Three
The panels on the side of the wall opened displaying numbered briefcases. There was a list at the front on Aizawa's desk that told whose number was which outfit. James grabbed his briefcase that held his hero outfit before he followed the rest of the students who went to the changing rooms.
Opening the suitcase was surreal as his nose picked up a scent of new clothes as well as a faint odor of who he assumed was his stylist. When he'd opened the suitcase fully it was to see the pure white fabric with a Chinese styled neckline. James pulled out his suit and simply looked at it. Everything about it was white except for the trimming that was done in light pink. Sakura flowers were printed on the front of the shirt staying from the middle and going down like they were falling petals, it was the only design on his hero outfit. The fabric was thin enough for him to maneuver through while being tough enough that he wouldn't be harmed much during training. His white combat boots were sturdy enough that he wouldn't need to worry about them being too heavy for him either.
When he walked out of the changing room he pulled on the white eye mask and the attached hood over his head to conceal his dark hair and ears. He'd figured that choosing a hero outfit like this was a good step away from his shady origins but maybe he had underestimated how bright it would be. In his musings he missed the girl with pink skin and a skintight multicolored leotard who ran right into him. She let out a surprised yelp as she bounced off him a fell backwards. James reached out, quickly grabbing her upper arms and helping her right herself.
"You okay?" James asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry I wasn't expecting anyone to come out like that." She smiled at him before taking in his outfit. "Oh, wow that's a lot of white."
"Says the one covered head to toe in pink." James shot back. She gave him a sassy smile, not even phased by his tone.
"Yeah I shouldn't say anything about this. Uh, I'm Ashido, Mina. You can call me Mina." James nodded.
"Nara, James. You can call me James."
"Cool. Uh, nice detailing." She said noting the pink flowers on the front of his shirt. James gave a half smile.
"Thanks. I should get going." Mina nodded.
"Yeah sure. See you out there." James moved past her to pull on the gloves on his hands.
"Wow, you're bright." Kana said as she came up behind him. James took one look at her clothes and snorted.
"You're one to talk." Her pants and shirt were both white but her shirt held a purple and gold strap that connected to her shirt making it look like a cold shoulder shirt. A purple tank top was underneath the white, only visible around her waist. Her belt held purple and gold designs. Her shirts neckline was surprisingly Chinese like his. Instead of an eye mask she wore a white face mask that covered her mouth while her hair was in panda ears atop her head.
"I like it." Kana defended. James chuckled.
"Oh, Shina would be disappointed in us. We usually always wear black."
"It's not like we're going to be sneaking up on anyone with these." Kana answered.
"God you two are bright." Kana and James turned to see Yuto melting out of the shadows. Completely opposite to them he was wearing black pants and a one sleeved black shirt that held the yin/yang symbol his left wrist. A brown belt was looped twice around his waist while a long red scarf wrapped around his upper torso that trailed down his back. He was barefoot but there were some black bandages covering the balls of his feet. "I feel like I don't even know you two."
"Ah hush up." James stated. "At least I still got some armor in this." He answered. "It's surprisingly breathable."
"Yeah I wasn't expecting that aspect." Kana murmured. "Guess the stylists knew what they were doing."
"Let's hope so." James answered. "Shall we?" He indicated as the rest of their classmates came out of the changing rooms.
"We shall." Kana answered.
"Nice outfit." James looked to the side and saw Momo smiling at his outfit. "I wasn't expecting you to wear anything except black. Not that it doesn't look good on you."
"I like to branch out sometimes." James stated. Momo nodded. "You look good." Momo glanced at her outfit with a slight frown.
"I would have liked to have more skin exposed; it would have been easier considering my Quirk, but I suppose due to the Hero Outfit Qualifications, it'll do." James nodded. "You're lucky you don't have to expose much skin." James shrugged.
"I'm just glad they didn't make me look completely ridiculous." They fell silent as they entered the training ground with the rest of their classmates.
"They say the clothes make the heroes and look at how true that is." Despite the hyping up All Might was doing James snorted at how cheesy the Number 1 Hero was. "I'm getting all fired up at seeing you all look so good."
"He's pretty good at the hype." Kana stated. James chose not to dignify that with a response.
"Now that you're ready it's time for combat training."
"Sir, this is the fake city from our entrance exam, will we be doing urban battles again?" The armored engine spoke up.
"Not quite. I'm going to move you all two steps ahead of what was originally planned. This training exercise is going to split you all into 'Heroes' and 'Villains' that deal with the situations where the heroes will be going against the villains who are going to be doing their shady dealings in secret."
"I'm feeling called out." Kana muttered under her breath. James snorted as Yuto chuckled.
"Will you be the one deciding who wins?" Momo asked.
"How much can we hurt the other team?" Bakugou asked and despite how James and he didn't get along, James also wanted to know this answer also.
"Do we need to worry about the other team being expelled like earlier?"
"Will you be splitting us up by chance or by comparing our skills?" All Might looked disturbed at the interruptions.
"I wasn't finished talking." He growled. He pulled out a script. "Listen up, the situation is this. The Villains have hidden a nuclear missile in their hideout. The heroes must try to foil their plans. To do that the good guys either must catch the villains or recover the weapon. Likewise, the bad guys succeed if they protect their payload or capture the heroes. Time is limited so we will be drawing lots."
"Isn't there a better way?" The armored suit asked.
"Think about it," The boy beside the armored suit in green pajamas, James wasn't sure if he was a bunny or a frog, spoke up. "Heroes often have to join up on the spot for missions. So that's probably the reason we're seeing that here." James took that intro at face value as he'd seen heroes do that same thing in the field. Of course most of those heroes also knew each other by reputation or because they'd worked together before on some kind of mission or group training exercise. James wondered if there were any Heroes who clashed too much to be paired up together in the field or if they were all 'professionals'. Kana jogged James out of his musings as the class was drawing lots to join teams.
Team A was the green bunny and the pink levitating girl. Team B was the six-armed boy and the odd icy cyclops boy that James sat next to. Team C was Momo and Kana. Team D was Bakugou and the armored engine. Team E was the pink haired girl Mina and himself. Team F was two large boys he hadn't noticed or heard introduced yet. Team G was Kaminari and a dark-haired girl with earphone jacks on her ears. Team H was Yuto's bird head friend and the actual frog girl. Team I was Yuto and what looked like an invisible person. James wasn't sure if they were a girl or boy yet. The last team was the red-haired boy James didn't like and the weird kid with tape in his elbows.
"Team D Vs. Team A, Team D will be the villains." All Might answered. "Everyone else head to the viewing platform." James followed everyone else to the viewing platform inside to watch the upcoming fight.
"Hello again." James looked at Mina who hoped up beside him. "Looks like we'll be on a team together."
"Can't wait. What is your Quirk? It's probably a good idea to get this info down if we're gonna fight together." He stated.
"My Quirk is Acid." She answered. "I can create acid from my palms and my feet." James nodded.
"Well obviously you can see I'm a cat." He spoke. "Tail and ears as well as the flexibility. I hope we get to be Heroes but if not, I'm sure we'll be good villains."
"I'm looking forward to fighting alongside you then." Mina smiled giving him a thumbs up.
"Everyone pay attention to the fight. Learn from this and see if there is anything you would or wouldn't change." James and the class watched as what was essentially a fight against Bakugou and Midoriya ensued. He had to wonder what exactly happened in their past to make Bakugou seem so vicious in his fight with Midoriya. Even he could tell that this fight was personal.
"Wow, he sure is hardcore." Mina stated as they watched the fight.
"If he's acting he's pretty good." James murmured. He himself couldn't wait to fight Bakugou himself. He just didn't think that would be today. "Although," They watched as Bakugou went rage mode on Midoriya. "That is a bit intense and not very Plus-Ultra of him to be losing sight of the mission." Yuto snorted from beside James.
"I'm pretty sure he's not really thinking about the exercise anymore. Bakugou seems a bit headstrong." They all watched as Bakugou and Midoriya continued to fight until everyone tuned into what was happening with Uraraka. She had run past Bakugou and Midoriya's fighting and up to the same level where Iida was protecting the weapon.
"I'm pretty sure that Bakugou has lost sight of the purpose of the training exercise." Kana sighed.
"He's pretty good." Someone said of Midoriya's being able to fight against Bakugou. When Midoriya ran away James could understand the smarts behind that. He didn't like to run away but Shina had trained them all that there was no shame in running if they were outmatched or the circumstances didn't benefit them in any way.
"That guy has some real anger issues. Kinda scary." Kaminari spoke up.
"Anyone else getting serial killer vibes?" Yuto asked.
"What do you mean?" The red haired Kirishima asked.
"From how he's going after Midoriya, I wouldn't want to be in his position. I'd be hiding in shadows to avoid him." Yuto said. James frowned at his brother.
"I doubt he'd kill anyone Yuto." He spoke up. "Wouldn't be very Heroic of him if he did kill someone." No one said anything else as they watched the teams fight.
The fight between Bakugou and Midoriya got a bit too volatile until even All Might tried to stop Bakugou from using his Quirk after he released his Quirk and caused the giant explosion that rocked the building. The movement had caused the platform where the rest of the class was waiting for their turn to shake. Despite how everyone was concerned for Midoriya's health, James wondered what All Might was playing at as he called for Bakugou to pull back on using his full Quirk after he'd already hit Midoriya with that last large explosion. He did agree with Momo and the others when they realized how advanced Bakugou was with his Quirk in comparison to Midoriya. James, while not ethically inclined himself, disliked how Bakugou was treating Midoriya. It was bordering on abuse at this point.
In the end, surprisingly Uraraka pulled the win by levitating the nuclear weapon while Midoriya destroyed the building with his Quirk.
"You know, Midoriya's Quirk is pretty powerful, but I wonder how much control he has over it." James spoke.
"What do you mean?" Kaminari asked him.
"Midoriya blew the building apart pretty easily. I mean despite the backlash on his own body he did manage to pull it off. But if he's still struggling to control his Quirk, it makes you wonder how long he's been practicing with it or if he's been slacking on using it to his full power." James noted how All Might froze at his assessment of Midoriya.
"That much power in a fragile body," Kana agreed, seeing what he saw in All Might. "I see your point."
"What a weird way for this to end. The losers are both untouched and the winners are destroyed." Kaminari spoke.
"They may have won the battle, but they lost the war." The bird headed boy spoke up.
"This class is intense." James snorted in agreement.
Match 2 was Team B against Team I. The fight was a close one with Yuto using his shadows to pull the invisible girl into the shadows before he then created an elaborate protection around the nuclear weapon by using his own shadow weapons to build bars that linked to the columns, creating an intricate jungle gym. When the building suddenly froze the shadow weapons froze causing the ice to form solid walls between them. Yuto melted into the shadows but wasn't deterred as he then had the invisible girl transported behind the six-armed boy. Yuto left her to keep him distracted while he himself went back into the building and came out in time to see the ice boy melting the ice. His shadow bars stayed where they were. Yuto ended up playing with the ice boy for several seconds before he was caught in ice only to disappear into shadows. This apparently caused the ice boy to get creative and he started to make mirrors from his ice to dispel the shadows that Yuto turned into. Yuto and the invisible girl lost with one minute to spare.
Match 3 was Team H against Team J. Team J won their round thanks to the bird head's shadow bird literally holding both 'villains' hostage while his teammate tagged the nuclear weapon. James was surprised at that entrance but considering he was Yuto's friend, he could see how that friendship came about.
Match 4 was Team C against Team G. Team C won thanks to the power planning from Kana and Momo. They essentially booby-trapped the room before Kana took the weapon to the rooftop and joined Momo in dealing with the 'heroes' together. They were a good team up. James would have to watch out if they chose to team up against him later.
Match 5 was Team F against Team E. James was proud to see that his team up with Mina won against Team F. Between him and Mina against the muscular boy and the timid boy, it was really a no brainer on who won. James was a bit sad to not get a real challenge out of this fight as it was too easy in his opinion. Mina's acid worked perfectly in tune with his catlike reflexes and the Chaos Sphere he used to stop the Heroes from making it up the floors in time.
The good news was the aftermath of winning against his classmates resulted in the Nara clansmen learning more about their classmates and their Quirks. They didn't have a clear understanding of their weaknesses, but James had no doubt that given enough time, they'd be learning more in the coming weeks. He just hoped Bakugou wasn't too much of a stubborn jerk to not give him a good fight when the time came. Who was he kidding, he wanted that blond jerk to use his full power so he didn't have to hold back. He sighed as he pulled on his regular school outfit. Shina was going to kill him if she found out he was planning on goading that jerk into a fight later.
Shina's POV~
Waiting in line at the entrance of UA High School was a bit boring, especially since there weren't any other parents or guardians to pick up the kids. Shina assumed this was because they were all busy doing other things like work or running errands. Too busy to get their kids. Not to mention Japan was notorious for their train systems but considering the Nara home for this extended mission wasn't on a train's track or schedule, Shina was a bit paranoid about the kids being picked up by anyone other than herself. She knew if she needed to, their Head of Security Jean Von or even the butler Claude would be happy to pick up the kids but, Shina had issues with relinquishing control over their safety to anyone else. She'd had to step up and care for her three cousins at a young age, to let that go after only six years was too soon for her.
Besides, this allowed her to watch as other students were released from UA High. Her kids were running a little late, but Shina supposed this was okay as she got more time to watch the other students leave. Of course, Shina didn't have an idea of their Quirks but she could start mentally making up a profile on them. She was always good at memorizing faces.
Shina's phone pinged with a text message. When she clicked on the screen she saw a message from her employer asking for an update on the mission. She sent back a quick message letting him know she'd see him at the bar later tonight to give him the first of many files on the UA students and faculty.
Staring at her phone, Shina frowned as a pit in her stomach formed before she shoved any feelings away. This mission wasn't one that she'd been particularly happy to accept, especially once she'd done some research on her employer, but she wasn't given an option to refuse. Her kids futures were tangled into this web before any of them had realized they were a part of it.
It wasn't the most ideal job but, so far it didn't seem that complicated. Her kids got to attend one of the most prestigious schools in Japan, so they had some stability for a while. She refused to think about the possibility of them becoming attached to their targets. They'd never gone on undercover missions that didn't last more than an hour, playing the long game could harm them in the future. Shina just hoped that they weren't too hurt when the time came to bail out. Her mission was still being investigated by herself. She was young but she wasn't an idiot, if she was going to be breaking into any high security buildings that the Commission owned then she was making sure she had back up plans for her back up plans.
Shina glanced in the rearview mirror and saw her three hooligans coming towards the entrance. Kana was talking with a boy with blond hair and a black lightning on one side while the boys were glaring at the blond boys every move. A closer glance revealed that James looked a bit scuffed, and she really hoped he hadn't done something rash. Shina watched as he narrowed his eyes at the blond boy making him raise his hands in surrender before he left her three hooligans. Shina snorted at this display. She supposed it was cute, but she also wished James would relax more. Maybe this school thing was a good idea for him.
Shina started the car and bopped along to the music while waiting for the kids to get in the car. Kana opened the passenger side and huffed as she slammed the door.
"Calm down." Shina ordered. "Whatever mood you're in, don't take it out on the car."
"He started a fight." Kana stated flatly as James and Yuto opened the back doors and slid inside.
"You said 'don't let anyone see you in the front office'. I saw Bakugou heading your way and distracted him from going any further." James began defensively. Shina mentally groaned as she knew how this argument would play out. She started to drive away from the school.
"I didn't mean 'start a fight with whoever comes along'." Kana half-shouted. "And did it have to be Bakugou?"
"Hey, he was the one coming towards us okay. I didn't pick him out of a line up." James argued back.
"Yeah but you two got into trouble. You're on the teachers radars now." Kana argued.
"Let's just be glad no one caught you gathering the intel from the office computers." Yuto tried to play peacemaker.
"Did you manage to get the information?" Shina asked Kana. Kana sighed and pulled out a USB drive.
"It's not my first time." She muttered. Shina grabbed the USB and put it in her pocket before she glanced in the rearview mirror at James.
"James, good job on being a distraction, bad job on making it onto the teachers radar. We're trying to stay under their noses. Did you get detention?"
"No just a warning." James stated.
"Okay that's somewhat better." Shina grimaced before she sighed. "This mission is going to be a long-term assignment. It's not like our usual 'hit and runs' that we do for the other jobs. I know you three haven't been on something long-term like this before, but I need you three to remember to stay in character. We can't blow this." The three kids were silent as Shina finished her speech.
"Are you going to see the employers tonight?" Yuto asked.
"Yes." Shina met Yuto's eyes in the rearview mirror. "Yuto I think it's best if you stay home with your siblings."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kana asked in concern.
"I'm just dropping of info at the bar. I'm also going to take this time to do some scouting, maybe some data retrieval." Shina stated. "I know it'll be easier with Yuto to transport me, but you three need to do your homework and stay fresh, you have school in the morning." Shina glanced at all three kids. She knew they didn't like her being on her own but she made sense concerning their new schedules. After all like she'd said, it wasn't a hit and run job. This required more stealth and finesse then she'd needed to use in a long time.