Tartarus.
The most heavily defended prison in Japan, the place where it's most dangerous and powerful villains are kept.
Two tired, glazed over green eyes looked over the text, slowly but surely reading through it, before it reached a certain section.
The prison has been heavily criticized by many for its inmates often never getting the process of a trial, not even in absentia. Thus many of its prisoners are effectively imprisoned in what amounts to a life sentence without this ever being officially the case.
Most of Japan however do not care much about this issue, in sharp contrast with similar prisons in France, Brazil, and Ethiopia. The common consensus amongst those who know of the prison's blatant violations of Human rights, is that it is either worth it in exchange for peace and stability, or that such treatment of Criminals is entirely justified.
She closed the tab, and then turned off the phone.
Rational deception.
Claim it was a simple Illusion. Stupid kids would buy it. They didn't know any better.
No need to go through the effort or time to tailor each potion to each drinker. Just make it so it showed a possible future related to their desires.
See if they actually caught the details they wouldn't know about.
Like the house they bought 9 years into the future actually existed on the west coast, exactly how they had seen it in the vision.
Or a prison who's name they had heard in passing turned out to be exactly as shady as what a girl trying to convince their mother to switch sides had claimed.
Clever, really.
Izuku, lying on her side already, bent even more into a fetal position on the bed.
Maybe she should be more pissed about it all… Like Todoroki had obviously been… But at the moment… The only thing she felt was pain, sorrow, and a void inside of herself she had not felt since the immediate aftermath of her dad's death.
Memories of a life flashed by… Then dissolved as quickly as they had appeared.
Nothing remained… Except the girl.
The images of a Husband broke apart as she tried to grab for them, slipping through her fingers, as if she was trying to grasp water in a closed fist.
She didn't remember anything about him. Not a name, not a face, not how she had felt when he'd been around.
That could have been a blessing. She didn't have to feel the pain of losing yet another person she had loved.
Instead it just made her feel even worse off, a deep sense of longing for something she didn't even know, as well as shame and guilt for not recalling, running through her.
The only moments when she did recall him was moments when Amra had been there.
And even then, it was… Limited. No feelings, no memories of how he'd looked. Just an awareness that yes, there had been a third person there.
Together with her and her baby… Right up until he wasn't.
She didn't even remember how he'd died. She didn't remember how her mother, the woman who'd comforted her and tucked her in tonight died either.
Amra hadn't been present for when she learned the news of that either.
It was like that with EVERYTHING.
Not even herself.
The confident, strong, powerful woman she'd grown to become… Other than those few moments that had been the obviously intended moments she would remember, she recalled none of it.
There was no matured strength to draw upon, no experience or sense of confidence that could be called upon to help her in her current hour.
It slipped through her fingers like everything else.
Everything but the girl.
She remembered EVERYTHING about that child. Her child.
She remembered how she had looked when she'd been born, how she'd grown up, how she acted at her grade school, middle school and highschool.
Every moment the two of them had spent together, mother and child, she recalled… Even if her memories of how she had felt in the moment were not there, what the girl had said, looked like and acted for 18 years were.
She remembered how she had felt… But not her thoughts. They were like sand in water.
Maybe it was for the best that she did not have those parts of herself… For it would probably have been enough to break her if she did… But she wanted them.
She wanted them as badly as she had ever wanted anything in life.
At least if she had those memories… Thoughts… She wouldn't be feeling the absolute void, guilt and self loathing at feeling like an incomplete person.
Like the worst girl in the world.
Logically speaking… She wasn't.
The future her… The one from her vision was.
She had become everything Izuku wanted to become… What she had thought she wanted to become.
A true, and effective Hero who cared nothing for the judgment of others.
That's what she had thought she wanted to become.
Her great goal in life. Her dream.
"You Heroes… hurt your own families… To Help complete strangers… My father taught me that."
Shigaraki's words sounded as clearly for her, as if he'd been leaning over and spoken them directly into her ear.
She didn't remember anything else about him… Hell, the only reason why she recalled how he'd died was a stray thought from the end of her vision, where everything was still clear and concise… And yet those words…
They sounded even clearer in her head now than her thoughts on those words had been then.
That was how he'd sounded at the end.
There was no doubts in her mind about that.
She didn't even know how she'd felt when she cut his head off… But his words were not lies, or exaggeration. They were the truth, and they remained long after he had passed from the mortal coil.
Before… It had only been her, her mom and dad. Now… It was her and her mom… She had never really appreciated just how much she loved her mom. Her only remaining family now.
She… Had for the most part taken her presence for granted. She'd just… Always assumed that she would always be there.
She really shouldn't have. She should have learned that lesson after her dad died.
Her mother wouldn't be here forever.
She began shaking.
She would die one day.
She would leave her.
Just like dad had.
…like Amra had.
I
Inko fretted far, far more that next morning than she had in ages, being far more vocal and physically affectionate getting her prodigy out of bed, making food that belonged more to a fancy dinner with your in-laws than a breakfast, and making an equally extravagant lunchbox for her.
As she wished her good luck at school, she also gave her a big, warm hug.
Izuku returned that hug.
It was warm. Good. Made her remember that she was, in fact, still alive. That there was still someone out there who cared about her.
It was a surprisingly good morning.
Which was good, cause if she had no one to prod and direct her that day, Izuku would probably just have laid in her bed.
I
"-So, Tartarus is real? Huh, I didn't really focus on it amongst all the other stuff! That means that it really was a possible future right!? You can totally change that, right! If you didn't know about it in this vision, and you know about it now, that means the future isn't set in stone!"
Fuku had a good heart, and he was nice to have conversations with…
He sucked at trying to cheer others up though.
Two, tired, green eyes looked out the window. Actually that didn't really sell it.
She had rested her head and face up against the glass, feeling utterly listless as she leaned up against it at an angle.
She'd seen glimpses of 3 Hero/villain brawls on the way to school so far.
Only a small, small window into what was happening elsewhere in the land.
She saw it. Clearly and coherently. The way Japan was heading.
"...Maybe I can change my fate… But I can't change the future coming down the line… Shigaraki will eventually be stopped, but the chaos he's creating in his wake will cause the Hero association to become much more brutal and underhanded trying to deal with it… Which will cause the next big conflict."
The conflict, which if it came to pass, would involve her and her friends having to fight their own children and successors.
She didn't know the exact details… But she didn't need to. She understood how it was all going to go.
She was smart after all. The daughter of a brilliant mind.
Fuku was taken a bit aback, but he rallied. Or tried to at least.
"Eh… Well, that… That still doesn't mean YOU won't be able to change your destiny! I mean… The entire thing could be avoided by taking different steps in parenting! All you have to do is not repeat the mistakes you made in the other timeline!"
Her mistakes.
She could do that. Maybe. Logically speaking Fuku was right. Learning from her mistakes was the first step to overcome any problem at hand.
There was just one problem.
One that a dumber person might not have realized.
But she did.
"I probably can… I can avoid a lot of the mistakes in how to be a parent… But… That won't help me now… Because… The thing I want right now… Is Amra."
She wanted to hug her little girl, to talk to her, to try to get her out of her mindset and… She didn't care if she couldn't do it… She just… She wanted her to be there.
It would never happen.
For a whole host of reasons.
"Amra will never be born… Even if I tried to… Even if I knew who her dad was… When she'd be born… She still wouldn't be born… There are so many variables that determine who is, and who is not born… My dad… He used to tell me about this… How unlikely it is that we, the people who lived, were born. The statistics that I… Or anyone else… Managed to be the one that crawled our way into the world… One, single minute of change would make all the difference… Much less all the other stuff here… Real life… Isn't a manga, where every timeline would lead to the same son or daughter… I might end up having a girl with roughly the same biology as her… But… She would not have the same mentality… The same innate outlook… The same nature… It wouldn't be Amra…"
Her little girl… Would never be born.
She felt her chest become a mass of pain at that thought.
"So… Like it's… Like what Iceburg said to Luffy about remaking the Going Merry?"
What a stupid comparison.
"Yeah… Something like that…"
She stared out the window, her mind barely on the conversation, as she beheld the clear skies and sunny weather.
It was like it was mocking her.
This… This wasn't like when her Dad died. Back then… It was like she didn't matter, in an uncaring world, that would go on with, or without her.
Now it felt… Like the world itself Hated her.
The nice weather…The silence of the people around her, and the stares she felt on her as they looked at the seemingly crazy girl muttering to herself… The fact that the people she had seen on the way to the train was happy…
She did not resent any of them… Hatred was not her nature… But she really did feel like the very world itself mocked her, treating her very existence as a practical joke.
Had she… Ever done anything to deserve this?
"Well… Actually speaking of the future, recall what the lady said? She said you would heal from your wounds at the sports festival!"
She snorted.
"If there is anything that's become even more certain now… It's that I'm not going to be in the damned festival… I don't care about that…"
And that was true.
She had not cared much about the sports festival before… And if she had possessed some underlying desire to go to it, that certainly was gone now.
I
Fuku was not good with human beings. He just wasn't. He didn't understand them, despite his best efforts.
They fascinated him. How two seemingly similarly Human beings could react to the exact same situation in the exact opposite way. How one Human could be attracted and form a unique dynamic with someone the exact opposite, while another needed someone with relatively the same personality to get a relationship out of it.
The contrast between the peaceful, civilized humans like those around them… And the powerful warriors that now included people like Izuku, formed by that very same civilized force.
Human beings truly were fascinating.
But he did not understand them.
He understood some things… But not others.
He had come to understand emotional pain and suffering from Humans… He understood that there was a breaking point… A Human could go through much suffering in their life, and yet easily find the strength to go on like nothing had happened… Right up until they hit some invisible point.
He did not understand exactly what determined where this breaking point was, or why it differed so much between Humans… But it was there.
And it seemed his beloved Izuku had hit it. Twice over in fact. Was there more than one? Or was there separate breaking points and they could hit more than one, independent of the other, unless they were stacked atop each other.
Fuku had no idea how to fix it either.
The only thing Fuku really understood about how to fix it, was that Izuku had seemed happier when the two of them talked, as opposed to Fuku leaving her to rest in silence.
At least that's how she'd been after All Might's death.
She did not respond positively at all to any of his comments today.
Why were the reactions so different?
That said, there was one question he had not gotten answered last night, which he had been curious about ever since.
His plan had been to leave the question until later, when they were walking from the train station across the last distance of her journey.
He had hoped she would be in a somewhat better mood and morale then.
She was not.
Yet the question remained.
"What does… Amra mean?"
Izuku actually stopped her sluggish walk entirely.
"I mean… It has to be something important given that's what you named her."
Izuku just stood there for a good 10 seconds, before finally answering.
"...Lion… It means Lion in… In Kushite… A fictional language."
Fictional huh?
"Really? What series Is it from?
"...Conan the barbarian… It's… One of the names that the title character goes by for a time…"
"Not familiar with that one."
Izuku began walking again, though not at any quicker step than before.
"It's a story about a prehistorian barbarian… who goes through many bloody adventures, does many grand deeds, of both good and bad morals, who eventually becomes a king… Then in his sixties, he abdicated to his son… Before he sails off into the Atlantic Oceans… Where he becomes a legendary hero, and brings technology and agriculture to the Mesoamericans… And after his death he became venerated and Deified as Quetzalcoatl… A god from the Mesoamerican pantheon…"
That… Raised so many questions… But there was one that immediately sprang to his mind, and it pretty much blurted out.
"Wait Quetzalcoatl? The same character Lucoa from Dragon Maid is based off of?"
"...I guess… They're both as public domain as it gets… They have lots of interpretations."
That was wild… But Fuku decided to let that lie for the moment. There were FAR more important questions.
"Why would you name her after that guy? He… Doesn't sound like someone you'd enjoy reading about."
"...I haven't the faintest idea… I just know that's where the name comes from… Obviously there has to have been a reason I…"
The girl stopped again.
Then buried her face in her hands, and began massaging her temples.
The shaking began again, though she didn't begin sobbing anew.
"Why… Why would I give her that name...? Amra… Amra was the name Conan had as a pirate… At his absolute worst morally… Long before he had his character development…I'm not even big a fan of Conan… I just read his stories cause he's a part of the Marvel canon…"
"I… I don't know. Maybe… Maybe your husband picked that name? Or… You became a bigger fan later in life?"
"Lion… I connect Amra to the image of a lion… But… Is it because I knew something when she was born? Or… Is it just because I thought of a lion because of her name… or… I don't know… I don't know anything Fuku…"
She began crying again, though not nearly as badly as she had last night.
"I… I don't know anything…"
I
Listening to the rest of the class talk, Izuku vaguely realized something.
Her vision had been different than anyone else's.
It wasn't that she particularly cared to listen intently to any of the people around her right now… Neither students nor teachers… But it seemed that nobody could shut up about it.
They had really left an impact upon everyone. And almost everyone wanted to talk about them.
She learned a lot about them, whether she wanted to or not.
Nobody else had experienced a life from now until the point the vision ended.
Nobody else… Well maybe except for Shoto, had seen through to the real nature of the visions.
The way they all talked so happily about it all, also just…
Kirishima had gone through a tumultuous series of events with his future sidekicks.
Tsuyu had gone through become a top 10 ranked Hero together with a sidekick who had defined her career, only for said sidekick to retire and become a stay at home mom.
Mineta's daughter joined a creepy cult and he had to deal with the aftermath.
Kaminari had to go through an internet pitchfork mob harassing and doxing his new girlfriend.
Iida broke bones, had to take a hiatus, and fell behind on repaying his loans.
Aoyama cut off all his hair after beginning to go bald due to stress.
Shoji's Hero partner got arrested for Tax fraud.
Momo had gone after the wrong villain, inflicted horrific injuries upon a retired criminal who despite all evidence was innocent.
And on it went.
She didn't get it.
At all.
How could they be so happy?
Not one of them was seemingly happy whatsoever.
All of them had gone through their own crises, but had found a common lesson that gave them strength.
Despite everything… They had remained true to themselves.
Why had that message resonated so well?
She had remained true to herself too… And she had gotten nothing but absolute misery out of it.
She didn't want to remain true to herself. She didn't… She wanted…
She didn't know.
She didn't know what she wanted anymore.
She still wanted to be a Hero, but…
Heroes hurt their own families, to help complete strangers.
"You okay Izuku-Sama?"
She blinked.
Suddenly Tsuyu and Mei were there.
They were the last in the room.
Oh… Right… Lunch.
"-you've been really out of it! Come on, let's go eat and talk with your friends!"
She hadn't heard him at all. Not just ignored him, she had honestly not heard him say anything for a while.
She'd just… Assumed he'd been quiet.
"You've really been out of today Izuku-Chan."
She just… Nodded.
Then, with Mei's physical prompting, she got up and the three of them went to lunch.
I
"So you had to rely on your family helping you out financially, after you broke your leg Iida-San?"
"Indeed Tsuyu-San!"
He nodded enthusiastically.
He also tried to avoid looking at Mei, though the aversion wasn't quite as bad as it had been just yesterday.
Due to that, he also missed the way Mei was comfortingly rubbing Izuku's back in a soothing manner.
"That does not seem like something that a Pro-Hero should find mental strength in."
"Yeah, it sounds like a pretty bad situation, having to mooch off of your family just to scrape by."
He felt a pang of annoyance, and mayhaps that bleed a bit into his tone as he answered, but for the most part he spoke as enthusiastically as usual.
"One might think so, yes… However, I got to re-experience and be reminded of how blessed I am to be part of a larger Hero family! I have always looked greatly up to my brother, but I have come to realize that I have greatly taken my larger family for granted!"
Izuku, who had been staring down at a fish head she held between her chopsticks, turned to look at him with some of the most dour eyes this school had ever seen.
"...How nice for you…"
"Indeed! And I have also come to realize that I very much want to expand upon it, as I also become a Pro!"
His friends stared at him, as if his cheerful exclamation was one where he proclaimed the sky tasted good.
"What, get yourself a girl and breed forth a dozen new youngsters?"
He still tried not to look at Mei, while doing what he could not to appear too disrespectful while doing it.
"That is… A very crude way to put it! There is nothing wrong with wishing to have many sons and daughters!"
"Yeah… Nothing wrong with that…"
"Indeed Midoriya-San! I would think most of us, if given the choice and if there were no downsides and limitations on our situations, would prefer to have large families!"
Tsuyu nodded, but was looking at Izuku, not Iida as she replied.
"My parents wanted a dozen kids, but because of work only was able to have 3 of us, before they were no longer able to have any more."
Iida nodded enthusiastically.
"Exactly! We must grab opportunities while we can! You never know when you'll no longer be in a position to pursue them anymore!"
Feeling mighty proud of himself, he turned to the boy beside him, Mineta.
"And what of you Mineta! You also had a vision showing the importance of family did you not!?"
The boy, who was enjoying some delicious looking noodles, topped with lemons, froze as he was called out.
"Well… Yeah, I guess that was a big part of it."
The boy looked far more relaxed than he had after the end of… Part 1… Iida tried his best not to think of part 1.
That said, he did not look quite as well off mentally as most of the rest of the class… Though certainly not as bad as Todoroki or the somewhat gloomy Izuku.
"I learned a lot of stuff about how to… Well be a family man I guess… Also some big lessons of what NOT to do."
Mei cocked her head.
"You mean you actually got a vision of an actual family? Not a Harem?"
Iida, who had been taking a sip of water sputtered.
"That is- That is highly unbecoming ambitions for a Hero! Just because Mineta-san had ambitions of a… Relationship... Does not immediately mean he wished for such a relationship of debauchery!"
Mei was completely unfaced and looked more amused than anything.
"Midnight had a Harem though."
"I… What?"
"Our History teacher. The actual history teacher. We haven't had classes with her yet, but she had a Harem back in her active Hero days."
"What?"
It was like his brain actively stopped working at that exclamation.
Then it rebooted up and forced him to confirm or disconfirm the statement.
He turned to Izuku.
"Is… Is that true Midoriya-San? You would be the one to know!"
Izuku didn't even look at him, and for a moment, he thought she hadn't even heard him.
But eventually she did answer.
"...Midnight Boys. Her four pretty boy's sidekicks after graduating… One of them was named Midoriya Jack… a very distant relative of mine…"
That…
"...truly?"
"...I don't want to talk about it Iida…"
He nodded, suddenly realizing that there was another aspect of families he had not considered. Black sheep. Being reminded of such a shame on her family legacy, while already being in a bad mood would certainly not brighten up anyone's day.
Instead he turned back… Or well, away, but directed his attention back towards Mei.
"So… She did have a Harem. That is…"
"Creepy? Uncomfortable? Unbefitting of a Hero?"
Truth be told, given the woman in question was one of his teacher's and a beacon and symbol of law and order for their society, he would say all of the above, but he settled on the last one.
"Unbefitting of a Hero is what I would say about it, yes."
Mei seemed bemused by that, but shook her head.
"Well, that's probably what the government thought too, given they disbanded and went their own ways when she got a teaching position here. Then again, DTR thinks they mostly just wanted to go their own way at that point. Harems don't last forever, as he says."
"That… I honestly don't know if I want to know in what context you learned that bit of information."
"Oh, nothing nefarious. DTR's great joy in life outside of Hero work is helping out couples behind the scenes. Usually ones involving Heroes, for obvious reasons."
"I… See."
"And now and again, he ends up helping out people with unorthodox romantic relationships. Like K-B-M. You've heard of them?"
"I have. They are the top Hero Team on Kyushu are they not? What of them?"
"Well, there was a whole host of issues between the 3 of them that DTR worked REALLY hard to fix and iron out… Not really important… The point is, Now K, the team leader is dating both of the other two."
That was also creepy, but for rather different reasons.
"Are… Are they not brothers?"
"Yep."
Well that was… Disturbing.
For a moment, he tried to imagine such a relationship between him, Tensei and a woman, and how it could possibly work out.
"Point is, as he put it, he worked about 20 times harder to help that trio work through their issues, than he did with Aizawa and Mrs. Joke, or-"
This time it was Mineta who butted in.
"Wait, HE was the one who helped Aizawa hook that smoking hot babe!?"
"He sure was! Though I can tell you there was already a relationship there. He just needed to give them a bit of a push. Setting up people who don't know each other isn't really our sensei's style. So I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you."
"That's-" "The POINT I was building towards, is that DTR has so much bigger problems helping pairings with more than two people, but he's managed to help a lot of people like that. Harems though? He's never seen one that worked out in the long term."
Iida felt a strange sense of relief.
"That… Is not as nefarious as I thought it might be."
"Yeah. But back to Mineta, you had a vision of a family? You had a daughter who joined a cult after all. That requires a female partner of some sort."
Mineta, who had had a look of both surprise, and fascination as Mei went over DTR's activities nodded.
"Yeah, I had a smo- I mean YEAH I had a wife! And a daughter."
He seemed kinda strangely reserved by that.
"Never really thought about having kids before yesterday… And It went WAY differently than I would have. Had a happy ending though, even if the road there was a bit… Weird."
"How… How nice… I'm Glad… Glad to hear it…"
Mineta nodded, and picked one of his lemon slices.
"Yeah it was… Like REALLY weird with that bizarre cult, like… I had no clue what the hell their deal was before the very end, when I had completely improvised to convince the girl that… That… Are you… You okay Midoriya?"
Iida, who had not been looking at Izuku, instead having focused on Mineta, being interested in hearing about this cult, turned to do so.
Izuku was… Crying, he was startled to see.
As she was staring at Mineta, she was not crying heavily, but not small tears either.
She blinked, seemingly only realizing what she was doing.
"Oh… Sorry…"
She began drying away her tears with her sleeves.
"You just reminded me of… My… My dad… He… He liked to just… Eat lemons whole…"
Mineta and Iida both turned to look at the piece of Lemon, the shorter boy was holding between his chopsticks.
"Oh, um… sorry…"
"No, no it's fine, I just…"
The girl got up, and before he, or Mei could say anything, she ran off, leaving her bag behind.
Well that was… Not much like her.
I
Izuku was not the first student at Yuei to run off and cry in the bathrooms, and she would probably not be the last either.
As she stood there, leaning over the basin, and completely uncaring of the fact there were several other girls there, she cried.
She felt… so, so, SO STUPID.
It was so DUMB!
A lemon. It was a stupid lemon that had been the final straw.
It was just… Amra had liked Lemons. She liked to snack on them, outer layer and all.
It was… It was a quirk she had gotten, not from Izuku, but from her dad.
He too, had liked to devour Lemons whole. When she was a little girl, It had made her laugh how it shocked other adults, as he pulled one out and just bit into it, uncaring of how sour it was, and instead loving the taste.
She hadn't even thought about it consciously. It was just one of hundreds of things that had been swirling around in her mind about the girl… Then she'd seen the Lemon and just… It just all came back to her, how Amra would always buy one after school and come home often still nibbling on it.
Behind her, the other girls, many of them first class just like her, generally avoided her, and tried to get out without interacting with her, but some of them snickered, or gave comments clearly meant to hurt.
She didn't care. She didn't even hear what they said.
I
As their final class ended, Izuku felt… Drained.
Utterly spent despite there not being any hard classes today.
Though truth be told, she hadn't gotten much from the classes she had participated in.
She was just… Not in mental shape for… Anything right now.
Not even being cheered up.
Her friends obviously meant well, but… There was a part of her that was happy there had been no further time to talk with them before their final class for the day had come.
Thankfully Mei(Bless her) had brought with her her backpack, so she didn't become late to class by having to run to get it… But after that class had begun.
She could feel several pairs of eyes on her as the class went on, and she stared at the blackboard without really seeing it.
They cared.
Fuku too.
Though, she only heard his words to her in a broken pattern… Like a phone conversation with a bad signal.
She could tell though, that he was trying to cheer her up.
She had fully expected to be swarmed by her friends after school officially ended.
That… Did not quite end up happening though.
Oh, Mei did, but the rest of her friend group was distracted by what had very quickly shown up outside their class, and now that their teacher had left, was now standing outside of the entrance.
About 30-40 students from other classes were crowding the great doorway into their classroom, looking in at them with expressions ranging from hostile, to curious, to bemused, to disappointed.
Uraraka, along with several other students who clearly wanted to leave, now stood before the large gathering, feeling obviously unsure about how to proceed.
"Hmmm… Looks like it's gonna be a confrontation."
Izuku just nodded.
It was Mineta who put words to the obvious question.
"They're… Crowding the exit. What… What are they here for?"
A good question.
It was Bakugo Katsuki who answered in his usual, blunt and honest manner.
"They're scoping out the competition, retard."
He walked past the dwarf, before stopping in front of the mob, shaking hands in his pockets, while his face was a stoic but aggressive mask.
"Now that it's official that the Sport's festival is going ahead, They wanna see "The class that let all Might die". They're checking us out before the big battle, you perverted asshole."
It was the completely nonchalant way he said it that really sold it as being utterly genuine, if stupidly crass.
For a very brief moment, everyone in class(Especially Mineta) directed their attention at Bakugo, rather than the people outside their classroom.
Bakugo though just stared the gathered students right in the eye.
"So. What do you think? You see what you came for, you damn Mob?"
Iida, who was awkwardly standing between his seat, and Izuku's, that being where he'd been when he noticed the mob motioned towards Bakugo as he chastised him.
"Don't go calling people you don't know a mob right off the bat!"
"He's not wrong though." Mei noted in a surprisingly soft tone.
She had placed herself distinctly between the group and Izuku, though the seated girl didn't really notice.
"That's an actual mob alright."
Izuku, if she had been at all inclined to respond, would have noted he meant the english word Mob, as in NPC's, not an actual mob.
But she wasn't. At all.
It was not one of the students in front who answered though, instead a voice called out from inside the group.
"I came to see what you kids are made of, but I didn't think you'd be this arrogant. Are all the kids enrolled in the Heroic Department this way?"
The crowd parted as the speaker stepped forward.
The boy(Though Izuku didn't quite get a thorough look at him) looked… Strangely familiar, with poofy purplish hair.
And huge, obvious dark rings under his eyes. Said eyes also looked… Really, really sad in Izuku's opinion.
It was the eyes of someone who had seen more sorrow than they should have.
His stoic look matched the eyes and gave him the image of a sadder looking Aizawa.
"I've gotta say, I'm A bit disillusioned if that's all you have to offer."
Bakugo didn't say anything, instead he just locked eyes with the boy, and did not blink.
The boy, rather than meet said obvious challenge head on, instead closed an eye as he lazily lifted an arm to scratch his neck and turned towards the rest of the class that was visible.
"There's a lot of Kids who end up in the General Education or Tech Departments because they failed the exam for Heroics. Did you know that?"
"How could I forget? My tech classes never stop whining about it.
Mei's tone was surprisingly confrontational, not at all like she usually was.
She was also standing in her full height as she stared daggers at the boy.
The purple-haired boy glanced at her, then nonchalantly back at Bakugo, as if he hadn't heard her.
"Depending on the result of the Sports Festival, people can come under review to be transferred to heroics…"
His eyes narrowed just slightly…
"I understand the opposite is also true for you guys…"
The words carried through the room, along with the obvious threat that came with it.
A bolt of lightning shot down Izuku's spine as she, and Fuku, both came to the exact same conclusion at practically the exact same moment.
"That's what Aizawa meant! Remember? You'll regret it! He said that for those who did not partake in the festival! THIS is what he meant!"
She thought the exact same thing.
Rational deceptions. That was how Aizawa did things. He was a ruthless, merciless and cruel man. A sadist who picked on his students for his own amusement.
This was how he would do it.
He expected excellence, and he demanded his students live up to that expectation, and they did not… He would cut their feet out from under them cruelly and savagely with no mercy.
Short of a life and death struggle to save herself and those around her, this was probably the only thing that could, however momentarily or fleeting, reawaken Izuku's faltering and diminishing will, and reignite the bond between her and Fuku in full.
An attack. An unexpected outside force suddenly threatening her and her future, however shaky and uncertain she felt about it at the moment.
She felt her hands close to fists so tight her nails drew blood, but she barely noticed, so focused was she on the fact that she would, despite all her current issues, have to participate, like it or not.
It was pure luck she didn't hit Fuku with it, and transform then and there.
No one noticed though, for Izuku was not the only student who drew their own conclusion from the boy's declaration.
Mineta got a face of utter fear at the declaration, but Kaminari and Ashido the exact opposite.
"The reverse? There is no such thing as a villain course you idiot!"
"What he said, as if we'd ever join the Dark Side you dummy!"
The class was in silence for a few seconds… Then laughed, the tension broken by the resident class idiots, just like that.
Mineta gave a nervous laugh.
"Y-yeah… As if we'd ever lose to you guys."
Todoroki nodded, though unlike a lot of his peers, he did not have a humored smile.
"The chances that you would be able to turn around your fortunes in a practical competition, when you failed to utilize your abilities effectively in the exams are not particularly higher now than they were then. Less in fact given we have actual combat experience now."
The purple boy's expression did not change, but he let the class's replies run their course before he continued.
"Not taking this seriously I see… Well… Scoping out the competition is one way to put it… Here's another… You guy's careers are about to rise or fall based on this thing… Way more than ours… So It got a General Kid like me thinking… Why don't we take this chance to knock the chair down from under you? You can consider this our declaration of war… Or not. It's up to you."
Then he simply turned and left.
What followed was a short moment of awkwardness, where some of the mob stared after him, some on class 1-A, and the class itself kinda had gotten over their stagefright as it were.
For a moment it seemed that was the end of it, before another non 1-A student spoke up, this time a tall boy with gray hair, sharp teeth and some truly monstrous eyelashes, that raised his hand like he was talking to a teacher and yelled out:
"HEY! You! I'M FROM CLASS 1-B! IHEARD YOU GUYS WHO LET ALL MIGHT DIE KNOCKED ABOUT SOME VILLAINS OR WHATEVER! SO I CAME TO HEAR IT DIRECT! BUT I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT FROM SOME SNOT-NOSED PUNK!"
Everybody seemingly stared at him and his… Bizarre mix of backhanded yet earnest assessment.
"DON'T EMBARRASS US DURING THE MAIN EVENT YOU HEAR!"
Then he left, leaving a class with a somewhat upbeat if shaken mood.
Kirishima, as he usually was, gave a nervous, but eager grin as he stepped forward to just beside Bakugo.
"Well… That's one way to deal with this stuff, right Bakugo!?"
Bakugo snorted.
"This doesn't matter."
"What?"
The blonde boy turned his head slightly to look back at him, before turning back towards the crowd.
"This doesn't matter… No matter what we say or do, we'll always still be the class who let All Might die… The only place where that doesn't matter, where those assessments fall short… Is at the top."
Then he promptly moved forward and began forcing himself through the crowd with his usual grace and subtlety.
Not that Izuku had heard a word of it. She didn't catch any of the responses in class either.
Instead, all she was focusing on was the coming sports festival, the realization that she would, whether she liked it or not, be dragged out on stage to have to perform.
It would have been nerve wracking even if she was in good mental health. As it was now though, she… She…
She winced HARD as suddenly pain ran through both of hands, which she opened, revealing several wounds where her nails she hadn't cut in a while had gone into her skin.
"Damn… You're really out of it today, Izuku…"
She looked down on her hands, 3 spots of red and 5 spots that she could tell would develop bruises.
And yet… She… She felt like she had somehow woken up from a dream. No… She'd seen this before too.
Yes… When she had been at her absolute lowest, she'd been shaken out of it by another event.
That had been the day she had cracked Kacchan's skull with a pipe.
It hadn't made her feel better… But it HAD broken her out of complete and utter malaise.
This was something similar.
A hand suddenly rested on her shoulder.
She blinked, having completely forgotten that she was, in fact, not alone.
It was Mei.
"You gonna be alright? I have classes now as usual, so I'm not gonna be able to go with you back home, but if you want, you could wait until I'm done with my classes? Maybe go visit Recovery Girl while you wait? Or just transform with Fuku. You'll have time.
She stared up at her.
"I… I… Alright..."