the

by lovinfries4

the

The Art of Confusion and Punching Things Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/28744497.

Rating: Not Rated Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Category: Gen Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア Boku no Hero Academia My Hero

Academia, ワンパンマン One-Punch Man Characters: Saitama (One-Punch Man), Aizawa Shouta Eraserhead, Yagi Toshinori

All Might, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Tsukauchi Naomasa, Shigaraki Tomura Shimura Tenko, Nedzu (My Hero Academia)

Additional Tags: Confused Saitama, I mean you would be too, Dimension Travel, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Saitama in the My Hero Academia Universe, Saitama doesn't know what's going on, And Neither Does Anyone Else, Dadzawa, Protective Aizawa Shouta Eraserhead, OP Saitama, but we all know that, Crack Treated Seriously, Teacher Assistant Saitama, Slow To Update

Language: English Collections: Clever Crossovers & Fantastic Fusions, Crossovers I'm obsessed with,

Mha heart mah soul, Fics that give me life, Road to Nowhere Discord Recs, Fics Adored and Loved , Fics That Make Me Feel Good, Prapika's absolute favorites, Why must you torture me with these good fics?, BNHA Rereadables , II~ My Adoration and Feelings cannot be expressed~II, Creative Chaos Discord Recs, Jaded Discord Server Recommendations, Tempus et Spatium (Time and Space), for those that need to be remembered, THE UBIQ THE UNIQUE

Stats: Published: 2021-01-14 Updated: 2023-06-09 Words: 21,529 Chapters: /collections/THEUBIQUITOUSTHEUNIQUE

The Art of Confusion and Punching Things by Asteroid_Duck (JustThatOneGirl1815)

Summary

Saitama was going to be honest... he didn't know how he'd gotten here. Where was here, you ask? That's also a good question. There's a bunch of people fighting and some of them are children? Okay... uh, so who's the hand guy? And the scarf guy? And should Saitama be punching anyone? . . . AKA Saitama gets thrown into the middle of the USJ and has absolutely no idea what is going on. Which is valid, seeing as he's also been thrown into the wrong dimension.

Notes

So I've had this in my folder for a few months now and I read over it recently and was like "Hey, this isn't shit. Why haven't I posted it yet?" And here I am, posting it now. *Shrugs* I guess past me wanted to write more before posting? But past me and current me are two different people, so you're getting this as it is lmao./users/JustThatOneGirl1815/pseuds/Asteroid_Duck

Chapter 1

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Saitama was going to be honest... he had no idea how he'd gotten here.

He remembered fighting a monster, he remembered punching the monster (which should have been the end of it), and now here he was, surrounded by... various simulated natural disasters? And school children? And people who are definitely not school children?

Had Genos slipped something into his breakfast this morning?

Fights were raging around him. Something had just happened over at the lake area, the water doing something akin to a mini tidal wave. At the top of the massive staircase, several children were fighting a monster made of obsidian smoke with glowing yellow eyes. Nearby him, a man in a black jumpsuit was fighting several others with a scarf. He was pretty sure there were even more fights going on out of his range of sight, within the smaller domes, such as the one marked with flames on the outside.

He turned around slowly, hands still at his sides, trying to figure out exactly what was happening here.

A guy with hands covering his body (and face? Ew?) rushed at the scarf guy. Saitama blinked at them as they clashed.

Now, in his experience, anyone with hands covering their body is not a nice person. Then again, he doesn't have any experience with people that have hands all over their bodies.

It was when he saw the arm of the scarf guy start to disintegrate— and the pained cry that ensued from it— that he started to make a move— only for scarf guy to start fighting back as well.

Saitama paused. Maybe he should keep hanging back? It's not like anyone has noticed him here so far...

Scarf guy continued to fight, and several other monsters (or what Saitama equated to monsters. Humanoid monsters?) leaped at the guy, only to get kicked away. But he could see the way the scarf guy was breathing heavily, clutching his damaged arm. Scarf guy was putting up a good fight, but he wasn't doing too well.

"That annoying quirk of yours isn't suited for drawn out fights." Hand-guy spoke. He didn't sound particularly villainous, nothing like the Deep Sea King, but he did have that attitude in his voice that screamed murderous intent. Interesting. "Don't you think you're a little out of your element here, Eraserhead?"

Oh yay! A name for the scarf guy! And Eraserhead too, that's cool. (Way better than Caped Baldy.)

"You're much better at working stealthily, you're known for surprise attacks, not fighting head to head." Hand guy continued, and Saitama caught a glimpse of a sadistic smile hidden under the hand. "But despite knowing that, you didn't hesitate to jump into this fight, to put your students at ease."

Scarf guy = Eraserhead = the children's teacher. Got it. Hand guy is definitely not the good guy here if children are involved. And from the sounds of it, this Eraserhead guy was currently pulling a Mumen Rider to protect his disciples.

More humanoid monsters rushed at Eraserhead, and Saitama was once again about to step in, when the scarf wrapped around one of them in a split second and threw the villain at the others, taking them all down in an instant. Saitama blinked, impressed.

Eraserhead faced who Saitama could only assume was the main villain again, pulling at his scarf, looking ready to attack yet again.

"And look at you! You're still standing!" The villain cooed. "You really are so cool!"

Saitama paused. That was a new one. I mean, the scarf did look pretty awesome, and despite the destroyed elbow Eraserhead was still fighting with intensity and skill... okay, assessment agreed on. Eraserhead = cool.

"Oh and by the way, I am not the final boss." Hand guy hissed out.

A massive hulking bird creature appeared behind Eraserhead in an instant, faster than even Saitama himself could register, and picked the hero up by the head, bashing him into the ground.

Saitama stared, eyes wide, as he heard the sound of bones breaking.

"What do you think of him, Eraserhead? He's the bioengineered anti symbol of peace. You can call him Nomu."

It was the snap of Eraserhead's other arm and the following pained scream from the man that set Saitama into motion, having heard and seen enough to know exactly what side he was on. He rushed forward and punched the Nomu, intent to kill, and he grabbed Eraserhead and crossed the plaza, setting the hero gently down on the ground.

There was silence from the villains.

He looked up to see the Nomu still standing. What? That punch hadn't been that powerful, but it would've been more than enough to kill a demon level threat monster.

His eyes narrowed in concentration.

"What? Who the hell are you?" Hand guy hissed, starting to scratch at his neck.

"Ah, I'm just a hero for fun." Saitama responded, and then rushed the Nomu again. Finally, he might just get himself a good fight—

Two punches later and the Nomu was guts on the pavement. Dammit...

"You— you cheated!" Hand guy screamed.

Saitama turned to him, gaze serious. He swept his hand through the air, sending a shockwave powerful enough to send the hand bastard flying through the air.

His gaze caught Eraserhead's from several meters away, who'd picked his bloody head up of the ground to look at Saitama.

"The children are your students, right?" He asked.

Eraserhead nodded after a long moment of hesitation, but then seemed to get dizzy and collapse back down onto the concrete.

Saitama raced over to the man and kneeled in front of him, steadying him. "Are you okay, Eraserhead?" He asked, even though it was obvious the man wasn't.

"Who... are you?" Eraserhead choked out.

"I'm a hero." Saitama responded. Something told him that telling Eraserhead his hero name wouldn't reassure the man very much.

"Then... protect... my... students."

Saitama nodded, and looked around the plaza. He could do that.

The smaller level thugs nearby, taken out. The smoky man near the top of the stairs, taken out. Every villain left in the dome, taken out. All in a matter of seconds. Unless Saitama wasn't sure if they were of student or not, he killed them or knocked them out. And then he grabbed all of the students and brought the near the base of the steps, close to where Eraserhead was, but not close enough that they'd be able to see his injuries clearly.

He was pretty sure he had the distinction between student and villain down. Bright costumes teenager = student. Looks like an asshole = villain.

The students all seemed okay, at least. He'd hate for children to get hurt.

Saitama stepped back, having finished his work. The students in front of him looked around in surprise.

Saitama moved back to Eraserhead's side, "All done, scarf man."

Eraserhead coughed and looked up, seeing his students not far behind Saitama. "Help... me up, then..."

Ah, that was easy. Saitama picked the man up with ease.

"Mr Aizawa!" One of the girls cried. "Are you okay?"

"I'm... fine..." Eraserhead said. Saitama was going to assume that Eraserhead's name was Aizawa, seeing as that certainly wasn't Saitama's name.

"What the hell just happened?" A blonde kid with a streak of black in his hair asked, looking around. "Who's that guy?"

It was then that the students seemed to register the amount of bodies nearby. Eh... he probably should've cleaned that up. No kid needs to see that...

A loud bang sounded at the top of the stairs— the door, to be more specific. Saitama instantly assumed he was going to have to fight again, only to see ridiculously brightly colored suit and a massive smile that could only belong on the countenance of a hero.

"I AM HERE— uh... what?" The man boomed.

"Heyo!" Saitama waved joyously.

"All Might!" Several students cried, looking very happy all of the sudden.

Saitama figured this All Might guy was popular, if the bright smiles had anything to say. All Might... also a cool name...

All Might jumped down in front of Saitama, looking wary. "And who are you?" The man asked, though Saitama distinctly noticed the worried look in his eye upon seeing Eraserhead.

"I'm just a hero," Saitama replied. "You know him?" He asked, tilting his head to Eraserhead.

"Yes, he is a colleague. How did he get so injured?" All Might still looked wary.

"It's... okay... All Might..." Eraserhead choked out. "He... stopped the... villains."

All Might seemed to reevaluate him in that moment, which was an expression Saitama was getting slowly more and more used to as people started realizing how powerful he was.

"And how did you... do this?" All Might asked again, his gaze now focused on the Nomu's corpse.

Saitama was about to respond when he heard the voice of hand guy yet again. "You... cheated! Who the hell do you think you are—"

Saitama used his free hand to punch the air again, this time rocketing enough force into the blow to send hand guy flying through the side of the dome (and probably even further than that), but also accidentally shattering a large section of the dome and causing yet another tidal wave in the lake.

"Like that." Saitama replied, and then readjusted his grip on Eraserhead.

All Might gaped at him. "I... see... uhm—" The man cleared his throat. "Well, Eraserhead is obviously in need of medical attention. We should get him to a hospital as soon as possible. And where is 13?"

Saitama's face remained blank. Mostly cause he had no idea who 13 was.

"They got injured too," one of the kids hesitantly spoke up. "I think they're still at the top of the stairs..."

"If they were already unconscious, then I didn't touch them." Saitama responded. "You also might want to make sure that I didn't miss any students, I wasn't sure who was who."

All Might nodded and turned around, counting the students. "It seems we have everyone except young Iida, who is still on his way to UA. Though I suppose we don't need the backup anymore..." All Might said, before reaching into his pocket to pull out a phone.

Saitama tuned out the conversation from there, and before he knew it, paramedics were arriving to take Eraserhead and 13 to the hospital, and then a police officer was looking Saitama up and down, looking skeptical.

"I'm going to need your hero license." The man said.

Saitama blinked. "I don't... carry it with me?" He wasn't aware that he needed to carry his hero license like he did with a drivers license. Was this a new thing the Hero Association had decided to implement? Dammit, Genos, this is the sort of thing you should tell him about.

The police officer frowned, "Very well, I'll just look you up in the system. Name?"

"Saitama. Caped Baldy. Class B Rank 7." He filled in. Because he actually knew this stuff.

The officer looked at him weird, before slowly typing in the information, and then looking back up at Saitama. "What was your name again? Full name?"

"Saitama."

The officer sighed, "First and last."

"...Saitama."

The officer stared before sighing and typing it into the computer. "Sorry sir, but that name isn't in our registry."

"What?" He was pretty sure he was important enough to exist in the registry at this point. You know, after having stopped a meteor... and the Deep Sea King, and the alien invasion. But noooo, apparently not.

"What's your quirk?" The officer asked him.

Saitama stared. "I... don't know what that means." He decided on saying.

The officer stared right back at him, before taking off his hat and holding it down at his side. "Sir, may I ask, how did you get to the USJ?"

"Is that where I am?" He asked casually. "Well, I was fighting a monster, and then I appeared here."

"You appeared here." The man deadpanned.

Saitama nodded.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to come into the station with me."

Chapter End Notes

Update: I did write more (evident by the next chapter button) but for the love of god don't expect an update schedule from me.

Chapter 2

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

The room Saitama was placed in was dimly lit, with one singular yellow light shining above him, reflecting against the dull metal table he was sat at. The metal was cold, the chill seeping through the thin fabric of his costume, and the room was silent.

He'd been waiting for 15 minutes now.

Bored.

A video game or something would be nice, you know, just to pass the time with. The officer from earlier had put him in here and told him to wait.

Well, Saitama was waiting. Patiently.

What could be taking so long...?

Maybe they were having trouble with the clean up. Saitama personally liked to cook the monsters he killed, some of them were really tasty, plus it was free, but then again most of these monsters were much more human-like than the ones he ate for dinner.

His mind drifted off, thinking about what Genos might make for dinner tonight, and right as he was really getting into the daydream of a steaming hot, home cooked meal, the door to the room opened.

The officer from earlier walked in, nodding to Saitama as he approached. The man's large brown coat and hat were gone, reducing his outfit to a white button down and blue tie that hung loosely around his neck, having been pulled on a few too many times.

"Sorry that took so long, Mr. Saitama. I'm afraid we've been quite busy with everything that's happened today." The man sat down and held out a hand. "I'm Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi."

Saitama shook his hand. "You can just call me Saitama." He said blankly. What is it with people and giving him titles? Genos wants to call him Master, this guy wants to call him Mister. Why can't it ever just be Saitama?

"Okay then," Tsukauchi agreed, and set down a folder onto the metal table. "I'm going to need you to answer several questions regarding the incident at the USJ today as well as your identity. I've run your name through the official registry and asked the government for further help, but I'm afraid just Saitama isn't a name in it. Neither is anything else about you."

Saitama stared at him. "That's weird. I got promoted not that long ago, how did you manage to completely erase me since then?"

Tsukauchi sighed. "I don't think that's what happened. Mind if we back up? How did you get here?"

Saitama specifically remembered telling the man that he'd just appeared here, but he can say it again. "I appeared there."

"Yes, I know that. But how? What caused you to just appear in the middle of the USJ?" Tsukauchi questioned.

Saitama considered it for a moment, "Well, I was fighting a monster in City X, and I punched it, and then I was in the USJ."

Tsukauchi took that moment to pull a pen from the front pocket of his shirt, clicking it and beginning to write things down, "Continue. What happened once you got here?"

Saitama recapped that he watched Eraserhead and the hand guy fight, decided to intervene when the monster beat up Eraserhead, and then took care of the rest of the monsters when Eraserhead asked him to in order to protect the kids.

"You keep calling them monsters, and not villains." Tsukauchi stated.

Saitama paused. Villains? "Well I guess they were a lot more humanoid than the monsters I'm used to."

"What monsters are you used to exactly?"

"Well, the Demon Level kind usually. Or higher. Or lower. I'm not really picky."

"And what do you mean by Demon Level?"

At this point Saitama was getting the impression that either this was the dumbest police officer in the world, or something was really wrong here. Like come on, even Saitama knows what the levels of threats are. "...What city are we in currently?"

"Musutafu," Tsukauchi answered.

Saitama knew there was a City M, but there was no Musutafu. "I don't understand."

"I think I'm starting to," Tsukauchi sighed. "Saitama, do you believe it's possible you could have somehow crossed dimensions?"

Saitama briefly considered everything that's happened. "I mean, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen to me."

Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure if I sure be concerned by the fact that that was true or not."

Saitama cocked his head to the side in a silent question.

"Right, assuming that you're not from this world, then you may need some more explanation than most people." Tsukauchi started. "In this world, 80% of the population possesses a genetic superpower called a quirk. For example, mine is lie detector, which allows me to tell if someone is lying or not. Others could be the ability to generate water from their bodies or mutation quirks such as an extra set of arms or horns or something like that. Every quirk is different. As a result of the emergence of superpowers, heroes began to arise in order to combat people using their quirks for evil— we call those people villains— and since then heroism has become a profession. You appeared in the middle of a training session for a class of aspiring heroes that was attacked by villains, and it's safe to say that you saved those students' lives. Does that all make sense?"

Saitama nodded. It wasn't all that different from his world. They still had heroes and people with superpowers, but here the monsters were just people abusing their powers and not actual monsters.

"Okay great," Tsukauchi sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Let's keep going then."

"Okay," Saitama agreed, hands sitting in his lap to wait for more questions.

"Does your dimension have quirks?"

"Well… no. We do have people with superpowers, though." Saitama answered hesitantly. "Like I know a brat who's an esper. She can move things with her mind or whatever, if that counts."

"Yes, that counts. What is your superpower?"

"Uh… I don't have one." Saitama scratched the side of his face.

Tsukauchi gave him a blank stare. "You killed all of the villains that appeared at the USJ in a matter of seconds."

"Yeah well I am strong and fast, but that was just basic training. I used to be a normal guy." Saitama shrugged. "No superpowers here, just good ole muscles."

Tsukauchi looked up at the ceiling, as if hoping for some unknown god to smite him and save him from this conversation, before hunching over the table and putting his head in his hands.

"…you good?"

"Well. You're telling the truth. And I don't know how I feel about that. So no, probably not." Tsukauchi sighed, before raising his head just slightly in order to scribble more things into his notes.

"Oh. Well, that is really all I did." Saitama said.

"I know." Tsukauchi grunted, and then looked up at him. "Technically, killing all of the villains there is illegal and you should be charged for it, but since you're from another dimension, I'm not sure what to do with you."

"Maybe send me back home?" Saitama suggested helpfully.

"I wish it were that easy. At present, we don't know how you got here in the first place, much less how to put you back. You're going to have to remain in custody until we can figure out what to do."

"Oh." Saitama said. "Okay. Can I get like… a tv or something?"

Tsukauchi pulled more at his tie and stood up, "I'm sure we can arrange something for you. I'm going to go make a few phone calls and see what we can do for you as far as housing and research into ways to get you back to your dimension. Please wait here until then."

"Sure."

Tsukauchi nodded, and then left the room, leaving Saitama all alone again.

Ugh.

He was bored again.

Saitama fell asleep in the uncomfortable metal chair sometime between the point where Tsukauchi left and now. Which meant he had no idea how long he'd been here for, much less how long he'd been asleep for. Eh, not that it mattered.

What mattered was that a bear-mouse thing was sitting in front of him, smiling expectantly at him like Saitama held the secrets to the universe and the bear thing was about to crack him open like a coconut.

…bad metaphor but whatever. It was creepy as hell.

"Uh… hey." He said, sitting up straight and waving a hand awkwardly.

"Hello!" It greeted. "I'm Prinicpal Nedzu. I run UA High, the hero school whose students you saved earlier today."

"Oh, sweet." Saitama said, not at all taken aback by the fact that the bear mouse thing talked. He'd met weirder. "So what's up?"

"I have an offer for you." Nedzu grinned and then spread his paws out on the table in front of him. "You see, UA is a very prestigious school. Our students mean a lot to us and—"

"Can you condense this into 20 words or less?" Saitama cut in. He hated long rants and tragic backstories and whatever. Why couldn't people keep things short and sweet? Like jeez, he doesn't need to hear a verbal essay.

Nedzu paused, giving him a look. "Sure. I am offering you a job at UA High School as an assistant teacher."

"What? No." Saitama leaned back in his chair, shaking his head.

"Why not?"

"I'm a horrible teacher. And I don't need any more people calling me Master or Sensei or whatever." Saitama butted back. "Besides, I just want to go home."

"Ah yes. Of course." Nedzu said, nodding in understanding. "Well, as the Principal of UA, I have many connections. I'm sure amongst those connections, I could find you someone capable of sending you back to your dimension. But why would I do that when you won't agree to help me?"

Saitama's jaw opened slightly. Was— was this tiny little bear thing blackmailing him???

"Besides, you wouldn't actually be teaching. Rather, you'd just be an assistant, and more accurately, a bodyguard. Assuming the tales of your strength are true." Nedzu continued.

Saitama bit his lip, "If I agree to your job, you'll get be back to my dimension?"

"Well, I can't promise anything. But of all the people in the world, I am probably your best bet at finding someone with a quirk capable of sending you back home. At the very least, I can provide you with a comfortable place to live, food, money, and a television set."

Food? That's it. Saitama was in.

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Great!" Nedzu clapped his hands together. "I'll make the arrangements and have you at UA within the hour."

Saitama blinked. That fast, huh? Well, cool.

"Great. Thanks." He nodded.

Nedzu stood in a private room with Tsukauchi, the police officer visibly exhausted from a long day of work.

"You said he was telling the truth about his strength?" Nedzu asked calmly.

"Yes. All eyewitness accounts confrim it too. He's probably stronger than All Might."

Nedzu nodded. "He'll be a great asset to us then. With All Might's decreasing strength, Saitama may be the key to keeping the faith in hero society strong."

"Yeah…" Tsukauchi hummed. "But what about sending him back home? He probably has a family to get back to."

"I am well aware of that, and I will work to get him back home regardless of the benefits I think he can bring. But at present, there is no one alive with a reliable dimension traveling quirk. I am unsure we will be able to get him back home, which is why I am only looking ahead. With the situation All Might is currently in, the world will not have him to rely on for much longer. The way I see it, Saitama may just have to be the next Symbol of Peace, whether he likes it or not."

Chapter End Notes

Still don't know when the next chapter is gonna be, but I figured I'd update since I had this part done! Hope you guys liked it and I can't wait to see you in the 3rd chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

"Class, this is Saitama. He's our new assistant teacher." Eraserhead introduced, his tone bland, as if this were just another normal day for him.

Saitama stood to the side, and waved at the class of 20 students he had saved a few days prior. They all looked at him with wide eyes, clearly recognizing him from the USJ.

Saitama had been busy the past few days— Nedzu had brought him to UA as promised, and an empty room on the top floor had been fashioned into an apartment for him, fit with a small kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bathroom. He'd also been brought new clothes to wear so that he could wash his hero costume, which was nice. Oh, and the food.

God, the food.

Apparently, UA had a cooking hero. That man was a real hero. Saitama's mouth was watering just thinking about it.

Also, he was getting paid to work as an assistant teacher. He wasn't sure if the money would be at all useful once he got back home, but it was nice to actually have money for once in his life.

"WOAH YOU'RE THAT GUY!" A kid with red hair yelled, standing from his seat and pointing at Saitama.

"Uh… yeah." Saitama responded. "I work here now."

"Woah really?" Another kid, this time with blonde hair, asked. "That's super cool dude!"

"Have you always worked here and we just didn't know about it?" A girl with brown hair spoke up, looking confused.

"I've never seen him before…" Some kid with green hair muttered, looking down at a notebook on his desk.

"That's enough." Eraserhead cut in, silencing the class. "No more questions. You will each introduce yourselves and your quirks to Saitama, and then we will move on. Be quick about it, we have more pressing matters to attend to today."

Wow. Even with his body covered in bandages, Eraserhead was really good at keeping his students in line. That was impressive.

Saitama figured the guy was just cool all the time. Battlefield, classroom, doesn't matter. Eraserhead will always be cool in his book.

"Aoyama, you start." Eraserhead sighed, and then took a step back.

Another blond kid stood up, "Bonjour. I am Yuga Aoyama. My quirk is Navel Laser. Pleasure to meet you!"

Saitama nodded, and then promptly forgot the kid's name.

They went through the rest of the class swiftly, and Saitama did actually manage to remember a few names, so yay! He's not completely hopeless when it comes to names, right?

"Alright, now that that's done. Let's move on." Eraserhead said once the last student had introduced themself. "In two weeks, the Sports Festival will start."

…the what now?

The kids seemed to have a pretty good idea of what Eraserhead was talking about, as they all started excitedly talking about it and one kid even yelled, "Ah yeah! Let's go kick some ass!"

To which red haired kid— Uh… Kiri… Kiris… ah whatever— got slapped in the face by Kami…nori? Oh this was harder than he thought it would be.

"Is it really a good idea to hold the Sports Festival so soon after an attack on UA?" Earphone girl asked.

"Apparently the administration thinks this is a good way to show that the threat has been handled and that UA is stronger than ever. Plus, we'll be beefing up security as compared to past years." Eraserhead explained, and then turned slightly towards Saitama, probably gesturing to him as best as he could with his arms wrapped in casts.

"Oh right. That's me. I'm the security." Saitama said dumbly.

Todoroki (Saitama remembered this guy. Hard to forget the split hair) squinted. "I realize you are quite powerful, but surely you can't be expected to guard the entire stadium by yourself."

"There will be other heroes there as well, but Saitama will likely be the strongest hero present, aside from All Might himself, of course." Eraserhead grunted.

"Woah All Might's gonna be there!?!" Several students exclaimed, and the train of conversation completely left the topic of Saitama, which was great because he did not feel comfortable trying to explain his role in a topic he had no information on.

"Hey, uh… Mr. Saitama?" A squeaky voice asked behind him and Saitama turned to find several of the students looking at him expectantly. The one that had talked was… Midoriya… right?

"Just Saitama." He said. Again with the Mister…

"Oh! Okay, uh… Saitama. Well I was wondering about your quirk, see, you took down those villains at the USJ so quickly, but you don't look all that impressive. What exactly is your quirk? A strength augmenting type? Or some sort of power related… is it kinda like All Might's or…" The kid's voice got faster and quieter the more he talked.

"Uh kid—"

"Itmustbeincrediblypowerfulsinceyoutookdownmostofthosevillainswithonepuncheachand —"

"Will you shut up?" He snapped.

"Oh!" The kid jumped, head snapping upwards. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to—"

Saitama rubbed at his temples. Don't snap at the tiny kid… don't snap at the tiny kid… just follow the cover story that Detective Tsukauchi told you to follow… just follow the…

"Whatever. My quirk is a body enhancement quirk. It means I'm super strong and fast and nearly invulnerable. I've also done a lot of training the last few years in order to enhance that." Saitama said, reciting the line Tsukauchi had told him nearly word for word. "Happy now?"

"Oh yes, thank you! So how strong are you—"

"Will you shut up, Deku?" The angry blond one snapped from where he stood at the back of the group of students crowding him. "No one wants to hear your damn rambling."

"R—right. Sorry." 'Deku' said, shrinking in one himself.

"Wait…" Saitama scratched at his head. "Your name is Deku?"

"Nono, it's Izuku Midoriya! Only Kacchan—er, Bakugou— calls me Deku…" The kid corrected.

"Oh. Okay." Saitama said. Midoriya… Midoriya… don't forget it…

"Besides, Deku. You're not asking the real questions here." Bakugou grunted.

"And what's that?" The red head… Kiri… ugh… asked.

Bakugou pointed at Saitama's head, "Where the fuck did his hair go?"

Don't snap at the kid… don't snap at the kid— fuck—

"WATCH IT!" He snapped, seething in rage.

One of the kids… the one with weird elbows… snorted. "I bet he lost all of his hair for his power. Wouldn't that be unfortunate."

Saitama rounded on the tape kid, "You little!"

"That's not the real question, dude." Kaminari jutted in, laughing. "The real one is why his hero costume is so lame. I mean look at it!"

"My costume is not lame!" Saitama gaped, enraged that these little shits would even—

"That's enough." A stern voice cut in and they all turned to see Eraserhead glaring at them. "You all, stop harassing Saitama. He saved your lives, you should be grateful. Saitama, come with me."

The students immediately stopped laughing and sulked away, leaving Saitama alone in his mild fury.

"Stop pouting." Eraserhead said, walking past Saitama, clearly expecting him to follow.

He was not pouting! He was… rightfully offended. A bunch of first years just called his outfit lame and insulted his lack of hair. He had every right to be—

"Are you coming?" Eraserhead asked, still walking.

Saitama huffed and followed.

"Today, we'll be testing the range of your strength in one of our outdoor training facilites. This will help us get a better gauge on your powers and how you can help us." Eraserhead explained.

…somehow Saitama got the feeling that they didn't actually want him to punch as hard as he could. You know. Cause that would be bad.

"You'll also be officially meeting the rest of UA's staff. As of right now, you've only met a few members— Nedzu, myself, All Might, and Lunch Rush. The vast majority of UA's teachers are heroes, and you'll be meeting most of them today."

"Oh, sweet." Saitama answered. "So, do you guys have rankings like they do in my world?"

Eraserhead grunted. "Yes, somewhat. For example, All Might is the number one hero in Japan. I am an unranked hero, because I purposefully chose to work out of the spotlight. There are thousands of heroes in Japan, so it's difficult to reach the higher numbers unless you are really good. Most of UA's staff are heroes in the 300-700 range, ranking wise."

Saitama nodded. "All Might must be really strong then."

"Yes. But his power has been decreasing lately. That's something you shouldn't tell anyone though."

Saitama cocked his head to the side, "Why? Is it a secret?"

"Yes. All Might is the Symbol of Peace, a pillar for hero society. It's best if it's kept a secret that he isn't as strong as he used to be." Eraserhead grunted.

"Oh… so your society relies on strong heroes as well." Saitama hummed. "Well, at least I didn't get thrown into a world where everything is wildly different. At least here, things feel a little normal."

"Uh huh." Eraserhead replied, noncommittally. "We're almost there."

They walked through a large set of doors and into a fake city, where a group of heroes awaited them.

Saitama recognized All Might and Nedzu immediately, but the rest of the group was new. There was a woman in a skintight outfit, some guy with hair like a cockatoo, the guy who looked like a walking block of cement, the cowboy, some buff guy in a skin tight costume, and a tiny dude in a yellow robot suit. All of these people were teachers at the school, apparently.

He waved to them, "Hey."

They greeted him in return, and introduced themselves. Midnight, Present Mic, Cementoss, Snipe, Vlad King, and Powerloader. At least their names were pretty easy to remember) and they all seemed nice. None of them were annoying brats, at least (still looking at you, Tornado).

Saitama figured that most of the heroes here would be Class A or B ranked, with All Might clearly being S Class, but he really wasn't sure of their quirks or power range, so they all could be S Class worthy as well.

"Alright!" Nedzu clapped his paws together. "Now that we've all gotten acquainted, let's move on to the real task for today. Saitama, we'd like to get a gauge on your powers in this controlled environment so that we can make full use of your abilities in your time here at UA, should a situation arise that we need you, that is."

"Sure," he responded. "Just tell me what to punch."

One of the teachers chuckled, and then Present Mic stepped forward.

"I like your excitement listener!" He cheered, and then gestured to the fake city. "We're going to deploy about 20 robots— we like to call them 0 pointers, cause that's what they're worth in the Entrance Exam— and you'll just take them down to the best of your ability. If you can't or feel like you're in danger, feel free to wave your hands erratically and we'll stop the test. Sound good?"

What in the world is the point of having robots worth nothing in the entrance exam, was the question he wanted to ask. But then he decided against asking it.

"Uh, what's your opinion on property damage?" Saitama asked instead.

"Well, we're more concerned about testing the range of your abilities—"

"Try and keep it to a minimum," Eraserhead cut in. "In this world, heroes have to pay for any damages they cause."

They do????

Well… shit.

Saitama nodded. "Punch the robots, try not to blow up the rest of the city. Can't promise that last one, but I'll do my best."

Snipe made an odd noise, before Nedzu clapped his paws again and all the teachers cleared out, leaving Saitama alone in the training center.

After Saitama obliterated three robots with a single punch, Present Mic accepted that his jaw had become one with the floor for the foreseeable future and nothing would change that.

The 0-pointers were nothing to laugh at— taller than a three story building and full of plenty of firepower— but Saitama looked… bored. It was as if these robots were like ants to him or something.

Mic turned his head to face Aizawa, who was still wrapped in bandages from his beat down at the USJ. He'd been worried that Aizawa had been delusional from the head damage when

he'd explained what Saitama had done, but it was clear to him now that Aizawa had been fine, and it was just that Saitama was that powerful.

Nedzu had mentioned off handedly before they'd come to the battle center that Saitama might be stronger than All Might, but now it was clear. Saitama wasn't even just a little bit stronger, he was exponentially so. And it almost looked like he was holding back— probably trying to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, like Aizawa had asked him to.

Insanity.

"So… he doesn't have a quirk right? Like, in his cover story he does, but for real…" Midnight trailed off.

"That's correct. According to Saitama, this power is a result of strength training."

"No way…" Power Loader mumbled.

Three minutes had passed since the start of the exercise, and all the 0-Pointers had been reduced to smithereens, leaving nothing but scattered wires and shards of metal everywhere. It was the most effective beat down of the robots Mic had ever seen.

"How did you do that?" All Might asked, having switched into his tiny form, exhausted from pushing his limits that day in order to greet Saitama. "That is, how did you get so strong? Surely you didn't just—"

"I exercise." Saitama replied simply.

"You…"

Saitama stepped forward and poked All Might in this face, "Are you All Might? But like… deflated?"

All Might huffed, "Yes. This is the form I take outside of my hero persona."

"Woah… freaky."

Mic snorted. "I think Mighty's just jealous that you're like, totally stronger than him." He teased.

"What? No I'm not." All Might retorted.

"Well, I think it's quite clear that Saitama is plenty powerful and a good choice as protection for our students." Nedzu cut it, right before Mic got to start teasing All Might about how totally jealous he was.

Prinicipal Nedzu turned towards Saitama. "Although I am sure that no villains will try to attack the Sports Festival after the destruction you brought upon the last group that tried to attack UA, for the reassurance of the students, their families, and the public, you will be one of the heroes on security detail for the Sports Festival. In the meantime, we will do our best to get you accustomed to the ways of our world and to your new job as a teacher here."

"Woo!" Powerloader cheered and they all chuckled.

"It's great to have you man," Mic said, and clapped Saitama on the back. "Welcome to UA High."

Chapter End Notes

In summary: Saitama: *punch* Mic: :0

Chapter 4

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

The cheering could be heard no matter where you were in the stadium, Saitama quickly found out. In some places, it was like a low rumble, and others, a deafening roar.

The first event had just finished, leaving two more events before the fesitval ended. Saitama had been given a badge that read "SECURITY" in bright blue letters and told to patrol the stadium and look for any possible villains.

………..not that he would know what those would look like.

For all he knows, that girl over there with the rhinoceros horn on her head could be a villain. How the hell is he supposed to tell the difference?

On the screen above his head, the students that had passed the first round of the Sports Festival had all formed into groups for the second round— which was called the Calvary Battle. Saitama grunted and kept walking, eyes scanning the crowds of people buying snacks and merchandise, looking for any potential villains.

This was boring. He almost wanted a fight to go down, just so he could do something.

Saitama continued wandering around the stadium, ignoring the television screens around him and the shouts of the crowd in favor of delving into a daydream about a massive group of Demon Level threats attacking the Sports Festival. Threats so strong that none of the heroes present— not Bakugou with his explosions, or All Might with his fists, or Present Mic with his screaming— could take them down. No… everything would be left to Saitama, who would deal with swarms of threats all by himself in this super epic battle, with an entire crowd of people cheering him on—

His stomach growled, cutting off his daydream right as he was about to take down the big bad monster with a totally epic series of punches.

Saitama sighed and dug around in his pockets for some money, deciding to get some food before he returned to patrolling. There were soft pretzels being sold at one of the shops… mmm… that sounds good. And maybe he should get a big soda to go with that…

Down in the arena, Todoroki Shoto, Iida Tenya, Yaoyorozu Momo, and Kaminari Denki won first place for the second round of the Sports Festival.

"Huh, guess the event just ended." Saitama commented, hearing the roar of the crowd even louder than it had been earlier, and then looked back down at where the exhausted worker was handing him his food. "Thanks, man."

Saitama ambled away, sipping on his large drink, eyes scanning for villains he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to tell apart from everyone else here.

"Next up! From Class 1-A it's Sero Hanta versus, also from Class 1-A, it's Todoroki Shotoooooo~" Present Mic announced, and the crowd went wild.

The building shook tremendously and Saitama nearly choked on his drink. Villain attack? That was a villain attack right? That had to be.

He chugged the rest of his drink and then ran off, looking for the villains who had attacked the Sports Festival.

Saitama reached the main arena in a matter of seconds, standing amongst the crowd to see if he could spot the villains from there only to find…

…no villains. Just Todoroki Shoto. And his glacier of ice.

"NICE TRY!" The crowd started chanting— probably to make the guy who had just gotten turned into a human popsicle feel better.

Saitama deflated, disappointed that he wouldn't get a fight today, and turned away.

After that, Saitama started ignoring it when the stadium shook. He was probably completely failing at his job, but unless a bunch of panicked screaming started happening to clue him in, there was no way for him to tell the difference between a legitimate attack and Bakugou going apeshit in the arena.

Saitama caught sight of merchandise for some hero named Edgeshot who looked kinda cool as he walked by, hearing the announcement of "Next up: Midoriya Izuku versus Todoroki Shoto!" play over the loudspeakers.

Ugh. Todoroki was back up again.

Saitama kept walking.

Midoriya versus Todoroki was going on for a long time.

Oh, and Saitama had to go to the bathroom.

So he went and found the restrooms.

Over the speakers, Saitama heard the announcement that Todoroki had won the match. He flushed the toilet and moved to exit the stall.

Halfway out the door, he felt a pull from behind him.

"Huh?" He grunted, and turned. Oh no. His cape. Not his cape…

His cape was stuck in the door.

Saitama reached for where the fabric was caught in the hinge, and started to gently tug it from the metal. Gently, being the key word there. Because he only had the one cape with him in this dimension and he couldn't rip it no matter what. He would sooner blast apart this bathroom stall than rip his cape.

Bakugou sent a series of blasts at Kirishima's face, weakening his opponent's defenses until Kirishima couldn't withstand the explosions anymore.

Hah, another victory.

Saitama had managed to work a small section of his cape out of the hinge.

People passed him in the bathrooms, taking widesteps around the angry looking hero with his cape stuck in the door.

Iida Tenya had almost won. He'd been so close to throwing Todoroki out of bounds. But not close enough. He'd failed.

His phone went to voicemail, the familiar voice of his brother saying that he was out on a mission and to call him back later.

Saitama was this fucking close to punching the bathroom door in order to free his cape.

He was close to getting it free, he could tell, but the longer he stood there, gently trying to free his cape from the confines of the metal hinge, the more his patience was tested. It would be so much easier to just destroy the door entirely.

The only thing that stopped him was Eraserhead's voice in his mind saying that heroes had to pay for any property damage they caused. Saitama wasn't sure if that applied here, but he was pretty sure that he didn't have enough money to pay for the bathroom and didn't want to potentially have to do that.

"HOWITZER IMPACT!" Bakugou screamed, his massive explosion shaking the stadium. He hit the ground, unable to land properly on his feet due to the aftershock of the explosion, the sounds ringing in his ears.

He looked up as the smoke cleared.

No…

"Hey," He grunted, and pulled himself to his feet. "Hey! You put out your flames!" He ran at Todoroki and lifted him by the collar of his shirt, enraged. "Stop screwing around! This isn't a proper victory! Get up and… and…"

A sweet scent filled his lungs, and he hit the ground.

"Todoroki Shoto is out of bounds! Bakugou Katsuki wins!" Midnight announced.

FINALLY

His cape was free!

That took forever… but it's free now and he can go back to patrolling!

"And that concludes the fights for this year's UA Sports Festival!" Present Mic's voice rang throughout the stadium. "Stay tuned for the medal awarding ceremony! We have a very special guest presenting the medals today!"

Wait… had… had he missed the entire Sports Festival?

Saitama frowned. Sure, he'd taken his time with getting his cape unstuck— you know, cause he liked that thing and only had one of it in this dimension— but to have missed the entire last half of the Sports Festival to a door hinge?

Unrealistic. He doesn't believe it. He needs a better author.

After the Sports Festival, Nedzu called him to his office. Saitama was 90% sure the bear rat thing had seen the security footage of him spending the last half of the sports festival trying to get his cape unstuck from the door totally doing his job and wanted to talk to him about it.

But when he walked in the office, he found Deflated Might sitting there as well. Wait… that didn't have a good ring to it. Maybe Skelemight? Or Small Might? Or…

"Ah Saitama, I'm glad you could join us." All Might greeted. "Please, come sit. Nedzu made tea."

Saitama wasn't sure if he trusted tea that was made by a bear rat thing, but… chances were it wouldn't kill him.

He sat down and accepted the cup of tea Nedzu handed him. "So, what's this about?"

"This meeting is regarding looking into ways to get you back home." Nedzu said simply. "You see, after extensive research, I have found that there are no quirks held by living people capable of crossing dimensions."

"Oh." Saitama said. "Well, that sucks."

"Mmm, yes, it does. That means we'll have to resort to other methods to attempt to bring you back home. All Might and I were just discussing the possibility of meeting up with an old friend of his— a scientist. He may be able to build a device capable of bringing you home, since it seems we won't be able to rely on any quirks."

Saitama nodded slowly. "What's the dude's name?"

"David Shield," All Might replied. "He's my best friend, I'm sure he'll do everything in his power to try and get you back to your dimension."

"Sounds helpful. When can I meet him?"

Nedzu leaned forward, "Quite soon, we hope. Starting next week, UA students in the hero course will be attending internships alongside pro heroes. That will give you a week of time to meet with Mr Shield and explain the situation, as well as begin working on ways to help you."

"Cool. So next week then. That's pretty soon." Saitama nodded, taking a sip of his tea.

"Yes, we're hoping to start as soon as possible. Despite the fact that we are doing our best to get you home by contacting Mr Shield, please be aware that he may be unable to build such a device, or that it could take years for him to do so. This is not a guaranteed solution to our problem, but rather a proposed one."

"Yeah, okay." Saitama said. "As long as we try."

"Hey hey!" A loud voice that was very distinctly Present Mic's called from behind him. Saitama turned, curious. "We've been looking for you!"

Next to him, was Midnight. They both smiled and waved at him.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Well, we have a proposition for you." Present Mic said, walking closer but speaking no less loudly. "See, Nemuri, Shouta, and I have this tradition. After the sports festival each year, we

go out for drinks and stuff. But Shouta said no— ya know, cause he's got all of those bandages and broken bones and stuff and shouldn't go out drinking in that state."

"But that means we're a man down," Midnight sighed.

"So we're inviting you! Call it a bonding experience! We can all get to know each other!" Present Mic continued, a bright grin on his face. "What do ya say?"

Saitama considered it. It's not like he had much else to do. Chances were, the only thing that would be on tv tonight would be reruns of the Sports Festival, so no point in watching that. And it's not like Genos or King were here to hang out with either. So…

"Sure. Should I get changed?"

"Yeah!" Midnight grinned. "We don't go out drinking in our hero costumes, that would be unprofessional. Put on your sexiest outfit, and me and Hizashi will pick you up at 8, 'kay?"

Saitama blinked. He didn't have that many outfits… much less a sexy one. "Uh sure. I'll meet you outside at 8 then."

The two pro heroes cheered in excitement and then turned back around and went down the hallway they'd come from, apparently having completed their mission.

Saitama turned his own direction and walked towards the staircase that would lead him to his temporary room at UA, his mind absently playing daydreams of going drinking not just with Present Mic and Midnight, but with his friends from home as well.

He shook his head, dispelling the thoughts, and kept walking. He'd already learned in the last two and a half weeks of being in this dimension that thinking about home wasn't fun. It was best if he just focused on what he could do for now, in this dimension, and at the moment, that was go put on his sexiest outfit.

Chapter End Notes

Random note: the demon level threat daydream is actually a reference to my first plot notes regarding how this chapter was going to go down. I realized upon writing it that it makes no sense for a bunch of monsters from Saitama's world to come crash the party so I reworked the entire chapter into what you see now, but I put in the small reference to my stupidity cause I found it amusing.

Chapter 5

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

"Master…" Tomura Shigaraki hissed, body still sore from the many treatments he'd undergone from the Doctor in order to repair himself. "That brat ruined my plan. He killed Nomu, damn near almost killed me and Kurogiri, and we got nothing out of it. All Might isn't dead. He didn't even show up until the end, and by then it was already game over. What the hell am I supposed to do now?" He reached up with shaky hands, and began scratching erratically at the skin of his neck.

"Calm down, Tomura." Sensei's voice spoke from the screen. "The arrival of that man was not something you—or I—could have anticipated."

"Obviously," Shigaraki hissed. "Doesn't make it any less annoying. I hate him. I want to watch him fall apart under my quirk. But he killed Nomu in a split second—like he was squashing a bug. That sort of strength…"

"Would be excellent to obtain, wouldn't it?" Sensei cut in, his smile audible in his words.

"Yes… it would," Shigaraki said, hands coming to a halt. "It would be very useful."

"In that case, what do you propose we do?" Sensei's voice was calm, guiding.

"I say we steal that bastard's quirk and use it to tear hero society down to the very studs," Shigaraki grinned underneath Father.

"Mm, yes. I agree. But we have to be smart about this, Tomura. He took out all of the disposable thugs you brought with you to the USJ in a matter of seconds. How do you expect me to take his quirk if I can't even get close to him?"

Shigaraki resists the urge to tell Sensei that he was probably stronger than whoever that brat was. "I suppose… we'd need thugs who aren't disposable. People with strong quirks."

"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. I have a good idea for a starting place as well. Why don't you and Kurogiri look into teaming up with the Hero Killer Stain?"

"Yes, Master."

"Ah hello," the man greeted. "I'm David Shield, but my friends just call me Dave."

"Hey. I'm Saitama," he returned.

"And I'm Prinipal Nedzu!" Nedzu exclaimed from where he sat on Saitama's shoulder. "But you both knew that!"

"Uh… yeah. We did. Can you get off of me now?"

"Nope! You offer the perfect viewing height!"

Saitama squinted, fairly sure that wasn't true. "Whatever. Can we just get started?"

"Sure thing," Dave said, gesturing for Saitama to follow him. "So I think I should start with asking a few questions about where you are from exactly and how you got here. That should be the best way to go about trying to figure out how to get you back home."

Saitama nodded, and then began explaining the situation he'd been in that had brought him here.

In an alleyway in Hosu City, three UA students fought for their lives against the Hero Killer. The Hero Killer, who had recently met up with the League of Villains. The League of Villains, who had just released several Nomu loose on the same city in retaliation for Stain rejecting them and calling them weak.

The end of the week came about, and Saitama was fairly sure that Dave and Nedzu had gotten a grand total of nowhere with their research. It was just a hunch.

But he was pretty sure he was right with his assumption, given the exasperated way Dave pointed at the fifty, wildly different blueprints in varying degrees of a mental breakdown.

Nedzu had said it could take years. To Saitama, that felt like a lifetime.

Oh well. Not much he could to about it. As long as the two geniuses kept working at it, he would have to be content. It's not like he knew anything helpful about inter dimensional portal building.

"Wait. What happened?" Saitama asked, looking at Eraserhead—whose bandages had been removed, yay!—in absolute confusion.

"Todoroki, Iida, and Midoriya were all attacked by a villain known as the Hero Killer in Hosu City. All three have been in the hospital for the past couple of days."

Saitama fumed. He didn't know the kids that well, having only interacted with them via either getting roasted or handing out papers to them, but that didn't mean he didn't care about

them somewhat.

Anyone who hurts his friends—or students, in this case—gets punched. Seriously.

"They will all be alright though," Eraserhead said next. "Our school nurse has a powerful healing quirk, the same one that fixed me up most of the way, and has healed them. Also, the villain that attacked the students was captured by the number two hero, Endeavor, and is now in custody."

Saitama was still furious, but at least now he wasn't mentally figuring out the quickest way to get to wherever the hell Hosu was in order to pummel the shit out of the Hero Killer.

Besides. He'd been told that he wasn't supposed to kill villains in this dimension. If the Hero Killer was in custody, then that meant Saitama could take a deep breath and not commit a murder today.

"How injured were they?"

"They each had a fair deal of stab wounds. Iida got the worst of it," Eraserhead reported. "But once again, they're all fine. They will be getting a lecture from me though on why first years are not supposed to go after villains on their own."

"I'm sure," Saitama commented, and his gaze drifted out the window. "So, what do students do after the hero internships?"

"They'll have a few weeks to prepare, but their final exams are coming. The teachers will be hosting a meeting to determine if we should change the exam this year or not."

"Change it? Why would you change it?"

Eraserhead sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "The first years this year have faced… unique challenges. We need our exam to match not only those challenges, but the growth they have gone through as a result."

"What is the exam?"

"Right now, it's similar to the entrance exam or the test you took. Students would be fighting robots. Despite how much genius is behind the robots, they are not as smart or as adaptable to change as a human. Plus, they don't have quirks."

Saitama could think of a couple of robots that he knew that were both smart and quite quirky. But he didn't bother bringing them up.

"Huh. So what's the potential new exam then?"

"You'll hear about it in the meeting," Eraserhead grunted.

"I— what?" Saitama balked.

"You're an assistant teacher, Saitama. And even though you have no teaching experience, the term teacher is still in the job title. That means you come to teacher meetings."

Saitama blinked. "Oh. Gross."

"Certainly."

Saitama had absolutely, positively, completely spaced out.

Fun fact: teacher meetings are boring. At least at Hero Association meetings, they're usually talking about the end of the world. Right now, it's just Eraserhead and Vlad King reading out which students should go against which hero.

"Saitama—"

"No."

They all turned.

Eraserhead sighed. "Saitama—"

"Nope. Let All Might do it." Saitama shook his head, not even letting Eraserhead finish.

Eraserhead sighed again, burying his head deep into his scarf. "Saitama, as a teacher here—"

"Assistant teacher," he corrected.

Eraserhead's capture weapon snapped across the table and wrapped Saitama up in it's surprisingly strong hold. Was this thing really a scarf?

"Saitama," Eraserhead growled. "You are employed here, and that means you have to do things even if you don't want to. So listen to what I have to say."

Saitama looked up at Eraserhead, not scared… but a little intimidated. If he were anyone else, he'd probably shit himself. But Saitama had faced down monsters and aliens before, so he kept it together.

Still… Eraserhead was definitely more scary than any of the beasts he'd faced before. Was this some sort of side quirk?

The capture weapon returned to it's place on Eraserhead's shoulders. "As I was saying. All students will be participating in 2v1 battles against the teachers, but I am proposing an extra section of the practical exam as well. I want to see what a group of 10, or even all 20, students will do when faced with overwhelming force."

Saitama really wanted to protest right now.

"That's very interesting," Nedzu spoke up. "So you're suggesting having the entire class go up against Saitama as an extra test?"

"Yes. I doubt we would count it as an actual score, but rather, I want to see if they can pull together even when faced with certain defeat," Eraserhead said. "From what I've seen of my class, I think having them attempt to face Saitama will be good for their character. They think themselves stronger than they really are and they need to be put in check."

Saitama stared blankly. Seriously?

"Uh, do I get a say in this?" He asked, raising a hand.

"Of course," Nedzu said.

"Great. Cause I don't think this is a good idea. I don't want to kill any kids," Saitama reasoned. "Monsters? Sure. Kids? No thanks. Like, don't get me wrong, Bakugou is a brat, but I still don't want to kill him."

"You would have to adjust your fighting strategy," Eraserhead nodded. "But you need to learn to do that anyways. We can't have you going around killing villains either."

Saitama blinked. What, so he was supposed to practice restraint on children?

"You'd be playing the villain," Present Mic spoke up. "Which means you can cause as much property damage as you want here. You wouldn't be hitting them directly, but rather hitting buildings or something. As long as you don't completely obliterate them, Recovery Girl should be able to heal them."

That wasn't very reassuring.

"I still think I should sit this one out…" he grumbled.

Midnight sighed. "As teachers to future heroes, it is our responsibility to train them to the best of our abilities. If they were to face a villain with Saitama's strength outside of training, they'd die. But maybe, if they had practice beforehand, they'd at least stand a chance."

No. Just no.

Also, were they guilt tripping him into making him think he would be helping the kids??

"Saitama, would you be able to provide a proper fight for them without killing anyone?"

Saitama thought back to his spar against Genos, and slumped in his chair. "I guess?"

"Great!" Nedzu clapped his paws together. "In that case, I think that's settled. We will have each class go against Saitama as a group, in order to test their teamwork skills and how they react when faced with a villain far stronger than them. In addition, I suggest we add rescue dummies to that portion of the test, so that they can be tested on what they've learned in their rescue exercises as well!"

Several teachers nodded their approval. Saitama debated throwing himself out the window.

The first two days of final exams were the written portions. Saitama frankly was having flashbacks to his exam for the Hero Assocation that he'd somehow failed (Just saying, all of his answers had been correct! What do you do when there's _? You punch it. What do you do if _ is happening? Punch that too. Honestly, it's not that difficult).

After that, were the 2v1 practical exams. Saitama watched as the students were paired up together and then assigned a teacher. Saitama was interested in Eraserhead versus Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, curious to see Eraserhead back in action. He was also excited to watch All Might versus Bakugou and Midoriya, if only to see what this world's number one hero could do.

Each of the fights were relatively interesting at least. Cementoss was a lot stronger than Saitama initially gave him credit for, Nedzu was absolutely terrifying and should never be allowed within 50 meters of a wrecking ball ever again, Midnight was thwarted by a grape, Ectoplasm's massive clone was actually kinda cool and Saitama was surprised when Tokoyami and Asui passed that particular exam, Present Mic's vocal chords were a force to be reckoned with and Saitama was 90% sure that Mic could've leveled that entire forest if he'd tried hard enough, and as far as the fights that he was looking forward to went…

Well Eraserhead was cool as always. No doubt about that. The way he used that scarf never failed to amaze Saitama, but there was also a level of care to the hero that Saitama had been made well aware of ever since he'd first met that man at the USJ. Aizawa was more focused on helping his students than trying his hardest to fail them. The entire exam was a lesson in teamwork and confidence for Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, and Saitama was legitimately impressed that Aizawa had managed to provide a good fight for his students while also teaching them. Saitama mentally took notes for whenever he saw Genos next.

And then there was All Might. Saitama understood why the other teachers and students had so much respect for his strength. Saitama had seen his strong form several times before now, but watching the hero punch once and blow out an entire block was impressive. He hadn't seen that sort of strength in this world before… it reminded him of himself.

Even though Saitama was impressed by All Might's strength, he couldn't help but remember All Might's weak form. No matter how strong All Might is, he isn't invincible and all-

powerful. He isn't Saitama.

The most impressive part of the 2v1 practical exams was that Bakugou and Midoriya actually managed to get their shit together long enough to pass.

Saitama took to his assistant teacher duties after that, giving each student water and either congratulating them on passing or attempting to tell them what they needed to do to win next time.

"Thanks, Saitama…" Midoriya grunted as he took a bottle of water from Saitama's hands. "I know Recovery Girl already healed me but I still feel like I got hit by a truck…"

"You'll feel better soon," Saitama responded, hoping that was the right thing to say. He didn't really get hurt much anymore… so he wasn't entirely sure what to say. "Just drink a lot of water. You'll need to be ready for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Midoriya asked. "What's tomorrow?"

"You have another practical exam to take," Saitama said slowly, realizing that the students hadn't been told about the extra fight. Oh no…

"We do?" Midoriya squeaked. "But—we barely passed this one!"

Saitama nodded. "Don't worry. You're not expected to win tomorrow's exam."

"Wh…what?" Midoriya asked, eyes wide in alarm and confusion.

"Just drink that water and get some rest," Saitama said, patting Midoriya on the shoulder. "You'll need it."

He turned away from Midoriya, who was visibly very confused, and wandered back to where the cooler was, passing Todoroki on the way, who was staring at his hands, looking like he was deep in thought.

"You alright?" He asked after a minute or two, concerned. No one should stare at their hands for that long.

Todoroki snapped to attention, looking at him with wide eyes like he'd just been caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar. "Uh… yes. Everything's fine. I've just been… thinking."

"Thinking, huh? What about?"

"…Myself, I guess," Todoroki said, and then clenched his left fist.

"…Okay," Saitama said, and then turned to keep walking.

"Saitama," Todoroki's voice spoke up. Saitama turned around.

Todoroki was still staring at his left fist as if it had personally offended him. "I… I was raised by the number two hero to surpass him—to surpass All Might. He was awful to me… to my family, and I refused to use my fire. But recently Midoriya convinced me that it's okay to use it… that it's my power. And I am, I'm using it. But sometimes I'm forced to realize that it's not just my fire that I got from him… and it disgusts me."

Saitama blinked. Oh god, was this a tragic backstory that he was being forced to listen to?

"What do I do? When I see something I hate in myself? How do I get rid of it?"

"…Well," Saitama started, not wanting to be the one asked about this. "What was it that you noticed?"

"Today, during the exam. I just started ordering Yaoyorozu around, without asking her opinion, and—I was acting like him."

"Okay. Well. Don't order people around."

Todoroki looked up at him, visibly confused by the answer.

Saitama figured he should explain his reasoning some more. Only issue: he didn't have any reasoning. He'll just have to improvise this wise teacher thing… "When you notice something that you do that is like something your father does, just don't do it anymore. Once you notice it and call yourself out on it, it'll be much easier for you to catch yourself in the future."

Todoroki nodded slowly, lowing his hand. "I see. Thank you for your advice."

Holy shit that worked. "You're welcome, kid. Make sure you get plenty of rest tonight, you have another exam tomorrow."

"We do?" Todoroki asked.

"Yep," Saitama responded, noting that it wasn't just Midoriya who hadn't been informed, but everyone. He hurried down the hall before Todoroki could ask anymore questions.

"Hey Bakugou," he said, walking into the room where Bakugou had woken up about five minutes ago from the nap Recovery Girl had placed him under so he could heal. "I brought you water.'

"I don't need it," Bakugou huffed.

"You threw up during your exam because All Might punched you," Saitama deadpanned. "Water, drink it."

Bakugou huffed and snatched the water out of Saitama's hand. "Alright fine. Just leave me alone, baldy."

Saitama twitched. "Alright, brat, I didn't choose to be bald—"

"I don't give a shit, just leave me alone," Bakugou growled, and took a sip of his water, red eyes glaring at Saitama the entire time.

"Okay. See ya," Saitama said, and then turned around and left. At least Bakugou didn't try to spew his tragic backstory to him or anything.

The next day, all of Class 1-A were lined up in the park section of one of UA's makeshift cities. Saitama stood with Aizawa, staring down the nervous children.

"Uh… so is anyone going to tell us what's happening?" Kaminari asked, looking around nervously at his classmates and teachers.

"Today, all twenty of you will be participating in the final portion of your exam," Aizawa spoke up.

"Wait, I thought we were done with exams?" Kirishima spoke up.

"Normally, you would be. However, it was decided in the process of changing this year's exam that we will add a secondary section to the practical exam."

"Alright, so what's the exam?" Bakugou grunted, his wrists void of the massive gauntlets that he usually wore with his hero costume—said gauntlets having been destroyed in his first exam.

"Today you will be tested on rescue skills. Throughout this city, there are a total of 150 realistic rescue dummies for you to bring to safety. They all have devices on them meant to act as life simulation systems. For example, each one has a simulated heartbeat monitor on it, simulated blood running through it, and can be injured. If the dummy is hurt too much, the monitor will flatline and you will have failed to save a life. Treat them as if they are real people, comfort them, treat wounds with first aid, and get them to safety like you would with a real person."

The students all nodded and Saitama got the impression that they thought that was all they'd have to do.

"Additionally, there will be a villain in the city with you," Eraserhead began, and the students all tensed. "All 20 of you are being put in the arena with a villain far stronger than you are. You will be forced to face a hopeless situation. Good luck."

And with that, the ground underneath Aizawa opened up, pulling the hero into the underground bunker that the other teachers were waiting in, leaving Saitama alone with the students.

"Uh… Saitama, do you know what's happening?" Kirishima asked nervously.

Saitama smiled. And then he swung his fist out to the side, the wind force obliterating several trees and shattering the windows of a one story building on the other side of them. The students stood there in shock as alarm sirens started to ring.

"By the way, students," Saitama said, voice dead serious. "I'm the villain."

Chapter End Notes

These poor children… poor Saitama… AFO will be nothing to the hero course after this exam lmao

Chapter 6

Chapter Notes

Ya know, I love writing Saitama. Why? Because he doesn't give a shit 90% of the time. I don't want to write that emotional conversation or long, drawn out explanation? Great, neither does Saitama. It's amazing. I feel so lazy as a writer but I don't even care because it's completely in character for Saitama. I love that egg man…

Saitama knew the plan. First, he needed to scare the students and take out the more powerful players like Bakugou and Todoroki. Then, he needed to create some distance between himself and the students to give them a chance to organize. After that, it was a game of destruction. Technically, he could decimate this entire city in one fell swoop, but that would be pointless. He didn't want the students to completely fail, he just wanted them to feel fear in the face of an enemy stronger than them.

Saitama rushed forward and pinned Todoroki to the ground, snapping his right arm in half, the sound of the crack of bone filling the air. He felt so bad for that, but Aizawa had told him not to hold back too much. The students needed to get injured, at least a little bit.

Todoroki cried out in pain, and Saitama picked him up and flung him (carefully) through the air, letting him fly through the gap in the trees he'd just made.

The students stared at him, half poised in fighting stances, shocked.

Saitama looked them over, remembering Mic's advice to get into the character of a villain. "You guys consider Todoroki to be the strongest of all of you, right? Maybe he is, but to me, he's just a twig that needed to be snapped."

Next: Bakugou.

Saitama rushed forward and grabbed Bakugou by the neck, lifting him up into the air. Bakugou immediately started thrashing, setting off explosions in Saitama's face. It was annoyingly bright, but not painful at all. Saitama used his other hand to grab Bakugou's hands, cutting off the explosions.

"Bakugou is the other top student, right?" Saitama asked, looking at Bakugou's wildly terrified expression. Dammit. Now he felt bad. This is why he didn't want to do this. "I think I'll take him."

And with that, Saitama jumped away, rocketing enough force into his jump to shatter the ground underneath the students' feet and to blast him and Bakugou to the other side of the fake city.

They landed near a warehouse and Saitama gently set Bakugou down on the sidewalk.

"Man, this is hard. Hope Todoroki's okay…" he mumbled.

"Hah?" Bakugou grunted, his voice breaking halfway through from where Saitama had partially been crushing his vocal chords.

Saitama looked at Bakugou, uninterested. "Just sit down. You're a hostage. Unless you want me to break your arm like I did with Todoroki, then you should calm down."

"Hell no!" Bakugou screamed, and rushed Saitama with more explosions, these larger than last time. Saitama stood there, taking the hits, debating if he should let Bakugou tire himself out or actually hurt the kid.

After about a minute of constant explosions, Bakugou backed off, staring at Saitama with wide eyes, teeth gritted. "How the hell did that not make a mark on you?!"

Saitama looked at him blandly. "Are you done yet?"

Bakugou hesitated, poised to attack again. "Of course not."

Bakugou rushed him again, this time with his explosions propelling him forward. Bakugou's shoulder rammed into Saitama's stomach and Saitama realized that the kid was trying to pin him against the ground, probably in an effort to trap him instead of overpower him, but that strategy was pointless too. Saitama stood there, unmoving, and heard the distinct sound of Bakugou's collar bone snap from the force of the impact.

Bakugou screamed in pain and fell to the ground.

"You okay?" Saitama asked. He would've moved had he known the impact would hurt Bakugou that badly…

"Get the hell away from me," Bakugou growled, clutching at his shoulder. "I don't need your pity. I don't want you to help me. I'm fine on my own."

Saitama nodded. "Oh sure."

He sat down next to Bakugou on the sidewalk. "So why are you so angry all the time?"

Bakugou hissed in pain. "Why the hell are you still here?"

"Cause I can. I could decimate this city with one punch if I wanted. But it's way more entertaining listening to you whine."

Saitama looked to the side just in time to see Bakugou roll his eyes.

"But seriously, let me help you. That probably hurts," he continued, reaching forward a bit to show his intention.

Bakugou grunted and shook his head, shifting his weight around so that he could sit normally only for his arm to give out on him, sending him face planting into the sidewalk, eliciting another scream of pain from him. Saitama instinctively reached a hand out to steady him. "Stop being so stubborn, will you? It's okay to get help sometimes, especially when you're hurt."

"No… it's not… if I need help… then that means I'm not… the strongest," Bakugou gritted out.

"Being the strongest isn't all that great," Saitama sighed, and then carefully picked Bakugou up and laid him on his back. "Sure, it means you always win, but eventually even that gets boring."

"Bull…shit…" Bakugou grunted.

"Yeah, no one ever believes that it could be boring. But the truth is, when you're so strong that you can win any fight with one punch, fighting looses it's excitement. There is no danger, there is no fun."

"Maybe," Bakugou said, "but you always win. Everyone knows you're the best."

"You'd think, but nope. I'd say only about… 5 people know how strong I am? Maybe even less than that," Saitama countered. "At least, back home. Here, everyone knows."

Bakugou scowled. "Yeah well that wouldn't happen if you were in the spotlight. No one knows who the fuck you are. I'd be in the spotlight, everyone would know that I'm the damn best."

Saitama shrugged. "Guess so. Even then, it's okay to get help."

"Whatever. You don't get it," Bakugou said, and then took a shaky breath, as if trying to steady himself.

"You won't be doing anymore fighting. I'm bringing you to Recovery Girl." Saitama decided and stood up.

"What?" Bakugou snapped. "Hell no! I'm fine!"

Saitama bent down and gently tapped Bakugou's shoulder, watching the boy's features light up in pain at the contact. "You can't fight like that. It would be pointless to just make you lay around here anyways. We had a nice talk, so let's get you healed up. If you're lucky, you might be able to come back before I destroy the city."

Bakugou grumbled and tried to stand up on his own, saying something about how he was "fine" and "didn't needed to be babied" only to go silent when Saitama picked him up.

It took Saitama a total of five seconds to get Bakugou to Recovery Girl, who looked at Saitama as if he was at fault for Bakugou's injury, and opened her mouth to start scolding him. She got about two words in before Saitama decided to ditch that conversation and get back to the test.

"What's the plan, Midoriya?" Kirishima asked. "He's got Bakugou, Todoroki's out, and we still have all of those dummies to save."

Midoriya ran a hand through his hair, "I'm not sure. Judging by what he pulled off at the USJ, he's way more powerful than All Might… which means he's way too strong for us to beat. Maybe the best strategy is for us to get all of the civilians to safety and try to avoid him."

Yaoyorozu nodded. "I agree. With our strongest fighters out of commission, there's no way we can beat him. We need to evacuate the city."

With their plan of action in mind, Yaoyorozu and Iida began dividing up the class to send them off in groups to various areas of the city to rescue civilians. Midoriya stood off to the side, watching the horizon, where a cloud of smoke had filled the air. That had to be Kacchan. They needed to rescue him, right? Logic told him that saving Kacchan was a lost cause. Besides, it was just a simulation. If a villain as strong as Saitama really did have Kacchan, he would go save him no matter what. But this was just training… Kacchan was probably fine.

"You want to go save him too, right?" Kirishima asked.

Midoriya nodded. "I know it's just a training exercise but if he really were in trouble, I wouldn't be able to leave him behind, you know?"

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Kirishima said, eyes trailing over to where Todoroki lay unconscious on a stretcher that Yaoyorozu had made. "We should treat this like real life, right?"

"Exactly." Midoriya said and turned to face Kirishima fully. "But I keep thinking about something else… we're being graded to save civilians. What if people die because we decided to leave them in order to save Kacchan? Is that our fault?"

Kirishima turned away, hiding his guilt-twisted expression from view. "I don't know. But if this were real, I'd give everything I have to save my friend."

"Me too—" Midoriya began, only to be cut off by the ground shaking violently, windows shattering and buildings crumbling.

Saitama had made his move.

When Saitama got back from the nurse's office, he figured he should cause some chaos. And by chaos he meant some minor decimation of a few city blocks.

He flicked a finger and tore apart three blocks of the city, and then turned the other direction and did the same thing again. That should provide some havoc and damages for the students to deal with now that they'd had the time to reorganize after his initial attack.

Then, Saitama waited.

"You guys know the plan!" Midoriya shouted to his classmates. "We have to save as many civilians as possible and bring them here."

They all nodded, ready to jump into action.

"In the meantime, Kirishima and I are going to distract Saitama and attempt to get Bakugou back!"

A few cheers of encouragement went up and then they all split.

Saitama was in the middle of watching a building slowly start to tilt over, wondering if he should just finish it off or leave it be, when a green blur kicked him in the side of the head.

Saitama blinked, confused. Was that Midoriya?

Midoriya skidded to a stop in front of him, eyes trained on Saitama, determined.

Saitama remembered Aizawa specifically telling him not to break any of Midoriya's bones because the kid broke too many of those as it is.

"Where's Kacchan?" Midoriya demanded, expression pinched with anger.

Saitama blinked. Technically Bakugou was removed from the fight so… "He's dead. I killed him," and then he let what he hoped was a villainous smile cross his face. "You're next."

As Midoriya's faced flickered with uncertainty and fear, Saitama felt another thud at his back. He turned to see Kirishima, fully hardened and ready to fight.

Oh gosh… this was going to be a whole thing, wasn't it?

He picked Kirishima and Midoriya up by their clothes and jumped into the air, gaining a decent amount of altitude before he dropped them. Halfway through the fall, he caught them and set them back down on the ground, where they were shaking in fear.

"So, do you two give up? I don't actually want to hurt you. Bakugou tried to fight me and broke his collar bone and had to go to Recovery Girl's office. I really don't want to send more people her way, I think she might actually kill me if I do that."

The two of them looked at each other, looked at him and then attacked at once. Saitama sighed and flicked the air, sending them flying. Hopefully that didn't hurt them too much… man this test was like a specialized training for him as well in terms of control…

Wait a second. Was that why Aizawa had forced him to do this? For restraint training?

Out of spite, Saitama decided to destroy another block. Or two. Okay maybe five…

Five minutes later, the buzzer rang for the end of the test and Saitama stopped destroying things upon hearing it. He knew that either the test ended when all of the dummies' lifelines had been ended or they'd been saved. He briefly wondered if the students had even been able to save any of the dummies… he had done a lot of punching…

The students all lined up in the observation room, covered in dust, some injured, others looking incredibly sad and defeated. Todoroki and Bakugou both sported slings around their arms—one for the broken arm and the other for the broken collar bone that had both been mostly healed by Recovery Girl—while everyone else had bandages covering their small scratches.

Saitama stood in front of them, looking no worse for wear except for a few burn marks on his costume from Bakugou's explosions.

"For the record, the results of this exam have no effect on your grade," Aizawa said from his spot next to Saitama. "This was simply a test to see how you react under extreme pressure, against a villain far stronger than you. I'd like to say that, under those guides, you all passed. You were all level headed and focused during the test, even when buildings collapsed and you failed to save lives. However, having said that, this was meant to be a rescue test as well. Of the 150 lives you were meant to save, you managed to save 22. The rest were killed by Saitama. In real life, in a real fight, that is considered failure."

The students hung their heads.

"This was the final test of your exams. I'm sure you all have a pretty good idea of how well you did overall, but grades will be posted tomorrow and we will discuss what the results mean in regards to the summer training camp. Dismissed."

The students all bowed, save for Bakugou, who simply stood there and glared at Saitama with a contemplative look on his face. And oh, Saitama did not like that expression. People who looked at him with that expression usually wanted to say something to him and Saitama kinda just wanted to go back to his room and play video games and not be talked to.

So, that was what he did.

To his surprise, Bakugou didn't stop him. He just stood there, arm hanging limply in its sling, his face pensive as Saitama retreated.

"You'll all be going to the summer training camp," Aizawa stated, and Saitama really hoped that the "all" didn't include him.

The kids cheered, faces lit up with joy. Saitama watched them fondly, glad to see that their failure in his section of the exam hadn't completely crushed their spirits.

…Except Bakugou… who sat silently at his desk, looking directly at Saitama. It wasn't the boy's usual heated glare, no, it was an expression of careful thought. Saitama was slowly getting used to the boy's gaze on him, aware that Bakugou wasn't quite ready to voice whatever it was that's bothering him.

"Saitama, do you mind passing these out?" Aizawa said, and Saitama moved from his place in the corner to take the papers Aizawa had and began passing them out as Aizawa kept talking.

"This is a list of all the suggested things to pack, as well as a permission slip that your parents need to sign in order for you to attend. Please have these turned in by Friday."

The kids nodded seriously, looking over their papers. When Saitama handed Todoroki his paper, Todoroki took it with a quiet nod, not looking Saitama in the eyes. When he handed it to Bakugou, the boy looked him dead in the eye, but still didn't say anything.

Saitama returned to the front of the classroom and listened as Aizawa continued to talk about the training camp.

When class dismissed, Aizawa turned to him.

"I'd like to invite you as a chaperone. The training camp is supposed to be a secret, but I'd still feel better with you there."

"Uh… I don't know how to chaperone," Saitama responded.

"That's fine. You'd just be there to supervise and protect the kids should they need it."

"Oh… okay. That's fine."

"Good."

Saitama figured this would be a good experience. He'd be able to bond with the students, or whatever. Not that he cared.

Briefly, he imagined Genos and him going camping. Then he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind, because there's no way that situation wouldn't end in disaster.

Twenty hero students going camping together…

This'll be fine.

Chapter 7

Chapter Notes

People kept asking me if this fic was abandoned and— I didn't realize it's been so long since I last updated lmao. Anyways, here's the next chapter! I make no promises on when chapter 8 will be posted, only that it will be one day.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Turns out it was forty hero students going camping together, not twenty. Which, in Saitama's humble opinion, was even worse. Classes 1-A and 1-B were being combined for this training exercise. Given that the second some blond kid from 1-B saw Bakugou and Todoroki, he immediately started making fun of them, he was pretty sure his opinion was correct.

Saitama watched Bakugou threaten Midoriya for the third time in the last twenty minutes, and wondered if maybe he should warn Aizawa about the potentiality of a blast of nuclear proportions being set off in the near future.

Then he figured, nah, that's a lot of work.

The training camp was set in a massive forest, far from civilization, with trees that stretched on for miles around them. Saitama could probably reach a city within a few minutes worth of running, but it would take hours for any sort of emergency vehicle or other heroes to get there should the need arise. Saitama knew that the distance was to keep the students safe—villains would have a hard time finding them here—but he also knew that if they did get attacked, there wouldn't be any backup. No ambulances, no fire trucks, no heroes. Just the forty students, six pro heroes, and Saitama.

Though, having Saitama there probably tipped things in their favor should anything go wrong. Aizawa was a smart man.

In front of him, Bakugou's hands were sparking as he tried for the fifth time to teach Midoriya how to cut the vegetables properly. Someone, evidently, had sent Midoriya over to learn how to slice and dice from the resident chopping master so that their dinner wasn't shit

tonight, but had failed to take into account that Bakugou and Midoriya had a worse relationship with each other than Saitama did with being wealthy.

"Hey," Saitama spoke up, having noticed the metaphorical fuse on Bakugou's temper reaching the end. "If you guys don't stop arguing, I'm gonna have to put you in time out."

He didn't know if that threat would work. He didn't have a time out corner, nor did he think putting Bakugou in time out would be a good idea, but it did amuse him slightly to think of the two teenagers standing in their respective corners with their faces pressed to the wall for the rest of the evening all because Saitama had told them to do so.

Midoriya and Bakugou both paled and Midoriya quickly muttered a, "sorry Saitama," before scuttling away from Bakugou and towards his friends, leaving the food he'd been attempting to prepare completely in Bakugou's hands.

Bakugou tch-ed, gave Saitama one of the glares that Saitama had grown used to ever since the exams, and then went back to preparing the food all on his own.

Sad… Saitama wanted to stick them in time out. It could've been funny.

He turned and surveyed the rest of the students. They'd completed their first full day of training, and most of them looked dead on their feet. Saitama knew the feeling. Sometimes, he could still feel the phantom burning of his muscles from when he'd just started training regularly. Nowadays nothing hurts him, but ya know, the sentiment was there.

Despite all of them looking like they might fall asleep at any given second, they were cooking dinner diligently. The Wild Wild Pussycats—the team of pro heroes that owned this forest and were helping watch over and train the kids—had forced them to make their own dinner tonight, as opposed to making it for them like they had last night.

Saitama thought the Wild Wild Pussycats were nice people. Odd, but nice. They were good at training the kids. While Saitama had just looked at Midoriya and told him to do one-hundred sit-ups, one-hundred push-ups, and one-hundred squats, followed by a ten kilometer run around the forest and figured that was self-explanatory enough, Tiger had stepped in and

helped Midoriya with his form and yelled aggressive encouragement anytime Midoriya looked tired.

Saitama had told about fifteen students to do his personal work-out. Only eight of them had made it past the sit-ups, five past the push-ups, and three past the squats. The only one who'd finished the entire workout was Midoriya, though Saitama figured Todoroki or Bakugou could've stood a chance had they been participating. As it was, those two had been doing quirk training the entire day as opposed to taking on the challenge of Saitama's workout.

Overall, he was impressed Midoriya still had the energy to argue with Bakugou after all of that.

Saitama sighed and turned away from Bakugou and his aggressive vegetable chopping, intending to go find Aizawa and Vlad King. He wasn't sure why he wanted to go find them, only that he didn't want to be in Bakugou's line of sight for any longer than necessary. The blond was still glaring at him occasionally, like he had something to say, and Saitama wasn't any more interested in having that conversation than he was yesterday. Or the day before that. Or even a week ago.

He found Vlad King and Aizawa sitting at a table several paces away from even the closest student (which was Kaminari, who was laying on top of the table, either asleep or so spaced out that the world had ceased to exist to him). He sat down with them.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," Vlad King replied, and then slid a drink over to him. "We saved you a beer."

Saitama raised an eyebrow at the drink. He didn't drink much (he had to save his money for new capes, usually), but he wasn't about to turn one down either. He picked up the bottle and took a sip. "Thanks."

"No problem," Vlad responded.

"God knows we need it after dealing with these hooligans for the past two days," Aizawa grunted, and took a long sip of his own drink. "Sometimes I wonder why I put myself in this position."

"What, teaching?" Saitama asked.

"Yes. It's exhausting."

Saitama frowned and looked down at his drink. Teaching was definitely exhausting, but he'd been under the impression that Aizawa loved his students. He'd watched the man almost die for them.

"What?" Aizawa lowered his drink.

"It's nothing," Saitama said. "I just didn't think you felt that way. I mean, you're not wrong about the kids being pains in our asses, but…" Saitama trailed off with a shrug. "I guess I was under the impression that you loved them more than yourself."

Aizawa gave him a look. Vlad King took a drink.

"I do," Aizawa said. "I'd die for these idiots any day. Doesn't mean they aren't little assholes though."

"Ain't that the truth," Vlad King chuckled. "You'll figure out soon, Saitama. There's not one single kid here we wouldn't lay down our lives for, but for the love of god if I have to listen to Fukidashi rant about Attack on Titan one more time, I'm gonna lose it."

Aizawa snorted. "My money's on Mineta getting punted across campus by the end of the year. I don't know which one of them will snap, but it'll happen."

Saitama took the conversation in slowly. He supposed it was like when he was back home— everyone hating him, calling him a fraud and him letting them, because he was willing to take the fall if it meant others like Genos and Mumen Rider got the glory. He was willing to die for all the citizens who hated him if it meant protecting them, though at this point he wasn't sure that any being could ever kill him. He was just too strong.

Saitama frowned and took another sip of his beer. What he wouldn't give for one decent fight…

"I think Kirishima's been thinking about punching Monoma's face in," Vlad King confessed.

Aizawa nodded slowly. "It's impressive. That kid gets along with everyone, even Bakugou, and yet I watched him cuss Monoma out a couple hours ago."

Vlad King tilted his head back and laughed. "Monoma can be quite grating. At least he's mostly been separated from the kids in your class he hates the most."

"Bakugou and Todoroki have been busy," Aizawa agreed, gaze drifting off to look somewhere behind Saitama, probably watching the students in question. "I think the test against Saitama dealt a heavy blow to their confidence levels. Bakugou always wants to be the best, and now it's getting thrust in his face that he's just a kid and that there are so many people out there that are stronger and better than him."

Saitama frowned. "I think he's been struggling with that for longer than just before my test."

"Definitely," Aizawa agreed. "He'll learn eventually, until then it's our job to keep teaching him while also supporting him. He's talented, I don't want him getting too disheartened and giving up."

Saitama nodded and then took another sip of his beer. Maybe he should give in and have that conversation with Bakugou then… it's not like Saitama would be good at giving advice, but maybe the brat needed reassurance, not a beat-down.

"As far as Todoroki goes," Aizawa sighed and took another long sip of his drink. "He's troubled. Being the son of Endeavor put a lot of expectations on him, and with his dual quirk, he's not unlike Bakugou in that he's got a lot to deal with in terms of his time at UA not being what he expected it to be. He's started using his fire, which is good, but I can tell he's still struggling with himself. Getting taken out first by Saitama threw him for a loop, too."

Vlad King nodded. "Saitama took out the two recommendation students from my class first when he did our test. I can tell that they're still reeling from that experience."

Saitama sighed and slumped over the table. "I know this guy, ah, from my universe. His name is Genos. He asked me to train him since I'm so strong, but I'm not really a good teacher. He told me once that seeing my power is both inspiring and disheartening. Like, he knows he can never do what I can, but wants to get close anyways. He said that he experienced a," Saitama racked his brain for the term Genos had used to explain his feelings one the matter. "A steep learning curve. Like, at first he felt like he was on top of then world, then he saw my power and it caused him to fall all the way back down to the bottom now that he knew what real power is like. And now, he's on his way back up and feeling better now that he's getting stronger."

Aizawa and Vlad King nodded. "A lot of first years feel that way. It's natural. Unfortunately for some of these kids, the fall was harsher than it normally would be due to the events of the USJ and your arrival."

Saitama's insides twisted. So many of the students' struggles with themselves seemed to be his fault. How was he meant to fix that? Could he even fix that?

…did he even care enough to try and fix that?

Something told him that the students wouldn't benefit from any of the probably very shitty advice he'd have to give them.

"Saitama," Vlad King spoke up. "This is one of the first times I've heard you talk about where you're from. Could you tell me more?"

Saitama shrugged. "Sure. Where I'm from is a lot different from here," he began, reaching up to scratch his head as he thought about it. "Our cities are named by letters A through Z, and I live in City Z. Monsters attack all the time, and the Hero Association was formed to fight them. I was just a hero for fun until I got my license, but honestly, I still just do it for fun."

"For fun?" Aizawa asked.

He nodded. "I started fighting monsters cause it was fun. But then I got too strong and now everything is boring, even fighting. Maybe one day I'll get to fight someone who's actually strong." Saitama swirled his beer around before taking a long drink from it, sloshing the liquid around in his mouth before swallowing. "There was someone once who was strong like me, but even that wasn't a good fight. I let him beat me around just so he could experience the feeling of a good fight, but eventually I had to end it."

Vlad King and Aizawa didn't seem to know how to answer that. Saitama gave them a helpless shrug, as if to say, 'what can you do? Being too strong isn't a problem that can be fixed.'

"What about your friends?" Vlad King asked instead.

"Oh yeah, I've got a few of those," Saitama said. "Genos lives with me, he's the student I mentioned. He's a good guy. I met him while he was fighting a giant stripper mosquito."

Aizawa choked on his drink while Vlad King spluttered out, "a what?"

"Maybe dominatrix mosquito is a better term for it," Saitama amended. "You see, there was this one mosquito that was annoying the shit out of me, and for whatever reason I couldn't seem to kill it, and that pissed me off so I chased after it. And then I ran into Genos and the Mosquito-Lady, and punched her, and well, you know—" he mimed an explosion with his hands. "Genos and I have been friends since."

"Well that's one way to make friends," Aizawa muttered while Vlad King gave Saitama a look that just screamed that he was trying to figure out what kind of life Saitama led.

"Anyways, there's also King. We play video games together," Saitama said, and then slumped, his shoulders hunching over in defeat. "I can never beat him."

"You can level cities in a single punch, but you can't beat a guy in a video game?" Vlad King asked, judgmentally. Saitama scowled at him, but didn't bother responding otherwise.

"That's sad," Aizawa grunted.

"He's really good at it, okay?" Saitama muttered. He took another sip of his drink, only to realize he must've finished off the beer with his last swig of it. Damn. He contemplated asking Vlad King for another, but decided against it.

"I'm sorry you're stuck here," Aizawa said next. "I'm sure you miss your friends."

"I do," Saitama said, a sad smile crossing his face as he thought about all of his precious people back home. "I miss them a lot. But you guys aren't so bad either."

Vlad King reached up and clapped him on the shoulder, a massive grin on his face. He lifted his beer in a toast. "To our friends, both new and old!"

Saitama and Aizawa locked eyes, both resigning themselves to joining Vlad's toast, before they each raised their bottles and clinked them together with Vlad King's.

Saitama found Bakugou by himself in one of the back rooms of the compound after dinner. He was washing his hands in a massive basin, cupping the water up his forearms so that his skin from the elbow down was soaked.

"Hey there," Saitama greeted, walking into the room. It was just the two of them, and the situation was awkward as hell, but Saitama couldn't keep avoiding Bakugou. The kid's self- esteem had been torn to shreds because of Saitama, and it was Saitama's job to help him build it back up again. He was a teacher, after all.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bakugou grunted.

"I wanted to check up on you, I guess," Saitama said. "You've been wanting to talk to me ever since the final exam, haven't you?"

"I don't need your pity," Bakugou spat out the words like they were venom, and Saitama wasn't sure how to respond, so instead he made his way to a seat across the room from Bakugou and sat down.

"Sure."

Bakugou glanced up at him, his glare red-hot and pissed off, but didn't say anything. He just went right back to washing his arms off. They fell into silence while Saitama searched for the right words. He couldn't find them, though.

He tried to figure out what King or Genos would say in this situation, but putting himself in other's shoes wasn't his speciality either. So he just kept sitting there.

"You're real annoying, you know that, right?" Bakugou said, breaking the silence.

"No," Saitama said honestly. "I didn't know."

Bakugou scoffed. "You're oblivious on top of it all."

"I upset you in the Exam, didn't I?"

"Hah?" Bakugou straightened completely, arms dripping with water as he glared fiercely at Saitama. "Just because you beat me doesn't mean that I give a shit about you."

"Oh," Saitama said. "I guess I was just reading too much into it, then. I thought you were upset about me telling you that being strong isn't all that great."

Bakugou's eyes narrowed and he shook out his arms in the basin, flinging the water off his skin before he stalked towards Saitama. "Look here, Baldy, you might think that being strong isn't that great, but you clearly don't know shit. I have to be strong, I have to be the best. I've always been the best and—" Bakugou broke off, looking away.

"Why do you have to be the best? Isn't it okay to just do your best?"

"No! It's not!" Bakugou snapped. His posture was tense as he continued to explain himself. "Because my best doesn't win shit! Just because I got first place in the Sports Festival doesn't mean I won. And I didn't even pass my exam, not really, I had to have fuckin' Deku's help, not to mention how easily you beat me. How am I supposed to be the Number One hero if I can't even pass an exam without help?"

"Well, you were up against All Might," Saitama started, scratching at his head. "And he's an experienced pro. You're just a kid."

Bakugou's hands sparked. "I don't care who I was up against or how old I am, I supposed to be the best. I need to be the best."

"Why, though?"

Bakugou started to say something, but didn't even get through one syllable of it before his voice broke. His shoulders slumped and the explosions on his hands faded out. "If I'm not the best, then what even am I?" He wheezed out, voice so quiet and broken that Saitama had to strain to hear him.

Saitama blinked. Bakugou's entire image of himself was centered around being the best, being the strongest, being the winner, because that's all he's ever been. He probably grew up being told how great he was, and now he was beginning to doubt if any of that was true at all. It must be crushing him.

Saitama reached forward and put an hand on Bakugou's shoulder. "You're just you, I guess."

Bakugou scoffed and wiped at his face with his still wet hand, smearing water across his skin. "You're shit at talking."

"You are too."

"Hah, fair enough. Fuckin' better than you, though." Bakugou took and deep breath before he stood up straight. His eyes were rimmed with red and Saitama wondered if he'd been crying while he was looking away from him or just close to it.

Saitama's arm was still on the boy's shoulder. He wondered if he should remove it or keep it there for prolonged emotional support.

"You're a good kid," Saitama said, deciding on keeping his hand there. "Don't worry about being the strongest yet. That'll come in due time. For now, just keep training. Don't give up, no matter what happens or how down you feel. Work for your goal everyday, and it'll happen, I promise."

Bakugou's lips twitched, only to return to their resolute grumpy frown. "What do you think I'm doing, Baldy? That's why I'm at UA, to get stronger."

"Good."

"Good."

Saitama hummed. They stared at each other.

"Are you done now?" Bakugou asked, glancing at the hand that was still on his shoulder. "Cause if you don't leave me alone soon, I'm gonna set you on fire."

Saitama removed his hand. "Right. Bye, then." He stepped away. "Oh, and don't forget that you kids are doing that night-training activity soon."

"I didn't fucking forget." Bakugou said, and Saitama noticed his hand twitch, like he was barely restraining himself from flipping Saitama off. Or maybe exploding his face. It's hard to tell with him.

"Good," Saitama said, and gave Bakugou a thumbs up before turning and leaving the room.

Well, that went well… right?

Saitama waved at all the students as they meandered off towards the woods for their training session, and kept waving until they were all out of sight. They were doing something about a test of courage in the woods as extra training/a little bit of fun while the ones that had failed their exams had to take supplementary classes with Aizawa and Vlad King. Saitama didn't envy either of those groups, all forty students had worked hard today, and the teachers were making them do even more work before they'd be allowed to go to sleep. Saitama, however, didn't have to listen to anyone here, so the second the students were out of sight, he dropped his hand and promptly turned around and went back to his room to go to sleep.

He laid down in his bed (that was nowhere near as comfortable as the one he'd been given back at UA) and closed his eyes. He briefly thought of that one embarrassing thing he did when he was seven before he pushed it out of his mind, rolled over, stuffed his head under the pillow, and fell asleep. In his dreams, Genos and him were chasing watermelons with legs and paper crowns down a hill, except every time Saitama caught up to one of them, it spontaneously combusted and—

He woke up to Iida Tenya smacking him in the head with a pillow and yelling at him.

"Whaaaa?" Saitama grunted, blearily coming to as an aggressive teenager grabbed him by the arms and pulled him out of bed like it was the end of the world and Saitama had thirty seconds to get to the bomb shelter.

"Mr. Saitama, you have to get up! We're under attack!" Iida snapped at him and Saitama groaned out a "five more minutes," before the words hit him.

"Wait, what?" Saitama asked, sitting up sharply.

Iida stopped trying to force him out of bed in order to look at him, his blue eyes serious, his skin covered in dirt, his hair ruffled. "Mr Aizawa sent me to get you. We're under attack and the villains are everywhere. Also," Iida pushed his glasses further up his nose, "they're after Bakugou."

Saitama's brain fully caught up to the situation at that and he stood up, tripping over the bedsheets that had fallen off the side of the bed while Iida had been trying to get him up in his haste. "Where is he?"

"Mr Aizawa or Bakugou?"

"Either," Saitama said, stumbling over to where his hero costume laid haphazardly on the floor where he'd taken it off earlier. He stepped into it, nearly falling into the wall as he did, his body not quite caught up to this whole being awake thing.

"Mr Aizawa is with the students taking supplementary classes on the East Side of the compound, and no one knows where Bakugou is."

"Got it," Saitama said, his jaw clenching in frustration that the villains were after one of his students and no one knew where he was. "Go get somewhere safe, I'll handle this."

"Yes sir," Iida said with a bow and sprinted out of the room, his quirk making him move much faster than normal.

Saitama zipped up his costume and then moved to go find his students.

He found Midoriya first. Midoriya, who was running desperately through the forest, undoubtedly trying to find Bakugou. Both of his arms were broken beyond belief and blood coated his skin, his eyes wide and fear-filled, desperate to find his friend.

"Midoriya," Saitama called out and the boy skidded to a stop.

"Saitama!" Midoriya exclaimed upon seeing him. "You're here! The villains are after Kacchan, they're after Kacchan, you have to find him," Midoriya's voice was shaking and his shoulders heaving from the exhaustion of running and whatever fight he'd just been in.

"I know," Saitama said, getting closer and laying a hand on Midoriya's shoulder, whose wild demeanor deflated slightly at the contact. "I'll save him, don't worry. You need to go back to base, you're too injured."

"No!" Midoriya shook his head vigorously. "No, they're after Kacchan, I have to—"

"You have to rest," Saitama said, his tone forceful so that Midoriya would listen to him through his panic. "I won't be able to save anyone if I'm worried about you."

Midoriya's breath stuttered and his shoulders relaxed further. "Oh," he whispered. There, he was calming down. That was good.

"Go back to base, Midoriya," Saitama told him, and Midoriya nodded. Saitama gently pushed him in the direction of where he'd come from, but Midoriya turned back to him.

"Saitama, the villains aren't just after Kacchan. They're trying to kill as many of us as they can and kidnap Kacchan. I don't know why they want him, but it can't be good."

"I won't let that happen," Saitama said. "Now go, find your classmates so they can protect you. You're too injured."

Midoriya nodded and finally ran back off, heading back to base. Saitama swallowed and turned back towards the forest, aware that he didn't know how many villains there were or how many students were in the forest, only that it was his responsibility to save them all.

And he would. He would save them all. Bakugou was going to be fine. Saitama would make sure of it.

Chapter End Notes

Thanks to everyone who's left a comment on this fic btw! I'm not very good at responding to comments, but I really do appreciate them

Edit, 2023: THIS FIC IS NOT FUCKING ABANDONED STOP ASKING ME I'LL GET TO IT

Chapter 8

Chapter Notes

Told you guys it wasn't abandoned

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Saitama should've spent more time in the the forest prior to this. He had no idea which direction the students went for the training activity, much less where all these stupid paths went. He felt like a chicken with a bucket on its head, running around blind, simply hoping to find what he was looking for.

He looked left and right, trying to find some sort of landmark in the forest that could help him out, but once again: he hadn't gone in the forest until now, so even if there had been a landmark he could pick out, he wouldn't recognize it.

And then a glacier formed to his right. The temperature around him dropped rapidly, and Saitama could hear the sounds of a battle coming from the direction of the glacier. Immediately, he turned to rush in that direction—he'd found Todoroki.

A roar penetrated the air the second Saitama got within sight of the glacier, and he turned to see Shoji running from a massive shadowy monster, its red eyes glowing in the black of the night, its claws tearing down every tree in its path.

Saitama stopped to stare for a moment, trying to place where he'd seen that thing before, only to get his attention redirected by something trying to stab him.

He frowned, looking at the blade that had grazed by his arm—following the blades upwards, he found some dumb-looking dude in a straight jacket holding himself in the air by his elongated teeth-blades. Staring at him, all Saitama could do was twist his face in visible disgust at the site of it. What a gross quirk.

"Mr. Saitama!" Shoji yelled, still running towards him. Saitama turned away from the gross tooth guy in order to look at him. "Tokoyami's gone out of control! Dark Shadow is rampaging!"

Oh! That was Dark Shadow! Man, that thing needed to take a chill pill.

Saitama assessed the situation—tooth guy had been the one fighting Todoroki, who Saitama could see not far behind the villain, breathing heavily, an unconscious student draped over his back. Right next to Todoroki, looking ready to commit war crimes, was Bakugou; which was a bonus because now Saitama didn't have to keep looking for him. However, they were both bleeding from larges gashes in their arms, and Saitama mentally swore that the tooth-villain would pay for that.

However, between the villain in the straight-jacket that wasn't doing anything but rasping out "flesssshhhhh", and the rampaging Dark Shadow, Saitama knew which one he had to deal with first.

He pivoted on his heel and rushed to put an end to Dark Shadow's anger. His foot left the ground, and his fist connected with the side of Dark Shadow's beak, the resulting shockwave leveling the forest around them.

Saitama's foot touched back down on the ground, and in front of him, Dark Shadow whimpered, tears beginning to stream from its glowing eyes. It returned to its normal size, clutching its beak with one hand and wailing up a storm. Tokoyami was back in control now, breathing heavily with relief as the much smaller Dark Shadow clung to his arm.

Saitama didn't waste his time. He turned back to the straight-jacket guy, just in time to hear him mutter, "Flesh, delicious flesh," right before the jerk decided to attack him. Saitama raised one fist, and connected it with the villain's tooth-weapon, the entire structure shattering upon impact.

The villain screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground, unable to move in the straight- jacket without use of his teeth. He would need some serious dental work after that one. Saitama stepped forward, placed a finger on the man's jaw, and tapped just hard enough to knock him out.

He looked up at his students—he'd found four, no, five, of them. Good. He needed to get them back to base.

"Thank you for calming Dark Shadow," Tokoyami said curtly, while giving the leveled forest a wary glance. Shoji leaned down to help him up, breathing heavily from the exertion of running from Dark Shadow.

"No problem," Saitama returned, and then turned to glance at Bakugou and Todoroki. "Are the two of you okay?"

"Of course we're okay, Baldy!" Bakugou snapped, hair getting spikier by the second. "We didn't need your help!"

"Yes we did," Todoroki deadpanned.

"Shut your face, IcyHot!"

Saitama watched the exchange, unsure how to deal with this. "Okay," he settled on saying.

Honestly, he'd hoped that his talk with Bakugou had calmed him down about the whole needing to be the best thing, but apparently not. Maybe it just hadn't sunk in yet. That was a distinct possibility. Not that it was Saitama's problem, but still, he was low-key hoping his attempt at giving advice had worked.

"We should go back to base," Saitama said, making a shooing motion with his hands to indicate that the kids should get moving. Shoji and Todoroki complied immediately, but Tokoyami and Bakugou hesitated.

"What about the villain?" Tokoyami asked, nodding towards where Toothy was still unconscious and curled into a fetal position on the ground.

Saitama paused, stumped. He'd been given the rundown on this dimension's hero laws and their fairly strict no-killing policy, but no one had actually told him what he was supposed to do with the villains once they'd been beat. Could he just leave the guy here? He didn't want to bring him back to base where he could potentially attack the kids—if Bakugou and Todoroki combined hadn't been able to best the guy, Saitama really didn't want to put Toothy within the reaches of any of the weaker students. However, leaving him here had its own downsides. What if he magically regrew his teeth while Saitama was gone and killed one of the kids in the forest? What would Saitama even say to Aizawa then? Heyyy, sorry Eraser, uh you know those precious students that you entrusted to me because I'm strong enough to keep them safe? Well. I beat this one villain, and went to do the rest of my job, and guess what?! The villain woke up and went on another rampage while I was gone! Sorry that two of your students died! My b.

Yeah, uh, no.

He stood there in contemplation for a while. The kids stood behind him, obviously expecting him to make an Adult Decision.

Saitama decided that the best course of action would be to tie him to a tree. Only problem: he didn't have rope. All he had was his fists and five children.

Oh!

"Todoroki, could you freeze the villain to a tree or something? I don't want him going anywhere."

Todoroki frowned. "I mean, I could, but it will give him frostbite if he stays stuck too long."

Drats. Saitama hadn't thought of that.

They all stood there for another few minutes before Saitama determined he would carry the villain around. He walked forward and picked the guy up by the collar of his straight-jacket, leaving him to hang limply in his grasp. Saitama nodded and turned back to the students, ready to leave now.

Headcount: one, two, three, four… great! He had all of them.

"Let's go," he said, beginning the trek back to base. He'd need to keep an eye on Bakugou specifically since the villains were after him, but now that he was walking with Saitama, he should be safe—

Wait. Four?

He whipped back around, startling the students as he searched for Bakugou's spiky head. Todoroki? Check. The kid Todoroki was carrying? Check. Tokoyami? Check. Shoji? Check. Bakugou? No where to be found.

"Where did Bakugou go?" He demanded, and only then did everyone notice that they'd lost an entire human being.

"There," Shoji said, pointing towards where some guy in a top hat was bounding across the trees above their heads.

Saitama squinted. "I don't think Bakugou would ever wear an outfit like that," he said in disbelief. Bakugou must be elsewhere.

"He's been kidnapped," Todoroki said in a scathing tone.

Oh right.

"Get back to base," Saitama said. "I'll take care of this."

Todoroki looked doubtful. He passed the person he was carrying over to Shoji, who wrapped him up in his many arms. "I'm coming with you."

The guy in the top hat was now out of sight, meaning that Saitama didn't particularly have the time to stand here and argue with Todoroki. Instead, he dropped the villain he was currently holding and grabbed Todoroki, leaping off the ground with enough force to careen them both towards where top hat man had disappeared. Todoroki, to his credit, only clung onto Saitama for dear life and did not scream.

He touched down again somewhere near where the villains hopefully were, though he still couldn't see them. Todoroki pulled himself out of Saitama's hold, looking warily at the crater their impact had made in the ground.

"I'll go left, you go right. They should be around here somewhere," Todoroki instructed after recovering from their mini-flight. Saitama figured that his plan was as good as anything he had, so he went with it, going right.

He wandered about the woods, listening intently for Bakugou's angry yelling or perhaps even top hat noises. However, there was nothing to be heard. That was, until about a minute later, in which he heard Todoroki yell his name.

Saitama whipped around and raced towards the sound of the voice, nearly running into a rather large tree along the way, but dodged swiftly and found himself in a clearing where Todoroki was rushing towards where a villain with black hair and horrific scars was dragging Bakugou by the throat into a inky black portal.

Todoroki's hand was extended, desperately trying to reach Bakugou in time. He was so close. If Saitama had been the one in his shoes, he would've been able to reach Bakugou.

But Saitama was ten meters back, unable to push himself up to full speed with Todoroki in the way and Bakugou in such a precarious position. He almost reached him, his own hand outstretched much like Todoroki's own, but it wasn't enough.

Nothing he ever did felt like enough.

"How sad, Shoto Todoroki," the villain holding Bakugou grinned, and that was the last the Saitama and Todoroki saw of the two of them, the portal closing the second Bakugou was pulled through.

Saitama stared at the empty space in front of them, anger mounting. He gritted his teeth and balled his fists.

"They—they got him," Todoroki breathed out next to him, his eyes wide with horror, his knees giving out on him as he collapsed to the ground. "They got Bakugou."

Saitama's breathing was steady. Every muscle in his body was alight with a sense of rage he rarely felt. If those villains hurt Bakugou, if they killed him, then it was because Saitama wasn't strong enough to save him. Not fast enough, not strong enough, not enough. What's the point of being the strongest, of winning any fight, if those he's meant to save die first?

He reached down and grabbed Todoroki by the collar, the other grunting in confusion as Saitama launched them out of the clearing. He touched down at the central base, directly next to where Tokoyami, Shoji, and the other student had been talking to Aizawa. He set Todoroki down without a word and dashed into the forest, this time not holding back on the speed, uncaring to how many trees the shockwave might knock down or who might get thrown out of the way.

Five minutes later, he'd rounded up every student remaining in the forest, returned them to base, and found three villains that had been left behind when the rest had fled along with Bakugou. The tooth villain, some guy that had been beaten to a pulp up on the mountain-side, and a kid around his students' age that clearly wasn't one of his own.

Despite clearing the entire forest and the ten kilometers surrounding, Bakugou was nowhere to be found. That warp quirk… the obsidian smoke it had looked familiar, incredibly so, actually. He remembered watching the students fighting a villain with that quirk at the USJ, but that wasn't possible, Saitama had punched the guy. There was no way he was alive and available to warp people over such long distances… Unless his warp gate had protected him somehow? Or maybe he had access to a healing quirk not unlike the one that had brought Eraserhead to recover from his own injuries sustained at the USJ? Could be a mix of both. Either way, Saitama was sure it was the same person.

That only left him with more questions, however. How many more of the villains from that attack had survived? What was their plan now? Were they targeting UA now, not to kill All Might, but to get revenge for how quickly they'd been beaten in the last attack? They'd clearly set up this entire attack with the knowledge that they'd have to move fast and spread themselves out over an area too large for Saitama to defend all at once—

"Saitama," Aizawa interrupted his thought process, laying a hand down on his stiff shoulder. "Todoroki told me that they took Bakugou. Where is he?"

"I don't know," Saitama responded. That was the issue. He didn't know too much. Saitama might be the strongest person in the world, but he was far from the smartest. There were too many things he didn't know, so many things that he often overlooked in favor of pure strength, because in the end, anything could be solved with a good punch.

That wasn't the case, though, was it? Saitama's entire life was a case of something that couldn't be solved with pure strength. He wouldn't be happy without a fight that could satisfy him; he couldn't save Bakugou without knowing where they brought him.

Aizawa was silent in response. Saitama hung his head, fists clenched tight. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. After all, it was his job to protect his students, and he'd failed.

Aizawa squeezed his shoulder before stepping away, needing to check on Midoriya and his severely broken arms. Saitama looked around at the camp, the students spread about haphazardly, some unconscious and others looking seconds from it. Todoroki and Tokoyami stood next to each other, hollow expressions on each of their faces as Todoroki reported what happened. Uraraka was covered in blood with Iida tending to her wounds while they looked over at Midoriya, whose condition was only getting worse by the second as the adrenaline wore off and his body succumbed to his injuries. A boy from Class B was holding Yaoyorozu gently against his chest while one of the Pussycats held a cloth to anmassive gash along her temple. Everywhere he looked, his students were in pain. They were scared. They had just lost a friend to the villains.

For the first time in years, Saitama understood what it meant to lose.

Chapter End Notes

Once again, no promises on the next update, only that it will happen eventually

What was your favorite part in this chapter? Mine is probably the part where I made Saitama more depressed than he already is

Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their /works/28744497/comments/new

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Afterword