Chapter Four: It's All Fun and Games

With the sun setting, the worst of the August heat had evaporated, leaving a comfortable warmth in its place. Koda took this as an opportunity to go for an evening stroll on school grounds.

While he wanted to relax, he also knew Scythe would take any opportunities she could find to try and get him. As a result, he called out to several of the many birds taking shelter in the nearby trees, asking them if they could keep watch for anyone that looked like Scythe. After placating them with some birdseed, they agreed to follow him for a time, circling just above him and sometimes even taking a break to rest on his head.

Even if it made him an easier target, he stuck to the paths; there existed no quicker way of making an enemy of an animal than by stepping on their friend. He glanced behind him on occasion to deter any potential stalkers, but otherwise, he tried his best to sink into his surroundings and let the day's stress roll off his shoulders.

It felt amazing, even if he knew it was too good to last. Soon enough, he'd need to return to his training. Soon enough, he'd have to come to terms with everything he needed to accomplish before the end of the day. Soon enough—

"Look out!"

"Behind you!"

He had but a split second to whirl around and try to find the reason for the birds' panic before Scythe was in his face, grinning like a fiend as she slapped a sticker onto him. The force sent him reeling, the sudden motion causing all the birds perched on him to scatter with a chorus of screeches.

Scythe brushed herself off, sticks and leaves falling to the ground. "Check for hiding places next time. You made that way too easy for me."

Koda nodded, his eyes avoiding Scythe's. She had nothing else to say, instead going on the prowl for her next victim.

Admittedly, that had been his fault. He felt a bit embarrassed to have been tagged out so early in the game, but at the same time, he hadn't been as observant as he could have. Expecting the birds to do the heavy lifting wasn't fair for them and wasn't practical for him; in many places, he might not even be lucky enough to have birds to work with.

With an outcome that disappointing, he decided the least he could do was learn from it. Therefore, he approached the tree his former companions had taken shelter in following Scythe's attack and called out to them once more. While they approached far more cautiously this time, perhaps anticipating another assault, before long they returned to their former perches.

"I'm sorry to keep you any longer, but I'd like to ask you something," Koda said, voice just above a whisper. "Could you tell me any ideas you have on how to stop someone like her?"

Their response made him recoil. Perhaps these birds had observed Bakugo in the wild or something; nothing else explained the slew of curses and insults they directed at Scythe.

Nothing beat his mother's home cooking, but Lunch Rush's cuisine came pretty close.

Even though Izuku had the day off from school, that didn't mean he could just sit back and relax all day, even disregarding the volume of schoolwork he'd been set, he wanted to be in the best shape possible for the upcoming Hero License Exam. Thus, he rose with the sun, entering the cafeteria nice and early to get a quick breakfast in before he got started for the day.

Once he entered the cafeteria, it became clear Kacchan at the very least had the same idea; he was one of the only other students in the mostly-empty cafeteria at that hour. In other circumstances, Izuku would have tried to sit with him, but he knew Kacchan had his own plans and likely wouldn't appreciate being interrupted.

One trip through the line later, he took a seat smack in the middle of the room and began to eat. Mere seconds afterward, though, he heard an unpleasant scraping noise coming from somewhere off to his right, its source obscured from view by the cafeteria doors. It kept growing louder as he peeled and ate an orange, then stopped entirely once he'd swallowed the last sweet slice.

He might have investigated the noise, but then Scythe strolled into the cafeteria through a different set of doors, and his priorities shifted on the fly. He swallowed his bite of oatmeal, put down his spoon, stood up, and waited for her to make her first move.

Scythe had been smiling, but once she realized Izuku knew she was there, it melted away, replaced with grim determination. Izuku remained confident in his ability to evade her for the required time limit: Scythe may have been fast, but not as fast as he could go with Full Cowl active. With Kacchan at his side, he could probably manage just fine, and hopefully Kacchan could handle this as well without blowing Scythe up.

Both of them attempted to fake the other out a few times, imitating a lunge or a charge before stepping back just as quickly. After neither of them fell for it several times in a row (and gotten the attention of everyone else in the cafeteria to boot), Scythe broke first, hurtling toward Izuku at top speed as he did the same in the opposite direction.

Kacchan, having figured out what was going on, had abandoned his tray to try and help Izuku out. To his surprise, he didn't move to engage Scythe now that her motives were clear; instead, he ran for the nearest set of doors. Izuku took the opportunity to follow him at top speed as Kacchan threw one of the doors open.

Or at least, he tried to. The door didn't budge an inch.

Izuku tried to stop, but at his speed, all he could do was backpedal and throw his hands out to protect his face. It did more than he expected, though: by the time he crashed into what had once been a door but now felt like a brick wall, he'd slowed to a speed an unaided human could easily manage.

A small firecracker went off at the base of his right index finger, a sharp pain but a manageable one after so many similar injuries. The pain slowed him down only a little, but it still made him hit the floor a second too long.

Scythe slapped a sticker on his arm with a triumphant grin, causing Kacchan to screech and knock her off of him before pinning her to the floor. Scythe attempted to repeat the process with him, but Kacchan's pose locked her arms in place, her nails pointing in useless directions. She squirmed in place for a few seconds, then Kacchan moved his hands to place her in a sleeper hold, much to Izuku's alarm.

He might have called off Kacchan before he finished the act, but Scythe beat him to the punch. She choked out, "Okay, okay, I'm incapacitated! You can stop!"

Kacchan snarled like he'd gone rabid. "Stay down if you know what's good for you."

She stayed down. Kacchan moved his tray right next to where Izuku's had been, then returned to eating his breakfast.

While Izuku remained more forgiving than his friend, he still wanted to know how Scythe had come up with that idea. "Was blocking us in really necessary?"

"You two were always going to be hard to catch, so I had to get creative," Scythe said, pulling herself to her feet as she did. "And, uh, sorry about your finger."

Kacchan looked about two seconds away from using his gauntlets to impersonate Shouto, but Izuku calmed them both down the best he could. "Don't worry, it's been through worse."

Before either of them could say anything else, the unpleasant scraping noise from the other side of the door returned. A few seconds after that, Scythe broke the relative silence. "You should be able to open the door now."

Opening the door revealed two things Izuku found quite important on the other side. One was a sturdy trash can filled with what looked like weights from one of the gyms, and the other was a fellow U.A. student he didn't recognize dragging it down the hall. Given where his hand was on the can, though, he didn't look like he was holding it at all, which intrigued Izuku enough that his throbbing finger faded into the background for now.

When the boy turned around to face the newcomers, leaving the trash can behind in the process, he at least looked apologetic when he saw Izuku's broken finger. "She asked me to put that trash can there. My fault, I probably should have at least asked why. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Izuku said. One for All had done much worse to him. Furthermore, he'd sprung for athletic tape after the first few broken bones; if he wrapped his finger right, he might even be able to get through the parts of his workout that didn't require his hands without visiting Recovery Girl.

"That's nice to hear," the boy said. "I'm going to put this back now."

"I can help," Izuku said. Despite all the extra weight, One for All helped him lift the trash can off the ground by the handle, careful to avoid injuring his broken finger any further. The other student grabbed the other handle, then their hands disappeared entirely, their arms fusing into the garbage can as he struggled to keep his side aloft.

The two of them began walking down the hall in tandem, Izuku taking a moment to reflect on how he could prepare better for any future attempts at this game.

Once the sun went down, the only light sources in Tokoyami's room came from candles and the dim glow of his computer screen. His blackout curtains kept the room quite dark even during the day, while at night, most others wouldn't see their own hand out in front of them after he shut his laptop off.

Dark Shadow observed him while he worked. Despite the suitable environment, if he had anything negative to say, apart from a sarcastic comment or two he kept it to himself. This worked for a while, but despite the late hour, Tokoyami's stomach began rumbling. Unfortunately, unlike Dark Shadow, darkness alone wasn't enough to keep him fed.

"I'm sure you'd appreciate staying in the darkness for the rest of the night, but I need sustenance to continue working at this rate and I don't have it with me," Tokoyami said.

Dark Shadow turned to face him. "How long will I have to be in the light?"

"Not long," Tokoyami said. "Just long enough to obtain some food. I'll eat it here."

"Good," Dark Shadow replied. "If I had my way, we'd leave this room a lot less."

"Precisely why I make most of our decisions," Tokoyami said, standing up as he did so. His eyes having adjusted to the low light, he found the door without any trouble, pulling it open all at once.

The searing brightness made Tokoyami fling one hand over his eyes, Dark Shadow screeching before diving inside his body. The switch in lighting from his room to the hallway always took a few seconds to adjust to, but this time magnified the sensation a thousand times over as if he'd walked straight into the sun. Eraserhead's eyes didn't burn this much. What the hell was this?

Tokoyami heard a whoop somewhere off to his side, piecing together the puzzle for him. He turned to run, but before he ever took a step he felt the hand on his back and knew it was far too late.

Scythe didn't wait for a second to start explaining how she'd accomplished her goal. "One of the most important things you need to do as a hero is accommodate your limits and weaknesses. The same can be said when taking down villains: if you know their weaknesses, exploit them for all they're worth."

"That does explain the lights," Tokoyami said. "I don't quite understand how you were able to set your trap up unimpeded, though."

"For starters, it's a wonder you can see anything when your room is so dark," Scythe said. "In addition, you don't have a means of seeing outside your room with your door closed."

"I doubt the dorms were designed with observing the hallway in mind, and I see no reason my door should ever be open in this scenario," Tokoyami said. "If I leave it open, what's stopping a villain from just walking inside and doing whatever they want with me?"

"A fair point," Scythe said. "At the same time, if I remember correctly Dark Shadow is incorporeal, meaning he can check the outside world for threats before you ever open a door. Why didn't you have him do that if you knew of such a possibility?"

Tokoyami took a few seconds to answer, because his primary focus lay on keeping Dark Shadow in check. He needed to calm himself before something happened that could never be undone. "Dark Shadow is not just a tool, and neither he nor I would appreciate him being treated as such. Furthermore, if someone were outside my room long enough to set up an elaborate trap, I would expect another person to see them and alert somebody."

"In general, people are unobservant," Scythe said, her eyes flitting between him and Dark Shadow. "Don't count on them to notice anything wrong for you."

She had nothing more to say after that, or perhaps Dark Shadow had gotten to a point where she could no longer ignore the obvious anger in its eyes. Thus, she hurried for the stairs, disappearing from sight before long.

"I don't like her," Dark Shadow growled.

"I must say I don't care for her either," Tokoyami said. "Fortunately, that seems to be a widely held sentiment amongst my classmates."

"Good," Dark Shadow said. "It means all of them have eyes and brains."

Thankfully, the hallway was empty, meaning none of his classmates were around to hear that one. Their conversation ended after that barb, Tokoyami deciding to try and put the game behind him for now. He peeled off Scythe's brightly colored sticker and went to find food, Dark Shadow staying silent the whole way to the kitchen.

Something that sounded like cursing jolted Mineta awake just shy of four in the morning.

The noise made him shoot to attention in a split second, a cold displeasure filling his entire being. He'd been partway through an elusive dream about Mount Lady before this; if whatever this person entered the room for wasn't life or death, they were going to be sorry.

Once his eyes adjusted to the low light, the scene made him start swearing in tandem with his victim. Scythe currently lay spread-eagle on the floor, trapped by approximately thirty of his sticky balls. She looked like she was trying to thrash herself free, but apart from making minuscule progress across the floor, she wasn't accomplishing anything.

A teacher. Had snuck into his room. While he was asleep. At four in the morning.

"Lady, pardon my language, but what the actual fuck," Mineta said. "Don't you have anything else you could be doing right now? Like, you know, sleeping?"

"Villains don't sleep," Scythe said, her speech slurred thanks to part of her mouth being glued in place.

Well, that wasn't ominous at all. "Okay. You do you, I guess."

Scythe seemed to ignore him. "I must commend you for putting together a defense system that ensnared me. What made you think to do that?"

Mineta froze for a second, choosing his words with care. He couldn't exactly say that he needed a line of self-defense in case a girl he'd angered wanted revenge. Unless one of his classmates had blabbed to her, his… habits remained under lock and key (literally, in the case of his magazines and posters), and he wasn't about to demonstrate them now.

The simplest answer to a question was often the best one, and the same appeared true in this instance. "I have it just in case something happens. You never know these days."

"True indeed," Scythe said. "Now, can you please get me out of here?"

Unfortunately for her, news of her antics had spread across Class 1-A, meaning he knew of both the capture attempt that broke Izuku's finger and her obnoxious jumpscare of Tokoyami. Therefore, he prepared to be stabbed in the back the second he got her loose. "Does this count as being incapacitated?"

"Yes," Scythe responded.

"Are you lying?"

A smile. "Why would I lie about this?"

That made Mineta's choice for him; better to be safe than sorry. "Well, just in case, I'm going to take a walk for fifteen minutes. I'll get you out of there when I get back."

Scythe looked two seconds away from blowing a gasket, which Mineta took as his cue to leave. Making sure to give Scythe enough space that she couldn't reach out and slap a sticker on him while he was looking in the other direction, he slipped into the hallway, Scythe's cursing and thumping fading to nothing behind him.

Kaminari charged into homeroom on Monday; not only did he risk being late otherwise, but it meant he had a far lower chance of Scythe tagging him. He'd heard some horror stories from his classmates over the weekend and preferred to avoid being the subject of the next one.

He entered the room right as the opening bell rang, crashing into his seat just before Eraserhead began speaking. It was far from the first time either of those things had been true.

"I would hope that all of you got some training in this weekend, be it mental or physical," Eraserhead said. "Your Hero License Exams are on Sunday, and both I and the rest of the world will be expecting U.A. to put in an excellent showing. Don't let us down."

Kaminari nodded. He expected nothing but the best from himself on that exam, and the same could probably be said about his classmates: even the more lackadaisical ones had to want their hero license more than anything.

Eraserhead spoke a little more after that about what the schedule would be like for the rest of the week, as well as reassuring them that while their homework load would only be relaxed so far, topics would be mixed in that would help them on their Hero License Exams. "While you may have other things to learn at this school besides Heroics, let me reassure you that everyone at U.A. wants you to do well."

He wrapped up not long after that and gestured for Scythe to take over, which she did without any hesitation. "While the game is on pause during school hours, don't think I'm not using this time to craft other means I can use to tag you all. So far, I've had a few failures, but I've been catching you off-guard time and time again. I still have all of this afternoon to work with, so if you haven't been targeted already, I'd be vigilant and be prepared for anything."

Before Scythe could say anything further, Jirou raised her hand. Scythe didn't seem to respond, but Eraserhead called on her without a second thought. "Do you have something to say, Jirou?"

"I'm going to be blunt, so forgive me in advance," Jirou said. "Scythe, could you maybe make your games a little less intense from now on? I'd appreciate it if fewer of them involved us getting injured."

While he had yet to be a target even if Scythe had another day to try, from the looks of former targets, Kaminari knew what Jirou meant. Though he couldn't see the faces of the people in front of him, just looking to the back of the room revealed several members of Class 1-A far worse for wear than they'd been Saturday evening. Izuku's finger was still wrapped. Mineta had eye bags rivaling Eraserhead's. Dark Shadow shot daggers at Scythe from across the room. No doubt more injuries remained out of his line of sight.

Kaminari had forgiven Scythe for his slashed side already. At the time, nothing about her indicated that injury had been anything other than an unfortunate accident. However, at this point, her accidents were starting to pile up. She needed to change something to try and prevent more of them before they stopped being unfortunate and started being malicious.

Scythe, however, didn't seem to see things that way. "My goal is to prepare you for another villain attack, and when they do, they're not going to hold back. If I relaxed, I wouldn't be doing my job correctly."

"I understand that," Jirou said, cutting Scythe off before she could get much further. "But at the same time, we need to remain in a state where we can keep practicing afterward. Not to mention, the Hero License Exam is in a week, and we need to be in peak condition if we want to perform our best on it."

"You have a week, and you have one of the best nurses in the country on your side," Scythe said. "Any injuries you sustain during this game will heal in time, I'm sure of it."

Jirou had more she wanted to say, but Iida raised his hand and she went silent in response. Kaminari sympathized: unless it involved pop culture, anything he could say, Iida could say better.

When Scythe pointed to Iida, he wasted no time getting started. "Ma'am, the Hero License Exam is only held twice a year, and U.A. has historically performed far better on this exam than other Japanese heroics schools. If this class performs far worse than Class 1-As from past years, outsiders are going to start pointing fingers, and a lot of them will be aimed at you. If that occurs, your reputation will probably suffer, and I'm sure you don't want that."

Scythe's smile wavered. "If that occurs, I'll handle things as they come. I'm sure you'll still perform fine as long as you remain sufficiently mobile."

Class 1-A suffered the same fate as they had the day Scythe introduced herself: they still had far more questions than answers by the time the first-period bell rang. Kaminari allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief. While he couldn't necessarily relax, he had an extended break from glancing over his shoulder and checking every hiding place he saw. His classwork might be difficult at this stage of the year, but at least it didn't leave him paranoid.

I've officially given up on trying to fit this story into a single arc, so the Hero License Exam now has an actual date instead of being set some vague distance in the future. I'm still working out how this story will affect canon's Shie Hassaikai plotline, but fortunately, I have a handful of chapters sketched out before we get there, so I should be fine for a while.

That's all I've got for now. The next chapter should be out on the 26th. Thanks for reading this far, and I hope to see you then!