Mei leaned back and sighed as the elevator carried her down, down into the depths of the Earth.
She was… Tired. So tired.
Eventually, the elevator did stop, and she was forced to step out of it.
Their base was the same as always.
A massive domed shaped cave, rugged walls white stone, with the roof lit up by massive lamps, beneath said lamps, an underground lake with sandy beaches.
Over to the side was an old radio tower like structure, and a bunch of what looked like old school beach houses made of stitched together metal roofs.
It was an interesting sight, a base from an older, more chaotic time… But it was not the structure of the place itself that came at her then.
It was how empty it was.
Not one, single soul besides her… And one other soul lying under a parasol by the water's edge.
Aikuro was lying on a towel, sunglasses on his forehead, eyes closed, but he'd been nice enough to have put a beach chair beside.
"Hey Aikuro-San!"
One eye opened, and glanced over at her as she seated herself, and he nodded in reply, though he did not rise, instead continuing to lie on his back.
"How are you holding up Mei?"
"Not well." She said bluntly.
"I'm not cut out for this, the same way as the rest of the class is. Not in motivation and character, though I have the capacity."
He nodded again.
"Direct Hero work isn't For everyone… And yet you march on anyway. That is commendable of you… Though from what I can tell, you are in sore need of a break to recharge your batteries. We cannot afford for you to crack instead, you are very important for everything really."
"So what's the plan?"
"After the festival, there will be a week of internship, where you kids will serve under some already established Heroes. I'll set you up with one of ours, and it'll effectively be a week-long vacation for you."
She nodded.
"I'll get to actually focus on my babies for once!"
"We all have our own ways to relax… But yeah. Since Izuku isn't participating in the Sports Festival, we should have more time before the fateful meeting. If she was, it would either be the day after she was put on national TV, or during said internship."
"She's getting worse."
"I know. Again, one of the major reasons why we cannot let her meet Satsuki yet."
She nodded.
Then she changed tracks entirely.
"It's weird not having anyone else here."
"Everyone else is out in the field, trying to restore law and order. Fighting for Law and Justice."
"Makes sense. Oh, also, I need teacher approval for something."
DTR smiled.
"For another piece of tech no doubt… What is it?"
"There was recently an innovation made in the west regarding the kinds of metal alloys master would have used for his scissors. More specifically their ability to carry a charge."
DTR considered that.
"I'm guessing this project would be the equivalent of a taser or something a bit below? If it was about something really lethal, you wouldn't be bringing it up right before the sports festival."
"Exactly, it's about using my metal pellets, which I realized is too vulnerable to simply being dodged, and unless aimed very carefully won't deal true damage anyway, but with a charge, I can-"
I
Tenya was eating his food as one could expect at dinner.
It felt… Surprisingly relaxing, when he didn't feel nausea while looking at one of the people gathered there.
Though admittedly, tonight it was only him and his brother. That made it easy to look at the person in question and retain eye contact, which his parents had always hammered in was an important part of socialization, but had always made Tenya feel…
Tensei was not looking his best, with dark rings under his eyes, and clearly being exceptionally tired… But his usual smile remained the same.
It was him, not Tenya though, who brought up the other's physical state first.
"Tired Tenya?"
"I suppose I am indeed such."
"You're getting a lot less stiff since you joined the school… But you still have a long way to go."
"Indeed. My path forward as a Hero has been rather… Unconventional compared to what I expected it to be."
"Yeah… I suppose having to deal with a villain attack is a bit too much to ask for week one."
Both brothers winched at that, though for different reasons.
"Sorry, that… Was a bit in poor taste."
"That is alright brother… It's not wrong. And I… I have had to confront such hard truths in large amounts lately. They do not stop being true, just because they are hard."
His brother seemed relieved… But Tenya considered how to go about asking his next question.
The answer he had just given was not… Entirely truthful.
"I… I did want to ask you for some advice regarding the attack."
His brother's expression changed completely, showing he was suddenly giving this his full attention and investment.
"Allright. What did you want to ask, Tenya?"
"It is about a girl."
"A… Girl?"
"Yes. Her name is Hatsume Mei."
"Oh, the… your pink haired friend, the girl who annoys you so much."
"Yes. Her. During the invasion… She and I had to rescue three other classmates, who was holding one of the three hostages to dissuade the other two."
Tensei nodded, slowly.
"Hostage situations are always tricky to deal with. They require a firm hand, and to be able to act under pressure."
Indeed.
"During the… Rescue operation, Hatsume asked me to effectively act as a distraction while she carried out a plan she had devised. As time was of the essence, I did not question her, and simply put my trust in her plan, and capacity to carry it out."
"And… Did this plan work?"
"Yes. Without a hitch, and… That too, is in remarkably poor taste. You see, her plan was for me to serve as a distraction, in order for him to turn his head, and then for her to nail him through the eye slits in his helmet with a grappling-hook gun, to kill him instantly by spearing him through the brain. She also ensured that the villain would fall backwards by letting go of the gun, and let it hit him in the face as it reeled in at high speed and sent him toppling through the force of it."
His brother was… Shocked, but not quite in the way Tenya had hoped. More surprised than horrified.
"I… See…"
He obviously considered the question in full, with his hand on his chin in a classic thinkers pose, before he eventually continued.
"You okay Tenya?"
"No. But I am unsure of how to proceed with it. For several reasons, not all related to the event itself."
"Allright, we'll take it one point at a time then."
Yes, his brother knew how to handle it.
"In chronological order, there is the simple reality that I understand the necessity of it… And yet the fact that Hatsume used me for that sort of plan without a second's thought is…"
"Distressing? You feel guilty because you didn't want to be an accessory to it?"
Yes, it had been a good course of events to come to his brother with it, rather than his parents.
"In part… But do not misunderstand. I… Am not as disconcerted by the death she caused as you might think. I am not naive. I understand that this profession might involve death… And besides, what happened to All Might showcased rather clearly that she WAS correct in her course of action. And besides… Your Team Idaten does not have a stainless record in such. Nor did All Might."
Tensei nodded.
"When superheroes and villains throw around the kind of force we do on a daily basis, people will inevitably get hurt, be it Heroes, Villains or civilians. That just… comes with the territory… But it still bothers you right? That the jump from the person before, to who you… Well, the one you're now, it wasn't your choice. This Mei-Chan took it from you, without asking, nor considering how you'd feel."
"Exactly! That is exactly what my bigger problem is!"
"Yeah, I can see that. Have you talked to her about this?"
"No. That in turn, is another issue. She has not brought it up either… And speaking frankly, I do not think she cares much. Beyond a bit of physical discomfort at witnessing the gore of the action… She seems to have moved on without any greater thoughts on the matter. As if it was just another school day."
Tensei raised one of her pointed eyebrows at that.
"I don't think you should just assume that. There could be a lot going on inside of her head that you have no way of reading."
"I see… How should I go about asking her about it?"
"I… Don't know actually. I don't know this girl beyond the fact that, according to you, she runs circles around you, and enjoys doing so."
"That she does… It's… One of the reasons I don't actually wish to try it. I feel like… She'll just walk right over me. In particular, because I know that from a logical perspective, she is right. It seems rather foolish to get into a logical debate that you already know that you will lose."
"That's… Not wrong, no. But you really do need to talk to her about it. Even if you are going to "Lose". If you just let this fester it will ruin your relationship."
Right… Relationship.
"I… Well, that is the first half of the problem… The second one is… Related to an exercise we recently had with our teacher DTR…"
"A physical one?"
"Yes…"
"It's not the one where you're shown what you want most out of life outside of heroism, while having to go through a life altering series of events is it?"
Tenya stared at him.
"How did you know that?"
"Because several of my sidekicks have gone through that one. It always leaves a mark. So… This girl played a role in your little vision?"
"Ah… Um yes, she…"
His cheeks went red, but it was really his physical language that really told his brother how much the question and implication knocked him out of his usual comfort zone.
The stiff, robotic arm motions most obvious of all.
"I see… I don't suppose she was your romantic partner in this vision of yours?"
Iida Tenya just… Stopped moving, like he was a malfunctioning robot.
To Tensei's credit, he didn't really pounce, instead looking over at his little brother with the kind of mixture between rather amused, smug, and yet understanding that only a caring older sibling could produce.
"Bullseye huh?"
He nodded to himself as if everything finally fell into place.
"That makes why this is so conflicting for you make so much more sense, yeah."
Tenya, cheeks flushing red, finally managed to get out of his complete lockdown eventually.
In a manner of speaking.
"But-it-is-after-all-only-a-simulation-we-need-not-take-it-seriously!"
"You might think so, Tenya, but the fact is, of my 7 Sidekicks who went through that vision stuff, 3 of their visions came through to the letter. 2 similar but with some details different, and only 2 had a future that was nothing like what the vision said."
His expression actually made his brother laugh.
"I'm glad to see you're finally starting to act like a Human Tenya. It's not that long ago you always acted like a robot, and yet you are getting flustered over a girl."
"I… I'm not sure I am interested in her in such a manner… Regardless of… How the future me might have thought of her."
"Hmm… Yeah, that would make your current dilemma really awkward wouldn't it?"
All his worries, and Tensei just cut through the heart of the matter with no difficulty.
His brother truly was amazing!
"I still say you should talk to her, even if you aren't gonna go and ask her out or something, you need to get this out of your system and actually get her perspective on it before you move forward."
Sound advice.
"Right… I… I'll do it after the sports festival I think."
"Yeah, that would probably be for the best. No need to baggage her with all of this right now, when you both really need to keep your head on the prize. I mean imagine if you ended up confessing to her or something, then had to fight her? Man, that would not go well in any way."
He nodded.
"But putting Mei-San aside… There have also been some other developments I wished to ask your advice on."
"Yeah? What about?"
"several matters, regarding my two other friends, Midoriya Izuku and… Mineta Minoru."
I
Izuku lifted her hand and with a strange snapping sound, like very heavy cloth being whipped through the air, five glove-covered fingers became five sharp claws.
She raised it, and with a sharp, downwards motion, she brought it down on the concrete wall.
Rather than being ripped apart only by the sheer brute strength of it, instead 5 massive cleaved gashes appeared in the wall, going far through where her hands had physically reached.
"Oh, sweet! So a flying cut! Like from One Piece, just invisible!"
"Obviously… Air doesn't have color."
She hesitated, then shifted her entire arm into a living blade, before she brought the entire thing in a sideways cut.
It produced a similar result, only larger, deeper, and much more powerful… As well as far less controlled.
She jumped backwards, as the entire side of the building came crashing down as the sheer force of the blow cracked everything around the cut through the sheer power of it.
"It's strong, but… You can do better, yeah?"
She considered… But no.
"No… I can't. I'm… Not as strong as usual… I… I thought my physical power fluctuated a bit… Beyond when I'm Embarrassed I mean. Like I'd be a bit stronger than usual one day, slightly less the next. But it wasn't anything too drastic to be honest."
"What changed then? You don't seem any more reluctant to use your powers than before. Hell, you chose this place in the middle of nowhere just to train."
That was true… Their current spot was an old, long since abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, about the size of Gura Middle School.
It was a private building though, given by the layout. Maybe a private mansion from an older age.
And it was from an older age. It had to have been abandoned for at least a century given the amount of vegetation and degradation it had. Even the roads leading to it had been completely overgrown with plants and trees, the asphalt long ago broken apart.
It was as isolated and in the middle of nowhere as Izuku knew of.
She had chosen it for that specific reason, so she didn't have to deal with anyone else watching her right now.
There was a second reason. It was that second reason, why she had chosen this wall in particular.
"I chose this place rather than just doing it in the woods… Because I wanted to test something. A question I just answered for myself."
"Really? What's that?"
"Whether the future can be changed or not. That wall would have been destroyed by Amra when she was 12 and training. That will no longer happen, even if she is born, because I just obliterated it."
"Huh… Interesting. That still doesn't explain why your power is down from your usual level. You're a bit less than half in brute strength than you usually are."
That might be about right… But she was still stupidly powerful. Kamui's and those who wore were monstrously strong things, even suppressed.
"Does it matter? Fact is…"
She raised her hand, fingers unfolded anew, before slamming it sideways through the air just to see the result of the sharpness of her claws combined with her brute strengths, easily capable of cleaving through a thick, concrete wall.
"I have a pretty good idea of why I'm not in tip top condition right now. Knowing the exact mechanics of how it's connected with my self confidence in… Well, us… That won't help me much. I know why I'm like this right now. I just can't really do anything about it."
"Hmmm… Maybe the answer isn't to train then? Maybe… Maybe we should focus on getting you in a better mood? Maybe… We could watch something together? There's been a couple of anime series with some rather fascinating character dynamics and twists, we could try that?"
She tried it out with her completely covered feet, and discovered she could create claws on her feet too with the same kind of cutting power as her hands as she cleaved through another wall.
"If people could just beat depression by watching a movie or TV series they liked, there wouldn't be suicides in the modern world."
She cleaved her way through one entire section of the building.
"Well there has to be something we can do to help you get happier. The lady said that your wounds would finally begin healing in this tournament. That means something has to happen that cheers you up."
He didn't understand, Izuku saw. Cheering her up was not the same as her wounds finally beginning to heal.
There was overlap, but she had been happy many times since she had lost her dad. Ecstatic even.
The wound itself had never truly gone away.
"That doesn't matter right now, does it? I can't do anything about something that might happen during the festival. Right now I just have to prepare for it… As best I can…"
As she burst through another section of this abandoned structure in the middle of nowhere, Izuku considered something else.
"I… Can do more than claws."
"Yeah, you should be able to make blades or spikes all over. That's basically the perfect anti grappler armor!"
"No, I mean…"
She focused, trying to make what she wanted happen.
The first attempt was just a wide, flimsy extension of cloth, little better than a wide, green sheet from her back.
"Oh… Right…"
Her second, third, and finally fourth, all progressed much better one after another until finally, two huge, dragonic looking wings extended from her back.
She didn't have an exact measure, but these were easily large enough to be used both for flight, and for combat… Though as she beat them, she did not feel the titanic force of her arms and legs.
Still, they were strong.
She folded them as she bent her knees down, and then… She soared.
Some 60 meters up into the air, she unfolded her wings again, as the wind suddenly beat about her face.
The world below became much smaller, as she gained altitude, going up, and up and up, soaring 6-10 meters with every beat of her massive wings.
She didn't know exactly why she did as she did then.
Maybe it was just wanting to go do something, after everything that had happened lately, maybe she really did want to go do something that could be considered fun as FUKU said, or maybe she just wanted to see what she could do… Or maybe she just wanted a distraction from… Everything.
It was… Something new.
A feeling of freedom she had never really felt before came over her then, as she just kept climbing up towards the heavens.
"Wait, Izuku, that's a cloud, let's go around it!"
She plunged right on through, and though she did not feel the cold, she did notice her wings suddenly became quite a bit heavier, accompanying both Fuku's cursing, and his face going up to cover her mouth.
Her wings were not stopped much by the added weight though, even in their current shape of not firing on all cylinders.
She burst through the clouds, a small figure flanked by two massive, beating wings.
Then as she went up a bit more, she stopped beating, and just began gliding.
"Man… Now THIS is more like it! What do you think, Izuku? Surely this view has to cheer you up a bit?"
It kinda did actually.
Below her was a magnificent scenery.
Japan, with its rugged mountainous terrain and hills to the left, covered by ivory white snow pure and glistening, below those were dark forests, shaded meadows and untamed greenery that had overtaken this area after the fall… and to the right, off into the distance, civilization, towering and majestic skyscrapers, a landscape of steel and iron.
And further beyond, stormy waves on the blue pacific ocean so far off into the distance.
She just let herself glide on the invisible currents, taking it all in, before she spoke again.
"...This is what those exhaust pads on my elbows and backs are for. Flight. These wings for stabilizing, and those to carry me forward like a jet, through the force of energy as they release it."
She'd only seen a very, very brief glimpse of it in her sight of a possible future, but she caught on to the possibility very quickly.
Rather than encouraging her to figure it out, and let her delve into her assessment that the green exhaust energy and the energy she used to destroy anything non living were likely to be very different kinds due to their completely opposite effects, Fuku was not pleased at all.
"Do we have to talk about that NOW? Come on girl, this is an amazing view, breathtaking even! Where is your sense of romance and adventure!?"
She actually smiled at that… But it died down as she looked down on the city scapes far below her.
She saw a brief glimpse of intensifying light at one spot across this city. A hero and villain fight involving flames.
"The world… Well… Just Japan really, is currently wracked by lawlessness and crimewaves. It's… Easy to pretend it's not there. Our city isn't really affected much. Being Japan's center of Heroism and all."
"Actually, that's a good point. Why is Musutafu the center of Heroism exactly? I don't think anyone's ever explained it before."
Such a basic question.
She recalled asking her dad the same one, long ago.
After the collapse… When people began rebuilding, pretty much all the decently sized towns and lesser sized cities were effectively ghost towns. All the population at that time now either lived in the specific cities that survived like Tokyo, Kyoto or Saga, or out in the countryside. A lot of older cites that didn't survive was effectively broken down for their materials… The government used those to build a lot of newer, more modern cities from scratch. A lot of those became centered around specific trades or areas. For example there is one specific city in the middle of the mountains that is devoted almost solely to housing and upkeeping the nuclear power plants that fuel Japan's energy sector. It's... Well, it's a fully functioning city, with all that comes with civilization, but that's still pretty much all it's known for."
"Ah, and Musutafu was this for Heroes?"
"Yeah… Nowadays there's a dozen Hero schools in every city across the Empire, but… Back then it was mostly gathered around Musutafu, with only a few others scattered about the country."
She considered that. Really, genuinely considered it.
"Our society… Is all built on the ones who came before us. The first Heroes who fought and died to restore law and order. Without those, All Might's order would never have come to be… It all connects back in time, built on what came before."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
She hadn't tried to make it sound melancholy, but it had.
"Sure… But the problem… Is that we also inherit the problems of the past as well. Tartarus… Was built on good intentions I have no doubt… But the problems are already there. And it will get worse as the years go on. Amra… Amra said her side would win, so long as all the members of the Hero association had… Weren't around anymore. Not the Parliament, the Hero Commission."
"What's the difference?"
"...The Hero commission and its various branches are the arm of the government that deal with the regulation, training and salaries of Heroes."
"Maybe they did a coup against the actual government then? Maybe Amra's side really was on the right side?"
She shook her head.
"No… I don't think that's it."
"What do you think is gonna lead to it then?"
She had an answer. An answer that had been building up in her head over the last few days.
"I think… The Hero Commission is gonna get more, and more power and independent oversight away from the government… And it already has plenty of both as it stands… But as the current crisis continues, that shift is going to become more and more enshrined… Until the point that for whatever reasons, the next generation will become determined to wipe it from the face of the Earth, risks be damned."
A bleak scenario.
"So… What do we do about it?"
That… Was the question wasn't it?
"I haven't the faintest idea. Simply defeating or killing Shigaraki wont do the trick… I did that in the… Other timeline. It didn't solve the problem in the long run. It probably made it worse actually."
"Wait… So… We let Shigaraki… Win?"
She actually laughed at the sheer absurdity of the statement.
"Like Hell we are."
"Oh good, you had me worried there for a second."
"The point remains though… I don't know how to change things. In the grand scheme of things, it's… I don't know."
The void inside was still there. The problem as she saw it, it wasn't just going away… And as she was now, she lacked the morale to just keep going strong despite not having an answer.
If All Might hadn't died… If she did not have to go through everything about Amra… She probably would have been able to march on with a strong heart despite everything she knew of how things could go wrong.
Worrying about the future wasn't anything new to her… But she'd been able to manage so far.
It was the… Rapid blows in quick succession that was ripping out the foundations she had built for herself, her faith in her own beliefs and morals… And without the bedrock of having faith in herself, and her own ideals, it was hard to ignore the possible bad ending this land was heading towards, even if they won the current bloody war.
"Still, despite all of that… You seem way less horribly depressed than yesterday."
Well, that… Wasn't quite on the mark.
She was still utterly depressed. She had just gotten a bit… Well, jolted out of her utter despair was a good way to put it.
Looking back at it, it was… No, she was pretty sure she had been going through a mental breakdown of sorts.
The sadness was there, it was just… It had begun to set in.
You were like this before too. The day at the roof edge.
Back then, she'd stepped away from it on her own… But it had been what happened later that day that really kicked her out of the hole of darkness she had been digging herself deeper into.
"...Realizing we have to go out and fight anyway… That was… Well, I've… I've had something similar happen before… Back before we met…"
When she was at her absolute lowest.
"There was something back then that managed to kick me out of the worst of it… Even if it didn't really solve it in the long run."
"Really? What was it?"
"...Bashing Kacchan over the head with a metal pipe."
The Kamui laughed hysterically.
"You sure you don't wanna go beat the shit out of him? Sounds like it did wonders for you the first time."
She sighed and shook her head, as she stared down over the landscape.
Amra… Amra had loved this view.
She understood why.
She saw the beauty and wonder of it all… She wondered how it would have been like to view this as a child, with the wonder and glee that only came with the true innocence of childhood.
I
Melissa Shield moved her arm up and down, feeling the sheer power of One For All running through it, before she calibrated, and unleashed it.
"7% of total capacity detected."
The cold, robotic, soulless voice was the exact same as always. Utterly without anything that could be called Humanity or emotions.
"5-7% on average... That's amazing progress Melissa! 2 months ago you could barely handle 2% unaided!"
Her father's words were kind… But she felt a sting of pain at his words.
"It's not enough… Not NEAR enough… Nui isn't at 8%... She's at 83%."
Her eyes were filled with determination.
Her father's eyes by contrast were filled with nothing but sadness."
"Melissa-" "I NEED to get stronger… And I need to get stronger now, not a year from now!"
She took heavy breaths, drenched in sweat as she was, surrounded by a small mountainside that had been utterly wrecked.
"With this speed… It will take 18 more months before I'm acclimated to One For All's power. I don't know how long it will take for Nui to heal up from the beating Izuku gave her, but I don't think it's gonna be even half a year, much less the better part of two."
"Hmmm… What about Izuku herself? By your account, she seems strong enough to fight Nui, and defeat her."
"I… I don't know. Izuku is such a weird figure in class it's almost impossible to read her. Sometimes she's cool, calm and stoic, sometimes she's… Honestly kinda wimpy, and sometimes… I don't know, she's been all over the place since All Might died. Her head's really not in the game right now. Maybe that would change if it became a life or death situation, but I'm not willing to bet everything on it."
Her father pondered that.
"I… We need some way to make you much, much stronger in a short amount of time…"
"You… You have something in mind dad?"
"We'll see… I need to go back home and do a lot of work, but… For now, you need to focus on the upcoming tournament. It's gonna be your effective debut as a Hero. And hey, if Nui does attack then and there, the amount of gathered heroes and beefed up security will make short work of her."
Her father said that in a lackadaisical manner, clearly meaning it as a lighthearted way to take her mind off of Nui, who's master would have to be insane to get her to go there.
Instead it just made her remember her failures in full.
You never took this as seriously as you should have. You treated it like a job where you could just take your time to get good and experienced.
She had had a lot of thoughts like that lately.
She was not at a level where she truly blamed herself utterly and completely for what had happened… But the implication was there. The ugly truth she had not been forced to face.
Not yet anyway.
I
The few days of peace leading up to the Sport's festival unfolded better and worse for everyone in class 1-A.
Their confrontation with the mob outside their classroom had at the end ended in some goodhearted laughter, which had allowed a lot of tension to bleed away, but that reaction had certainly not won them many friends amongst the rest of the school, who now saw them as more arrogant and self conceited than ever.
Which in turn meant a lot of the class huddled together with their peers, as the isolation from the rest of the school got even worse.
As for Izuku's little circle of friends, beyond everyone doing their own training regiments, the period was marked by a lot of awkwardness, in large part due to Iida's rather inexperienced, but honest approach to try to help Izuku(Who really did not want anyone prying into why she was so down), and genuinely befriend Mineta, an endeavor that was rather unlikely.
Of course Iida also had his duties as vice-president to take care of, so he was not available all the time, less so in fact as the school began settling into an actual school year again.
Similarly unavailable was Mei, who as usual had classes that went on for way, way longer into the day than all the rest.
That left the rather depressed Izuku spending far more time with Tsuyu and Mineta… Who wasn't bad per say… She even got along surprisingly okay with Mineta which was a bizarre development… But the simple reality was that she didn't gel with Tsuyu and Mineta the same way she did with Iida and Mei.
One day though, there came an end to it, as the Sports festival finally arrived.
Lots of things happened as Yuei's sports festival finally came underway again.
It was, and remained a great, once a year spectacle that generated more revenue for the school than anything else combined, being on average viewed by 60 million people each year.
That was the average though.
This year, for good or bad, the school festival had a massive, international audience as well due to reasons outside of Yuei's direct control.
The world wanted to watch the class All Might had died for after all.
That in turn boosted the number up to and exceeding 300 million people across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, with only Oceania being the only places where All Might death had not left a massive wake.
The Symbol Of Peace had not had the opportunity to be everywhere in the world after all, despite his best efforts.
As for the reporters who would be on hand to document it, they were all threading very, very carefully, with the regular soft pestering and interviews with the students who were going to partake being non-existent.
The messages still plastered on Yuei's walls told the reasons for why… Even if, as some of the reporters noted wryly, they still had not fixed the obvious typo, forgetting the school part of Hero School.
And of course there were Heroes and police. Four times the regular of both, with all the usual behind the scenes politics and scouting that such entailed. And of courseEndeavor, the country's new number 1 Hero, was now making his first, non-work related appearance since taking the throne.
As it was though, it was another Pro-Hero who would go on to steal the show. One so far down in the rankings at the moment that many did not even realize she was actually, officially in work.
Said Hero had also worked behind the scenes, and without the knowledge of most of Yuei's teachers, on many of the exercises and obstacle courses that now faced the 3 year brackets… As well as the commentator booth the usual pair of teachers to whom this duty was given.
All in all, the government had spent the equivalent of 4 Billion dollars getting her to set it up.
Some might call that a waste of money.
The government, who wanted stronger heroes at any cost, considered it well spent, so long as a single possible Hero benefited from it.
These 3 days would tell if it was money well spent, or a gigantic waste of time.
I
The prep room for 1-A was a room filled with anxious young people.
Pretty much everyone was filled with stress, or worries, though how much they let that show was a different story.
Some, like Ashido, complained they didn't get to wear their full costume, being limited to only certain pieces of equipment if they were allowed to use anything external at all(With Mei and Melissa being the only exceptions, even if no one outside of herself was aware the blonde girl actually had a license for producing support equipment).
Others were taking the mind off it all with small exercises or drinking or eating a final bit of food before the big event.
As for Izuku, she was mostly just standing off in one corner, thinking about how much she didn't want to be there.
At all.
She'd been talking to everyone else at some point, Tsuyu, Mei, Mineta and Iida… But like everyone else, they had gone off to make some last physical preparations or considerations, with the exception of Iida, who, like Momo, had been running off and here and back again with the official news from the school staff itself, as part of their duties.
It was as she stood there, listening to Fuku trying to get her spirits up, that suddenly, somebody called out to her.
"Midoriya."
She winched, but turned, to find as she'd known immediately by the voice, Todoroki walking towards her, before stopping in front of her.
"What is it Todoroki-Kun…?"
The boy did not have a particularly warm expression, instead looking stoic and calm, but also hostile.
Towards her in particular.
She had no idea why.
Several of their classmates turned to look at the two of them, though not everyone realized something was going on immediately.
"On an objective basis, as you are now, I think I'm Above you in terms of practical strength."
This exclamation actually got some chuckles out of some of the class, in particular Mineta.
"As if! Midoriya is WAY stronger than you, Todoroki!"
The boy with the white and red hair did not take his mismatched eyes off of Izuku though.
"I might have agreed after the invasion, but things have changed. You have been drastically dropping in strength ever since the damned practicals with DTR, have they not Midoriya."
She hadn't really considered before how rude Todoroki actually sounded.
She'd noticed he never used honorifics, but usually he spoke much calmer than this.
As for his question, her complete lack of an answer, spoke more than words could have though.
"Furthermore… I don't believe you spoke the truth when you said you had no connection to Despot."
"Why… Why would you think that?"
"Several reasons. Your reaction back then was a bit off, but since then, there have been several reports across the east of people with powers like yours. Not just Despot. There is a Vigilante in red and black, and Hannoji expelled a Hero in training named Ogure Maiko, yesterday. She too has the exact same powers as you, Despot and the vigilante, just different coloring."
So, now at least she knew where 2 more Kamui were to be found at least.
"Regardless, I don't really care about prying too much into that, but…"
His eyes narrowed, and for a moment she felt a pang of utter disdain from those eyes of gray and blue.
"I am going to beat you."
Izukus stared at him, feeling kinda… Dumbfounded.
"Isn't he… Directing this in the wrong direction?"
Izuku felt a similar feeling in her chest as she glanced over at Melissa Shield, but Todoroki's eyes did not waver, staring directly into her face.
"I… I think you're making this declaration in the wrong direction…"
Kirishima agreed, though seemingly for different reasons, as he placed a hand on Todoroki's shoulder.
"What's with the belligerence all of a sudden? Don't spring this on her right before-"
Todoroki shook his hand off.
"I'm not here to play nice or make friends. Just making my intentions known to the strongest enemy on the field."
It could have been a compliment, but the way he said it, along with his very clear cut intention to beat her into the ground, made it anything but.
She didn't get to reply though, as suddenly Kacchan was there.
"The strongest? And what are we then? The side dish?"
He suddenly stood right up against Todorki staring daggers into his eyes, so close their breath could probably be felt against the other's skin.
"You wanna focus on a goal? Focus on surviving against me before you start picking a fight with weaklings!"
"The guy cannot just do something without being backhanded in some way, can he?"
She had to agree. Sadly.
She opened her mouth, but before she managed to say anything, the signal for them to go out came.
It took a few seconds before the meaning of that sank in for the class… But once it did, everything else was for the moment forgotten.
It was showtime.