Uh...I'm alive?
Unfortunately, I have been getting screwed over by school and writer's block in general. Sorry about that. I also decided to permanently keep that extra A/N up. Mostly because I want to keep all the comments.
I appreciate all the feedback, everyone.
Special thanks to Writermakeshift for beta-reading and helping me figure out the story.
* = something I'll immediately address in the ending A/N.
XXII. My Hubris, Part I
Why did I have that dream?
It all felt so real. Way more than any dream I've ever had. Even now, I can still clearly remember how everything played out, like I was actually there. You were so far away when it went wrong, but I still saw what you looked like then. You looked so beautiful with long hair, and I remember feeling like the happiest guy in the world.
I don't want to consider it, but would things have turned out like that if we really did run away together and leave Emilia to die? I don't think I could've lived with the guilt.
None of it ever happened when I was really there, so I don't understand why I even had that dream in the first place. Was it my subconscious mocking me with everything I could've had with you? Or was it something else?
I even tried forcing myself to have that dream again, but no luck so far. And obviously one's gonna believe me even if I did tell them everything.
What exactly am I supposed to do, Rem? I know I have to get to the bottom of this, but I don't even know where to start.
Two Days Later...
"Good morning, everyone," Īda greeted, as Subaru and everyone in their impromptu friend group all met at U.A.'s entrance. And like the last few days since they first started coming to school, his greeting was met with the usual range of reactions from everyone else, from Ashido's cheerfulness to Katsuki's muted nod and wave.
"Mor—" Subaru started, before he was interrupted by a yawn he was suddenly overcome with. "—morning. Man, I'm still pretty sleepy."
"What, you stay up late or something?" Katsuki asked.
"Not on purpose," Subaru replied, shrugging. I've just been thinking about too much stuff recently, and it's been keeping me up."
"Have you been compensating with naps?" Īda asked. "Taking a long nap after school does lead to you having to sleep later since you got some of that energy back."
Subaru shook his head. "Nah, I think it's just a bit of insomnia. I wouldn't worry about it."
"Exactly how bad is it?" Uraraka asked. "If it's pretty bad, then I think you should just try to take a nap at the nurse's office so you don't crash when we have training class with All Might later."
Subaru simply waved off (in this case, literally) her concern in response. "It's fine. I drank coffee before I left, anyway. It just probably hasn't kicked in yet."
Okay, while he appreciated his friends' concern for him, there wasn't exactly a whole lot Subaru could share about his situation—yes, he'd been having insomnia lately, but he couldn't exactly tell them it was because of a nightmare of a possible future he could've had in his first life, right? It wasn't exactly something you could share with a bunch of other teenagers whose biggest concerns were relationships and maintaining good grades.
And besides, how could anyone be so calm as to be sleeping on time after having such a vivid nightmare? The first time he tried to sleep had been downright impossible because of how fresh everything had been, but he managed to hide his sleepiness from everyone with an energy drink, and there was also the fact that his class only had the training class with All Might only every other day of the week.
(It also didn't help that he really didn't want to see Rem and...the children...dying all over again.)
"Well, regardless," Īda began, pushing his glasses further up his face. "You should be careful not to go overboard with stimulants. Not getting enough sleep would only be a detriment to our performance as heroes, some more than others." He then looked down at the watch on his wrist. "Speaking of which...we really should get going now if we don't want to risk Aizawa-sensei's ire."
He immediately started to walk faster (a lot faster than what the usual speed walking pace looked like) and very quickly left the group behind, leading to everyone else yelling at him to wait up while they moved to catch up to him. And for a second, Subaru watched on in amusement as he watched everyone quickly move to catch up to Īda, before he finally followed behind them with a jog.
Several minutes later, Subaru and the others finally made it to the classroom, but after seeing everyone else in the class was already settling into their seats, they quickly went to their own desks. And even a minute later after they finally sat down, the door opened to reveal Aizawa, with the idle chatter throughout the room quickly dying down as he entered the room with that signature sleep-deprived look on his face.
"Good. You're getting better at that," the man greeted with a nod, before making his way over to the podium in front of the whiteboard. "Now listen up—today, we're going to be taking a field trip to get you all some hands-on training in rescue situations. As in natural disasters, destroyed buildings, hostage rescue, things like that."
He bent down and reached in to pull a remote, then aimed it towards the wall to his side. Almost immediately, the hidden shelves with the numbered briefcases containing everyone's costumes started to extend from the wall with a soft whirring noise, before finally stopping with a soft thud.
"It's up to you whether or not you want to wear your costume," Aizawa continued. "But I'd say it's better to just wear them when you don't need to. Just know that you won't always get the chance to be fully equipped when emergencies happen. Anyway, I'll meet you all out front."
With that, he turned and walked back out of the classroom, and the silence from the class was very quickly replaced by words of excitement coming from the students as everyone started standing up and grabbing their designated briefcases from the shelves.
"Hostage rescue, huh? Hey, Midoriya."
Subaru turned around in his seat to face Mineta, whose face, he noticed, was looking oddly pensive as he tapped his pencil against his chin.
"You think we'll get to rescue any hot babes?"
For a second, Subaru could only stare at the other boy in response, because what kind of question was that?
"I...maybe? I don't know," he replied. "I feel like it'd only be actual heroes we'd have to rescue, I think."
"But you see, that doesn't rule out someone like Mount Lady..."
Okay, he wasn't gonna lie—Mineta's question threw him for a loop for a second there, but, like...why would they?
Subaru obviously didn't really keep up with every single hero there was, but All Might did have him, Katsuki, and Uraraka doing research on what goes in a hero course class on days they weren't training. And from what he remembered, any time a class had to actually rescue someone, it was always done with just dummies, and almost never involved real people beyond the odd hero to help teach or help with rescuing.
Getting actual civilian volunteers would just end up being too risky and dangerous in the case of any accidents, while getting enough hero volunteers to avoid said risks usually costed too much for the schools, and that wasn't even mentioning—
(Hold on. Why, exactly, was he thinking about this so much?)
Just grab the damn suitcase and get to the locker room, already.
"I'm, uh, gonna get my costume now. Good, uh, good talking with you," he said awkwardly, standing up and walking over to fetch his own briefcase. Mineta said nothing as he continued staring off into space, looking like he was pondering the mysteries of the universe, and not whether or not he'd get to see some hot girls.
After a quick trip to the locker rooms to get changed, the entire class was now gathering at the very front of the school, where a bus was currently parked off to the side of the walkway. A minute or so passed before the doors finally opened as Aizawa stepped out, holding what looked to be some kind of jelly pouch in his hand.
"Now's the time to be checking if you forgot anything or suddenly need to use the restroom," he started. "Because we won't be turning back once we leave. Everyone else, get in and take your seats."
He stepped to the side to let Yaoyorozu Momo walk inside, with the rest of the class falling in line behind her. One by one, everyone slowly filed in as they entered the bus, and once Subaru got inside, he couldn't help but whistle in appreciation at the sight of the interior as he sat down in the central area next to Katsuki.
The inside didn't even look like a normal, run-of-the-mill city bus like the ones from the entrance exam—no, everything about the one Subaru and his classmates were now boarding screamed state-of-the-art, with the seats occupying the middle area facing the center instead of the front of the bus, kind of like the back of a limousine. It also looked like it was even self-driving, too, given by the lack of a steering wheel or a dedicated space for a driver.
Future technology really was pretty sweet, huh?
Even if a good chunk of the technology and architecture didn't have a whole lot of differences from the twenty-first century Japan he was originally from, that obviously didn't mean the world hadn't advanced at all in the two hundred-odd years he hadn't been here. But it was also a shame to also see that some things he had been looking forward to seeing just never took off. Like Google Glass. Or true virtual reality like the one in Sword Art Online.
"Wow, someone's excited," he heard Ashido say, as she walked in right behind Uraraka, who looked like she was almost bouncing in excitement.
"Oh, you don't even know the half of it—" she started, sitting down on one of the seats across from Subaru. "Getting to do rescue work is exactly what I signed up for in the hero course. I mean, sure, fighting villains is cool and all, but this is the thing I've been dreaming about doing for years."
"Nothing wrong with that," Kaminari said, as he sat down next to Ashido. "No one ever said you only had to be just one kind of hero. Even if my Quirk's pretty much made for fighting, I can still try to protect people like a human shield…"
The next couple minutes passed by relatively quickly as Subaru tuned out the rest of their conversation and turned his attention towards the rest of the students coming into the bus, even making a bit of small talk with Asui Tsuyu as she sat down next to him. And after the last person entered the bus and took their seat, he watched as Aizawa briefly did a headcount of everyone (even calling out Hagakure's name and waiting for her answer) before he moved his hand in front of a button on the wall next to the bus's doors.
"Is there anyone here who isn't ready to leave yet?" he asked. The bus stayed silent as no one seemed to answer him, and the man nodded as a result, pressing the button and causing the doors to close. He then walked over to the wall at the very front of the bus, where a large, black screen took up almost half of the space. He pressed on it a few times before the screen flickered to life, and was now displaying a large map that showed what was most likely the school grounds.
Aizawa then tapped on the screen a few more times before it changed to that of a GPS route, and after a few more seconds, they finally started moving, but it wasn't with the loud rumble of a large engine starting that Subaru was used to with normal buses. Instead, there was a faint whirring sound he barely managed to pick up that got progressively louder as the bus went onto the road and picked up speed. And even in the way they were moving, he could really tell it was a hell of a lot smoother.
Oh, neat—this thing was electric-powered, too.
The next several minutes of the trip passed by with Subaru looking out the windows across from him and watching the scenery pass by, while also idly listening to the conversations going on around him. Apparently, all anyone could talk about right now ranged from either excitement and speculation about what exactly kind of rescue training they'd expect, or in Īda's case, lamenting over how his seating plan was upended by the type of bus they were riding in.
"So, Midorin—" Ashido suddenly started, bringing Subaru's attention to the girl in front of him, her legs crossed with a hand under her chin, as if she was deep in thought about something.
"—you're a guy, right?"
"Uh...last I checked, yeah," Subaru replied, even looking down and making it a point to pat himself all over, before looking back up and giving her a thumbs up. Ashido, however, seemed to almost grin at his response.
"Well..." she said, stretching out the word. "You got anyone you like?"
Subaru blinked. "Not really, no."
"You sure? Not even someone like—" It was here that she pointed at Uraraka, who was sitting right next to her. "—Ochako-chan?"
(Again with this? Really?)
Subaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "No. I helped her study for U.A., and we ended up becoming friends. And that's all."
"But just look at her," Ashido persisted, even wrapping an arm around Uraraka and poking her cheek with her other hand. "Isn't she so cute? And you two have known each other for like a year already. Are you sure you're not just denying—"
"Let's just leave me out of this, okay, Mina-san?" Uraraka interrupted, pushing the other girl away with an annoyed look on her face.
"Well, you two are no fun," Ashido grumbled, arms crossed and pouting.
(Thank you. Finally, some common sense around here.)
He really didn't know if there was some kind of narrative being written about him and Uraraka, but there really wasn't anything going on between the two of them. Even if she was...reasonably attractive for a girl her age (do not start thinking about how she looked in her hero costume), it didn't mean he was attracted to her—that was an entirely separate ball game altogether.
One Subaru was very firmly going to stay out of, thank you very much. Seriously, was a teenage boy not allowed to only have female friends?
By chance, he and Uraraka accidentally made eye contact, before she immediately looked away and started talking to Yaoyorozu Momo next to her.
(Great...and now it got awkward, too...)
Several more seconds passed in relative silence, before it was broken by the sound of someone clearing their throat, and Subaru turned to see it had come from Kaminari Denki, who was sitting two spots away from Ashido.
"So, uh...by the way, Midoriya, from one lightning guy to another—what's your story?"
"About what?" Subaru asked.
"You know..." Kaminari made a vague hand gesture. "...your Quirk. With mine, I'm basically a living taser, but your thing? It's completely different, even if it almost looks the same."
Oh. Damn. This was the unfortunate reality of having One for All—people kept asking questions and were getting close to the truth, and for a split second, Subaru was actually regretting accepting All Might's offer.
"Uh..." Subaru started. Quick, what did he tell Ashido three days ago? "The way my Quirk works is that...I have some kind of...malleable energy, I think that's what the doctor said it was called? I forgot some details, but I can use that energy and...force it to, I guess, express itself in different ways. Like, at first I thought I just had, like, a more powerful version of my mom's telekinesis Quirk, but after I started training for the entrance exams, I found out I could use it for other things. If—if that makes sense."
Here's hoping they got the message. Just for good measure, he even activated Full Cowl for a few seconds, before he canceled it, took off his glasses, and let it be held in Invisible Providence's open palm, so everyone could clearly get the message.
"So does that mean you can only 'express' it as one thing at a time?" a voice asked next to him, and he turned to see it had come from Asui Tsuyu.
Her question actually had him stumped for a good few seconds. If he just straight-up lied and said no, then it'd bite him in the ass later on since, well, he was actually able to use both One for All and his Authorities at the same time, since they were very much so different in the way they functioned (and how he even got them in the first place).
Maybe if he went with a half-truth...
"Not really," he replied. "I mean, technically, that's true, but I'd have to push it all the way to one hundred percent for it to get to that point. If I wanted to do nothing else but pour it into my arms to get super strength, then I could do that, yeah, but I can just...let's say...divide it up so I can get super strength, super speed, and telekinesis at the same time."
"Okay," Kaminari replied, nodding like he clearly understood. "But that still doesn't explain the lightning."
Oh, yeah, that's right, that was how this all started.
"Ah. Sorry, I forgot. To be honest, it doesn't really do anything. It's kinda just there."
Kaminari suddenly started looking at him in disbelief at his words "Wait, so you're telling me it's just for decoration?"
Subaru looked up at a spot above Kaminari and thought about it. He did remember it glowing in the dark when he used to play around with turning One for All on and off at night, but if you also counted—wait, why was he even trying to think hard about this? He could just test it right now.
Looking down at his lap, Subaru activated Full Cowl again, and once the signature green lightning started racing across his entire body, he started sliding his right hand over his left forearm. To be honest, it was kind of tickling him as he let the lightning dance all across his fingertips and palms, but beyond that, there didn't seem to be anything that was noticeable beyond how it looked.
Asui stayed silent as she poked him in the arm with a finger, and he watched as the lightning briefly touched her fingertip before it immediately ceased contact, almost like one of those plasma balls you'd find at a science exhibit.
"Yup, it doesn't do anything," she finally said, capping off her sentence with a soft ribbit.
Another beat of silence passed before Kaminari spoke again, this time with a curious expression on his face. "Okay, maybe if we try comparing it to when I do it—"
"Do that and I'll mark you down for the day, Kaminari," Aizawa suddenly interrupted from his spot near the front of the bus. "I saw your Quirk description and performance at the entrance exams, and I'd rather not have you electrocute everyone in here and leave us stranded while we have somewhere to be."
A couple of people actually laughed at this, while Kaminari gave Subaru a sheepish grin as he leaned back into his seat, explaining that what he did in the entrance exam was short-circuit as many robots as he could with his Electrification Quirk.
"That's pretty cool, though," Subaru complimented. Sure, it was a little dangerous, but hey, everyone here came to learn how to get better with their Quirks, right?
He opened his mouth to say something else, but it was when he noticed green plains replacing bustling skyscrapers out of the corner of his eye, that his attention then went towards the view outside as he turned around to look outside the window behind him.
Where exactly were they going for them to be going this far out of the city?
Twenty Minutes Later
"All right, we're here," Aizawa suddenly called out to everyone. Right as he announced this, Subaru started hearing some of his classmates chattering excitedly, but it was when he saw them pointing over to a space behind him, that he turned around to see what the commotion was all about, and his eyebrows shot up at the sight of a really large, dome-like structure off in the distance.
"What kind of place is this?" he mused to himself, as the structure grew larger the closer they were getting to it.
As the bus finally slowed down and came to a stop, Subaru suddenly noticed a strange figure walking out of the entrance. From what he could see, said figure was wearing a getup consisting of a large white puffy jacket with gloves, yellow boots, and a black helmet decorated with two large, white 'eyes', almost in a blatant outer space theme.
Where had he seen this person before? Subaru wondered. He had to have seen them before to recognize their outfit, but where, exactly? It had to do with something related to what they were doing today, but he couldn't for the life of him remember—
"Wait, is that Thirteen? No way!" he heard Uraraka almost squeal behind him, and he turned back around to see her sporting an expression of shock and very obvious excitement.
Well, at least he knew the name, now. He couldn't help the slight smile at seeing her face, but apparently he ended up staring at her for a bit too long, because she ended up turning her gaze towards him.
"...what? I told you guys she was basically my idol growing up, right?"
Subaru shook his head in amusement. "Well, you don't usually get that excited over something." He didn't remember seeing this level of excitement from her when the two of them and Katsuki met up with All Might after getting their acceptance messages into U.A.
After the bus doors opened and the class slowly filed out (with Uraraka nearly bouncing her way out impatiently), they all gathered in front of Thirteen, who was now standing next to Aizawa and currently in a conversation with him. As soon as the last person had gotten off the bus and joined the crowd, they stopped talking, and Thirteen turned to face the class.
"Hello, everyone!" she greeted, waving at the crowd. "Welcome to my training facility. Please, let's all head inside." Without delay, she immediately turned around and started walking into the building behind her, prompting Subaru and his classmates to follow her. And as he made his way inside the large building, his jaw damn near dropped in awe as he processed what he was looking at—a massive, like absolutely massive, open area with several large structures located at the outskirts, from a tall water slide surrounded by an expanse of water, to a mountain-looking area, and even several urban buildings just like in the mock cities at U.A.
He already thought it was huge from the outside, but seeing the inside really put things into perspective. They'd probably have to spend the entire rest of the day here, considering just how far everything was.
"Well, you don't see this every day..." Subaru said out loud to no one in particular. A few quick glances to his sides showed that his friends and classmates were having about the same reaction as he was, with more than a few of them talking excitedly among themselves.
"I had this whole place built when I first started teaching at U.A. high school," Thirteen continued. "Its purpose is to provide hands-on experience for the most common types of rescue scenarios, from things like landslides, floods, shipwrecks, heavy storms, and flooding caused by typhoons and tsunami. I call it the 'Unbelievable Disasters Room', or 'U.S.J.' for short!"*
(Subaru's mind immediately went to 'Universal Studios Japan' at the mention of the abbreviation, and, well, it did look like a theme park at first glance, instead of a place for rescue training, to be honest.)
"Thirteen is who you'll be mostly listening to for today, since this is her area of expertise," Aizawa said. "All Might and I will only be here for assistance if anyone needs it. By the way, Thirteen..." He pulled aside their teacher for the day, and their voices immediately quieted down to whispering among each other.
But it was with the mention of All Might, that Subaru realized the man was actually nowhere to be found. At first, he thought it was just because he was running a bit late for some reason, but when he saw Thirteen hold up three fingers, well...he of all people would know exactly what she meant by that.
"All Might ran out of time for today," he whispered, glancing over at Uraraka and making sure to specifically emphasize the word 'time'.
"Yeah, I thought that was the case," she replied. "Do you think he'll just sit this one out?"
"Maybe." All Might had told him whatever was left of One for All since he gave the Quirk to Subaru had been depleting more and more as his mentor kept on doing hero work almost every single day. At this rate, he might completely lose it before the summer.
And he wasn't going to lie—it had him feeling more than a little guilty about it. Logically, he knew that with All Might's injury, it didn't exactly matter either way, but still. Him no longer having the Quirk wasn't exactly helping the whole 'three hours a day' situation.
"Well, then," Thirteen called out, clapping her hands together. "Why don't we get started on a tour of the grounds? If you'll just follow me, we'll head on over to..." Whatever she had been about to say quickly died, as she and Aizawa quickly turned around to stare at something. The sudden act confused Subaru for a bit, but that was when he finally picked up on what it was they were looking at—off in the distance, in front of the large fountain marking the center of the lower area, was a black dot.
A black dot that was very quickly growing large enough to be recognized as a swirling black vortex, before it soon dispersed into a wider, rectangular-like shape. Not even a second later, a sudden crowd—no, a mob of strangers started appearing from it, looking like they had just casually walked through it.
"Everyone, stay together!" Aizawa suddenly called out, before putting on the yellow goggles hanging from his neck. "Thirteen...stay with the students and make sure they get out safely. We're under attack."
There was a brief moment where Subaru heard several people audibly gasp, before a tentative voice suddenly broke it, but he couldn't tell who it belonged to.
"Shouldn't—shouldn't we go back outside?"
"Wait!" Aizawa yelled, turning back around at the crowd of students. "Be careful! There might be more villains outside! Make sure to stay together where Thirteen can protect you!" Several students immediately started trying to move closer to each other, while Thirteen was trying to herd the rest of the class together.
"Everyone, please stay calm," she said, keeping her hands raised placatingly. "Eraserhead and I will handle this."
"Oi, Jirō-san," a voice suddenly said somewhere behind Subaru, and he turned around to see it had come from Sero Hanta. "You brought your phone, right? Call for help from the school!"
At his words, Subaru's gaze then shifted over to Jirō Kyōka, who was already frantically tapping on her phone, and he could see the panic on her face quickly becoming more and more pronounced as each second passed.
"I-I can't...I'm not getting any service out here...!"
"I think...I think there's someone down there who's tampering with the radio towers," Yaoyorozu Momo replied, looking ahead at the mob of invading criminals down the stairs.
The fear was evident on her face as she looked on with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open, and Subaru followed her gaze, his eyes finally landed on three figures who were still standing at the base of the fountain—a white-haired man with several hands covering his face and limbs, a humanoid-looking person who looked like he was made out of smoke, the same color as the large portal the mob had come through...
...and a grotesque, hulking monster of a creature with charcoal-black skin and its brain very much exposed to the world.
(What the hell...that thing couldn't be human...could it?)
"Everyone, we need to go! Make sure to stay close to me!" Thirteen called out, cupping a hand to the front of her helmet-face and pointing to the doorway several paces ahead. Almost immediately, Subaru heard everyone starting to run in the opposite direction, but he couldn't just take his eyes off of the creature, which was doing nothing beyond standing there, looking like it was waiting for something.
He'd never seen something like that in this world before...not even when he died to that sludge guy last year...
"Midoriya-kun, we need to go!" Uraraka shouted, and he felt his arm being tugged. She kept pulling at him, until he felt himself turning away from the sight below and being met with the sight of a panicked expression on her face, and her eyes showing a frantic pleading in them.
"R-right," he finally said, as he spared one last glance at the ominous trio down below, before he shook his head and finally followed Uraraka as they ran, trying to catch up to the crowd of students ahead of them. Katsuki, standing off the side, was looking at the two of them like he had been waiting for them to get moving.
"Let's go!" With a clap on Subaru's back, he, too, started running in pace with them, and as they finally caught up with the rest of the students, it looked like they were about to reach the exit and make it back outside, but it was the sudden appearance of a black circle right in front of the large doorway, that caused everyone to stop in their tracks. A short second later, and the fog-like person from before was now staring down at them menacingly.
"Unfortunately, I cannot allow you to leave," a deep, masculine voice boomed down at them, before his figure started to expand, until he looked like he was four-to-five times bigger.
"Today, every single one of you is going to die here, to myself and my comrades. I will separate you all, and All Might will not be here to save you this time."
"GET BEHIND ME!" Thirteen shouted, as she forced her way in front of the crowd, before raising a hand up at the figure, as if pointing at it.
"Too slow, Thirteen," the figure then said, as his yellow eyes flared bright, before he dispersed once again into a dark mist and started spinning in a circle around everyone.
Subaru immediately activated One for All: Full Cowl, but with how fast the smoke was spinning, his eyes kept darting around as he tried to track the source of it, but right as he found an opening, it spread out into a dome, completely covering the area and darkening the surrounding area. The wind picked up more and more, and he noticed his classmates covering their faces with their arms, but he kept his gaze on the swirling dome above them.
Come on, where was it...? The guy had to have a weakness, right? Everyone, and he meant everyone, in the country and the world knew All Might was physically the strongest person in the world, and that was thanks to One for All's ability to stockpile energy over the decades. So for someone like this stranger—a villain—to completely bypass that? It just didn't make sense.
(But wait, he just remembered something. Something silver, made of metal—was that some kind of neck brace?)
"Midoriya-kun! Help me get everyone out!"
That was Īda's voice. He could very clearly make out what he was saying, but he wouldn't be able to get everyone out in time. It didn't matter, anyway—surely he was fast enough to stop whatever was happening. All he had to do was go for the source and he could save them.
Save everyone.
Save HER!
Without any more hesitation, Subaru crouched down and jumped, soaring up towards the swirling dome. As his face neared the 'ceiling', his instinct was to close his eyes and cover his face, but willed himself to keep his eyes open, and used Invisible Providence to shield his eyes and nose. Just as he expected, he passed through the dome seamlessly, and he immediately canceled the Authority of Sloth, keeping his eyes squinted as his vision re-adjusted to the daylight.
He kept his gaze trained ahead of him as he followed the trail of smoke coming from the dome, until he could see a clear stopping point—that same silver brace he saw before, and alongside it, what was clearly the clothes of someone wearing a three-piece gray suit without its jacket.
He was exposed when using his Quirk. He had his opening!
As he neared closer and closer to his target, he kept his arms outstretched, but he was still too far away, because the figure then looked up at him, and he clearly saw his eyes narrowing, and immediately disappeared through the ground.
No...!
Subaru let out a cry of frustration as his feet hit the ground, and he grit his teeth as his eyes started wildly darting around the area for the figure. But as the howling of the wind soon finally stopped, the sudden silence that followed caused him to turn around...and where he expected to see his classmates, he saw nothing but a nearly empty space in front of the doorway where everyone had just been, now occupied by only Uraraka, Ashido, Thirteen, a four-armed boy...
...and Īda, who was looking at the space in shock, before looking Subaru in the eye.
"They're...they're gone...and you just let it happen..."
"What...?" Subaru took a step back in alarm.
(No, it couldn't be true, right? Right? He couldn't have just...failed, just like that.)
His breathing started to pick up as he grit his teeth and clenched a fist. He had power—the power, goddamn it! Think, think, think! Where could he have gone? He remembered that guy saying he was going to separate everyone. What did he mean by that? What did he do to them?
"Not even you, who appears to be more talented than most, can stop me in accomplishing my mission," that same deep voice from before said behind him, and Subaru whipped around to see the smoke-man looking down at him, with his fog-like Quirk covering the entirety of his body.
"You...what did you just do...?" he whispered.
There was a beat of silence as the man did nothing else but keep staring at him, before he finally answered.
"What I had to."
Subaru felt rage build up inside him as he roared and lunged towards the man, only to completely miss him as his target passed through the floor again, only to reappear at the large fountain in the distance.
He didn't care anymore. Calling Full Cowl around him again, he raced down the stairs, through the crowd of villains who were quickly making their way up the stairs, completely ignoring them as he ran past them...and past Aizawa.
"MIDORIYA!" his teacher yelled, and Subaru nearly tripped on his face as he lost hold of his Quirk and tumbled forward, and he immediately reacted by tucking in his head and shoulder, neatly recovering himself with a parkour roll. Before long, he was quickly standing back up, and he immediately whipped around to glare at Aizawa.
"You don't understand how dangerous this is," the man pleaded, as he dodged a punch from a villain. "Get back upstairs and stay with everyone!"
"They're gone! EVERYONE'S GONE, AND IT'S MY FAULT!" Subaru roared as he ran towards Aizawa, and used Invisible Providence to completely cover his teacher's face and pushed forward until the man fell to the ground by himself. Here, the villains who had been circling around him stopped what they were doing and looked at Subaru quizzically, before several of them immediately turned their attention back to Aizawa and ran towards him.
Subaru's eyes narrowed as he activated his Quirk, free of interference, and ran towards the group. Without so much as breaking a sweat, he knocked out every single one of the criminals who had been about to pounce on Aizawa with a single punch to their heads, barely sparing a glance at them as they collapsed behind him. Once the last one had been dealt with, he stopped in front of Aizawa, who was looking up at him in barely-concealed shock.
"Do not get in my way again," Subaru growled, before he finally raced off towards his original target. Said target was standing next to the guy covered by hands, looking like they were just casually talking to each other.
(He could fix this. He had to. All he had to do was just deal with them and this would all be over soon.)
He was close. So close to reaching him. He could stop this threat with the power he was given—the power he earned—and then he would look for everyone who was—
There was a sudden movement coming from above him, and Subaru leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding a fist coming from the creature from before. As he neatly landed a good distance away, he looked on with wide eyes to see the creature with its fist neatly embedded into the concrete floor, with a small crater in a cracked, spider web-like pattern surrounding it.
That thing...it was strong...too strong...
"You're fast," someone commented off to the side, and he turned to see it had come from the guy covered with hands.
"Too bad for you, the Nōmu's faster. Faster than All Might, even."
(Faster than...All Might? How was this possible?)
"Who are you people?!" Subaru demanded. "What do you want with us?!"
"Pretty simple, actually," the stranger replied, his slow speaking and inflection sounding as if he was bored just talking to him. "We're here to kill you and your entire class."
They...came here to kill them? His classmates were only teenagers, not even in their first year of high school! What threat did they pose to them?!
(He wasn't going to let them. He had to stop this, stop them. Failure was not an option.)
With One for All: Full Cowl wrapping around himself once again, Subaru raced towards the duo. Only he had the power to save his teachers and his classmates from the fate waiting for them, and he'd be damned if he was going to—
Subaru's eyes widened as he picked up movement from behind him, and without even a second to spare, he dropped into a slide, very narrowly dodging another punch as the creature—as the Nōmu—grabbed nothing but the empty air just above him. Pressing his gloved hand against the floor, Subaru stopped his movement, before he immediately twisted around until he was standing upright.
The Nōmu simply roared at him like an animal, before it charged at him once again. Subaru was finally ready for it this time as he met the charge head-on, and right as he got within arm's reach, used Invisible Providence to cover the creature's eyes, with him running on top of its arm. But right as he reared his fist back and aimed towards its exposed brain, the Nōmu grabbed hold of the giant black hand that was his Authority, and tore it off of its face, before reaching back to grab Subaru.
His eyes widened as he was forced to once again dodge, and spun horizontally through the air, before landing on the ground in a crouching position, before he looked back up at the creature, which simply roared again with an inhuman screech, before it dropped into a runner's stance and raced towards him, causing Subaru to let out a curse as he could do nothing to hurt this thing beyond dodging over and over again.
What the hell was he supposed to do here?!
*'Unforeseen Simulation Joint' is actually only a localization of 'Unbelievable Disasters Room', which is a literal translation of 'Uso no Saigai ya Jiko Rūmu (ウソの災害や事故ルーム)'.
Tsunami (津波) - literally 'harbor wave', usually caused by underwater earthquakes. Most of you already recognize the word since it's commonly used in English, but probably not what it actually is.
After a whole year and twenty chapters, we are now diving head-first into the USJ arc. In the MHA fanfic community, this is the most common denominator for what makes or breaks a longfic, and with the nature of this crossover and my ambitions for it as a whole, I intend to deliver. I'm still extremely excited overall to write this, even with all the breaks (forced and deliberate) I've been taking from writing in general.
And if you couldn't already tell by the title, you guys aren't witnessing the average USJ fanfic adaptation, but I'll let you figure out what exactly that means.
But I also have another question: how do you guys feel about the pacing? Personally, I think there could have been at least a few more chapters in the time between the entrance exams and the battle trial arcs, but that clashes with my desire to adapt the MHA plot in a reasonable timeframe.
Anyway, I'm getting busier with school now as the semester starts picking up, so the next chapter will unfortunately come out when it wants to.
