k

by gkidsanderson4

k

1. 1

the end, Izuku didn't have much time to think about the upcoming Heroics lesson. Yaomomo was very enthusiastic about the upcoming council meeting, and had been reciting her own experiences as class Rep in private school to try and catch him up to what a Rep usually does.

Once she finished telling anecdotes and texted him that she would leave for dinner, Izuku decided to leave his bedroom and do his homework. He had made it a tradition to do his homework at the dinner table while his mom was eating. Being unable to eat wasn't an excuse to leave her alone during dinner, so he always sat down to have a conversation while she ate, which this time revolved around his second and third day at UA and the night in between the two that he spent at Mei-chan's…house…workshop?

Speaking of eating, the closest to eating that Izuku could get was with drinking flavoured water. And yes, he did realise that wasn't eating, by definition. His quirk gave him one mercy in that aspect. He still actually needed water aside from the fusion to avoid dehydrating, so part of what he drank got absorbed by his oesophagus. Small dissolved substances like sugar and other small flavourful molecules could get absorbed along with it, though the amount of those molecules that could be absorbed at a time before it'd build up and cause a gag reflex wasn't as high as he'd like it to be. Those molecules weren't used for much though and would quickly get filtered out by his kidneys, but it was miles better than basically regurgitating actual food.

Once mom had finished dinner and Izuku went back to his room he hadn't expected Yaomomo to want to continue preparing. She honestly did seem like an excitable child while she was throwing ideas around, which was in stark contrast to her polite, methodical attitude in the classroom. When she eventually texted that she was going to bed, Izuku couldn't help but sigh in relief, before trying to compile all of Yaomomo's increasingly sleep-deprived texts into a comprehensible overview.

By the time he was done, around 2 am, he thought that they were probably way more prepared than necessary for an introductory meeting and that it'd get awkward once they'd be the only ones throwing in ideas, but he appreciated Yaomomo's eagerness anyway.

Some of Yaomomo's eagerness had definitely rubbed off on Izuku though, as instead of his usual meditating, he spent the rest of the night researching all kinds of UA policies, though partly because Aizawa-sensei had practically ordered them to go through the protocols. Finding out that you could transfer into the hero course through the Sports Festival was definitely an interesting discovery and he filed it in his mind under 'interesting but probably not useful facts' for later, along with the knowledge that there were underground maintenance tunnels all over the UA grounds. 'I wonder what those could even be useful for. Maybe there's a whole city under there, heh…Dangit Izuku, now's not the time for conspiracies. It's almost morning again and I can hear mom waking up.'

And so, Izuku had kinda forgotten about the special Heroics lesson today until Aizawa-sensei escorted them outside to a bus, fully dressed in their hero costumes. Iida was wearing a whistle around his neck and was giving Izuku an eager look, somehow excited at the prospect of ordering everyone on the bus in an orderly fashion. The odd layout seemed to throw a wrench in Iida's plan, but he managed anyway. Izuku ended up sitting between Asui and Chako-chan in the open section of the bus, with Kacchan and Kaminari-kun sitting on the other side. Mei-chan wasn't present since this was a hero course only lesson, but she'd probably get some clips afterwards if there was CCTV wherever they were going.

'It's kinda weird that we're on the bus even though we're not leaving UA grounds. I knew it was big, but holy whoa. A lot of it is just trees from what I can tell though, so I wonder if there's anything actually out here. I don't know why we need to go this far from the main building for a lesson either. Maybe we'll be doing basic survival skills? I can definitely see Aizawa-sensei dropping us off somewhere in the woods and then telling us to run all the way back to UA while fighting robots. Hmm, I'm definitely getting a weird feeling from this…Oh, wait, it's just someone poking me in the side. The poking is on my left so it must be-'

"Midoriya-kun, your quirk is kind of weird ribbit"

Izuku had zoned back just in time to hear that. "I- uhh, thanks, Asui-san?"

Kacchan snorted from across the aisle but Asui ignored it. "Call me Tsuyu-chan." 'Right, gotta remember that.' "When I saw you use it during the Quirk Apprehension Test I thought it was an extreme heat generating quirk, since you could turn the air into plasma, like a more powerful Endeavor-" Izuku noticed two mis-matched eyes glancing towards him. "-but later on you and Bakugō mentioned that you don't eat or sleep, so I'm wondering how all of that is related."

Izuku came to a realisation and sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Ah, I guess I kinda forgot to introduce my quirk to the class, didn't I? Well, my quirk is called Starborn-"

"A fitting name for a très brilliante quirk!"

"-and it basically isolates the hydrogen from the water I drink and fuses it together into helium to create a bunch of energy that I can store inside my body. Most of the energy is just used to keep me alive and keep the fusion going since it's pretty energy intensive though, but everything else is me using that stored energy in different ways."

Asui gave a satisfied nod but across the aisle Kaminari-kun started panicking. "Wait, you're telling me I've practically been near one of those bombs that ended WW2 for the past few days?!"

Kacchan scowled and hit him on the head. "You're thinking of nuclear fission, you goddamn moron."

"Eh, what's the difference?" Kaminari-kun asked in confusion.

Kacchan gave an incredulous look and Izuku chipped in to prevent another hit to Kaminari-kun's poor head. "Nuclear fission is when a large atom is split into two smaller ones. It was used in the nuclear bombs of the past, though fusion has been used in conjunction with fission for an explosive boost in the more powerful Thermonuclear bombs, as well as in current day nuclear reactors. The energy we generate from that comes from fast-moving neutrons that are generated when a radioactive atom splits up."

Izuku stopped for a moment to catch his breath and noticed that most of the bus was now paying attention to his impromptu lecture. "Uhm, anyway, nuclear fusion is when two atoms combine into one larger atom, in this case hydrogen atoms. Compared to fission there's no radioactive materials involved, that, and my body shields my DNA as well as all of you from any high-energy radiation, so the danger's basically less than that of taking an X-ray scan at the doctor. Also, unlike fission reactions in powerplants, if the 'containment' failed for some reason like it did when Aizawa-sensei used Erasure on me, then the worst you'll get is a bunch of hydrogen gas burped into your face." That ellicited some chuckles from his classmates.

From the back of the bus Izuku could see Yaomomo raising her hand. "Midoriya-kun, isn't fusion typically done with the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium? I don't see how there are enough of those isotopes in the water you drink to facilitate fusion."

Izuku's eyes widened. If it hadn't been for mom's similar concerns and subsequent frantic search for government funded quirk-essential-resource programs near the start he wouldn't have searched for an answer online. Though that story was one he didn't remember himself, only through the childhood stories mom sometimes told him. "Ah, that's because that type of fusion is done in those artificial fusion reactors that are still being worked on, since it requires a lot less energy than if you wanted to fuse regular hydrogen atoms together. My quirk can easily bypass the energy requirement though, so it just uses regular hydrogen, which is basically what happens in the centre of the sun; that's why we decided to call my quirk Starborn."

Asui spoke up once everyone realised the impromptu lecture had ended. "Ribbit what kind of quirks would your parents need to have though to result in that, Midoriya-kun? Or is your quirk an anomaly?"

Izuku put his hand up to his chin and went into a thinking pose. "Well, my mom can attract small objects towards her from decent distances, so I guess that mutated into strongly attracting hydrogen together at really small distances. It's really convenient actually, since it basically recreates the intense gravity that you'd experience at the sun's core, but at a small scale."

The spiky redhead 'His name is Kirishima if I remember right.' butted in. "Man, you got pretty lucky with that mutation then. I got my Hardening from my mom's ability to fuse rocks with her skin. It kinda feels like a downgrade from hers, to be honest. Even if it's still strong on its own, it's not that flashy. The hardening was pretty weak too until last year, so it was nothing to write home about for most of my life."

Izuku could detect the self-deprecation and retorted. "How flashy your quirk is shouldn't matter in Heroics, Kirishima-san. In fact, I think yours is much more suited for Heroics than flashy quirks like mine, Kacchan's, or Endeavor's. Our quirks could easily hurt nearby civilians or even kill villains, which we would have to work around. Meanwhile, your Hardening is perfect for protecting civilians while hitting villains where it hurts without being too dangerous. If being flashy really matters that much to you though…It's not the quirk that's flashy, but more how you use it. Like, if I never used the energy my quirk generates besides staying alive, you'd never say it was flashy, right?"

Kirishima looked at Izuku with newfound respect after that speech, but his mind had already been wandering off in the background after Kirishima mentioned his mother's quirk. "Actually, speaking of your Hardening getting stronger since last year, did you start doing anything differently?"

Kirishima raised an eyebrow, but it seemed his curiosity had been piqued. "I mean, yeah, I started actually training my quirk through exposure as well as my muscles: weight training, jogs, a diet, the whole package."

Izuku suddenly got a hunch and continued. "What kind of diet?"

"Y'know man, basic stuff, high in proteins and vitamins and the like."

Izuku's eyes widened. "Ah! One more question. You said your mom's quirk lets her fuse rock to her skin, but that's kinda vague. Did she say if there were any requirements?"

A confused stare was fixed at him. "Uhm, well, it has to be from silicate, but that's not much of a restriction since almost all rocks are like that."

And with that, Izuku's mind finally winded down as it came to a conclusion. "I see. Kirishima-san, I think you should stick to that diet, or preferably one that has even more silicon in it. I think your Hardening is your body drawing stored silicon atoms to the surface where it combines with oxygen to turn into silicate. So if you consume more silicon, then the hardness of the skin should increase dramatically, since there'd be more stored material to work with."

The bus suddenly came to a stop as Aizawa-sensei turned around and glared at them. "Problem Child, what did I say to you again yesterday?"

He could only respond with a cheeky shrug as Aizawa-sensei gave a resigned sigh and got out of the bus. "We've arrived at our destination, so get out, you hellions."

Once they exited, the entire class stared in awe at the towering dome before them. Well, all but Izuku, who recognised it from last night's information dive. "Holy whoa, that's the USJ!"

Kaminari-kun turned around and gave him a weird look. "Uhm, I dunno what you're thinking, Midori-bro, but the bus ride definitely wasn't that long."

Izuku casually intercepted Kacchan's hand which was about to go in for another hit and giggled. "Oh, sorry Kaminari-kun, I didn't mean Universal Studios Japan. I meant the Unforeseen Simulation Joint! It's a giant structure made for simulating several extreme locations and situations like landslides and rainstorms indoors! If I remember right it was designed entirely by one of UA's staff members: Thirteen!"

Chako-chan turned around with an excited look. "Wait, so does that mean that today's special Heroics instructor might actually be-"

"Hello students, and welcome to my Universal Simulation Joint, or USJ for short!"

"Oh my god, it's really Thirteen!" Chako-chan squealed and was practically vibrating out of her hero costume; Izuku couldn't really help but reciprocate the feeling.

Kacchan scoffed. "Figured that out of the entire class you two space nerds would freak out over a space-themed hero."

Izuku pouted. "But Kacchan, isn't her quirk amazing? Black Hole is practically the opposite of my quirk! Oh, have I told you about the theory of-"

"-quirk antithesism?" Kacchan completed. "Yeah, only about three hundred fucking times, you goddamn quirk nerd. I swear to god, at this point I know more about quirk science than those suckers that take the Master's degree!"

Aizawa-sensei glared at the class and Thirteen used the temporary silence to speak up. "It's good to know that some of you are well informed! As Midoriya said, my quirk is called Black Hole. I can use it to suck up practically anything, even light. Which makes it great for clearing debris." Chako-chan excitedly nodded in agreement.

Then the mood suddenly changed. "But it's also great at killing people, if I used it on someone there'd be nothing left of them afterwards."

She went silent for a few seconds to let the information sink in. "Society likes to shove strong looking quirks into boxes like 'Heroic' and 'Villainous', which have been inadvertently defined by comic book artists from the 20th and early 21st centuries, but any quirk that's used for heroics could easily be used for villainy, and vice versa. Even quirks that everyone agrees upon are objectively heroic, like healing quirks, could be used to heal fellow villains, allowing for more bloodshed to occur."

She raised one of her fingers. "Moreover, there have been quite a few cases where a child accidentally hurt one or more people from their quirk manifesting or from a lack of control. They-" Thirteen seemed to catch herself. "Ah, but enough of these grim images. I would like to take this time to show you all how to use your quirk for rescuing and saving people!"

Thirteen gave a wide flourish and the class applauded, the mood rocketing back up to seriously excited. Eventually, Aizawa spoke up. "Enough dillydallying. Let's get down to the main plaza and explain how today's going to go." They walked towards the stairs and 'Holy whoa, the USJ goes a lot deeper than you'd think from looking from the outside.'

During the long walk down Chako-chan elbowed Izuku. "Hey Midori-kun, you said something about quirk antithesism, right? I guess you meant quirks that are the complete opposite of each other?"

Izuku gave a quick nod but decided to spare her the lecture as she continued. "Well, if you think about it, even though both your quirk and Thirteen's Black Hole are like the complete opposite with their functions, the things they're named after are exactly the same thing, just at different points in time."

He mulled that over. "I guess you're right, Chako-chan. Though since my fusion is extremely small-scale and I constantly have the helium replaced with more hydrogen I don't think my stomach will ever just suddenly turn into a black hole."

She snickered at that. "Hey, Midori-kun, imagine though if one day your quirk accidentally pulled too hard and your stomach turned into a black hole. You could be just like Kirby and eat all the food."

They were about to reach the fountain marking the centre of the USJ, and Izuku decided to wrap up the conversation before Aizawa-sensei silenced them again. "That last bit sounds fun, but I'd rather it didn't Chako-chan."

Izuku's assessment turned out to be correct, as Aizawa-sensei spoke up moments later. "Alright class, now that we're here let's get star-" Only to get interrupted when the large spotlights decorating the dome started flickering on and off.

Aizawa-sensei sighed as the class started panicking. "I swear to god, I thought we checked the entire power grid for possible reboot glitches yesterday?" He snapped to no one in particular.

The class was still pretty unnerved but Thirteen quickly started herding everyone to the wooded area on the right side of the large stairs. "We might've overlooked the USJ since it's pretty far removed from the rest. Though this is a good opportunity to show everyone the Overseer room."

As they walked away from the central plaza Izuku couldn't help but feel like something was off about the whole situation, but he shrugged it off and followed the group.

They eventually got to a small door with a keypad hiding within the trees, and Thirteen opened it after entering a passcode. After several hallways filled with hissing pipes and messily laid down electrical cables they entered a large room with multiple panels and monitors. Thirteen turned around to face them. "This is what I like to call the Overseer's chamber. You can control all the individual zones from here as well as have full camera coverage. The emergency generators are a bit further back behind all the pipes, which is what we've come here for."

She walked to them and turned them on at maximum power. "I've experienced several power and security grid glitches or failures when this facility was still being tested since it's pretty far removed from the main campus, so we decided to implement an override system for safety. Feeding enough electricity into the USJ systems with these emergency generators should override the main grids, and hopefully everything returns to normal after that."

After a few tense minutes the glitching screens eventually cleared up, and everyone could see that the spotlights had stopped flickering as well. Aizawa-sensei joined Thirteen in front of the students. "Alright everyone, that delay was irrational, but I suppose we can do the introduction in here."

He gestured towards the monitors. "As you can see, the USJ is made up of several different 'Disaster' zones. We'll be using these to train you for rescue work in different areas and situations. Since this is the first Rescue based lesson, we'll be taking it slow to introduce all the zones and teach you the basics."

Aizawa-sensei stayed silent for a moment as everyone took in the monitors. "First of all, we're going to gauge where all of you are currently at with knowledge and instincts and go further based on that. Every zone is littered with Rescue dummies, though with light injuries programmed in for now, and every student will try to rescue as many as possible for points. Further endangering or harming the dummies will detract points, of course."

After that, they left Thirteen behind in the Overseer room and went through the central plaza as Aizawa-sensei led them to somewhere in the Mountain Zone. "We'll count a dummy as 'rescued' once they're brought to this point." He supplied.

Aizawa-sensei then smirked. "Oh right, one more thing. Everyone will be going into each zone at the same time since I don't want to waste that much of our day here, so this will essentially be a free-for-all." The smirk somehow intensified even more. "The person with the most overall points at the end will get…a heads-up for any logical ruse I'll pull for the rest of this year."

"WHA-"

"Begin!"

Everyone stopped yelling after that statement, until they remembered what Present Mic had pulled at the Entrance Exam, and they all scrambled further into the Mountain Zone. The promise of getting spared from any future logical ruses spurring everyone to work even harder.

Since Izuku's quirk wasn't very useful for locating victims, he went for the tried and true method of 'franticly running around while looking composed' again. With it, he was able to locate a decent amount of dummies, stuck on ledges or hidden within small alcoves, which he dropped off back at Aizawa-sensei. Thirteen was probably using the Overseer room to closely examine each student and relay it to Aizawa-sensei.

Everything went fine until he and a few others, consisting of Todoroki, Yaomomo, and Aoyama, encountered a large ravine that separated them from the rest of the Mountain Zone. That wouldn't have been a problem, until Izuku noticed the remains of a rickety bridge hanging against the opposite cliff wall.

He turned around to address the others, who were obviously experiencing the same problems. "Alright guys, I know this is a free-for-all, but I think we should work together for this."

Todoroki looked like he was going to object but Izuku continued. "Last I saw at the drop-off point, Jirō and Shōji discovered a large group of dummies in a collapsed cave with their sensory quirks and split up the points. If we want to stand any chance at getting the most points here we'll need to create a safe, viable path to the rest of this zone and capitalise on it."

The others, including Todoroki, nodded in agreement and Yaomomo adopted a pensive pose. "The fastest and easiest way would be for Todoroki-kun to make an ice bridge to the other side."

They looked at Todoroki who shook his head. "While I can certainly create enough ice in the air to cross the gap, I don't have any control over it beyond the initial direction and amount. With this distance I could easily overshoot and hit the civilians standing on the other side. Besides, it wouldn't be a flat surface, so it'd be hard to traverse."

He pointed towards the cliff, and Izuku noticed the somewhat hidden dummies across the gap. "If I had a template to guide my ice with I could do it much more safely though." 'Oh wow, I think that's the most I've heard him talk all week!'

Shaking off his train of thought, he turned to his vice-Rep. "Yaomomo, can you create two long enough ropes that we can use as a template?"

She gave a polite smile. "Certainly, Midoriya-kun, but who will get the ropes across?"

Izuku paused at that observation. 'Crap, both Kacchan and Chako-chan aren't here. I can definitely cross the gap with my new boots, but I might get the ropes tangled up if I carried both of them over at the same time, and I'd have to let go of one of them to come back for the other if I only carried one at a time.'

Surprisingly, Aoyama responded and halted Izuku's train of thought. "That person would be moi of course." 'Eh? Well if he thinks he can do it…'

"I can do it as well, Yaomomo, these iron soles aren't just for stronger kicks."

They all agreed to the plan, and Izuku volunteered as the first to cross. He easily crossed the ravine with the directed air blasts from Solar Wind like with the wall the day before. Once he safely landed on the other side with his rope he looked back and saw…Aoyama propelling himself over the ravine with his laser?

Everything seemed to be going surprisingly well, until the very end, when the laser sputtered out and Aoyama started losing momentum. Izuku panicked, but luckily Aoyama was close enough for Izuku to grab him from the cliff edge and pull him up.

"Ah, thank you, mon ami. Je ne sais pas how I would've made it without you." The teen didn't sound very bothered, but the slightly paler than normal skin indicated otherwise.

Izuku was just relieved that nobody had been hurt, but something was already bothering him again. "I'm glad you're safe, but we have to talk about how you just did that later, Aoyama-san-" Aoyama's sparkles decreased with that "err, Aoyama-kun."

The sparkles returned in full force. "Of course, mon ami."

Once the two ropes were secured and spread apart enough, Todoroki generated ice from his right foot, which quickly traversed both ropes and spread out to form a thick, flat bridge over the ravine.

Izuku gave a thumbs-up from across the bridge- "That was awesome, Todoroki-san!" -and then promptly dashed off further into the zone. He looked over his shoulder and saw that both Yaomomo and Todoroki finally realised it was a free-for-all again and started running across the bridge. Izuku giggled at Yaomomo nearly slipping several times before pausing, facepalming, and creating ice-skates.

That quick bout of teamwork probably gained the four of them enough points to match up to the sensory quirked students, and Izuku thought he noticed the corners of Aizawa-sensei's mouth twitching upwards behind his capture scarf when they came back with a ton of dummies each.

The other Disaster zones mostly went the same way, with some notable highlights being Izuku shielding himself from the rain in the Downpour zone by evaporating the rain before it could touch him, and using his heat resistance to casually walk through the fire in the Conflagration zone.

Contrary to those two zones, Izuku had a lot of trouble in the Flood zone, since any use of his quirk could evaporate a lot of the water. A small mercy though was that most people, barring Asui and Yaomomo, were having trouble there. Asui didn't have any trouble, since her quirk was simply made for the water, while Yaomomo surprised Izuku by creating a whole diver's suit with extra oxygen canisters for the dummies.

After they finished with the Flood zone they had lunch at the central plaza, and Izuku, who was feeling a bit left out, approached Yaomomo, who was gracefully stuffing her mouth with food. "Hey, Yaomomo, I didn't know you could make oxygen canisters, does that mean you can make purely fluids as well?."

She turned to greet him, hastily wiping some food crumbs off her cheek. "Hello again, Midoriya-kun, I'm afraid I don't fully understand your question."

"Ah, uhm, I meant if you could make liquids and gases like the oxygen but without the canister."

She nodded in understanding. "Ah, I see, it's certainly possible, but I'm not sure making liquids and gases would be very useful without the canisters, since I wouldn't be able to go much over standard pressures or store it anywhere."

Izuku looked down at his support items. "I'm sure you could ask your Support partner to make you some type of boots and gauntlets that can store and or pressurise any fluid you create…with other functionalities of course."

Yaomomo looked pensive, but Izuku realised something else. "Actually, speaking of your Support partner, why did they design your suit that way? I mean, I understand the leotard since you want bare skin but did they have to do it that way? Like, it could've easily been shorts and an open-back sports bra. Your sides and your back are pretty useful areas, your back especially for making large objects. Plus, I think making any objects from your chest would just be a hassle since it's a pretty…loose…inwardly c-curved s-s-surface." Izuku awkwardly finished that sentence as his brain finally caught up to what body part he was talking about.

Yaomomo giggled. "Oh Midoriya-kun, I think you got it a bit backwards, this is fully my own design."

Izuku paused his mental panicking. "Eh?! Your Support partner didn't finish it in time?"

She nervously started playing with her side-bang. "Ah, well, apparently when it came to my quirk, the Support students got a bit too…competitive over who'd get assigned to me, and, well- uhm, since it was over spring break, two of them started hacking and tracking down the other competitors. The one who ended up getting assigned to me is still…recuperating at home from some chemical burns."

Izuku mentally balked. "Oh god, Yaomomo, that sounds awful! Will they be fine?"

She started looking sad but gave a curt nod. "Of course, the two perpetrators were discovered rather quickly by principal Nezu, and were promptly expelled from UA on the grounds of assaulting a fellow student. My parents payed for the hospital bills, plus, I added some of my own pocket money to their donation to make up for the unnecessary harm that befell her because of me."

Her sad look vanished as a soft smile appeared. "As for your concerns, Midoriya-kun, I tried several designs, but my sides and back are covered since they are in my blind spots, and walking around with that skin exposed would be quite dangerous when you consider incoming projectiles and the weather."

Apparently, Kacchan had been listening in while Kaminari-kun was hopelessly trying to start a conversation with him, and butted in. "Oi Ponytail, from the sounds of it you're pretty damn smart, but apparently you're also pretty stupid when it comes to yourself. Do you see Edgelord over there?"

Kacchan pointed his hand in the direction of the teen with the bird head mutation, Tokoyami. "Just do what he's doing and use a full-body cape for protection. Just load it with some damn weights to avoid it flying all over the fucking place from the wind and make it easily removable or somethin' if someone decides to grab you with it. That way, you can go for whatever the fuck Zuku said before and any large objects you make will just push the shitty cape out of the way."

Kacchan's observation was cut off as Aizawa-sensei coughed to get everyone's attention. "Alright class, I know you're all tired, but we're ahead of schedule and we'll be heading for the last zone now. Need I remind you what the reward is?"

Everyone wordlessly understood what he meant and rushed off immediately once they arrived at the drop-off point for the Ruins zone, no starting signal needed anymore after the first five times.

Izuku wasn't gonna lie, the Ruins zone was definitely the easiest to traverse for him with his Wind blasts since there was no dome or high obstacles blocking him. He'd really have to thank Mei-chan the next time he saw her. Without the soles he would've probably caused a lot of collateral damage from the uncontrolled winds.

He had been jumping straight up in the air to get a general view from above when he saw Jirō crouching on the ground below. Izuku used some blasts of Solar Wind, guided by the extendable mechanisms attached to his improved gloves, to guide his descent, and used a burst from his boots to softly land near her. "Hey, Jirō-san, are you okay?"

Jirō was startled out of her concentrated state and screamed right into his face. "AAAAAAH-" The two jacks that were coming right for his face abruptly stopped as she realised who she was about to attack. "J-Jesus Christ M-Midoriya, I-I didn't hear you coming at all!"

She seemed embarrassed from her outburst, as she quickly composed herself and shoved his shoulder. "Please warn me next time, you ass! You were way too quiet!"

"Oh, s-sorry, Jirō-san-"

"Please chill and drop the honorifics, Midoriya, I'm not gonna get my feelings hurt from a missing word."

Izuku quietly nodded and she huffed in annoyance. "Did you actually need something, or did you just think it'd be funny to make me crap my pants?"

He fought the rising flush of embarrassment. "R-right! Uhm, I just saw you from above and was wondering why you've been so concentrated for this long. Everyone else is already way further than us."

She gave him a deadpan stare. "I think something weird is going on in here. I think I can hear…one more heartbeat than there should be in this zone? I dunno, it's kinda weak too."

"Huh? Are you sure it isn't Thirteen? She's probably still in the Overseer room under the stairs right next to this zone."

Jirō shook her head. "No, it's definitely coming from somewhere in here."

Shōji had apparently noticed Izuku's descent earlier and approached the two. "I can indeed confirm that there is an unknown presence in one of the nearby collapsed buildings. I think we should check it out, just in case."

The three of them nodded, but Izuku started getting second thoughts as they approached the unknown person. "Oh gosh, what if it's a villain that somehow got into UA without anyone noticing?"

"There's a villain in here?"

Izuku gave an embarrassingly girly scream from the sudden noise behind him and he quickly jumped turned around to see it was just Chako-chan floating slightly above the ground, probably having used her quirk on herself to safely jump down from one of the nearby buildings just now.

Jirō snickered in the background- 'Heh, that's karma for earlier I guess.' -and Izuku addressed Chako-chan, trying to forget about that embarrassing moment. "H-Hey, Chako-chan. Uhm, we think there might be another person hiding somewhere in this zone and-"

Izuku was cut off by Jirō who was suddenly listening intently to something. "Wait, I think I just heard someone groaning in the building next to us."

Conversation quickly cast aside, the four of them cautiously entered the collapsed house and halted at the scene in front of them. A scrawny person that looked more skeleton than man with bright blond hair had been pinned on the ground by a wooden beam and several bricks, bleeding from his side and the head.

Izuku threw away any caution he might've had and rushed towards the injured person with mom-mode already activated. "Sir, are you alright? Can you hear me?" While Izuku waited for a response he started inspecting the injuries. There was quite some bleeding from the man's left side, where the beam was pinning him to the ground from, a few bruises on his legs and left arm and blood soaking the blond mane of hair, indicating a headwound. Izuku paused when he noticed a badge hanging around the man's, admittedly unhealthily thin, neck.

The man seemed to be breathing but his eyes were closed and he hadn't responded yet, so Izuku focused on the badge instead and read the text beneath his picture aloud. "T. Yagi, 55 years old. Senior reporter, Minato Press."

Jirō perked up. "The press? Is he one of the reporters that stormed in yesterday during the blackout? How'd he even wander all the way over here and somehow get pinned under a beam?!"

Izuku started panicking. "Wait, this blood is somewhat crusted already, does that mean he's been like this since yesterday? We have to help him out quickly!"

Chako-chan was the first to come to her senses and ran up to the beam, ready to use her quirk. Izuku could immediately see that she was going to rush it. "Wait, hold on! We can't just remove this beam without making sure nothing else could fall over!"

Izuku turned around to address the other two present. "Shōji-san, could you help support everything while Chako-chan removes the rubble with her quirk? And Jirō, do you have a first-aid kit with you?"

She nodded in response. "Perfect, help that man out once he's gotten unpinned while I get out and signal the others for help!"

Quickly leaving them behind inside the house, Izuku ran towards the middle of the street and started panicking on how to best alert his peers and the staff. 'Crap, not all of us have earpieces in our hero costumes. Mei-chan was totally right when she called it stupid to not have one as a standard! How am I gonna alert everyone that something's actually wrong and tell them where they need to go?!' Recalling what he did yesterday during the blackout he came up with a solution.

Izuku pushed his panic aside, and once again drew out some of his stored energy to speed up his heart. But this time he concentrated and focused on using all the extra magnetic field to extend it upwards as high as possible. He then drew out more energy and a large beam of white-hot plasma shot up into the sky, funnelling outwards and fizzling out right below the dome. 'Super Move: Astro Jet!'

Izuku dropped his quirk, and after a few tense seconds silhouettes started appearing from beyond the collapsed buildings.

Yaomomo and Iida were the first to arrive, and Izuku addressed them immediately. "Yaomomo, get in that building and make a gurney if you still can; we have an injured civilian pinned by a collapsed beam in that house! Jirō, Shōji, and Uraraka are getting them out right now and are tending to his injuries. Iida-san, run back to the drop-off zone and inform Aizawa-sensei of the situation if he isn't coming here already after that signal I made."

They both gave noises of agreement, and after a few tense minutes the stray member of the press was securely loaded onto a gurney and being floated up the stairs towards the entrance with Chako-chan's quirk. Shortly after, an ambulance parked next to their bus outside the USJ and Recovery Girl exited from the back, closing the doors again once the gurney had been loaded onto it.

As the ambulance drove off to the main campus, Aizawa-sensei turned around to look at the class with the traces of what could possibly be described as a somewhat proud stare. "I'm sure you weren't expecting to do any real rescue work today, but apparently the press is more irrational than I thought."

He then addressed Izuku and the others who found the victim. "You did a decent job for the first time, you four. Also, Midoriya, your leadership skills are not god awful for a first year. Focus on that more, it's a skill not nearly enough heroes have. Even though they definitely should."

He then went back to addressing the entire class. "I suppose you might've forgotten about the points and the reward-" Everyone perked up from that.

A creepy grin spread across his face. "-but there were no actual points being given out. That reward was just a logical ruse, designed to see how you act in a rescue situation under actual stress."

Multiple groans, a few sighs of resigned disappointment and one anguished scream, courtesy of Kaminari-kun, came from the crowd. Iida looked especially frustrated at yet another lie, but it was all quickly forgotten as they loaded back onto the bus. 'Is that what it was like at the end of the Apprehension Test? Oh man, I'm glad I missed out on the last time now.'

Once the bus arrived back at the main building, Izuku was already thinking about how to spend the upcoming night when Aoyama pulled him to the side. "Uhm, Aoyama-kun, is there something you want to ask me?"

"Ah, excusez-moi, you told me you'd come back to my dazzling laser after the exercise." Aoyama flicked his hair with a dazzle.

Izuku blinked several times before he remembered the conversation back in the Mountain zone. "Oh, right! Sorry, Aoyama-kun. So, I was wondering how you crossed that cliff with your laser."

Aoyama smiled in response. "Ah, je vois. I used ma belle light to propel myself backwards."

Izuku nodded. "Yeah, I got that part. It's just- There's no way light could actually do what you just described."

Aoyama smile froze but Izuku went on. "Now, don't get me wrong, light does have momentum despite not having any mass, but there's no way your laser would have enough of it to propel a human body backwards by several meters in the air if it emitted normal light, especially not on earth."

Izuku noticed Aoyama's smile falling but continued anyway. "Now that I think of it, your 'light' has some other weird things going on too. First of all, there's no way we should be able to see it moving away from you. It should be going so fast that you fire it off and the laser should have already extended outside of our view instantaneously. It's also weirdly destructive, it pierced through like several robots during the entrance exam, which is much more physical than you'd expect light to act. When I consider all of what I just said it almost acts more like a solid or liquid than actual light. My best guess would be some sort of plasma, but the heat that would require would have a noticeable impact on the surroundings, which just isn't there. Maybe it could be something like plasma? I'm pretty sure cold plasma is a thing, but I never really researched that."

When no response came Izuku got a bit nervous and addressed another thing he was thinking about. "Also, is there a reason you're wearing that belt all the time, Aoyama-kun?"

Aoyama actually grimaced at that question. "Oui, I was sadly born with a birth defect, and my laser occasionally leaks out, so we got this belt to contain all of it."

Izuku took a double-take. "Did you just say 'leaked' out, like a fluid? Not 'shot out'?"

Aoyama sighed. "Je suppose, besides, my belt mostly does the shooting part for me."

Izuku balked. "Eh?! With that kind of force?! So you're saying that every time you fire off a laser with your belt, you experience enough physical recoil to propel yourself backwards in the air over a ravine?! NO WONDER YOU GET STOMACH ACHES IF YOU OVERUSE IT!"

He noticed that Aoyama had started backing away, and he quickly calmed himself down. "I'm sorry, Aoyama-kun. I guess I got a bit…frustrated at whoever your quirk counsellor was. Basically, what I want to ask you is this: are you even sure your quirk is meant to be a navel laser? Or did everyone just assume that it's a bellybutton laser, instead of just something that produces that stuff, probably from capturing light, which you can then use by extracting it through your navel?"

Aoyama donned a similar look to the one Mirio-senpai had a few days ago and Izuku decided to be helpful instead of just giving people existential crises concerning their quirk and petted his back. "Uhm, Aoyama-kun, I think that during our next Heroics lesson you should probably take off your belt for a bit and see if you can slowly pull out…whatever it is that comes out of your navel. And if that works, you should see what you can do with it when it's not being propelled away from you at those speeds. If my hunch is incorrect, you can just forget anything I said and go back to normal, of course."

Aoyama gave a curt but appreciative nod, and followed the rest of the class back to the changing rooms. Izuku followed suit shortly after. Even once he was walking back home with Kacchan, he couldn't help but experience that weird feeling he had felt ever since the USJ lights started flickering. 'I don't know why, but I feel like something else was supposed to happen back then.'

As we know, Izuku is correct in his assessment. In the canon universe, class 1-A would've had their first encounter with real villains at the USJ that day, and the League of Villains would've made their debut to the world. But we already know this isn't that universe, and simple changes can ripple outwards and create waves that can drastically change events far off in the future. If there's already such a simple difference of a quirkless kid being born with a quirk of their own, then who knows what else might be up in the air?

In a seedy bar hidden in Yokohama, an adolescent glares at several shots with All Might and a younger boy visible on his phone. A mouth, hidden under a disembodied hand, morphs into an unsettling grin as he looks at a nearby calendar, a date, not too far from now, marked off on it. The extra preparation time had been a hassle, but the perfect moment was almost within reach. The game would finally start soon.

Hardening: This quirk stores the silicon the user eats in their epidermis. When this quirk is active the silicon is drawn to the layer of dead skin cells, where it reacts with oxygen in the air to form a layer of silicates in a specific structure attached to the skin. If the user has more silicon stored they can stack multiple layers on top of already existing layers. As the user's skin as well as their eyes can be seen beneath the hardened layers this silicate structure is most likely see-through.

Navel Laser [name change advised: This quirk passively takes the light from the surrounding area, which gives the user a naturally sparkling skin, and captures it within a cavity inside the user's bell by using a special binding substance that traps the light, giving it a 'solid' form. The user can mentally extract this 'solid light' through their navel but due to a birth defect the navel can leak if it builds up too much. How this 'solid light' can be used is not known yet but the binding substance appears to deteriorate once the 'solid light' goes far enough away from the user, causing the light to escape and return back to normal. It's possible that this 'solid light' can be commanded by the user to change its shape. Due to the malpractice of a quirk counsellor the user assumed their quirk was meant to shoot out the 'solid light' at fast speeds and was granted a support item that could contain the leaking as well as aid in the firing. The 'laser' firing seems to impact significant forces on the user which causes their stomach to hurt after prolonged usage. There's a chance this solid form is actually a form of cold plasma, but how this plasma would be formed from gathering light, and whether it's cold plasma, and not some as of yet unknown substance, needs to be researched further. An inquiry for further research will be sent to I-Island's Material Sciences research department.