Hello all!
So, here is the new chapter for Witness and we start getting into the UA shenanigans! WOOO!
Anyway, my birthday is at the end of the month, so hurray for that.
New comment reviews this week, but thanks to those who do comment and I am happy you are all enjoying this fic!
Italics - Original Story
Regular Text - Reactions
Italics and Bold - Thoughts
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to My Hero Academia and Final Fantasy XIV, they belong to their copyright holders. If anyone reposts this or any of my stories on Youtube or any other media streaming platform) without my consent, I will be taking the appropriate actions as is my right.
Chapter 7
CP5 - "Dreams and Nightmares"
The screen began to flicker to life once more, giving some reprieve to both Momo and Izuku, considering the comment that Grim had just said caused both students to blush hard. The snickers coming from a particular pink-haired classmate along with her invisible friend, as well as the murmurs coming from the other students, were not helping matters. But all that would soon be silenced as the opening image appeared and would stun everyone.
It was another dream; at least, Izuku had thought of it as a dream. Something akin to what would hopefully prove to be a form of 'deja vu' in the future, though the green-haired boy could see he was standing in what looked like an oddly decorated office space with the walls being of sandy in color brickwork. Shadowy visages were standing around him, though not of any hostile intent; any murmurs they would make were muffled and unrecognizable to Izuku as he remained focused on the woman he could see in front of him.
"That office looks incredible, like something you see in a movie with a mob boss or someone rolling in dough." Sero said with a shocked face, with Kaminari nodding his head in agreement.
"Totally, dude, and look at all those books! It's almost like some kind of fancy library."
"Who cares about the books or the office!" Mineta exclaimed beside the boys as the shorter student hastily pointed toward the woman on screen, "Check her out!"
She was an immaculate beauty; while her current mood looked determined for some reason, he could tell that a smile from her could win a thousand hearts to whatever she wished. Her blonde hair looked short, given the small sprawled-out ponytail on the back of her head. Still, in reality, it could be much longer, given the attractive braids that rested at the side, with one dangling down behind her ear. Her outfit was almost outlandish in Izuku's opinion, covered in various straps of leather with a long skirt and concise top that appeared to expose her midriff to all and show off the young woman's curves.
Least of all, her top seemed to accentuate her bust size while looking like it barely contained her chest within the thin-looking pink cloth bound underneath the various leather harnesses. Thankfully, Izuku had only just glimpsed (though he had not meant to) at the display before focusing on her eyes, how they burned with that raw determination he would often see in Momo when she would talk about her goals as a hero.
All the students were gazing upon the young woman on screen, while a particular few of them were looking at her with lust in their eyes; many of them, including the girls of 1-A, would admit that she was indeed quite beautiful. Even the more shy students, such as Izuku and Koda, would also be transfixed by the woman's image, with the aforementioned green-haired student and a particular punk rocker agreeing with the way her eyes were described to be almost similar to Yaoyorozu's own when the heiress was doing her heroic duty out in the field.
"I know not what it is you desire of yourself nor what it was that first brought you to Eorzea." The woman spoke to him, her eyes transfixed on his own, slowly crossing her arms over her ample chest, staring him down, considering he was shorter than her, if only by slightly, "But I firmly believe that the power we possess was given to us for a purpose. Why else would the gods entrust man with a gift so extraordinary if not to have him use it?"
"Eorzea?" asked Ochako, tilting her head in confusion, "I never heard of that place before."
"Kero, given that we know that Izuku's powers came from a divine being, maybe it's a past life?" Tsuyu asked while looking towards her best friend and then turning her gaze towards Izuku, "A dumb question, but you haven't heard of that place before now, have you?"
"N-No… it's new to me as well." Izuku replied to his froggy friend before beginning to jot it down in his notebook, "Just as Tsuyu said, it could possibly be a past life he may have experienced, but it's hard to say." The green-haired student turned around to look towards the robed figure who was currently leaning back in his seat, "Mr. Grim? What exactly are we seeing?"
"And ruin the fun of finding out later?" Grim responded and only got silence coming from the class as well as the students, making him huff and fold his arms over his chest, " Fine, but I'm only giving you the abridged version."
"It's called the "Echo", and it allows whoever is gifted by the blessing of Hydaelyn to see into the future or the past, one or the other, and can't have both." The robed figure pointed directly to the screen, "What we are witnessing is an event that happened in the very distant past, and before you start hypothesizing how that Izuku can utilize this, it's completely random when it will trigger."
"I daresay that would be a tremendous power to have for the police, let alone for hero work!" Nezu spoke up, clapping his hands together, "But it couldn't be used to arrest suspects of a crime. Does anyone know why?"
The class began to mutter amongst themselves before a few hands went up, and Nezu pointed directly at them, "You were the first to put their hand up, so what is your answer, Mister Todoroki?"
"It's because as from what I am guessing with Grim's explanation, only the person with this 'Echo' can see the vision, and it would be inadmissible if that person simply said that the suspect did it and their proof is whatever they saw due to a quirk."
"Excellent work, Mister Todoroki!" Nezu said with his ever-bright smile, and as the other students brought their hands down, except for one, which the principal was cackling about, given he had already set his sights on the boy, "Yes, Mister Midoriya?"
"Um… It could still be used in some circumstances, like if the event it showed was a homicide, and the culprit had hidden the weapon used for the killing, then you could find where it was and then use that evidence to convict them." Izuku said, looking a little nervous, considering the answer Shouto had given was indeed correct, but Izuku's superior analysis skills had already allowed him to think of several ways it could be used when Grim had given his explanation of the 'Echo' and the principal asking his question.
It also didn't matter that Izuku had already filled a page or so during that time.
Izuku had attempted to ask what she had meant about this particular power; was it similar to a quirk? But whatever he was going to say was pure silence, as if his voice was muted somehow.
"And so…" the woman continued, her ice-blue eyes staring straight into his own with her eyebrows still posed with that determined look to them, "I implore you, lend us your power."
Izuku rose suddenly, heavily sweating and panting, his eyes open wide as he looked around to find him back in his bed, his room covered in various hero merchandise and his clock on the nightstand showing that it was currently five thirty am.
"Geez, so those were memories of a past life of Midoriya's, huh?" Kaminari said with a raised eyebrow and leaning on the back of the seat in front of him, "Makes you wonder just what the past Midoriya had seen in his dreams."
"Funny thing about that…" Grim spoke once again and caught everyone's attention, "The Echo often happened while the user was still awake, making them freeze on the spot; it didn't matter what they were doing."
"Huh?!" Everyone called out, as Sero shakingly put his hand, "So like… they could have been driving or something and then get hit with the Echo if something triggered it?"
"Hypothetically, yes." was all Grim said, looking back to the screen, which further unsettled everyone, considering the robed man had stated that it could not be controlled, so trying to train it to stop doing what it did was off the table.
Everyone in Class 1-A then decided that perhaps looking into the past or future with such accuracy wasn't the best thing in the world.
Running his hand through his wet but still somewhat fluffy hair, he calmed down. He started to breathe normally before flopping back down onto his pillow once again and staring at the room, his bare chest rising and lowering as he breathed deeply.
The woman seemed so familiar to him, yet he had never seen her before until that night, and as he listened to her, it made him more confused.
What was this gift or power she spoke of? What or where was "Eorzea"? And why was the word 'Minfilia' repeating in his head? Was it her name?
And why, as he was laying on his back, was he tearing up and the pain felt within his chest hurting him more than anything he had ever felt before?
Everyone watched as the onscreen Midoriya was clearly upset about something pertaining to this 'Minfilia', and while they didn't really have any concrete clues as to the relationship between the pair, many assumed they were close.
As for three women within the audience, mainly two specific ones, they were generally curious as to HOW close this Minfilia was to Midoriya.
Relaxing against the seat cushions of the bus that was currently taking the UA entrance exam attendees towards the different battle zones, Izuku looked out of the window as his mind began to wander and reminisced about how the exams were going so far.
"Wow, that's a bit of a time jump…" Sato said as he relaxed in his chair, "But I guess it makes sense given how long the actual entrance exams were."
Many of the students nodded their heads in agreement with the sugar-loving man. A few more sighed heavily at how exhausting it was to go from the written tests to the practical exam. Still, considering how challenging their actual classes were, it made sense that the exam was just a taste of what they would be facing should they have gotten into the hero course, being mainly pointed out by Iida. Meanwhile, the teachers, mainly Nezu and All Might, were smiling to themselves at how quick their students were in figuring out the main reason for the daunting scheduling of the exams.
Aizawa merely huffed and settled more into his chair, watching the illogical exams take place.
The written tests were pretty simple, at least according to Izuku. It turns out that all that extra help studying from Momo and Setsuna did help him in the end since he was sure Nezu had personally written his exam. However, he had kept the same number of questions.
What gave away the idea that the furry dean had adjusted his exam, in particular, was the delicate scent of tea leaves, which happened to have a similar smell to the tea that Nezu often drank while he was instructing him.
"H-huh?" Izuku spoke up suddenly and then turned towards Grim, "H-How come the Principal or… Dean, in this case, is teaching me?"
"A couple reasons, the main one being that he is connected to your 'blessing' in a way, so of course, he would make sure you were able to at least pass High School." Grim shrugged before crossing his arms over his chest, "The other being is that he took an interest in your intelligence and wished to 'nurture' it, such as that Izuku's analysis skills."
"Something that I would love to look further into once we get back." The diminutive creature said while his beady eyes were staring straight at Izuku, who was blinking owlishly at the principal, "Considering how well your counterpart's companions are praising their own analysis…. I am most curious about how detailed they are, with your permission, of course."
"O-Oh! That would be great, Principal Nezu!" Izuku said with a bright smile, along with a few of his friends, who also had small smiles of their own. Even Toshinori was smiling proudly at his successor, though there were only two people who weren't happy for the young hero in training; one was Bakugo, but his reasons were self-explanatory. The other was Aizawa, who was only staring in abject horror at the notion of Nezu getting his tiny paws on the 'Problem Child'.
The other reason he figured out that Nezu was causing shenanigans was when he had met up with Mina and Kyoka during the middle of an hour-long lunch break to allow the students to destress from the written test before the practical.
"That would have been nice to have." Mina said with a heavy sigh, with a few others agreeing to the notion of a small break between the written and practical exam.
Mina looked like she blew a fuse when he first came upon them, resting against a tree outside on campus while Kyoka was sitting beside her, legs pulled to her chest, and her jacks massaging her temples. Izuku smirked down at them as he approached and asked how they felt they did. Both were giving him deadpan stares that seemed to voice how they thought they did. Still, he had tried to reassure them that it may have been difficult; they weren't entirely unprepared as they had both Momo and Setsuna to help them study as well.
A jack poked him in the forehead as Kyoka kept staring at him. She stated that he had also helped them study when he was around and gave them exciting ideas on using their quirks. He blushed a little and chuckled nervously at the praise, but that only made Kyoka frown and keep jabbing him at certain spots on his body, causing him to blush and curl up slightly from the onslaught.
The punk rocker in the theater was raising an eyebrow at the actions of her on-screen double, looking utterly confused as to why that Kyoka was constantly prodding the young man while also looking upset at his evident nervousness. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, deep in thought, though she hadn't noticed the golden irises of Mina watching her with a slight smirk on her lips.
Izuku knew she was teasing him, trying to "toughen him up," as she put it, since she said he acted so differently when he had taken down that shark villain when they first met. Mina and Momo had pointed this out at specific points since Izuku had met them, which caused him to reflect on that now.
He had "felt" different when he switched between what he was calling "kits" now. But, from what the women were telling him, the one with the sword and shield (which he hadn't named yet) was often seen as stoic and a beacon of hope, while the 'gunbreaker' made him a little more snarky and humorous.
However, when this was brought up to Nezu during one of their study sessions, the dean chuckled and simply waved it off, telling him that it was more of a "shift of personality traits" than an entirely new persona. This baffled Izuku when he was told this, as he never considered himself snarky or to joke around.
He didn't think he could even pull off snark, truthfully.
"I can see that." Mineta spoke up, making everyone look toward the grape-haired student as he returned their gazes, "What? No offense, Midoriya, but I could never see you ever being snarky, at least in public."
"Um.. thanks?" Izuku replied with a hint of confusion in his voice.
"But, I can see the whole "personality shift" happening, however." Mineta continued with his hands resting at the back of his head, relaxing in his chair, "Because you do it now!"
"Huh?! I-I do?"
"You totally do!" Ochako said from Izuku's side, "It's like you have a serious mode when it comes to being a hero! You hardly stutter and are laser-focused on achieving success on a mission."
"And you have a bit of a recklessness to it as well." Shoto spoke up from his seat behind Izuku's, "Considering our fight at the sports festival."
Izuku looked around to see several more of his classmates nod their heads in agreement, tilting his head before looking back up to the screen. Sure, Izuku had noticed the odd sort of behavior his onscreen version experienced, but for him to have that trait as well? He could hardly believe it.
But his friends, even his closest ones, were telling him that he, too, often would act totally different when it came time for him to be the hero he was training to be. Perhaps there was something to it, and maybe he could channel some of that energy into his day-to-day life?
Hopefully, it doesn't mean he needs to keep breaking his bones to do so.
The bus lurched to a stop, which knocked Izuku out of his reminiscing. And the hopeful students of UA began to unload from the vehicle to prepare themselves. Izuku was gasping when he saw the ruined city battlescape before him and thought of how much a single one of these areas could cost.
And UA apparently had six of them.
"Okay, now to answer one of my questions." Grim suddenly spoke up, turning his hooded head toward Nezu and the two teachers beside him, "I understand if you can't give names or anything… But HOW does a high school, even a specialized one like UA, afford any of this? Like, I get donations and grants from the government, but you seriously can't tell me that those allow you to afford mock ruined cities to train young students in, a GIANT colosseum for the Sports Festival, let alone the Zero-Pointers, and I don't even want to think about the costs to maintain the USJ."
"Admittedly, you are correct in the fact that whatever grants or donations we do get couldn't cover everything." Nezu said in a calm tone, though smiling still.
Toshinori gently coughed and cleared his throat, though the rosy-cheeked look seemed a little odd on his skeletal frame, "He's correct, as I have it set up so that at least twenty percent of my merchandise sales go towards UA, even long before I became a teacher there."
"While Yagi's admission of his own contributions is his own to say, what I can confirm is that many, if not all of the top ten of Japan who graduated our halls also donate part of their earnings."
Grim tilted his head, his hand moving to his chin as if in deep thought before looking back to the chimera, "Even Endeavor?"
"Oh my yes!" Nezu cackled, "Funnily enough, his donations go towards the fire prevention systems in all of our buildings, plus part of the USJ, the conflagration zone, to be precise."
A few murmurs from the students could be heard by the adults, especially with the currently deep in thought Todoroki, who had never realized his father's agency went back into UA. A sudden grip on his shoulder broke his concentration as the dual-quirked young man looked to see Kirishima staring at him, "Yes, Kirishima?"
"You think you could talk to your dad and see if they can cut back a little bit on the fire in that zone? When I was teleported there when the League of Villains attacked us at the USJ, it was stupidly hot."
Todoroki merely blinked, silent for a moment before replying in a confused tone of voice, "I… can try too?"
"Awesome! Thanks, Todo-bro!"
Shaking his head to get the numbers of the astronomical costs out of his mind, he turned his attention towards the other students with him. Everyone around him dressed in gym clothes or workout clothes, and some with essential support gear. He smiled as he readily stretched his arms back and forth, thoughts of how his friends were going to do running through his head before a loudspeaker squawked loudly; let it be known as the pro hero named Present Mic was quite loud when he wanted to be.
Which was a lot of the time, Izuku surmised.
"You have no idea, Problem Child…" Aizawa gruffed out and sunk more into his scarf while many of his students were pointing out a few of their current classmates who were in the background, especially Ochako, Iida, and Aoyama surprisingly… and was the counterpart of their foreign-speaking friend staring at them?
"ALRIGHT, LITTLE LISTENERS! YOU GOT TEN MINUTES TO DESTROY AS MANY ROBOTS AS YOU CAN! NOW GET GOING!"
Everyone merely stared up at the pro hero as the gates to the sizeable faux city opened, and a few moments later, realized that Mic wasn't going to say anything else and also learned that they just lost maybe half a minute or so by standing around, all of the student hopefuls dashed out into the city.
Izuku smiled as he shifted into his "gunbreaker" kit, and with his odd weapon resting on his shoulder, he ran and ducked into an alleyway. And within a few moments, he spotted a one-pointer robot and made short work of it with a single 'lightning shot.'
"Well, let the hunt begin, I guess."
"Oh, man! This is going to be awesome!" Toru cheered, with Mina giggling and following suit, "I wonder if you'll unlock a new power, Midori?"
"I mean… it's possible?" Izuku chuckled and rubbed the back of his head nervously, "B-but I hope things turn out a little better than when I did the entrance exam."
"Why? What happened?" Sero asked, with Kaminari and Mineta leaning over their seats to hear as Izuku looked away while scratching his cheek.
"... I kind of… broke my legs and left arm punching the zero pointer."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" The class shouted in shock from hearing this as those with super hearing swore they could hear another voice yelling the same thing, though it came from the ceiling, which was odd since they couldn't see anything up there. The rest of the class looked on in disbelief as to why Midoriya would do such a thing when the giant machine was supposed to be avoided. However, that was when Ochako spoke up, trying to help her best friend.
"He did it to save me after some rubble fell on my leg and trapped me!"
The students started to look back and forth between the pair, with Izuku starting to blush hard once again. Eventually, most of the class came to the conclusion that it was obviously Midoriya just being himself. However, one person was clearly reading into things a little more than she should have, as Mina leaned against Ochako's seat and with a sly smile while she rested her head on her arms, simply staring at the gravity girl, who was looking a little nervous since she had a feeling where this was going.
"So… saved you from a giant robot, huh?"
Five minutes had passed since the beginning of the practical exam. Within a darkened monitoring room with various screens lit up, UA's pro heroes and teachers watched all six trial arenas on the cameras set up across the cities' various 'ruins.'
"A good bunch of applicants this year." spoke one pro hero as they reclined in their chair, watching a multi-armed student take down a three-pointer by themself while protecting a more petite boy with round balls on the top of his head.
"Indeed, such vigorous youth running about and showing off their stuff! It certainly gets the blood pumping, doesn't it?" exclaimed the female pro hero known as Midnight, who was giggling to herself as she looked over some of the more "able-bodied" students, licking her lips.
"I understand that Miss Midnight can be…provocative when doing her heroic duty, but that seems a little much." Tokoyami said as Dark Shadow had its arms on top of the head of its 'master while idly watching the film, being rather quiet for once, much to Tokoyami's relief. The student looked back towards Grim, with his sharp eyes squinting, "Why does it seem like she is moreso of a deviant in this scenario?"
"To be fair, while the ages of the students have altered to fit in line with UA being a university, I kept many of the other people's ages the same, including all of the staff members at UA." The robed figure shrugged, "Plus, when it comes to Midnight, the common belief amongst the other weavers and I is that she is always on the "prowl" for lovers, but when someone needs advice, she's like the person you would hundred percent talk to, and she would be professional about it too."
"As to your question, considering how fit one needs to be to even try out for the hero course, can you blame her?"
"I certainly wouldn't- GAAAH!" Mineta shrieked as he was interrupted by an ear jack stabbing him rather harshly, but also shockingly, a tentacled slap upside of the head by Shoji.
Tokoyami, on the other hand, huffed gently, turning back around. The feathers on his head poofed a little, and he only had one thing to say.
"Such revelry in the dark…"
The hero beside her, named Powerloader, simply shook his head and sighed at his colleague's antics, but as he was about to return to the screen with the one student with the explosion quirk, a clearing of a throat caught his attention as he turned his head towards the cowboy looking hero named Snipe.
"Hey, Pardner… need yer opinion on this one applicant's gear. Never seen a gun like it before."
"Oh, yeah? Do you think he snuck it in and didn't properly register it? What's the battle arena and camera?"
"Arena B and cameras seven and eight," Snipe replied as PowerLoader typed it in. On the main screen, the green-haired student applicant appeared, swinging around a weird-looking sword. The support course teacher leaned closer to the screen as if he was squinting under his helmet, mouthing out a 'what the hell' as he looked at the hilt, which was some sort of 'gun.'
"I can see both Mr. Snipe and Powerloader being confused by the gunblade." Momo said with a gentle giggle, "Even I'm still trying to figure out how it works."
"Never seen a firearm like that before myself, couldn't tell ya what caliber it is from here, but the shells it seems to expel from the chamber look pretty big." Snipe commented as his attention was being kept on the student as he was helping out a blonde boy who almost had a two-pointer sneak up behind him.
A clatter of chairs hitting the floor interrupted some of the other teacher's viewings as Snipe loudly proclaimed, "IS HE POINTING THAT GUN AT ANOTHER PARTICIPANT?!"
The entire class froze when they saw the on-screen version of Midoriya pointing the gunblade straight at Aoyama's counterpart, who looked like he was having one of his usual stomach issues that his quirk caused. Even Aizawa and All Might were taken aback by the scene before them.
Izuku himself was trying to figure out WHY his other self was pointing a weapon at one of his future classmates and friends; surely, there had to be something to it until he remembered something from the previous episode that made him calm down slightly.
This change in his demeanor caught his friends' attention as well, as a gentle croak from Tsuyu caught the boy's attention, "Why aren't you freaking out about this, Midoriya?"
"Um… it was something my other self had said last episode, and I can guess it's what he's about to do, and knowing that I have a feeling everything will be alright?" Izuku responded as if it was a question of whether he believed that or not. But the emotionless beady eyes of Tsuyu did not waver from his gaze as if the frog-like girl was staring into his soul. However, she eventually nodded to herself, turned away to look at the screen, and seemed to be calmer as well.
"If you say so, Midoriya, kero, I'll believe in your judgment."
"O-Oh..? um, Thank you, Tsu."
The young woman smiled slightly back at him, nodding back to his thanks, before turning towards the screen again, making sure to hide the slight blush on her cheeks since he had finally remembered to call her by her first name, and although Midoriya hadn't noticed it, Ochako did, and she was staring hard at the other girl with a look of curiosity.
Now, all the teachers were looking at the monitors just in time to see the green-haired boy pull the trigger, only for a green mist to expel from the weapon and envelope the other participant. Within a few seconds, the other boy patted his stomach for some reason, smiling brightly at the green-haired boy and then both shaking their hands. The teachers watching the exchange fell back into their seats and sighed in relief, although Snipe was the first to point something out that once again got the teacher's attention.
"D… did that boy's gun thing just heal that other student?"
Everyone sighed with relief after watching the Yuga on screen getting healed, realizing just a little too late what that Midoriya had told Jiro and Ashido in the last episode. As they were chattering amongst themselves for acting as surprised as they were, Nezu was starting to chuckle a little ominously, catching Toshinori and Aizawa's attention.
"Um.. sir?"
"Oh! Don't mind me, gentlemen; I'm just looking forward to what is going to be happening next." Was all the tiny creature had said before moving his hand to redirect their gazes back to the screen. Despite this, both teachers couldn't help but feel goosebumps run up their bodies from how their employer sounded just then.
Silence overtook the room once again at the question the gunslinging hero had asked, only to be broken by the chuckles of the dean filling the air as all the teaching staff looked at the furry being sitting in his oversized chair with a cup of tea. Nezu's beady eyes looked at Powerloader, who cringed when he was being stared at. "Maijima, was the zero-pointer for area B updated as I had requested?"
"Erm… yeah, yeah, I did the case changes as you wanted, sir… But why make B's different from the others?"
"That doesn't make sense." Tenya spoke up and rubbed his chin, "Why would the dean outfit the zero-pointer differently from the other ones used for the test?"
Everyone around him started to think about what Iida had said, trying hard to figure out the small creature's plan as the story continued on while they were trying to figure out why the change was made.
Nezu didn't reply to the support teacher, taking a sip of his tea before Cementoss stood up and stared at the dean. What he said next would confuse the other teachers present and their gazes, looking from the cement hero back to the dean.
"You are testing him again, aren't you?"
"Oh no... it's because of me, isn't it?" Izuku thought to himself, his face pale in horror, as he tried to wrap his head around what Nezu's alternate self was doing. All around him, though Izuku didn't notice himself, several other students put two and two together and realized that it was because of Midoriya. Their faces also looked worried due to what the Nezu on screen had planned for them.
Nezu chuckled once again, except it sounded nothing like the previous one. It was somber and also dark in tone. Nezu then flipped over a cover that revealed a big red button, and placing his paw on top of it, he looked towards Cementoss with that same ever-present smile.
"Oh, you know me," Nezu said, pressing the button, "I am always up to see how creative humans can get in dire circumstances."
[At the exact moment]
Izuku wasn't sure what to expect after using his 'Aurora' ability upon the blonde-haired boy after stopping that one robot from sneaking behind him. The look in the boy's eyes when he pointed his gunblade at him told him that he should've tried to explain himself first, but there wasn't time for a full explanation.
That and he doubted a "Hey, let me shoot you, and it will get rid of your tummy ache" would suffice as well.
"C'est vrai, I also doubt that would have worked." Yuga said with a gentle chuckle, shaking his head at the silliness.
The boy shot back up to his feet and posed elaborately, and what seemed to be sparkles radiated off of the boy. He exclaimed that his "tummy" felt much better and wished to know what Izuku had done.
"Erm… a little long-winded to fully explain, given the time limit, but maybe afterward, if you want to hang out, I can give you a better explanation. But in the simplest of terms, my quirk 'healed' you."
The boy stared at Izuku for a moment. With another elaborate pose, he spoke, "A healing quirk that can also damage as well using that dazzling weapon of yours? C'est Magnifique!" The blonde bowed to Izuku, "I am Yuga Aoyama! And it is a pleasure to meet you as it is to likewise meet moi, monsieur!"
Yuga held out a hand to Izuku after the bow, which Izuku slowly took. He was a little shocked at the dazzling display but still was respectful, "I'm Izuku Midoriya, and … I'm sure it is a pleasure to meet you." and after giving a fair shake, released the young man's hand, "So, dunno about you, but we should probably get out of this alleyway and see if we can knock out a few-"
*CRASH*
The ground and buildings rumbled violently and nearly sent the two boys to the ground had they not grabbed onto the walls. Once the rumbling stopped, they could hear screams and see students fleeing from something. When both boys looked at one another, their faces frowned and nodded, racing out of the alleyway to see what was happening.
"I'm going to guess that was the zero-pointer." Kaminari said, sighing gently and leaning his head on the back of the empty seat in front of him, "Man, when that thing popped up in my testing area, it was wild watching it going after people, although it was pretty slow, if I recall." The blonde student then looked toward Izuku and called out to him, "Hey, Midoriya! How did you take out your zero-pointer?"
"H-huh?" Izuku turned his attention from the screen to look back at Kaminari, "Um... I sort of used One for All to jump from the ground level all the way up to its head… and I kinda… sorta… caved the head in with a single punch."
Kaminari whistled gently, "Dude, what the heck… so how did you get down safely? I mean, I remember those things being pretty damn tall."
"Ah, right… well… I only had one good arm left and figured if I timed a full-powered punch, the wind pressure would cushion my fall enough that I'd survive at least." Izuku casually said, with a horrified look appearing on not only Kaminari's face but everyone around him as well, but thankfully, Izuku suddenly remembered the most important detail, "B-But that didn't happen, as Uraraka was able to get out from the rock she was trapped under and float up to save me with her quirk."
A few sighs of relief could be heard as the class began to calm down; Ochako herself was smiling and blushing gently to herself as she, too, recalled the first time she had met her crush and saved his life after Deku valiantly saved hers. However, she didn't take her eyes off the screen, as she could feel the gaze of golden irises behind her and no doubt imagine the smug smirk on the pink-skinned woman's lips as well.
Pushing past a few of the fleeing students, the sight that awaited both Izuku and Yuga was something neither of them would have expected. Down the street, where many of the buildings were destroyed and rubble covering the streets, stood a massive robot. The supposed zero-pointer.
Although bent forward, two massive mechanical arms hissed out steam as pistons and turbines spun on its large arms; with sharp but spindly fingers, its upper body was bulky as well, with glowing lights lined down the middle with two large blue plates covering the chest as if some sort of weird breastplate similar to Izuku's "knight" look. Its head looked out with slanted, dimmed, and darkened lights for eyes as what looked like metallic wings flexed behind it.
"What in the world is that?!" Everyone shouted, clearly shocked to see the radical difference between this version of the gigantic robot compared to the ones they had faced during the entrance exam and the sports festival. Nezu was cackling like the maniac that he was while Grim was snickering to himself to see everyone's reaction to 'The Tycoon', which he had used as inspiration for this part.
Granted, he was still correct in his reasoning to not give it the abilities of the original…it was too early for them to be dealing with 'Time Magic' of all things.
The "robot" was resting on what could be considered a metallic skirt, but Izuku had surmised that there might have been tracks underneath. The sizable metallic body hissed as it moved towards the fleeing students. Izuku reached out to the closest fleeing applicant, who was the tall blue-haired boy from the explanation of the practical exam that had interrupted Present Mic. "Oi! Where the hell did that thing come from?"
The boy roughly took his arm back, staring at Izuku with a stern look for a moment, then started to chop his arm up and down as he spoke, "It has to be the zero-pointer that was mentioned by our proctor! And we should be following his advice and keep ourselves a-"
"HELP!"
The sudden cry for help caused all three boys to twist their heads towards some of the rubble on the path in front of the menacing robot coming towards them. All three would see the young woman with brown hair and what could be considered permanent blushes on her cheeks struggling to get her trapped legs free from under the large slab of cement that had pinned her down.
"Uraraka!" more people began to freak out, clearly distressed to see the gravity woman's counterpart once again in mortal danger of being crushed by this odd version of the giant robot. None more so than Izuku and Tsuyu; seeing their best friend trapped made the pair almost want to rush to the screen, but then remembered that this was an alternate reality, so they only hoped that that world's Izuku, Yuga, and Iida would save her.
Ochako herself also had been worried for her counterpart's safety. But she was also a little miffed at herself, considering that, once again, she was stuck underneath the rubble just as the zero-pointer came out. Now, not only Deku but also two of her classmates would get hurt just to save her.
Izuku looked at the two other boys, faces stern and giving off a "don't argue with me" sort of look, "You two go and see if you can lift that cement off of her legs; I'll keep the big guy's attention on me."
"But-" the blue-haired boy was about to protest this, but he couldn't get anything more out before both Izuku and Yuga dashed past the incoming students towards the incoming zero-pointer. The blue-haired boy watched them head off, being shoved a little by passing students. In his head, he started to think of the pros and cons of the decision the green-haired boy had made.
Tenya gritted his teeth, his hand clenched into a fist as he watched as his other self just stood there watching instead of actually trying to be the hero like his older brother Tensei… even if he, himself, had made the foolish decision to run from the zero-pointer instead of helping, Tenya knew he would get better…
Honestly, he was just hoping that in this timeline, his brother didn't fall at the hands of Stain.
Izuku watched as the giant robot continued to lumber down the street, its metallic wings crashing and scraping along the building's walls as it moved. With gunblade in hand, he dashed past the downed girl, turning his head towards her, and both of their eyes met.
Izuku beamed her a bright smile, similar to the one that All Might would give people when he saved them to let them know that everything would be alright. The girl's auburn eyes widened as she stared into the bright emerald eyes of the boy running past her before their line of sight broke off so Izuku could focus on the zero-pointer and leaped toward it, swinging his gunblade down and slashing at the mechanical monstrosity's right arm, unloading an explosive shot.
"And what do we have here?" Mina giggled gently as she leaned her arms against the headrest of Ochako's backrest once again, still staring hard at the back of the brunette's head as she was ramrod stiff to not acknowledge the 'alien' woman.
The girl watched on as the lone boy faced off against the behemoth until another one, a blonde boy, skidded down and knelt beside her and tried to lift the large cement debris off of her leg. With a grunt and the explosions coming from the battle between the green-haired boy and the zero-pointer to further frame him struggling, the blonde boy looked at her. He gave her a thumbs-up, "Do not fear, mademoiselle! Moi should have this pesky block off of you *grunt* in no time while monsieur Midoriya handles that mechanical brute!"
The brunette was about to give her thanks when another boy showed up, the tall blue-haired boy kneeling beside the blonde-haired one, lifting the debris enough for the girl to move out.
Yuga looked to the new boy beside him and struck a pose once the girl was out, and both he and the other boy helped her up with an arm slung around over their shoulders to support her. Helping her limp away from the battlefield to a safer location, with his casual smile, "It is good to see you come and help! I had hoped you wouldn't leave moi and mademoiselle on our own!"
The blue-haired boy looked to Yuga with a stoic look, "We are here to be heroes! What kind of hero would I be if I merely stood back when someone was in danger?"
Most of the students began to cheer as they watched Aoyama and Iida get the boulder off of Uraraka's leg, even cheering more so when they heard the speedster's reply. Tenya himself sighed heavily with relief at the knowledge his alternative self had made the right choice and decided to help out.
"Ah, too true, too true, let us hope monsieur Midoriya can keep the robot busy long enough for us to -" Yuga was not able to finish his sentence as another explosion went off behind them, which sent Izuku flying overtop of them, landing on his back with a pained grunt and sliding a few feet away from the trio.
Izuku groaned as the other students rushed towards him as fast as they could. As they took in the boy's look, they would see that his coat was torn with parts of his shirt and pants torn or singed in places. The 'gunbreaker' slowly rose up, shaking his head to clear a headache and refocus.
The cheers died down to pure silence as they watched the Warrior of Light, whom they had been watching for the last episodes, taking down any challenges they had witnessed to see him so effortlessly be tossed away. Izuku clenched the notebook in his hand hard as he was trying to think of *how* a simple robot was giving his alternative this much trouble, considering they were designed to be taken down with some ease, but nothing like the more miniature point robots.
Just what was going on with this zero-pointer?
"Monsieur Midoriya! What happened? Are you alright?" Yuga asked with worry in his voice, matching the looks of the other two with him.
"Well, I feel like utter garbage right now, to be honest with you, but we have bigger problems," Izuku said as he stuck the pointed end of the blade into the ground and used it to hoist himself up.
"What bigger problems do you mean?" asked the blue-haired boy before Izuku could answer; a sickening sound of metal against metal was heard behind them. The four students watched in fascinated horror as what could be the once dimmed and lifeless eyes of the zero-pointer robot brightened with an ominously bright blue, slamming its fists down onto the ground with a hiss of steam expelling from several spots on its body before raising its fists up and pulling it's 'wings' close to its body.
"W-Why are the eyes glowing like that?" Toru chirped in shock as she clung to Mina, who was also holding her friend close; the other students were shivering in fright, with many of them either holding their neighbor or frozen to their seat, even Bakugo, who had at this time just kept to himself, and quiet was a little shaken from seeing the robot act as it was.
The adults in the room were not faring well either; even Nezu was taken aback by the display before him while Grim was resting comfortably in his chair and enjoying the chaos around him.
Time seemed to stop at that moment. Not only for the students standing before the zero-pointer but also the ones that had run away from it and even the teachers watching from the monitor room could only gasp at what was happening.
The zero-pointer brought its arms back down, bent in front of its body as its back arched backward with the wings extending out and smashing any buildings in its wake. The four students that stood before would have nightmares in their futures about what would happen next, as it was unexpected to ever occur in the first place.
The beast roared.
The roar echoed across the theater, causing a few of the students to shout or scream in surprise, calling out to the versions of the four classmates to get the heck away from whatever that thing was that just roared. The teachers and the dean looked towards Grim, still sitting calmly in his chair, and Toshinori was the first to speak, "Just what in god's name was that?!"
Grim was quiet for a moment, the silence of the theater increasing as the students calmed themselves down a little and turned their gaze toward the weaver until he decided to reply not only to the former number one but also to everyone who could hear him, especially to those that weren't in the room presently.
"It would take time to fully explain what it is… but I think this quote from a story I enjoyed in my youth sums it up quite nicely."
The robed figure cleared his throat, taking a slow but deep breath, and started the quote with the calmest tone of voice he could make, which also frightened the students and teachers some more.
"Before there was time, before there was anything, there was 'nothing'. And before there was nothing… there were monsters."