Chapter 20: Why Stop Us?
Iida bowed before All Might to accept his third-place medal. Whilst the hero congratulated his friend, Midoriya stood still and quiet, eyes narrowed.
"And young Midoriya!" the number one hero of Japan beamed, "You did a marvellous job!"
Midoriya bowed to let him droop the bronze over his neck, "Thank you, All Might," he said coldly. "Or perhaps it is you I should be praising. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."
"All in a day's work for a hero, my boy!" All Might replied ignorantly, not realising the weight behind Midoriya's words.
Midoriya raised his head again, "Well, yes, no one can deny that you're incredibly good at saving lives. You're proficient at changing them, too."
All Might's smile twitched.
"Because I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you," Midoriya repeated. "Don't forget that. This is all because of you."
He clearly didn't know what else to say. After a moment, he finished with, "I'm sure we'll have the opportunity to speak again, Midoriya!"
"Oh, I'm sure."
And the hero left to hand the silver medal over to Kacchan.
"…What was that about?" Iida whispered.
"Nothing important," Midoriya insisted, and the matter was left alone – for the time being.
The night after the Sports Festival, Midoriya found himself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.
He was doing that thing where he thinks too much about something and his mind spirals into an endless pit of anxiety and insomnia. There were so many things that could now go wrong; he didn't have the slightest hope of sleeping peacefully. But there was one problem that stood out from the rest –
Shoto.
He'd always been very unsure about this idea to be heroes. Now the Sports Festival was over, and they'd completed Nezu's deal, class 1-A was on the track to take on the provisional licensing exam. However, it had been Shoto who won the festival – exactly what his father, Endeavor, had wanted from him.
No matter how many times he tried, Midoriya could not completely banish thoughts of Endeavor from Shoto's mind. His drive to do exactly what Endeavor didn't want was stronger than anything else. Would Shoto really go through with this, or would he still find a way to back out?
And then Midoriya's brain decided to remind him in the middle of the night that the home visits were only a few days away, and Shoto would be back under Endeavor's care for the first time in over two years. Shoto would try to leave – there's no doubt about it. Worse, what if Dabi showed up?
Everything they'd worked for – it would be void. Shoto would flee with Dabi the moment he had the opportunity, and he wouldn't look back.
But Midoriya knew that Shoto wasn't a villain. Dabi, on the other hand, was. He was a murderer; a cruel, horrible man – but also Shoto's hero, his brother, his family.
Midoriya had no control – no say in this, and he hated it. Shoto was one of his first friends, if not his best, and he'd soon disappear.
The only hope he had was that security would be tight enough to keep Dabi out, and Shoto in. Midoriya hated to wish this upon his friend, but it was only a week, and he couldn't see him turn into a real villain like his brother.
Thoughts finally banished with persistent sentences such as there's nothing you can do about it and this isn't going to change anything, Midoriya rolled over and closed his eyes.
…But what if security isn't good enough? Nezu knows we'd all want to stay at UA now, since we're allowed to take the provisional hero licence exam – so he might not be as forceful on hero patrols or lookouts as he could be! Shoto is the weakest link in the group – he's the most likely to slip under the radar and disappear.
So… what if you could make them want to make security stronger?
Midoriya sat bolt upright.
Fake an escape attempt.
"I'm bored!" Mina groaned loudly.
Midoriya's eyes flickered up from his notebook for a moment. He was editing Shoji's page, which Uraraka had taken the opportunity whilst Midoriya was fighting in the Sports Festival to absolutely ruin.
"Have you packed all the necessary belongings for your home visit?!" Iida queried from across the room.
"We've still got a few days! But yeah, I have already," she sighed. "I don't really need much anyway – it's only a week and we're not even allowed to go outside!"
"I'm just looking forwards to a week of sitting in my room and listening to my music," Jiro smiled to herself at the very thought. "I'm going to ask if I can bring back a really cheap mp3 player – the super old-fashioned ones. Hey, Midoriya – could you theoretically hack into one of those things and do anything worthwhile with it?"
Midoriya blinked at her, "Um… well, can it access the internet?"
"No."
"Is it… is it just for music? Can you buy music on it?"
"Nah, you've gotta like, connect it to your laptop to download stuff."
"Err, yeah I probably couldn't do anything with that…"
"Exactly," Jiro grinned, snapping her fingers in his direction, not even looking at him. "So what harm can it do? If Midoriya can't take down the school's firewall with it, then what's the problem?"
This reminded him. Midoriya had almost completely forgotten that he'd hacked into the Sports Festival. He bit his lip at the thought, glancing down at Uraraka's octopus drawing that he didn't have the heart to scribble out. He hoped Principal Nezu didn't punish him for that in any way. He probably realised what he'd done – but the damage Midoriya had caused hadn't been reversed, so it clearly wasn't against the rules of the game the two of them seemed to be playing.
"What're you looking at?!" Kacchan suddenly barked at Jiro, who was staring at him from across the room.
"Something ugly," she quipped. "What about you?"
He ground his teeth at her.
Gosh, Midoriya was looking forwards to a week away from Kacchan.
"Seriously though, your shirt – please tell me you're not the kind of guy to wear band merch despite not knowing who they actually are, because I love that band and I'd take offence."
"Yes I know the stupid band!"
"Aren't they awesome?!"
"They're freaking great, now leave me alone!"
So, Jiro and Kacchan had a weird relationship.
"Wanna beat me in Mario Kart again, Mina?" Kaminari offered kindly, since Mina was still moping over dramatically about how bored she was.
"Ugh, but you're too easy."
"…You could have said that a little nicer."
"She's not wrong though," Sero butted in.
"Well you try and beat her, if you're so good!"
"Hey, I never said I was any better!"
"Class president?" called out Hagakure.
Midoriya raised his eyebrows and looked up.
"You're the plan guy, what are we supposed to be doing now?"
"Well," Iida interjected, "You could be helping me clean the kitchen – you could do the laundry – the bins need emptying and rooms will be cleaned whist we're gone, so you can make sure that your –"
"THERE'S NOTHING TO DO!" Mina yelled over him, pretending not to hear any of the chores.
"Um, well, what Iida said?" Midoriya replied to Hagakure nervously.
"No," she said. "No, we've had this conversation – you're not allowed to make us do sensible stuff! That's Iida's job and he's already done that, and we've already elected to ignore him."
Midoriya smiled thinly at her, unsure of what else to say.
Yaoyorozu sat down next to him, "I'm looking forward to collecting some of the teas we have at home and bringing them back here," she said quietly, stirring her own drink. "This brand is awfully cheap."
"Momo, we love you, but not right now, honey," said Mina. "Come on, 18! We can't train for the Sports Festival; we have no grand heist to pull off – what's the point of being the villain class if there's nothing villainous to do!"
"That is not the point of –" Iida started.
"Don't bother trying, Iida, ribbit," Tsu interjected. "They won't listen."
"Didn't you say we could try and escape again before the home visits?" Shoto asked. Midoriya hadn't even realised he was there, standing in his usual spot and leaning against the wall.
Everyone fell quiet for a moment.
"…Can we actually?" asked Jiro. "Because I don't know about you guys, but I found last time was really fun."
This was the perfect opportunity, Midoriya realised. If he could get this to actually happen…
"Well, we do already have everything packed," he pointed out, closing his notebook.
"No," Iida spoke up, ever the unnecessary voice of reason. "No, we'd risk losing our deal with Principal Nezu!"
"I don't think we will," Midoriya insisted. "He's not someone to go back on his word. And I think he wants us to be able to take the licensing exam."
"Worst case scenario?" asked Yaoyorozu.
"Extra security during home visits?" Midoriya shrugged, trying to act casual.
"Best case scenario?" grinned Uraraka.
"Um, vigilantes again?"
"Midoriya!" Iida exclaimed.
"Sorry…" he winced, thinking back to the kind words Iida had uttered to him during the Sports Festival. "But err, we probably won't get out with such little planning! The most likely scenario is we just run class B around in circles…"
"We're not doing this in broad daylight, right?" Shoto questioned, taking a few steps closer and looking awfully serious.
"This evening?"
"Food first!" Uraraka insisted. Sato seemed to agree.
"Can we go out that same window again?" Kaminari grinned.
"Yeah, and give class B a wave," laughed Sero.
"Yes!" Mina exclaimed, jumping up in excitement. "Let's do this! I'll melt the trackers!"
Well, that was easier than expected.
"The internship offers came through so quickly," Setsuna moaned, flopping down onto the sofa beside Honenuki dramatically. "And we only have until the end of the week to choose? It's so unfair."
"Easy for you to say," huffed Awase from across the room. "You actually got offers! Did you see how like… not spread out they were?"
"Mr Vlad said it'll be better next year," Kendo tried to comfort them.
"Yeah, when heroes aren't trying to make offers for class A and being refused," Monoma just had to remind them.
"Monoma would you stop already?" Kamakiri snapped, glaring daggers at him (not literally, considering his blade Quirk). "I've had enough about class A. Can we just fricking forget about them for ONE WEEK?!"
"He's right," Honenuki grudgingly sighed. "You're letting this get to your head, Monoma. We failed, it really, really sucks, but there's nothing we can do about it now. Our best course of action is making sure we don't suffer a loss like this again in the future."
"You do realise that this is going to follow us around for the rest of our lives, right?" Monoma hissed at them all. Any background chatter quickly faded as all eyes turned to him. Monoma slammed his empty mug of coffee down on the table, his head lowered, teeth gritted. "For the rest of our lives we're going to be seen as the hero course that was defeated by the villains, and their Quirkless leader."
They were silent for a moment, whilst each of them tried to think of a counter argument, and evidently failed. Because Monoma was right. Even if it's unfair and wrong, they would be marred by this in their future, heroic careers.
"If you are to let your failures define you, then victory will cease to exist in the fabric of your soul," murmured Yanagi solemnly. "Letting the pain of defeat outweigh the serenity of success, will not make you stronger; only diminish the crusade against your inner demons."
More silence.
"Yeah, I got none of that," Pony admitted.
"She means that if we let our sadness for our loss get the better of us, we'll never be happy with a proper win again," Honenuki said as simply as he could in English. "I think."
"Oh," she nodded.
"Um, what is class A doing whilst we're at internships anyway?" Tsuburaba asked, seeming genuinely curious.
"Home visits," explained Honenuki. "They're pretty nervous about them."
Setsuna scoffed, absentmindedly pulling off her own hand and reattaching it again, "Why? They're just going home for a bit."
"Not all of them have homes as nice as ours," Kendo reminded her.
"Then… why are they being sent back at all?"
"To make this place feel less like a prison?" Awase guessed with a shrug. "I don't think they'd send someone home if they had serious concerns. I haven't heard anything about any of this class A coming from a rough household. The only one who's probably really dreading it is Todoroki, right? Since his dad is a big shot hero and he like, hates heroes?"
"Did anyone follow the Todoroki case back when it was a big deal?" Tsuburaba asked no one in particular. "I didn't particularly, but I saw big fights on TV. Didn't he like, freeze half of Hosu at one point?"
"That's a bit extreme," Kendo insisted. "But I definitely know they were around Hosu a lot. The heroes think that's where Dabi is still."
"Oh, that scarred guy?" asked Rin. "The one who kidnapped Todoroki?"
"But was it kidnapping?" Tsuburaba said with a smile. "See, that's the conspiracy. Todoroki just left without a fight. We all know how good he is – but he just… disappeared. Then, eventually, he ends up in class A. The media was so hush about it unless they were out fighting in the streets. Everyone thinks Endeavor was trying to cover it up so that it didn't hurt his reputation – but why'd Todoroki leave in the first place, huh? It's like he just ran off with this stranger rather than staying with his dad. If I were UA, I'd be pretty hesitant about sending him back."
"Well, w-what else can they do?" Komori acknowledged, hugging a pillow tightly. "They can't say no to the number two hero…"
"I am quite certain a hero of Endeavor's calibre would never do anything untoward," Shiozaki nodded to herself. "Especially to his own son. Todoroki will be safe, and he and the remainder of class 1-A shall return come the week's end."
The reminder that they'd be back soon enough seemed to upset Monoma again, who picked up his coffee mug and stormed off to the kitchen.
"That reminds me," Honenuki accidentally said out loud. He glanced around at his confused classmates before explaining, "I, err, Midoriya's finished his detentions…"
"Oh, of course," Kendo blinked. "We're going to have to return to our usual cleaning schedule now. Where did we leave off? Someone has to do the dishes."
"I'll do it," Honenuki offered, already standing up to collect the dirty plates strewn around the common room area from their dinner.
"Are you sure?" Setsuna interjected.
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Who's usually paired up with Honenuki then?" questioned Kendo.
"That would be me!" Manga yelled across the room. He was already picking up abandoned cups and glasses for Honenuki.
Honenuki sighed deeply as he turned on the tap and started to clean the plates. He honestly missed talking to Midoriya in the evenings. He was a nice guy, and always had something interesting to say. Plus, all of class B was feeling so down lately, that Honenuki wouldn't have been surprised to look up and find a permanent, grey cloud following him and everyone else around. Usually, Midoriya would come in and disrupt the tranquillity of the dorms, or his presence would. He'd always have a story to tell about class A. Like the time that Uraraka got their kitchen knives stuck on the ceiling (it had happened more than once), or when Kirishima and Sato had an arm wrestle that broke one of their tables.
Chuckling to himself, Honenuki left the kitchen to double check if anything was left to clean. As it turned out, Shishida did. He'd collected a small stack earlier and forgotten to say anything about it. Honenuki had thought there seemed like less plates than when Midoriya was in detention with them.
And it was in the process of heading back to the kitchen, that Honenuki spied something out the window.
He paused, setting the plates down on the nearest table to step a little closer. His actions caught the eye of none other than Monoma, who was just about to head off to bed.
Honenuki narrowed his eyes and stared down at the side of class A's dorm building. In plain sight, was that infamous window they'd clambered out of on their failed escape attempt – and it was wide open once more.
There was a red camera light, blinking above it, which was one of the reasons that Honenuki couldn't believe what he was seeing, when in fits of giggles, members of class A jumped out that window once more, and congregated just outside.
"Err… guys?" Honenuki called out.
Monoma was the first to reach his side, "What the hell?"
And class A was pointing up at them, laughing and waving. A few seconds after, they turned tail and ran.
"Um… did I just see what I think I saw?" Honenuki gaped.
"Class A's breaking out again," Monoma whispered. This level of volume didn't last long, "They're breaking out!"
"What?!" Tsuburaba exclaimed.
"No, they're not," Sen contradicted, standing up to look over Tsuburaba's shoulder. He had his face pressed against the window one over to Honenuki's.
"We need to go after them!" Monoma insisted, already running for his shoes.
"We call Mr Vlad first!" Kendo remembered whilst the rest sprang into action.
So much for Midoriya not stirring things up this evening.
"He sees us," Midoriya grinned.
"Wait, who?" asked Tsu, hopping out the window and landing by his side.
"Honenuki," he pointed up at the window in class B's dorm. Honenuki just stood there, staring at them with a look of sheer and utter disbelief on his face.
"Oh, my God, look at his face," Mina giggled.
"Hi, Honenuki!" Uraraka sang, waving enthusiastically at him. The others followed suit, laughing and teasing the poor, bewildered hero student.
Midoriya noticed him turn his head a little and shout something to the rest of class B. "We should go," Midoriya insisted, tugging on Tsu's shoulder.
They had just enough time to see Monoma dart into view, and Tsuburaba pretty much slam his face against the next window as they gazed at them.
In fits of giggles, class A fell over themselves as they darted into the trees and out of sight.
"Go, go, go!" Midoriya laughed. He could already hear the slamming of doors behind them, when class B struggled to begin the chase, completely unprepared.
What was their plan? Well, there wasn't much of one.
They knew they wouldn't be able to take the cameras down in time, especially with the many new additions on the outside of Heights Alliance. However, they still knew the hero patrol schedule, were this time prepared for an ambush by class B and would this time not be splitting up. It was the Capture the Flag Rush strategy, except they had nothing to defend other than themselves. If they could go as fast as possible, straight at the wall to UA, they just might be within a shot of getting out.
It wasn't like Midoriya was that serious with this attempt anyway…
"Wait, what part of the wall are we going for?!" Sero called out.
"Any!" Midoriya replied, "We're not trying to be sneaky about it! Just get over and go!"
He kept glancing over his shoulder, sure that class B would barrel into view any second now.
They got significantly further than he thought they would before the inevitable occurred.
From the shadows of the night, it was Kuroiro who arrived first. The hero student sprung from the blackness of the trees. He aimed at Tokoyami, but in an act which shocked nearly everyone, a bright beam of light shot between the two, and Kuroiro stumbled backwards.
"Woah! Go Aoyama!" Uraraka laughed, grabbing his wrist and pulling him forwards, a wide grin spreading across Aoyama's face as they rushed onwards.
Next to make their move was Shishida, whose beastly form skidded into view barely five seconds later, with blade wielding Kamakiri on his back.
Midoriya's instinct was to reach behind him to his sword, which obviously wasn't there. But even in the darkness, Yaoyorozu saw the movement. She soon frisbeed a shield to him, identical to what she utilised in the Sports Festival.
Ready to bark instructions at his classmates, Midoriya glanced around to see if anyone else had caught them up. However, before he could say a word, class A had already sprung into action.
Sero was nearer the front. He attempted to trap their opponents in his tape. This lasted about as long as expected, before Shoto stepped in for a more abrupt ending to the interaction.
Midoriya was more than ready for a fight. As soon as he realised it was only Shishida struggling against his icy prison, Midoriya turned on his heel, eyes frantically scanning the gloom. He angled himself at the perfect moment for Kamakiri's blade slam into his shield. Midoriya kicked him away quickly, desperate to run and keep up with his classmates. He was feeling more exposed than ever without his armour of lies.
In a flash, Uraraka manifested behind Kamakiri. She leapt over his head, slamming him into the ground and hooking her arm through Midoriya's own, leaping past the branches and into the sky. They bounded above the trees, Uraraka activating and deactivating her Quirk as she pulled Midoriya along, still facing backwards and unwittingly gazing up at the night.
"U-Uraraka!" Midoriya stammered, inhaling the cool air a little frantically as he struggled to get his bearings. "At least let me face the right way around!"
She let out only a meaningless syllable before the two barrelled through a column of smoke and sparks, erupting from below the canopy like a volcanic vent – most likely Kacchan's doing.
She had no time to reply still, as she evaded more and more of these explosions, expertly landing on branch after branch, as though she had learnt the behaviour of a tree frog from Tsu.
But although facing backwards was giving Midoriya small cuts and bruises around his ankles as he failed to land properly beside Uraraka and navigate the treetops, it did give Midoriya one advantage –
"URARAKA, LOOK OUT!" he yelled raising his shield protectively as harsh vines burst from the leaves.
Shiozaki lifted herself up with her vine-like hair, almost haloed in the moonlight, made even more ethereal by her unpractical, white dress. She clocked the lack of a blade in Midoriya's possession, and immediately made her next move.
Uraraka glanced back over her shoulder again maybe a second too late. Midoriya had blocked the vines, but without a sword there was no way to cut them off him.
Shiozaki tried to rip the shield from his grip but there was no way Midoriya would be letting go. He was yanked away from Uraraka, who doubled back with a cry as Midoriya was pulled down through the trees, back into the gloom below.
Midoriya let out a scream when he thought he was about to be pummelled straight into the group, only for him to be engulfed by it. The vines untangled themselves from him, and Midoriya quickly processed the trap. In a panic, he struggled to free himself from the quicksand, but a pale hand casually resting on the ground before him said otherwise.
"Hi, Midoriya," Honenuki said casually.
Midoriya tried to heave himself out of the hardened ground, stuck from the waist down, his shield lying useless beside him. After a couple of moments, he sighed deeply, "Hi, Honenuki."
"…What are you doing this evening?"
"Oh, you know –" Midoriya started, vaguely listening to the yells and explosions not far ahead of them – "the usual."
"You got 18!" and that was Monoma, charging into view with a brilliant smile on his face.
Midoriya rolled his eyes, resting his chin in his hand, "What are your student numbers anyway?"
"I, err, honestly don't know," Honenuki admitted.
"Sucks to be you."
"Ha!" Monoma cried out, pointing at him and laughing, "You're stuck! You're –"
"Oh, really? I-I hadn't noticed that thank you."
"You're well and truly screwed!"
Midoriya blinked at him. "So, anyway – Honenuki, do you guys get the same math homework from Mr Ectoplasm as we do? Because we're doing some differentiation at the moment and it's probably my favourite part of that class – no one else seems to know what's going on."
Monoma gaped at him, "…What?"
"You know, I have exactly the same problem!" Honenuki replied.
"You do?! I'm not the only one who does that kind of stuff for fun?!"
"Not at all – really, it's so satisfying to get it right. I'd buy a puzzle book of calculus honestly."
"I want that – that sounds awesome."
"WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MATHS?!" Monoma yelled, seconds before Uraraka dropped from the sky and kicked him in the face.
Midoriya only saw him vanish from his line of sight with the flying projectile that was Uraraka. He couldn't twist his body to see what was going on. Honenuki seemed to be struggling to process what had just happened.
"…I just find it relaxing," Midoriya continued.
Honenuki wavered, "Watching Monoma getting beat up by a girl…?"
"Oh, no I'm talking about calculous again."
"Oh, that makes more sense."
"…Aren't you going to help him?"
"With maths?"
"No with Uraraka."
Honenuki sighed, "No…"
Uraraka waltzed back onto the scene not long after. Midoriya had no idea where Shiozaki and Monoma went, but he knew better than to ask.
She stood before them both with her hands on her hips for a moment. She was wearing a flowery pink jumper underneath dungarees. Has Midoriya mentioned before that Uraraka is a very unassuming individual?
"Hey, guys!" she beamed after a second of assessing the situation.
"Hey," Honenuki said glumly. "How are you?"
"I'm good! Thank you for asking!"
"Are you going to punch my lights out now?"
Midoriya quickly interjected, "Wait did you just actually knock Monoma out?"
"Oh, no – Shiozaki rescued him."
"Shame," Midoriya and Honenuki said at exactly the same time.
"I'm guessing Monoma has been getting on your nerves recently," Midoriya leered.
"Just a little," Honenuki admitted. "I think you lot are a bad influence on me. I swear I'm not usually a very confrontational person…"
"I have an idea," Midoriya said, raising his hand. "Why don't we avoid confrontations, and you just let me out?"
"I like that idea!" Uraraka clapped.
And Honenuki turned to Uraraka, back to Midoriya, and then sighed, "Yeah, sure." He softened the ground and both he and Uraraka gave him a hand in pulling him out of the trap, rescuing his shield in the process.
"Remind me why you're escaping again?" Honenuki questioned curiously.
"We were bored," Uraraka deadpanned.
"…Well fair enough."
And the three of them stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds more, before Midoriya darted passed Uraraka, yelling, "See you around, Honenuki!"
Uraraka burst into laughter and charged after him, readjusting the straps on her backpack as she ran.
"WATCH IT, DEKU!"
Midoriya leapt backwards in surprise, almost getting a face full of fire from Kacchan the moment he arrived at what seemed to be the main battle scene.
"Why does he always call you that?" was Uraraka's unprompted question whilst the two stared at the sight before them, each hero student present too busy to confront the new editions.
"Oh, it means useless," Midoriya admitted, shielding his eyes for a moment when Hagakure blasted Kuroiro with her light to separate him from Dark Shadow once again. Yaoyorozu shot him with her net launcher, sticking him to the side of a tree with reflective, white netting.
"Aw, he shouldn't call you that!" Uraraka pouted, her hands on her hips again.
"Well, considering everyone insists on calling him Kacchan, I don't think he'll be stopping any time soon."
Perhaps there was something to be said about their sanity when trigger happy Aoyama accidently set another laser beam in their direction, because they really didn't move at all; maybe just tilted their heads slightly away, when it left a flaming hole in the tree trunk just behind them. Midoriya and Uraraka looked at it for a moment, rather unbothered.
"Well, I quite like the name Deku!" Uraraka perked up. "I think it's fitting."
Midoriya didn't believe himself when he burst out laughing. Resting his hand on his knees, absolutely hysterical whilst the rest of his classmates continued their battles.
Uraraka blinked at him for a moment, confused, until she flushed bright red and let out a wail, "Not like that! You're not useless! Oh my goshness – wait! Let me explain!"
Midoriya caught his breath nodding whilst biting back a smile and standing upright again.
She raised a finger to continue and Midoriya quickly found himself giggling again.
"Shush!" Uraraka exclaimed. "Shush – I think the name Deku sounds like dekiru – can! So it's like… you can do it!" she said, punching the air for added emphasis. "And I thought that was fitting."
Midoriya shook his head, still grinning, "You could have said that bit first."
"I'm sorry!"
The pointless conversation could have continued, but perhaps Midoriya deserved a reminder that the situation they had gotten themselves into was getting rather serious. He raised his shield upon instinct as a rapid fire of green scales whizzed towards him, digging into the shield in a pattern that clearly showed the hero student behind them was trying to pin him to what remained of the tree a meter or so away by the edges of his clothing.
Uraraka sprang into action instantaneously, a gleam in her eyes only visible in moments such as these as she leapt towards Rin, with the scales Quirk.
Midoriya would have helped, but he soon found himself behind yet another one of his classmates.
"Shoto! You came out of nowhere!" Midoriya almost squealed as he skidded into view on a sheet of ice.
"Apologies," he said in monotone, sending out a burst of flames at Shiozaki to stop her vines from creeping closer.
He was messy with that half of his Quirk. He seemed to just toss the fire wherever, completely lacking the elegance he possessed with his ice. It was the lack of practise and his uncertainty about it, Midoriya was sure.
"Stay behind me," he insisted, eyes darting from left to right to ward off any other attackers.
Unfortunately, that wasn't quite enough. Midoriya was the one who saw Tetsutetsu running up behind them. He grasped a spike of ice left in Shoto's wake from the ground, ripping it from the frozen Earth and swinging it in the hero student's general direction. It hit his metallic fist dead on, shattering instantly and knocking him back with a cry.
Before Midoriya could make any witty comment about the situation, Shoto had sidestepped in front of him again to freeze Tetsutetsu in place. However, that trick didn't quite work this time, and he easily broke free.
Knowing being there could only make the fight worse, Midoriya slipped away, trying to focus on their biggest obstacle, the wall itself. They were in deadlock against class B at the moment. The more time they wasted here, the more likely it was that the heroes would catch up with them. They needed to get over that wall as quickly as possible. Midoriya should have asked Yaoyorozu to make those radio pieces again – but he completely forgot. If he had them, it would have been far easier to organise the class and find a way to get up and over and lose the other class if they couldn't take them out entirely. Other than that, a sword would be really useful right about now.
"Look out, class rep!" that was Mina; using the new technique she was so proud of, a veil of acid that she'd used in the Sports Festival against Yaoyorozu, she melted Rin's wayward scales before they could reach Midoriya. It was rather difficult to navigate the battlefield in the dark.
"Thanks but I would have been ok on my –" Midoriya started, shield ready – and thankfully so, because once again, this conversation didn't last long at all before Tsu's tongue wrapped itself around his waist and hauled him up onto the wall with no warning.
Now, perhaps Midoriya should have been thankful again, especially since getting over this wall was his aim in the first place, but he couldn't help but think… all his classmates seemed to be keeping an unusually close eye on his whereabouts.
If Tsu said anything before hopping off again, Midoriya didn't hear it. He wasn't left alone for long though because Iida somehow made it up there a few moments later.
"Iida?" Midoriya said, clambering to his feet.
He was clearly about to say something else because he hesitated, before simply replying, "…Yes?"
"Um, not that it matters too much – but, by any small chance – did you all plan the mechanics of this escape without me?"
Iida obviously faltered once more, "What gives you that idea?"
"Well I can't help but notice you all darting to my rescue every two seconds."
"Class B are targeting you, Midoriya!" he insisted, adjusting his wonky glasses.
"…Yes, I know, but I can take care of myself."
"Of course! But –"
As if to prove a point, Setsuna's detached hands appeared out of nowhere to grasp Midoriya's wrists. He dropped the shield in surprise, wrestling against them as Iida reached out to try and prise them off him – just a little too late. He was yanked off the wall with a screech, about to crash into the ground. He closed his eyes and winced, preparing for impact – but the Earth simply sloshed around him.
Realising what had happened, Midoriya tried to scramble to his feet, swimming in mud. Setsuna's hands pulled him to the surface, and the ground hardened around him.
Honenuki stared at him with his arms crossed, "Hi."
Midoriya tilted his head back and let out a cry of frustration. And if things couldn't get any worse –
"CLASS A!"
– Vlad King marched onto the scene.
"Mr Vlad!" exclaimed most of class B as the group stopped what they were doing and stared.
"…Everybody act natural," Kaminari (slightly fried) half whispered in the induced silence.
They would have laughed if class B's teacher didn't look so utterly furious.
"Well," Jiro sighed, getting to her feet and casually observing the new tears in her already fashionably ripped jeans, "this was fun."
Monoma appeared from behind Vlad King, his hair ruffled and decorated with mud and twigs. He pointed at Midoriya, stuck in the same trap he'd left him in, and began to laugh hysterically.
Midoriya sighed, "So much fun."
