I honestly have little to say today, except I hope you enjoy the revamped battle trial. This was designed to be different from canon and introduce several new concepts for this story.


My Hero Academia Untold: The Fafnir Knight (Remastered Edition)

Saga I: Dusk

Arc II: The Incident

Chapter XVI: A Trial by fire. Part 1


"A good leader takes a bit more than his fair share of blame, a little less than his share of credit."

-Arnold H. Glasow


Yū was sitting in the living room of her aunt's house channel surfing the TV while scrolling on her phone for anything interesting. Just taking a day off to recover from a string of incidents last week. Now they were nothing major save for when a billboard landed on her back when a prankster decided to become a villain who reasoned that flattening civilians would be great for a debut. But for now, she was simply taking it easy as she kept scrolling down her phone feed though primarily through social media.

Until she found an interesting news report on the apparent return of the Hero-Killer Stain.

"Ah damn it, he's back with another victim." The report, however, added a strange twist as she read on. Now, typically, Stain attacked any lone Pros without leaving anything but the bleeding bodies. Still, now he had apparently left a message on the guy's corpse.

False Heroes are scum, but false Heroes who prey on civilians are worse than scum.

"Pro-Hero...Marx." She read aloud the victim's hero identity. Yū knew about the guy, primarily by reputation due to the man having several cases of sexual assault levied against him once upon a time. But it was never proven, with charges often dropping due to either lack of evidence or the accuser recanting.

Although, Yū did have the misfortune of meeting him once at a charity for sick children of all places a few weeks ago. Marx definitely had an air of being some kind of sleazebag which was proven true as he hit on several women at a fucking charity for sick kids. Although she will admit that Marx was a funny guy, he had nothing on Ms. Joke in terms of cases solved and popularity.

So it was definitely a mixed bag for Yū to think on. On the one hand, Marx was innocent until proven guilty* in the eyes of the law. But on the other hand, many saw him as a criminal who used the title Hero to escape justice.

And it looks like Stain ultimately did too.

Now, as a Pro-Hero, and therefore a possible target, Yū wasn't a fan of Stain, even if she could understand a bit of his philosophy on Heroes. However, in her opinion, it seemed like Stain only saw things in black and white rather than gray like most people in life did. There were very few people in the world that could genuinely be called pure good or evil.


"Are you sure you got this, Uraraka?" Kashiko asked nervously as Ochako and Rikidou finished up tying the rope around her waist, all while still getting used to the feeling of her blue-gray skintight suit.

"I'm like…eighty percent sure I got this," Ochako joked while trying to encourage her classmate.

"I don't like the fact there is a twenty percent chance that this can go wrong..." Kashiko frowned as she tentatively looked over the roof's edge to the street below them. She couldn't help but gulp at the dizzying drop below her.

"I'm gonna make you float," Ochako casually replied. As she gave the rope a few more tightening tugs.

"While Satou here will make sure you don't just float away," Ochako gave a thumbs up to the big-lipped musclehead.

"It was a pretty good loophole that Midoriya found, and with the gear, you have on, you should be able to see where everything is right?" Rikidou added as he popped a quick sugar pill to get ready to begin his part of the operation.

"Yeah..." Kashiko sighed, resigning herself to fate before adding.

"Just give me a moment" Kashiko took a slow deep breath as she stepped up to the edge of the roof. Now she wasn't scared of heights per se. Still, she believed it was reasonable to be wary when one basically agrees to do reverse bungee jumping. "Phew...Okay, I'm ready."

"Have a good trip!" Ochako chirped before pressing her fingers on Kashiko's arms, making the human kite briefly glow pink and slowly rise from the rooftop edge.

Kashiko instantly felt weightless and kicked off the roof with Rikidou holding on to the rope letting it slack bit by bit, allowing her to let gain altitude slowly. When Kashiko reached the end of the rope, she couldn't help but admit that the view was stunning from where she was as the sunlight gleamed just right from the nearby glass buildings. Not to mention she could see most of Site Gamma with ease.

But now, she had to play her part.

Using the visor that the Support Department had made. Her eyes began to glow as they started to scan around the area, the red visor automatically zooming, adjusting, and tagging anything of note.

"Hello there," She said to herself with a sly smile as she spotted what appeared to be one of the "villains" that was upon the rooftop. She fiddled with the wrist-mounted gear and started sending some of the data she had collected to the team below. "Looks like Midoriya was right on the money."

"Thanks for the data Sekigai. With this, I got a good plan forming up. Let me know if anything else changes." Izuku's voice spoke up from her earpiece, "I'm sending over a team to the rooftop, and I'll leave it to you to direct them from there."

"Understood, Midoriya."


All Might had left his students to join the special observation room for teachers where Eraserhead was currently waiting. To say that he was displeased with the exercise the veteran teacher had set up was an understatement. This training exercise was nothing beyond what was possible for a hero course class…in their third year, but it most certainly was not for the first years.

However, there was something about the team compositions that bothered him. The baggy-eyed man must have known with the way Team One had been set up and the troubles it could cause. He needed to speak with the man, having only recently learned about Eraserhead's prior history as a homeroom teacher. All Might suspected that Nezu knew that big shake-ups were expected under his department leadership, but this was too far in his eyes.

"Aizawa," All Might said as he entered the room, popping back into his skinny form. Shouta Aizawa simply sat there at the monitors observing the class, the villains, and the site on the various monitors, all while wearing that ridiculous sleeping bag of his.

"All Might." He replied casually as though nothing was wrong.

"You have a lot of nerve in designing this practice and the creation of this semester's teams!"

"Not the "teams" since you are only referring to one team in particular...Team One."

"So you did do it on purpose...Aizawa, that is just cruel."

"This exercise is meant to break down some of the issues I can already foresee with this year's group." The baggy-eyed man then pointed to a different screen with each following word.

"Overconfidence, recklessness, and overachievers that are bound to be full of themselves," Aizawa then turned back to All Might. "I am hoping to quell some of those issues early with a seemingly impossible exercise. Now, as for the student formation of Team One."

Aizawa then pointed to a screen with said students. "If the students in question, particularly those who lost family during the Draco Knight incident. Discover the truth about Midoriya and cannot find themselves working together afterward. They shouldn't be here to become heroes."

All Might was left stunned by his fellow educator. Things have certainly changed since he had attended UA himself, especially since this was his first time as an educator and, therefore, Eraserhead's junior in this case. In the end, All Might resigned himself to see if the man's method proved fruitful. This trial was designed so that, in the end, the students will surely suffer a failure no matter what happens.

"At least tell me, once this is done, that we will be doing more basic hero coursework that is suitable for their year group."

"We will be; this test is to simply make sure that they understand where they are now and what the students can become if and when they become third years," Aizawa gave a rare chuckle.

"But it looks like they have made up their minds, and the first formation is off to a good start," Eraserhead finished as he glanced upon the monitor with a small grin on his face. "They are proving themselves to be clever thus far."

All Might looked up, and he couldn't help but smile when he saw who was on the Operator's desk.

'It is time to prove yourself, my young successor.'


Katsuki and three of his teammates were beginning their walk toward their primary target. If Izuku had correctly deduced which building had the bomb based on logistics and the gathered intelligence thanks to the combined scouting efforts of Ochako and Kashiko. Then Katsuki's team already had a solid leg up.

Katsuki knew he made the right choice in nominating Izuku for the Operator's position. But, he still couldn't help but laugh when he saw the looks on almost everyone's faces save for Ochako's; when Izuku pulled out his quirk notebook. Which only helped his case in convincing everyone that he was the right man for the job.

While this makeshift strike force was heading toward the main objective, four other students were sent to find the hostages and the villain's scout. Though, at the very least, they did have a solid idea of where they all were. Denki had been sent to go after the rooftop scout, while a duo composed of Tōru and Ryu was sent to find and rescue one of the hostages. Meanwhile, the fourth member, Kyouka, would be busy scouting for the other hostage.

Even with all of these factors so far in their favor, Katsuki couldn't help but be on edge. It had been all too easy to set up, and yet the trial itself still seemed excessive for a first-class. Now, while Katsuki loved the thrill of a huge challenge being thrown his way. He also knew to think about the lesson as a test for the class and not just himself. His instincts kept telling him there was something more to this trial, something they weren't seeing.

"Hey Bakugou, you alright there, buddy?" Eijirou spoke up, trying to fill the silence and get some word from their self-appointed strike force leader.

He was met with a quick grunt.

"Quiet down and pay attention. Tape arms; what do you got on the map?" Katsuki snapped out.

Hanta, who had his PDA device out, serving as the team's resident map man, sighed. "Nothing important yet; we still got at least a good six-hundred meters before we get there."

Unknown to the team, they were currently being spied on by the villain's scout from one of the rooftops.

"Blink, we got a team inbound heading right toward Lemillion's location," said Mezou Shouji aka "Tentacole," the fourth-ranked member among the Big Five, to his earpiece.

"Distance?" His teammate responded quietly.

"Just above half a click."

"Understood, got eyes on the one with the map?"

"It's the tall one with the black and white costume."

"Thanks, Tentacole, decoy inbound. I'll be taking him out first."

Tentacole was about to confirm when one of his ear pods set behind him could hear someone climbing the side of the building he was standing on. A possible attempt to ambush him from behind.

'Clever,' He thought to himself. "Understood, be careful, Blink, as I seem to have company as well."

"Have fun, Tentacole. Knock 'em dead! Hahaha!"

Tentacole slid out and hid near the staircase to the rooftop as he saw a shock of yellow hair coming up the side of the roof.


Izuku sat in the Operator's chair with Momo at the side, serving as his backup Operator. She had been one of the two primary candidates for the job until Katsuki came into the picture and broke down why Izuku should man the chair.

Now, she had her doubts until she saw Izuku's quick change in demeanor and was impressed. Especially as he sat down and began thinking of a plan combined with some brilliant discoveries of finding and using some of the loopholes within the rules to try and use at least one person from each team out on the field.

For example, he had Shouto make an ice bridge for the second team. Yet, he did without having to leave the bounds of the building meant they were always using more people than the allotted eight at a time.

All while still playing by the rules.

And yet, Izuku was still entirely open to input which made him easy to work with, which Momo could appreciate readily. Like when she suggested that Kyouka's Quirk would be the best to scout buildings from the outside. While Katsuki and the remainder of his team left the building at the ground level to catch the enemy team's attention. Tenya served as the team's medic while everyone else was on standby. However, he lent some extra help by watching the different monitors featuring footage from the cameras throughout site Gamma.

Everyone had been given mini high definition cameras wear and provide an individual first-person perspective.

Izuku was still mulling over the details, but his expression spoke volumes to Momo, and she could feel that something was off as well. It was odd for first-years to tackle such a training exercise on the first day, even for the elite students expected from UA. Something about this test just didn't add up in her head.

"Damn it!" She heard Izuku shout out, making her jump out of her ponderings.

She could see Izuku rapidly switch off the coms.

"Iida! Stand by! Get ready to move out and take Mineta with you."

"Right!" Tenya called out as he put on his helmet and proceeded to grab Minoru by his cape.

"Wait, what?!" The short boy squeaked as he struggled with Tenya's iron grip.

"Wait, what happened?" Momo said upon collecting herself, looking at the various monitors trying to see what went wrong, until Izuku pointed it out.

"Looks like the villains finally appeared. It is either a decoy or first line of defense; either way, Sero is down." Izuku said firmly as he saw Hanta's camera perspective facing skyward with a worried Mina looking him over.

"Why Mineta?" Momo asked, given the short boy's demeanor as Tenya blasted out of the room with Minoru's scream following shortly.

"WAAAAAAAAA!"

"If the villain is a decoy, it will be better to capture him," Izuku explained as he showed her his new notes. "Sero was the team's capture specialist," He looked up to Momo. "Mineta and his quirk would be the next best bet without using an ace like Todoroki. Since we may need him to make another ice bridge from our rooftop in case another one of the teams gets taken down."


-Few minutes prior.

Katsuki and company continued to their destination with Eijirou chatting away to build up team bonding because it was "manly," getting laughs from Mina and Hanta. Even Katsuki couldn't help but have a shadow of a smirk on his face.

The explosive blond would have to deal with them for now since this was his squad.

"Hey, what was that?" Katsuki heard Mina say, making him freeze while a flash of blue suddenly shone from a distance.

"What was what, Ashi-hmm!" Hanta asked from looking up the PDA before he was violently knocked flat on his back, dropping the PDA and slamming hard against the ground.

A blur flew right past most of the team, before slamming into Hanta's body with its force-velocity shooting out to the back of one of the other buildings. The three were momentarily stunned by what had just happened before they sprang into action. Mina quickly began checking over Hanta while Eijirou and Katsuki covered the two of them. Eijirou hardened his body while Katsuki began popping small explosions on his hands in a threatening manner while building up his body heat to sweat more.

"EYES OPEN!" Katsuki ordered out, looking for the culprit.

"Oho! I got him good!" They all heard a mocking voice say. A figure appeared from the corner of the nearest building, behind where Hanta was now lying. He was not much taller than Katsuki and wore a gray-white hooded robe and a plain bone-white mask of comedy.

"Son of bitch..." Katsuki growled at his opponent's audacity.

"Careful, Kacchan! He most likely has a speed-based quirk." Said Izuku's cautious voice in their earpieces.

"Hey Midori, Sero is out cold," Mina whispered back as she finished checking over Hanta's vitals.

"Understood. I've already sent Iida to pick him up and drop off Mineta."

"The kid with grapes on his head?!" Katsuki questioned Izuku's logic in sending the kid with sticky hair instead of someone more powerful.

"Uh, grapes on who's head?" The white-robed "villain" asked, puzzled by the wording. Eijirou, however, had a different plan. Thinking his opponent was distracted, the spiky redhead lunged at his opponent. Unfortunately for him, the "villain" disappeared with a laugh before reappearing on the other side of the street.

"Aha! Nice! But I won't be caught off guard that easily! The name's Blink!" The faux villain introduced himself with a flamboyant showman bow.

"I'm afraid you're not good enough to catch me!" He continued to mock the redhead as he wiped a nonexistent tear.

"Speak for yourself!" Katsuki roared again, blasting toward his foe. However, Blink simply disappeared again before Katsuki could reach him.

"WOOO! We got a spicy one here, folks HAHAHAHA!" Blink japed when he reappeared right above Katsuki, his leg striking at the blond's head with a swift ax kick. Katsuki managed to raise his right arm just in time to block the incoming attack, his grenade-shaped gauntlet absorbing most of the impact while he prepped his left hand for a blast.

"Easy, spice boy!" Blink called out once, seeing Katsuki's move coming and blurred to the ground directly under him on all fours aiming a kick to his stomach.

"I've gotcha covered, Bakugou!" Mina yelled out as she came sliding to Katsuki's side, flinging acid at their opponent and successfully managing to get some on him.

"Oh crap!" Blink yelled out, being forced to roll back as his costume could be seen smoking as parts of it melted and sizzled. "Ow ow! SHIT! That stings!"

Blink was quickly forced to remove his ruined robe and mask with one swift fluid motion that got him back up to his feet. He was thankful that the acid didn't eat further than it did, even if it did leave him with some mild skin burns visible on his face.

Blink didn't have much of a costume without his robe and mask on, as all he wore under it was a simple gray bodysuit with a gray puffy vest and black cloth rings around all his joints. It was accompanied by armored padding around his forearms and shins, complemented by his heavy-duty gray boots.

His face was sharp and with the round eyes of a foreigner though a bit on the plain side, save for a small beauty mark under the left of his lip. He had shortm shaggy brown hair and bright blue eyes that almost seemed to glow. His face sported a nervous grin as he slowly began to edge his way to the corner, making sure all the first years remained within his line of sight.

"Kacchan! I think I got something!" Izuku's voice suddenly spoke out to the team as they could hear pages of his notebook flipping.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"From last year's Sports Festival. He lost in the top eight but made a good impression on the crowd, getting him promoted to the Hero Course: Alexander Springfield! He's from the US!"

"To hell with that! Tell me what you got on his quirk!"

"From what I got, he can jump distances that are within his eyesight, I can't tell you the exact range, but it can't be too far."

"Ahh, damn it," They heard Alex curse out. "Backup already?"

The team could hear a rumble and what sounded like a jet engine speeding towards them.

"WAAAH! SLOW DOWN, IIDA, PLEASE! I AM GONNA PEE MYSELF!" They could hear the pleas of Minoru as he hung for dear life on Tenya's armor as the mecha-looking teen ran towards the team.

"We have arrived! I am here to recover Sero, and drop off Mineta!" Tenya called out as he stopped next to the unconscious Hanta, much to the stunned silence of everyone else. Save for Minoru, who had to almost literally had peel himself off of Tenya, holding on to his chest like the poor boy was about to have a heart attack.

"N-n-n-n-n-ne-ne-never aga-a-a-ain...Mi-mi-midoriya..." Minoru swore as he took shaky deep breaths to calm himself.

"Thank you for taking care of Sero!" Tenya continued as he picked up the limp body of Hanta, completely ignoring the breathless foreigner.

"I must return now and make sure he gets proper treatment!" And with that, Tenya suddenly turned heel and burst into his sprint back to the base, leaving everyone simply standing there.

"Well...that was something," Eijirou said with a slight smirk.

"Yeah, at least Sero should be good." Mina sighed with some relief.

"FOCUS GODDAMN IT! WE GOT THIS ASSHOLE TO BE-" Katsuki roared at his teammates before turning to his opponent.

Only to see that he was already gone

"OH, MOTHER FUCKER!"

Alex had returned to hiding around one of the corners of the buildings nearby, quickly giving his leader a status report. He was far more vulnerable without his mask. With an increased chance of getting debris in his eyes, to making his Quirk's tells much more apparent, he knew that this now required a change in his tactics. Going for a more hit-and-run approach would be the better play now. Yet, it was still risky even then, especially with the first years proving themselves to be more adept than the American had initially thought.

"Alright," Alex sighed as his thoughts turned to the rest of his teammates. "Time for round goddamn two."


Nejire sat nearby her hostage while having a completely one-sided conversation which mostly amounted to several questions about Reiko herself. While the girl under questioning was mentally pleading for the torture to end. Coming down from the roof of her building was one Tōru and one Ryu trying to be as silent as possible. Their third member, Kyouka, had successfully discovered the hostage in this building, letting the duo go here.

In contrast, she went ahead and scouted ahead for the second hostage. Izuku had devised a simple plan for them, Ryu would launch the initial attack to try and lure the villain out of the room. At the same time, Tōru, depending on the situation, would either go for a sneak attack or extract the hostage.

If Ryu got their attention successfully.

When the two arrived at the door, they could hear Nejire continuously chatting away at the hostage's ears. Ryu motioned to Tōru to get on the opposite side of the door to break in.

"Okay, Hagakure, you ready?" Ryu whispered to the invisible girl.

"Yep, no problem Kasei. I just got to quickly do this." She said as she took off the remainder of her costume. "Don't peek, please~!"

"Uhhh...riiight." Ryu sighed, shaking his head with some annoyance as he looked away. He quietly cleared his throat before taking a deep breath to a fire blast for his opponent. 'There's nothing to even see!'


Tamaki was bored as he sat with his hostage sharing some small snacks with the tied-up brainwasher. He still felt that this exercise was really excessive for many first-years to even try out, even as he knew that there had to be some reason for it.

Especially with Eraserhead being in charge of the exercise, the chimera boy knew better than questioning the man about anything lest you suffer his wrath. Tamaki continued to think while he munched on his jerky snacks to refresh his quirk, unaware that Kyouka Jirou was closing in on his location. Her quirk made it easy to find them, quickly noting the room, floor, and door the two were in.

"Hey boss, I found the other hostage." She whispered to her earpiece.

"Good work Jirou. Kasei and Hagakure have confirmed their targets as well," She heard the voice of Momo say. "Stand by; we will be sending back up your way soon." Kyouka was surprised she didn't hear Izuku speak to her instead. However, Momo was the backup operator to this merry band for a reason.

"Right on." She whispered while keeping an ear jack affixed to the wall since she knew that she needed to play the waiting game now.

The rest of the class who remained on standby watched their classmates' various feeds on the field with great anticipation. Some were envious that they were not the first ones out there. Others were nervous about when they would be called up or if they would even be needed to be called up at all.

However, Tenya Iida had just managed to return from the field and get Hanta to a proper medical cot with robots that would take him to Recovery Girl. He was more than a bit frustrated with being placed in his current position as the team's 'medic.' Still, he understood why he was placed in this vital role.

As Mei would often say, "Teni is basically a walking tank with an F1 Engine."

His armor, inspired by his family line of heroes, gave him a solid defense, and combined with his build and speed; he could get people to and from danger with little effort. Since Izuku discovered that a teammate is no longer considered out on the field if they have been rendered unconscious. Allowing a replacement to be sent out once they are confirmed to be out of play.

Tenya, however, felt like he could do more, and with the legacy he had to live up to, he had a thirst to prove himself. Overshadowed by his brother and his in-laws, Tenya wished to be nothing more than an equal to those he felt were much more significant than him.

Yet he now realized that there was far more than just his family; his classmates counted amongst the competition as well.

Looking at Izuku and Momo, who were both still in the operator's panel. He could see some of the things he lacked in comparison. Tensei had the charms and the wit despite his version of the Engine quirk not being the strongest, he made due.

On the opposite end of the room stood Shouto with none of the traditional charms. But had both the intelligence and raw power in spades. Then you have those like Katsuki, who had his own unique charm, which he so clearly displayed as he showed his prowess as both a fighter and leader on the monitors. He and his team continued to fight Blink, ranked fifth among The Big Five.

Tenya could almost feel the gap growing, and he hated it.

He hated feeling this way despite knowing it was un-heroic to handle this kind of envy, and he knew that everyone always had a part to play in the grand scheme of things. Which is something his brother had always tried to instill in him. There are the parts one wants to play, and then there are the parts one must play even if they hate the role because that is the thing about life. It deals the cards, and sometimes all you can do is play them to the best of your ability. Tenya would serve as the medic for now, and hopefully, there would be able to do something more substantial soon.


Denki was on the rooftop, confused about where his target was supposed to be. He was hoping to show off his skills to some of the cute girls in his class while mildly geeking out over the wrist-mounted Hookshot that the support team had made for him. It was simple to use and operated on his powers, add in the sweet collapsible baton that could double as a stun rod when charged up with his quirk. The boy felt almost unstoppable.

Almost.

He looked around with baton on hand, just in case, before tapping on his earpiece when he found the place completely deserted.

"Heya Midorya, where's this guy supposed to be?"

"Hold on one moment, please..." Izuku answered.

A brief pause with a few beeps before a new voice came to Denki's ears.

"Kaminari it's Sekigai."

Denki grinned a bit, remembering Kashiko's rather form-fitting costume in his mind's eye. 'She's definitely a hottie to keep an eye on.'

"Did you copy that Kaminari?'

Unfortunately for Denki, his imagination got the better of him. Kashiko happened to have been speaking in a low voice, and thus the electric blond didn't hear her warning.

Unknown to Denki, his opponent was silently making his way to position himself for an ambush.

"Kaminari? Kaminari? Are you listening to me? Kaminari?!"

"Uh...yeah, totally copied that!" Denki said, his head still thinking of his attractive classmate.

"Above you!"

Her yell finally shook him out of his thoughts, "Wait, what? Gah!" Denki questioned before being tackled and held down by Tentacole. He managed to pull out Denki's stun rod from his hand with one of his many limbs and made the Hookshot face away from both of them for their own safety.

"You should always pay close attention, my young friend. And always keep an eye out on your surroundings," Tentacole said quietly while making one of his arm pods form an extra eye as he pinned Denki to the ground.

"Ha..."Denki groaned out, trying to laugh at the rather awful pun.


Izuku's eyes were scanning every single screen, his pupils almost appearing like blurs as he jotted down each additional note from his observations. All while muttering to himself with every minute adjustment to his plans he needed to do in real-time. Momo, however, continued communications between their classmates and added her own comments to Izuku when prompted.

"Midoriya! Kasei and Hagakure have breached the first hostage room!"

"And according to Sekigai, Kaminari seems to be down as well. But we think he might still be conscious, though," Izuku answered when he checked his status before speaking to the mic.

"Kaminari, if you can hear me, do not respond. I know that you can get out of this, but try and keep the scout distracted at least until we can capture the decoy that is still keeping Kacchan's team on their toes." He said, finishing up before slumping back into his seat with a pondering expression on his face.

"What is our next move Midoriya?" Momo asked with interest about what the greenette had next up his sleeve.

Izuku paused for one moment as he closed his eyes. Despite the feeling of being rushed, Izuku tried to think carefully about what his next move should be. Everything they had seen and done so far, while not perfect, was coming along well.

And there lay the problem.

'It's too easy...way too easy, especially for something this advanced!' He thought as everything about the trial just felt utterly wrong to him.

"Have the rooftop team come down except for Todoroki...and Yaoyorozu?" Izuku paused, turning his head to look at his backup Operator.

"Yes, Midoriya?" Momo answered; turning to face him, she saw a fresh face of determination on him.

"We're switching places; I want you to be the main operator now." Izuku requested firmly as he stood up from his seat.

"Oh?" Momo responded, genuinely surprised by his request. "Not that I'm not ready to lead myself, but I have to ask...why?"

"I have these notes here for you, including a few backup plans," Izuku started off by grabbing the notebook and offering it to Momo before pausing. "As for why…I just have this feeling that something bad is going to happen, and if it does, I might have to go out there. Either way, I'd like to leave the team in good hands."

Momo nodded with confidence, appreciating Izuku's kind comments towards her.

"So you do plan to head out yourself then?"

Izuku answered without skipping a beat. "If something terrible happens, then yes."

"Understood if that is the case," Momo stood up to take Izuku's notes before they switched seats. Once settled, Momo took a deep breath as she began flipping the console for their communications.

"This is Momo Yaoyorozu, taking over as the Operator for this mission," Momo spoke into the microphone as firmly as she could. All throughout the site Gamma: whether inside or outside; fighting or on standby; hero or villain; Momo's voice rang out. "Midoriya will now be my backup Operator as well as being listed on standby. The rooftop team, except for Todoroki, please come down. Get ready to execute the follow-up plans we briefed you on earlier."

"Remember our motto, everyone!"

Upon hearing the commanding voice of Momo's confidence clear and firm, all of Class 1-A could feel a spark drive them further in the trial. Those in the waiting room felt especially pumped as they cheered out UA's motto.

"RIGHT! Let's give it our all! PLUS ULTRA!"


"Now, this is an interesting development," Eraserhead simply said before pulling another snack pouch from his sleeping bag. "It's rare for anyone to willingly surrender the Operator's chair."

All Might nodded with a slight grin, seeing the change in leadership being handled and adjusted as the situation called for it. "I must admit, Aizawa. They are doing better than I expected."

Eraserhead stirred a bit within the sleeping bag before facing All Might with a terrifying grin. "You say that now All Might, but the moment when one of the big is five is taken down is the moment when things will escalate to the next level."

"Aizawa...Please do not smile like that again...You are scaring me."


"THIS WAY!" Ryu shouted as he pulled Tōru out of the way of one of Nejire's blasts which left a burning crater on her former spot.

"HAHA! You can't keep running~!" They heard Nejire cheerily sing out to them.

Ryu and Tōru knew that fighting a senior student would be difficult. Still, despite her very cheery and almost child-like demeanor, Nejire was a terrifying force of nature. The moment Ryu kicked the door down to breach another room, Nejire was already blasting at Ryu with a full swirling blast of her quirk. It was only thanks to Tōru's reflexes that stopped Ryu from being blasted out of one of the windows behind him.

Unfortunately, this gave Tōru's position away as Nejire slowly walked towards them, firing more bright swirls of energy at and around the two. Kicking up dust and cracking up the walls and floors with each blast. Now the duo was running as hard as they could in the empty maze-like building. To little avail, as Nejire seemed to be right on top of them at almost every turn, blasting when she spotted them every time. She had even managed to hit Tōru with a lucky shot right on the dead center of her naked back.

Perhaps the most damning thing that Nejire managed to do while attacking was start another never-ending stream of questions that she asked as she kept shooting. It was to the point of getting both first years annoyed with their upperclassman. Ryu quickly spat out a burst of fire at his approaching senior to shut her up.

"Fire Breath!" Nejire said as she deftly sidestepped the burst of flame.

"How fun! Do you fight for your friends and never give up?" the blue hair girl giggled. Ryu could swear that was meant to mock him. Her comments also extended to Tōru with stuff like.

"So, can you turn off your invisibility?" There was a blast of energy.

"Do you wear makeup?" A second blast of powerful swirling beam fired. "Can it be hard to do stuff without being able to see your limbs?"

With a surprising amount of speed and deft, Ryu quickly turned around forming a cone around his mouth with his hands, and breathed out a ring of fire onto the floor, temporarily blocking Nejire's sight as smoke kicked up. Using the smokescreen from his fire ring, the two managed to break eyesight with Nejire, making rapid corner turns in the hallway as she took care of the small fire he had caused. They both dived into another one of the empty rooms, sliding up against the wall.

A disheveled Ryu looked over the state of his costume. A plain jet-black jumpsuit with black boots accented with red flames around the edges and a large red fire-proof folding scarf was riddled with holes and tears. Tōru, meanwhile, could almost be made out from all the dust coating her body.

Both were trying not to breathe as heavily despite their lungs protesting to avoid detection.

"Oh? Where did you run off to~?" They heard her sing with a tune of bubbly malice, which promptly made Ryu reevaluate all the various fears in his life at the moment. He turned to face his invisible companion.

"Hey Hagakure, you okay?" Ryu whispered between heavy breaths, being able to make out the thin dust-covered outline of Tōru next to him.

"I want to say yes, but I'm hurting in a lot of places right now...It's kind of cold too." She managed to answer quietly with a shiver. Ryu wanted to call for backup but was worried that doing so could catch Nejire's attention.

He thought of what he could do next when he heard something else that caught his attention. A strange yet, familiar sound that was followed by a faint hint of iron.

Drip drip

Ryu looked around, trying to find the source of the noise before turning back to Tōru and spotting a dark patch on the ground around the area where the invisible girl sat.

"Hagakure...are you bleeding?" Ryu whispered with narrowed eyes, unsure if he saw things correctly.

"Yeah, a bit Kasei..."

"That doesn't seem like "a bit" He hissed with annoyance.

"Sorry..." Tōru said sadly.

'Ah shit.' Ryu thought with a sigh. Spy or not, he didn't mean to sound like a prick.

"It's okay; it can't be helped. But there is one bit of good news..."Ryu just realized as he perked up his ears to try and determine Nejire's position.

"What's wrong?"

"She is still looking for us, meaning the hostage is alone."

"Oh, you're right!"

"Shhh!"

"Sorry."

The two went silent for a moment; they could hear the footsteps of Nejire followed by loud and random blasts getting closer. Nejire was clearly checking every room, her laughter echoing down the hallways, sending shivers down the spines of both students once again.

Ryu took off his scarf, took a quick breath, and breathed into it with his flames, warming it up before handing it to Tōru.

"You can warm up and clean yourself off for a bit and then run toward to hostage...I'll go and take her on," Ryu said with a straight face.

"You know that is pretty dumb, right?" Tōru said bemused as she cleaned herself off with the scarf, appreciating its gesture and warmth. Although the warm scarf did smell a bit like burnt sugar.

"Yep, I am most likely gonna lose, hard," Ryu answered her with a grimace.

"But that isn't the important part; she knows that you're invisible, and it won't be long before she finds out that we split up," he added while cracking his neck. "So it's best if I simply tried to hold out as long as possible and try to buy you as much time for you to get to the hostage."

Tōru looked at the nervous boy before nodding in agreement. After a moment, Ryu had to sheepishly ask a very important question.

"So…was that a yes? Or are you still thinking about it?"


Mirio was having a lot of fun with his own observations of this new first-year class. He was genuinely delighted to see how well they performed despite their lack of experience. Oh, the morale boost of having a solid leader and a solid plan with maybe a dash or two of over-confidence here and there really could do wonders.

Still, the leader of the Big Five couldn't help but feel just a tad bit guilty knowing the harsh lesson this class was about to face. He could already foresee the outcome and tell that Alexander would be reaching his limit soon. And when that happens, the "mission" would have to escalate to the next level. It will keep escalating with any further losses the villains incurred or if any hostages were successfully recovered.

Mirio also knew he couldn't let his team have all the fun because he would soon need to arm the bomb.

But not before he jumps into the fray himself.


Alex was utterly exhausted and was pushing the very limits of his abilities as he continued to dodge the constant quirk barrages the first-years were dishing out. His eyes burned as his vision began to blur from overusing his quirk in such a short time.

'These first years are really proving to be something else!'

"DIE!" Katsuki roared as Alex was forced to dodge yet another blast. Katsuki had proven to be one hell of a tactical field commander and had the wrath to rival Satan. The crazy punk had even used a high-power blast from one of his gauntlets against him earlier. While he had successfully dodged it physically, it mentally shook Alex to the bone when he saw the cratered aftermath on the street and walls behind him.

"I gotcha now!" Eijirou yelled out as he tried to land a successful strike upon his foreign senior. Only for Alex to sidestep and flow along with his charge and direct the redhead's fist into a nearby wall like a matador does to a bull. Avoiding the need to strike him after learning his lesson the first time.

"Damn it!" The red boy screamed as he tried to pull his arm out of the wall he was currently stuck in.

One poor attempt to strike Eijirou was enough to teach Alex that hitting the redhead directly was both an unwise and painful course of action. Alex had hoped that the lad's hardening quirk had reached its limit when he had appeared to have been winded. The fact that the foreigner was quickly proven wrong when his right hand fractured at the bare minimum thanks to his misjudgment of the boy's stamina.

"I'm coming!" Mina piped up as she skillfully slid into the picture with her acid, moving to help Eijirou out of his jam. Out of all of his opponents. Mina was the one that Alex feared the most; her acid attacks made any attempt at close quarters combat against her neigh impossible for him with any of his usual support gear. Especially since her teammates were ready to counter/back her up when he had tried to isolate her.

"I've got you covered!" Minoru yelped out as he kept throwing more sticky balls toward Alex, forcing the senior to jump away from the red and pink duo. The new kid had proven to be way more trouble than Alex had initially expected; he could tell that the balls were clearly meant to be used in his capture. While they were easy to dodge, the kid was laying the area thick of them, reducing Alex's movement speed and safe jump spots. Slowly forcing him to get closer and daring with his strikes and dodges.

Yet, Alex couldn't retreat; the exercise called for do-or-die resistance. Something Alex had always been ready to oblige when needed as he felt himself reach the limits of his quirk.

'Welp, I think it's time for a suicide strike.' Alex thought, knowing he only had two or three good jumps left in him after dodging Katsuki's last blast.

"If I'm going down, then I'll have to take some of you with me!" Alex declared as his eyes glow brighter, making Katsuki tense up.

"BLITZ!" And without warning, Alex just disappeared. Only to reappear right in front of the blond, catching the boy entirely off guard by the sudden change in tactic. Alex had used the speed and momentum from his quirk to perform a long sweeping kick at Katsuki's head with everything he had. Of course, Katsuki quickly blocked the attack but didn't know that Alex's boots had hidden steel toe tips.

CRACK!

"ARGH!"

Alex knew those gauntlets had something to do with that massive explosion from earlier. So he had aimed to break through the blond's gauntlet and let a spark do the rest as a blast engulfed Katsuki in a flash of light before leaving him in a cloud of smoke. The young American didn't waste any time as his special move wouldn't last long.

He blinked again, this time towards Eijirou, who had just been freed by Mina.

Seeing Alex coming, Eijirou forced Mina behind him and re-hardened up his body as he feinted a punch hoping it would cause his senior to back off. Instead, Alex took the full brunt of his strike, all while using the same momentum to grab and twist Eijirou's arm and swing him around, all while roaring out.

"When punches and kicks won't work on an opponent, that's when you need to start grappling them instead!"

Alex swung the redhead over himself and right into Mina, who was in the middle of rushing in to try to save her teammate. The pink girl was knocked out instantly upon slamming to the ground. As the sturdy lad, lay on top of her, too dazed to recover from the onslaught he had just been dealt.

Alex quickly let go of Eijirou, swiftly backing up from the crumbled duo to remain out of reach.

Then the foreigner turned to Minoru, who was the only one left on the team. The grape boy dropped the last sticky ball he had in hand, feeling nothing but fear of the foreign senior. The boy was left trembling, having witnessed what his upperclassman could do despite being pushed to the limit.

Alex had managed to completely turn the tables on them, and Minoru was afraid of being next.

"Phew...that was tiring..." Alex breathed out, taking a moment to catch his breath and wipe his brow. He could take care of Minoru quickly now that he was alone. That lapse in judgment would prove to be Alex's greatest mistake.

"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU SHITHEAD!" Katsuki's voice roared out, blasting forward from the smoke.

Despite the pain, he was in thanks to his bloodied left hand that had once held the gauntlet. Katsuki continued the offensive, using the smoke to wait for an opening. Shooting one blast nearly at point-blank range with his right hand catching Alex entirely off guard.

"GAH!" Alex yelled out in shock from being blasted back.

"HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING, DAMNIT?!" The foreigner tried to use his quirk to make his escape through his nose wrinkled from the sharp smell of burnt sugar that stung his blood-shot eyes even worse.

Alex quickly looked up, trying to target one of the buildings nearby to make his escape from the battle.

Seeing the glow in his eyes and now knowing that was his opponent's tell. Katsuki knew what his foe was about to do and made one last gamble knowing this would make his damaged hand hurt even worse. It was a trick he was saving for an emergency, but knowing Alex's quirk was based on his eyesight.

Katsuki knew this would work as he saw Eijirou slowly getting up.

It had to work.

"STUN GRENADE!" Katsuki roared, moving his hands apart with a bright flash that suddenly appeared with a loud cacophonous BOOM.

"WAIT! WHAT THE FUUUUCCCCKKKK!" Alex roared in pain while he clenched and covered his eyes with tears finally running down his face as the flash of light blinded him. Forcing him to take a step back and get his feet caught in Minoru's sticky balls.

'AH DAMNIT!'

"NOW SHITTY HAIR! FUCK HIM UP!" He heard Katsuki roared out.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Alex heard Eijirou's bloodcurdling roar combined with the sounds of the redhead's pounding footsteps as he charged forward, ready to give his upperclassman hell. What happened next would make every man who witnessed the scene recoil instinctively. Alex, who, between being blinded and hearing Eijirou gunning towards him, could almost feel the primal need to piss himself out of fear.

It was easy to picture himself as some ancient hunter-gather from the stone age about to be mauled by a giant bear.

In his great need to both avoid the incoming pain and wishing to avoid an embarrassing accident. Alex took a gamble of trying to pull off an emergency jump while still blinded. Even if he couldn't get a lock on anything, he could still buy himself some critical seconds to make for an escape. However, as his quirk activated. Alex already had forgotten about the sticky balls that left him bolted to the ground, slowing his ascent just enough for Eijirou's fist to reach him.

Unfortunately, it was far too late by the time Eijirou realized where he was about to strike.

For Alex, all of life and time seemed to freeze as he felt the redhead's fist strike below the belt. The sheer amount of pain began being etched on his face as the cameras continued to roll. It had been enough to force the quirk to cancel the remaining jump. Making the foreign boy fall from the air and into a crumpled heap on the ground, writhing in pain as his hands instinctively went to hold himself. The sheer agony on his face made said everything to everyone watching; his eyes rolled back, face contorting.

Yūga had crossed himself and spoke a silent prayer for his upperclassman as he bore witness to the scene via the monitor.

"My balls...why do they hurt so much?" It was all he could wheeze with a high-pitched voice as tears poured down his face. Back in both monitoring rooms, every man couldn't help but feel sorry for the low blow that had been dealt with their foreign senior. Knowing full well how much pain that kind of trauma in that particular spot could bring.

Meanwhile back in the combat zone, Eijirou had immediately dropped to his knees and began begging his upperclassman's forgiveness for such an unmanly display, tears streaming down his face out of shame. Almost kowtowing given how rapidly the boy was repeatedly bowing.

"I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THAT MAN!"

"Just…kill me…" Alex wheezed in response as he slowly rocked around on the street, trying to steady his breathing with little success. "Aw...man...I just wanna die...fuck this...fuck that...fuck you...holy shit."

Katsuki, however, took the chance to force one of Alex's arms up so he could cuff him, successfully "capturing" him as he did. Suddenly the intercoms came alive with the announcement.

"The Villain Blink has been captured!"

Katsuki breathed a sigh of relief as he turned to look at what remained of his team: Minoru's head was bloody from using so many balls. Mina was cold on the street, and Eijirou was clearly exhausted and worn out from the fight.

Of course, there was himself being a bloody, singed mess. Katsuki wanted to continue but knew that there were still four other villains active.

'If they're anything like this guy, then we're all in a hell of a test,' Katsuki knew they had to retreat and let the others carry on from here.

"Shitty Hair, leave the foreigner and grab Raccoon Eyes, carry her back to base," Katsuki ordered with a growl, motioning with his head. "We're heading back."

Eraserhead looked on with the same smile from earlier.

Alexander Springfield considered was the weakest of the Big Five, especially when you add that he was technically a year behind in experience compared to the rest of them. But now that he was down, the second phase of the exam can finally begin, and why the man's code name for this exercise was called "A Trial by Fire" could finally be revealed.

"Tōgata, it's time to begin phase two," the man quietly radioed the villain team's leader.

"Righto, Sir!" Mirio said with a smile before letting the rest of his team know the plan.

"It's my turn to play. Nejire-chan, Suneater, Tentacole, it's time for part two!"


Author's Commentary

Innocent until proven guilty*: In theory, this is how the rule of law is supposed to work in the US. In Japan, however, there is some questioning on this philosophy. I managed to read up on the subject of a damning over 99% conviction rate in the Japanese criminal legal system.

Based on everything I read, in theory, you are innocent until proven guilty. In practice, you are basically fighting to prove your innocence. Check out the articles available online. I found the topic very interesting. However, since this is the future. I decided to amend this concerning issue with legal reforms that happened in the past.

ZX