"Hey, Midoriya?" asked Uraraka, after Aizawa passed out a costume revision assignment and feigned passing out.
"Yes?" said Midoriya, knowing that his eyes were preturnaturally wide and fine tremors were running through his body. He was a wreck.
"Are you okay? Why did you come to class with Mr. Aizawa?"
"And what's that you're holding onto?" asked Kaminari.
"Um," said Izuku. "I was sort of... abducted by the support department? But in a nice way... And they gave me this grappling hook."
"Wow, cool! I didn't know we could get stuff like that from the support department."
"You should really read the student handbook, Kaminari," said Iida, pushing up his glasses.
"But it's so long!"
Iida tsked and adjusted his glasses more vigorously. "You're a student! You should at least be familiar with what is expected of you! Speaking of which, Midoriya, do you know how to use that?"
As much as he could learn from a ten-minute crash-course. "... yes," said Izuku, but it was clear from Iida's face that he had hesitated too long.
"Midoriya! You shouldn't have something like that in the classroom without knowing how to use it!" Iida half stood up, and Izuku clutched the grappling hook closer to his chest.
"No! Mine!" Maybe he was too attached to something he'd only had for a little over an hour, but the support department hadn't been able to give him any smoke bombs or flash grenades due to 'new school regulations regarding explosives' and he'd gone through a lot this morning.
Distress washed over Iida's face, and Izuku wondered if he'd accidentally smacked into some old trauma.
"I wasn't going to take it!" he said, earnestly waving his hands. "I just wanted to make sure you knew where the safety-"
The door to the classroom slammed open. "Is that my little brother I hear?" asked a beaming man in a track suit. Without waiting for an answer, he bounded over to where Iida was sitting and clapped him on the back. "I have come to embarrass you horribly!"
From the expression on Iida's face, this venture was doomed to failure. "I thought you were joking when you said you'd see me today!" exclaimed Iida, beaming.
"Why... why would I joke about that?"
"You joke about a lot of things. Like knowing vigila-"
"Okay! Yes, haha, funny jokester, that's me! Now why don't you introduce me to your classmates?"
"Of course! I have been remiss in my duties as vice president." He stood and executed a ninety-degree bow. "Forgive me! This is my brother, Iida Tensei! Also known as the pro hero Ingenium!"
Izuku could almost see his classmates start to put together the puzzle pieces of Chibiida and extremely tall older brother. He was more concerned about whether or not it would be rude to ask Ingenium for his autograph... and to check his analysis page on Ingenium...
"That's me! And I'll be your special guest TA today! Now, where's Aizawa? You're supposed to have him for homeroom, right?"
As one, the class pointed to the giant yellow caterpillar in the corner of the room.
"Oh my gosh, Shouta, I thought you were joking-"
.
Ingenium was, to put it in a single word, cool. To put it in two words, he was unbelievably cool. So cool Izuku was almost able to forget the impending field-trip-related DOOM they were all facing.
But not quite.
So Izuku slogged through his classes, still thrilled to be there and waning to do his best, but unable to truly focus past the crushing weight of what might happen. His classmates and maybe-friends hovered at the periphery of his suffering, clearly wanting to help, but just as clearly unsure how, or what lines they could or couldn't cross, leading them to resort to painfully awkward normal small talk.
Until they sat down for lunch, that is, by which time Monoma and Iida had gotten into a conversational spiral about how amazing UA was, how awesome Ingenium was, and how UA was truly superior for being able to have pro-heroes like Ingenium come in as TAs on such short notice.
"Midoriya," said Uraraka, startling him out of his fourth or fifth 'Kacchan sweep.'
(It was still possible that his bad feeling was related to Kacchan hunting him down and blowing him up. He'd be mortified about making such a big deal over it if that was the case, but it would be preferable to, say, a terrorist attack.)
(Why did he keep coming back to terrorist attacks?)
"Are you... okay? You've just seemed really down today, and-"
"Invisible hug!" shouted Hagakure before grabbing Izuku and lifting him over her head.
There was a beat of whispering near-silence. Then Uraraka stood up, slamming both hands on the table and inadvertently making it float. "You have got to tell me your work out routine!"
Izuku agreed.
("Strawberry," someone whispered.)
.
"I generally say what's on my mind," said Asui as the Iidas had radically different reactions to the bus seating arrangement.
"Aha," said Izuku. The swaying of the bus plus the strain of probably-Danger-Sense was making him nauseous. "What is it, Asui?'
"Call me Tsuyu."
The first time a person his age let him call them by name since kindergarten, and he couldn't properly appreciate it. Figured.
"I was watching the videos of the battle trials I missed last night," Tsuyu continued, "and I realized, I don't think any of us know what your quirk is."
Izuku's first impulse was to lie or redirect the conversation. Years of quirklessness had left their mark. But on second consideration... was there really a reason to lie? He wasn't going to talk about One for All, obviously, but the rest of it was harmless and bound to come out eventually anyway.
"Well," said Izuku, adjusting the fit of his air filter self-consciously. "That's a good question, actually."
"If you're keeping it a secret, I won't press."
"No, no, that isn't it!" Yes, it was. "It's just that, um, it's really subtle? As in, so subtle I thought I was quirkless until recently. Haha."
"Oh, wow," said Kirishima, "that must have been hard. I mean, I got teased for having a boring quirk, I can't even imagine-"
"Your quirk isn't boring! It's more than enough to be a pro!"
"But what is your quirk?" asked Monoma.
"Um," said Izuku, "well, we're not entirely sure, but... We think it lets me sense things that are dangerous? But I've also got anxiety, so..."
Monoma was frowning, but before he could speak, one of Hagakure's gloves waved frantically in front of his face.
"Is that how you knew I was there?" she asked. "In the battle trial and the entrance exam?"
"Maybe? I think so?"
"You were kind of anxious this morning," said Uraraka, concerned. "Did something bad happen to you?"
"Not- not yet," said Izuku, weakly. "It- We still don't really know how it works, so it could just be the anxiety..." He trailed off. Everyone was kind of staring at him. He pressed back against his seat, wishing there was somewhere to hide.
"Well!" said Uraraka, suddenly pumped up. "We'll just have to keep an eye out! We're hero students, aren't we?"
There was a general cheer of consensus and Izuku managed a shaky smile. So, this was what it was like to have friends.
Eventually, Mr. Aizawa told them to calm down, but there was no heat in the scolding. Maybe, Izuku thought, past the ever-increasing buzzing in his head, today would be okay after all.
.
"Yeah," said Hikage, "there's really no chance of that."
.
The Unforeseen Simulation Joint was an incredible space!
Space Hero Thirteen was about a thousand times cooler in person than on TV!
All Might, in his golden age rescue-specialized costume, looked like he'd just stepped off the pages of a comic book!
But just like Tsuyu's name, Izuku didn't have the ability to appreciate it.
As the other students marveled over the USJ, Izuku watched the adults quietly talk to one another. It seemed to be something serious.
.
"Did you find anything else with the safety checks?" asked Shouta.
"A few of the areas had the difficulty set too high- apparently some of the third-years decided to get some practice in and their supervisor didn't reset everything. Other than that? Nothing." Thirteen shook their head. "No signs of structural failure, no security gaps. Everything seems, well, normal."
"Well," said All Might, "whatever happens, we're prepared!"
Aizawa seriously doubted they were prepared for anything, but the most obvious, most likely things? Yeah.
"What do you think, Ingenium?" he asked.
"Everything looks fine to me," said Tensei, shrugging. "But if it was something obvious, then it wouldn't be so much of a threat, right?"
"We're still not sure how Midoriya's quirk really works," said Shouta. "It could be a threat just to him." He sighed heavily.
Tensei smiled in a way that just about guaranteed Shouta would be teased about this later.
"Well, I'm going to start my speech now!" said Thirteen giving the others a thumbs up. "Wish me luck!"
.
As soon as Thirteen finished their (surprisingly moving) speech, all of Izuku's attention zeroed in on the air next to the fountain. A swirl of dark mist appeared next to it.
Izuku felt like he couldn't breathe.
"Mr. Aizawa-!" But he was already looking in that direction, already watching the man made covered in emerge from the dark hole, followed by a veritable horde of villains.
And Izuku didn't use the term villain idly here. Several of the people he saw were on wanted lists.
Ironically, now that he was faced with real danger, the panicked siren in his head eased off slightly. Evidently, at least some of the strain had been fear of the unknown, and now the threat was very, very known in the worst way, that particular stressor was gone.
"There he is!" cried the man covered in hands. "All Might! The one we've all come for! Nomu! Get him!"
A large villain with an exposed brain who practically sang with danger charged All Might, who grabbed him by the wrist and flung him away, towards the landslide zone. "Ha! That's not much of a challenge! You'll have to do better than that, villains!"
"Maybe," said a villain made of the same mist as the portal that had brought the others. The large villain came charging out of the landslide zone, none the worse for wear. "Maybe not."
"You might be an elite player, but can you fight the boss and protect the noobs you're powerleveling?"
The other villains surged forwards.
This is when Mr. Aizawa and Ingenium jumped into the fray, and everything immediately got more chaotic. Izuku rapidly lost track of the multiple battles occurring around him - except, wow, Mr. Aizawa was really mowing through villains, wasn't he - that Nomu guy had to have a regeneration quirk, there was just no way - he'd have to write down that villain's monolog as soon as they got out, it might have clues - Izuku had no idea that Ingenium could fly and wow that gave him some ideas for Iida-
Speaking of Iida-
"This is no time for analysis! Hurry up and evacuate!"
Right.
"I won't allow that."
Yeah the misty villain definitely had some kind of teleportation quirk, which made this whole thing even more gutsy. Quirks like that were always monitored by the government. These guys must not care about their identities.
"Greetings," he said, a metal colar slipping into place around his neck. "We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but... today we've come to-"
A gust of air from All Might's fight pushed the mist villain back. But the move had left him partially unguarded, and Izuku watched helplessly as Nomu pounded a fist into his exposed side-
Nomu knew about All Might's injury.
Oh, no.
Izuku didn't have time to process that, however, as Kirishima and Monoma jumped forward, attacking the mist villain.
The feeling of danger spiked, and Izuku barely registered Monoma's bewildered expression.
"Only students... but the best of the best... yes he was right to say you'd be a threat." Darkness spread like an ink stain from the villain's body. Darkness... and portals.
Izuku slammed into Tsuyu and Kaminari, pushing them out of the way of forming portals. He wasn't able to do the same for himself.
"Begone," intoned the mist villain, his voice echoing all around Izuku. "Writhe in torment until you breathe your last."
The next thing Izuku knew, he was in clear light and falling. From at least two stories up, over the flood zone.
And then he stopped.
.
The ghosts whipped their heads around to stare at Nana. She was sitting on a stool, hiding her face in her hands, though whether it was out of embarrassment or fear for Izuku was unclear.
"Nana..." said Yoichi, softly.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry I saw him falling and pani-"
"What did you do that for!" exclaimed Banjo. "He was only fifteen, twenty meters up! Into water!"
"That's twice as high as Olympic divers go! And they screw up their bodies all the time if they hit wrong!" shot back Nana, other emotions abandoned in favor of rage.
"Uh, guys...?" said Yoichi, weakly.
"Who still watches the Olympics?" muttered En.
"If we had to give him a new quirk, it should have been a combat one!"
"You're just jealous that he has Float and not Blackwhip!"
"So what if I am?" demanded Banjo. "If he had Blackwhip, he wouldn't need that stupid grappling hook gun!"
"So, you admit Blackwhip is just a glorified grappling hook?"
"Better than a glorified- glorified-" He puffed out his cheeks. "I'm going to give him Blackwhip right now!"
"NO!" shouted the other ghosts.
"Banjo," said En, "what do you remember about people who All for One gave three quirks to?"
Banjo went pale.
"Oh, hell," said Banjo. "I'm sorry, I got carried away."
"You can say that again," grumbled Nana.
"But," continued Banjo, "doesn't this mean we can't give him the stockpile?"
They turned to Yoichi, who was far and away the expert on the stockpile quirk. He held up his hands and offered a sick, shaky smile. "We've already started the process of giving him stockpile access. There's... there's really no way to stop it."
Nana started swearing, and even Second and Third looked tense.
"But that's borrowing trouble! Maybe he'll be compatable?"
"With three quirks?"
"It's possible!" protested Yoichi. "I mean, he's- um, he's got One for All? Maybe it's more like All for One than we thought?"
"Disgusting."
"No."
"Absolutely not."
"Never say that again."
"But, again, that's a future problem, unlike the villain attack, which is a now problem."
"I see what you're saying," said En, "but we can't do anything about the villain attack, but we could theoretically do something about quirk troubles. Unless you'd rather watch helplessly while our latest-possibly-last holder is murdered?"
Yoichi sighed. "Okay, yeah, let's take a look."
.
Izuku's first thought was that Uraraka must have tagged him, but he had been way too far away from her for her to do that. Unless she had run at him when he dove for Tsuyu? Tsuyu had maybe sort of been between them...
But, no, this didn't feel like Uraraka's quirk. He'd only experienced it a couple of times, but it felt like falling. This felt more like floating on the surface of a pool.
This was, he realized as he drifted helplessly upwards and slightly sideways, Shimura Nana's quirk.
It would be really, really cool if the circumstances were different or if he had any control over the quirk whatsoever. As it was, he didn't appreciate the way he was getting progressively higher. Hitting the water at his previous height would have sucked, but he probably would have survived. Now? Not so much. So, if the quirk decided to stop as suddenly as it had started, he was doomed.
Beyond doomed.
He'd be dead.
Wait! The grappling hook!
He pulled it carefully out of its holster, making sure to wrap the loop around his wrist. He could get back to the ground with the grappling hook, anchor himself at a decent height and make use of this, or even attack, but if he dropped it...
Well. Doom and all that.
His best bet was the top of the downpour zone. It was the closest structure by far. He lined up his sights, fired, and watched as the hook fell several meters short.
That was less than ideal.
He rolled over and looked up. He wasn't that far from the ceiling-
Danger Sense screamed at him, and he was falling, just in time to miss getting hit by a jet of water from below. Izuku, naturally, started screaming as well and fired the grappling hook blindly. He rejoiced as a metallic thunk told him it had hit something and immediately hit the stop button, almost wrenching his shoulders out of their sockets. However, his joy quickly turned to horror as he realized he was now headed toward the hard, unforgiving side of the downpour zone at a dangerously high speed. He squeezed his eyes shut.
Float turned back on.
Izuku let out a somewhat pathetic whine in relief, and hit the retract button on the grappling hook gun, letting it pull him up to the roof.
From here, he had an acceptable view of the rest of the USJ. He shaded his eyes to look back at the main plaza and entrance. He could see Eraserhead and Ingenium fighting back to back in the central plaza. All Might and Nomu were tearing up trees in one of the forested areas, and near the entrance he could see Thirteen, Iida, Uraraka, Shouji, Sato, Sero, and Ashido facing down the mist villain. Hopefully, with those numbers, they'd be able to get past him.
Looking elsewhere, Izuku had to assume Todoroki was in the landslide zone, with the spiky ring of ice in the middle of it. He must be holding back. He could make out a fight happening in the mountain zone, but couldn't tell who was involved.
That was more than half the class unaccounted for, including Tsuyu and Kaminari, who he'd thought he'd pushed away from portals. They were probably in the other zones, but...
He took a deep breath. Focus. Where would he do the most good? Danger Sense couldn't tell him that right now, with all these bright threats all around him. He had to decide on his own.
The fight in the mountain area wasn't going well. The number of visible villains was only increasing.
Could Izuku get there? He bit his lip as he contemplated the distance, then jogged back to the opposite side of the downpour zone roof.
Then he ran.
Then he-
-jumped-
-off the roof.
Float activated at the top of the arc of his jump, and his momentum sent him tumbling forward towards the mountain zone. As he approached and began to slow (air resistance still being a thing, apparently), he was able to see Yaoyorozu and Jiro fighting for their lives. Yaoyorozu did not look good.
This wasn't a great way to be proven right about her quirk having drawbacks.
He aimed the grappling hook at one of the larger, closer villains, not really caring about how much damage it would do, and fired.
.
"Wow," said En. "Kid definitely has a bit of a ruthless streak."
"Imagine how much better he'd do with Blackwhip."
"He wouldn't have been able to get there in the first place without Float."
"Honestly," continued En, "I don't get why Second and Third don't like him. They never shut up about Nana and Eighth being too soft, after all."
"What? They said that stuff about me, too?"
"Yeah, I think they're just unsatsifiable at this point. It's annoying."
"I was much more violent and ruthless than Toshi, though."
"I know."
"Yoichi," said Hikage. "I'm not seeing any sign of additional stress on Ninth's body."
"That's because Izuku is the best."
"Or," said En, "it's because he's only had Nana's quirk for, like, five, ten minutes, tops."
"Or because he's the best. Just look at how he's helped his friends defeat all those villains!"
"Compelling argument," said Hikage.
.
"What- what now?" asked Yaoyorozu, holding herself up with one of her staffs. The mountain zone was littered with various weapons and shrapnel from Yaoyorozu's quirk use. This included a canon. Which was really cool, but seemed a bit over the top... and maybe not the most efficient thing to make, considering Yaoyorozu's limitations.
"I don't know," admitted Izuku. He'd been flung around the field as a makeshift flail/bola by the girls a few times, and was a little dizzy.
He looked back out at the battles still taking place in the plaza. "I think... Maybe we should go down, and make our way around the edge to the entrance. We could pick up Todoroki and see if there's anyone in the ruins zone who needs help-"
Then he saw the hand villain step forward, facing down Eraserhead as Ingenium was lured away in defense of Tsuyu and Kaminari, who had just run out of the wooded area, trailing villains. Danger flared in his mind's eye, and, for the second time in his life, his body moved by itself.