Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me. (two points if you get the reference)
BATTLE TRIALS! BATTLE TRIALS! BATTLE TRIALS!
If you couldn't tell, this is one of my favorite parts. I literally have had this pretty planned out since the start-I've had this planned out since before Hitoshi was even introduced in this story because I thought of Hinata's quirk a long time ago and just wanted this to happen.
They're inside, and Hinata's quirk is called Occupy, remember… :) You ready for this?
I have been since chapter one or two!
"Heroics class!" Izuku said happily. "You guys ready?"
"I'm just wondering what we're gonna do for the first day of it-please tell me it's not like the physical test," Toshi groaned. "That was stressful."
"You still did well!" Izuku said.
"It will likely be sparring or something similar to get a baseline on our fighting abilities," Shoto said. "So, you know, something Izuku will easily win."
"I'm not that good at sparring," Izuku said.
"You literally judo-flipped me when I asked to see how good you were at sparring," Shoto said. "You'll do fine."
"I AM-"
Everyone's head snapped towards the door to see-
"COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" All Might said, coming through the door in his Silver Age costume-definitely not like a normal person, but to each their own, I guess.
"It's All Might!" someone-Uraraka, right?-said happily while Izuku just rested his hand on his chin, giving the #1 hero an indifferent look.
"Hello, class!" All Might said, then pulled out a card with the word battle on it. "Today we are doing combat training!"
"Called it," Shoto said.
"And today, you get to wear your hero costumes!" All Might said, gesturing to a wall that started to open, revealing cases with their student numbers on them. "Now, change into your costume and meet at Ground Beta in fifteen minutes!"
Everyone got up and quickly got their costumes, rushing to their locker rooms.
…
Izuku quickly put on his costume and adjusted his gloves.
"Eh, that's certainly…attention-getting," Shoji said, looking at Izuku.
Izuku looked at him. "Well, yeah, I guess it would be-that was…kind of the point."
Izuku's costume was a pair of black cargo pants that were made to move with him. He had a gray tank top under a white crop-top that had sleeves that went just past his elbows. Then, the rest of the way to his wrists was bands of color for each Side-eight on one, eight on the other.
Of course, that's what it would look like when Izuku had all his Sides out. Right now, though?
Izuku's pants had splatters of the colors of the Dark Sides on his pants, splatters of the Neutral Sides on the tank top, and splatters of the Light Sides on the crop top and sleeves. His hair was pulled back with a similar looking hood that had cat ears attached to it (Yui's idea that Toshi had chuckled at and approved, Kacchan had scoffed, and Shoto had…blushed? It was weird, honestly), and he had a face guard. On top of that, he had a pair of boots that went to his knees (also acting as kneepads/guards, he also had the same kind of thing on his elbows) decorated with chess pieces (a personal joke between the Sides, since there were as many of them as pieces on a chess board) each with a color of one of the Sides.
"So many colors!" Aoyama said. "But not as flashy as moi!"
"I had some of my DNA combined with this, so it'll get less flashy when I use my quirk," Izuku told Shoji, then looked at Aoyama. "And your cape is really sparkly, Aoyama-it looks really nice, but is that armor light enough for exercise?"
"Are you questioning my strength?" Aoyama asked.
"No, just what the armor's made of," Izuku said. "Even people with super strength quirks can get sore carrying around heavy armor, so I'm just asking if that's something that's going to be comfortable all day."
"Ah, thank you for your concern!" Aoyama said. "This is made out of colored titanium, making it easy to carry but strong enough to protect moi!" (I have no idea if this is true, I spent five minutes trying to figure out what this armor was made out of, stepped back from my computer, and questioned everything.) (I also spent five more minutes trying to make sure Aoyama's "mwah" sound is spelled "moi" before remembering that google translate is a thing? I'm too tired for this and have no clue what's going on anymore…)
"Ah, that's good," Izuku said. "Now, we should get going-don't wanna be late." for training, right?" With that, he quickly began to walk away, Toshi joining him as they hurried to Ground Beta, where a few of the girls were already waiting.
(Ooh, so Toshi doesn't have an official costume, so I get full creative freedom! Well, with the exception of the voice changer, but otherwise! He's wearing the voice changer and a purple jumpsuit that looks like Aizawa's. Because my Roman is too busy with this fic to be unoriginal enough to think of something else.)
And…well…
All of them wore skin-tight bodysuits, Yaoyorozu's suit just looked downright unacceptable, and Hagakure was wearing entirely silver reflective material that looked skintight, but also more loose than the other girl's (plus a pair of gloves and shoes.) (Realistically, I don't think that Hagakure actually has a costume besides the gloves and shoes unless I missed something because of how embarrassed she acted when she told Ojiro that she was taking off her gloves and shoes, but I also don't want Izuku or the other Sides to notice what her quirk is at this point because I planned out a fun scene for that later on that I will definitely forget to write, and if she didn't have something on, that would definitely catch their attention, so…yeah.)
Mom, should we…mention something? Izuku asked. Because I'm pretty sure Yaoyorozu isn't actually allowed to have that outfit…it looks like it would violate the laws about showing skin.
It just barely doesn't, Odin said. But that doesn't mean it's comfortable.
Want me to get started on some kind of redesign? Dasu asked.
Please do, Odin said.
"I like your costume!" Uraraka said, walking up to Izuku.
"Thanks," Izuku said. "Yours looks nice, but…it also doesn't look fully comfortable."
"I know, I asked for something a little less…skin tight bodysuit-y, but what can I do about it?" Uraraka asked, chuckling nervously.
"Hmm…you can probably put in a request to have it just a little looser," Izuku said.
"I'll see if I can," Uraraka said. "But I'm more concerned about…" She glanced in one direction, then turned red and looked away. "Nevermind,"
"Yaoyorozu's costume?" Izuku asked.
Uraraka nodded as Yaoyorozu looked over and walked over to them.
"Ah!" Uraraka squeaked. "Sorry-"
"It's fine-this is what I get for just saying that I need open skin for my costume and letting the designers go wild," Yaoyorozu said, "But my quirk will work just fine with this, so I should be fine."
"That's barely a legal amount of skin being shown there, you know," Izuku said. "But I was going to ask yesterday, so you can create objects and pull them from your skin, right?"
"That's right," Yaoyorozu said. "As long as I know the chemical compound and have enough lipids to do so."
"Converting lipids into different chemical compounds…" Izuku muttered. "That's incredibly interesting and sounds incredibly powerful."
"Not as powerful as your quirk, though," Yaoyorozu said. "You said you have how many yesterday?"
"Sixteen plus," Izuku said.
"We didn't see all of them yesterday, did we?" Uraraka asked.
"Oh, far from it," Izuku said. "I don't even use most of them regularly, honestly, just a few main ones that are more adaptable to situations."
"I hope we can see all of them!" Uraraka said as more students came from the locker rooms.
Hey, Izuku, can you show something to Yaoyorozu right quick? Dasu asked. I want to see if this design would be ok with her.
Sure, Izuku said. "Hey, Yaoyorozu, mind if I suggest something about your costume?"
"Go ahead, I guess," Yaoyorozu said.
Izuku held out his hand and let Dasu take over, creating a small illusion of a plush model, causing Yaoyorozu and Uraraka to jump as it instead formed a chest cover that zipped up and a pair of running shorts, complete with the belt that Yaoyorozu currently had on. Her stomach was left open. The cover went from about four inches under her chest to her neck, where it had a slight turtleneck, plus open shoulders and detached sleeves that started at her elbows and went to her wrists, a small section going to wrap around her middle finger.
"I have a feeling that something like this would be more comfortable-you would still have more than enough skin, plus the option to uncover more skin if necessary, and the back is designed open, just in case," Dasu said, spinning the plush model around to show them. "That way, your chest would also have more support-no offense meant, but you kind of look…it looks like your chest is going to fall out if left like that, which would call for an awkward situation in any shape or form. The fabric would also be made from your DNA which we would have to test but should allow for objects you create to pass through. If that works, then we can extend the fabric over your back and get rid of this zipper here. I hope it would work so the fabric could be expanded over winter months to cover more skin, but if that would not work, more zippers and maybe a cape would work best. Or a baggy enough coat that would allow you to still create objects and fall out,maybe with some kind of catch fabric that would make it so you don't drop what you're creating, or could allow for you to catch or not catch something as you see fit? We would have to workshop that." Back to Izuku. "So...good idea? We can keep workshopping it."
Yaoyorozu's eyes lit up. "Can you help me draw the design to send to the support department?!"
"We're getting it drawn up now-remind me at the end of class and I'll give it to you," Izuku said.
"We?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Long story," Izuku said as All Might started talking.
"They say that the costumes make the heroes, and you all look spectacular!" All Might said. "Now! Time for battle trials!"
"Wait, should we even be doing this without proper lessons in combat first?" Iida asked.
"Baseline on what we already know," Izuku said.
"Ah," Iida said. "You seem to already understand what we are doing rather well."
"Yep," Izuku said, looking at him… "You look like you're trying too hard to be Ingenium." He paused, his eyes widening. "Wait, sorry, shouldn't've said that."
Do we have some kind of quirk to erase five seconds of memory?! Izuku asked.
Uh…no, we do not, Yumio said, and Izuku sighed.
Whelp, just let me die already, Izuku said.
"I am not sure if you are saying that as a compliment or an insult," Iida said.
"Neither-just an observation," Izuku said as Hinata let a wave of anxiety mixed with Duke's wave of insecurity run through the Mind Palace.
"Now, here's the scenario behind this exercise!" All Might said, pulling out…a freaking notecard!? "Everyone will be divided into teams of two, and one team will pose as the heroes while the other will pose as the villains. The villain team will be inside one of these buildings with a bomb-fake, of course. From the starting point, the hero team has fifteen minutes to either secure the bomb or capture both villains. All the villains have to do is have one free and keep the bomb from being secured until those fifteen minutes are up."
"Why are we doing this indoors?" Kaminari asked. "Aren't villains usually outdoors being loud and destroying stuff?"
"Villains are most commonly indoors and hidden, actually," Odin said, and everyone looked at Izuku. "Drug deals, robberies, hostage situations generally being easier, and let's not forget villain bases. It's true that outdoors is where most villains are seen, but that's because that's where the people are. Situations like this are common and rather cliched, actually."
"Erh…right…which one are you, again?" All Might asked.
"Seriously?!" everyone asked.
Odin sighed. "Odin."
"Wait, that's not-" someone started.
"Ah, right, my mistake-you're a very confusing person, Young Midoriya," All Might said.
"I try my best," Izuku said.
"Now, for the first team," All Might said, looking at his phone-did he have some kind of team randomizer on there?
"Wait, how are we deciding teams?" Iida asked.
"You will be placed on teams randomly," All Might said. "That is what I am calibrating now."
"Is that truly the best choice?" Iida asked.
"Heroes have to work with whatever hero turns up on the scene all the time," Shoto said.
"I see, my apologies for interrupting!" Iida said.
"Interrupting…oh, that guy from the entrance exam you were telling me about," Shoto muttered to Izuku.
"Yep," Izuku said.
"Indoor battle trials, huh?" Kacchan muttered, standing next to Izuku (his and Todoroki's costumes stayed the same, by the way, even if Dasu's next project is fixing Todoroki's original costume). "Whelp, I feel sorry for the poor f*ckers that have to go against you, Izuku-"
"The villain team is Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka, while the hero team is Tenya Iida and Katsuki Bakugou!" All Might said.
"...spoke too soon, Kacchan," Izuku said, then raised his hand.
"Yes, Young Midoriya?" All Might asked.
"I have an incredibly unfair advantage indoors, so I was wondering if I could go against all three?" Izuku asked. "To make it a little more fair?"
"Uh-" All Might started.
"Yeah, give us a fair chance here!" Kacchan said.
"He's gonna win either way," Shoto said.
"Wait, what?" Uraraka asked. "Wait, why don't you want to work with me?"
"You seem great to work with, but I want to make things a little more fair-" Izuku started.
"One of his quirks only works indoors and is OP as heck," Toshi said.
"We're screwed either way," Kacchan said.
"I'm not that strong, it's just-" Izuku started.
"I'll allow it," All Might said. "Just…stop arguing and let's get started. Young Midoriya, you're in Building A-I'll walk you over right quick and give you a map, feel free to move the bomb as you see fit. You start planning as I give the hero team time to start planning."
"Alright," Izuku said as he followed All Might to the building and took the map.
"Second floor, two doors to the right is the location of the bomb," All Might said. "But are you sure about working on your own?"
Izuku blinked at him. "I'm never alone." With that, he walked in and touched the doorway. "We have a doorway-no door, but that doesn't matter." He continued to walk, running his hand along the wall. "The building has four walls on the outside, a floor, and an absolute ceiling-you ready, guys?"
He felt the confirmation of them all.
Izuku smiled. "Occupy!"
…
"Is he really going to just do this alone?" Kaminari asked, looking at Toshi-they were in the observation room.
"Well, yeah," Toshi said as Izuku ran his hand along the wall. "He's terrifying, trust me."
"What do you-OH MY GOD-!" someone shouted, and everyone looked as all the cameras went black, and All Might grabbed the communicator.
"Young Midoriya, we don't have video footage," All Might said.
"Oh, sorry, right, cameras," Izuku said, and the cameras came back on, but everything looked…different.
Everything was still dark and dreary, the walls and halls seeming to grow and shrink at the same time, and the Sides, kind of see-through and in costumes similar to Izuku's (but instead of splatters it was their solid color, Izuku's costume was now just black, gray, and white with the color bands on the sleeves) and floating around.
"I repeat, terrifying," Toshi said.
…
"Alright, so I don't know if we're gonna have to deal with all seventeen of 'em, but we likely are."
"Seventeen?!" Iiida asked.
"Yeah, his Sides-he can make contracts with ghosts and borrow their quirks and gain their loyalty," Katsuki said. "We're gonna be dealing with Occupy-Hinata's quirk, that f*cker's tiny, about six, I think? I don't care. Either way, that's what we're gonna have the hardest time with-Occupy and Advance Copy. Advance Copy is Yui, she wears light blue and looks our age-she's not, she's actually just a little older-and if she knows how your quirk works, she can use it. Those two and Izuku are the most dangerous in the building, but if you see Odin-green, also looks our age, don't even know how old she is-be careful. She's got wings, super strength, and some kind of singing quirk that I've only ever heard her talk about. Otherwise, good f*cking luck."
"...I knew that he was strong from the entrance exam, but he's not even on the same level as us," Uraraka said.
"Yeah, and he doesn't get cocky, either," Katsuki said. "He won't underestimate us by accident-any opening we get is because he wants to give us a chance. We need to find every single opening and do anything we can about it." He took a deep breath and looked at the two. "Round Face, Engines-gravity quirk and speed, right?"
"Wait, what were those nicknames?" Iida asked.
"Tch, don't ask," Katsuki snapped. "I have an explosion quirk-our best bet is to enter through the front door, stick together, and run as if our lives are on the line."
….
"Hero team entering now!"
Izuku smiled-he was sitting in front of the bomb as the Sides roamed around the building.
Alright, we have a good…twenty minutes before Occupy gets worn out, Izuku said. Hinata, make sure you take it easy while you're doing this-we don't need to get this more worn out. Everyone else, you know the drill-we're operating at one fourth right now to give them a chance against us-if Kacchan works well with Uraraka and Iida, that should be more than enough to get through.
Testing their teamwork skills on the fly-sounds good to me! Brazen said.
Yumio…no, Darnell, undercover and follow them, keep your ears open, Izuku said.
I will not, Darnell promised, fully turning into a snake.
Hirah, get ready to intimidate, Izuku said.
Already in my demon form, Hirah said.
This feels like a haunted house, Dot yawned.
…
…
…OH MY GHOST IT IS!
"Let the games begin," Izuku said out loud.
…
"This is…kind of creepy," Uraraka said, looking around.
"And very disorienting," Iida said. "The walls are just moving around-is that a snake!?"
Katsuki looked down-yep, that's-
Katsuki picked the snake up. "Good observation skills, Engines. That's Darnell-following us, huh? Wouldn't it be easier as a ghost?"
"That sounds like it would be so much more fun," Darnell hissed, causing Uraraka and Iida to startle back-
-and that was a big mistake.
"Eep!" Uraraka said as she fell through the wall-when did it get there!?
"Uraraka!" Iida said as Darnell chuckled and hissed.
"You will find her soon, but worry as much as you'd like," Darnell said.
"Where is she?!" Iida demanded.
"She's fine, Engines," Katsuki said. "She probably just got shuffled to another room or something-if we go through that wall, we won't end up in the same spot, so there's no use looking for her."
"She's our teammate!" Iida protested.
"Exactly-she can take care of herself," Katsuki said.
"That snake said to worry-" Iida said.
"Darnell speaks in lies, so we won't be able to find her, but she's gonna be fine," Katsuki said. "Knowing Izuku, there'll be a way for her to get back to us on her own, so we should leave her be."
"...well, you know Midoriya better than I do," Iida said. "If you are certain."
"Of course I am," Katsuki said. "I've known him since we were both in diapers."
…..
Aw, Kacchan thinks he knows me so well, Izuku said, his mind wandering over to Hinata, who was supervising the area Uraraka had ended up in-top floor, Izuku was on the third floor, and the staircase was being guarded by Duke, who was…currently eating a stick of deodorant because why not.
Alright, so we have Kacchan and Iida that have Darnell with them, heading towards the first floor staircase, Darlina said.
Try to keep them steered away from the second floor staircase, randomly block the path towards the staircase and a path leading away from the staircase-that way, if they try to go through you to head to the staircase, they'll get confused as to if you're blocking the correct way or not, Izuku said. Once they get to the staircase leading to this floor, let me know and I'll use Occupy to move them to the next staircase so they end up on the fourth floor instead.
I will not, Darnell said.
Ship shape-alright, guys, one person stays on the first floor, the rest of us head to floor two and four? Odin said.
I'll stay on the first floor, Dot yawned.
Alright! Odin said. Let's do this!
….
"VILLAIN TEAM WINS!"
"WHAT?!"
….
"Now, can someone tell me who was the MVP of that match?"
"I'd assume it was Izuku," Yaoyorozu said. "We did not see him move at all, but those…ghosts, was it? Being commanded?"
Izuku nodded. "Those were my familiars."
"Told you we'd lose-did we even end up on the right floor at all?" Kacchan muttered angrily.
"Nope!" Izuku said. "I used Occupy to switch around your locations-Uraraka ended up on the fifth floor-"
"Wait, I did?!" Uraraka asked.
"Yup!" Izuku said. "When you fell through that wall. I expected you to look around a little more and run into Duke, honestly, but…you know what, maybe it's for the best that you didn't…"
"...he was eating deodorant again, wasn't he?" Kacchan said.
"Again!?" everyone exclaimed.
"It's Duke, of course he was," Izuku said. "Gotta love dem Remus vibes, they do be Gucci."
"...never talk like that again."
"Why not?"
"That was weird and felt wrong."
"Don't go dissing my Mom's generation."
"HOW OLD IS ODIN!?"
"That's for us to know and you to never find out."
"What the actual f*ck…" Kaminari chuckled, looking incredibly concerned.
"Anywhodles!" Izuku said.
"I will punch you."
"Go ahead, I'll use Full Counter."
"What the f*ck is Full Counter-" (two points if you get the reference)
"Uraraka, I used Occupy-that quirk allows me to take control of the inside of any room as long as it has a ceiling, floor, four walls, and a door-or doorway in this case-to move you to the fifth floor when you fell through the wall," Izuku said, ignoring Kacchan in favor of looking at Uraraka, then he looked at Iida and Kacchan. "I also used Occupy to move you from the stairs leading to the third floor to the stairs leading to the fourth floor." He thought for a few seconds. "Uh…I had Darnell watch you before you saw him, then I had Darlina watch you and report back to the rest of us to keep a location on you at all times."
"Was there even a chance at winning?!" Sero exclaimed.
"Well, yeah," Izuku said. "I was only going to do that movement once-if you had gone back down from the fourth floor, you would've ended up on the third floor, and if you had thought about the fact that Occupy only affected the interior of the building and gone through a window instead, I would've had a harder time keeping track of you at the start, which would have given you a bigger advantage." He paused, biting his lip. "Otherwise…I guess I should've dialed down a bit on the confusion…it was only supposed to be a fifteen minute exercise, but I did a setup that could've potentially lasted hours had I decided to keep up the act, and I probably should've had less Sides out to make it more fair…"
"The point of the exercise was to win, so you did exactly what you were supposed to," All Might said, but it still made Izuku feel a little bad…he should've dialed it back more to give them more of a chance so they could've at least found the bomb before time ran out…
Odin sent a wave of care through the Mind Palace. It's fine, Izuku, you did exactly what you were supposed to-wait, ugh, I'm agreeing with All Might, let me go wash my mouth out with soap right quick.
If you had been the villain in the exercise, you would've done exactly what you should've-well, you could've done more to capture the heroes, but then again, you were trying to make it easier for them, so that just gives you more points! Dasu said. Take that from a former villain-that was awesome.
Is that supposed to make me feel better? Izuku asked, feeling insecurity and anxiety flow for a few seconds before Hinata and Duke dialed it back.
Hey, don't take control from us-it's fine, Izuku, Duke said. Had you been the hero in the exercise…I dunno, trying to protect something while waiting for backup, you would've done great!
Izuku scratched at his arm a little, but he smiled.
"So…sorry if it's an awkward question, but…your familiars…can we officially meet all of them?" Hagakure asked, and Izuku looked at her and nodded.
"Oh, sure-um…All Might-sensei, can I bring all of them out at once, or one at a time?" Izuku asked.
"All at once should be fine," All Might said.
"Ok, um…let's start with...Mom," Izuku said, and Odin appeared next to him, and everyone jumped.
"Hi, I'm Odin!" Odin said. "I'm also the group Mom and the Caring Side-ghost-familiar."
"Each familiar is in charge of something I feel-Mom here controls how much I care about stuff," Izuku said.
"Wait, is she your actual mother?" Jirou asked.
"No, Inko's still alive in Scotland," Izuku said. "Haven't actually seen her since I was ten, and she doesn't call much, either."
"...oh," Jirou said.
"Yep, but it's cool," Izuku said. "Because I have Mom and Mama."
"That's me, by the way," Yui said, appearing and wearing the mask thing-a big bruise was forming on her cheek, which was...concerning, but a conversation for later. "I'm Yui, the Morals and Emotions of the group."
"Going in order of meeting, I guess," Izuku said. "We have Yumio."
"The Logical one," Yumio said, appearing.
"More like Logan-ical one," Yui giggled.
"Yui, that is a compliment more than anything, you know-also, Dad jokes?" Yumio asked. "Really?"
"Well, give me a Patton the back for that one," Yui said.
"Next we have...just gonna introduce the next two together," Izuku said. "Dasu and Duke."
"Nice to meet you!" Duke said as the two appeared.
"I'm Dasu, creativity, and this is my younger triplet brother, Duke," Dasu said.
"Mainly Insecurities," Duke said. "Which shall prevent me from further speaking of what I am, but don't worry, it doesn't really matter."
"Darnell," Izuku said, and Darnell appeared as a snake around Izuku's shoulders. Izuku simply sighed. "I know you love being a snake, Darnell, but if you don't mind?"
"You're tons of fun today," Darnell said as he changed back and jumped off. "I am not Darnell, I am not Deceit, and I do not speak in lies."
"...he only speaks in lies," Izuku added. "Then we have Brazen-"
"Recklessness!" Brazen said, appearing on a cloud and hanging upside down.
"...exactly," Izuku said. "Emory."
"Patience is a virtue," Emory said as they appeared.
"That we typically ignore in favor of running into situations," Kamari said, appearing and already drinking coffee. "Kamari, Sleep, loves."
"I'm Darlina, Innocence and Fears," Darlina said, appearing by Odin and slightly hiding behind her.
"Hirah, and I'm Wrath, so don't give me a reason to get angry!" Hirah said as she appeared.
"Dot, Sloth," Dot said, appearing with Yuki, who was giving her a piggyback ride.
"Yuki, Health Nut, constantly exercising," Yuki said.
"I'm Paz and I'm Social Life!" Paz said as he and Hex appeared.
"I'm Hex…" Hex trailed off. "I'm...Depression."
Hinata appeared in Izuku's arms, and Izuku could already feel them getting anxious.
"And this is Hinata-they're my Anxiety," Izuku said.
"Should we be worried about those last two?" Iida asked. "Anxiety and Depression are not good to have."
"Depression is classified as prolonged feelings of sadness that heroes are sure to face under circumstances that can spiral out of their control," Izuku said. "Hex helps me regulate my Depression to keep it from getting out of hand. Meanwhile, anxiety is actually good in certain doses, as shown by the Yerks-Dotson curve to prove that we are most productive with anxiety being somewhere between none and high amounts-too much anxiety is crippling, but not enough won't give you the motivation you need to get something done." (I did an entire four page paper about the benefits of anxiety in high school and cited Thomas's video as one of my sources before proving other sources to help back up his evidence and still can't remember if I'm spelling Yerks-Dotson right but don't care enough to spell check that.)
(I need a life but have no motivation to get it)
"Uh…" everyone said.
"Whelp, this room is crowded," Odin said. "Let's head back to the Mind Palace."
The Sides all disappeared.
"Mind Palace?" Ashido asked. "Sounds fancy!"
"It's really nice," Izuku said. "It's basically a really big house in my head that they all live in-they all have their own rooms but share three living rooms and kitchens...plus the outside world around it, but that's a story for another time."
"You have a world inside your head?!" Ashido asked. "Tell me everything."
"Maybe another time, we still have more to talk about with the Battle Trial, plus more battles," Izuku said.
"Aw!" Ashido pouted. "But you have to tell me all about it later!"
"Sure," Izuku said. Well, this is weird, isn't it? I haven't had people ask much about it…even Shoto doesn't really ask questions.
You also explained it all to him before he could, Yumio said.
…that's entirely fair, Izuku said.
"Alright, next we have Shoto Todoroki and Mezo Shoji versus Mashirao Ojirou and Toru Hagakure!" All Might said.
Because I don't feel like writing out all the fights, here's who went against who and the outcomes!
Todoroki and Shoji vs Ojirou and Hagakure-Todoroki froze the building and won
Tokoyami and Tsu vs Kirishima and Sero-Kirishima and Sero won (barely)
Kaminari and Jirou vs Yaoyorozu and Toshi-Yaoyorozu and Toshi won because Kaminari thought it would be a good idea to flirt with Toshi and Jirou got taken out while she was scolding him.
Aoyama and Ashido vs Sato and Koda-Koda actually asked if he could borrow Darnell because there weren't animals in the building, and All Might allowed it as long as Darnell stayed a snake. Ashido and Aoyama still won…somehow.
After the Battle Trials!
"Hey, Midoriya!"
Izuku blinked and hesitated for a few seconds before turning his head to see Yaoyorozu walking up to him, Ashido behind her.
"The designs, right?" Izuku asked.
"If you don't mind," Yaoyorozu said.
Izuku held his hand out, and the designs appeared. Izuku handed them to Yaoyorozu. "Here you are!"
"Thank you so much," Yaoyorozu said. "Uh…which of you…?"
"Dasu," Izuku said.
"Man, we have seventeen names of yours to memorize!" Ashido said.
"We all go under the name Midoriya, but sometimes someone else will respond instead," Izuku said sheepishly. "Sorry…"
"What are you sorry about?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Uh…I have seventeen names?" Izuku said. "And I won't respond as well to my last name because of it…um…you'll mostly want to talk to me, so feel free to just call me Izuku instead to make sure you get my attention…sorry."
"It's not a problem, though," Yaoyorozu said.
"Yeah, no need to apologize!" Ashido said. "So Izuku-you can call me Mina, by the way!-you said something about an entire world in your head before?"
"It's mostly just the Mind Palace, and the surrounding area is called the Imagination," Izuku said. "It used to be confined to a door and wasn't very big, but my Sides-um, ghost-familiars-and I started to build it bigger, and now it surrounds the Mind Palace." He chuckled slightly. "We even made little segments of it into different factions of a Kingdom that each of us rule some part of-besides me, I oversee everything-it's kind of like a fantasy world that we can pause and ignore all we want, but we also like to go on adventures-we're gonna get that Dragon Witch one of these days." He said that last part quietly.
"What was that?" Mina asked.
"Uh…nothing, really," Izuku said. "But that's all there really is to the world."
"Aw," Mina said. "It still sounds like a lot of fun!"
"It is," Izuku said.
"What are you talking about?" Shoto asked as he walked next to them.
"The Imagination," Izuku said, then looked Shoto's costume up and down. "That's gonna be Dasu's next project, by the way."
"There is nothing wrong with my costume," Shoto said.
"It is literally a white shirt, pants, boots, and you covered your left side in ice," Izuku said. "You're gonna get hypothermia, and you don't want to make your mother worry, do you?"
"...can you help me figure out a slight heating system, then?" Shoto asked.
"Still won't use your fire…" Izuku sighed, knowing that this wasn't the time or place to push it (more like the author didn't want to have to write the "It's your quirk, not his!" in such a casual setting but couldn't do anything else without basically doing just that here). "We can figure something out." He paused for a few seconds before grinning. "Dasu's tempted to make the design pink, by the way."
A few of their classmates snorted, listening a little more to this conversation.
"Tell him to go for it," Shoto said. "Sounds like it would p*ss off my old man. Thinks pink is too girly of a color."
Izuku grinned. "Neon pink?"
"Yes," Shoto said, then thought for a few seconds. "Or a full-on rainbow like yours."
"Aw, we'd be matching!" Izuku said. "But rainbow makes sense for me, while it wouldn't really for you…I'll show you the idea when Dasu gets it finished."
"Ok," Shoto said.
"At least hide your gayness," Kacchan fake gagged as he walked past them.
"The Mind Palace is too rainbow for that," Izuku said.
"I'm gay, what's your point?" Shoto said, and everyone stared at the two.
Kacchan sighed. "You two are ridiculous."
"Like you can say anything, Kacchan," Izuku said.
"Ah, f*ck off," Kacchan said.
"Only to the locker room so we can change and go to class," Izuku said, then started to walk faster.
And that's the chapter! Did I do my hype of the Battle Trials justice?
We have! The next day coming up! Class President election! Featuring me about to take my semester finals and try to update while avoiding some homework I still need to do!
…yeah, I need to stop doing that it's due in a week and I'm just two pages from being done, but I'm also busy with other homework that I haven't done yet.
(I was trying to organize light vs neutral vs dark sides, so…yeah.)
Odin, the Caring Side, was Irene/Ofa, has wings/one for all/a vocal quirk, died at 17.
Yui, the Morals and Emotions, was Himari Monoma, advanced copy, was 16.
Yumio, the Logic side, Hajime, analysis, was 25
Dasu, Creativity, Saburo, can make tangible illusions, was 23, one of three triplets
Duke, Intrusive Thoughts/Insecurities, can make weapons, was 23, one of three triplets
Darnell, Deceit, Hai, Snake, was 8 (and he's afraid of fire), and speaks in lies
Brazen, Recklessness, Oboro Shirakumo, Cloud, was 17
Emory, Patience, Peyton, can see emotions, was 21
Kamari, Sleep, Remy, food & drinks, was 21
Darlina, Innocence/Fear, Hana Shimura, Float, was 8
Hirah, Wrath, Cheran, had horns/devil-demon form, was 13-ish
Dot, Sloth, Hope, makes others sleep, makes her sleepy in turn, was 8
Yuki, Health Nut, Midori, Endless Energy, was 13-ish
Paz, Social Life, Collin, Quirkless, was 12
Hex, Depression, Kimi, Quirkless, was 12
Rand, Anxiety (1), Dave, Disconnect, oldest (30 something)
Hinata, Anxiety (2), Choko, Occupy, was 6
Until we meet again! (And feel free to yell at me if I update instead of homework-)
