A/N: Title comes from NateWantsToBattle's cover of Number 1
Rewind
Chapter XVII: I'll Break That Mold
While the HPSC was dealing with Toga, Izuku was going up to Inasa. The passionate wind-user was excited to hear what the young celebrity had to say to him … until he opened his mouth. "I want you to deal with whatever problems you have with Todoroki Shoto, now."
"And why should I?" Inasa growled out. His fellow Shiketsu students stared at him in shock. They had never heard him act so … cold before. His passion was so powerful that it infected everyone who was around him for too long. But this cold … it wasn't like him at all.
"You listen here, Yoarashi Inasa," Izuku growled out. "I don't care what you have against the Todorokis, but if you mess things up for my friend in the rescue portion of the test, then you will answer to me. Now either deal with your issues, or I will deal with you." Inasa was … honestly impressed with the green-haired boy. The words may have been cold, but the fire in his eyes was beyond question. It almost made him question things, but one look at Todoroki and he froze over again.
"You were the one who beat me in the race in the exam, right? I apologize for my response, but I am not on good terms with my father, and outright hated him during the exam. You had compared me to him at a time I was trying to do everything I could to not be like him, and I took my frustration out on you. Would you be willing to at least call a truce for the exam?" Yoarashi stared at the offered hand before slapping it away and storming off.
"Yoarashi, what's wrong? You're not usually so cold, so what happened?" Inasa looked up at the young man who had led them here, and told his story. Unfortunately the words of the other students did nothing to quell the hate inside his heart. Yoarashi just could not believe that the Todorokis could change, even with everything that he'd been through.
Back with UA though, Shindo had joined them and was explaining his quirk. "I can create vibrations in anything I touch, but there's some serious backlash, sometimes I can even temporarily paralyze myself."
"Can you sense vibrations? Like say underground heartbeats or knocking?" Izuku asked. "How strong can they be before you're paralyzed? Also, do you have any medical training?"
Shindo stared at the younger boy before turning to the other members of 1-A. "Don't worry about it," Yaoyorozu stated. "Izuku's our quirk specialist, it's what makes him a tactical genius. Besides, it helps us know how you can best fit in."
Shindo was a little relieved at that, but mostly confused about the 'fitting in' part. "I can sense vibrations, but not as well as I'd like to, and it takes at least three Tremoring Earths before I'm paralyzed. And everyone gets basic first aid training in second year."
"Good, then you're in our Destruction, Search, Medic and Combat teams," Izuku stated.
"Your what?" Shindo asked in shock. What was this?
"I thought you knew about us?" Momo asked. "We're a team, and we decided the best way to handle rescues was to divide our resources efficiently. For example, I'm the head of the Medic Team, our job is to care for the wounded in any way we can."
"I'm head of the Search Team," Shoji stated. "Our job is to find the victims as quickly as possible, you're only our third member."
"Destruction's my team," Kacchan stated. "We clear an area for the medics, then remove and destroy any rubble possible to recover civilians."
"Combat is a secondary team, but if any villains show up while we're rescuing people, the Combat Team keeps them busy so the other teams can focus on rescue," Izuku stated.
"Other teams?" Shindo asked.
"I run Transport, we take the civilians from the disaster to the Medic Team," Uraraka explained.
"Reinforcement's mine," Kirishima stated. "We find the areas that hold everything together and make sure they stay standing or hold them up ourselves. Almost everyone has multiple roles so they can shift between what's needed at the time."
Shindo stared at 1-A in shock. No one had ever come up with a system like that before. Even the pros basically did as they saw fit during rescues, doing what they could with little to no organization. "Wait, who's only got one job?"
"That would be me," Momo stated. "Since I can create anything we need, I stay with the Medics so I only use my quirk for supplies: bandages, splints, simple medicines, things like that. More than half the class has some basic training in first aid, so if they're not needed, they can help with that." With that, they started going over their usual plans with Shindo and preparing for the rescue test.
Shortly after their plans were finalized, the HPSC caught everyone's attention and destroyed the testing area while the HUC members were put in place. Valiant's first job was to fly up and pick a central location for Team M, and as soon as he landed there, Ground Zero and Pinky cleared the area of debris while Creati started setting up the area. As each pseudo-civilian was found, the first thing they heard was "Don't worry, you're safe now because we are here!" No matter whether they found one or a dozen people, the Overcomers treated each of them individually, and with more care and respect than HUC had come to expect from hero students. As such, Sera Michi, Nakazawa Takara and Furinji Hana (the three HUC members with the most experience,) got together in private to discuss things. Eventually they came to a decision, and Nakazawa sent a message to the rest of the group: make things as difficult as possible for the Overcomers. Nagao Sora and Katayama Takao, two other experienced testers who hadn't been rescued at the time were also stunned by how 1-A handled things, as even when some of them attacked the heroes or refused to drop their defensive quirks due to 'trauma,' the kids were still as kind and helpful as one could dream. Even more, every last one of them had a kind smile on their face. Not an All Might smile, but one that felt more … genuine, as if they truly cared about each and every one of them. As such, they made an unprecedented decision.
Mera on the other hand decided that it was time for things to get interesting and sent his own message. Instantly, there was an explosion near where the other schools had set up their own medic station, and Gang Orca as well as his army of sidekicks started attacking. "Tailman, pull back and help the others evacuate the other station. Combat squad, you're with me, let's take out these villains," Valiant ordered over their radios. Grand, aka Shindo was first on the scene, followed quickly by Shoto and then Gale Force, aka Yoarashi. Grand and Shoto started well, but from Valiant's bird's eye view, he could tell that Gale Force was nothing but trouble.
The minute he showed up, he immediately released the entire Gang in an attempt at attacking Orca. Shoto launched another ice attack, but once again, the wind released the Gang. The dual-haired boy considered using his stronger ice, but he knew that would only harm the professionals, so he decided against that. "Listen, I'm going to use my fire now, Gang Orca can destroy my ice," he called out, knowing that the other boy could hear him. With that, Shoto unleashed his fire, only for Yoarashi to immediately unleash his wind, utterly confusing the Gang. Shoto tried announcing his attack again, but the boy once again ignored him and scattered his fire.
Yoarashi would not, could not allow the son of Endeavor to pass, so he kept ignoring the other boy and sent his winds whenever he pleased … until he felt a tap at his shoulder. He turned, and was shocked to see Valiant of all people there in the air with him. "I warned you, either deal with your problems, or I would deal with you. So, you only have yourself to blame for this." With that, Valiant grabbed him by the cape and started spinning him around as fast as he could before launching the wind user at Gang Orca. The teen was so dizzy that he couldn't recover, while the number 10 hero wasn't expecting a person to be thrown at him, so he took the full force of the attack. In his booth, Mera was grinning like a loon. Here he'd been worried about Valiant's run, and the kid just granted the perfect opportunity to sabotage his test! Just to be safe though, he signaled Midoriya's scorer to give him an extra high demerit for the unheroic conduct. There was no way he was passing now!
Down on the ground, Valiant was talking to Shoto. "I knew he had a grudge, but I didn't think he'd go so far as to actually sabotage you. What's his problem?"
"You're asking the wrong version of me, Izuku," Shoto answered. Then he noticed something and he warned his friend. "Orca's getting back up, I'm going to pull my ultimate move." For the first time in this life, Izuku was just a little afraid of Shoto, as the other boy had developed only one ultimate move beyond his awakened abilities. Sure enough, the temperature in the area started dropping and one by one, the Gang started to freeze to the ground once again. Gang Orca on the other hand just ignored the temperature and kept moving, seeing as how he was resistant to the cold. The hero even taunted Shoto, but the bi-colored teen just kept dropping the temperature more. Finally, when the hero was a mere twenty feet away, Shoto called out "Flashfreeze Heatwave!" and activated his fire as hot as he could. Orca's eyes went wide in shock, finally realizing what the boy was doing … far too late. The phreatic explosion was utterly devastating, yet when the smoke cleared, Gang Orca was still standing and moving forwards.
"What's wrong, haven't you finished things off yet, idiots?" Bakugou asked. Then he really took in the situation, walked up to Gang Orca and let off a small explosion, one that was honestly comparable to what he'd used on Izuku's notebook more than eighteen months earlier. Even so, that tiny explosion was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Gang Orca collapsed. At the same times, the last member of HUC was rescued, ending the exam.
Mera described how the scoring system worked and was about to announce the scores when Nakazawa Takara stood up. "While it's rare for us to say anything at these tests, today is one of those days. Some of us have worked for HUC for decades, and we have seen many would-be heroes pass through here. However, while some worked together, we have never seen such fantastic, effective, caring teamwork as we saw today from the Overcomers. As such, we are doing something unprecedented: we are giving each member of the Overcomers an extra 50 points towards their score!" 1-A cheered at that, while Mera gave a cry of pain and rage. How?! How could his perfect plan have been ruined so completely? 75 points should have easily been enough to keep the brat from passing!
In the aftermath of the licenses being passed out though, there was one thing that caught everyone's eyes. "Dude, why'd you change your hero name?" Kirishima asked.
"Because I want to honor All Might, and I may have lost my arm, but I'm still an explosive user. From now on, I'm Dynamight," Bakugou explained.
Izuku smiled at what he had overheard as he added Shindo's number to the Overcomers' group chat, while telling him about their one rule: a message that's only coordinates was an SOS and should be responded to as quickly as possible. The older boy promised to do so if at all possible before heading off with Ms. Joke. Izuku liked the boy, but his warning combined with Mera's scream earlier made him worried. What did the HSPC have against him? When he'd looked at his personal test results, the man had taken 75 points away from him for 'unheroic behavior,' yet it also only listed one infraction: throwing Yoarashi at Gang Orca. That was as clear evidence of bias as possible, so why? Interestingly, that also resulted in him getting a mere 75 points on the test, the lowest score of anyone in UA.
Then, right before UA was scheduled to leave, Mora showed up and apologized for Yoarashi. "I'm truly sorry, but it appears that Stain has had more of an influence than I had suspected. First Shishikura's test during the battle exam, now Yoarashi. He believes that heroes need passion, and as such despises Endeavor with his whole heart and believes that young Todoroki is just as bad, despite only briefly speaking to him at the UA entrance exam. I shall endeavor to change his mind before he takes the retest."
One week later, Aizawa called in the Big Three to get them to talk about the Work Studies Program, and by the time Mirio tried introducing himself with a joke, Izuku just had to start laughing. "You liked my joke?" Mirio asked with a smile.
"No, it's just that the three of you are so awkward! I didn't think anyone could be more awkward with public speaking than Shoto or Koda are!" Amajiki couldn't have possibly felt more awkward, so he wasn't affected, but Mirio and Nejire were shocked at Izuku's brazenness.
"Right, well, you're kind of right about that," Mirio agreed. "That's why I was supposed to do the talking, but I think I have a better idea. How about I show you how much work studies can help? I'm going to fight all of you on my own!" The response was not at all what Togata Mirio expected. Instead of looking overconfident or terrified, the entire class looked excited … except for one group. The Baku-squad all wore matching grins that were positively feral in nature. Mirio was actually getting a little nervous, not that he showed it though.
Once they were in Gym Gamma, Amajiki tried to talk Mirio out of it, suggesting that he could break some of them. "If you think any of us will break, you're dead wrong," Bakugou growled out. "Are you guys ready?"
"Hell yeah!" Class A called back.
Then, much to Mirio's shock, everyone scattered, spreading out enough that there was no way he'd be able to take out more than one person at a time. Midoriya, the pink girl and the electric blond had all charged up in some way, and the entire class looked ready for a fight. "Well, this should be interesting," he said with a smile. Right, first things first, he had to take out the long-distance fighters, starting with the sound girl. He lost his clothes, and fortunately fell into the ground at the same time (he was still working on doing that right the first time,) then raised himself back up behind the girl … but she was prepared and fired a burst of sound at him without even looking at him!
Okay, that was different. How about bird-boy? Nope, the shadow had become a kind of armor, and he couldn't phase through it! "Abyssal Armor!" Okay, how about Mr. Nice Try? Well, he managed to hit him, but the guy stood back up! A second hit took him down though. Laser boy and frog girl went down, but when he tried to hit the pink girl that Nejire had been so fascinated with, his hand burned! "Acid Man!" Wait, did she coat herself in her own acid?! So cool! Next was Ponytail, but she was able to quickly create some armor! Arms tanked three hits but fell after the fourth, and Electric boy … had covered himself in his electricity, meaning that Mirio got shocked for his attempt! "How do you like my Stun Shield?"
Aizawa stared in shock. His students were good, he knew that, but this was something else. Up until now, he had considered Togata Mirio to be the person closest to earning the title of Number One Hero, and here four of his students had kept him at bay! Ojiro only fell after taking three hits from Mirio, Uraraka almost touched him, but fell after two hits, with Iida taking the same. Koda and Hagakure fell after one hit and Sato took three, leaving only Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugou and Kirishima untested.
"Are you ready, Tintin?" Bakugou demanded.
"Tintin?" Mirio asked in shock. "Oh, right, you're Explodo-boy with all the nicknames! You'll be fun!" Mirio then dropped into the ground so he could appear directly below the delinquent, deactivating his quirk on his upraised arm. This kid could use getting knocked down a peg or two. But the second his arm was above the ground, blondie was blasting it! Worse, Todoroki had sent a wave of fire and ice at him, keeping most of his body inside it and the ice forced him to fly even higher! Once he was clear of the ice, Midoriya was waiting for him, just floating in midair! Since when could he do that?! His shock was so great, that Midoriya was able to kick him in the chest, sending him flying to the ground.
Amajiki and Nejire stared in shock. Mirio had been untouchable in fights for a year now, ever since he'd started his work study. To think that a handful of firsties could defeat him was unthinkable! "Wow, that was incredible! Just how did you get so good?" Every last person pointed to Midoriya and started talking about how much he pushed them, even more so than their teachers. "Well, imagine that, but more so in a work study." With that, Mirio went into how his quirk worked, how his own work study helped him master them and the difference between that and the internships they had passed through.