Much like before, the day began with a trip to the support department. Mei didn't greet them with an explosion, but she did deliver two finished costumes. Himiko, Ochako, and Izuku were all there to see the results, while Toru and Momo needed to try out their costumes.
"Welcome, one and all, to the baby exposition! This here is going to be Momo's costume. Your Quirk file said that the things you create extrude through the skin, yes?"
"That's correct," confirmed Momo.
"Excellent! You see, if you have a layer that's skintight, and then the same skintight layer folds outwards and thickens into a baggy layer, your Quirk will (hopefully) treat it as a single object! That means you can have protection and still use your Quirk, no pesky zippers to get in the way, and you never have to sacrifice protection! In case you can't have that, you can still have the skintight costume, as I'm pretty sure it works anyway, and just have a giant cloak you can detach. Let's test this one out!"
Momo headed to an adjacent room to get changed into her costume. Meanwhile, Mei turned on Toru, and said, "Well, invisible girl, your costume's going to be a lot simpler. When you put it on, the costume's default state is going to be invisible. If you turn on this switch, it stays visible, for you to put on, and if you want someone to see you. If you turn it off, it goes invisible again."
"Yup, I wouldn't like to put on an invisible costume! It's not like I can see myself!"
"You…can't?" That was Mei. "But I thought you could?"
"Yeah, I was really clumsy when I was little. Still kind of am!"
They were understandably shocked, and Himiko piped up. "Toru, if you give me some of your blood, I bet I can show you what you look like!"
"Really? Let's go! Take my blood!"
"Wait, not yet! I need my costume!"
"Well, what are we waiting for! Let's get it then!"
A flailing Himiko was dragged off by Toru.
Momo was understandably puzzled. "Isn't Himiko…stronger than Toru?"
Izuku grinned. "She hasn't really had friends before this, so she's just acting. And no, I'm her brother, I technically don't count as a friend."
"Alright, now that you're back, creation girl, let's test it out!"
Momo furrowed her brow, and created a wooden doll from her arm. The costumes seemed to be successful!
"Everything is proceeding as planned! Excellent, excellent. Oh by the way, I haven't gotten independent satellite communication set up for your wrist computers yet, but I set up some entangled connections to some off-the-shelf PCs in my lab. I think you'll be okay with that for now."
"Thank you, Mei, you've been a great help to us!"
"No problem! Just make sure you remember who you're gonna call if you need any support gear!"
When class started, Aizawa told them, "Alright, today's training will be a little different. You'll have three instructors there: myself, All Might, and another faculty member will be keeping tabs on you."
Hanta Sero quickly raised his hand and said, "Sir, what kind of training is this?"
"It'll be rescue training," Aizawa replied. "You'll be dealing with natural disasters, shipwrecks, and other things like that."
The class broke out into quiet murmurs, excited about the training exercise.
"I'm not finished yet. Remember that your costumes are still new. Keep in mind that you haven't gotten used to them yet, and they might need to be readjusted. The costumes you see pros wear have generally gone through at least 25 iterations, if not more. This training's at an off-campus facility, so we'll be taking a bus to get there. That's all for now, so start getting ready."
They all quickly grabbed their costumes and headed out to the changing rooms, and were ready to go after 5 minutes. Iida attempted to get the class to line up for bus seats, but Aizawa had told them it was open seating.
Izuku was sitting in a small group with Ochako, Iida, Momo, Asui, and a few others, when Asui suddenly started talking to him.
"If we're pointing out the obvious, there's something I need to say. About you, actually."
"Uh...about what, Asui?"
"I told you to call me Tsu. Anyway, I can't help but notice that All Might is very familiar with you and Himiko."
"Um…Is he? I kind of didn't notice." Izuku felt really nervous now. He really wanted to shout from the rooftops about how he knew All Might, but his former injury was still a very closely guarded secret.
"Yeah," Tsuyu continued, "it's almost as if he knew you before UA."
Quick, think of something- oh! The sludge villain, of course! "I actually did meet All Might previously! He saved me from a villain about ten months before the entrance exam!"
"Dang, that's super manly! Remembering those you saved is a mark of a great hero," Kirishima interjected.
"You know, it's probably only because of my hair." That got a few laughs from some people, but Tsuyu wasn't done with her interrogation yet.
"What does your Quirk do? I've seen it in use before, but it's never been super clear."
"Oh, basically my Quirk lets me manipulate matter at the atomic level. I can break apart chemical bonds or reshape matter as long as I'm touching it. It's limited by what I have around me though, I can't combine atoms to create new ones, and I can't create matter from nothing."
"Wow, that's definitely a pro hero's Quirk! I'm not super psyched out about my own Hardening - it's great in a fight, but it's certainly not too flashy."
"Kirishima, that's a great Quirk for any hero who wants to defend civilians! It's really cool!"
"My Navel Laser has the perfect combination of panache and power!" This was said by Yuga Aoyama, a blonde-haired boy who spoke French quite fluently.
"Yeah, but it's way lame if it gives you a stomach ache, you know," Mina replied.
"I mean, if any of our classmates have pro Quirks, it's got to be Midoriya, Bakugō, and Todoroki," Kirishima said.
"Sure, but Bakugō's always angry, so he'll never be that popular," Tsuyu responded.
"THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME? YOU WANNA GO, FROGGY?"
"See?"
"We haven't known each other that long, but Bakugō's personality seems like raw sewage mixed with a dumpster fire," Kaminari interjected.
"LET'S GO! YOU AND ME, PIKACHU FUCKER! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! I'LL WHOOP YOUR ASS!"
"SUCH LANGUAGE IS UNBECOMING OF A HEROICS STUDENT, BAKUGŌ!"
Aizawa stood up, and quieted the class. "Settle down. We've arrived."
"Wow, the Space hero, Thirteen!"
"They use their Quirk to save civilians from disasters! They're so cool!"
"Welcome, everyone, to your rescue training at the USJ! I can't wait to show you all our facility! It's got many different disaster simulations, and hopefully we'll get through them all today!"
Aizawa looked around, noticing that someone was missing, "Thirteen, do you know where All Might is?"
"I think he's going to be about 15 minutes late. He got caught up with standard procedures after a hostage situation downtown."
"Can't be helped, I guess. We'll get started, then."
"Anyway, before that, I have a few things to say! I'm assuming that some of you know of my Quirk, Black Hole. I can suck anything up and turn it into dust."
"Yeah. and you've used it to rescue lots of people who were trapped in rubble," Izuku said.
"That's true! But it's a power that can kill very easily. Some of you also have powers that can be dangerous."
Izuku knew that if he thought about it, Renovate could easily reduce a person to atoms. He'd certainly look for alternative options to…total annihilation.
"Most Quirks are used for peaceful applications, but as pro heroes, you need to learn how to best use your powers to save people! With the fitness test that Mr. Aizawa had you do, you all thought up creative ways to use your Quirks! With All Might's Battle Training, you experienced what it was like to use your powers against others. This class is different. Here, you'll learn to save lives using your Quirk - the ultimate responsibility of a hero. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility, as a great comic book series once pointed out!"
Wow! Thirteen's a cool hero, I really can see why they're Ochako's favorite hero, thought Izuku.
"Thanks for listening! Now then, you'll-"
A black mist appeared near the central fountain.
Momo was the first to point it out. "Is that also part of the exercise?"
Both Thirteen and Aizawa turned around. Aizawa growled, "Those are villains! This is not a drill! Stay back everyone, this isn't your fight. See if you can get a help signal out to any pro!"
As he was speaking, several more villains popped up out of the black cloud. It was ominous and more than slightly creepy with how it spread out, like a pile of goo. Many villains emerged from the cloud, and Izuku could spy plenty of abilities - one had eyes all over their body, another one had really big arms, and there really was a great variety of Quirks he could analyze.
Oh, right, they were villains.
Three figures emerged from the mist, and Izuku's intuition was screaming at him that those three were the most dangerous of the lot. One had a birdlike beak with…were those eyes embedded in that person's brain? What Quirk could possibly necessitate such an egregious violation of the body's organization?! Coming back to that later, there was another figure with…gray hands attached to almost every part of their body. And lastly, there was the generator of the black cloud.
"The only heroes I see here are Thirteen and Eraserhed. Perplexing. All Might should be here as well." The black cloud person had a deep and resonant voice, almost as if he was trying to imitate Darth Vader, but failed.
"Where is he? To think, I went through the trouble of bringing so many friends who are just so eager to meet him. Maybe if I kill a few kids, he'll show up."
"Um…Thirteen, why aren't the alarms going off?" Ochako asked.
"I can't get a signal through! Somebody must be interfering with us!" Kaminari shouted.
"Thirteen, get the students out of here. I'm going to buy you some time!"
Aizawa proceeded to leap towards the villains, where he proceeded to lay the beatdown on them.
"Roger! Everyone, form up on me, and let's get out of here!"
They proceeded to run at a dead sprint towards the entrance, but unfortunately, the cloud guy managed to teleport to them before they could get away.
"No escaping for you. We…are the League of Villains. I know it's impolite, but we decided to invite ourselves into this haven of justice to say hello. Isn't it a fitting place for All Might to take his last breath?"
Did they know about All Might's injury? If so, that's probably why they attacked here and now! And the press…they must have used it as a coverup to get data on how to infiltrate the USJ! Survive this, Izuku, theorize later!
"I believe he was supposed to be here today, and yet…I see no sign of him. There must have been a change in plans we could not have foreseen. Ah well, in the end, I suppose it doesn't matter. I still have a role to play."
Here, Thirteen opened up a finger cap, and prepared to attack Kurogiri. But Bakugō and Eijirou got there first.
"A noble attempt. You really live up to your school's reputation. But you should be more careful, children, otherwise someone might get hurt. I'll scatter you across this facility to meet my comrades, and your deaths!"
The black mist enveloped them, and Izuku fell.
When his vision finally cleared, he found himself falling towards an urban rescue setting, with wind blasting from all directions, and a complete deluge of rain pattering the ground. He quickly reached out to one of the buildings, and used his Quirk to grab himself using the building's material. He slowly decelerated his fall, until he'd reached the ground. He returned the building to its normal shape, and walked away.
It's pretty rainy and dark, he thought. I guess it helps me stay away from the villains. I don't think the villains have split apart, there's too many ways for that to go wrong. There are about 7 or 8 different zones, so there are about 2 or 3 students per zone, and definitely more villains than students. I shouldn't try to engage with the villains unless I find some other classmates…Now, if I was another hero student, where would I be?
He decided to duck into a nearby alleyway before anybody caught him unawares. He started exploring, periodically making sure nobody was following him by looking over his shoulder periodically, and taking a few random turns here and there.
After a few minutes of walking, he heard the sound of fighting.
Fighting..that means villains and hero students! Gotta join them, maybe execute a sneak attack on the villains? I'll assess the situation when I get there.
Well, he hoped that was enough to proceed.
He carefully picked his way through the streets towards the sound of fighting. Once he got to a large, open street, he noticed that about 30 villains were approaching…Ochako and Momo! They'd taken out 10 villains, and were trying to retreat.
"Remember, everyone! 10 million yen to each of us for each student's head!"
Well, that certainly put things into perspective.
The villains wouldn't let Ochako and Momo disengage, so…maybe he should make an opportunity for them to do that and strategize.
What would be a good distraction? A building falling? No, too much potential for collateral. What about a sinkhole? Not his best option…but he'd take it. He pressed his palm to the ground, and sensed that the building foundations were extremely solid.
Good enough, he was going for it.
He commanded the ground to form a sinkhole under the villains - not too deep, perhaps 6 ½ meters, but with very steep and smooth walls so the villains couldn't get out.
"Hey, which one of you dumbasses did this?"
"I sure didn't! Just when things were about to get good, too!"
"It must've been Aoi, that shitstain can't tell left from right."
"Hey! I didn't do anything, you g-guys have got it all wrong! R-right, guys? Guys, wait please, noooAAAAAAAGGH!"
Izuku ignored the villains, and ran over to Ochako and Momo. "Are you all right?"
Momo nodded. "We are unharmed. Ochako floated us down safely from that mist portal. Shall we proceed to the exit?"
"Yeah, that definitely sounds good. What about the villains?"
"Momo, could you maybe create some sleeping gas of some kind?"
"Yes, that's definitely a good idea."
She typed on her wrist computer for a second, and then created a canister from her arm. She pulled the pin, and threw it into the pit Izuku made.
"That should do it. Trichloroethylene, mostly harmless. I think. Chemical warfare can be tricky sometimes. I'm not a trained anesthesiologist, so I wonder if I got the dosage right…Perhaps I went a bit low."
Both Izuku and Ochako knew what the other was thinking: Momo is scary.
Ochako got over her shock more"Uh, Momo? I hate to be the one asking, but isn't that some kind of war crime?"
"No? I said chemical warfare somewhat jokingly, as trichloroethylene is a nonflammable, and hopefully nontoxic anesthetic. "
Momo looked up at both of them. "What now? I suppose we could head to the central plaza. If that's agreeable with the two of you, we could attempt to stall for time until the other heroes arrive."
Izuku frowned. "Did either of you hear what Thirteen said to Mr. Aizawa in the beginning of class?"
Momo and Ochako shook their heads.
"So, what I heard was that All Might would come in 15 minutes. It's been about 10 minutes, so we don't have to wait for very long for help to arrive. Or maybe, someone has noticed something and All Might is coming sooner."
Ochako nodded. "Sounds like a good plan - wait, don't the two of you have wrist computers? Could you try to contact help from outside? Momo and I were a bit busy running from the villains to try beforehand."
Both Izuku and Momo facepalmed. They immediately tried to call for help, only to see that their signals were being blocked.
Momo shook her head. "I don't think we can. No signal seems to be getting out of the USJ…We're trapped until help arrives."
"Well, let's find a way out of here, then! I'm getting a bit cold."
"Right, I think I saw some exit signs this way…"
Once they made it to the exit of the zone, they saw that Eraserhead had beaten up most of the mooks there, who were laying in a pile near the fountain, with some groaning in pain.
Aizawa himself was mopping up the last of the villain mooks, and nothing was happening. Suddenly, the hand guy was running at Aizawa, and grabbed his elbow. Aizawa's hair flipped up, and they…was the villain talking?
"Your Quirk isn't suitable for these drawn-out fights, Eraserhead! You're blinking more often - I figured out your tells!" There was an element of sadistic glee in his voice.
Suddenly, Aizawa leapt back, cradling his right elbow. Izuku strained to see what was going on, but it was clear that Aizawa was injured…and there were still a few more goons left. Aizawa beat them up, but it certainly didn't look as easy as before.
Suddenly, the hand guy spoke up. "Oh, and Eraserhead. I'm not the final boss. He is." He waved a hand at the tall black creature with the exposed brain.
"Nomu…drain his health bar."
There was a sensation of movement, as the Nomu suddenly appeared next to Aizawa, and just…manhandled him.
Izuku winced as he heard the sound of bones cracking, and a strangled scream of pain. That really couldn't be healthy.
Is he bleeding, too? Is this what pro heroes have to fight every day?
He needed to stall for time! But how?
Suddenly, the mist guy appeared next to the hand guy. "Tomura Shigaraki," he intoned.
"Kurogiri…what's going on?"
"I was halted at the entrance by the children. One…got away."
"Dammit, Kurogiri! If you weren't our way out of here, I'd dust you right now!"
"I am sorry for my failure."
Someone who seemed like a random goon approached them from…the shipwreck! Did that mean his classmates were…?
"Boss…I'm…really sorry, but the kids trounced all of us! I was the only one to get away! Please, what do we do?" He kneeled at Shigaraki's feet, looking utterly defeated.
Shigaraki gently laid his hand on the goon's shoulder, and said, "Hey, there's no need for you to be scared."
He then violently grabbed the villain by the neck, and Izuku watched, horrified, as the villain was promptly turned to dust over the course of 10 seconds.
Shigaraki wiped off his hand on his pants, and murmured, "You fucking donkey."
He turned to Kurogiri and said, "It's game over, now. We need to leave…but…" he turned around, and stared directly at the three of them. "We can break the Symbol of Peace's pride by killing some children!"
Izuku had one shot to prevent the three of them from being dusted. He yelled, "With that crusty, pale skin, and that weird obsession with hands, there's only one type of creature you could be. A League player!"
Was he hallucinating, or did Kurogiri mutter "burn" under his breath?
Either way, Shigaraki reeled back in shock. "N-Nomu! Kill those childr-"
BOOM.
The door burst open. All Might was here! Something felt off, though, and Izuku couldn't put his finger on- Oh. All Might wasn't smiling.
All Might said, "Have no fear, students. I am here."
He vanished, and returned a split second later with all the students from every zone. Izuku searched for Himiko in the crowd of students, and she looked fine, aside from a few burns on her costume. Sato had some cuts and bruises, but otherwise fine. Bakugō was rather predictably, annoyed, but alright, aside from missing his arm gauntlet.
Shigaraki turned, and said, "Ah, All Might is here! Good, we get to continue, Nomu, KILL HIM!"
The Nomu tried its best, it really did, but All Might wasn't one of the best heroes in the world for nothing.
He slammed into the Nomu with such force that it sent a gale of wind careening throughout the USJ. Izuku covered his eyes, and saw his friends do likewise. All Might struck the Nomu once, with an ear-shattering thud, and did it again, and again, and again, in rapid succession. He finished his combo off with a shout of "Alaska Smash!", which sent the Nomu careening into the upper atmosphere like a badly-guided missile.
Shigaraki seemed a little panicked when he screamed, "Kurogiri! Get us out of here!"
Izuku heard three gunshots, and Shigaraki's body jerked thrice, before Kurogiri enveloped him in mist and disappeared.
All Might sighed. "I am sorry for arriving late, students. In light of this, classes should be canceled for tomorrow, at the very least. Aizawa and Thirteen need urgent medical attention, and Recovery Girl is waiting outside for any student who's injured."