Izuku could barely contain his excitement as he bounced in place in his hero uniform. They were doing rescue training today!
(And the writer had to step back for a week after writing that-)
"Alright, everyone, on the bus!" Iida said, chopping his arms in the air as he gestured towards the bus. "Line up by student numbers! Single-file!"
"Ah, stick in the mud," Kaminari said, standing close to Izuku and nudging him a little. "You're towards the end of the line-up, right? Would Hitoshi be, too?"
"Yeah, probably-depending on who he'd replace," Izuku said, quieting down at that, glancing at Mineta before quickly glancing at the bus. "...who's gonna tell him that the bus isn't built like that?"
"It isn't?" Kaminari asked, giving him a bewildered look.
"You can see that through the windows," Izuku said, gesturing at the bus. "Look closely-you can see the back of some seats and a bit of the open-concept design."
"Ah," Kaminari asked. "Wanna sit by each other?"
"Fine by me," Izuku said.
"Alright everyone, file on-huh?!" Iida said, stepping onto the bus, quickly followed by Aoyama and the rest of the class, in order. A few people laughed as they randomly sat down, Izuku finding himself squished between Kaminari and Kirishima, everyone else finding their seats as well, Aizawa-sensei getting on the bus last.
"Alright, everyone, don't be too loud, no standing while the bus is going, we'll be there soon-myself and two other pro heroes will be there, so be on your best behavior," Aizawa-sensei instructed as he sat at the front of the bus, pulling out his yellow sleeping bag. "I'm taking a nap." With that, he crawled into his bag and fell asleep.
"That man really can sleep anywhere," Sero said.
"He's an underground hero-teaches during the day, patrols at night, so he probably sleeps whenever he can," Izuku said.
"Yeah…you called him Eraserhead on the first day, kero," Tsu said.
"Yeah, he's my brother's favorite hero-he's really interesting!" Izuku said. "As you've probably noticed, his quirk is his eyes and he can turn off other people's quirks. Drawbacks are not as severe as some quirks, but he gets dry-eye and can only be active as long as he keeps his eyes open. It also lifts up his hair when active, as well as making his eyes glow, but he typically has goggles on in order to both protect his eyes and hide who's quirk he's erasing, not to mention hide if his quirk is activated in the first place, but if you add on his hair, that's a way to see if his quirk is active, so if he were to tie his hair back and keep his goggles on, no one would have any idea if his quirk is on or not. However, as he's an underground hero, people wouldn't exactly know that. Someone would have to be observant and figure it out on the spot in order to use that against him, but it's a small, yet distinct possibility-"
"You talk a lot, but you're pretty smart, bro!" Kirishima said, knocking Izuku out of his thoughts.
'O-Oh, sorry about that," Izuku said. "My mind goes too fast, and I just…word vomit. Feel free to tell me to stop if you notice."
"Nah, it's pretty manly!" Kirishima said. "You really know a bunch about heroes and quirks!"
"Yeah!" Izuku said. "There are so many heroes out there, and it's easiest to look at their quirks and learn more about them while observing and seeing different ways that I could potentially counteract their quirks if I ever encounter a villain with a similar quirk. It's interesting to think about, actually, I've been speculating about quirks since I was a child, so it's more a habit at this point, but I think that it's a useful skill to have-Toshi says so, too, it helps that I've been putting it to use for as long as I've known him-I'm muttering again, sorry about that."
"It's cool, bro!" Kirishima said. "Not gonna lie, I didn't understand most of that, though."
"Yeah…sorry," Izuku said.
"So, what do you already know about my quirk?" Kirishima asked.
"It's a hardening quirk, right?" Izuku asked. "I wonder how hard you can make your skin and if you can shape your skin in certain ways other than making it like spikes-can you sharpen those spikes and use them as blades? Does the chemical composition of your skin change when you're using your quirk, or does it stay the same? Is it different than another person's as a result? I wonder if your quirk nerves are more protected or if they come to the surface more. Does your entire skin, muscles, all the way to the bone harden, or just the surface layers? It's interesting to think-" He stopped. "Muttering, sorry."
"Nah, bro!" Kirishima said, then held out his arm and used his quirk. "You make every quirk seem cool-my quirk isn't very flashy or anything. Not exactly something to be gushing about."
"I think it's very cool!" Izuku said. "Your quirk not only keeps you safe, but it can shield people around you, too-and I'm sure punching someone has to hurt! I'd hate to get on your bad side!"
"Aw, thanks!" Kirishima said. "But if you're gonna gush about anyone's quirks, I'd say yours, Bakugou, and Todoroki's quirks are the flashiest in the class!"
"So is mine," Aoyama said.
"But you double over with a tummy ache when using it," Ashido reminded him, and he sighed.
"Hey, what about mine?" Kaminari asked. "Flashy and powerful!"
"Yeah, but you short-circuit your brain-not exactly something good in the field," Jirou said, and Kaminari pouted. "Midoriya, Bakugou, and Todoroki are the most likely to push past sidekick and go pro."
"Hell yeah!" Bakugou said as Todoroki sighed.
"Yeah, but Bakugou's personality might get in the way," Tsuyu said.
"What'd you say?!" Bakugou said, standing up a little. "I'll kick your ass!"
"Oh, come on, we haven't known you for long, so it's telling that we know your personality is hot garbage," Kaminari said, and Izuku snorted.
"I'll kick your ass, you hear me?!" Bakugou said.
"Shut up."
Immediately, everyone was quiet as Aizawa-sensei stood up, and they realized the bus had stopped.
"We're here," Aizawa-sensei said.
Everyone got up and started to file off the bus, standing in front of a huge building.
"Come on, 1-A," Aizawa-sensei said, walking inside, and everyone was quick to follow.
"Woah, it's almost like Universal Studios Japan," Ashido said as they looked around from the doors.
And Izuku had a feeling that something was…off. He couldn't quite place it, though. Was it the fact that Hitoshi should be standing here with him?
"Is he here yet?" Aizawa-sensei asked, looking around.
"No, no-I don't think he's joining us," Thirteen said, holding up three fingers-oh, that means-no muttering. Can't afford that here.
"Ah, it's the Space Hero: Thirteen!" Uraraka gushed, and Izuku was quick to look at said hero.
"One of the best rescue heroes there is!" Izuku gushed. "With their quirk, Black Hole, able to wrangle any natural disaster they encounter and save lives by getting rid of rubble and getting to civilians faster than any other hero on the scene!"
"Thank you for that introduction!" Thirteen said, and Izuku blushed as a few classmates chuckled. "This is the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or, as I like to call it, the USJ!"
"Universal Studios Japan," a few students mumbled.
"We have different areas here to simulate different disasters you might encounter," Thirteen continued. "The Ruins Zone, the Landslide Zone, the Mountain Zone, the Conflagration Zone, the Flood Zone, and the Downpour Zone. Now, I have one…two…a few things to say." They held up their hand. "As your classmate pointed out, my quirk is called Black Hole, and I use it to save lives, but at the same time, I could easily use it to kill."
A silence fell over the students. You could hear a pin drop, and Izuku bit his lip to make sure he wasn't muttering.
All quirks can be deadly if used a certain way. Even something that seems harmless, like a quirk like Mom's…the heart only weighs a pound and a half, the brain about 4. No one would ever call Attraction a dangerous quirk, but it easily could be.
The key is using the quirk in a way that isn't dangerous to others or yourself. Only using your quirk to take down villains and save others.
"That said, a quirk is only a tool in your arsenal," Thirteen continued. "Previously, with Aizawa, you've learned how far you can push your quirks, and with All Might, you've learned how to fight others with your quirks. Here, I'm going to teach you how to use those same quirks to save lives."
"So manly!" Kirishima said.
"Truly inspiring!" Iida said.
"What's that?" Izuku asked, pointing at a…purple blob in the Central Plaza.
"Is that part of the exercise?" Kirishima asked, stepping forward-
"Stay back!" Aizawa-sensei snapped as Izuku quickly reached forward and grabbed onto Kirishima to stop him from taking another step. "That's not part of this-those are real villains."
Villains were stepping out of the purple blob-a portal quirk, those are very rare, can I ask him questions-not the time Izuku, not the freaking time. There were so many of them-and only two heroes-wasn't All Might supposed to be here…not the time to think about that. We just have to get through this.
"Kaminari, can you send a signal to the school?" Aizawa-sensei-no, Eraserhead-asked, pulling his goggles over his eyes, pausing, then pulling his hair into a ponytail.
Kaminari immediately pressed a button on his comm- "Something's blocking my signal. I can't get through."
"Shit," Eraserhead mumbled. "Thirteen, protect the students."
"Wait!" Izuku blurted out, stepping forward. "Your fighting style is best suited for alleyways and one-on-one, not melee combat like this-"
"You don't become a hero as a one-trick pony," Eraserhead said, then jumped down.
I know that, but that doesn't mean you should-there are at least fifty down there, and the odds aren't the best.
"Let's go-I'm sure he'll be alright."
Todoroki's calming voice snapped Izuku out of it as the students began to run towards the doors.
"R-Right," Izuku said, turning back to the doors and stepping to run with them-
"I don't think so."
Everyone stopped as the purple mist appeared in between them and the door.
"I hope you don't mind, but we heard All Might would be here today, so we decided to invite ourselves," the purple mist said.
Some kind of teleportation quirk-they're after All Might. I knew that the school was getting more publicity over him becoming a teacher, but villains?!
We can handle them. We have to.
"It seems that he's not here-how unfortunate," the mist said, starting to spread a bit. "Oh well. It is my job to scatter you all around to meet your doom!"
"LIKE HELL!" Bakugou yelled, lunging forward, Kirishima right behind him, sparks crackling in his palms-
"Get behind me!" Thirteen yelled, quickly sweeping their arms out to stop Kirishima and Bakugou from moving further as they opened their gloves and let their quirk wreak havoc.
"Very valiant effort-as expected from the Space Hero: Thirteen," the mist said as mist started to form right behind Thirteen-
"Look out!" Izuku yelped, starting to step forward before his brain could even process what was happening-
-then he was suddenly falling into the water-
SPLASH!
No time to think-villain at my 2, shark mutation.
What do I have with me? Knife!
Izuku whipped out his knife, kicking his feet to face the villain instead, ready to stab as best as he could-
Tsuyu slammed into the shark villain, tongue lashing out and grabbing onto Izuku before pulling him up and out-
They were on the boat in the shipwreck zone, and Izuku gasped for breath-
"Thanks, Tsuyu," Izuku said, putting his knife away.
"Call me Tsu, ribbit," Tsuyu said, pulling Mineta out of the water, too. "We're surrounded by villains with water based quirks, ribbit."
"Not good, not good!" Mineta said. "We're gonna die up here!"
"We aren't going to die," Izuku said, peeking over the edge of the boat and squinting at the villains. "25 villains in total, I'm estimating here, all water quirks…I don't think they know our quirks, so we can use that to our advantage."
"How do you figure that, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked.
"They placed you here-a frog in water versus the fire zone," Izuku said.
Tsuyu thought for a second. "This is my element, ribbit."
"They're also not trying to get on the boat, either, which provides more evidence for my theory," Izuku said, looking around before ducking back down. "Which means they won't be underestimating us, either. We're gonna need to fight them, but how?"
"How can you expect us to fight them?!" Mineta exclaimed. "We're just kids! We can't do this! We're gonna die!" He curled in on himself. "It's our first week of school-we don't have the training yet!"
"You want to be a hero, right?" Izuku asked.
"Yeah, but they're supposed to teach us what to do!" Mineta said. "We-"
"-don't know if backup is coming," Izuku said firmly, shutting Mineta up. "We don't know where our classmates are-I'm assuming they're in the other zones, it would make the most sense, but we don't. Know. Which means that we're stuck up here right now, and we don't know how long we've got before they come up here-and yeah, we're in our first week of training. We've pretty much had tests to see what we already know. That's the reality right now, and I get that's stressful, but you know what? We have to push all that aside and think." He took a deep breath. "We have to get out of here and make it out of this situation alive, because I am not letting myself die here, which means I'm not letting either of you die here, either." He looked at both of them, then at his hands. "My quirk is hard for me to handle, but I'm getting a handle on it with help. I can use up to 40 percent of my strength without breaking my bones, but try to be consistent below 30-hasn't worked well just yet, but I was supposed to start using it during class today-guess I'm using it against villains instead of to lift rubble like I thought." He looked between the two. "What are we working with?"
"My quirk is Frog, ribbit, which is self explanatory," Tsuyu said as Mineta just looked shocked. "I can stick to walls, have a long tongue, jump really high, and all the abilities of a frog, like spitting out my stomach." Mineta made a face, but Izuku just nodded. "That last one probably isn't useful here."
"You really do have an amazing quirk," Izuku said, then looked at Mineta. "Well?"
"Uh…well, my quirk is called Pop Off," Mineta said, pulling one of the balls off his head and sticking it on the wall, poking at it. "I can pull a bunch of these off my head, and they grow right back, but if I pull too many off, I start bleeding. They're really sticky, stay sticky for a while depending on how well I'm feeling. They stick to everything, but they don't stick to me."
Alright, Frog, Pop Off, and my quirk. I can work with this. I can-
"I know that it's a lame quirk, but it's gotta be useful for something, right?!" Mineta asked.
"Yep-just need to figure out what," Izuku said-
The boat suddenly got split in half, and all three rocked a little bit. Mineta screamed as Izuku peeked over-ok, that's one villain's quirk identified, split the boat in half.
"Not good-we don't have much time-if we get in the water, it doesn't matter what our plan is-we'll be overwhelmed," Izuku said.
And of course Mineta rushed to the side and just started to pull the balls off his head and toss them into the water with no other plan.
"Hey, what are you doing-you only have so many of those!" Izuku said, peeking over-
The villains were avoiding them.
They don't know what our quirks are-they're cautious-they're overly cautious.
If I use 40 percent of my quirk, combine that…
That could work.
Izuku turned to Mineta and pat him gently on the back. "Good idea-let's do this."
"What idea-what are we doing!?" Mineta exclaimed.
"Do you know how many more you have right now?" Izuku asked.
"I don't-I don't know my limit!" Mineta said.
"Well, guess we're testing that out," Izuku said, looking at Tsuyu. "Tsuyu-"
"Call me Tsu, ribbit," Tsuyu said.
"Right, Tsu," Izuku said. "I'm gonna create a whirlpool-you grab both of us and get us out of the blast and back towards shore. Mineta, throw as many of those into the whirlpool as you can."
"How are you gonna make a whirlpool?!" Mineta asked. "You don't have a water quirk!"
"Surface pressure," Izuku said. "Are you two ready? Because we don't have a ton of time."
"Let's do this, ribbit," Tsu said.
"I-I guess?!" Mineta said.
"Good," Izuku said, then fully stood up-he could feel his nerves making him shake, but that didn't matter right now. This was a do-or-die situation-Eraserhead needed help in the plaza, and honestly, while he wasn't a one-trick pony, there were way too many villains in the plaza, not to mention their classmates-
One thing at a time, Izuku. I can freak out about the next thing when I get there.
So, pushing all his fear down, he put a foot on the railing, took a deep breath, and screamed at the top of his lungs, jumping over the edge.
"Are you crazy?!" Izuku thought he heard shouted after him, but he paid that no mind as he thrust his arms out in front of him, charged up 40 percent in his arm, he punched straight down, causing a bit of recoil as the whirlpool started-
Tsu's tongue wrapped around him, yanking him along as she jumped towards the shore, and as Izuku watched the villains get sucked in, Mineta threw down more purple balls, sticking to the villains as they got closer to each other, unable to swim away from the whirlpool that dragged them downwards as the hero students went to safety-or, well, waters they could walk in, landing with a small splash, but nothing that hurt as Izuku stood up and stretched a little.
"That went well, ribbit," Tsu said.
"Yeah-great jump, Tsu, and that was a lot, Mineta," Izuku said, looking at the two of them with a small smile, then he looked over towards the plaza-there were still a bunch of villains over there that Eraserhead was fighting. Not good. Less than before-some must have been teleported to other zones with the other students-not the time, Izuku.
"That was intense-time to see if we can get through the door?" Mineta asked, looking towards the entrance.
"Go ahead-I'm gonna see if I can help Eraserhead," Izuku said, stepping that way.
"What?!" Mineta exclaimed. "You can't seriously think you can go into another fight!"
"He might be getting overwhelmed-even taking out a few villains will help-you don't have to come with," Izuku said, walking. "See if you can get outside and contact the school."
"I'm coming with you, ribbit," Tsu said, walking right next to him as Izuku pulled out one of his knives. She eyed it curiously. "You're stab-ready, ribbit."
"Want a knife?" Izuku asked, leaning down and pulling out one of his shoe-knives.
"Sure, ribbit," Tsu said, taking the knife. "I'll give this back later."
"I'll hold you to it," Izuku said, then looked at Mineta. "Want one?"
"Uh…I'm good," Mineta said, looking back towards the door, but ultimately joining Izuku and Tsu.
…
Aizawa was overwhelmed.
He wouldn't let that take him down. He wouldn't let that stop him from protecting his students. But damnit, if only that idiot had shown up for work today instead of going over his time limit! He was a teacher now-he needed to show up for his classes at the very least!
Aizawa beat another villain into the ground, but another quickly took their place. Over and over and over again-
"Final boss," Aizawa finally could say as he leapt at the weirdo with the hands-were those real or just some intimidation tactic? It just looked weird and creepy.
Aizawa leapt at the villain, who dodged and grabbed onto his elbow-
WHAT THE FUCK?!
Aizawa immediately turned on his quirk and glared at the villain, noting that the skin off his elbow was gone.
"You really are cool, Eraserhead," the villain-Shigaraki, Aizawa thought he heard a different villain refer to the hand villain as-said, scratching at his neck. "An erasure quirk like that is so valuable-there's some kind of limit, but I can't guess it!"
So the ponytail might have been a good idea-he'll have to remember that. Sure, it was hard to tell when he was jumping around, but with this villain just observing, he might have figured it out.
Aizawa didn't say anything as he lashed out his capture weapon, blinking for just a second but having his quirk on the moment the weapon touched the villain, intent on pulling him forward and slamming him down-
"One thing, though, Eraserhead," Shigaraki said as the black-bird-exposed-brain villain started to move. "I'm not the final boss."
The villain grabbed onto Aizawa and yanked him away, yanking Shigaraki along as well because of the capture scarf, the hand villain yelping in shock and using his quirk to disintegrate part of Aizawa's scarf as the bird villain went and yanked Aizawa's arm behind his back, head to the ground, faster than Aizawa could use his quirk on him, and his injured arm was snapped, causing Aizawa to hiss in pain.
"Shigaraki," the purple mist villain said, appearing by Shigaraki.
"What is it, Kurogiri?" Shigaraki asked.
"I'm afraid one of the students escaped," the mist said.
Shigaraki scowled as he scratched at his neck hard, almost making his neck bleed. "You had one job-what are we going to do now? More heroes are going to show up."
What student left? I hope it's Iida or Midoriya-they're the fastest, especially since Midoriya figured out his quirk yesterday. The faster help gets here, the faster the students are safe.
"And still no All Might-I guess it's time to cut our losses here," Shigaraki said-
To Aizawa's absolute horror, he heard a very familiar mumbling, too quiet to make out the words, but loud enough for him to hear.
Loud enough for the villains to hear.
"But first, let's leave him with a parting gift," Shigaraki said, turning and rushing towards his students-Midoriya, Asui, and Mineta, three of his students that shouldn't be here-they should be outside.
Aizawa activated his quirk the second Shigaraki got too close to his students…
But it turns out it wasn't necessary.
Asui pulled a knife out of her hair-since when did she have a knife?!-and stabbed Shigaraki in the gut while Midoriya stabbed through his hand and twisted, bringing Shigaraki's hand away from Asui and tearing through in one swift motion-well, no more five-finger-touch quirk in that hand-as he moved to place himself between Shigaraki, Asui, and Mineta.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Shigaraki screamed as he stumbled back, reaching for the knife in his stomach and yanking it out-bad move, it's gonna bleed without something in it-letting the knife clatter to the ground as Midoriya climbed out of the water, holding his blood-soaked knife, bits of flesh hanging off.
"Back. The fuck. Up," Midoriya hissed, pulling another knife out-why did this child have so many knives?! Was that where Asui got hers?! Who approved this?! Aizawa owed them coffee-and glaring at Shigaraki.
"Nomu!" Shigaraki yelled as he stumbled back even more. "Kill the brat!"
Instantly, the bird-villain-Nomu-was off Aizawa and rushing at the three kids.
Aizawa scrambled to his feet, quirk flashing as the Nomu was right by his students-
There was a flash of light, and Nomu stopped, even going back slightly as Midoriya shoved it away from him.
…..
Izuku dropped his knives and shoved Nomu away with his quirk, panicking and pushing past 40-active at full, that's gonna break his arms, that was a bad move, bad instinct-
…his arms didn't shatter.
Izuku didn't have much time to react as Nomu went for another punch, a ton of force behind it, and Izuku barely dodged it, thankfully keeping his quirk in check so he didn't break his legs as he dodged. Then dodged again.
"Damn BRAT!" Shigaraki yelled, clutching at his hand-well, it wasn't likely he'd be using that hand again unless he found a quirk that could rewind the wound.
(The writer sat back and cackled writing that, knowing I'm done writing this after the Sports Festival-)
"Damn handy man!" Izuku snapped back, dodging another blow and barely taking a moment to pick up one of his knives and stabbing at Nomu's arm, embedding it into its muscle-
-just as the front doors flew open.
Backup. THANK FUCKING GOD WE'RE SAVED!
"Nomu, stop!" Shigaraki hissed, and just like that, Nomu stopped, allowing Izuku to dart back, over by Eraserhead and glancing at the doors-
It was All Might standing in that doorway, and even from this far away, Izuku could see that he wasn't smiling as he tore off his tie.
In moments, All Might was down there with them, glaring at Shigaraki, Nomu, and Kurogiri.
"So you must be the villains that came to attack my students," All Might said with a grimace.
"So you did show up to your own class-Nomu!" Shigaraki hissed, and Nomu lunged at All Might.
Eraserhead turned and looked at Midoriya. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"To be honest, I barely was," Izuku said, glancing at his other knives, then the one stuck in Nomu's arm. "I'd better get those back…"
"Who approved those for your costume?" Eraserhead asked.
"Good question," Izuku said, looking at Shigaraki. "I'm sure you'd like to know-I doubt you have access to the kind of quirk that would fix your hand, huh?"
"You brat!" Shigaraki hissed. "I can't feel my fingers!"
Sure enough, his ring and pinky finger were flapping uselessly as his other fingers moved-depending on how the quirk nerves were in that hand and how they wrapped around the tendons, it was possible Shigaraki's quirk was completely gone in that hand, but Izuku didn't have enough information on that right now. Just that his hand was too damaged to be of use right now.
"Well, you shouldn't have tried to kill me or my classmates-I can't be held liable for defending myself against death," Izuku said, glancing over at Tsu and Mineta-they were walking over to the stairs-good. Izuku needed both of them to survive-and he'd have some words with Mineta for grabbing onto Tsu's chest as they were watching all of that happen.
For right now, though, he had to focus on taking down this idiot-
There was an explosion, and suddenly, Bakugou came from the side and lunged at Kurogiri, pinning the metal bit-probably where the guy's body was-and pinned him to the ground, Kirishima running up behind him.
"Gotcha, you fucker," Bakugou snapped as the mist started to grow, but Bakugou released another explosion, and Kurogiri stopped. "Thought so. Your body is in this bracer, isn't it? One wrong move, and you're toast."
Well, that works well enough.
"Well, now then," Shigaraki said, turning to Izuku and Eraserhead. "I have a particular brat to kill."
"Good luck with that," Izuku said, reaching down and grabbing his other shoe knife, spinning it in his hand.
"How many of those do you have?" Eraserhead asked.
"Ten-and I'd better leave here with ten, too," Izuku said. "But if one gets stuck in handy man's other hand, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."
With that, Shigaraki lunged at the two, bad hand outstretched towards Izuku, good hand towards Eraserhead, shouting, "Kurogiri, deal with those brats, and don't forget the plan!"
The mist grew despite Bakugou setting off an explosion, the mist man not seeming affected as he moved into his portal, Bakugou drawing back fast enough to not get caught and sent who knows where, another portal appearing near All Might.
However, not the time to focus on that. Bakugou had always been strong in his own right, and All Might was the Number One Hero for a reason-he could take care of himself.
Eraserhead flashed his quirk at Shigaraki as Izuku swung his knife out at the injured hand, both dodging out of the way so Shigaraki moved past them.
"You aren't leaving here alive, you brat!" Shigaraki hissed, lunging again for Izuku, blocked by Eraserhead's quirk and Izuku dodging out of the way. "This was supposed to be an easy kill-kill the Symbol of Peace and collapse society as we know it! And yet you're ruining it!"
"You're ruining my training exercise!" Izuku said, kicking at Shigaraki's legs and ducking away from his hands (the…attached ones, what would happen if he just…yanked away the disembodied ones?), punching at the stab wound in the villain's gut, causing him to scream in pain and start to reach down for Izuku to kill him-
There was suddenly a drop in temperature, and over by All Might-the Nomu was part way through a portal and dragging All Might down as Bakugou and Kirishima tried to fight Kurogiri's actual body, fighting them and keeping that warp gate open-where the Nomu was covered in ice, a quick glance showing that Todoroki had showed up and was now bringing the match-up six to three. The odds were increasing and getting better-perfect!
….
"All heroes, please report-the USJ is under attack. I repeat, the USJ is under attack."
Hitoshi tensed up as he heard that announcement, looking around just like the other students in the class as Present Mic snapped the marker he was holding.
Isn't that where Izuku is today?!
"Everyone, stay put-UA is going to go into lockdown mode-now, I know we've only had a talk yesterday about what to do in case of an emergency, so here's the run-down right now," Present Mic said. "Stay put, the door will lock when I leave, and you can leave when we're certain there's no other attack. If something happens, there's a panic button under my desk-we'll know who pushed it, and if it's not an emergency, there will be consequences that start at detention and end at expulsion." With that, he started to leave-
Hitoshi quickly stood up. "Present Mic-sensei, isn't 1-A at the USJ today?"
Present Mic paused, and everyone stared at Hitoshi. Present Mic blinked, then his face softened.
"Your brother is going to be alright, ok, Midoriya?" Present Mic said. "I promise I'll check on him myself and let you know right when I get back, ok?"
"Ok," Hitoshi grumbled, plopping back down in his chair as Present Mic quickly left.
"You have a brother in the hero course?"
Hitoshi looked at his classmate and nodded, looking back at his desk. "My twin brother's in 1-A."
"Damn, sorry to hear that," the classmate said. "Uh…I bet he's gonna be alright…?"
"He's strong," Hitoshi said. "But what if he's overwhelmed? What if his quirk backfires? What if-"
"Hey, calm down a little," the classmate said. "They have teachers there, right?"
"Yeah," Hitoshi said. "Can't help but worry, though."
"That's fair," the classmate shrugged. "But hey, just think-even if he's not ok, it just means another open spot in the hero course-"
"Choose your next words very carefully," Hitoshi hissed, and if looks could kill. Or the knives in Hitoshi's shoe that he should probably not have in class, but whatever.
The classmate held his hands up in mock surrender. "I'm just saying-"
"Don't antagonize him, Sora," another classmate said tiredly, leaning over. "Class 1-A is gonna be alright-they passed the entrance exam, after all, they know how to defend themselves against villains, at the very least."
"Yeah…yeah," Hitoshi said. Izuku at least has his knives, not to mention he got a handle enough on his quirk yesterday. Eraserhead's there, too, maybe All Might. No way Izuku's gonna…die. He took a deep breath, forcing his panicked thoughts down as he took out a textbook. "Think that homework is still gonna be due at the same time?"
…..
The fight became chaos as All Might tore off Nomu's arm and it grew back.
"What?!" All Might said. "Could've sworn there was some kind of super strength quirk-your punches pack a punch!"
"Oh, Nomu has multiple quirks!" Shigaraki yelled from fighting against Eraserhead and Izuku tag-teaming punches as Shigaraki's bad hand and side. He kept reaching out with his good hand, and Izuku knew that Eraserhead was using his quirk less and less, so Izuku resolved to kick Shigaraki away as much as possible whenever that hand got too close. "Shock absorption and regeneration. Nomu is a weapon bioengineered to be your match, an anti symbol of peace that will kill you!" He gasped out in pain as Izuku punched his injured side. "And as soon as you're gone, I'll have it kill this brat!"
"I'm not letting you do that!" Izuku said, grabbing onto Shigaraki's good arm around the elbow and swinging it behind the villain's back-
There was a sudden gush of wind as All Might started to beat the crap out of Nomu, punches being thrown left and right, the force behind each one almost sending the hero and students, plus the two villains, flying.
"You said shock absorption, not nullification, so there had to be a limit!" All Might shouted, barely hearable over the punches as Izuku was forced to let go of Shigaraki and back away, arms up to protect his eyes.
"Are you so insane that you think you can reach it?!" Shigaraki yelled from nearby. "Nomu is designed to kill you! Genetically engineered-"
"GO BEYOND!" All Might yelled. "PLUS! ULTRA!"
With another punch, Nomu was shot upward and through the roof of the USJ.
Woah…I can't wait to be able to do that someday.
Not the time, Izuku, not the freaking time.
"WHAT?!" Shigaraki screamed, stumbling back as All Might, with smoke all around him-and, Izuku quickly noted, coming off him-started to turn, some blood dripping down from his mouth-Izuku could tell that he was about to transform back, so this had to be over now.
"You're outnumbered now," Todoroki said, taking a step towards Shigaraki, ice starting to spread a little bit towards the villain. "You really were so arrogant to think you could kill All Might, but in the end, you couldn't back that up."
Shigaraki scratched at his neck as Kurogiri moved to be next to him, "This isn't fair-this isn't fair! All Might was supposed to be weaker now! Sensei told me he would be weaker!"
Izuku tensed up slightly at that, clenching his hands into fists as he took a slight step forward, making sure to bite his lip to stop his muttering.
He isn't that weakened, but the fact that they know in the first place is bad news. It's an exploitable weakness, one that they're aware of, and that's enough.
"Now, it's time for you to surrender!" All Might said, looking between Shigaraki and Kurogiri.
"Ugh, damn heroes, damn brats!" Shigaraki said, scratching intensifying, might be the reason he didn't notice the smoke coming off All Might, the way he was starting to tremble, his smile forced, trying his hardest to keep the blood from dripping further. But Izuku noticed. And he knew that this had to end now.
Suddenly, the doors of the USJ blew open, and with a glance, Izuku felt immediate relief. The teachers-and Iida-were there. They were going to be alright.
"YEAH!" Present Mic yelled down as the heroes began to move down the stairs.
"No, no, no!" Shigaraki yelled, glaring over at All Might and taking a step towards him. "It's not supposed to end like this-"
Two gunshots rang out-Snipe-and landed in Shigaraki's thighs. A few more went off, but Kurogiri wrapped around the other villain, blocking as Shigaraki screamed in pain.
Izuku moved forward slightly, reaching for his knives. "You're better off surrendering, Shigaraki. You're fighting a losing battle."
"Kurogiri, time to go," Shigaraki grumbled, and just like that-and a few more bullets-the two were gone.
In seconds, there were heroes-Ectoplasm and Present Mic specifically-by the small group in the plaza-
-and All Might, with one final, bloody cough, deflated. And because of that cough, Bakugou, Todoroki, and Kirishima all looked over at him.
"What the-!?" Kirishima exclaimed, stepping back.
"God damnit, Yagi!" Eraserhead groaned. "You know, this wouldn't have happened if you just didn't do hero work on your way to school!"
"Ah, I'm doing my best, Young Aizawa!" All Might said.
"That's seriously All Might?" Todoroki asked, blinking slowly.
"Yep," Izuku said. "Part of his quirk allows him to buff up, but he can only stay that way for three hours a day."
"How do you know that?" Todoroki asked as everyone gave Izuku an odd look. All Might just sighed.
"You don't have to tell people my limit, you know," All Might said.
"You don't have to keep revealing to people your secret by going past your time limit, you know," Izuku said right back.
"How often does this happen?" Eraserhead asked.
"Often enough Hitoshi calls him the local skeleton dumbass," Izuku said.
"Ah, speaking of, your brother was almost panicking with worry in class," Present Mic said. "Any injuries he should be worried about?"
"Eh…not really-oh, my knives," Izuku said, walking over to the knives on the ground and picking them up, holding the one that he slashed through Shigaraki's hand out a little. "Think we can get Shigaraki's DNA from this thing and ID him?"
"Is that flesh?" Present Mic squeaked, almost yelling if not for Eraserhead's quirk flashing at him before Eraserhead grunted. Everyone quickly looked at him as he clutched at his elbow, the adrenaline no longer letting him ignore the pain.
"You might want to get him to Recovery Girl-wait, is Thirteen ok?!" Izuku asked, eyes wide as he looked towards the entryway. "Their quirk was turned on them-"
"Recovery Girl's taking care of things-let's get you four back up to the entryway-we'll…brief you on the whole All Might situation later," Present Mic said, glancing at All Might before herding the four to the stairs.
Todoroki turned to Izuku. "You already knew about that…whatever that was."
"Yeah, long story," Izuku said. "Again, my brother calls him the local skeleton dumbass."
"Hmm," Todoroki hummed, but didn't say another word as they were herded up the stairs.
….
Hitoshi rushed over to the 1-A classroom, heart pounding.
The security measures had been dismantled, Nezu announcing that everything was fine, 1-A was safe, and the school day was over-they were welcome to go home for the day, no school until Monday, details would be sent via email to parents, yada yada yada.
But that didn't confirm that Izuku was ok. Safe didn't mean anything until he saw his brother with his own two eyes.
Hitoshi stopped at the 1-A doors, open, most of the class gathering their things-
"Where's Izuku?!" Hitoshi exclaimed, looking around wildly, everyone immediately looking at him. Izuku's not here, Izuku's not here-oh my god, is he at Recovery Girl's office-
"Hey, Hitoshi, calm down-he's alright," Denki said, walking over. "Midoriya, Todoroki, Bakugou, and Kirishima got pulled aside for some reason, but we saw them-your brother had some blood on him, but overall-"
"Blood?!" Hitoshi exclaimed. "Why was there blood-"
"Hitoshi."
Hitoshi quickly spun around, and there was Izuku, looking tired and…kind of wet, but alive and standing and ok-
Hitoshi almost tackled Izuku in a hug.
"Hitoshi-Hitoshi, you're crushing me!" Izuku said, but returned the hug immediately.
"They just said that the USJ was under attack by villains, no other details-they said 1-A was safe, but not ok-" Hitoshi rambled.
"Hey, calm down-I'm ok, everything's ok," Izuku said, pulling away a little and stepping into the classroom, dragging Hitoshi with him and over to his desk, grabbing his backpack and putting his uniform case away. "It was scary, but I'm ok."
"Ok…ok," Hitoshi said. "Time to go home?"
Izuku nodded, then looked at Denki. "Let's get going."
"Right!" Denki said, hoisting his backpack onto his back and following the two twins out of the classroom.
…
Ring ring ring.
Izuku answered the phone. "Hey, Mom."
"Are you alright?!"
"Yep-Hitoshi, Kaminari, and I are getting out of the train station now," Izuku said.
"Oh, thank goodness-oh, mind putting me on speaker?" Mom asked.
"Sure," Izuku said, gesturing to Hitoshi and Kaminari to step to the side as he put the phone on speaker, holding it between them. "You're on speaker, Mom."
"All three of you there?" Mom asked.
"Yep-love you, Mom," Hitoshi said.
"Hi, Mrs. Midoriya!" Kaminari said. "I'm Denki Kaminari."
"I've heard a bit about you-are you busy tonight?" Mom asked.
"Uh…no?" Kaminari said, confused.
"Ok," Mom said. "Hitoshi mentioned that you were living here alone-will you be alone tonight right after that attack?"
"Yeah-I'll be fine, though-" Kaminari started.
"Izuku, Hitoshi, mind stopping with Kaminari at his place to back an overnight bag?" Mom asked. "Kaminari, I don't feel comfortable with having you alone tonight, so would you like to stay here tonight?"
"Oh, that's a great idea!" Izuku said, looking at a shocked Kaminari. "Being alone after something like the USJ would suck."
"Uh…if you don't mind!" Kaminari said.
"I'm offering, aren't I?" Mom asked. "We have a spare futon, not to mention the couch, or I'm sure Izuku and Hitoshi wouldn't mind sharing a bed so you can sleep in one room-"
"Mom!" Izuku and Hitoshi exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm just teasing," Mom said. "You get my point, though."
"Alright, then, thank you so much!" Kaminari said.
"Of course!" Mom said. "I'll see you soon-I'm getting started on dinner. Bye-bye."
"Bye, Mom!" Izuku said.
"See you soon, Mom," Hitoshi said, then reached over and hung up.
…
Denki's parents were usually busy with work. There were days on end where he would eat instant ramen because it was something he could make during his dad's long hours and his mom's business trips. At a young age, he was putting himself to bed, walking with a neighbor kid to make sure he didn't get lost-so he got to school on time everyday. He still saw his parents a lot, but sometimes…the house felt cold.
The Midoriya household wasn't like that at all.
Here, he sat between Hitoshi and Hisashi Midoriya, Izuku between Hitoshi and Inko Midoriya, eating delicious food made by Mrs. Midoriya as the family talked about random things, mostly avoiding the USJ discussion, except for…
"I stabbed this guy through the hand and tore-I don't think his five-finger-touch quirk is gonna work in that hand after this."
"You did what?!"
Yeah, Denki could get used to this-he hoped he could get an invite here again sometime.
….
"Here, you can sleep in my room."
Oh God, that sounds like heaven on Earth.
"H-Huh?" Denki asked instead.
Hitoshi grabbed the futon and gestured for Denki to follow him. "Izuku talks in his sleep, and if he has a nightmare tonight…yeah, not gonna end well. Dad gets up through the night to get water most nights, so sleeping in the living room might wake you up. Therefore, best to sleep in my room tonight."
"Uh, sounds good!" Denki said, having a feeling he was beet red, but hoping that Hitoshi at least wouldn't comment on it.
"Alright, this is my room," Hitoshi said, opening a door and walking in. Denki followed, seeing a nice room with a bunch of cat stuffed animals, a hand-made Eraserhead figurine, some Wild Wild Pussycat posters, and some random knick knacks, black bed sheets, red and yellow themed bits and pieces around. Overall, a very nice bedroom.
"Don't mind the plushies-you can borrow one for the night if you want," Hitoshi said, laying the futon on the ground and grabbing a pillow from his bed, setting it down there. "Bathroom is marked. I need to go grab a blanket for you, feel free to change into your pajamas while I'm out." With that, he stepped out and shut the door.
Denki quickly changed into his pajamas, glancing at the cat plushies before at the pillow, wondering if it smelled like-
Ok, let's not go on that rant.
Denki sat on the futon with a small smile. This was…nice. This was really nice.
I'll end the chapter right there and hopefully see you soon!
Not gonna lie, Izuku was going to get injured, and the decision to stab Shiggy's hand and…yeah was a split-second. Same with Tsu getting the knife. I cackled, though, so you get this! I'm stopping this fic after the Sports Festival and starting the next one, so I don't have to deal with the consequences of that decision! (Although I might do something similar in the next MHA fic, so tell me if you want me to do a similar scene!)
I'll see you soon!