Chapter 10: (Not) Expecting The Unexpected
"Aw, come on Kendo, we weren't that awesome, we just did what we could since our quirks were so similar."
The girl in question looked towards her red haired friend, smiling while rolling her eyes. "Oh stop it Kirishima, you're being too modest. You and Tetsutetsu made an awesome team. Watching you face off against Awase and Mineta was really interesting. It really made me wonder which one out of the two of you can harden their body more."
Bringing up this apparently sensitive topic in her last sentence, Kirishima sprouted a fire in his belly, jumping up and preparing to declare how strong his quirk was.
Before he could get the chance however, he was promptly shoved away by his metallic counterpart, taking his seat right next to Kendo and smiling proudly.
"Well of course it's me! His body just gets harder, but mine actually turns to steel! Pretty cool, huh?"
However, the orange-haired girl couldn't help but sweat-drop slightly at the boy's actions, shaking her head dismissively as she looked around the bus.
Currently, all of class 1-A were on the way to USJ, a training facility that specialized in specific and special rescue scenarios. It was overall quite exciting, and everyone was currently donning their hero costumes for said event.
Well, all except for Izuku, who was sporting U.A's P.E uniform with his two web shooters and a utility belt accentuating it.
And speaking of the boy, he quickly became the object of Itsuka's attention for the moment.
She watched as he sat across from her, his eyes darting around the room awkwardly. It appeared as though he was having trouble getting into the same care-free spirit as the rest of class, his uneasy and shy nature preventing him from starting any conversation himself.
She would have moved over to sit with him in a heartbeat, knowing that he was getting more and more outgoing around her. But she kept getting flooded by their classmates with questions about her. And having already denied them at lunch yesterday, she felt she had to at least try to connect with the rest of the class.
Sorry Midoriya, guess you're on your own for now.
Luckily for her though, the boy looking awkward and worried was just his natural outer appearance, because on the inside, he was thinking up a storm.
Aw man, I was hoping we wouldn't have to use our hero costumes in class for a while, I still need more time to repair mine…
While the boy mumbled to himself quietly, he didn't notice one of his classmates move across the bus and take a seat right next to him.
Should I even repair it though? It got completely shredded, but I should still be able to do it. My sewing has gotten better since I first made the costume a few months back…
Hmm, maybe I should just make a whole new one. It's probably not even worth repairing the old one considering how tattered it is. And maybe this time I can borrow some materials from the support department to make it more durable!
"Hey, Midoriya-kun."
"Ahh!" Izuku jumped, getting startled by the sudden voice pretty much right in his ear.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, gero."
"Oh no, it's my fault Asui-san, I just wasn't paying attention to my surroundings…"
After a very elongated and uncomfortable silence, Izuku cleared his throat and prepared to speak, his nerves only multiplying when he noticed some students were watching his interaction with his frog-quirked classmate.
"Um, is there s-something you need from me, Asui-san?"
"Mmhm," she nodded slowly. "First off, please call me Tsu."
…
"Uh… Ok, n-no problem…" Izuku croaked awkwardly. In reality, he already knew this would indeed be a problem. He'd never so much as called someone by their first name, so there was no chance in hell he was gonna start using nicknames comfortably.
"And second off," the frog quirked girl continued. "I have a question about your quirk."
"Oh," Izuku breathed in relief. Finally, a topic he was actually comfortable talking about. "Go ahead then."
Nodding, the girl locked her abnormally large eyes with his green ones. "It's been a while since I met another animal species mutant-type. Usually you look at least a little bit like the kind of animal your quirk is based on. But you look completely normal to me. What's that about?"
Rather than panicking, Izuku took a deep breath and gave his classmate an even smile. He'd been getting more and more questions about his powers recently, and he was finally getting used to answering them on the fly.
"Oh, is that it?" The boy asked with a hint of relief in his voice as he brought his hand up and motioned for his classmate to look closer.
"Gero?" She croaked, inspecting the boy's fingertips closely. "Are those… Hairs?"
Izuku nodded. "Yep, they way I see it, I guess I got pretty lucky with how I turned out. I'm sure it would be really horrifying for everyone around me if I looked like a giant spider," the superpowered teen said sheepishly.
"Wow, that is really lucky, gero. I hate to admit it but sometimes I do wish I looked less like a frog and more like a regular girl." Asui stated, voicing her inner thoughts and staring at the ground for a moment.
Sensing the girl's demeanor shifting slightly, the green haired boy quickly began shaking his head. Crap! That sounded horrible! Now she's gonna think I'm a jerk or something!
"I-uh, don't worry Asui-san! You look fine! I didn't mean it like that, sorry! Your umm… modifications actually look really cool! Yeah! They really suit you!" The boy said somewhat frantically.
The frog quirked girl however quickly shifted her demeanor to a sly looking smile as she responded to the nervous boy. "Gero! Thanks for the compliment Midoriya-kun, that's so nice of you!"
Seeing her complete one-eighty shift in mood totally flabbergasted poor Izuku. So much so in fact, that he didn't even know how to respond…
W-what? Why did she turn happy like that so fast!? It's like she was never even sad at all to begin with! Was she just faking it and messing with me? Or did she just want me to compliment her?
"But seriously Midoriya-kun… Call me Tsu," the girl insisted more seriously than before.
The superpowered teen just sighed and shook his head, his brain a complete mess from all angles.
Why are girls so confusing!?
It went without saying that all twenty students of class 1-A were more than impressed as their sensei led them through the enormous compound known as USJ. Most were left utterly speechless at the sheer size of the place, and many 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' could be heard at every new detail presented to them.
Izuku in particular could barely hold in his excitement. Whatever sort of exercise they were in for today was certain to be a memorable one.
However, his cheery demeanor was quickly halted into one of surprise when they made it deeper into the facility. The large presence of two famous pro heroes making themselves known to the group of students.
"Greetings my young pupils! Are you ready for an exciting day of hero studies!?"
Almost immediately, many cheers and shouts came from the crowd of class 1-A. It appeared as though the novelty of having the symbol of peace as their teacher had not worn off yet.
"Yes! Now that's the enthusiasm I like to hear!" The large man beckoned on, managing to somehow rile up the students even more. So much so in fact that his presence had completely overshadowed the other popular hero that was teaching today. Although in all fairness, any hero would find themselves in the same position when put next to someone like All Might.
Wearing a puffy, white space suit and talking in a signature modulated voice, the space rescue hero Thirteen chose this moment to speak up. "Ehem, yes, I second that, it's good to see so much enthusiasm from our youth these days."
"Wow! It's really Thirteen!" An excited Kaminari exclaimed. "Being a student here just keeps getting better and better!"
And for once, much to her surprise, his purple haired classmate had no reason to disagree with him. "You can say that again," Jiro added, smiling along with the boy. "Today is gonna be fun!"
"You're right about that you brats, it will be fun, just not for you!"
"What!?" All Might grunted, turning around and facing the interruption coming from deeper into the training grounds.
Much to his surprise, the symbol of peace had to blink multiple times to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him. But much to his distaste, what was in front of him was no mere illusion. It was reality.
There, down at the center of the training grounds were at least five dozen villains if not more, and they were all surrounded by what looked like purple smoke.
Tch, a teleporting quirk, how frustrating. The number one hero thought to himself with a scoff. Things were shaping up poorly and they hadn't even been there five minutes. No matter, at the very least I still have a plethora time on my hands. It seems that skipping patrol earlier was indeed a wise decision.
"Alright you brats! Prepare to die! After we're done here, no one will be left alive, especially not you All M-"
But the towering symbol of peace didn't even give the man a chance to finish, quickly grabbing the situation by the horns and taking action. "Eraserhead, Thirteen, protect the students. I will handle this."
Aizawa looked like he wanted to protest but in the end he kept his mouth shut. As much as he wanted to help clean up the trash that had invaded the school, he knew All Might was more than capable on his own. He also thought it wise to prioritize protecting his students, especially with a teleporting quirk on the field.
Also, even though he wanted to protest, the second the symbol of peace gave his orders he was off and flying down the training ground like the giant missile he was.
"California Smash!" All Might shouted, shooting straight into the crowd of villains and causing a massive explosion, taking down a good chunk of villains as if they were bowling pins.
Standing up and dusting himself off, the number one hero sharpened up his gaze and patiently waited for the dust to settle. Not surprised at all to hear the sounds of weak groans and general discomfort from the fallen villains.
However, he soon found out that his ears could not always be trusted so strictly, because when the dust cloud finally dissipated, he was left looking at only a handful of enemies on the ground and incapacitated, while the rest of the group seemed to have totally vanished.
Well, all of them except what seems like their leader and… Whatever that is. All Might thought to himself as he stared at a man covered in severed hands, along with what looked to be some kind of genetic monstrosity beside him.
"Hehehe, arent teleportation quirks the best All Might? Ahahaha! Ahahahahaha!" Shigaraki cackled maniacally, not caring at all at how unhinged he must've looked.
This man is not well, I must stop him and whatever that horror next to him is before this gets out of hand.
"No matter! Not one student will be harmed today, villain! Because I am here!"
"W-what? Is this really happening!?" Ashido croaked out with a trembling voice"
"What do we do!? Is this some kind of test!?" Mineta screamed with an even greater level of panic.
"This is NOT a test," Aizawa cleared up, bringing the class's attention back to him. "Everyone listen up, this is a real villain attack, these aren't the ideal circumstances to learn to keep calm, but the world doesn't care about that, so don't panic."
"Y-yeah! Calm down guys. All might is here! He can totally take all those guys down!" Awase said somewhat shakily, most likely trying to convince himself more than his classmates.
"Things are never that simple," the underground hero continued after looking up from his phone. "Don't panic, but also don't let your guard down. This could get ugly real quick. It looks like they're jamming our cell phone signal somehow, they must be trying to isolate us."
This vocalized observation didn't do the students' demeanor any favors, especially the ones whose personalities were more on the timid side.
"This isn't good, Kendo-san," Izuku muttered under his breath, knowing only the girl right next to him could hear it.
Surprisingly, the super powered teen ended up being one of the few students in his class that wasn't breaking down in fear at the moment. Instead his mind was moving a hundred miles a minute trying to figure out what was going on.
"Huh?" The orange haired teen shook her head, breaking out of her own stupor at the mention of her name. "What do you mean Midoriya? Is something wrong?"
Before Izuku could nod at her like he intended, the fruits of the tingling in his head made themselves known. And not even the pro heroes at the head of the pack were able to react to how quickly the cloud of smoke enveloped around a big clump of students.
No! Aizawa thought to himself in frustration as he saw the teleportation quirk manifest around at least two thirds of his class. I can't use erasure on it, his body must be blocked by this purple mist.
Without thinking, Izuku did the only logical thing his brain could think of, rather than attempt to jump out and risk saving no one, he chose instead to roughly shove the two people closest to him, quickly pushing them out of the mist right before everything went dark.
I hope one of them was Kendo-san, the boy thought optimistically as he found himself falling with his spider-sense on full blast.
"What's the matter All Might? Surprised you can't just mow this one down with one shot like you do with every other villain? Pathetic!"
Said symbol of peace ignored the oddly pale man in favor of focusing on his current situation. Which he did have to admit was turning out be quite a bit more challenging than he anticipated.
At the moment he was locked in a standstill with this creature that the enemy called 'nomu' and he was quite curious about how it was going blow for blow with One for all.
Does it have some kind of shock absorption quirk?
As the two titans continued trading blows, Shigaraki couldn't help but continue to chuckle to himself as he watched Nomu's masterful performance.
This is pathetic of me. If I were in my prime this would be over in no more than three blows!
He's really doing it master! He's going toe to toe with All might!
"Ahahahaha! Yes! Fight! Scream! Destroy! End him Nomu! He doesn't know what a real hero is! A real hero is supposed to scratch and claw and struggle! That's what makes them cool! Not some godlike giant that doesn't have any weaknesses!"
If only you knew, All Might thought as he continued his struggle, doing his best to ignore the ever so growing pain in his side.
"Ahhhhhh! Shit!" Monoma yelled as he found himself falling from the sky out of the dark mist.
Looking down below through terrified eyes he could see that he was about to land on the deck of some kind of cruise ship! And worst of all, he hadn't copied a quirk recently, meaning he was screwed!
"Monoma-san! Over here!"
"Huh?" The blonde haired boy questioned, quickly looking around for a voice until he spotted his frog quirked classmate falling a few meters above him.
The boy was just about to let out a not so polite comment about saving him, but it seemed as though Asui wasn't waiting for any sort of invitation, not wasting any time in stretching out her tongue and wrapping it around the boy.
"Ew! What the fu-"
"Could you please not complain? Gero." Asui stated as she reeled the boy back to her so they were now falling together.
"What did you just say!? I can't understand you!?"
Unwrapping her tongue from around the boy so that her speech wasn't impeded, the frog quirked girl repeated herself. "I said stop complaining, gero. At least now we're going to land in the water!"
Looking down and still struggling to open his eyes from the wind in his face, what the blonde haired boy saw almost brought him to tears.
"Ahh! There's villians in the water! We're still screwed!"
"Gero?" Asui mumbled out as she looked down to the water below. True to his word, there was indeed a circle of about six villains forming a circle in the water.
"What do we do!? I don't have a quirk right now! And those guys look like they have water quirks! They're gonna drown us! Or worse! They'll-"
*Thwip*
Monoma's delirious show of panic was quickly redirected to confusion when he felt something latch onto his costume.
"I got you guys! Hold on!" Izuku yelled, pulling his two classmates over to him so that they were all over the ship again.
Wasting no time listening to Monoma's new complaint about landing on the hard deck. Izuku shifted out of a nosedive and spread his arms and legs, making himself fall slower and rise above his classmates.
The ceiling is too high in this place, I won't be able to get a web line up there. The boy thought, his mind moving quickly once again to come up with a solution.
Making up his mind, the boy began firing a multitude of web balls down toward the ship below, aiming to get them stuck right under where his classmates were gonna land.
While not exactly ending up with the result he was imaging, the impromptu 'web hammock' definitely sufficed, easily breaking the fall of two heroes in training.
Alright, they're safe, but now for me… The green haired teen thought with a slight bit of uneasiness. He'd trained to practice falling the way Peter did before, but never at a height like this. Note to self, I need to try and implement Peter's web wings into the mark II costume.
Keeping his body spread out and open as long as possible, Izuku waited until the ground was only meters away from him before shifting into a tumble roll, wincing as the majority of the impact was absorbed into his back.
"Midoriya-kun! Are you ok!?" Asui asked with urgency, not bothering to help her blonde classmate as he fell out of the 'spider-hammock.'
The green haired teen however, would not waste time wiping away his classmate's worry, instantly kipping up to his feet after hearing her.
"I'm fine Asui-san, what about you guys?"
The frog quirked girl opened her mouth to remind the boy to call her Tsu, but the obnoxious blonde behind her had other plans.
"W-what are we gonna do!? There's villains everywhere!" Monoma stuttered out, not even caring that there seemed to be webbing stuck to his butt.
Also, right on cue, voices could be heard overboard the ship, and it didn't take a detective to figure out that they weren't friendly.
"I think those three brats landed on board."
"Well then? What are you waiting for, dumbass!? Start climbing!"
"Yeah! Those juicy bounties aren't gonna cash themselves!"
"B-bounties! Did he say bounties!? Their boss is rewarding them for killing us!?" The blonde cried out again, this time almost hyperventilating.
In response to this, Izuku just took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. By the look on his two classmate's faces, he was gonna have to be the calm one here, which surprised him, since usually he was the one ready to rush back into his shell.
"Alright guys, listen up, we need to fight these guys off and get back to our classmates in trouble. Trust me, I'm freaking out on the inside too, but if you try to just focus on saving the class, it helps the nerves go away!"
Asui simply nodded, her eyes focusing on the boy as she gave him her undivided attention.
Monoma however looked a little more hesitant, but nevertheless, he too knew the urgency of the situation, so he just gulped and nodded as well.
"What's the plan, Midoriya?"
"Carolina Smash!" All Might shouted valiantly. Hitting the genetic monstrosity known as Nomu with a powerful cross chop.
On the surface, the attack seemed to have no effect, but All might knew better than that.
Shock absorption, no matter how strong, has a limit like every other quirk, and I will eventually find it!
Without another moment's notice, All Might doubled down and prepared to launch another series of American themed attacks, but the opening of a misty portal behind him paused his action.
What?
As if the portal heard his inner confusion, a split second later, a giant vacuum of air, (or lack of it) began sucking in the symbol of peace. Almost like a-
Black hole! This is Thirteen's quirk!
While the terrifying effects of the space-like quirk had no effect on his strong and thick skin, it also didn't allow him to move forward much, if at all. And even though it was only active for a second, that was all the leverage the Nomu needed to land a crushing blow to the Hero's abdomen.
"Gah!" All Might grunted painfully as he doubled over and grabbed the creature's fist. It was currently dug in deeply into his weak spot, and if the fresh blood trickling down from his lips were any indicator, he was sure he'd be feeling that one for a while.
"Alright Monoma-san, please, tell me what quirks do you have access to at the moment.?" Izuku asked politely, not trying to hide the fact that he was hoping for a quick response.
"Ugh, that's the shitty part! I haven't touched anyone since before we got on the bus. I'm quirkless right now! And to make it worse, I can't copy either of you two! Why did I get teleported with two mutant types!"
Shaking his head in frustration, the super powered teen grunted as he went back to the drawing board. Also dually noting the new piece of information he'd learned about the boy's quirk.
Ok, that's a good side note, so my secret is safe. That mutant type cover story was genius!
Shaking his head out of his thoughts, Izuku knew they were basically out of time.
Oh well, Time for plan B, Asui-san's quirk thrives in water, so we should just make the best use of that.
"Tch, I hate to say it guys, but I'm basically useless without my quirk, how about I just hide while you two fight?" He said almost pleadingly, clearly trying to salvage as much dignity as possible.
Asui looked uncertain at this request, but Izuku grew a small smile, clearly getting some sort of interesting idea.
"Hmm, you know what? I think I have a way for you to help and get exactly what you want Monoma-san, and I think you'll like it! You've already seen me do it once before after all…
*Gulp* I don't like the look on his face…
"Alright you punks! Which one of you pipsqueaks is gonna make us rich!" A villain with a shark fin on his head grumbled confidently as he jumped the railing and boarded the ship, his demeanor rapidly growing even more cocky as three of his companions joined him.
They looked around for a moment before spotting a sliver of green in the corner of their eyes.
"Up there! On the roof! C'mon guys!"
Not wasting any time, the four villains hastily climbed up to the small roof and assessed the situation. Not exactly understanding exactly what they were seeing when they got there…
There, about twenty meters in front of them was a blonde boy wrapped up in some sort of white cocoon. But that wasnt even the weirdest part, he was also being held back by a green haired boy on some kind of slingshot?
Oh shit.
"Ahhhhh!" Monoma yelled at the top of his lungs as he was sent flying right over the head of the villains and off the ship at an incredible speed. Glancing back and catching a glimpse of the aftermath, he didn't want to admit it, but Midoriya's plan indeed worked to perfection.
All four villains thought he would be shot at them, making them all jump to the floor where they would be just one click away from being incapacitated thanks to Midoriya's webs.
That support item is so damn cool! The blonde boy thought as he looked back to see that the four villains were indeed all webbed up now.
With that over with, the blonde then went back to thinking about self preservation again. According to his green haired classmate, he wouldn't even feel the fall inside this gooey ball he'd made out of webs. But he was starting to doubt that. So much so in fact, that he began to think back to the joke the boy made right before launching him.
"Hehe, who knows Monoma-san, maybe if she's feeling gracious, Kendo-san will catch you with her quirk!"
Tch, like hell she will! Screw both of you!
"Wow, that worked even better than I expected," the super powered teen muttered excitedly to himself as he checked out his handiwork.
"Hey! What the hell is this stuff! I can't move!"
"Yeah! Me neither!"
"It's that brat's quirk! He totally tricked us!"
"Haha! Don't worry boys, there's still two more of us, remember? This isn't over," the last of the four spoke out from his spot on the floor.
"No, this is definitely over, don't you guys remember three of us falling from the sky? Well you've only seen two so far…" Izuku answered back with a very obvious bit of sarcasm.
"Wait, what!?"
Right on cue, a pair of unconscious villains were thrown over the railing and onto the deck, landing with a thump loud enough to garner attention.
Eyes widening, the four immobile villains began sweating profusely as the frog quirked girl hopped up onto the deck to join them all.
"You guys shouldn't have left these two behind, gero. They were pretty weak swimmers, so my quirk was a good match for them," the girl said with a wink. Although the evil doers couldn't particularly tell if it was aimed at them or her teammate…
"Well shit," The four villains grunted together in unison.
Izuku on the other hand, reacted rather awkwardly to the girl's actions, scratching the back of his head and preferring to get back to other topics.
"Heh, uh, good job Asui-san," the boy muttered, walking over to the two unconscious men and pressing his middle and ring fingers to his palm.
*Click*
Not surprised, the boy tried his other hand, getting the same result.
Yeah, I figured, I used a lot on wrapping up Monoma-san like a sushi roll…
Noting the interesting behavior of the boy, Asui observed closely as he discharged two casings from his wrists and reached down to his utility belt, not hesitating to refresh his creations with fresh web cartridges.
It's easy to forget that he made those himself… That's so cool!
Finalizing the adjustments and making sure his inventions were secure, Izuku looked up at Asui before shifting his focus to the battlefield beyond the water. I wonder if everyone is alright…
"We need to get back to the others, Asui-san," he trailed off, hopping up and perching on the railing in search of a better view.
What he saw next however, gave him the opposite feeling of comfort.
No way…
