting. Izuku was breathing hard, too, partially from exertion and partially from creeping fear .
"Yeah." Ojiro launched himself towards the shortest of the circling villains, barrelling the man over. Izuku chased after his battle partner. The pair of them sprinted out of the muddy park, splashed through a flooded street and set off down a main thoroughfare. The sound of pounding feet behind them urged the students to run faster still despite the treacherously slick asphalt.
Izuku tried to take a corner too quickly and nearly skidded into a piece of dilapidated public art that Cementoss had probably made as some kind of joke . The greenette didn't, however, lose his footing or more than a second's time, which was really good seeing as he had perhaps a two second lead on the villains . The group chasing Ojiro and Midoriya screamed insults and threats over the roar of the storm . It wasn't possible to make out entire phrases but plenty of the individual words were comprehensible and those alone were bloodcurdlingly disturbing.
"We're not going to loose them," Ojiro gasped out between pants.
"Take a corner fast, stop and ambush them!" Izuku replied. Ojiro gestured to an upcoming alleyway and the pair dashed into it, skidding to a halt (it was really hard to keep balance out here) and situating themselves against the wall ready to strike.
The three pursuing villains were not very clever and the ambush went over without a hitch . Ojiro and Izuku never even found out what the villains' quicks were, leaving the three of them in groaning heaps within seconds . "Let's get out of this place ," Ojiro said, voice quavering a bit.
"No protests here," Izuku agreed and the two set off, once again at a swift walk, down the soaked
streets. The cold was starting to bite as the initial burst of adrenaline wore off. Izuku's clothes were water resistant, but far from water proof and he was soaked to the bone long since. Ojiro was similarly bedraggled.
"That was terrifying," Ojiro said a few blocks later. "I mean, we're here to become heroes but... we just got here like... days ago and I don't know what I'm doing and wait--oh god, we're like, the most competent students in class because we've sparred a lot before with quirks and I bet Todoroki will be fine too but what about the others? Oh my god, they've never been in even a fake fight before and now they're all over the USJ having real fights what if--what if--what if--"
Izuku had not expected Ojiro to freak out. Izuku had expected Izuku to freak out and assumed that Ojiro would be the one to calm him down. "Hey! Hey! Don't pull your hair out, it's okay! There are teachers here and All Might is going to be here in less than twenty minutes. It's fine! Everyone is going to be fine!" Izuku wasn't sure about that but it seemed like the thing to say.
Ojiro didn't look convinced but he stopped repeating "what if" over and over which was an improvement. A few blocks later, as the pair finally saw the end of the storm zone approaching, Ojiro finally said, "sorry, Midoriya. I... don't know what's wrong with me."
"Nothing's wrong with you," Midoriya protested. "I'm terrified, too. I got dropped from three stories up and if I'd landed on my head I'd be dead. We are first semester hero students; I'm entitled to freak out and so are you!"
Ojiro nodded. "Thanks. Still, sorry."
"Should we leave the storm zone? There's going to be much better visibility out there, which could be a good thing..." or could be a bad thing if there were still lots of villains at large in the USJ.
"We've got to try to find our classmates," Ojiro said, a cold bite of determination smothering any remnants of fear in his voice. "They could be in trouble."
He was right of course. They were going to be heroes. Just surviving wasn't good enough and it wasn't what they were here to learn. "Alright. Let's go."