Mina followed their teacher out into the courtyard, glancing at the trio walking together. Midoriya, "Deku", and Mio were walking hand laced together, while Eunie walked next to them with her hands behind her head.
They were kinda scary! Who just pulled out weapons and pointed them at a guy? Where had their weapons even come from?
They stopped in the middle of a sports field. Aizawa-Sensei turning towards them, "Mio, Midoriya, Eunie. No offense, but your power sets wouldn't exactly be helpful for what I'm trying to show. Bakugo, what was your farthest softball throw in middle school?"
"About 65 meters," Bakugo said, before catching a ball.
"Get into that circle and throw that now, using your Quirk."
Bakugo gave a mean grin before pulling his hand back, screaming "DIE!" There was an explosion, and the ball went flying into the distance, until they couldn't see it anymore.
"1,400 meters!" The phone Aizawa was holding chirped.
"See, not everyone is created equally," Aizawa-Sensei lectured, "the fact that the education department continues to act like they are is-"
"Did you drag us out here just to complain about politics?" Eunie yawned, "because really I don't care."
"Heh," Aizawa-Sensei chuckled, "You know, for military, you aren't afraid to speak your mind."
"No point beating 'round the bush," Eunie said, "Besides, we're special forces, we're allowed to be a bit more open because the leaders trust us to do our job. If there's a hole in the plan, they'd want us to point it out."
"Fair," Aizawa-Sensei said, "the point I was trying to make is that I'm going to run you ragged today, I'm going to push you beyond your limits. If "the best you can do" is the best you can do, you're not suited for UA and I will push to have you removed from the Hero Course. Midoriya, in the circle, you can do anything you want so long as you don't leave it.
"Mio?" Midoriya said, holding his hand out.
"Right!" Mio rushed forwards, hand reaching for Midoriya. Light flashed in their eyes, pink and blue in Midoriya's and pink and green in Mio's. There was a flash of light, and suddenly in front of them was a one story tall creature. It was black and red, with a green spiked ponytail that stretched out behind it.
"What?"
"This is the true power of Oroboros," Eunie said conversationally, "Interlinking. It's hard to explain if you never experienced it. We each have a partner, and when we Interlink we become one but… Don't. Like I said, hard to explain."
The creature lifted the ball, which looked tiny in its hand, and threw it into the air. Pulling a giant slab of metal that could be charitably be called a sword from nothing, it swung it, smacking the ball into the distance.
"2,532 meters!"
"I'm going to point out you technically stepped outside the circle, but given the size of that thing I'm not splitting hairs," Aizawa said, "so long as you use it as a trump card, not something to rely on."
—
Shouta quickly realized there was a factor involving the three Oroboros he hadn't considered when grabbing his standard Quirk Apprehension Test. And it was one that had made the test take up the whole day.
Endurance.
These were trained veterans, they had gone through some form of bootcamp and it showed. Laps, situps, repeated side steps. Each of the three continued on until Shouta got tired and told them to stop. They were breathing a little harder, yes, but they hadn't even worked up a sweat. They leveled above average in everything else too, but those were the standouts.
All throughout it, Aizawa saw Bakugo grow more agitated with each test. Specifically each time Midoriya did something, especially if it broke Bakugo's record. Finally, he called them off for the day, the sun starting to set, and sent them home.
Hopefully All Might would be willing to rig the Battle Trial for him. He had a few questions he wanted answered.
—
Yagi Toshinori, better known as the number one Hero All Might, watched his first class step out of the changing rooms. Immediately noticing the trio from Oroboros.
Midoriya was wearing a harness over an open red jacket over a black shirt, cargo pants, fatigue pants and combat boots. Mio was wearing a tights under a skirt and a spaghetti string tank top under a white jacket. Finally, Eunie was wearing a black pair of black jumpsuit pants, a more traditional tanktop and a black and green sweatshirt over it. In their hands were their respective weapons "Blades" as they were called according to diplomats from Agnus and Kesev.
"Look at you all, the true embodiment of heroes!" Toshinori said, "Now, for today we're going to be running you all through a little drill. Two on Two combat simulations, where one team acts as a group of villains guarding a bomb, and the other the Heroes trying to capture it for disposal! The rules are simple. The Hero team must touch the bomb before the time is up, but damaging it will count as it detonating and immediately eliminate you! Is that understood?
Everyone nodded.
"Then first up will be… These guys!"
—
Izuku was in the middle of the final gear check when his partner for the exercise spoke up. She was a pink skinned girl wearing a camouflage one piece with a coat over it, "So… What's up with you and those girls?"
"What girls? Izuku asked, sweeping Truthseeker in a cross slash.
"Eunie and Mio!" Mina said, "and I saw you sitting with another one during lunch!"
"I was sitting with my friends during lunch," Izuku said.
"But, like, is there anything there?"
"Where?" Izuku asked in confusion.
Mina sighed, dropping her head and shaking her head, "it's always the thick ones."
What was that supposed to mean?
—
Mio moved quietly through the halls of the building, rushing from corner to corner before glancing out to look for Izuku or his partner. In comparison, her partner was blasting down the halls with explosions from his hand, forcing Mio to move faster than she'd like to keep pace.
It, expectedly, went wrong. Ether bullets tore across the hallway, slamming into Bakugo and sending him crashing into the wall. Sliding into position, Mio glanced out to see Truthseeker having taken the form of Lanz's shieldblade, the turret deployed and Izuku staring at them with his Iris lit up with the twin Oroboros-Mobius symbol. She would admit, to someone who wasn't used to it, that would probably look intimidating.
Instead, Mio poured Ether into her right Sundancer and whirled around to corner, throwing it at Izuku. The discus of light shredded the hallway and barely gave Izuku enough time to deploy a barrier. Green energy ground against the hexagonal shield before exploding, pushing Izuku back slightly. Before she could follow up, Bakugo came blasting forwards, yelling, "Out of the way, cat, Deku is mine!"
As the smoke dissipated, it revealed Izuku no longer holding Lanz's sword, in its place was a pair of red, fingerless gauntlets. Mio felt her eyes widen as ghost memories flowed into her. Even without Pneuma, those-
"Die!" Bakugo roared, swinging his hand for Izuku's head. Izuku went low, before kicking off the ground, entering Bakugo's guard without slowing down, and drove the left gauntlet into his gut. Time seemed to stand still for a second before Bakugo was blasted back into the wall he had started at. He growled, grabbing a pin on his bracer and pulling it even as All Might yelled at him not to, "I said DIE!"
A massive conflagration tore the hallway to bits rebar the only thing left. Mio felt her heart stop for a momnet, and she turned to yell, scresm, rage at Bakgo… Until she heard footsteps right below them.
Izuku's hands burst from the floor below, grabbing Bakugo by his ankles, dragging him through one floor and slamming him onto another as Mio began to move. To Bakugo's credit, he tried one last time, futile as it was, to land a hit on Izuku. He didn't even bother to deflect it, just driving a fist into Bakugo's gut so hard the ground cracked below them. Bakugo's eyes rolled back, cleafly unconscious.
Turning off her Iris, Mio continued carefully making her way across the rebar that remained, towards the bomb room. Izuku burst from the hole, turning Truthseeker into a pair of guns and began to fire at Mio.
Struggling to dodge and make her way to solid ground, Mio threw her sundancers st Izuku, charged with Ether. She heard the nose of them splitting in two as she landed on solid ground, glancing back to confirm that yes, Izuku had drawn the Sword of Origin. Diving to the side, Mio dodged the twin shockwaves that tore up the floor even more. Izuku charged forward, sheathing the Sword az he went. He lept over the gap..
Or would have if Mio hadn't manifested a series of crystals and fired them at him, knocking him out of the air as she remainifested her Sundancers. She doubted that would keeo Izuku down for long.
Reaching the room with Ashido in it, she shoulder checked the younger girl before rushing to rhe bomb with seconds to spare.
