(A/N) We're back, baybeee!
New cover art! The thought of Miruko teaching Deku how to kick properly was an idea that was stuck in the back of my head for a while. Got banned from the My Hero subreddit instantly for posting it tho lmao. Dunno why. Maybe they don't like Rumi or something? Is her very existence too spoiler-ish?
As a relatively important notice, I've made a correction to chapter two. Shirou mentioned "Avalon and Excalibur", but now it just says "Avalon". It wasn't necessarily a plot hole, per se, but the wording could be (most definitely) misconstrued. It would make more sense when a certain plot point finally comes up, but I'm not going to keep needless (and accidental) points of confusion. To make my life easier, I just removed it altogether.
On the matter of shameless retcons, I've gone ahead and removed most of Thirteen's inner monologue last chapter. It was a little too wordy (partially redundant) for what I was trying to convey, and most of what was said could be more effectively expressed through the natural progression of the story.
If it wasn't clear, All for One just straight up came to the wrong conclusion. In canon, the only reason that he knew that Toshinori passed down OFA was because Shigaraki ran into Midoriya. That hasn't happened in this story. Conversely, The heroes haven't properly run into the League of Villains.
Additionally, many of you had noticed how much of a non-factor I've made the USJ incident. The reason for this is that, with things progressing as they are, it would make little sense (or it would be too difficult) to make that particular event meaningful beyond some brownie points for character development. As such, I've used it as a setup for a larger, more impactful arc later down the line. With that said, I'm sure it comes as a surprise to none of you that Black Knight won't be a throwaway.
Also, All Might's thoughts on Archer were well received. I'm glad. I promise that not everything I write is pulled out of my ass lol.
On an unrelated note, I pray that I never hurt another person in the way that Attack on Titan has decided to hurt me this week. Man.
Please enjoy! There are fewer developments this time around, but it sets up a lot of what's to come.
P.S. Unlike the last extra, this one is more or less part of the story.
X
Momo shut her eyes, and in turn, shut out the world around her. She didn't want to think about the position she was in right now.
More than the danger that had just transpired, she didn't want to accept the way that she had responded to it.
What Bakugo-san, Midoriya-san, Iida-san, and Todoroki-san did was foolish, so why couldn't she let go of this feeling of regret?
It wasn't going to work– she told them as much.
But they didn't listen. They pushed forward, lost, and just made things more difficult for Sensei.
And yet, she couldn't convince herself that they shouldn't have bothered in the first place. Somehow, it felt as though she was the one who made the wrong choice.
Again. It happened again.
As stupid as it sounded, she didn't feel like a hero.
Her hands trembled, but it was more out of frustration –of helplessness– than out of any lingering fear of the now-restrained Black Knight.
Go beyond. Plus Ultra.
So, what, was she supposed to "surpass her own limits"?
She didn't get it. That didn't make sense– genuinely. It was fine to say in a romanticised sense, but that wasn't how the world worked! Limits were limits. If you could surpass them, then they weren't actually your limits to begin with. Attempting something outside of the scope of one's ability –like trying to fight an S-rank villain with nothing more than days of professional training– wasn't the same as being heroic. That was just asking to get yourself killed.
Why?
She was smart. Up until now, she had never encountered a problem, system, or object that she couldn't fully understand, top to bottom.
So out of everything, why was this the one thing that she couldn't figure out?
A gloved hand landed on her shoulder.
"…Thirteen-sensei?"
She couldn't see the teacher's face through the helmet, but the suit's body language belied a significant concern for the subject of the woman's attention. "Are you alright? You seem a little shaken up."
The girl shook her head quickly, her ponytail hitting both of her cheeks as it flailed.
"No! No. Thank you."
Before she could help herself, Momo's attention turned back to the four boys plaguing her thoughts.
They looked frustrated. Upset.
She felt that too. In that regard, they were the same. But somehow, she knew there was a difference. There was something about the way that they carried themselves right now that was in no way similar to herself.
"…"
Her mouth opened and closed. Words wanted to come out, but Momo was afraid of what those words would be. Thirteen was a hero and a teacher, so obviously she would ask if her student was alright– but this and that were two different things.
If she spoke, Momo didn't want the hero standing at her side to be disappointed in her.
"Yaoyorozu-san, correct?" Thirteen asked softly. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. After something like this, it's perfectly normal to be scared. I was scared too, you know?"
The teacher was trying to help. She was doing her best to be empathetic, and the gesture was appreciated, but…
That wasn't it. That wasn't it at all!
Much like how the human body coughed involuntarily to eject harmful matter, what Momo didn't want to say ended up coming out regardless of what she wanted.
"Sensei, I…"
X
"I don't know if I can be a hero!" The poor girl didn't shout. What came out was barely a trembling whisper. "There's just– something that I don't have, but I–"
Yaoyorozu cut herself off abruptly. The same way one would shut off a running tap that was turned on by accident.
Clearly, whatever this was had nothing –or at least very little– to do with their most recent encounter. The girl's ramblings were a little too introspective for it to be that simple. Those sorts of hurtful feelings that came from the gut were too difficult to hide from others.
Something was eating at her. Something big if it was powerful enough to supposedly shake a UA student's desire to become a hero.
"Slow down and tell me what's on your mind," spoke the woman as gently as she could. "I'll do my best to listen."
Yaoyorozu took a deep breath and tried to calm herself as her teacher had asked.
Good.
"'If you aren't brave, you can't be a hero'. Isn't that true, Sensei?"
Thirteen was silent for a moment. The other students were still distracted by the recently-transpired events, so luckily they would be able to have this discussion without too many distractions.
It was an important discussion to have.
"You don't think you're 'brave'. Is that it?"
The girl's silence was telling.
It was way too early for a kid her age to be stuck thinking about that sort of thing. Once she had completed her schooling and had learned a little more about herself –about the world– maybe then it would be time for her to consider things like "what it meant to be brave".
Bravery manifested itself in different ways in different people. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, there wasn't a single first-year student at UA Academy that could have managed to find an answer to such a question.
Not a real answer, at least.
"Who told you that a hero needed to be anything?" Thirteen tried instead. "Was it a classmate?"
Yaoyorozu shook her head.
"Miruko was a guest lecturer for Hero Ideologies today. She said that a hero wouldn't amount to anything if they didn't have… 'guts'," she recited uncertainly. Her nose scrunched angrily. "If all I can do is stand back while others take action, then I…"
Ah. That was definitely something that she could imagine Miruko-san saying. The entirety of what she had said probably wasn't wrong if the teacher in charge of the class hadn't interjected, but that sort of thing needed context. Context!
Was that it? Did Yaoyorozu feel like she hadn't done enough after that group from her class tried to help their teacher?
Making an intelligent young woman second-guess her decision to not be an idiot along with those four boys was just–
Jeez. Emiya-kun really went and did something irresponsible. Or was it ignorant? The man wasn't a professional instructor, so the Space Hero felt like she should cut him some slack… but still, his decisions, no matter how well-intentioned, had consequences.
Important ones too; consequences that could shape his students' whole lives.
It was unfair to him, but now that he was partly in charge of Japan's future, he needed to be held to much higher standards. Such was the case for every single teacher at UA Academy.
The sooner he learned that, the better. Luckily for him, Yaoyorozu seemed to be the diligent type. Given the chance, Thirteen was every bit confident in his ability to help the girl reach where she needed to be.
That was just the sort of guy he was.
"Yaoyorozu, if I were you, this is what I'd do."
X
Shirou closed his eyes in silent frustration. If the terrible predicament wasn't enough, the total lack of cooperation wasn't making it any easier to salvage the situation.
His training as a hero has enabled him to work past such obstacles, but in no way was this ideal.
"Yes, I'm sure. The cod went bad. I was told that it was put out fresh this morning."
He waited with furrowed brows as the poor underpaid supermarket employee gave him another excuse through the phone.
"No, it goes on special every Thursday. Who in their right mind would buy expired fish for a discount!?"
He hung up with a sigh and looked over his shoulder to his amassed bouillabaisse ingredients dejectedly. It would just be mussels and shrimp, then. Too plain.
Hm. There was a package of frozen haddock in the freezer, but that wasn't at all what he was trying to go for. It was too fishy, and it would clash with the strong flavours of his rouille a little too much.
Shirou leaned against the kitchen counter with a sigh.
Not only were his classes cancelled today because of the field trip incident, but he was only working as a hero on an on-call basis until Aizawa came back from recovery. This was probably the closest thing to a "day off" that he'd allowed himself in a good while, and now his day's efforts were wasted because the dish that he had dedicated the last twelve hours to was missing the ingredient that he had spent the last twelve hours hunting down.
Damn it! He should've trusted the look on that cod's face instead of listening to that grocery store employee. Wasn't a satisfied customer supposed to be more important than a few hundred yen? More distressingly, why was decently-priced cod so hard to find, all of a sudden!?
Maybe he should have gotten the cod frozen instead of trying to go the extra mile. There wouldn't even have been that big of a difference.
The front door opened and someone let themselves in.
"Hey, it's me."
Walking into the kitchen with her coat held under-arm, Rumi froze when she saw the look of misery on Shirou's face.
"…Shirou?"
"Rumi. I'm sorry."
His shoulders were tense, and his eyes closed shut. Something was obviously bothering him.
Her eyebrows furrowed in worry.
Shirou wasn't someone who was thrown off so easily. There were two possibilities: either something happened yesterday during the villain attack–
"The bouillabaisse didn't work out. I should have just stayed away from seafood."
–or it was just something stupid like this.
"I see." She nodded to herself. "You look a little more grown-up now, but you're obviously still a dumbass. Is it edible?"
He glared at the pot on the stove behind him distrustfully, not at all mindful of the insult. "I wouldn't–"
"Will we die if we eat it?"
"No, but–"
"Then it's fine, right?"
He hummed in grudging acceptance. Though he didn't look her in the eye, the greatest sign of his discomfort was the way he absentmindedly scratched behind his ear.
"You took the day off early to be here, didn't you? The least I should be able to offer you is a proper meal."
Seriously, this guy… he was always blowing these sorts of things out of proportion. If he finally decided to do the unthinkable and took a slow day for once, then obviously she was going to pay him a visit. More than any of that other stuff, sharing meals with friends was about catching up and reminiscing together.
Not that whatever was about to come out of that pot could possibly be bad. She didn't know what travesty has supposedly befallen the fruit of Shirou's labour, but never had she left his dining room table unsatisfied.
She sat herself on the stool facing the kitchen island.
"Did the squirts make it out okay?" asked the woman, resting the chin on the palm of her hand as she watched the chef at work.
With his back to her, Shirou let out a satisfied hum. "Thankfully, no one got seriously hurt. Midoriya needed to pay Recovery Girl another visit, but that's more a result of his own quirk than anything. Considering that we were attacked by an S-rank villain, I'd say that everything went well."
Rumi clicked her tongue. "Midoriya's the one with the superstrength quirk, right?"
"…Did you go through the academic files in my bag?"
He was ignored.
"That kid really needs to get his shit together. If none of the other teachers are giving him a hand, then you should."
The part-time instructor turned on the stove. A few clicks sounded as the gas was lit. "Yeah. I'm planning on talking to All Might about it when I can."
"All Might?"
She wasn't following.
"Their quirks are nearly identical. It's just a hunch, but…" he paused to think about what he was going to say.
The rabbit hero's eyes widened in recognition. "Are you saying they're related, or something?"
"I don't know for sure, but All Might is probably keeping it under wraps for a reason. I don't want to overstep, so I think talking to him about it first might be best."
She nodded– not that he could see her.
"How about you?" he asked.
"Me?"
"Mhm. You were still at the school when the other villains attacked it."
Rumi scoffed. "The villains were a bunch of two-bit suckers. All Might took care of a bigger fella, but UA had way too many pros around for the attackers to have any room to breathe."
"And what about you? Are you alright?"
Her expression tightened into a frown.
"The fuck's that supposed to mean?"
Shirou turned away from his task, startled. "What?"
"Didn't you hear what I said? Ya don't think I can handle myself against a bunch of wimps, or what?"
"I didn't say that, and you know it."
"Didn't you? You haven't changed a bit. You're still looking down on me!"
She was getting a little louder than she would have liked.
"Looking down on– when have I ever looked down on you? There's nothing wrong with worrying about someone else!" he yelled right back.
He was totally missing the point, wasn't he!?
"Why can't you just–
Why can't you just put your faith in me? Why can't you believe that I can push through anything easily, just the same as you?
The words were caught in her mouth. What a stupid thing to say.
"Forget it."
The chef crossed his arms. "Hah? No way."
She felt a throb in her temple. "Whaddaya mean, 'No way'!? I said, 'Forget it', so forget it!"
"If you're going to say something, just say it."
"I wasn't going to, it was nothing."
"You obviously were."
"No, I wasn't."
"You–"
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
They both froze and whipped their heads towards the door.
X
Momo took a deep breath, then lowered her fist. The girl stared dead ahead at her teacher's front door, secretly hoping that he wouldn't answer.
She shouldn't be here.
"…"
And yet… she needed to be here. It wasn't like she had reached her "breaking point" or anything, but she knew the longer that she let her worries simmer, the less manageable they would become– and they were plenty difficult to manage already.
Thirteen-sensei had suggested that she come here. She had promised her that talking to Emiya-sensei one-on-one would help her set her mind straight.
Obviously, she had dismissed the idea on the spot.
There was no way that she could do something so brazen. A student shouldn't be visiting her professor at their home, whether announced or not. It was improper. More than that, this was her issue, not Sensei's. He shouldn't need to sort her problems out for her.
Besides, this could wait until tomorrow, couldn't it? There was no reason why she couldn't just talk to him after class, at school.
With that in mind, she spent the whole day lying in her bed alone, swimming in her thoughts.
It took her about fourteen waking hours before she cracked. Here she was.
As she feared, the door opened.
Then her brain stopped.
Miruko greeted her with a hum. "Aren't you in Shirou's class?"
Momo started panicking. Did Thirteen give her the wrong address on purpose? Was this a trap? No, no, no, no, no! Talking to Sensei was one thing, but–
"Who's at the door?"
Sensei's head peaked over Miruko's shorter frame with ease.
Oh. Was this the right address after all?
…Were… were they cohabiting? Did they actually live together?
Hagakure-san and Ashido-san were joking about them being close, but–
As Momo's gears were thrown into overdrive, she took notice of their tense posture and flushed complexions.
Were they– did she just interrupt–
"Sorry!" the teenager shouted in clear embarrassment. Without giving either of them a chance to get a word in, she took off.
Maybe this could wait until she returned to school after all.
"…"
"…"
Rumi shot Shirou a look with a quirked brow. "Do you know what that was about?"
Just as confused as she was, his reply came easily enough. "No."
"Ah. Ok."
"I'll talk to her tomorrow."
"Yeah, you do that."
X
There was a tense silence within UA Academy's faculty meeting hall.
"We don't have anything. We don't know who organized the attack; we don't know why they attacked. Black Knight wasn't talking while we had him in custody, and the UK took him back before we could try anything else.
"What about the other captured villains?" Midnight asked.
"Their tales are a jumbled mess. We can't get a straight story out of anyone, and the giant that fought All Might is practically vegetative."
Vlad King scoffed at Detective Tsukauchi's poor summary of events. "Then why are we even here right now? It's a dead end. We would be more productive putting our energy elsewhere."
"And that's exactly the reason why we're here," countered the principal. "The perpetrators hid their identity flawlessly, so all we can do is to ensure that something like this won't happen again."
"We should cancel the other field trips and tighten up security to start," suggested Snipe. "At the very least, it'll prevent villains from using similar strategies."
"Ah…"
All Might raised his hand, and everyone turned their attention his way. His body's atrophy wasn't hidden by One for All at the moment, but there wasn't anyone in the room who hadn't already been made aware of his condition long ago.
"Archer is busy at the moment, so I will speak in his place." He cleared his throat of any trickling blood with a tight cough. "He confided to me his belief that we should do our best to reschedule the Unforeseen Simulation Joint exercises as quickly as we can, even if we must go about it in a more cautious fashion."
Whereas the other staff members presented their concerns with the proposition, Nezu calmly asked, "And why is that?"
All Might sighed. "I see where he's coming from, to be honest. Of all the first-year lessons, I'd say that rescue training is arguably the most important. More than fighting villains, the job of a hero is to save lives, after all."
With a grunt, Vlad King conceded, "There's definitely a gap in the learning curve when you compare practical lessons to theoretical ones… for something like that, at least."
"And it's the only practical lesson on the subject that any of them will receive, unfortunately," finished Nezu. "After their first semester, most 'applied' tasks will be done through internships– hm… but by then, the room for error will be much slimmer as the dangers will no longer be simulated. I see. In which case, I'll have to agree: the first-year rescue training will be rescheduled sometime after the sports festival."
The principal had spoken, and so it would be done.
"Detective Tsukauchi."
The man's sudden inclusion caught him off guard.
"Oh, uh, yes, Principal?"
"Since we'll need to host it either way, what measures does the police force propose to keep our sports festival running smoothly?"
X
Shirou stood still outside of the classroom door. There were a few things that needed to be done today; if he disregarded those matters any longer, it might cause problems.
Firstly, he needed to speak with Yaoyorozu sometime, preferably right after the first period. She had been off-kilter since the first few days of school, and her strange visit yesterday just made it all the more apparent. He was no guidance councillor, but he liked to think that his students could confide in him if something was bothering them enough to feel the need to drop by his house unannounced.
Then, there was Midoriya.
He sighed.
That matter was a little more difficult, probably. As much as he wanted to help the boy, the first thing he'd need to do was talk to All Might. If he chose a course of action without knowing all the details, then there was a greater chance of making the wrong decision. Those kinds of preventable mistakes were the ones that tended to bite back the most.
The teacher shuffled the papers in his hands and walked into the room.
All of that would come later. For now, he had a homeroom to run.
X
Extra! Emiya-kun might need help
Ryuudou Issei waved an unopened can of iced tea at his friend as the other boy approached.
"Yo, Emiya! Over here!"
Shirou dropped his rear onto the steps in front of the Buddhist temple, seating himself next to the other boy. With slumped shoulders and downcast eyes, he looked absolutely drained.
The bespectacled monk-in-training narrowed his eyes but kept his comments to himself. It was unusual to see Emiya in such a state.
"Today was your first day at UA. How did it go?"
The redhead grimaced. "It was… something."
Issei hummed. "That bad? Strange. You looked really excited when you told me that you got in. It's unfortunate that you've become disillusioned with it so quickly."
"No! No, really. It's not what you think," Shirou denied quickly. "It's just…"
"'It's just'?"
"One of my new classmates," the aspiring hero grumbled. "I can't handle her at all."
"…"
"…"
A hand was placed on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Mhm. I get it. Those sorts of soul-sucking women are all over the place, nowadays."
Shirou almost spat out his drink. "Not like that! She's just a little… overbearing? Definitely not the sort of character that I expected a UA student to have."
Issei wasn't following. "That's never been an issue for you before. I don't think I remember you butting heads with anyone, and for some people, that wasn't for a lack of trying. There were definitely enough strong personalities in middle school to go around."
The temple dweller's friend grunted.
"What happened, was..."
X
Class "1-A", huh? Everyone seemed pretty nice so far. Their homeroom teacher hadn't arrived yet, so he took the opportunity to introduce himself to his new classmates. It was only right to be courteous, after all.
He presented himself in front of a white-haired girl with rabbit ears. She wasn't wearing her blazer for whatever reason. She seemed to be a mutant type, so maybe all those layers were uncomfortable for her somehow?
Shirou outstretched his hand towards her with a friendly smile.
"Hello! My name is Emiya Shirou. It's nice to meet you."
She stared at him blankly instead of taking his hand. For an awkward couple of seconds, nothing was said between them.
"I remember that name. You're the guy who got top marks on the entrance exam."
He frowned. "I suppose? Why–"
The girl slapped his hand out of the way with a large grin.
"The one who'll be the greatest hero is me! I'll be number one here, ya get it?"
…That wasn't how you were supposed to talk to someone you just met, was it?
Oh. He was dealing with one of those genuine, high school delinquent types. That's fine.
His smile didn't budge.
"Sure thing! I understand."
He was used to people like her. Pride was important to them, and that was fine with him. He had little to no attachment to such things, so it wasn't even all that much for him to concede if it meant that classroom relations could progress more adequately. It worked for him in middle school, and it would work for him–
"The hell? What's with that lame reaction? You gonna pull your head out of yer ass, or am I gonna have to do it for ya?"
Shirou blinked. "Pardon?"
X
"It's hard to explain. Some people just can't be reasoned with."
Issei nodded hesitantly. "Are you sure that won't be too much of a bother?"
"It's fine, Issei. I can just keep my distance. I doubt that we'll need to be around each other all that much."