Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing that at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my stories. Therefore it would be appreciated if no legal action was taken against me. I can promise you that I am nowhere near wealthy enough to cover even half of your legal fees.
U.A High School
Outside the Southern Doors of Ground Beta
Four Days Later
Alexandria's POV
Looks like Power Loader got it ready in time. She thought looking down at her hero costume.
That was impressive since he'd said right after they'd settled on the details that it'd take awhile to craft each individual component and then assemble it all in a way that he would be satisfied with. She'd told him from the beginning that she wanted a costume that'd help in ensuring that there wouldn't be any skin-to-skin contact with her unless she wanted it to happen. To do that they needed to come up with counters for situations where it might happen by accident with the top possibility being her costume being damaged during a battle with a Villain. To counter that they focused on the materials that the costume would be made out of and ensuring that it would not be easy to create a path to her skin in the first place. An under suit that couldn't be torn, ripped or burned through very easily complemented by a hard assortment of plate armour covering her from head to toe including a helmet that concealed her entire head.
The reason why there'd been some doubt as to whether the Pro Hero would be able to get her costume ready in time is because the metal alloy her plate armour was made of was hard to craft into something. There was also the fact that in making each plate of armour durable enough to hold up against most of the common quirks used by Villains also made them rather heavy. For her it wouldn't be a problem to move about even with all of them on her body since she had super strength capable of lifting up to 50 tons. Given that Power Loader had been limited to sizes that would cover the body of your average teenage girl without making it too bulky to use the fighting style she preferred and there was no way it'd be heavy enough to cause her difficulties.
As for the helmet and all the features she'd wanted it to have that'd been no problem since the Pro Hero had made similar things in the past so it'd been easy to combine them all.
On a side note there was one underlying factor that on Pro Hero Uwabami's insistence that the complete plate armour have a unique but 'appealing' appearance. If the design had just been focused on function while completely abandoning appearance then it likely could've been assembled in relatively short order even with the properties of the materials. By including aesthetics and an overall form it just upped the work that needed to be done lengthening the amount of time needed to get it all done.
Still she had to admit that the look she now had wasn't all that bad.
The best comparison she could make was that it resembled the power armour she'd seen the lead characters in the anime 'Bubblegum Crisis' wear but only after it'd been upgraded a bit by Tony Stark. There was no excess material to allow for mechanisms responsible for flight or super strength or weaponry but it was the closest comparison she could make with the highest level of accuracy. The only thing she insisted on was that the colours used matched those Rogue used in her costume the last time he'd read one of the X-Men comics. To do that green and yellow were the primary colours for both the legs as well as the main body with brown covering the arms until the wrists leaving a brown/white combo to be used for the helmet.
If she had to complain about anything it'd be the fact that somehow when she wasn't around Uwabami must've tricked Power Loader into customizing certain parts of her armour. As a result parts that covered what could be considered 'a woman's best assets' were shaped in such a way to make them attention grabbing. It wasn't anything that'd get her in trouble in terms of decency or slam her with strikes against her being an acceptable role model but it was definitely eye catching. If this was a world of comic books, specifically Marvel comic books, then it'd be okay because it was pretty much a given in every comic book put out by the Big Two that the superheroines would be dress like that.
Doing so in real life however would either look ridiculous or get several uncomplimentary words sent her way.
However looking at the costumes being worn by the rest of her class her outfit didn't really stand out as much as it would've back in Sunnydale. It was clear that when the whole Pro Hero thing started the good guys and the bad guys pretty much decided mimicking the comic books was the way to go. That meant flashy outfits that were somehow related to their power or just plain looked cool even if the one wearing it was the only one who thought so. Though in the case of the Villains it was 'make costumes that look scary or powerful or both' since those guys were all about having the people before them cowering in fear.
Fortunately none of her classmates had chosen a style that might get them mistaken as a Villain but looking at Kaoruko's outfit he had to wonder why she designed it to look like that. Her top barely covered what it needed to and she couldn't figure out how the girl could bend over without mooning everyone behind her. About the only part of the costume that made sense was the custom gas mask she had on since apparently her quirk allowed her to make bubbles containing a variety of smells. Depending on what sort of limitations the quirk had it could prove to be just as harmful to Kaoruko as it could be to the Villain she used it against especially if the bubble was popped too close to her. With the gas mask in place the self-inflicted damage would be minimal allowing the girl with the yellow eyes to keep on fighting.
"Okay everyone if you'll just look this way we can get started!" Pro Hero Present Mic yelled loud enough to get everyone's attention.
Setting aside her own thoughts she directed her gaze to the loud blonde hero to hear the details of this exercise.
"This exercise is meant to show you third years just what might happen after you get your hero licenses. Just 'cause you get those licenses though it doesn't mean you're read to stand on your own. You'll be spending a couple years as sidekicks at whatever agency you wind up working at. Yeah!" Present Mic explained with his usual exuberance, "Still that doesn't mean everything'll go according to plan. Life's unpredictable and there's a chance you'll wind up bumping into a powerful Villain out of nowhere."
True.
Just like back home where crime and a vamp attack could happen at any time no matter how prepared you were the same could be said of Villain encounters. With no way of predicting whether they'd be cannon fodder or the likes of All For One a Pro Hero needed to be flexible enough to handle either possibility.
"In order to prepare you for this you'll be split into groups of three before being sent into Ground Beta where you will encounter a Pro Hero taking on the role of the Villain. Most'll be U.A faculty members but one lucky group'll get a special guest as their opponent." Present Mic explained trying to hype the summary of the exercise, "In order to pass this exercise you've got two choices: either secure them with these handcuffs or make it to the escape zone. If two out of your group wind up being immobilized or incapacitated then the entire team fails."
Students versus Pro Heroes sounded more than a little lopsided.
"Don't worry about this being unfair though. Each 'Villain' will be wearing one of THESE…" Present Mic said holding up what looked to be a heavy duty weighted strap, "…with its weight proportional to their strength level. This will reduce their mobility and increase the rate at which their stamina will be used up. Should make things fun, RIGHT?"
Fun.
That's one word for it.
Weights wouldn't have any effect on those whose quirks didn't require that they move in order to use them effective. Also even if they were slowed down that wouldn't eliminate the gap in both experience as well as skill.
"The thing you gotta figure out is whether you should run away to get help from a Pro Hero who can handle the Villain or take on the Villain yourself." Present Mic explained showing his enthusiasm, "Capture or escape. The choice is YOURS!"
So this was a situation awareness exercise and a way to test each student's judgment in a scenario they might encounter out in the field.
"Now to make the teams we'll have each of you pick a ball at random from this box. The letter will be your group and the number will be your rank among your classmates. After all patrol teams are led by senior members of the agency and the newer members of the team defer to them on major decisions." Present Mic said gesturing to the blue box with a hole in the top big enough to fit an arm through, "Now line up!"
One by one the students did as asked including her and once they were all lined up they each took a ball out of the box before trying to find those with the same letter. Getting the ball was a little harder for her thanks to the configuration of the arm segment of her armour but it was necessary in order for her to make use of the quirk she'd taken from All For One. It'd taken some time but with the help of Recovery Girl they'd managed to find out what it was.
Springlike Limbs.
It was a quirk that allowed the user to store and release kinetic force by coiling the user's muscles like a metal coil spring.
Due to the way that it distorted the arm she used it with the armour covering her arms made in such a way that it wouldn't get in the way of the quirk's use.
Looking at the ball she could see she was E-2 so she began to look about for a group that was only two in number since that was likely her group. Since her number was two then it meant that she would not be leading the team of three but she didn't mind that. While she might've been placed in a third year class she hadn't started out like the rest of her classmates had and so she was still playing catch up in terms of knowledge as well as experience. Besides that she had no prior experience in leading anyone so she'd probably trip all over herself with nothing to base her decisions on.
Better for someone else to take the leader position.
It was a short while later that she found her group and it made her wonder if someone had found a way to rig the supposedly random picking of the balls.
Awata Kaoruko. Codename: Bubble Girl.
Victor Weir. Codename: Reptile Lad.
"Looks like we're gonna be workin' together Awata-san." She said deciding to keep things task centred, "Which one of you two got the leader job?"
"I did." Kaoruko replied making an effort to match the business-like attitude, "Is that going to be a problem Claremont-san?"
"Nah, sugah." She replied casually with a shake of her head, "You've been learnin' how to be a Hero here at U.A longer than me. A leader is someone who knows the most and how best to use what they know. Between the two of us you're the better pick."
"Glad we got that straightened out." Kaoruko said before turning to Victor, "You okay with this Victor?"
"It's like Xandria said. The boss has to be someone who has all the answers and knows how to get the job done." Victor replied showing that he had no problem following Kaoruko.
"Then let's wait for our turn." Kaoruko said turning to the entrance to Ground Beta, "Even if we don't know which Pro Hero we'll be up against getting our roles straight ahead of time will give us an edge."
For the next thirty minutes the three of them discussed their respective abilities and strengths before Kaoruko selected the best role for each of them. Once that was done each member of the school faculty was considered as a potential 'Villain' for them to face allowing some simple yet effective strategies to be constructed. Honestly given how large the gap likely was between third year students and the Pro Heroes she wasn't sure how they'd be able to manage either condition for victory. Each Pro Hero no doubt had experience both with pursuit maneuvers as well as fighting head on so no matter which choice the student teams went with the challenge would still be there.
She was no stranger to challenges.
Some could be overcome while for others they'd never go away and it was more important in how you chose to deal with it.
Back in Sunnydale her chief challenge had been to become a better person than Tony Harris could ever hope to be.
Here? Here the challenge would be to become the best Hero she was capable of becoming while also ensuring that no one came to harm because of her powers.
There would be no more Willows.
She would make sure of that.
Ground Beta
Bubble Girl's POV
I know I shouldn't act like this to her. She thought as they entered the fake city where the exercise was to take place, But..but I can't help it. With a single touch she can knock me out and copy my quirk!
Like every other person in the world she'd been born with a quirk, the ability to produce bubbles filled with any smell she'd sniffed before, and believed that it would always belong to her alone. After all there'd been many studies on quirks and not one of them had ever even hinted that a quirk could be transferred to someone else. There was a certain security in that, in knowing that the thing that made you special could not be taken, and now Alexandria had told her that her quirk could do something damn close.
That thought had set the entire class abuzz with chatter with most of the opinions divided three ways: petition to have Alexandria expelled, stay away from her no matter what and a very small group that were taking the wait and see approach. In her case? If she was honest with herself she'd probably place herself in between the last two groups because while her fear of losing her quirk told her to avoid her new classmate her desire to become a Pro Hero insisted on giving the girl a chance. Looks meant little when it came to quirks and someone who looked monstrous to some could actually be quite timid beneath the surface. By that same logic just because Alexandria had a quirk that made her a danger to all others who had quirks that didn't mean that she would become a threat.
So why couldn't she shake off the spectre of fear that if she didn't keep her guard up her new classmate would reach out and take her quirk?
"So who do you think we'll get as our opponent?" Reptile Lad asked as they walked down the middle of the street, "Maybe it'll be Cementoss."
"He's there one that can control any cement he touches right?" Alexandria asked with minimal uncertainty, "I can probably punch through anything he sends at us but with all these buildings and streets he'll have the edge in ammunition."
She had a point.
At this point there was an abundance of cement throughout any location where humans lived meaning the only place a villain would be safe from Cementoss would be out in the woods. Here, in this fake city, the Pro Hero and U.A faculty member would have a considerable advantage against them even with the touch limitation. In such a situation the best course of action would be to run for it rather than try to slap the cuffs on the Pro Hero. The odds of them getting close enough to use the special handcuffs were small since her bubbles didn't travel very far from her hands before they popped. Victor's quirk 'reptile' might allow him more options in terms of mobility but he'd still need to get in close to do any good. As for Alexandria…
"What are…what are your quirks Alexandria?" She asked bringing up a topic that'd destabilize the team somewhat, "Anything that can help?"
"Super strength, Super Durability and flight. Well them and the one I was born with." Alexandria replied a bit warily.
"Then what if we just have her fly us to the escape zone?" Reptile Lad asked as though they'd hit upon the perfect solution, "If we're flying then we can get there in no time. By the time the Pro Hero figures out where we are we'll have already passed."
"There was no rule against flying so it could work." Alexandria commented nodding in agreement.
She considered the possibility herself but in the end she shook her head in the negative.
"No. This exercise is supposed to test our ability to work as a team and make the choice to run or fight." She said explaining her point of view to the others, "It wouldn't work for us if they paired us with a member of the staff that didn't stand a chance of stopping us. The teachers know you can fly right?"
"Yeah. They had me show'em what I could do before they'd let me into U.A." Alexandria said with a nod of her head.
"That means we'll probably be facing Snipe-sensei, Present Mic-sensei or maybe even Vlad King-sensei." She said reviewing all the teachers that had abilities that'd work for this exercise, "They'd be able to attack even if Alexandria flew us to the escape zone."
"It could still work." Alexandria said not willing to give up on the idea, "They'll be holding back and I'm durable enough even without my suit to take some pretty mean hits. With my armour they'd have to be damn good to force us to ground without hurting us."
"They're all Pro Heroes! Of course they'll be good enough to force you to land!" Reptile Lad said as though it was common sense.
"Then…then let's just wait until we actually see who we're gonna be goin' up against." Alexandria suggested turning her gaze to look ahead, "We can try plannin' until we're all sick of it and it won't matter none if we guess wrong."
"She's right." She said nodding in agreement, "Let's just get to the escape zone. The Pro Hero'll either show up on the way or they'll be guarding it. We'll decide what to do once we know more."
Walking steadily down the street they were already on course for where the escape zone had been highlighted on the map they'd been shown so if they kept striding forward they'd arrive in no time. All the while though she kept an eye out for any sign of a Pro Hero's presence since the three of them would likely only have a second of warning before he or she made their presence felt. She took some relief from the fact that only villains used sneak attacks or struck at their targets from the shadows so they wouldn't need to be THAT paranoid.
They'd see their opponent coming with enough time to counter them.
It took almost a full five minutes before they entered the home stretch for the escape zone and they hadn't seen or heard anything that could've come from one the U.A faculty members. She was now more certain than anything that the Pro Hero must've chosen to wait for them just in front of the target location. While this would have the benefit of neutralizing the need to search the fake city for them it also upped their chances of passing. After all the second two of the three members of the team set foot in the target area the team automatically passed. The only way they could lose at this point would be if the Pro Hero had a quirk that'd allow them to both block off the target area and make slapping the handcuffs on them impossible.
But what're the odds of that? She thought feeling fairly optimistic of her team's chances.
However it was when they began to reach the top of the hill that'd give them a bird's eye view of their destination that she took notice of something. There was a noise and its origin point was ahead of them either directly on top of the target area or someplace next to it. Taking time to listen harder she immediately identified the sound as the crackle that fire made as it burned and since they were the first to use this fake city today it couldn't have been been residual damage from an earlier session. Logically that would mean that it had to be coming from the Pro Hero that'd been selected as their opponent for the exercise.
Okay. I can work with this. She thought going through the possibilities, I can put any smell I've ever experienced into my bubbles and some of them are capable of extinguishing flames if the level of concentration is high enough. I can just have Alexandria and Victor run interference until I get close enough to put out the flames. It won't last long but we might be able to get the cuffs on whoever it is. If not and if they're guarding the target area then it just needs to neutralize the flames long enough for the three of us to enter the area. No problem!
When at last there was nothing to obstruct her vision and she could see who awaited them at the target area though all her confidence evaporate like water tossed into the sun.
Why?
Because standing less than a hundred yards away with arms crossed in challenge was none other than the number two ranked Pro Hero: Endeavor.
There was no question or doubt in her mind now.
They'd lost.
Alexandria's POV
Okay. This is not good. She thought as she looked at the Pro Hero that'd been paired against her team.
While she'd been studying for the written exam of U.A she'd occasionally watched the news so she'd be up to date on current events just in case it got included in the exam. That was how she could identify the man glaring at them right now as the number two ranked hero in Japan: Endeavor. Capable of generating intense flames and experienced enough to use it as more than just a line of sight attack the only Pro Hero above him was All Might. Whether it was capture or trying to get into the target area the odds of her group succeeding as almost zero. For all the power and skill the three of them had they were still students learning how to use their powers to their fullest and be true heroes.
From a logical standpoint their defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
However if there was one thing that her favourite comics and her time as a Scooby had taught her it was that it was a mandatory part of being a hero to take the odds and render them meaningless. A true hero was someone who never gave up even when everyone around them had thrown in the towel and somehow managed to come up with an unorthodox plan to win. Back in Sunnydale the Scoobies came with plans on the fly as often as they used tried and true tactics of the past. In her favourite comic books the heroes faced foes at least twice a year that were a league above them but whether it was teamwork or a cunning plan they still won in the end.
This was no different!
The odds might almost be zero but it was that 'almost' that gave her hope.
"So what's the plan leader?" She asked turning to Bubble Girl, "Capture or try to get into the target area?"
"ARE YOU INSANE!? That's Endeavor over there! ENDEAVOR!" Reptile Lad exclaimed while pointing at the waiting Pro Hero, "We've already failed!"
"The odds are pretty bad, yeah, but that doesn't mean we should give up." She said keeping her cool while keeping an eye on their Pro Hero opponent, "Remember: he's got those weights on and it's not like he can go all out on us here. We're students and he's the number two Pro Hero of Japan. If he over did it with us it'd ruin his rep and maybe cause him to drop a rank or two. He's got a lot more weighing him down than we do."
"Y-you're not wrong." Bubble Girl said sounding the faintest bit hopeful, "He'd catch some major flak if he acted like a bully with us. Besides I hear he's got quite the ego. Still…is that enough to give us a chance?"
Maybe.
"I've got a plan but…it's stupid and probably reckless." She replied unable to say anything better about the plan her brain had just come up with, "Still it might work."
"What is it?" Bubble Girl asked now sounding mildly curious.
"Can't say with Endeavor standing right over there." She replied looking at the flame emitting man , "For all we know he can read lips or has gear that'll let him hear everything. Just get ready to run for the target zone when the chance shows itself. I'll handle the rest."
"You're not going to-!" Reptile Lad exclaimed before Bubble Girl covered his mouth.
"You sure about this?" Bubble Girl asked with complete seriousness.
"Am I sure this'll work? Not really." She replied turning fully to face Endeavor, "Am I sure I want to give it a shot? I'd rather give this exercise everything I've got and lose than just give up without even trying. Isn't that what heroes do? Put everything on the line to help those who can't help themselves?"
Reptile Lad and Bubble Girl looked at each other for a few moments but she could tell that even without speaking that they were debating whether to back her plan. Honestly if the Scoobies back home were here they'd know what she was thinking about trying and would definitely have stood in her way. Still it was the only chance she thought that her team had of passing the exercise so she'd go with it if the duo agreed to it.
Maybe…maybe if it all worked out it'd be enough to dispel the fear of her that she could still see in their eyes.
"Okay. We'll go with your idea Alexandria." Bubble Girl said making a decision for the team as a whole, "But as team leader I reserve the right to call it off if I think you're going too far. Understand?"
"Got it, sugah!" She replied with a thumbs up.
With that decided she mentally braced herself for what she was about to commit herself to and then…
…used her power of flight to propel her right at Endeavor!
She saw the man's eyes widen but only by the smallest of fractions but such was to be expected of the number two ranked Pro Hero in Japan. The man had probably seen a lot in his career including a wide variety of quirks so her ability to fly was nothing out of the ordinary. Seeing him raise a single hand towards her it was clear that he'd try to either take her down or force her to abort her charge with his flames. However after fighting All For One she was pretty sure that unless the man got serious she could evade Endeavor's initial salvo of flames.
It would be what happened after that where her resolve would be the most important.
"You are bold to charge me head on girl." Endeavor declared even as he primed his raised hand to unleash fire, "But foolish to take me so lightly."
Then like its liquid counterpart the fire shot forth towards her but she'd been expecting this from the beginning and so with great focus moved out of the flame's path. She didn't move too far even though that was probably the smart move. She knew that with a simple shift of his arm Endeavor could bring his fire towards her but that was what she wanted from the beginning. If she moved too far away the Pro Hero would need to split his attention between her and where her teammates were standing possibly prompting him to send an attack their way. Putting her teammates in danger after all might get her to break off her approach to protect them nullifying her momentum in one move.
However if she kept her dodging to a minimum Endeavor's focus would remain on her where she wanted it.
"You're agile in the air. Perhaps even more than that kid Hawks." Endeavor said before bringing the hand that was the source of his attack towards her, "But that won't be enough."
He was right.
The closer she got to him the less room she'd have to dodge unless she veered away and tried to come at him from a different angle. However that would put the others at risk and so she couldn't take that route.
That left only one option.
This is either the gutsiest thing I've ever done or the stupidest. She thought at the arrival of the hardest part of her plan, Time to figure out which.
When the stream of fire reached her she didn't dodge it.
Instead she stayed on course for Endeavor and allowed the flames to flow over her.
The basics of her plan was this: Rogue was already pretty durable being able to take super strength blows and energy blasts without anything worse than a bruise to show for it. Indeed it took a heavy hitter like Gladiator or the strongest version of the Hulk to really hurt her and that durability was now hers. When added to the fact that her armour had been designed to be resistant to various methods of destruction and she was the only one that could smash a way to victory for the team. She'd take advantage of the fact that Endeavor would be holding back and not taking her seriously to tackle him and then using her power of flight to remove him from the area. This would give Bubble Girl and Lizard Lad the opening they needed to get into the target area giving the whole team the win.
He'll figure out my plan quick. She thought continuing to fly towards the source of the flames, It'll be a war between the intensity of his fire and my ability to hold up against it.
Upon feeling an increase in pressure pushing against her she knew she was about to reach the Pro Hero so she spread her arms prepared to wrap them around him. It was then that she felt her left arm make contact with something but her right arm still touched nothing but air. How?
"So that was your plan. Endure my flames and then tackle me to remove me as an obstacle so your teammates could enter the target area?" Endeavor asked from her left before the flames dispersed entirely, "Sacrificing yourself to ensure victory for others might be considered admirable by others but not ME!"
BAM!
How!? She thought after something hit her in the back sending her to the ground, He doesn't have super strength!
The only possibility that made even the slightest bit of sense was that Endeavor had somehow emitted his flames in such a way so as to create significant air displacement aka a shockwave. Thus the shockwave had been what hit her and if it'd been strong enough and perhaps focused enough it might have been enough to slam her into the ground.
ENOUGH! Fight now, analyze later! She thought before lashing out with a leg to take out the Pro Hero's.
It was a strategy that she'd heard Giles mention to Buffy once: when facing a foe with a solid stance attack the legs until the stance is broken. Once the stance was gone an opponent would be off balance making them much easier to move especially if you could keep them off balance.
Naturally she reigned in her super human strength as much as she thought she needed to because even with his gear Endeavor was human. Rogue was capable of shattering stone after all so unless she was careful she could literally kick off the number two ranked heroes legs and that wouldn't make a good impression with anyone aside from the Villain community.
A part of her sighed with relief and satisfaction when her leg struck Endeavor's but no bone cracking could be heard AND it successfully knocked him off balance. With all the speed she could muster she oriented herself on his position before using her power of flight to take her over him in an instant. The moment it got within reach she grabbed his belt before flying away from the target area as fast as she could.
From her point of view she'd only managed this for three or four seconds before a massive discharge of fire knocked her away and into the side of a building. Buried deep enough that gravity wasn't able to drag her down one of the first things to register with her upon shaking off the momentary disorientation of the attack was the jagged hole her left eye was looking through. Taking a moment to examine her hero outfit she was both surprised and dismayed to see that it had been pretty damaged with some areas being more heat distorted than others. In a way it was something of a relief that the only hole she could find was the one over her left eye since it spoke well of Power Loader's work.
Still this was with Endeavor holding back. She thought turning towards where she thought that the Pro Hero had landed after she'd been forced off him, If a Villain with similar powers went all out on me I'd probably wind up in nothing but my birthday suit.
And while she'd ogled the moments in Marvel comics when a lady hero got her costume shredded she was in no rush to be on the receiving end of that situation.
Too bad the universe had listened to her thoughts and believed she needed to be punished somehow.
How was she punished?
Turned out that when Endeavor had blown her away from him she'd wound up ripping the belt of his costume off. Now this didn't need to be a bad thing since a lot of heroes just wore belts as a place to store their gadgets or just because it looked cool. Very few of them actually wear a belt to keep their pants up.
Guess Endeavor is special amongst Pro Heroes for yet another reason.
Quickly she turned around not just out of respect but also because she SO didn't need the memory of the man's tighty whiteys burned into her brain any more than it already was. If her costume hadn't been turned into slag she'd have tossed him the entire roll of medical gauze to improvise into a belt but she was pretty sure the stuff was so much ash at the moment.
BBBOOOONNNGG!
"Team Bubble Girl, Reptile Lad and Alexandria CLEAR!"
"Just in time!" She groaned with relief figuring that the Pro Hero would make tracks now in order to find a replacement belt since there was nothing keeping him here.
If she were still a he and had been in Endeavor's situation there was nothing that could keep her from making a quick exit.
"The odds were against you, your defeat almost certain, and yet still you fought to find a way to win." Endeavor said from behind her, "Why?"
"Because heroes need to be able to beat the odds no matter what in order to give people hope." She replied deciding to be honest with the number two ranked pro hero, "If they don't or worse give up then people'll look elsewhere for hope and they might not be too picky about where they find it."
"What do you mean?" He asked sounding interested enough to stick around.
"Best case scenario they'll look in their liquor or medicine cabinet for something to make the fear go away. Too bad that leads to a slippery slope into stuff that's illegal." She replied thinking on the dark turn things could take, "Worst case scenario? That has a cunning Villain making promises of protection and people actually believing them."
She waited for the pro hero to deny that any good civilian would trust a villain or say something along the lines of 'then we will always win' but nothing came.
Not for a minute.
"You show promise girl." Endeavor said before footsteps indicated that he was walking away, "I hope you will not disappoint me in the future."
That's probably the closest he ever gets to a compliment. She thought waiting until she could no longer hear Endeavor's steps before taking to the air to rejoin her teammates.
Took her less than a minute to get to the target area and in it were both Bubble Girl as well as Reptile Lad looking quite happy that they'd passed the exercise. Touching down in front of them was marred by the sound of a piece of her armour falling off and landing on the ground but considering what she'd been through it wasn't even a scratch wound-wise.
"Well I think that costume's pretty much a write-off." Reptile Lad commented giving her armour a once over.
"Yeah but it did its job and that's what matters." She said nodding in agreement, "Plus there can't be too many Villains out there that're as powerful as Endeavor."
"Not unless All Might goes evil but that's never going to happen." Bubble Girl said jokingly clearly thinking the possibility only had a laughable chance of ever becoming a reality.
She didn't tell them that there existed a Villain every bit as powerful as All Might and not just because she'd been told by the number one hero and the Principal of U.A to keep it to herself. The fact of the matter was that neither Bubble Girl or Reptile Lad had quirks that'd allow them to survive a fight with the criminal mastermind. With the power set she'd inherited from Rogue she'd only been lacking in skill and experience but that'd still left her with a banged up arm. If either of her teammates found themselves on the receiving end of All For One's attacks they'd be lucky to survive the first one that landed.
They wouldn't survive the second blow.
I need to get stronger. More skilled. She thought as the team began to make for the entrance to the fake city, All For One won't be laid up forever and after the scare I gave him I wouldn't put it past him to send assassins after me. The only question is will their purpose be to test me or kill me.
She had a feeling that it wouldn't be fun either way.
The Girl's Locker Room
U.A High School
Bubble Girl's POV
"So what was it like?" She asked as she changed into her school uniform.
"What was what like?" Alexandria asked back before taking off another piece of her armour.
"Fighting Endeavor, duh!" She replied figuring it should've been obvious.
"I wouldn't exactly call that a fight sugah." Alexandria replied with rueful amusement, "More like banking on my durability to keep me safe long enough for you and Reptile Lad to get to where you needed to be."
"STILL you went up against the number two ranked Pro Hero in Japan and actually managed to make your plan WORK!" She said remembering how skeptical she'd originally been, "I'm impressed."
"If he'd been serious I'd be ash on the ground Awata-san." Alexandria said with moderate seriousness, "Both of us knew it was just an exercise and that I'm nowhere near good enough to fight a serious Endeavor."
"Maybe not now but in a few years I wouldn't be surprised." She said finding her opinion of her new classmate somewhat improved.
While improved though that did not mean that the fear of the girl's quirk had vanished entirely. She was still not crazy about the idea of experiencing the power firsthand but after seeing how Alexandria fought and was willing to step into harm's way for the team…it left her inclined to give the girl a chance.
Once the two of them were back into their school uniforms they exited the locker room before heading back to class where every student would be given an honest appraisal of their performance. While most of the ones that'd gone into the fake city had come out having accomplished one of the two objectives she knew that mistakes had still been made. She knew right off that Alexandria would likely be criticized for taking an unnecessary risk and choosing to intentionally damage her armour instead of working with her team. She and Reptile Lad would probably have their immediate surrender moment when they'd spotted Endeavor pointed out. Pro Heroes regularly had to face Villains who were more powerful than them or Villains that possessed quirks that gave them a decided advantage.
That didn't mean that they should just give up and not try at all.
It just meant that they had to fight smarter rather than harder and if winning on their own wasn't possible then stalling until a more qualified hero showed up was the right thing to do.
When they got back to the classroom the chatter that she'd been able to hear from the hallway vanished to be replaced by looks. They weren't focused on her however but rather Alexandria and she could tell that the girl was uncomfortable with so many eyes on her. As much as she'd like to tell them all to stop thinking the worst of the skunk striped girl she knew that much like her they'd each need to come up with reasons of their own to give their new classmate the benefit of a doubt. Until they found those reasons she could talk until she was out of breath and they would still likely harbour doubts about Alexandria's trustworthiness.
There was only one thing she COULD do.
"You doing anything after classes Xan-chan?" She asked deciding on a course of action.
"Not really. Maybe do a little shopping before heading home." Alexandria replied with a shrug, "Why do you ask?"
"I was thinking of stopping by this bakery I know." She replied recalling one of her favourite places to go after school, "They make the BEST pastries! Want to swing by and get something?"
If she couldn't convince the others to give Alexandria the benefit of a doubt then the only thing left was to let the girl know that she had at least one person willing to give her a chance.
"Ah now you've gone and figured out my one weakness: sweets!" Alexandria replied with a smile on her face that confirmed that she was a lover of sugar, "I can grab something for my roommate while we're there. It'll definitely put a smile on her face."
"Then it's settled." She said before noticing Snipe-sensei entering the room, "Better get to our seats for now though."
Walking over to her chair she settled into her seat to await the appraisal of her team's efforts against Endeavor but a tug on the sleeve of her uniform jacket got her attention. Turning to the right she saw that it was Roxy-chan who amongst her classmates was definitely someone who was interested in the fame and fortune side of being a Pro Hero. It didn't mean that the girl capable of transforming into living diamond didn't care about protecting or saving people but rather that she intended on getting everything out of being a Pro Hero that she could.
Ambitious but given the grades that Roxy-chan had managed to get the last two years she wouldn't put it past the girl to make good on her ambitions.
"You Kaoruko! What's with getting all friendly with the quirk stealer?" Roxy-chan asked with a whisper clearly opposed to the idea, "You looking to go quirkless or something?"
"She had all the chances she needed to steal me and Reptile Lad's quirks during the exercise but she didn't." She replied keeping her tone neutral, "She threw herself at Endeavor to buy the rest of us time to win. That's enough to give her a chance in my book."
"Of course she's not gonna make a grab for them with cameras on her." Roxy-chan said seeing the more sinister side of things, "If she's smart enough to get the principal to let her in U.A then she's smart enough to wait until she can do it and get away scot free."
"I know that some people think that certain quirks mean the one who has them is going to go Villain eventually but not me." She said with a little steel in her voice, "Its the person not the quirk that makes the decision to be a Hero or a Villain and I'm not going to push Alexandria into being a Villain just because I'm afraid of what she MIGHT do."
"Tch, whatever." Roxy-chan said before turning her eyes towards Snipe-sensei, "See if you think the same way when you wake up quirkless someday."
With that Snipe-sensei began to summarize each team's encounter in the fake city highlighting what they did right while also pointing out what they did wrong. All during that however her thoughts drifted back to what Roxy-chan had said and how others in the class if not the entire school might be of a similar opinion when it came to Alexandria. That meant that there would likely be others who'd cause trouble for the girl though what the range would be she didn't know. She figured most of it would be standard bullying but there could be some who wouldn't be satisfied with something so small scale.
Some might try to arrange scenarios where the principal would have no choice but to expel Alexandria.
I'm going to have to stick close to her as often as I can. She thought as the team that'd been through the exercise before her own got their critiqued, If no one else'll be in her corner then I guess it's up to me.
It was something a Pro Hero would do and that was her goal without question.
The Apartment of Usagiyama Rumi aka Mirko
A Little Before Sundown
Rumi's POV
"Where the hell have you been kid?" She asked from her favourite chair where she'd been watching some Ultimate Quirk Competitions to kill some time, "Classes let out hours ago."
"Had a few things to pick up and I decided to hang with a classmate for a bit." Alexandria replied closing the door behind her and taking her uniform shoes off, "Got something for you too."
"Oh? And what's that?" She asked taking her feet off the stool.
"Two slices of Carrot Pecan Pie!" Alexandria replied taking a decent sized cardboard box out of one of the plastic bags she'd entered the apartment with, "Kaoruko-san showed me this great pastry place! Honestly if stayin' in shape wasn't so important to being a Pro Hero I'd probably never leave the place."
"Good choice!" She said getting up in order to get a peek at what she'd be snacking on later, "Quirks might make being a Pro Hero easier but they don't do shit if you're too flabby to move."
Opening the cardboard box her eyes went alight at the sight of the pie pieces because they did indeed look to be quite delicious. Carrots being her favourite thing to eat for as long as she could remember she'd sampled quite a few ways the vegetable could be made into a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner or a dessert. Thus she knew quality cooking when she saw it and these had definitely been put together by someone who knew what they were doing.
I'll have to get the address of this pastry place. She thought before closing the box back up, The usual places are starting to let their standards drop too low.
It was pathetic really.
When there was something you were good at you needed to give it your all and keep pushing to reach even greater heights of excellence. The second you started choosing 'this is good enough' or 'it doesn't matter' you're making the choice to let everything good about you go swirling down the drain. That's why she made sure every chance she got to train in the special gym she'd had made for her to make sure that she only got better instead letting herself backslide into being less than the best. If the gym wasn't enough then she went out to find a tough Villain to fight but when you were the number five ranked Pro Hero in Japan that wasn't easy to do. Most Villains the second they recognized her surrendered immediately without letting her have even a little bit of fun and those too stupid to know who she was turned out to be all quirk and no skill.
Not the most satisfying of opponents to say the least but they at least allowed her a way to warm up a bit.
"Speaking of staying fit do you know of a gym for people with super strength?" Alexandria asked once she'd finished putting the food she'd purchased.
"Plenty. You looking to bulk up?" She replied giving the kid a once over.
She'd seen the tests the U.A staff put the girl through so she knew the extent of the kid's super strength but there was one thing that puzzled her to this day.
How the hell did someone who looked like they belonged in the same line of work as that useless bit of arm candy Uwabami have that kind of strength?
"Not really. I just got to wonderin' if fifty tons was my bottom line limit for strength or if I can do more if I train four a couple months." Alexandria replied as though the idea hadn't been fully fleshed out yet.
"Of course ya can!" She declared surprised that the question even came up, "Didn't they teach ya that in grade school? Quirks are biology just like your muscles. You work out and the muscles get bigger and stronger. Quirks are no different."
"All our teacher really seemed to care about was that we were there when class started and didn't leave until class ended." Alexandria replied with a shrug of indifference, "Seeing as how my folks weren't exactly rolling in the money college wasn't an option so I didn't really see the point in working for anything more than a passing grade. Hell! The only reason I went that far is because most minimum wage jobs need you to at least have your high school diploma."
"Sounds like schools in America are crap." She said remembering her own school days.
Not that she'd been a goody-goody student before or after her quirk showed up. Some people go to school to learn but she went there for the playground and then later the gym so she could show everyone just how good she was. Of course her Ma wouldn't stop bitching at her until she actually managed to keep a C plus average but fortunately that went away once she enrolled in U.A High School. Once she got there all the courses had one thing or another to do with being a Pro Hero and that made it easier for her to make the choice to pay attention.
Easier but not problem free since there were countless times when she couldn't figure out what the hell one class or one project had to do with kicking Villain ass or rescuing people.
To hear that America's standards were so piss poor made her wonder just how far Alexandria would get at U.A having to play catch-up with things every other student knew by heart. Still…it wasn't her problem. All she'd been asked to do was let the girl stay at her apartment until they could find someplace else and keep an eye on her for anything 'unusual' whatever the hell THAT was.
Besides in this world you were either strong enough to stand on your own or you hid behind those that were. Either Alexandria would prove herself strong by overcoming the walls in the way of her becoming a Pro Hero or she wouldn't.
It was just that simple.
"You aren't wrong." Alexandria said sitting down on one of her chairs, "Most of its just 'memorize this then spit it out on a test when you're told to' and anybody with two brain cells to rub together can do that. Hear it's harder in college though."
"Were you one of those 'pretty princess' types in high school?" She asked after looking the girl over.
The newest student of U.A High School definitely had the curves that'd make most men do whatever she asked them to and a face that'd fit in with Uwabami's crowd.
"Nope. Parents barely kept a roof over our head and food on the table. Kinda made keeping up with the latest fashions impossible and buying from the local thrift store didn't do me any favours." Alexandria replied with a negative shake of her head, "Even with quirks being the new fashion clothes still matter and wearing outfits that're ten years out of date pretty much dumps you in the loser column."
Point.
She of course hadn't cared about stuff like that but she'd seen enough of it with her classmates when she went to school that she knew if you weren't keeping up with the times you were a loser.
"So what's it feel like now that you've got a closet that costs more than most people make in a year?" She asked remembering the day that Uwabami and the girl came in arms loaded with bags as well as boxes.
"Honestly? A lot of the stuff is way too fancy." Alexandria replied expressing mild dissatisfaction, "I'm a girl that prefers comfort over looks mostly. It can't look like trash but if clothes get too fancy then they're a hassle to clean and impossible to fix on your own."
Nice to see a blank check shopping trip hadn't turned the girl into one of those snobs who thought what they owned made them better that her. Those kind of people pissed her off but thanks to her being a Pro Hero she couldn't just smack them down like she wanted to but she'd still managed to get some burning words buried into their skulls.
Of course if those snobs turned out to be Villains…well…that changed everything.
As long as she didn't do anything Recovery Girl or the hospital couldn't handle it was all good.
RING! RING!
Looking with a little annoyance at her phone interrupting the discussion she picked it up out of its charging cradle and looked at the caller ID.
Uwabami? She thought with confusion, What does that weakling want?
Curiosity and annoyance proved to be enough to make her press the button to connect the call and put the phone to her ear.
"Yeah? What do you want?" She asked not even bothering with a 'hello' since the two of them weren't friends.
"Nice to talk to you too Usagiyama-san. I just called to find out how Alexandria is doing." Uwabami replied with mock politeness, "Power Loader's beside himself with what happened to the armour he made for the girl."
"Huh?" She asked glancing briefly at the girl.
"You mean she didn't tell you? The U.A faculty made up a new exercise for the fake cities." Uwabami replied sounding genuinely surprised, "Three students versus one of the staff. But Alexandria really must have some special kind of luck because somehow Principal Nezu managed to get Endeavor to go up against her team!"
"What the fuck?!" She exclaimed sitting up straight in her chair.
She knew from the times she'd seen him take on a Villain in the past that Endeavor didn't hold back when an enemy stood in front of him. Sure he didn't kill them but he definitely pushed the limit of what a Pro Hero was allowed to do and she was sure that it was only the fact that he was the number two ranked hero that let him get away with most of it. Even if the man was told it was just an exercise to help the students to become Pro Heroes she couldn't see the fire bastard holding back too much.
"I know! What the hell was Principal Nezu thinking asking Endeavor to help with the exercise?!" Uwabami asked sounding like she thought the dog had been trying to kill Alexandria's team, "They could've asked anyone else and it'd have been better! Still I guess it's a point in Alexandria's favour that she managed to come up with a good plan to win."
"Sounds like something I'd like to see." She said with a grin at the images her mind was coming up with.
Oh she didn't expect it to be pretty at all or even all that clever but if it'd been enough to hand that flame bastard a loss then it'd definitely be worth watching. Just like Endeavor wasn't going to stop trying to take the number one spot from All Might she wasn't just going to sit on her ass in fifth place either. She had every intention of kicking her way all the way to number one and proving to everyone that she was the strongest Pro Hero in all of Japan. After that she'd take a swipe at the Hero rankings in the other parts of the world until she became the top hero in every single one of them.
Something that to this day no one had ever come close to.
"Not really. She charged him head on and dragged him away from the escape zone of the exercise." Uwabami said quick to dash her hopes of a satisfying fight, "The rules said that the students either had to cuff the Pro Hero or for two of the three members of the student's team to make it to the escape zone. Her armour got trashed but she got the job done. I just wanted to know if she got hurt or not."
Shit.
That didn't sound all that entertaining at all.
Still a win was a win and definitely something she planned on reminding Endeavor about the next time she saw him. A girl, not even a Pro Hero or Villain, had managed to hold him off long enough for her friends to snag the win! The asshole went on and on about how he wanted to take the top spot from All Might but then lets something like this happen!
She might just have an easier time taking the number two spot than she thought.
Looking over at Alexandria who looked curious about what the call was about but didn't have the hearing to eavesdrop she didn't see any burns or any sign the girl was in pain. If Endeavor did any damage it couldn't have been very much if any at all.
Interesting.
"Well you can stop worrying because she's fine." She said focusing back on Uwabami, "Not a mark on her and she was feeling good enough to go for desserts after classes let out."
"Good. It'd make a mess of my plans if she had serious burns on her." Uwabami said with some relief.
"Plans?" She asked curious even though she was pretty sure she knew what the weakling was referring to.
"To convince her take on modelling as a side job to being a Pro Hero of course." Uwabami replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, "I saw enough getting her clothes to know she's got the body for it and her face is good enough that a little make-up will leave the critics speechless. That'd all go down the drain though if she got stuck with burn scars in too many places."
A frown formed on her face at the idea of her roommate getting turned into one of those pimped out models and she couldn't say she liked it. The girl had a lot of growing to do in some places but was refreshingly ahead of the curve in others when compared to the latest group to go from sidekick to Pro Hero. The fact that Alexandria had a few traits she personally thought a Pro Hero should have only made it easier to deal with the parts that didn't. The idea of having to deal with a prima donna like Uwabami?
NOT happening!
"Well that's good to know. Talk to you soon Uwabami!" She said before pressing the end call button and crushing the phone itself.
Couldn't have the woman calling back now could she?
Besides she already had a habit of breaking them anyways so she had a stack of replacement ones in the closet ready to be plugged in.
"Wrong number?" Alexandria asked with a bit of sarcastic humour.
"Somethin' like that." She said getting out of her chair, "Go get something you don't mind getting all sweaty and smelly. I've decided there's no better time like the present to show you where you can push your limits."
For a moment the girl looked a little confused but then shrugged before heading to her room to get the clothes. That's another thing she liked about Alexandria: she didn't do any unnecessary thinking. Sure as a Pro Hero you couldn't be an idiot or completely suck at problem solving but overthinking things either caused you to freeze up or just plain take too long. Not only did it make the Pro Hero screw up it showed everyone just how weak they were.
None of that for her and she'd be damned if she let Alexandria start developing that bad habit.
As for taking her to the gym where she worked out she was doing that for a different reason.
It's a fact that for every one or two mouth breathing pervs that like a chiselled woman there're eight that'll look elsewhere for their eye candy. She thought with a feral grin, By the time I'm done with Alexandria she'll look like lifting weights is all she does.
It'd be a VERY good day when Uwabami saw the new and improved Alexandria!
U. A High School Cafeteria
Two Months Later
Alexandria's POV
"Another rough weekend?" Kaoruko asked from her seat, "Whoever's training you really needs to dial it back. You're coming in on Mondays half dead."
"Wish it was that easy girl." She said before taking a bit out of her lunch, "Sensei's not the sort of person you can just say no to. Besides it's getting results no two ways about it."
Indeed in the two months since she'd started training with Rumi she'd managed to increase her max lifting weight from fifty tons to fifty-two tons. Sure some people might think that that was not very much but for her to manage it in just two months was definitely an achievement worth respecting. If she kept up the effort she could very easily manage to hit sixty tons before a year had passed. She wasn't foolish enough to think that her physical strength would just keep going up without end. However she figured that she could still reach a point far above what Rogue had managed without borrowing from another.
Too bad with that increase in super strength she'd also have to work twice as hard refining her control of that new level of power.
Never once in any of the movies, TV shows, comics or cartoons did it show the hero learning to establish a high level of control once they achieved a new plateau of power. All it often boiled down to was a training montage mixed with a few meaningful moments with either the mentor or a friend. She'd learned after reaching fifty-one tons that your control had to grow along with your power or else it'd be like when your powers first switched on. She hadn't done much damage to the apartment but if it'd gone any further he knew that his roommate would've kicked her across the room.
In order to work on that control she'd bought some of the most fragile things she could find in bulk without paying a lot of money. From that point on she'd slapped together exercises with the end goal of course being to not damage the item even a little. From simple tossing the item back and forth between her hands to doing the same with her feet she did it all while trying to do no damage at all. She'd even wrapped her fingers around the item before trying to execute punches without letting them close enough to make a fist.
Needless to say she'd gone through several garbage bags full before she began to get the hang of it. A side benefit to all that waste though was that she'd been able to figure out what exercises worked and which to forget about. She was confident that if she stayed on that path she could reduce the mess to just one or two bags for every two ton increase in strength.
Still there is one thing that she'd need to see Power Loader about making for her.
She'd gotten the idea from an old anime but the real question was whether or not it could actually be made without bankrupting her. It'd been in one of the Dragonball Z episodes and basically it was a machine you hit and it told you how much strength was behind the blow. In the episode all the main characters held back so as not to give away their superhuman strength but the device itself was a good idea.
It'd need to be reinforced to a superhuman degree in order not to be reduced to scrap with the first strike. She thought even as she continued to eat her lunch, But if it could be made then it'd be perfect for combat training.
Gaining control enough for day to day things wouldn't be enough with the career path she'd chosen to go down. As a Pro Hero she'd be called upon to do everything from search and rescue to fighting villains both of which required varying levels of control in order to be done right. A punch with too much power behind it could kill a person who didn't have a Quirk that'd allow them to endure such a blow. Even search and rescue would require that she know precisely how much strength to use whether it was to lift something or push it out of the way.
However if a practice dummy could be made with a display that showed how much power was in each blow she could practice until she could consistently use only as much as she wanted. She wouldn't kill anyone if she punched them. She wouldn't accidentally bring the building down on the very people she was trying to save.
She would do what she wanted and nothing more.
"Think you'll be as strong as All Might if you keep at it?" Kaoruko asked with tentative openness to the idea.
Understandable since All Might was seen as the strongest Pro Hero hands down with no one able to match him in the field of raw power. As such while everyone wanting to become a Pro Hero dreamed of rising to the top but in order to reach that peak becoming better than the number one ranked Pro Hero was a prerequisite. Many saw this as impossible and accepted the fact that they'd never rise any higher than the number two slot but there were some who were unwilling to let go of the dream of being the best.
"Not any time soon sugah." She replied with a negative shake of her head, "Even if I worked out every day I'd probably be in my early thirties before I got that strong and that's assuming it's even possible. You know the same thing I do: Quirks are physical and have limitations. I can train as hard as I want but it won't do a lick of good if my body's limits won't let me go past the line it drew in the sand."
"I know that but with your core Quirk you could find a way to go further, right?" Kaoruko asked bringing up something that was less of a taboo topic than it'd been initially.
"Temporarily, if I had to, but if I wanted to keep the power up I'd have to be no better than a Villain." She replied knowing full well what'd happen to the person who she held on to for too long, "I won't go that far unless it's literally the end of the world on the horizon and I can only stop it if I do it. Only if they agree to it first."
She wasn't foolish enough to think that she could live in this world without ever having to venture into the grey area of morality. Sure on the surface it looked like everyone up to and including the villains obeyed the comic books rules of conduct but there was always something darker beneath the surface. It'd been the same way with Sunnydale: sleepy looking little town on the surface but a doorway to hell underneath with a plethora of demons waiting in the shadows. She often wondered why this grey area wasn't as visible either on the news or in the U.A classes but the reason she'd come up with didn't sit well with her.
Even though it'd been more than four generations since Quirks first showed up the power they bestowed on people in random ways still frightened the world. For every possibility where a Quirk was used in a positive way people could imagine ten possibilities where the person could use that same Quirk to do evil. Thus in order to convince people that Quirks could be used for good the first generation of Pro Heroes acted out like those featured in the comic books. By doing this first before someone used a Quirk to do commit an act of great evil a more positive first impression was made that served as a foundation for everything and everyone that came after. If it'd been a Villain that'd made the first impression then she had little doubt this world would have gone down the same path as Rogue's had. People who possessed Quirks would be seen as unnatural freaks to be rejected at best and murdered at the very worst. Even if the first generation of Pro Heroes had done their best to prove that not everyone who possessed a Quirk needed to be feared or treated as an enemy the poison would've already been in the bloodstream of society.
So it had come to be over the years that both the Pro Heroes and the government most likely were doing their best to drown the people in the good parts of having a Quirk in order to make the citizens barely notice the dark side of things. Sure people knew that Villains existed and used their Quirks for evil ends but most of them sitting in front of a TV probably felt like these troublemakers were in the minority.
Something the good guys had no intention of correcting them on.
"Well then I guess it's a good thing that you'll never have to fight All Might and no one's as strong as him." Kaoruko said letting the serious topic slide off her without any problem.
Not quite but let's keep thinking positive thoughts. She thought finishing off her meal, Unlike back home positive thoughts don't seem to piss Murphy off enough to actually do anything.
It was as she was walking over to hand over her empty dishes and tray that she noticed an advertisement being shown on one of the various TVs hanging from the cafeteria ceiling. It'd been something that Snipe-sensei had brought up with them during class this morning but honestly she didn't see it as something she needed to be worried about and not due to overconfidence.
The annual U.A Sports Festival.
Once a year the school held a festival wherein every class of every grade competed in front of hundreds of people in a stadium and who knew how many on TV in a variety of events meant to show off their skill as well as their quirks. Apparently in this reality they replaced the Olympics as far as Japan was concerned since with the coming of super powers ordinary events ceased to be all that difficult or entertaining to say nothing of fair. They also served as a way for students to get noticed by the various Pro Hero agencies and other businesses increasing the odds of a favourable recruitment after graduating.
Given that the government paid Pro Heroes partially based on their popularity then getting into a well known agency right off the bat would be a huge boost to one's career.
Her classmates, Kaoruko included, had already been through two festivals already but they were still excited about competing. Especially since there were rumours abound that the faculty was considering reducing the scale of the event to just involve the first years rather than every year of students at U.A. The exact reasons weren't all that clear but most figured it was because the later years would outshine the first years reducing the impact the newbies had on the audience and unfairly harming their chances of getting noticed. Thus this upcoming festival could very well be the last chance Kaoruko or anyone outside of the first year classes to step into the spotlight and everyone she'd seen was majorly hyped about it all.
As for why she didn't need to be worried or excited about it was the simple fact that she didn't seen the faculty allowing her to compete. Quirks, regardless of how they might look, were restricted to one per person and thanks to her inheritance from Halloween she had multiple powers all of which were leagues above what most of the student body possessed. If they allowed her to compete then they might as well just give her first place one second after the opening ceremonies were done with. She just had too many tools to work with and if her own class was any indication no member of the student body had a quirk potent enough or useful enough to be a problem for her. At the moment all she was doing was waiting for the inevitable take aside discussion where they quietly informed her that she would not be competing in the festival.
Something she would not have much of a problem with.
Honestly ever since her classes at U.A had begun she'd been mulling over the whole hero career and the more she thought about it the more she was confident that being overlooked was the better option.
From the tactical point of view it'd keep the specifics of what she could do and how well she could do them out of the hands of the Villain community. After all there was no way that such a highly televised event could be kept from the quirk wielding criminals even if the security at the actual event would do their best to be on the look out for known Villains. All an intelligent scumbag would need to do would be to study each participant as best they could, make a guess as to how much better they'd get and come up with strategies to beat them should they show up to mess with a crime. Information was ammunition and an event like this had the potential to hand some Villains a lethal one hit kill if everything fell into place just right.
From a more personal side of things she couldn't say that she liked the fame and fortune angle that seemed to be matching if not exceeding the main heroic mission mandate. A super hero's primary goal in every source she was familiar with was to protect the innocent while bringing a hammer down on the plans of the evil doers. None of the comic book heroes she'd ever liked growing up had cared about being given mountains of money or having their faces on the cover of every magazine. They weren't unaware of it but it was more of a byproduct of their work rather than a goal in and of itself. Most of them had normal jobs that they did when not in costume and managed to get by just fine.
Here, in this reality, fame and fortune seemed to be accepted as part of the deal if you wanted to become a Pro Hero.
For her though they were distractions from what should take priority over everything else and so if she missed out on the jump start the festival would give her then she was actually happy about it.
She'd make her own path into the ranks of the Pro Heroes and that suited her just fine.