Chapter Two
The League of Villains stood in between the gigantic test tubes, filled with floating Noomu, peering towards the end of the corridor where the silhouetted doctor sat just peering at them from his chair.
"Doctor," said Shigaraki. "I've been looking for you for a reason. I need you to reproduce some bullets I've got."
The doctor, rather than responding to him, chose to say "You've let your hair grow out, Shigaraki! How're your father and the other doing?"
After a pause in which he looked down at the many severed hands covering his coat, Shigaraki replied, "Fine."
Mr. Compress, peering into the shadows, remarked, "Our doctor, I presume? It's too bright to make anything out -"
"STAY BACK!" The doctor suddenly shouted, his chair zipping along the ground and further out of sight, into an even more shadowy corner. "Ho ho, sorry bout this, but I wouldn't recommend coming any closer. When we need to meet face-to-face, I'll come to you. And if you break this rule, I'll send you right back to that big old meat grinder."
"You're the one who summoned us, you freaky geezer," snapped Twice. Dabi, sighing a little, asked, "Why are we here?"
Once more choosing not to respond to the direct question, the Doctor called, "I'd rather not give out my location, so I transported you all here instead. Besides Shigaraki, you're all fresh faces to me, I guess. We might've met somewhere before, though," he added, and though it was not clear from his silhouette, the 'we' seemed to be addressed more directly to the villain who had asked the question. "Like Gigantomachia, I'm one of All for One's confidants. Daruma Ujiko is the name I'm giving myself for now. Anyhow, Shigaraki, I summoned you here out of respect for the boss. My life, my tech, and my little ones here, I offered them all up to the great All for One. Up to now, you've been getting by with just scraps and leftovers of my work. Now I've got nothing against you. I just need to judge if you're worthy of having all of this." His tone, which had before been light and playful, suddenly became deadly serious. Had the League been able to see his eyes, they would now have seen them narrowing. "Cuz so far, you're NOTHING. Just a 20 year old kid palling around with the dregs of society. So what do you have to show me, Tomura Shigaraki?"
—
My classmates were all quite excited, and more than a little nervous that morning as we prepared for our first joint training session. It was our first outdoor training in the winter weather too, so it was time for everyone to change into their winter hero costumes.
My quirk, creation, makes it very difficult to dress for winter. I cannot completely cover up my stomach, breasts, upper arms or thighs, because that would be to shut off my most useful fat ducts. So I had to go with a cloak with a high collar, heated thermally and designed to keep me warm and my various creation areas exposed. I have to admit, I rather like the way it looks. I don't normally pay much attention to appearances outside of being neat and practical, but there is something about the cloak that makes me feel like a more confident hero, less of a child in hero clothes.
"So warm!" Uraraka and Ashido gushed as they felt up the edge of the cloak in the locker room. Uraraka was dressed the same, while Ashido had added a fur collared jacket to her costume. "Can we go under it, Yaomomo?" She asked. I smiled and blushed a little.
"Of course. If you like."
They ducked under it and I heard them both giggling. "Warm!" "So warm!"
"Let's go," snapped Jirou, looking a little annoyed with them.
As we headed out towards Gym Gamma, we passed All Might and Midnight Sensei, who were having some sort of conversation.
"Interesting take on your winter version!" Miss Midnight called to me, waving. All Might, behind her, started a moment, and was staring at me rather oddly. I had the impression he had for a moment taken me for someone else…
"Accommodating quirks like ours in winter is tricky," Midnight Sensei was saying to me. "Well done in finding a way to keep your basic style."
"Thank you, Sensei," I smiled, and hoped Hagakure hadn't overheard her; she hadn't been able to make real changes to her outfit for winter without losing her invisibility. As we joined the boys in heading out to the field, Jirou asked her
"Aren't you cold, Hagakure?"
"Totally freezing!"
"Toughing it out, huh?"
"My winter style's cool as heck, don'tcha think?" Smiled Ashido, spreading out her arms to show off the cape. Jirou and Uraraka hadn't changed at all, and Tsu had merely added neck warmers.
"All of our costumes have undergone considerable transformations since the school year began," said Iida, whose costume looked to me identical to the first he'd worn.
"It's crazy how you made it through the summer in that getup, Iida," said Sato as he pulled on his mask.
Nearby, Midoriya had caught sight of Bakugou's new winter look and had immediately seemed impressed.
"You've got a new look too, Kacchan!"
"Huh? Got a problem with it? Then say it - to my face, you stupid nerd!" Bakugou yelled. Midoriya by now seemed to be totally used to his loudmouth ways. He'd swapped out his tank top for a sweater with a turtleneck, and Midoriya seemed rather unduly impressed by those minor adjustments.
"Your costume must guard against the cold and generate heat, yeah? Since your sweat glands serve as weapons, it only stands to reason. What great modification!"
"I don't want your praise either!" Bakugou snarled I have come to think better of than I did before, and it is sometimes annoying how much admiration he seems to pour over his fellow problem child.
"You've got the most drastic upgrades though, Midoriya," said Ojiro. "Those gloves are recent, right?"
"I need to keep up my new abilities, and yeah the gloves are pretty awesome. This is already my second pair, actually. Hatsume modified them to take more of a beating!"
Uraraka was wearing a funny look and suddenly punched herself in the face.
"Oh, are we slacking off?" Came that smarmy, arrogant voice we all knew way too well. "Is that your way of underestimating us?"
"Oh, they're here," said Kirishima. "Nope, we're not underestimating anyone. Just excited!"
"Hey, is that so? Too and for you. The tides are rolling our way now! Hear me Class A! Today is the day we settle this rivalry!" Monoma screamed as Class 1B shot him weird looks. I could tell that Itsuka Kendo, the girl I had spent my work study with and Class 1B's resident Class Rep, was probably going to karate chop him.
Monoma pulled a sheet of paper dramatically out of his pocket.
"Check out this survey I took at the culture festival! Which did people prefer - Class A's dinky concert or Class B's ultra-high-quality Theatrical production? Well take a look! Yes, our margin of victory was two entire votes!"
I felt my heart fall; after all the work we'd put into that concert?
Kirishima and Jirou both took up the paper, and Jirou's face fell.
"For real? Well, can't argue since we didn't see their show."
"You've been hogging the spotlight like pigs in slop ever since school started, but those days are coming to an end! Because today it's A vs. B! Our first joint battle training! And we're gonna - argh!"
Kendo had been heading towards him to karate chop him silent, but Mr. Aizawa got there first.
"Quiet, you."
He and Vlad King Sensei were facing both our classes now.
"WE've got a special guest today," said Vlad sensei.
"So try not to make fools of yourselves," said Mr. Aizawa.
"A guest?" I asked, surprised and a little worried.
"Fresh meat!" Bakugou yapped.
"A girl, I hope!?" Said Kaminari.
"We'll show em the ropes!" Said Tetsutetsu.
"He's hoping to transfer to the hero course," said Mr. Aziawa, and Midoriya and Ojiro both gasped.
It was the guy from the Sports Festival!
"Hitoshi Shinso, from Class C of General Studies!"
"Shinsou!" Gasped Ojiro.
"So that explains the look you gave me earlier in the hall!" Said Midoriya.
Everyone had started buzzing about our new guest. He was dressed in regulation gym uniform, but with a neck cloth not unlike Mr. Aizawa's and a strange device around his neck shaped bit like Midoriya's own metal grille. In appearance up close, I saw that he had dark circles under his drooping eyes, and his slender features and spiked up hair made him look like a younger version of Sensei, perhaps what Mr. Aizawa would have looked like using his quirk at our age.
"Isn't that Aizawa-sensei's binding cloth?"
"The mask looks unique, though."
"Good to have ya, man!"
"He can brainwash those who respond to him, right?" Aoyama asked Ojiro.
"I didn't stand a chance."
"Midoriya got whammies too, but broke the spell somehow," Mineta commented.
"That was just a fluke, really," sweated Midoriya.
"Go on, introduce yourself," Sensei told Shinsou."
He looked around at all of his, sporting a serious frown.
"I had encounters with several of you at the Sports Festival, but don't think that we're friends just because we fought. I'm not the type for displays of good sportsmanship like that. I'm already so far behind you all. I'm doing everything I can to catch up. I'll be a great hero some day, and strive to use my quirk to help people. So to me, all of you here are just obstacles to overcome. I'm not here to make friends."
What a pleasant boy, I thought sarcastically.
"Wow, delightful," sighed URaraka.
"How stiff," said Tokoyami, clapping politely.
"Reminds me of Early-roki," Sero snarked at Todoroki, who glanced at him rather good-naturedly. "Oh yeah?"
"Uh huh."
I suppose, I thought, thinking back to how Todoroki had acted at the start of class before we'd gotten to know each other better. Yes indeed, back then Todoroki had been rather hostile and unfriendly to others, telling Midoriya bluntly he had no desire to make friends. But since that festival, he'd become much more the boy we all knew now.
Monoma alone - no, not alone, Midoriya wore the same look - was grinning. "I like this guy."
"Let's get right to it, then…" said Sensei.
"Battle training time. It's a series of matches pitting class A against Class b. The Battlefield is one section of Athletic field Gamma. Both classes will split into teams of four and square off against another team!"
"Four person teams!" Said Tokage, one of my fellow Recommendation students. "Should be fun!"
"Yep, fun!" Said a girl next to her, who was dressed like a large mushroom.
"With Shinso added in," said a boy who looked rather like a large beast, "we've got 41 altogether. How do we account for him?"
"Shinso will be participating in two matches, joining Class A for one and Class B for the other. Meaning two of the five matches will be five vs. four."
"That's not fair for the four person teams!" Cried Hagakure near Jirou and I, making us both start.
Vlad King sensei shook his head. "The four students who have to incorporate the inexperienced Shinso are actually at a disadvantage. Having five members will give you the edge numbers-wise, but it's also a handicap. The scenario this time around is 'Heroes trying to capture steam of villains." So think of the opposing team as villains! Capture four of your opponents to win."
"Villains do the team-up thing too, huh?" Said the Mushroom girl to Tetsutetsu, the boy who Kirishima had fought at the Sports Festival. He punched his hand and fist together. "Nice n simple! Love it!"
Next to me, Iida seemed to be having some kind of stress-inducing crisis. "So we're heroes, but the opponent views us as villains!? Which role to we play up then!?"
Watching him, I recalled when that would probably have been my feeling in this situation too, overwhelming anxiety. Somehow, I did not feel it. "Let's go with heroes," I suggested, to calm him.
"Each team's home base has a cutesy-cutesy lock-em-up prison. The instant someone's thrown in the cage, they count as captured."
"What high stakes!" Cried Iida.
"The efficient strategy would be to disable the enemy near our own base," said the beast boy. "Easier said than done, probably."
"Capture four opponents to win? Is that what you meant by handicap?" Asked Bakugou.
"Yes," said Sensei. "Not only is Shinso inexperienced, by the five-person team he's on still loses if four members are caught."
"So that team's gotta fight while carrying deadweight? Crap," said Bakugou.
"That's a nasty way to phrase it."
"He's not wrong," said Shinsou.
"This guy's light-years ahead in the maturity department!" Cried Kaminari.
Sensei and Vlad King both held up boxes labeled "Lots A" and "Lots B."
"Now, time to draw lots."
We drew. I was in Group 2 of Class 1A, alongside Aoyama, Tokoyami, and Hagakure. Our opponent team was Kendo's, with the mushroom girl, a dark boy, and a boy with a manga panel for a face. Kamianri was on the first team with Kirishima, Asui and Koda; Todoroki was on the third with Iida, Shoji and Ojiro; Jirou on the fourth with Bakugou, Sero and Sato; and Midoriya, Uraraka, Mineta and Ashido in fifth.
"Now you, Shinso," said Vlad King. "You'll join one team from each class."
He was to be with 1A for the first round, and 1B for the fifth.
"I know you said all that stuff," said Kirishima. "But heck, I still wanna be friends! Good to have ya!"
"Tell us how your quirk works," said Tsu.
"Wit those looks, you must be popular with the ladies. I can tell," said Kaminari.
"Thanks for having me," said Shinsou.
"I like you already! You seem ready to crush that rotten Class A into the dirt!"
"Please ignore everything he says," said one other 1B boys on his team.
"Thanks for having me," said Shinsou.
"Teams start at their home bases. The time limit is 20 minutes per match. If time runes out, the team with more remaining members wins."
We gathered then in the Entertainment Zone, where we could watch the Field on the monitors. Ashido had turned around and cried, "All Might and Midnight are here! Together! Is love in the air?"
"Cut that out," Midnight replied. "I don't mess with older men." They joined us and continued speaking in the back.
"Now," said Vlad King Sensei. "Match 1, START!"