Zenless Zone Zero better be as good as people say, as a mess-up last week saw my computer try and download the entire thing and burn through all my normal data, leaving me with just the nighttime stuff, but the month's(July) now over so it's not as big a hit as it could have been. Also, depending on how things go, I might pause one of my stories to post something else in its stead, but as nothing's concrete yet, I haven't picked one that would be benched for a bit.

Chapter 32: Brewing Storm

With internships over, students were back in class the following week, ready to learn and put into practice what they could have learned in the field or just used that experience to create a better idea of the kind of hero they wished to be, so they could better prepare themselves for it when graduation came. Such a time post their first internships was often an exciting, joyous time as friends and classmates met up and talked about what they did.

Perhaps that was the case in class 1-B, but for those in class 1-A, the mood is anything but exciting or joyous. How could it be when they and the entire country witnessed chaos and destruction all over the news at Hosu, seeing those Nomu things wreak havoc while heroes struggled to contain them? How could they act like it had been a fun time when they saw their classmates battle for their lives against two of the most wanted villains in the country?

When the door opened, most didn't glance its way, too lost in their thoughts and concerns. Bakugo scowled at the pathetic air in the room but couldn't think of a way that could help them through any of it; it wasn't like he was this beacon of light, and he sure as fuck had his own feelings towards seeing that pyromaniac tearing through Hosu, leaving fires and burnt bodies in his wake.

Instead, he surveyed the class as he walked over to his desk. As he had expected, Animal-boy was even more closed off and skittish than normal. It was stupid, as there was no way in hell Pyro could show up here again, but he and the rest of those losers with the League had done it once, so he couldn't even be sure of that. Four ey…Iida's seat was vacant, which was telling as Iida was always the first person to arrive.

Edgelord was stiff, his eyes hard and angry, but Bakugo could also detect a similar fear to what Animal-boy was putting out in spades coming from him. That made sense as he probably imagined himself at Hosu doing even worse than Half-and-half and Round Face did. Speaking of those two, they were surrounded by others who looked as concerned for them as they were jumpy.

"And you're ready for class? I'm sure the school would understand if you asked for extra time off." Yaoyorozu, the class vice representative, now found herself in the position for she would be class rep. An idea that would have been a happy one for her not even a week prior, but now she so badly wished that she didn't need to step up.

Uraraka shook her head. She appreciated the concern, but she would feel better with people. "It's fine, Yaomomo. I want to be here; it beats out my apartment." She smiled at Yaoyorozu and the rest, but they could see how hollow it was, as she looked like a mess, her hair messy with Eraser levels of eye bags from a lack of sleep over the weekend, even though Gran Torino canceled training and told her to rest for the remainder of their time together, she couldn't bring herself to rest longer than 5 hours without seeing it again.

"(Kero) Can't you just stay with your parents?" Asui asked, worried for her.

Uraraka yawned, leaning on her folded arms on her table with a deep frown. "I could, but they both work. If I went home, they'd never leave the house to ensure I was okay, and we can't afford them to miss work all willy-nilly." It didn't help that her parents had already taken time off when they rushed to see her in the hospital, which made her feel guilty enough as she saw the ticket stub in the trash; they took the fastest and most expensive train to see her, they didn't have that kind of cash.

Kaminari felt like it was still a raw deal on more than one level. While he was being basically pampered and given easy jobs far from the action, his three classmates were fighting for their lives. "Still."

Uraraka stopped him before their concern just made her mad, as she didn't want that when the mood in the class was already down in the dumps. "It's fine. I love that you're all concerned, guys…but I want to be here. I need to be here." Her frown grew bitter, angry, and grief-stricken. She had the power of All Might in her veins, the potential to surpass him, but she couldn't even capture the villains that had left her friend in such a sorry state.

She couldn't even visit Iida while he was in the hospital, even when he recovered enough to be moved to a private practice the Iida family had ties with. The worst part was that she met his mother, a small, spectacled, and bookish woman who looked so much like her son. She had been grieving the tragic injury of one, and now this? And yet, she hugged her when they met, tears bleeding into her smile as she thanked her.

"You did your best to help my son; he's lucky to have a friend like you."

Uraraka recalled the statement and how she cried into the woman's arms, apologizing repeatedly for not being fast enough. 'A friend that couldn't save him, but one that will ensure he gets justice.'

"Are you good to go, Todoroki?" Ojiro asked as Todoroki had been withdrawn for most of the conversation.

"No." Todoroki was honest. "I will be when I get to do something about those villains."

"Shoto." Uraraka looked at him, but he shook his head. He had figured that Iida had a similar mindset, and they all know how that ended for him.

"I know I can't go about this without a plan, and right now, I'm not strong enough to fight them." He frowned at the memory and how his old man was less than pleasant about it when they finally spoke. "So I'm going to train even harder; they beat me this time, but they won't the next."

"Those guys are no joke, is that…" Sero started but wilted when Todoroki turned to him. His eyes hidden a fury he hadn't seen in the guy before, one that made the idea that he would just bury him in ice again sound tame.

"I won't back down." Todoroki declared.

Jiro spoke up to take some heat off Sero. "Let's just hope we don't have to worry about the press butting in while we train." The punk rocker stated that others grunted or nodded in agreement as if they thought things were bad when it came out that All Might would be their teacher; they were sorely mistaken. That might as well have been a warm-up, as, despite Hosu being off campus and having little to do with U.A., the press had been camped outside in insane numbers.

They had to call in the cops to ensure that students could even enter campus without being surrounded and bombarded with questions, more than a few incredibly insensitive.

"Yeah, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to have to end class because of another break-in." Ashido complained, recalling how the press had ruined their lunch period because they couldn't take no for an answer. She liked people who didn't quit, but there was a difference between not quitting and not taking no for an answer.

"I'm sure that the school is looking into ways to handle them as their behavior as of late is shameful." Yaoyorozu turned to them, attention shifting off Todoroki and Uraraka, something Bakugo could tell both were grateful for with how their shoulders relaxed.

"First the USJ, and now this? When did we get targets painted on our backs?" Mineta uttered, terrified about how bad things were, and for once, Bakugo didn't feel the need to call him a pussy. He had nearly been burned to ash by that fucking pro, and if the news reports had some truth to them rather than just headline-forming gossip, Iida had been cooked alive by him. The League had struck them one; who to say they won't again now that they've made them bleed for all the world to see?

And if they do, would they bring in those 5 Thunder guys again? Pyro was hard enough to deal with. Slice already embarrassed Todoroki, and they saw that the bandage fucker-Mummy, could toy with them just as much. That left out two of the 5 Thunders, one of which he heard was like a human storm, and the other was a walking monster that could tear through steel and concrete like paper.

Could they face that and win? With All Might, sure, but without him? That was what scared him, as there was no way they'd try to attack them when All Might was near, and the symbol of peace couldn't be everywhere. Otherwise, Hosu would have just been a small story, as he would have saved everyone and captured the villains without breaking a sweat.

"(Gero) Then you're truly blind. I'll spell it out for you, but you won't listen. Until you get that, don't talk to me, and I won't talk to you unless necessary."

'That's there to think about? Fucker is a monster that needs to be put down!' Bakugo's scowl grew as he remembered Frog Legs' words and how, despite how it's been weeks since she's kept her word to ignore, he'll ignore her. He ignored how much he didn't like they didn't talk anymore.

As the last of the class arrived, greetings were exchanged, but no one had any real heart in it; it was more like they were following a script or just trying to retain some sense of routine that had been robbed from them. Yaoyorozu turned to take the front and remind everyone to quiet down and take their seats, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, not when she would be doing it alone. Besides, an angry, cynical part of her said it wasn't like it was needed.

This was the sight that awaited Aizawa when he arrived as the bell rang. He might have been bandaged, but he looked just as beaten up as the rest of them, and his mood, which was never good or bright, was worse than ever. His eyes glanced over Iida's seat, but he tore them away before he got irrationally emotional about it. "Morning, students. I hope getting to class this morning wasn't too much of a hassle." He started, trying to keep things regular but also considering the room's mood.

"Well, hopefully, they'll be gone by tomorrow as Nezu has already talked with the local police and a judge to get a restraining order on them. We can't get rid of them, but we can force them to remain a certain distance from the school." Aizawa informed them, a notion that usually wouldn't be possible, but considering they were a school with minors, they were given more leeway with issues like this if worded right, and while Nezu was no legal wizard, the school did employ a dozen of such people to do such work for him.

"I won't sugarcoat things. Internships aren't meant to go like this, but life isn't fair, but we, as heroes, try and make it so. With that in mind, if any of you need to speak with the school counselor, their door is always open, and it's completely confidential. Also, if you need time off to process, you only need to ask."

Eraser told them, looking over the room with eyes that showed how genuine he was, as he wasn't going to hammer it how this was life, that shit happened-not when they were still firsts and had dealt with enough. He he knew they needed a breaorhe pressure would crush them. However, while he saw many take an interest in the first part of his statement, they predictable clammed up at the second, with the man hiding the disappointment.

He and the rest knew that this would happen; teens were infamous for how insistent they could be about self-reliance, in proving that they weren't kids anymore, and often, that meant ignoring their betters if only to affirm that they could, made all the more complicated by how people saw the idea of stopping to just unpack stuff and deal with it when they saw life was this never-ending race. He just prayed that they could catch students before they crashed and burned.

"As many of you must have noticed, Iida's absent from school today. The school board and his family agreed he needs time away from hero work. Until he's cleared for class, he'll continue to be absent from class but will be given all the relevant materials to keep his grades up." He relayed to them, reluctantly adding that the Iida family has requested that they keep contact with their classmate to a minimum, and it is done through his mother, who didn't wish unneeded stress on her son.

Regardless of what anyone thought or wished, the world kept on turning. After Hosu, for a time, the Thunder were dormant, but just because they weren't out in the streets tearing things up didn't mean that things had calmed down. All Might had ushered in an age where society was under a bright blue sky, one filled with only a few white, puffy clouds akin to what children would imagine in their dreams.

But the Thunder was something new, a threat to their continued existence; the fact they remained uncaptured was like a dark storm cloud blowing in from the distance. It was still far out; a small thing over near the horizon with the sky overhead remained clear. But one couldn't ignore how ominous the swirling grey and black mass was, one that carried with it distant but distinct whispers of crackling thunder and flashes of lightning. To the observant, they could tell that with each passing day, that distance storm grew closer, stronger, and angrier.

Many didn't think much of it, as while there was an uptake in crime, most of it was petty theft and robbery. The pros were quirks to handle things, posing for the cameras and keeping the people calm, but a dark thought that many heroes were having was that even with their efforts, crime wasn't going down. Best Jeanist was worried about it most of all, as he had just wrapped up a fight where he strung up a small-time gang by their clothes.

"Excellent work, sir. Another group of villains are off the streets." One of his sidekicks saluted him, bystanders cheering for him off the side, kept from the fighting by two other sidekicks.

Instinctively, he posed and got louder cheers from the crowd, though the man was more troubled than he let on. "Yes, but it's still unsettling that so many have decided to strike; it's like a surge of inferior counterfeit denim."

Looking at the captured villains, his high jean collar might hide his expression, but his eyes could more than take on their details; however, how minute. He saw a tattoo peaking out from the sleeve of one of them, whose color and shape reminded him of something he had seen lately, only for his attention to be taken when he noticed a slight shift in the light, a string passing by in the wind.

"Sir, is there something wrong?" his sidekick asked, as Jeanist had been silent for a while now.

"Nothing that requires too much concern," Jeanist replied before turning on his heel and walking off. "Make sure that they're handed to authorities without issue. I must continue with the patrol."

"Yes, sir!" His sidekick saluted once more, happy that they were trusted to handle this and trusted by the boss to catch up with him before he needed them again. Jeanist, on the other hand, was thinking about something else as he walked for another few blocks, stopping to speak with pedestrians, sign autographs, pose for pictures, and offer snippets of help like directing lost tourists, helping pets out of trees, or helping the elderly cross the street.

He had done a lot when he turned into an alleyway and walked in till the light of the street faded, and he stood surrounded by shadow and dirt. "You know, you've gotten better at hiding yourself, old friend." He said aloud as if speaking to himself, but instead, he was met with a chuckle as that same string floated down before swirling together to form a human head, one with spiked hair and a mask covering the lower part of their face.

"Clearly not enough if you can still spot me." The 5th ranked hero in all of Japan, and one of the sneakiest people Best Jeanist ever know, chuckled.

"Don't take it personally; I've been treating spotting you like a good game of find Waldo since our second year." Jeanist smoothed out his hair as Edgeshot fully formed, having been following after him in his folded-up state. "Though I doubt this is a social visit."

Edgeshot, a friend he might have been, was as serious and professional as ever. "It's about this uptick in crime. It's not normal."

"My thoughts exactly. That was the third incident in as many hours that I handled. This part of town is usually much quieter when it comes to crime." Jeanist replied, concerned about how things seemed to be fraying. It might not be making news, and things were manageable, but that didn't mean it wasn't something to keep an eye on, and it seemed that in the last two weeks since Hosu, things had only been getting worse.

"I agree with you. I stopped a large drug deal just last night, but it wasn't so much the product they were attempting to sell onto the streets that had me worried, but it was their leader." Jeanist didn't speak, but he did raise an eyebrow, as he had seen the report on the hero network already.

"Anyone of note?" The shinobi-themed hero shook his head.

Frankly, it had been somewhat routine. They had a mole inform them of the deal, got there early, and were ready when they confirmed that both the products were present and that it was, in fact, an illegal deal. It wasn't even the longest fight he had been in in the last year, and usually, it would be something he would forget about when the next one happened. "Not at all, but it was his words. When he was captured, he was laughing that we couldn't stop it, that when the lightning strikes, the beasts will run wild and-"

"-the flames will turn all to ash. A bank robber I apprehended yesterday said the same thing. This can't be mere chance." Jeanist finished the phrase, though the fact that he could leave both unnerved, as things like that didn't just happen. And it didn't take a genius to figure out what inspired such a thing.

"It would appear that the 5 Thunder are inspiring villains to act. The underworld is shifting, but my informants don't know in what way and in what direction," Edgeshot said, his tone giving away his displeasure despite how reserved he looked.

"Then it would be prudent that we locate and remove these loose trends before they can be pulled on any further," Jeanist noted, already thinking of ways he could aid the police in tracking them down. He already suspected that they were highly mobile but hadn't figured out how many safe houses they had or if they had only a few key ones and some means to travel to their destinations and back unseen.

"I couldn't agree with you more. I'll be in touch." Edgeshot folded his body back into a thin, near unperceivable strip of paper flesh, a concept that never ceased to baffle Best Jeanist and left. No sign that he was ever there as Jeanist walked out the other side of the alley, back on with his patrol like the conversation never happened. More than that, he thought about things as they stood, seeing people smiling and laughing as they went about their days, not a fearful face in sight as they believed that heroes would always keep them safe.

No, not heroes, All Might. Always All Might, just All Might. It had been sobering to realize that even when he and many other heroes put in 110% on a normal day, they couldn't hope to compare to what one man could do, what one man could represent. These people might sing his praise and even call out to him when in need, but one could see it in how people reacted to him and to All Might. Such a difference was so vast that it would be an underestimation to compare it to the difference between bargain bin pants and designer jeans.

But he couldn't fault people for that mindset, as even he, a man who would celebrate his 36th birthday that year, couldn't even imagine a world without All Might, as it had been all he had ever known. His earliest memories of heroes might feature stylish men and women long retired or dead, but one image that had stood the test of time was All Might, whose reward-winning smile, booming laugh, and near god-like power still stood against the worst the world could throw at him, and throw it back 3-fold.

Yes, he might be a top hero, and he worked his darndest day in and day out. Each of the other 8 top heroes did so, but they all knew in their hearts that All Might was the pillar holding everything up. Looking up as he walked, Jeanist saw a storm approaching in the distance. 'Some would question how so little can be such a threat to things, but when the world is held up by the strength and character of just one, one should be asking why it takes so many to threaten things.'

Weeks went by, and as Jeanist and Edgeshot feared, villain activity continued to rise. Heroes all over Japan found themselves in battle much more frequently than normal, but many didn't think too hard about it. After all, these incidents were resolved all the same, in most cases with little collateral or injuries, so while people were mentioned in conversation, it was never the driving force of that conversation.

That changed a week later as the 5 Thunders struck again, cropping up in a small town in northern Japan. One minute, it was peaceful, with pros greeting people, and the next, they were called out to a lab that was being attacked. By the time they got there, it had already been breached. They knew what to expect; they thought they were prepared to hold the line until backup could arrive as word was sent that All Might and Jeanist were en route.

But they never arrived in time; as Nine and Pyre walked out of the lab, carrying whatever it was, they came to steal and decimated everyone who tried to stop them. Dozens of police and 8 pros stood no chance to the lighting and fire that those two brought upon them.

The news would claim after the fact that Pyre was standing close to Nine and seemingly so twisted that he would fire on his own gang mate from time to time, but there was little else. Instead, what they focused on was the multiple accounts of facing off against hell, of the sky darkening and lightning crashing down on them, about powerful winds picking them up and whipping them about like leaves, about bales and blasts of emerald flames, burning everything, all the while they heard chimes and bells, and laughter.

What the number one and number 4 heroes would arrive at was that aftermath, with some papers controlled by Shoowaysha had a field day publishing images of these mighty titans helping with recovery, having been too late to prevent it from even happening. Such a brazen statement only fueled the flames as that got people talking and worried people.

Midoriya particularly liked it, but could he understand that it benefitted them as it meant more work? Increased jobs meant their increased reputation, building up their own network of informants, safehouses, and support mechanics, one of whom was working on that car and van they requested. However, one consistent, if not well-liked client was the League, who hired them twice after Hosu, once for a robbery of another research lab and another for an assault on some hero agency.

Today could be the beginnings of the third, though nothing had been agreed upon yet, so Nine decided that Pyre would attend it alone. It was his job to accept whatever contract the League had this time and iron out details for the group.

'And when I arrived early to get things started, I'm told I have to wait,' He moped in the corner of the gloomily lit bar, a booth all to himself and Koharu as he drank a chocolate and strawberry milkshake. He let out a cute slight hum, taking another draw from the straw. 'Well, Kurogiri does know how to make a mean milkshake, so it's not all bad.' He thought to himself, ignoring Shigaraki as Shigaraki had ignored him from the moment he walked in.

It was this peaceful, tense atmosphere that the broker named Giran walked in on as he finally arrived, Midoriya being a little angry about it, even if the man was only technically a couple minutes late.

"Afternoon, Shigaraki. Having a good day?" The perpetually sleazy-looking man greeted as he opened the door but didn't enter the bar.

"Giran, welcome. Would you like a drink?" Kurogiri asked of him, the only one who bothered to return the greetings as Shigaraki kept silent, looking over a collection of pictures instead.

"Thanks, but I'm not staying alone; I still have some things to handle before I call it a day, though I would say the same for your guys as well. We've been some real busy bees lately."

"Colour my curious, but I have a suspicion that you're cooking up something big; after all, you've gone out on some jobs and even hired the Thunder a couple more times," Giran stated, taking a drag at his cigarette, with Shigaraki decaying one of the pictures out of annoyance. He stomached having to use them, but that didn't mean he liked how they were the ones people talked about, people feared.

"Stop wasting time; you called saying you had people, or was that all talk?" Shigaraki asked him, Pyre wondering if he was always in a bad mood like Kacchan, or if he just was like that when he was around…also like Kacchan.

Giran didn't take offense to the question; rather, he let out an amused chuckle. "No sense for drama, I tell you. All right, all right. They're right here." He turned around and led two people into the bar, Kurogiri and Midoriya Koharu watching them, but for different reasons.

"So it's you, huh?" The first one asked, Koharu observing that both humans happened to be female, with the first being a strange but familiar sight to her. "I saw a picture of you, but you look uglier in person," Koharu observed that she was pretty tall, taller than most human women she had seen, with pale skin and a slime, borderline toned build with black hair a little shorter than her human's and piercing blue eyes that seemed to house something…similar to her human's, as there was a fire in them.

Though she could have said that from just the rest of her appearance as the woman would have been pale skin and fair looking if it wasn't for the patches of gnarled, wrinkled purple skin covering most of her visible body, from directly underneath her eyes, to her entire lower jaw, neck, and shoulders. Even her hands seemed covered in patches of it; Koharu would tell that such resulted from some nasty burns.

"She smells like you, like she's always near fire," Koharu warned her human, Midoriya nodding. He kept his silence, as it didn't seem like neither had noticed him yet.

"Wow, you're the hand guy! You're friends with that cutie, Pyre, right? Right?" In contrast to the stoic, borderline rude, and dismissive older of the two, the second girl, one that looked closer to Midoriya in age, was much more emotive and excited, like she was just another normal girl who happened to meet someone of fame. "Let me join, too! The League of Villains!" Pyre could tell, however, that there wasn't anything normal about her; those eyes looked like Kon's, the eyes of a predator and one that knew not to lower their guard.

But in terms of appearance, she was most definitely the shortest person there, with fair-toned skin and, at the moment, blushing with a beautiful face, which made Pyre blush in turn. Focusing on purely analyzing her, he saw her inward-tilting yellow eyes, one akin to a cat's with how narrow the irises were with a wide mouth, which Pyre was sure he saw enlarged canines within. Where the taller looked like she went with a simple hairstyle, the shorter, younger of the two had done her pale ash-blonde hair into two messy buns, though plenty of wild strands stuck out with a straight fringe and two-chin length side brands framing her face.

She looked like she had dressed for a regular school day, which was a little harder than expected if her hair came undone like that, and she just came right here. A comparison that fits since she was wearing a school uniform, one he wasn't sure if it was a middle or a high school, and a beige cardigan; it wasn't that cold; at least he didn't see others wearing such things since he had no need for them.

And done! There was more to the last scene, but to do it justice would take too long, so like season 2 did it, I'll end that in the next chapter, which, spoiler, does more than merely set up what's to come with the Summer Camp since I intend to try and incorporate the movies where I can, and that means Two Heroes is very much on the drawing board. Though I admit putting all that was a stretch as its multiple episodes of content from a period that could be, at longest, an entire month, I was able to put in fem Dabi, as I was skeptical about it, but another author reminded me that when you want something, and don't see it you can just make it.

Next chapter should be out on August 14th.

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