CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:
THE USJ INCIDENT
After an excruciatingly boring bus ride, Class 1A finally arrived at UA's very own thunder dome. Except this time, it's not a gladiator fight ring. As explained by the rescue hero: 13, the "Unforeseen Simulation Joint", also known as the USJ, is a state-of-the-art, high tech facility that was created in order to train young heroes for multiple different disasters. The contents of each disaster simulation were purposefully kept out of the speech so as to make it more realistic. Truth be told, Katsuo only caught around half of that speech.
'Dammit, I knew I should have gone to the bathroom before getting on that stupid bus!'
Katsuo stood stock still in an attempt to uphold his pride, but he couldn't last much longer. His above average hearing was picking up the sound of rain, which didn't much help his bathroom situation in the slightest. After a few moments, he could no longer hold it, and did something drastic.
"Mido, cover for me! I need to use the restroom!"
"Wait, what? What am I supposed to tell Mr. Aizawa?"
"I dunno, just tell him I bailed or something!"
Before Midoriya could point out how stupid the plan was, Katsuo was already sneaking off into the USJ's deeper facilities in order to find the bathroom. He couldn't interrupt 13's speech with a question about the bathroom after all, so he needed to find it himself. Back in the main area of the USJ, 13 had just wrapped up her speech and told the students to wait for a few moments while they chose who was going to which disaster area.
As the children were too preoccupied with yapping to notice, 13 pulled Aizawa to the side for a quick chat.
"Hey, wasn't All Might supposed to be here with us?"
"He was, but apparently he was too tired or something to come along. Probably from all of those talk shows he does."
'Well, the situation isn't optimal, but I'm sure me and Aizawa can-'
13's train of thought was cut off by a strange chill that seemed to cut straight through the facility. All of the students felt it, and were subsequently drawn to the direction it came from. Across the central plaza was a large black mist, just floating in the air. It definitely wasn't there before. Without warning, more of these mists appeared, allowing dangerous looking men and women to walk out of them. Aizawa instantly prepared his capture scarf while 13 got into position to use her quirk.
"Class 1A, this is NOT part of the test. The USJ is under attack!"
The class was startled by this. Apparently, a few of them thought that this was part of the training schedule for the day. Unfortunately for them, it was not. Out of the central gate walked two people, a scraggly looking man with hands all over his body, as well as a finely dressed cloud of black mist that was shaped like a man. They came out looking smug, but the scraggly one looked confused.
"What do you people want? Out with it." Aizawa once again demanded respect, and his aura sent shivers down the spines of the lower level criminals. The two men were not affected by it however.
The guy with the hands stepped forward. "My name is Tomura Shigaraki, and we're only here for one thing. To kill All Might!"
Everyone was shocked by the sudden reveal, but 13 and Aizawa were especially shocked.
'How did he know that All Might was supposed to be here? And also, how did he not know that All Might isn't here?'
The wheels in Aizawa's head began to turn, although his train of thought was forcefully interrupted in favor of a new thought: how to protect the students.
"All Might isn't here, so surrender now, before I force you to."
Shigaraki seemed shaken by this new realization, but he wasn't scared. He was angry. He began clawing at his neck, scratching an itch that wouldn't go away. Most of his words were simple mutterings, but a few words did escape into the ears of the students.
"What? All Might's not here? But the info… the info said… dammit! He cheated!"
The clawing got worse, the mumbling intensified, and the students were rightfully creeped out by the unsettling amount of words that were being muttered. Finally, it seemed Shigaraki had come to a conclusion, and the franting clawing stopped.
"Well then, if he's not here, then I guess we'll just have to start killing people until he does show up."
"Not if I have anything to say about it!"
13 stepped forward, pointing a finger gun at the two men. The end of her pointer finger opened up, allowing her quirk to activate. A strong force sucked the air into a blackhole in 13's finger, although they seemed to be prepared for this.
"Not so fast. Kurogiri?"
"Yes."
The mist man, now known as Kurogiri, also stepped forward. Reaching his hand out, a black mist appeared in front of the two men and behind 13, causing her own quirk to turn against her. The force began sucking through the mist, tearing the back of 13's suit off. The damage was enough to know 13 unconscious, leaving Aizawa as the only adult left to protect the students. He quickly got to work, using his capture scarf to knock out a large amount of the lower level thugs in mere minutes. Meanwhile, the class was just standing there, watching.
"C'mon guys, we can't just stand by and let them attack Mr. Aizawa!"
"Yeah! Let's fight!"
Kirishima had successfully convinced most of the class to stop being useless, but they were late to the punch. Kurogiri had already been ordered to take them out of the picture. And with Aizawa temporarily distracted, it was the perfect moment for Kurogiri to activate his quirk. He knelt down, spreading a black mist across the ground. It happened so fast that no one could react in time, leading to most of the class being swallowed into the dark abyss, with no way of escaping…
Katsuo whistled to himself as he washed his hands thoroughly. It took a little bit of time, but he eventually tracked down the bathroom and relieved himself. With no one else around, Katsuo had some time to reflect on his weaknesses.
"I really need to figure out how to use mana cloud while using the bathroom. Seems like a pretty big weakness for someone to exploit."
After drying his hands in the air dryer, Katsuo hung a left outside of the bathroom to go back to the central plaza, only for his whistling to trail off when he stopped in front of a large black wall. It was rock solid, and nothing was going to get through it. Not even Katsuo. Fortunately, he didn't need to wait long before the portal disappeared, revealing four menacing looking men standing in front of him. They were all carrying weapons.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you aren't supposed to be here."
The men yelled and charged, running towards Katsuo at a fast speed. Fortunately, he was able to use mana thread to throw them into the wall. When one of them got up, Katsuo swiftly kicked him back into the wall. Swiping some dust off of his shoulder, Katsuo hurriedly ran down the corridor. However, Katsuo ran into another group of people, who had just finished sealing the entrance to the plaza.
"Hey, I needed to use that!"
One of the men teleported in front of Katsuo before another one of them seemed to switch places with him, landing a strong punch that sent Katsuo flying through a wall and straight into the fire zone. Katsuo went from being in a clean hallway to a burning city block, but there was no time to think about that as a new fighter entered the ring. Along with the group of villains from before, a much larger man also stepped out of the hallway, wielding a large war hammer in his hands. He was 8 feet tall and likely weighed 1000 pounds of pure muscle.
"I don't know what they've been feeding you, but it's too damn much!"
Katsuo just barely jumped back in time, dodging the goliath's war hammer as it struck the ground with tremendous force. Seeing the opportunity, Katsuo jumped off of the goliath's head, grabbing the hammer mid-air with mana thread, and slamming it into the ground in front of the small fries, sending them crashing to the ground. With his built up momentum, Katsuo turned around and flung the hammer at the goliath, knocking him out cold.
Katsuo quickly wrapped the villains together with mana thread and hung them from a streetlight (except for goliath, obviously) and continued on his merry way. Katsuo used mana thread to swing from building to building, using mana cloud to map out the surrounding area and find his way out. However, the fire zone was so big that he couldn't find the exit. Instead, he felt someone being attacked by a group of people. Deciding to help out, Katsuo quickly made his way over to the battle.
Ojiro was holding his own against the group of villains, but he wasn't winning, merely keeping them at bay and dodging with his tail. Katsuo came swinging in the air with a piece of rubble in tow.
"Hey Ojiro! Batter up!"
Ojiro turned to see Katsuo throwing the piece of rubble at him. Understanding the reference, Ojiro smacked the rubble with his tail, sending bits and pieces at his attackers and temporarily stunning them. This was just the chance the two needed to take out the villains. Ojiro spun around and kicked one in the jaw while smacking another one to the ground using his tail. Katsuo on the other hand pulled a stop sign out of the ground and used it as a staff, blocking and parrying oncoming attacks and taking out the remaining three villains.
Throwing the stop sign to the ground, Katsuo gathered information from Ojiro as he tied up the villains.
"Shit, the situation really is bad. We need to find our way out of the fire zone and back to the plaza where that Shigaraki guy is. If we do that, I'm sure I can at least distract him until someone arrives. You wanna team up?"
"Hell yeah! I've been meaning to ask you for some help with fighting anyway!"
"Nice! Then let's get a move on!"
Katsuo high fived Ojiro before the two quickly began making their way through the fire zone, taking out any villains they came across with Katsuo mapped out the area in his mind. After a while, he finally found something.
"There! I can feel the exit!"
The two boys excitedly ran up to the edge of the fire zone, stopping in front of an exit door. After pressing a button on the wall, the door opened, revealing a small white room. They stepped inside, only for the entrance door to shut and a robotic voice to come on the speaker system.
"You will now be doused with a small amount of water to ensure no embers are remaining on your person. Please hold stiiiiiiiiiii-"
The lights in the room fizzled out, as well the robotic voice.
"Aw crap, they must have taken out the power to the USJ. Hold up, I'll get us out of here in a jiffy."
Katsuo walked up to the next set of doors and wound up his arm, throwing a massive punch into the door. It was dented, but not enough. Katsuo's hand however-
"AAAAAHHHHH! HOLY MACARONI THAT HURTS!"
Katsuo doubled over onto the floor while clutching his fist receiving a pat on the back from the kind hearted Ojiro, who felt bad for both Katsuo's pain and his embarrassment. After downing a recovery potion, Katsuo stood up, visibly annoyed.
"Alright Ojiro, let's use the power of friendship and violence to open this door."
"Sounds good to me!"
Katsuo readied his adrenaline-fueled muscles, and Ojiro readied his tail. On three, they smacked the door as hard as they could, sending it off its hinges and lying into the next room. Stepping across the threshold, the boys were instantly bombarded with strong winds and heavy rain. A beach on their right and a city on their left were being bombarded by a simulated hurricane that was ravaging the city.
"Aw crap."
Part one completed!