My Hero Academia: Son of Justice

by Jayme F. Midorikawa

The son of the disgraced former greatest Hero of The Soviet Union is extended a chance at a new life by the Symbol of Peace, All Might. After having lived so long resenting Heroes and Villains, and being scared to death of his own Quirk, will he be able to step forward and become the Hero he once dreamed of, and will he be able to find new purpose through friendship, or even love?

146. Team-Up Arc Part 3 - Out In The Cold

My Hero Academia belongs to Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters and the original scenarios surrounding them.

Considering these chapters are coming out in bulk from now on, there's no point in filling each individual one out with some lengthy diatribe or author's note/introduction. All I'll say here is: I hope you all enjoy these for what they're worth.

A/N: ] indicates characters are contextually speaking Russian.

Chapter 146

Out In The Cold

(На Улице, На Холоде)

Tuesday, February 10th

Over the last several days, the students of Classes 1-A and 1-B had not been lacking for Pro Heroes to learn from, as by now the Team-Up Mission project had effectively gone into full swing, and from the sounds of everyone's daily stories, with no shortage of excellent results.

Today, many students of both classes were making their way to their respective homerooms together; a sight that caused Neito Monoma no shortage of silent consternation, kept silent only by Itsuka Kendo's always reliable intervention via a karate chop to the back of the neck.

Thankfully, Maja receiving her own Provisional Hero License and subsequent availability for field work alongside her classmates for the last several days had served as a most unexpected but vastly appreciated bridging point to help bring the once quarreling students of both classes that much closer together, for the most part. People like Monoma and Bakugo would never be open to ceasing the hostilities, but they were thankfully in the tiny minority.

Energized by both another hearty breakfast and the natural youthful excitement of just what today would have in store for all of them, the students had once again taken to either sharing their stories of their Team-Up assignments they hadn't gotten to talk about yesterday, or were throwing around their hopes for where they might end up next, if they got assigned today at all.

Out of all of them, though, Maja was the most vocal, excitedly recounting her Team-Up with Setsuna, Yosetsu Awase and Nirengeki Shoda under the Ninja Hero Edgeshot yesterday; with many of her Class A friends listening with rapt attention, not having expected her to get assigned under such a high-ranking Pro Hero so soon after getting licensed. Just the thought of that had the Polish girl practically glowing with how brightly she was smiling.

"I mean, everybody knows Edgeshot's speed and maneuverability is practically second to none, but between the three of you going all out, not one of you could even graze the guy?" Hanta asked, visibly secondhand impressed with how the three described the training they had been put through virtually the moment they had met the man, to push their Quirks to the limit all together to try and ensnare him, ultimately to no avail. Of course, even the admittance of such failure didn't dim Maja and Setsuna's smiles as the former wistfully shook her head. All the while, Nirengeki just looked as laser-focused on his own thoughts as someone possibly could

"Nope, but I honestly don't think he even expected us to." "Yeah, I'm almost certain he just wanted to give us a real goal to work towards; you know, thinking up more outside-the-box ways of using our Quirks against faster or even smaller targets." "Yes, considering the average rate of thievery-related crimes that are committed by Villains with Size-based Quirks, it only makes sense to give the next generation a major head-start in preparation for when they'd have to go up against one and not end up failing or otherwise embarrassing themselves."

Meanwhile, as the trio continued their story, further back in the middle of the crowd, Izuku and Ochako were likewise eagerly discussing who they were hoping to get teamed up under next, when two simultaneous exhausted-sounding yawns caught their attention. They looked back to find Nikolay and Mina, while keeping up with the rest of their schoolmates, both had less of a glimmer in their eyes than normal, keeping one of their arms linked around each other less in a show of romantic affection, but more to keep each other upright, as if they would just pass out from exhaustion at any given moment.

"Hey, Kolya-san, Ashido-san, are you two okay?" "Yeah, you both look like you haven't slept at all."

Nearby, Bakugo spat back angrily: "You two count yourselves lucky you don't live next door to either of them! I had to resort to earplugs and I still heard them screaming through the whole night!"

Before Nikolay or Mina could answer in order to keep anyone from misinterpreting exactly what Bakugo meant, hinted by how Ochako and Izuku's faced both turned bright red at the implication; Denki visibly perked up upon overhearing this, forming a smirk on his face as he looked back their way over his shoulder. "What's that? You two haven't been keeping each other up doing something… indecent, have you? I mean, who knows just how many microscopic security cameras Aizawa-sensei had put up all over the dorms without telling us."

But just as Nikolay was about to try and clear away such unfounded suspicions, Minoru suddenly spoke out: "Come on now, Kaminari, as their friends, it's our responsibility to respect their privacy as a couple; just as much as it's their responsibility to manage their time and their boundaries better for the sake of our whole class. Wouldn't you agree, Iida-san, Yaoyorozu-san?"

The sheer suave confidence with which Minoru said this brought nearly everyone to a full stop, while he himself continued walking on with a pronounced, even distinguished swagger in his step. As he kept smiling in satisfaction to himself, he could just tell all the girls especially were watching him intensely, as they all looked utterly dumbfounded that he would actually speak out against the typical lewdness he and Denki liked to throw around between themselves.

Already, Tooru, Tsuyu and Kyouka were whispering suspiciously between themselves: "Did Mineta-kun hit his head at some point and none of us noticed?" "I don't know, but I honestly don't know if we can trust it-kero." "Right? He could be turning a new leaf, or it could be an act…or maybe this is what he's like if he doesn't get any sleep, who knows?"

But despite Minoru having helped get much of the attention off of them, Nikolay knew he still owed their friends an explanation if they were really concerned: "I'm sorry, everyone. My last few Team-Up assignments have been taking me a long way away, and the long trips have really been adding up."

This was in fact the truth, and Nikolay's biggest regret was that, for as fulfilling as his last few Team-Up assignments had been, it had caused him to miss out on quite a bit that had been going on around school. Even if everyone was always nice enough to fill him in, it just couldn't match up to having been there.

The two examples that jumped out the most to him had been an instance where Minoru, in a sharp contrast to this apparent gentlemanly demeanor he was exhibiting right now, had decided on an especially cartoonish plan of dressing himself up as a dog in order to trick all the girls of 1-A into playing with him after having seen them fawning over a lost puppy found on the school grounds, only to end up getting taken away by two adults claiming to be the owners of the runaway dog he'd inadvertently disguised himself as.

Lastly, and this was solely from his perspective of being Mina's boyfriend, had been an ongoing instance, even to this moment, of her and the rest of the girls of their class having to suffer through an extended period of trying to lose weight and resist the temptations of Rikido's irresistible baking, for the sake of looking their best for the upcoming opening of a new water park in the next prefecture over in just about a week's time.

While his explanation still didn't clear them of any suspicion, Mina was right on it as she immediately followed up: "It's not what any of you think. The truth is, one of my cousins found out about another 'Alien' movie I'd somehow missed and sent me a copy. Since I didn't get back from Team-Up work until way later, it was only then I found out about it. You all know how big a fan I am; there's no way I was just gonna sleep on it, and since most of you were already in bed by then, and Kolya-kun had returned right around the same time, I just figured 'why not the two of us have our own late movie night and check it out?'"

While Ochako and some of the others were visibly disappointed they didn't get involved in something so fun, considering how much Mina loved 'Alien' as a whole, others like Tenya and Shoto didn't look even mildly impressed. Nevertheless, Tsuyu asked: "Well, you definitely didn't hide how you both felt about the rest of those movies after the first two. Was this one any different?"

Mina let out a mix between another tired yawn and a disappointed sigh. "Honestly, I loved it. That was the closest it'd felt to the original in a long time. It felt so cool, getting to see the xenomorphs done practically again, it felt like it'd been ages since the last time. Yeah, they still tried to include some of the stupid stuff from those prequels, but the rest of it just felt so old-school that I didn't even mind it."

That pretty much told everyone who was remotely interested what they needed to know from where Mina stood. From there, Nikolay finished: "I really liked it for the first half, but then it just felt like it was trying way too hard to be like the second one in a bad way…and why do screenwriters for sequels always have to include throwback lines? It just feels so desperate and cheap. Anyway, we both got pretty amped up by the end of that, so we just decided to tire ourselves out by playing some of that scary first-person game and…well, we got really into it…again. It's crazy how no matter how many times you play it, it never gets any less terrifying. If the rest of the new movie had been just like that, I think I would've liked it a lot more like Mina did."

Denki, being the resident gamer among the class, knew exactly what his Russian friend meant, nodding his head in a pretend show of sage understanding, while Tenya straightened his glasses whilst furrowing his brow. "Honestly, you two must learn to manage your priorities and your time better. The entire Team-Up Mission project is for the sake of helping us acclimate to the demands of life as future Pro Heroes, and that includes being rested and energized for when a call to action comes, no matter at what moment!"

Bakugo, all the while, proceeded to keep walking, letting out a disapproving 'tsch' all the while: "It's bad enough those two are practically glued at the hip; it's like they share one brain cell between them when they're in the same room, too."

However, the attention was quickly taken off Class A's resident couple when Monoma instinctively called out upon seeing a sign of weakness amid their ranks: "Well, well, looks like the dawn is smiling upon the most deserving class this time! My classmates and I are all more than well rested! Whatever lies in store, you can all writhe and squirm, knowing we're ready to take it on ten times more effectively than you!"

"How about we wait to actually get to class before you risk jinxing us, Monoma-kun?" Itsuka replied sternly, causing him to instinctively flinch, while the whole of both classes proceeded to do just that, the friends among them wishing each other luck before parting ways for their respective classrooms.

However, upon entering their own, there was no sign of Aizawa anywhere, not even any of the usual scribbling on the blackboard to declare what their homeroom lesson was going to be. Instead, the students all looked curiously as every one of their desks had an envelope upon them.

Opening them up with growing anticipation, they all were confirmed to say the exact same thing: 'We have a special lesson planned for all of you. Change into your costumes and meet me at Gamma Gym ASAP. No dawdling.'

Everyone's by-now deep-rooted worries of Aizawa watching them from out of sight aside, the idea of a special lesson was always exciting, so they wasted no time heading for their changing rooms, only to find themselves running into the students of Class B again, who were all carrying similar letters as well.

As soon as the boys and girls emerged from their respective changing rooms, the air was all abuzz with anticipation; Mashirao asking: "It feels like we've gone through a lot of what Hero work normally entails by now. I can't imagine what a special lesson at this point would be like."

"If it's something competitive to help remind these Class B nobodies of their rightful place, that's all I need to know." Bakugo exclaimed spitefully; fully aware that Monoma was nearby and therefore going to overhear him.

And just like the world's most predictable trophy fish, he went straight for the bait, as he kept his snarky grin whilst staring daggers into Bakugo, the two boys almost grinding their foreheads into one another's as they kept staring each other down: "That's right, our rightful place: right at the forefront of Yuuei Academy's glorious legacy, with you and your class all wallowing pitifully in our shadow! It's only a matter of time before the order of the universe corrects itself, but why not help it along its way starting now?"

Itsuka and Izuku quickly rushed in to pull the two boys apart, mainly to keep Bakugo from throwing a fist straight into Monoma's face. All the while, watching this over-the-top display of rivalry, Maja finally asked: "Obviously I don't know as much as either of you, but has there ever been a time those two haven't been butting heads?"

Mina and Setsuna were standing at both her sides, arms crossed over their chests as they simultaneously answered: "No"; with Mina even adding on: "The way those two are so quick to challenge each other, you'd almost think they're super secret besties." "I know, right?"

Of course, the girls' passing commentary didn't go unnoticed, as Bakugo and Monoma likewise simultaneously answered: "THE HELL WE ARE!"

Of course, the two went wide-eyed with speechless horror and rage upon the realization of how unintentionally in-synch they were; not helped as Eijirou and Tetsutetsu called out in response: "You dudes are so intense, it's like you're mind-linked!" "Yeah, not exactly making a good case for not being best frenemies, you guys!"

But the two sharp-toothed boys couldn't even have the irony of their own habit for speaking and thinking on the same terms pointed out, as Momo helpfully urged everyone along to the gym.

Upon their arrival, the first things they all saw were Aizawa and Vlad King standing side-by-side; a sight that got Monoma and Bakugo immediately fired up all over again. "Vlad King-sensei, we're here and ready to ground this class of egotistical ne'erdowells into the dust!" "Damn right, what do we gotta do to wipe that shit-eating grin off his face today, huh?!"

The two homeroom teachers, however, didn't say a word. Instead, Aizawa just lifted his hand up to the wrappings around his neck, causing several of his students to instinctively flinch, ready to jump out of the way in case he was about to lasso several of them.

"TA-DA!" Midnight's voice echoed throughout the gym the moment 'Aizawa' grabbed the wrappings and pulled, revealing the female art history teacher, grinning confidently while dressed in her fellow teacher's usual black garb, while at least removing the shaggy black wig that had obscured her face, fishing out the pointed red frames from her cleavage underneath and affixing them to her eyes. "Didn't see that coming from a mile away, not a single one of you, huh?"

Naturally, the students of Class A were stricken speechless at how expertly Midnight had disguised herself as their teacher. At the same time, the Class B students were eyeing Vlad King warily. "Sensei, that is you, right?"

The moment he shifted his stern gaze to his class, though, Vlad King's form began to blur, fizzle and glitch, revealing it to be nothing more than a hologram, and standing in his place was instead the much larger frame of literature teacher Cementoss. "And what would be the fun in only playing this trick on just one class and not the other, Kendo? I'm not going to put a perfectly good hologram cloaker to use after all the work Power Loader-san put into it."

And as soon as the whole of Class B let out a relieved sigh that the surprises were over, Cementoss suddenly reached behind his back, and with the rippling sound of a zipper being undone, his square form suddenly fell to the floor, revealing Tunguska within, smiling excitedly to himself like a little kid as he pulled a tiny button-like mic off the front of his neck, whilst Nikolay and his friends simply looked on in slack-jawed amazement at his having gone to such insane lengths to hide himself.

"Prinoshu vsyem svoi izvineniya (My apologies, everyone). Eraserhead-san and Vlad King-san are both busy with their own Team-Up jobs today, and when Midnight-san told me her plans for today's lesson, I simply couldn't resist. The voice changing mic was a nice touch, I'm sure you must agree."

The childlike giddiness of their two teachers was admittedly infectious, as more and more of the students couldn't help but start to laugh and voice their agreement. With that, Midnight tossed aside the rest of her disguise and stood poised and ready for action. "And therein lies the heart of today's lesson, boys and girls! Even the most overpowered of Heroes need to worry about being recognized while out on the job from time to time, and thus must take to heart the inarguable benefit of the art of disguise! Now, we all know that some of you amongst us today have some passing experience in this…"

Immediately, Nikolay, Izuku and all their friends that had participated in the attempted rescue of Bakugo back at the Kamino Ward all those months ago felt the air go completely silent.

Seeing those specific students just barely squirm, Midnight kept grinning as she continued: "…but now is the chance for all of you to test your skills, and what better way to push you all to do your best than yet another friendly little inter-class competition? All of you are to disguise yourselves as whichever of your classmates you want, making use of the assortment of costume copies, makeup, wigs and such we've made available, and we will then proceed to judge how effective they all are, based on how hard we'd have to look to identify you. Obviously, since none of you were able to see through mine or Tunguska's until it was right in your face, you can see just how in-depth the art of disguise can be."

Oleg watched as the excitement for such a unique lesson sank into the students of both classes as he stepped forward. "In order to keep things fair, the students of their respective classes will keep their disguises to those of their regular classmates, so in order to keep things balanced, malenkaya Kieslowska will be participating as part of Class B for this one."

"HOLD IT!" Bakugo suddenly exclaimed, rendering everyone silent as he angrily stomped out from the crowd. "What the hell is the point of some stupid dress-up game like this? Why would I need to bother with something as wimpy and childish as disguises when I can just flatten whatever dumbass Villain tries to come at me from a mile away?"

"Oh? Is that a confession of inability I hear?" Monoma's voice called out from the ranks of his class, making everyone's skin crawl with dread anticipation when they saw how Bakugo's body went stiff, his eyes wide with a quickly growing rage. "If disguises are so childish, then that must mean they're insultingly easy. Is your refusal just your way of saying even a child can disguise themselves better than you?"

"LIKE HELL!" Bakugo screamed in fury, practically shaking from head to toe as he was one twitching muscle away from unloading an AP Shot straight into Monoma's smugly grinning face. "You want a disguise? I'll come out with one that not one of you dunces will have a hope of seeing through, just you wait!"

Midnight immediately began clapping with great excitement. "Yeah, that's the kind of energy I like to see! You kids all feel free to go all out and show us all how well you can fit into each other's shoes!"

Bakugo's own energy was enough to light a fire under his classmates, regardless of it being born from anger, but their teacher's excitement was an even greater motivator, as both classes proceeded to make a rush for the numerous racks and displays of different disguise components they had to choose from, brought in behind their backs by several of Yuuei's regular training robots whilst they'd been distracted.

It was no surprise that the girls all around were the most eager, taking this basically as an excuse to play dress-up with each other. Many of the other boys were either taking the whole thing as simply an excuse to goof off, or were having a really hard time deciding who they felt the most confident they could disguise themselves as.

Nikolay was definitely on the latter side, as he kept anxiously looking to many of his fellow boys and what disguise pieces were still available that he could work with. His not even being Japanese wasn't even a factor here; it was simply the matter that all of his classmates exuded such a unique air about them that he knew he couldn't begin to replicate. Just the way Midnight had explained the art of disguises from the start, made it clear that clothes were only but the amateur's way of approaching disguising oneself.

But, with the clock continuously ticking, Nikolay ultimately had to let out a frustrated groan of resignation, as he hurriedly grabbed the pieces he felt even remotely confident with, and hurried after the rest of his classmates for the changing stalls that had been setup around the perimeter of the gym.

It felt like both the longest wait time of their lives, and like no time at all had passed, before Midnight and Oleg both gave the resounding call for their students to come out with their disguises, and let the judging begin. Nikolay was far from the only one currently swallowing a painful lump in his throat as they all finally stepped out and stood shoulder-to-shoulder, trying desperately not to stare at each other in their new disguises, so each one of them could step forward and give the singular showcase they were meant to.

From the outset, Midnight was looking especially pleased with what many of the students across both classes had chosen, as she systematically picked each one with the energy and pace of a veritable fashion show's modeling runway.

Naturally, the bulkier students in both classes had very little choices as to who they could effectively dress up as. Hence, in Class B, Jurota Shishida and Kojiro Bondo had to try and dress up like each other; a pair of disguises that didn't exactly look convincing when one had a glue bottle nozzle for a head, which no amount of piled on fur could possibly hide. However, what was quite unexpected, was that out of Class A, whilst Mezo and Fumikage had decided to disguise as one another, Kouji and Minoru had decided to do the same; the minuscule grape-haired boy's Hero getup looking downright outlandish on their larger rocky-headed classmate, while Minoru actually managed to make Kouji's yellow suit and orange gas mask work for him just a little better.

From that point, it was one after the other, but there were but a handful that really managed to get a distinctly impressed or greatly approving reaction out of Midnight, as well as many others among the students themselves. For starters, Ochako and Tsuyu went up dressed exactly like one another, but the latter's exceedingly long green hair and natural slouch naturally gave her away. That still didn't stop many of the girls from swooning over how cute they both looked in each other's costumes.

Afterwards, Tooru had decided to go the one direction nobody expected from her, and deck herself out in Tenya's full-body suit of armor, which got quite the reaction out of Denki: "Aw, c'mon, if this whole thing is about making it hard to identify us, then Iida's outfit should be off-limits! You can't see anything of anybody in that, so it's an automatic win!"

Of course, he was hardly in a position to talk about anybody's disguises, as he oddly enough had decided to disguise himself as Kyouka, clearly because it was the closest in style to his own, much to her silent and flustered embarrassment, whilst she herself had decided to disguise herself as Momo; her lack of the vice president's physical assets causing the red unitard to almost hang loosely off her shoulders.

But as for Momo, it was impossible to tell if her choice of disguise had been her own, or simply one she'd been forced to out of lack for other options, for she couldn't bring herself to make eye contact with any one of her classmates, her face a deep red. Being dressed in Mina's skintight bodysuit had ended up showing off her distinctly matured bombshell figure miraculously even more than it normally did for Mina's likewise shapely body. Needless to say, such a sight had Denki, Hanta and Minoru all practically picking their jaws up off the floor.

From there, Tenya was the next to step up, having decided to forego his glasses and dress up in Nikolay's costume; his rigid posture and stern, serious facial expression resulting in him looking even more authoritative than normal; enough to even get a passing commentary out of Oleg as he observed: "Malenkii Iida would fit right in leading a Young Pioneers brigade with a swagger like that."

Following in his class president's footsteps, Nikolay was next, having swallowed his nervousness and gone all out with dressing up like Shoto, down to donning a wig to cover up the perpetually short hair on the right side of his head, albeit having to manually arrange the bangs in order to obscure his left eye, even after applying brown and blue contacts and some makeup to provide his classmate's burn scar.

But for as weird as he felt trying to move around in Shoto's much less baggy costume, Nikolay's awkwardness could only skyrocket when Mina, Setsuna, Maja, Kinoko and even Midnight all started either whistling or cheering him on. Frankly, he knew he should've expected this kind of a reaction. Virtually every girl who was asked agreed that Shoto was either one of the school's handsomest or hottest students, and by that same token that Nikolay was its cutest, so to see him try and emulate one whilst being the other by default was driving his girlfriend and others wild, and leaving him burning hot in the face.

But the most outlandish was to come once Nikolay finally breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the metaphorical spotlight, as Bakugo impatiently charged his way ahead of everyone, having purposefully mussed up his spiky hair and dyed it dark green with (thankfully) temporary dye, wearing Izuku's costume. And right on his heels, was Izuku himself, having greased his own hair back in order to wear a wig resembling Bakugo's without any difficulty, wearing his own costume, spiky eye mask and all.

From where everyone stood watching the two, the way they were visually able to slip into each other's roles was downright uncanny, were it not for Bakugo's pervasively aggressive posture and narrowed burning eyes, whilst Izuku's wider and more innocent eyes completely offset the otherwise complete air of intimidation Bakugo's costume was meant to imbue into all who saw it.

And that breaking of his image was enough to get Bakugo grinding his teeth in barely restrained fury the moment he saw what his classmate had chosen. "Is this your idea of some sick little mockery of your clear superior, damn Deku?! How dare you tarnish my image of undeniable badassery like that?!"

Of course, with him being so angry; naturally only Eijirou (who had decided to disguise himself as Mashirao) was brave enough to point out the hypocrisy: "Superior? Then why'd you choose his costume as your disguise, dude?"

Thankfully, Midnight was quick enough to use just enough of her Sleeping Gas Quirk to at least take most of Bakugo's energy before he could lash out at anyone else, before finally ushering him and Izuku back to their classmates.

Slowly but surely, all the rest of the students from both classes showcased all their respective disguises. Among Class B, Itsuka drew some very enthusiastic and admiring reactions from students in both classes when wearing Monoma's costume, while Kinoko and Pony couldn't stop fawning over how adorable they both looked in each other's outfits, even if the latter's elongated horns made it impossible to properly wear the former's mushroom-style hat. But who especially got Midnight's approval when it came to stylishness, was how seamlessly Maja and Setsuna fit into each other's costumes, especially since they were both basically made from their actual Quirks, and could both similarly be focused into changing primary color at will, thus allowing them to emulate each other's signature look that much easier.

And an especially interesting turn was when Mina finally took her opportunity to present herself before her classmates, having chosen to wear Denki's outfit for her disguise, despite making no effort to use makeup to hide her pink skin, use contact lenses to swap the black sclera of her eyes, or even a wig to hide her frizzy pink hair or horns. As far as anyone would have guessed from the outset, it could have been one of the weakest disguises in the whole class…until Mina had decided to go the extra mile and don her own near-perfect version of the blonde sparkplug's dopey short-out face, complete with the usual two thumbs up.

That earned her an immediate round of rather impressed applause from everyone, as well as a few scattered comments of "It's uncanny" or "It's like seeing double of him" this way and that.

At the end of it all, when Midnight finally stepped up to announce the winner for best disguise out of Class A, and her smile couldn't have been prouder as she gave the announcement: "You kids all really pulled no punches in trying to take over every detail of each other's roles today, and for that, you all deserve real commendations. It's hard to pick a winner amongst you when so many of you were so convincing. Hagakure making use of the full concealment of Iida's armor was a stroke of brilliance. Shouji and Tokoyami both exude such an intimidating atmosphere that you were able to take each other's identities on splendidly, regardless of size difference.

"Bezpalov, you did a great job trying to conceal your usual cute boy aura and timid body language in order to reflect Todoroki's icy cool charm, but the key to disguise is to not only hide your identities, but also to essentially avoid drawing attention, and yours is a combination that, just based on many of your classmates' reactions, is too eye-catching for me to declare the winner…unlike yours, Ashido! For even a moment, you got me to completely forget I was looking at a disguise, and not the genuine Kaminari himself. For that, I can easily say that you're disguise is the winner for Class A!"

While this got Mina ecstatically jumping up and down where she stood as her classmates applauded her; this, naturally, earned quite the bit of embarrassed consternation out of Denki himself: "What?! Are you all serious?! She didn't even try to look like me outside the clothes! Is that derpy face seriously all you guys think of when you look at me?!"

Following his fellow teacher's example, Oleg then decided to be the winner announcer for Class B: "And as for you all, your ability to do your earnest in adopting not only each other's outfits, but your very aura in order to embody the character, was nothing short of inspiring…but, just like your fellow Heroes-in-training, there can ultimately only be one standout among you…and as far as measures in convincing portrayal go, my hands are tied, just like the winners, because malenkie Kieslowska and Tokage are the winners for Class B! Your ability to use and adjust your Quirks in order to better replicate every details of each other's disguises was a masterful display!"

While Maja and Setsuna were both smiling brightly in satisfaction as their classmates and Class A friends all congratulated them, it was no time at all before Monoma decided to open his big mouth again: "HA! WHY DON'T YOU STICK THAT IN YOUR CRAW AND CHOKE IT DOWN, CLASS A! CLASS B IS SO MASTERFUL AS TO GET TWO WINNERS IN A SINGLE-PERSON CONTEST, WHILE YOU BARELY MANAGE TO EKE OUT A MEASLY ONE! HURTS, DOESN'T IT?!"

BEE-BEE-BEEP!

Before Bakugo was about to destroy his disguise by blasting Monoma to kingdom come for once again running his mouth; everyone's phones proceeded to go off with the now all-too-familiar chimes that signified their respective Team-Up Mission assignments had finally arrived.

But before they could all proceed to look at where they were to go and with whom, Midnight suddenly announced once more: "Now not so fast, you crazy kids! Donning disguises for a little test your teachers spring on you is all well and good, but now you've come to the real heart of today's lesson! You're going to test out just how effective the disguises you've chosen are, by wearing them for the entire duration of all your Team-Up assignments today."

While the students all looked completely blindsided, as many of them had already started to head back to the changing booths to get back into their original costumes, they were quick to realize this wasn't just Midnight messing with them, as Oleg didn't look the least bit surprised. "If you're recognized for who you really are by anyone among the public while you're out, you will have been graded to have failed the field test. If not, then you'll obviously have passed."

Nikolay and Tenya both had their hands up within a heartbeat: "Excuse me, Sensei's, but a ton of people have already seen our real faces on TV from the Sports Festival and the field work we've done up until now." "Yes, and won't people immediately realize who we really are the moment we're forced to use our Quirks?"

Nodding in approval at the students' thorough thinking, Oleg answered: "That's a good point. If you end up in circumstances wherein you have no choice but to use your Quirks, then that's different. This test is just to see how well your disguises are able to hide your true identities when out on the job beforehand. You'll doubtless come to realize that the art of disguise can be an invaluable tool in getting the jump on any Villains you come across."

"So read up on your assignments, group up with your teammates if they happen to be from either of your classes, head out there, and see if you've all got what it takes to hide in plain sight, boys and girls of Yuuei!" Midnight exclaimed, almost about to reach for her trusty cat o' nine-tails at her hip to usher the students along, only for Oleg to quickly motion for her to ease off before she let her eagerness get the better of her.

As nervous as many of the students were upon knowing they had to stay in these disguises for the whole day (with Mina silently realizing she was basically going to have to keep her version of Denki's short-out face going full-time if it was truly as effective as Midnight said it was), there was still an undeniable air of excited anticipation among them at the same time.

Of course, Nikolay couldn't deny his nervousness and excitement was almost perfectly balanced out upon looking at his phone and subsequently grouping up with his teammates; for it turned out he was to be working together with Mezo and Tsuyu in the Hida Mountains in Nagano Prefecture, and learning under the joint-tutelage of The Wild, Wild Pussycats.

…

Hosu Ski Resort, Nagano Prefecture

The journey that Nikolay, Mezo and Tsuyu had to take from Musutafu City all the way to the addressed ski resort on their identical assignment messages was nothing if not extensive, having had to take more than a couple different trains, and then a lengthy bus ride that wound through the extensive range of the Hide Mountains of the Japanese Alps. Naturally, knowing the team of Pro Heroes they were going to be working under today, there was a mutual unspoken relief between them that they wouldn't be going back to the site of the Forest Training Camp. The memories of what had gone down out there were still all too vivid.

But when they had finally reached their destination, they were met with quite an expansive and bustling property, all but literally filled with all kinds of people of all different ages. Considering this region of the country had managed to get lucky enough to receive by far the largest amount of snowfall in the past few months of winter, it would only make sense that the tourism here for skiing, hiking and whatnot would be through-the-roof.

Thankfully, the bustling crowds of civilians didn't make it any less easy for them to spot their three instructors; as Mandalay, Pixie-Bob and Tiger were already dutifully standing watch at the front entrance for their young charges, excitedly coming over to greet the trio upon spotting them.

"There you all are! It feels like it's been ages since we saw any of you Yuuei pups!" "Oh, would you look at that, you all look like you're in fantastic shape; especially you two strapping young lads. Glad to see your close calls from back then haven't scared you off-track, but don't you two go getting too much bigger on me now!" "Yes, clearly you three haven't been slacking in your training since last we saw you! Good…otherwise I might have had just cause to discipline you all."

Pixie-Bob's instant and obvious flirting and Tiger's thinly veiled attempt at intimidation notwithstanding; the three Yuuei students were similarly just as happy to see their former training camp instructors again, until a jolt of dread shot through them; Mezo instinctively asking: "Wait, if our instructors recognize us through our disguises, then does that still technically mean we failed the test?"

However, Mandalay started chuckling to herself in response. "Don't start losing your heads with worry already. We've already been informed by your teachers at Yuuei of your little disguise test, just like every other Pro your classmates have been assigned to today. So just keep your cool and let's start the day with all our heads high, okay?"

The three students let out a collective sigh of relief as Nikolay and his teammates answered: "Oh, what a relief. We're really happy to see you all again too, sensei's! How has Kota-kun been?" "We're glad you seem to have fully recovered from your wound, Pixie-Bob-sensei." "How has Ragdoll-sensei been holding up since…well, what happened to her-kero?"

Of course, bringing up their unfortunate now-Quirkless fourth teammate left the three remaining Pussycats exchanging knowing, if not slightly troubled glances, but they were surprisingly quick to find themselves smiling gratefully again soon after, as Mandalay and Tiger respectively answered: "Kota-kun is holding up really well…although, with the elementary school season coming soon, and our work only getting busier with each passing day, we're going to need to start making some big decisions for his sake."

"Yes, and as for Tomoko-chan…well, we can't lie; it was a rough period for her for a while…but our dear Ragdoll is resilient in every way a Hero needs to be. Quirk or no, she's still giving her all to help us in every way she can. Even now, she's taken it upon herself to be our eyes and ears from this resort's security center, helping ensure not one of us is left unaware of the slightest situation as soon as it emerges."

Tiger pointed out one of what had to be potentially hundreds of security cameras set up all over the property. Knowing without a doubt that Ragdoll had to be observing them through it at this very moment, the six students and Pro Heroes all happily waved to the camera in greeting.

From that point, the three Pussycats proceeded to walk with their young pupils for the day, detailing them on just how far their area of coverage was to be, which apparently included a rather intimidating looking craggy peak in the far distance, Mt. Hotaka from what the ski range map read.

"So if we have such a large area to cover, and with so many people to look out for, would it be better if we paired off into three teams of two, and maybe get ourselves some collapsible skis in case we have to get anyone back here fast?" Nikolay asked, thinking it only made so much sense. Thankfully, Mezo and Tsuyu both looked to be in agreement.

That simply made Pixie-Bob's instinctive laugh catch them off-guard. "'Collapsible skis'? I admire the imagination, but we're not in a spy movie, kids. Besides, the whole point of this project is to see how you all work together as a team."

Even Tiger couldn't help but chuckle deeply to himself. "That's right, we've all become more than familiar with how hard you all have trained, so now it's time to see how you've all progressed in the months since then. We're always at each other's side when on the job, so pretend you three are similarly glued at the hip."

With that, Mandalay pulled out three tiny boxes from a pocket in her costume's skirt, handing them to the three students. "These are some extra earpieces like what we have built into our cat ears. They're already tuned into our team frequency, so if you come across any possible situations you feel are too big for the three of you to tackle, you can get in touch with us at any time, since my Telepathy only works one way. Also, if you three ever need to separate, they have built-in microphones that can allow you to communicate with each other if need be, and even built-in trackers so that we can have a good idea where you would be at all times as long as you're within five-hundred meters."

Once they had their earpieces locked in, Nikolay and his teammates followed their three teachers' lead, striding as self-assured through the snowy grounds as they could. Nikolay still felt quite weird going around pretending to be Shoto. Considering his place as one of the big three winners of the Sports Festival last year, he was quite surprised none of the civilians around were trying to stop him and ask for pictures or autographs. Either that meant they were courteous enough to realize they were at work, or nobody was fooled by his disguise and was simply too polite to point it out and cause him to fail.

Then again, that still ended up going for Mezo and Tsuyu as well. It was mind-boggling when considering how much taller and bulkier Mezo was than Fumikage, but upon reflection, perhaps people that knew of their crow-headed classmate primarily remembered Dark Shadow itself, and thus had no reason to look at him twice. And as for Tsuyu, she had taken example from their little lesson this morning, and had decided to tuck her extensively long hair under the back of the collar for Ochako's costume, thus helping to resemble her close friend by a significant deal.

Upon looking his teammates over, Nikolay had to admit to feeling a great deal of satisfaction. Up until this point, he'd been lucky enough to get to interact, hang out with or work personally with a great deal of his classmates, but Mezo and Tsuyu were some of the only ones he'd still felt a distance from. Hopefully today could change that.

Chancing another glance at how thoroughly Tsuyu had recreated Ochako's costume and every piece of equipment that came with it, he suddenly spotted something new: what looked like one of those neck cushions people wore on airplanes, but filled with water. "What's that collar around your neck, Asu—I mean, Uravity-san? I don't remember Ura—er, you having something like that the last time you upgraded your suit."

As always, Tsuyu's expression didn't flinch as her eyes momentarily looked down to the water sac on her neck, whilst also glancing this way and that to make sure none of the nearby civilians were listening in on them, keeping her answer to barely above a whisper. "You're right. This is solely for me during the winter time. Frogs aren't able to hold out well in this kind of cold, ultimately going into paralysis if they don't warm up soon. My family and I aren't any different, so I asked Hatsume-san and that Shiketsu High kid with her to make this self-heating water collar to help keep me flexible and mobile as if we were doing this in the summer."

Nikolay looked genuinely impressed at how far ahead Tsuyu had clearly thought. "So were you wearing anything like that back when we met for the first time at that park, or were you just really thickly bundled up every winter before this?"

Tsuyu stopped in her tracks, looking at her Russian classmate with a genuinely impressed gleam in her black eyes, even if the rest of her face still didn't change. "No, I just made sure to bundle my siblings and I up really thick every year. I'm surprised you actually remembered that. You barely spoke two sentences to me back then, you were so nervous."

Nikolay had to fight the urge to scratch the back of his head in embarrassment lest it unsettle his disguise wig. But at least he could still chuckle in remembrance. "Well, obviously; you were one of the first people I ran into after moving here, and I'd never spoken to a girl at all before. Plus, I like to think we're friends, even if not to the degree you are with the rest of the girls, so it only seems right I'd remember something like that."

Tsuyu remained still, her head bowing slightly in reflection of her own, before her pointed mouth formed just the slightest bit bigger and warmer of a smile of appreciation. "Well, I'm glad-kero, especially since I know we've never really had a chance to really do anything specifically together to get to know each other yet. Plus, you can think of it like a testament to how you were compared to where you are now-kero. That's something you should be really proud of. You know Tunguska-sensei and Mina both are, if not me and a lot of the others, too."

Nikolay was about to say something, when he suddenly heard the heavy crunching of Mezo's footsteps rushing across the snow. When he and Tsuyu both looked to see what was going on, they saw him rushing over to a small gathering of elementary-aged children, looking as though they were huddled over something.

The two of them similarly rushed over as fast as they could after Mezo, bracing themselves to stumble upon someone with a possibly broken leg, especially when they started to hear the unmistakable sound of a child crying.

However, just as they were about to arrive, their expectations were thrown by Mezo calling out: "Hey, what's going on here?! All of you stop this and step back!"

The three kids that were all standing in their huddle, all boys, did as Mezo ordered; Nikolay and Tsuyu quickly found just what it was that had spurred such a heated reaction out of him: a fourth little boy curled up in a ball in the snow and crying. This boy had a pair of curving goat horns protruding from out his short head of dark red curly hair, and a pair of satyr-like legs, judging by the way the legs of his pants bent the opposite of everyone else's. Even his snow boots and the badly broken skies lying nearby looked to have been specially custom made for this poor kid, as the boots looked specifically geared towards small hooves, just as the ports in the skies for those boots to lock into.

"You three Heroes are worrying over nothing. Everybody knows Akuma-kun is a big crybaby," one of the boys, with a head of semi-long lavender-colored hair and eyes with star-shaped white pupils, immediately greeted the newly arrived trio with dismissal.

As Mezo was quickly ensuring the boy called 'Akuma' wasn't badly hurt, another of the boys, this one with transparent skin that made it look like he was made of glass, likewise spoke up: "Yeah, it's his fault for trying to go down one of the tougher courses. We told him he wasn't good enough for it, but he wouldn't listen."

The third and final boy, with short white hair that was rolled to the point it resembled an 18th-century powdered wig, fangs and small bat wings folded across his back, was barely able to keep himself from chuckling before he spoke: "Yeah, so he's both a crybaby and dumb."

"If that's true, then your friend is lucky he didn't get hurt-kero. That's no reason to say mean things to him." Tsuyu proceeded to reprimand the three boys as soon as Mezo confirmed Akuma wasn't hurt.

At the same time, Nikolay was looking over the broken skis. "I admit I don't have a lot of experience, but I'd think it would take a lot more than a rough landing from that little ramp up there to break a pair of skis. These look as though they were snapped in half on purpose."

Such an obvious lie as what the three boys were telling was clearly not at all thought through, as they were already looking around nervously, like they'd just gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Seeing this, Mezo helped Akuma back onto his hooves, using his natural towering height and disguise to overshadow the three kids; his one visible eye staring straight through them before he finally spoke up through his mask: "Places like this are meant for everyone to have fun, to enjoy themselves, not to be bullied. You kids apologize to Akuma-kun for breaking his skis now."

However, even for as intimidating as the three kids clearly found Mezo, they actually found the fortitude to not do as he said, instead sending glares filled with icy daggers at their unfortunate victim standing at his side, before stubbornly turning their backs and running away as fast as their bulky and awkward snow boots could carry them.

"Akira-kun!"

Suddenly, the sound of a worried older woman's voice called out from the side. When the three Heroes and Akuma turned, he clearly was visibly relieved upon seeing a middle-aged woman with pale yellow eyes and graying dark brown hair dotted with what looked like owl feathers who was wearing a humble aged brown jacket and matching snow pants, come rushing over to embrace the child.

"Akira-kun, I thought I told you to stay with the rest of the group! It's so easy for anyone to get lost or taken out here—oh, what happened to your skis?"

Upon realizing this woman was clearly the caretaker of the child, Mezo answered: "We found him on the ground crying, surrounded by three other boys who were laughing at him. They ran off instead of apologizing just before you arrived."

That explanation surprisingly seemed to spell everything out for the woman, as she let out what sounded like a sigh of defeat before she hurriedly brushed the snow off of the boy really known as Akira's jacket. "I'm sorry, Akira-kun. I promise we'll get them fixed straight away, and you'll be able to enjoy today just like everyone else. I'll handle things with those three boys, too. Now hurry along and rejoin the others, alright?"

Akira just managed the feeblest of nods, before giving a final parting look towards the three Hero students; a look that said he was grateful for whatever momentary good they did, but that it ultimately would make no difference.

Mezo looked visibly perturbed by that look as Akira ran back down towards the main lodge of the resort, where a multitude of other small children were gathered among some other adults, both staff and otherwise.

Gathering up the broken skis, the woman finally addressed the trio: "Thank you young Heroes so much for intervening when you did. I know exactly which kids you were saying did this: Kashiwara-kun, Fundoshi-kun and Shakumo-kun. Every day, they find some way to pick on poor Akira-kun there. I had so hoped a change of scenery and fun activities to do would be a way to put a stop to the pattern. Oh, goodness, where are my manners? I'm Nanashi Hanako; Rainbow Dawn Orphanage."

Nikolay, Tsuyu and Mezo fortunately had the awareness to keep up the disguise detail, introducing themselves by their adopted Hero aliases. Upon doing so, Nikolay said: "You keep calling that poor boy 'Akira', while those three kids were calling him 'Akuma'. Is that something everyone calls him for his Quirk…or just them?"

Hanako sighed in disappointment, looking back over her shoulder where she could already see the troublemaking trio at the foot of another slope, having just finished skiing down it together themselves. "Just them…but it's for more than just that. Honestly, Akira-kun has never even told us what his Quirk is. As you can all easily imagine, all of these children have lost a great deal, more than any child ever should. It's easy to forget that when they try so diligently to make another of their housemates so miserable all the time. But, thankfully with the three of you having stepped in to defend him, I can only hope you've at least planted the seed to at least get them to think about cutting the poor dear a break."

However, Mezo was still thinking about the look Akira had given him. "Maybe…or maybe we just convinced them to simply wait for the next time he's remotely alone so they can do it all over again when we're not close by."

The way Hanako nodded her head made it obvious that she'd had the same dreadful thought. But just as Tsuyu was about to speak up, their three earpieces suddenly chimed in, followed by the sound of Mandalay's voice; the brunette Pussycat perched atop another nearby ridge that gave her a perfect view of the whole scene: "I'm afraid there's not a whole lot else you three can do about this situation as of right now. You saved that child from those bullies, but unfortunately, there's simply too much ground for all of us to cover to afford one of you standing as constant guard for him the entire day."

Before Mezo could try to protest, Ragdoll's voice likewise cut in: "He's right, kids. A Pro Hero's job is to save people from a current emergency; not to force themselves into another person's business when they themselves haven't asked for it. It's unfortunate, I agree, but that's simply the way it goes."

However, that was when Tiger's voice cut in, sounding particularly confident: "While they are right that there is no current emergency involving any of those children now, it's not outside the realm of possibility for us to simply stay just close enough nearby while conducting our work, to make sure there's no further trouble between them. Tomoko-chan can even keep an eye on them and inform us of any potential trouble brewing if we don't have eyes on them at that moment. Isn't that right, Tomoko-chan?"

To all of their silent relief, especially that of Mezo, Ragdoll immediately confirmed. It was just about the best solution any of them could hope for. Just their towering classmate had sounded so deathly sure of Akira's continued exposure and risk made it clear that he was speaking from some very unpleasant personal experience. And even just guessing at that, there was no way Nikolay, Tsuyu and the Pussycats weren't about to take his words seriously.

Fortunately for all of them, the majority of the day that followed was considerably more less eventful. It was hard for the three students to keep their disguised identities in mind, which thus forced them to have to think of different ways to get around fast without giving themselves away. Nikolay was lucky enough to have Pixie-Bob volunteer as his Pro Hero partner, so she could use her Earth Manipulation Quirk to make the snow below his feet move to her will with the dirt below, thus helping it to look like he was controlling the snow like Shoto could. At the same time, the thick cloak that Mezo wore for his Fumikage disguise was able to obscure his Tentacles, so whenever Tiger was able to fling him high into the air, using their webs to glide made it look to anyone else like he was flying with Dark Shadow hiding beneath his outfit from the point of view of anyone else below. Tsuyu, on the other hand, had to relegate herself to using staff skis to get around, but she was thankfully very quick to learn and soon found herself having no trouble.

Thankfully, the constant presence and tutelage of The Wild, Wild Pussycats was able to help them a great deal. From coordinating efforts to rescue stranded skiers and hikers, saving a child from falling off one of the ski lifts, or saving snowboarders from riding blind over the edge of an obscured cliff edge, all six Heroes were kept exceptionally busy, but all the while, there was never any instance that they or Ragdoll saw of any further trouble between Akira and his three bullies.

But after a good several hours, a call had been given across all loudspeakers of the resort, warning of a large approaching snowstorm from the northeast, one far too intense for the civilians to continue skiing within, thus the place would be forced to close its slopes early. Thankfully, from all their positions of observation across the grounds, it looked like all the people were taking this announcement to heart and quickly vacating the slopes.

From all looks of it, the Heroes' work here was about to come to an end. Nikolay, for as lifelong adjusted to cold climates like this, could no longer hide that working out here in Shoto's costume and its shortened sleeves was starting to catch up with him, so the idea of calling the day short was one he was definitely okay with. Even the Pussycats themselves looked quite worn out by what a busy day they'd had, as Tiger gladly declared: "There's nothing quite as gratifying after a fulfilling day's work in the snow, like a period of respite around the fire and a fresh cup of hot chocolate. If you kids have never allowed yourselves such a luxury, you're about to have your lives changed forever."

Pixie-Bob was clearly one-hundred percent on board with her partner's suggestion. However, just as Nikolay and Tsuyu were both about to express their similar eagerness, the sound of a familiar woman's voice reached them: "WAIT! PLEASE, WE NEED YOUR HELP!"

All six Heroes immediately were ready before they even saw the orphanage head, Hanako Nanashi, come rushing over to them through the snow, her face red and downright frantic. Such a sight had them all on edge, instantly assuming the worst in one very distinct way; Mandalay immediately taking charge. "What's wrong, Nanashi-san?"

The poor woman was looking all around like a terrified animal, barely managing to catch her breath as she motioned towards the distant group of all her children and fellow adult chaperones. "We were all gathering back together once the notice about the storm was made…but…nobody's seen Akira-kun anywhere for the last several minutes…or Kashiwara-kun, Fundoshi-kun and Shakumo-kun! They've all disappeared!"

None of the Heroes had even finished feeling that dreaded jolt of ice run its way through their hearts before Mezo already was speaking into his own earpiece: "Ragdoll-sensei, are you able to rewind the footage for any of the security cameras on the property? Maybe one of them caught sight of where those children might've gone."

"Already one step ahead of you guys. The last time they appear primarily on-screen is at about six minutes ago on camera 36-E near the northeastern bunny slopes, all together, like they are guiding or forcing the boy to go with them. Then, just before they go off-screen, there's a brief flash, and then they're just gone. I noticed a residing glow that looks as though its moving away at rapid speed, so I decided to try and follow it from one camera to the other in the direction it seems to be going. It looks almost like a shooting star. It ultimately ends up going all the way up to the uppermost camera on Mount Hotaka, and that's where I couldn't follow it any further."

Ragdoll's summation of what she was able to find of the missing kids was nothing short of a godsend. Mandalay quickly ran this by Hanako, who looked utterly pale with horrified realization. "Kashiwara-kun has a Shooting Star Quirk. He and his friends use it together to try and scare Akira-kun and some of the other kids at the orphanage quite often. But using it too often or for prolonged distances tends to take a lot of energy out of him."

"And another of those boys has those bat wings. Maybe those kids knew about this and decided use that as a backup to carry them back down here after leaving Akira-kun alone up on those peaks." Nikolay suggested worriedly, with Tsuyu and Mezo both looking equally horrified. Surely kids so young couldn't be cruel enough as to leave another child stranded on those soaring peaks like that, especially with a fierce storm just minutes away.

But even if such a thought was too horrible to accept as reality, that didn't change the fact that there were children in trouble, and the young Heroes needed to do something about it, as Mezo was already making a beeline towards the mountain; Nikolay and Tsuyu following urgently after him. "Pixie-Bob-sensei, if you can give us a boost, we can cross the rest of the distance that much faster, find those children and bring them back here."

The blonde Pussycat didn't even hesitate, crouching down and leveling her paws to the snow to concentrate, while Tsuyu called back to the others: "Mandalay-sensei, we won't be in range for the earpieces or your Telepathy to work, but we'll get in touch with you as soon as we possibly get the chance. In the meantime, tell the staff to call for emergency rescue to get here as soon as possible, in case we can't make it back before the storm hits-kero."

Mandalay nodded resolutely, just as Pixie-Bob finally activated her Quirk, and caused an instant spire of snow and dirt to shoot out from beneath Mezo's feet; Nikolay and Tsuyu having already taken the initiative of clinging onto his back. The force with which they were shot up was like the starting spring for a pinball, as they were launched soaring up into the air, Nikolay carefully timing so he could use his Kinetics to help give them that much more of a boost, before Mezo finally unfolded his Tentacles, using the webs to once more make him into a makeshift hang-glider, making a straight dive towards the mountain peaks.

With just how vast it was, it would take a miracle for them to spot these children, especially if they did the irresponsible thing and tried to leave from wherever they had ended up. Thankfully, Mezo was already taking yet further initiative, as he sprouted several more Tentacles from out his back, many of them ended with multiple eyes in order to give him that much wider of a field of view.

Unfortunately, the storm was already right in their faces; the intense winds threatening to throw them off balance, but Nikolay was thankfully smart enough to aim and time his Kinetic Blasts alongside Mezo's flexing of his Tentacle wings in order to help keep them steady.

It wasn't a minute after the weather had turned on them, that several of the eye stalks suddenly jerked all at once; Tsuyu noticing they were all looking in the same direction. "Do you see them, Shouji-san?"

"I do, just down there on that ridge. Thank goodness they didn't all try to separate." As soon as Mezo clarified this, he maneuvered so they were now making a dive-bomb maneuver towards the small cluster of children. Just before they touched down, Nikolay and Tsuyu jumped off; all three of them landing cleanly just before the four kids.

From the outset, Akira was clearly looking terrified, having long since realized what his three bullies had essentially abducted him all this way for. However, the three boys in question looked just as scared, as the lavender-haired Kashiwara looked utterly exhausted to the point he couldn't even stand up, the bat winged Fundoshi was barely able to even move his wings, let alone use them to try and fly in this powerful and frigid wind, and the glass-skinned Shakumo simply looked too scared to even think, let alone move.

If the winds and the flying snow were already this powerful and biting on the outskirts of the storm, then the three Hero students knew they couldn't waste any time scolding the three bullies for taking Akira all the way out here against his will. That could wait at the hands of their caretaker as soon as they were back safe and sound.

KRRNCH!

But just as they all took their first step, a foreboding cracking sound broke through the howling of the wind. There wasn't even a moment for them to think before they felt the ground begin to give way from under their feet, with more and more large chunks of compacted snow all around them following suit as gravity finally took its course. They hadn't landed on a secured ridge of the mountain at all, but rather an elongated lip of snow, and all of the accumulated weight of the seven upon it had finally been enough to unsettle the whole thing, resulting in a sudden avalanche sending them all down the height of the cliff, with more and more of the snow blanketing it falling in concert with it in a giant waterfall-looking haze of freezing white.

This happening so suddenly gave Nikolay no chance to use his Quirk to try and redirect himself in the air to try and catch any of them, and the shredding stone of the cliff face provided nothing for Tsuyu to grab onto without utterly destroying her hands and feet in the process, while the four children were all screaming in terror at their sudden freefall.

Mezo was the only one with the capability to try and save any of them, as he sent a multitude of his Tentacles out in multiple directions, grabbing all four of the children and pulling them in tight to himself. He was about to do the same for his partners, before a sudden further falling curtain of snow and ice chunks came falling from above, smacking his free Tentacles aside, and giving him no chance to try again before they finally met the blinding cloud of snow dust gathering at the foot of this cliff, into which they all landed hard, before the rest of the avalanche came pouring down upon them.

…

Back at the resort grounds, Ragdoll's eyes through the camera going up the mountain had been taken out completely, thanks to the avalanche, while Mandalay, Pixie-Bob and Tiger could only look on in silent trepidation and horror alike alongside the staff at the sheer scale of the avalanche that had just occurred.

Naturally there had initially been the suspicions that someone had accidentally hit the detonation for their scheduled avalanche clearing early, but upon further inspection of their controls showing everything had still been in the green, it was quickly obvious to everyone that the students and the kids had gotten caught in it.

Emotions all around were fierce, between the Pussycats' anxious and desperate need to go out there to save them, their simultaneous need to have faith in their students and worry for them and the children now under their protection; Hanako's near-frantic worry for those kids, and the staff trying furiously to get the emergency rescue services out to these remote parts that much faster, even though it was far too obvious that with the storm having officially arrived, there was nothing anyone could possibly do to get them back, without running the risk of getting lost, themselves.

As much as nobody wanted to accept it, they ultimately knew they had no choice. Until the storm would lighten up, all the pieces on this particular board were deadlocked.

…

*GASP!*

Nikolay wasn't sure when it was he had blacked out. Perhaps the extensive freefall had overwhelmed him, or perhaps a piece of the icy snow had hit him on the head on the way down. Maybe the landing itself had done it. It ultimately didn't matter. Even if he was conscious now, that didn't change the fact that all he could see now was pitch blackness, and he was completely submerged in frigid cold, compacted around him to make it so he could barely move.

That realization quickly had his head pounding with the sound of his heart beginning to race violently, his breaths starting to become shorter and more rapid, his nostrils beginning to pick up the unmistakable scent of smoke amid the frigid cold.

'NO!'

Nikolay's mind all but shouted this denial from within as he grit his teeth and clenched his hands into fists where he lay suspended, ignoring the cold against his palms. 'Don't fall into that state again; you've managed your way out of it several times by now, so how is this any different? You've heard of ways out of this, focus on that!'

Nikolay couldn't exactly recall where he had heard of this trick, but right now it was the best he could work with, and that was enough. As his heart finally began to slow back down to normal, he opened his hands, took a deep breath, and proceeded to let out what little spit he had, only to immediately feel some of it graze his forehead going up.

'Okay…okay, so I'm upside down. Now I know which way to try and dig. I just need to figure out how deep I am. For all I know, Shouji-san and Tsuyu-san got lucky and are looking for me now…WAIT! The earpieces! Maybe they can help us stay in contact with each other, even if we're too far from The Pussycats.'

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the snow around him was too compacted for him to be able to move his arms to actually check. In fact, as soon as he'd resigned himself to that fact, it became apparent then that he couldn't in fact feel the earpiece in his ear anymore. Clearly it had fallen out at some point during the fall.

'Alright…nothing we can do about that now. I just gotta force my way out of here. I don't feel any other rumbling, so that must mean the avalanche ran its course. So now…time to get out of here!'

BWOOOM! BWOOOM! BWOOMBWOOMBWOOOM!

He could clearly feel that the flight and fall and getting buried all together had instilled him with a huge amount of kinetic power, so with no hesitation, he proceeded to channel as much of it as he could spare through his legs and out his feet, destroying his disguise boots, but luckily blasting all the snow above him like the eruption of a geyser.

As soon as he could now feel the wind blowing against his leg, Nikolay began to squirm and wrestle himself the rest of the way out of the snow, where he was finally met with the howling of the wind and something to see once more, momentarily burning his eyes after having been submerged in such darkness, breathing in deep in the strangest sense of relief.

Until he finally took stock of his surroundings and could see no sign of either of his teammates or the children. Then the panic came rushing right back, and with no earpiece with which to try and get in contact with them, there was only one thing he could possibly do:

"SHOUJI-SAN! TSUYU-SAN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! EITHER OF YOU?!"

BOOM!

Only a couple yards away from where he'd climbed out, another large portion of the resting snow exploded outward, as a multitude of Mezo's Tentacles unfolded from underneath like a flower in bloom, revealing him and the children all looking none the worse for wear, save for a couple bruises on the hulking Hero student.

"You all aren't hurt, are you?" Nikolay asked as soon as he ran up to them. To nobody's surprise, the kids were all still too shaken up by what an insanely miraculous rescue they'd just had to speak, but Mezo gave a single nod. "What about you? Have you seen Asui-san anywhere?"

Nikolay could finally feel the aches and pains of a multitude of his own bruises, primarily around his torso, but the fact he was still able to breathe and move was enough. "Yeah…I'll be okay."

But the fact that Mezo had found no sign of Tsuyu anywhere either sent his panic into overdrive yet again. With the wind howling so loudly, and with how monotone and reserved her way of speaking normally was, it would be a miracle for either of them to hear her if she managed to find her way back to the surface.

But no matter which direction they went or how many times they both called out for her, they got no answer. With the storm only continuing to get worse by the second, and still no sign of her to be found, things were looking nothing if not grim.

As Nikolay could already feel his voice growing hoarse as he kept calling for Tsuyu, he could suddenly feel the pronounced sensation of a rippling vibration suddenly come rushing across the ground beneath his feet and into his leg. This caused him to instantly tense up and freeze, having half-expected another damned avalanche to start. After all, they may have reached the bottom of that one cliff, but even in the whiteout of this storm, they could all still see they were a long ways away from the resort at the foot of the mountain.

Seeing his foreign classmate go still, Mezo likewise came to a halt, huddling the four kids back together under the protection of his Tentacles. "What is it, Bezpalov-san?"

"I thought I felt a shaking in the ground, but none of the snow is moving…yet—THERE IT IS AGAIN! Did you feel it, any of you?"

However, Mezo and the four kids all looked around confusedly and shook their heads, just as a third and subsequent close fourth vibrating ripple suddenly reached Nikolay's feet again, causing him to jolt at attention once more. "What is that if it's not the snow unsettling?! It's almost…rhythmic?"

With the wind blowing so violently all around, it was hard for Nikolay to be able to focus enough to try and mentally block it out so he could better feel these strange rhythmic vibrations. But after several seconds that felt like minutes, he could finally start to pick up on it more pronouncedly…at the pattern most resembling…

"A HEARTBEAT! COMING FROM UP AHEAD!" As soon as Nikolay called this out, pointing to his forward left, he and Mezo both went charging in that direction, Nikolay still straining to focus solely on those continuous pulsations in the snow, which were progressively starting to become more and more frequent the further they went.

It thankfully wasn't long before Nikolay practically ground his feet into the snow to motion for Mezo and the children to stop, looking down at the snow upon which he stood. "It's coming from down here! Help me to dig, she could be inside!"

"We're coming, Asui-san, it'll be okay!" Mezo called down into the snow, fairly confident Tsuyu could hear them from inside. The two boys wasted no time before they began clawing and shoveling away at the snow with their hands; Mezo using all of his Tentacles ending with hands to speed up the process, before the three children, with the exception of Kashiwara, even began to do so alongside them; even though the other two bully kids tried to angrily push Akira away on several occasions, trying to pass it off as just their blind anxiousness to keep digging.

In less than half a minute, the next grip of snow Nikolay managed to grab caved in, pulling his hand along with it, wherein he felt fingers within, that immediately gripped onto him the next moment. "I'VE GOT HER! You all keep digging, and I'll pull!"

Mezo and the kids didn't ask a single question, instead digging as fast as they could, while Nikolay pulled with all his strength, hoping Tsuyu was at least conscious enough to try and kick her way out as soon as she could get the chance.

While this may not have happened, it was still mere moments before Tsuyu was finally pried out of the snow, gasping for breath and coughing violently as soon as she'd finally been able. Her teammates and the kids all looked fairly relieved at her retrieval, but it wasn't long before Nikolay and Mezo both noticed something horrible: despite her still gripping Nikolay by the shoulders of his disguise after getting pried free, her body was looking and feeling especially stiff, and the hot water collar she'd been wearing had been broken by the fall, thus leaving her completely exposed to this unforgiving cold.

Mezo immediately took off his larger version of Fumikage's cloak, revealing he was wearing his original Hero costume of the blue and black sleeveless bodysuit and matching boots underneath, before he then proceeded to tear it in half, and then drape and wrap one firmly around Tsuyu, with only half her head protruding from out of it; and then draping the other half snugly over the four children, having managed to rip little holes along it for their heads to fit through. "It's not much, but it's still plenty thick, so it should be enough to keep her and all of you insulated."

Nikolay and Mezo were both ignorant of the look of amazement in Akira's eyes, and the subsequent accusatory disbelief on the two bullies' faces upon seeing Mezo's full form for the first time; the two young boy Heroes trying in vain to spot any of the familiar slopes down below leading to the resort. Alas, it was for not; the whiteout of the storm was simply too strong.

"We can't stay up here for very long at all, but we can just simply have you glide us all the way back down the way we came in this wind." Nikolay theorized, to which Mezo nodded in disappointment.

"Even without the wind, all six of you on my back would be too much for me to carry all at once. So we're going to have to think of a different way to navigate down this mountain to more even ground."

As Nikolay continued to survey what little of their surroundings he could actually see, he was finding himself coming up with no viable ideas. "We're too high up the mountain for any trees. If that weren't the case, I would suggest we dig ourselves a shelter in the snow, make a tiny hole in the ceiling, and gather up branches enough so we could make a fire; at least so we could wait for the storm to ease up. Otherwise we'd just be sitting huddled in the dark, freezing the whole while."

"What about your tentacles?" Akira's unmistakably meek voice suddenly asked Mezo, snapping him and Nikolay to attention while the little goat-horned boy shyly asked: "Your tentacle arms showed they can stretch really long, and it looked like you had more than you did back at the ski slopes. How many are you able to make?"

"Just about as many as I need at any given moment." Mezo answered, which actually got Akira to look pleasantly inspired.

"Well, why don't you grow a bunch of tentacles to help you glide through the air again, and use some others to make a bowl we could all sit in for you to carry us in, like a sled?"

Nikolay and Mezo, while initially doubtful, couldn't hide the looks of surprise on their faces at such a seemingly simple yet potentially genius idea. Mezo was easily the most powerful student in Class 1-A when it came to raw physical strength, so carrying everyone in a basin of his Tentacles bonded together was definitely feasible. And if the wind were to turn out to be an issue, Nikolay could once again use his Quirk to help even them out when need be. The more they thought about it, the less reason the two of them could think as to why it couldn't work.

In fact, Nikolay was already showing his readiness by grabbing some of the excess fabric of the half of cloak that was keeping Tsuyu bundled; ripping a hole that he could easily slip his head through, before harnessing and tying the remaining free space of it around himself; essentially sharing the cloak piece with her whilst carrying her on his back, currently in the middle of getting her arms over his shoulders so there wouldn't be a risk of her falling off.

"I-if it's too m-m-much for you t-t-to c-carry, Shouji-s-s-san…y-you guys c-could just…dig a s-shelter f-f-f-for me…away f-from the wind…and j-just c-c-c-come b-back for me when the s-s-storm clears…after you both g-get the k-kids back s-safe…k-k-kero." Tsuyu struggled through her intensifying cold paralysis, even as Nikolay was trying to help her thaw out through his own body heat, to try and tell her teammates; thinking solely of their real objective all the way out here.

"That's not going to happen, Tsuyu-san." Nikolay immediately answered, in a tone driven and intense enough that no one could doubt how serious he was, even before Mezo likewise answered: "That's right. We're more than just a team, Asui-san, we're friends, and we're not going to just leave each other behind. No matter how heavy it might be, I'll carry you all the whole way down if that's what it takes."

Tsuyu was simply too drained of energy by the biting winds to try and argue any further. So, as soon as Mezo grew all the further webbed Tentacles he needed to once again glide, and more to serve as the basin with which to carry everyone; Nikolay proceeded to get himself and Tsuyu inside, before looking back to urge the children inside with him.

"No! Forget it; I'm not getting in there to let some dirty mutant carry me!" "Yeah, me neither!" Fundoshi and Shakumo's protestations were so out of nowhere, it left both able-bodied Heroes doing a simultaneous double take, only to see by the fire in their eyes that they were dead serious.

"This is not the time for this, kids, this is all for your own safety." Nikolay tried to reason, only for the stubborn children to violently stomp their feet down in the snow. "NO! We didn't ask you to come up here to help us! We can find our own way back without a mutant like that thing!"

By now, Nikolay was stepping back out onto the snow, trying so hard not to let his thinning patience show through his tone: "As Heroes, you boys know we're not going to just leave you here just because you don't want Shouji-san to carry you. Your friend Kashiwara-kun is still too weak to walk, let alone us his Quirk to shoot you all back to the resort the way you came. How are you going to find your way down the mountain while trying to drag him along with you? You know it's best for you all to just come with us. That way, this can all be done that much sooner."

Just as Nikolay was about to reach out and try to guide the kids back towards Mezo by the edge of their shared piece of the cloak; the two boys suddenly kicked snow in his face, before just as quickly violently struggling to pull Akira out from under the cover of the cloth, before ultimately throwing him down into the snow.

"If we're going anywhere, it's not with Akuma-kun with us! This whole mess is all his fault, anyway!"

Hearing this and seeing the look of completely hopelessness in Akira's eyes, finally got Mezo fired up enough to speak up: "What?! How can you kids say that?! You were the ones that abducted him to leave him all alone up here in the first place! How can any of this possibly be his fault?!"

"Because if he didn't go and be born when nobody wanted him, then we wouldn't have had the idea to come up here and get stuck in the first place! Anything bad that happens to him is his fault for that, and it's all he deserves!" Such undeniably bullshit childish reasoning to justify how cruel they were to this poor kid was enough to get Nikolay and Mezo's blood boiling alike.

However, before they could even begin to give these idiotic kids the scolding they so clearly deserved, Akira suddenly took off into a blind and desperate dash into the haze of the storm, around the corner of some protruding rocks towards who-knew-where.

"AKIRA-KUN, WAIT!" Nikolay began to call after the fleeing child, just as Mezo suddenly took off into a mad dash of his own. "I'll bring him back, Bezpalov! Stay here with Asui-san and those kids!"

As soon as Mezo was out of sight, leaving Nikolay with his one remaining teammate shivering against his back under the covers, and the three boys; the two kids in question that were still standing suddenly smiled in satisfaction to themselves. "Well, now that the freaks are gone, why don't we get going before they find their way back? You're a Hero, you should have some way to do that even with this dumb old storm, right?"

With his hands obscured from their view, Nikolay was balling them into white-knuckled fists, he was feeling so much anger at this moment. But, with a physically draining sigh through his clenched teeth, he instead began to start digging into the thick snow beneath, quickly forming what looked like a tunnel. "No, and even if I did, I'm not so sure I would want to after how awfully you boys treated Akira-kun just now. The only way we're all getting out of here, is all together, and that means Akira-kun and Shouji-san included, and that's all there is to it. So until they return, if we want to avoid freezing to death up here, we need shelter, and you boys are going to help me make it. So, start digging."

The boys were about to lambast Nikolay with mocking names and accusations (in their eyes) of being sentimental and soft-hearted, but a perfectly-timed gust of biting icy wind left them both trembling from head to toe, even under their cloak and thick winter coats. Looking to Kashiwara, who was still visibly drained enough to barely manage to move, they ultimately swallowed their insults and hurriedly got to work helping the Russian Hero to dig.

Within a couple minutes, they'd ultimately managed to dig out a dome-shaped chamber under the snow, into which they all crawled inside, before piling up snow to block the entrance; after which Nikolay quickly made a fist-sized hole in the 'ceiling' through which to allow light and continuous oxygen.

"I thought you said there weren't any trees to make a fire from the branches with up here. How are we supposed to get warm?" Fundoshi soon asked sarcastically while keeping his arms tightly crossed over himself, while Nikolay was busily making sure to keep the cloak around himself and Tsuyu tight, before she suddenly held out her little earpiece to him, silently offering for him to use it in her place, which he gratefully did so.

"That's right, but considering the circumstances, this is the best we can manage until the others get back and we can finally get you all back to the resort. All the other kids and your caretakers are worried sick about all of you right now, you realize that? Did you really think they would just leave when you returned without Akira-kun?"

Rather than actually face what a dumb plan this had been for them, the two boys stubbornly kept their arms crossed under the cloak. "Like anyone could ever actually care about a mutant freak like him."

"You know, you two keep going on about this thing you have with mutants, but Fundoshi-kun, you've got bat wings. Doesn't that technically make you a mutant too?" Nikolay asked, sounding all but certain he'd found the perfect hole in their ridiculous logic.

Were it not for the dark, he would've seen the white-haired boy turn dark red in the face with fluster and subsequent frustration. "That doesn't count, because I at least look human otherwise. Akuma-kun barely passes for human no matter how you look at him. He's the real disgusting mutant here, just like that big one."

Nodding enthusiastically with his friend, the glass-skinned Shakumo added: "Yeah! How can you go around doing Hero stuff with that big mutant, or this ugly toad on your back? Don't you know what freaks like them do to normal people like us? They're Villains and monsters, and Akuma-kun will just become another one, one day, so why shouldn't we just get rid of him before that happens?! Heroes should just lock them all away where no one ever has to see or deal with them again."

Nikolay's hands were clenched together in what others could have easily mistaken for a death grip. He couldn't believe what he was hearing from such young kids. It was so narrow-minded, so blind, so misdirected…but that was when he remembered the fact that they were orphans just the same as Akira himself.

That train of thought helped to extinguish a good deal of his silent anger, as Nikolay's shoulders lowered, and he spoke with far less intensity than before, which the two boys were quick to notice: "Villains and monsters…I guess you three must have your own experience with that, don't you?"

Thanks to the darkness, Nikolay couldn't see how Kashiwara had actually gained enough energy to feebly nod in confirmation, while Fundoshi and Shakumo respectively answered: "Yeah…we all lost our parents to Villains or even just plain criminals, all of them with big-time mutant Quirks." "How could you expect us not to hate them after something like that?"

"I don't." Nikolay immediately answered, which caught the boys by surprise; even Tsuyu's eyes silently showed mild surprise as she basically had a front-row seat to listen to this whole discussion.

"What you kids are feeling is very natural when you have even a rough idea of what kind of people hurt you so badly. I know exactly what it feels like…and I've seen what it can lead people to do…except in all those cases, it wasn't just mutants they were angry at, but rather just people with Quirks in general, and it led to so many people getting hurt or worse as payback. And do you boys know what happened because of that payback?"

The boys remained deathly silent. So, Nikolay continued: "Those people they hurt; the ones that couldn't just let what happened to them go, recognize and be grateful for what they still had in their lives and move on; they decided to rope in countless innocent and unwitting people; people who could have helped them to simply find peace; in order to strike back at those that had originally hurt them in payback of their own, in a way that would've gotten even more people killed…and what kind of retaliation those that were left could've thought to lash out with, had that happened, I don't even want to think about.

"The important thing is that, those first people were stopped before they could've done something that couldn't have possibly been forgiven. These weren't mutants, these were normal-looking people just like you and me, and they still were going to kill countless other 'normal' people and their families and friends, just like you both think mutants are prone to do. It didn't make any difference to them; all they cared about was just how angry they were, and how they wanted to make both the people responsible for their anger, and others who had nothing to do with that, suffer all the same.

"The point is that, if you aren't careful, think about where you are and the people you are lucky to have in your lives still, and let yourself grieve for those you've lost, and think about what they would want for you, then before you know it, your anger and hate will take complete control over you. Then, one day, you may end up doing something that hurts someone else the exact same way you were hurt…and then you'll be no better than those Villains or criminals, mutant or otherwise, that gave you that anger and hatred in the first place."

Nikolay honestly didn't expect the boys to have an answer for any of that, if they even had the heart to really listen to what he was trying to say. Even then, the sheer silence that followed was deafening.

He was initially hesitant to say anything further, lest it finally push the boys over the edge and simply accuse him of repeating himself, but with the circumstances of exactly who they had been taking their anger out on in mind, he ultimately knew he couldn't leave this unsaid: "You boys don't have to listen to anything I'm saying, but at least think on this: Akira-kun lost his parents like you and all the other kids at your orphanage, right? In however much time you've known him, has he ever done anything to hurt or torment you or any of the other kids?"

This time, instead of silence, he was answered, not by Fundoshi or Shakumo, but rather Kashiwara, who had finally regained enough strength to speak: "No…he mostly…just sits around by…himself."

Nikolay began to nod, having just about expected as much. "When you first met, did he perhaps ever try to make friends with you or anyone else?"

This time, Shakumo and Fundoshi respectively answered: "Yes…and some of the other kids even seemed like they wanted to be his friends, too…but we told him to go away when he asked us." "We started making fun of him after that, even when he kept trying. After a couple days he stopped, and a lot of the other kids stopped being around him soon after, too. We thought it was a good thing, that maybe it'd get him to run away from the orphanage and never come back."

Finally, Nikolay was at the point he was only hoping would really be able to get these kids to think for the better. "And if he did end up running away, none of you would care or wonder what could possibly happen to him out there, whether he was to get lost or hurt, or found by someone he shouldn't talk to? Or what if he decided to stay at the orphanage, and you just kept teasing and bullying him on and on, telling him what a monster he is, simply for the fact of him being a mutant? Do you really think nothing would change? You don't think that, one day, if you were to push him to a point, you might just end up convincing him that he's a monster meant to hurt people? What do you think would happen then?"

The silence was enough.

"No one is saying you shouldn't be angry about what happened to your parents, but you shouldn't take it out on people who have nothing to do with it, especially when they're just trying to be nice to you. If you take it out on the wrong person for long enough, it could lead to consequences you never wanted, and that could end with a whole chain reaction that you won't be able to do anything about, that could end up with far more people getting hurt than if you'd just let those people out there who want to help you, help you. That's all I'm asking of you boys while we wait for Shouji-san and Akira-kun, is to just think about it."

The fact none of the boys were telling him he had no idea what he was talking about was about as good a sign as Nikolay could ask for, while he by now simply relegated himself to looking to the dim light coming through the ceiling, and listening to the earpiece for the first sign of Mezo and Akira's return. For the sake of helping warm Tsuyu back up, and their ultimate chances of getting back to the safety of the resort, it was all he could afford to do.

…

The intense volume of the snow flying through the air made it very difficult for Mezo to be able to keep track of Akira's footprints. With each passing second they were fading. If he didn't find the kid soon, he would lose the trail completely, and then they would both be in serious trouble.

Having no other alternative, he proceeded to sprout a couple more Tentacles from out his back, both ending in enlarged ears open to his surroundings. If Akira was anywhere nearby, he could only hope he would be able to pick up the sound of his footsteps.

Thankfully, after several prolonged seconds of listening and trying to pick apart any possible noises outside the wind, he could hear the unmistakable sound of a single child crying.

Following the sound to its source like a hunting dog, Mezo was soon stumbling upon the mouth of a tiny cave, almost completely obscured by the whiteout. Upon stepping inside, the crying stopped, but it didn't make any difference now. Mezo found Akira curled up into a ball in the far corner of the cavern, just far enough away that the snow wasn't relentlessly pattering against him.

Akira didn't even look remotely surprised to find Mezo standing in the mouth of the cave, simply bowing his head in resignation as the towering Hero student approached him. "Are you here to take me back?"

"Of course. My partners and I came all this way to bring you back, and that's what we're going to do, no matter what. All your caretakers and the other kids from the orphanage were really worried about you when they told us you'd gone missing, you know?"

But Akira simply shook his head, keeping his face buried in his satyr knees. "They shouldn't be. None of them ever want to play with me, or even talk to or sit next to me. It's all Kashiwara, Fundoshi and Shakumo's fault. Ever since we met, they've been calling me names all the time, and now nobody wants anything to do with me. I know Nanashi-sensei and the other grown-ups just put up with me because they're supposed to. I know everything would be easier for everyone if I just went away."

Mezo didn't say anything at first. He simply watched the child with a hard to read gaze, simply letting the poor child pour his heart out through his long-suffering tears. After about a minute of that, he finally closed the rest of the distance, and simply sat next to Akira, prompting the little goat-legged boy to look up at him curiously as he gazed out the cave, watching something more distant than the child could ever truly understand.

"Those boys have been giving you a hard time for a while, haven't they?"

Akira didn't even bother actually answering, instead nodding as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Do they ever get physical with you, or do they just call you names and make fun of you?"

Now, Akira was likewise looking out the cave as well. "Sometimes they push me down, but mostly they just make fun of me…even though I know they really want me gone. That's what the bad men said to my parents, too."

Mezo pulled his legs inward, instinctively hugging his legs to his broad chest. "The bad men?"

An especially painful sniffle was the immediate answer Mezo got. "Yeah. There were a bunch of these men that came to our house late one night. Mommy had just tucked me in, but I couldn't sleep cause of this orange glow outside my window. I walked out of my room to see what was going on, and I heard a bunch of adult voices and my daddy yelling at each other. Daddy had never yelled at anyone before; it was a really scary sound.

"The men outside were saying a bunch of stuff I didn't understand; stuff about how mutants like my parents are something called 'sinful' and 'a…abom…abomi-nations, some big word I didn't understand. When I'd gone downstairs, that's when everything happened really fast. I heard this noise, like a really big piece of wood snapping against something really hard, and the next thing I heard is my mommy screaming.

"The only things I can remember after that are the air getting really hard to breathe; it was making me cough a lot, and everything got really hot really fast…and I can just hear my mommy yelling at me to run away, just run away as far and fast as I can and to not stop or look back. She sounded so scared…I didn't wanna go, I wanted to stay and protect her and daddy…but she just kept telling me to run. I was so scared, I couldn't see anything because so much of the house was now on fire, so I just did what she said and ran. I didn't know where I was running, I just ran as fast as I could, for as long as I could."

Mezo hadn't even realized he'd been holding in an especially painful breath the entire time Akira had started opening up in the most painful way a child his age possibly could. By now, the poor little child was sobbing uncontrollably. "When the sun was up again, I didn't even know where I was…I just knew I couldn't run no more. I fell, and I remember everything going black…and the next time I woke up, I was in one of those big white rooms my parents would take me whenever I got sick or scraped my elbow from playing.

"There were a bunch of those nice grown-ups in white that would always make me feel better, and even those nice people in the blue shirts and shiny badges…but they all looked really sad, even though they wouldn't tell me why, no matter how many times I asked where my mommy and daddy were. But…when they finally brought me to the orphanage…that's when I understood what happened…and that's it."

Mezo and Akira now sat side-by-side in the most suffocating silence either of them could have anticipated. Mezo simply waited for the child to ride the stormy waves of his emotions before finally speaking up again; having needed the time to temper his own personal emotions back down, himself. "Did those nice people with the badges, the police, ever tell you anything about what happened after you were brought to the orphanage?"

This time, Akira shook his head in denial. "No…but I remember overhearing Nanashi-sensei talking with one of the other teachers about it a couple days after I'd been brought there. I think she said something about a Creature Rejection Clan."

The way Mezo's whole body flinched in a kneejerk reaction momentarily scared Akira, but when he looked into the tall young Hero's one visible eye, he was suddenly filled with an understanding far beyond that which a child his age should have been able to feel.

For Mezo's eye was reflecting a very distant, old sense of pain.

"Do…do you actually know about them?"

"I do." Mezo answered bluntly, his voice barely above that of a whisper.

"Did…did they hurt your family too?"

Mezo's left hand began to reach up towards the cloth of the mask obscuring most of his face; his fingers trembling as though all he wanted to do was tear it off. Despite that, he ultimately relented, and let his hand drop as he let out a painful sigh. "No…but people that took the things they said to heart did…to me, at least…for a long while."

Sucking in a deep breath to try and bring himself back down to a level state of mind, Mezo returned his attention to Akira. "How did you feel when you heard that these people could have been the ones responsible for what happened to your parents, Akira-kun?"

Akira's goat eyes sank back down to the cold stone ground as he bowed his head. "I was mad…really, really mad. All I wanted to do at first was to just find those people and hurt them back."

"Why didn't you?" Mezo asked.

Akira's tightened grip on his pant legs went slack as he began to choke and sob once more. "Because Nanashi-sensei heard about how much I wanted to hurt those people, and she asked me how I thought my mommy and daddy would feel if they saw me do something like that to anyone…and I knew it would've made them sad, and I didn't want that, even more than how much I wanted to go after those people. They always said how we should never hurt people if we can help it, and how we should not actually want to hurt someone else even more. I don 't want to break that promise to them."

Mezo nodded in solemn understanding. "Yeah…I felt that same way for a while when I was little, too; how much I felt like I hated the people in our town that always picked on me, chased after me and beat me up for being a mutant. Anger, sadness, hate; it's really terrifying just how easy those feelings are to just let completely take you over…and we never even stop to think about just how much of ourselves we'd be throwing away forever by doing that.

"Personally, I'm convinced that if I had done that; just let all the anger I felt make my decisions for me; I very easily could've become just another Villain instead of a Hero; just another example of a mutant run amok that people like the Creature Rejection Clan would use as an example to steer other innocent people towards their way of thinking, just so the same kind of cruelty and blind hatred can be inflicted on someone else one day."

When Akira finally lifted his head to look Mezo in the eye again, he was visibly stricken by the indescribable glimmer of genuine empathy reflected in his one visible eye. "It's for that reason, I'm more grateful for my family and all the friends I've made over the years than I ever could've imagined before. They've always been there to help me to stay on the right track in the times I felt my weakest. In that time, I've come to understand that not all the people who have treated us in these ways do it out of pure hate.

"Most times, people lash out at others who are different simply because they're scared for themselves and their own loved ones, scared in ways that are hard to imagine for a lot of people. Or perhaps they've suffered a great deal in their own way, and lashing out at someone so that person is even more miserable than they are, could be the one way they can think to have any semblance of actual control over anything in their lives. That feeling of having control over your life is a very powerful thing, Akira-kun."

Mezo was grateful that Akira looked to be genuinely taking his words to heart. But after some visible consideration, the small boy still looked quite frustrated. "I understand; Kashiwara, Fundoshi and Shakumo all don't have families of their own, either…but knowing all that, won't change how they think, talk or act towards me. They'll still just hate me for being a mutant."

Mezo didn't say anything at first, but had to fight the compulsion to nod in reluctant agreement. "It's possible…but even if things with them may not change, that doesn't mean all the other people at the orphanage don't still care about you. You know that, right?"

Akira gave a barely perceptible nod. Seeing this, Mezo continued: "Don't let a few people scare you away from wanting to make friends or even just talk to others, Akira-kun. A life like that is lonelier than anyone in this world deserves. Maybe, just maybe, it may lead you to a place where you could find yourself happier than you think you could be. You simply won't ever know if you don't try."

In time, Akira's sniffles and tears slowly but surely came to an end; a sure sign that he was taking Mezo's words into some kind of consideration, and that was all he could really hope for. When the child finally started wiping the tears from his face, lest the cold outside cause them to freeze, Mezo finally got back to his feet, offering an extended hand his way. "You ready to head back to the others?"

"Yes." Akira answered quietly, taking Mezo's hand as they finally headed back out into the blinding white of the snowfall; Mezo speaking into his earpiece along the way, informing Nikolay and Tsuyu that they were on their way back.

Upon reuniting with the others, Mezo was pleasantly surprised to see none of the three bullies were making a scene about Akira being brought back. Knowing quite well how stubborn and defiant small children could be, he could only imagine Nikolay or Tsuyu had given them quite the talking to in order to at least quiet down their tone this much. He was undeniably curious, but the three Heroes didn't need even say much to know that this storm was only getting that much worse, and they simply couldn't afford to try and wait it out in the shelter they'd made anymore. Without something to make a fire with, they had to simply accept the fact that getting back to the resort ASAP was their only real option.

As Mezo once again form up all the Tentacles he needed to both glide and carry everyone in his arms, Nikolay decided to pull out the pair of his original costume's goggles from one of his disguise pockets. At least that way, he could be able to withstand the snow flying in all their faces and be able to give Mezo some form of direction on which direction to go in the air.

Once again adopting their previous strategy, Mezo finally took a running leap over the edge to finally go airborne, while Nikolay kept using his Kinetic Blasts intermittently to keep them balanced whenever it felt like the unpredictable wind currents were threatening to tip them too far to one side or the other. Naturally, all the kids were shaking from head to toe in worry at first, but after a good several seconds, their frightened whimpers began to die down. In fact, they were all actually starting to smile, as though this were just another theme park ride.

However, after a few prolonged minutes of this, the biting chill and icy shards being blown so violently by the wind were starting to accumulate and take their toll on Mezo; the sleeveless nature of his costume causing all his exposed tentacles to start to succumb to the freezing chill. "Bezpalov-san…can you see any sign of the resort below yet?"

By now, Nikolay and Tsuyu could both see similarly that their teammate's Tentacles were starting to go rigid. The young Russian began urgently scanning their surroundings, but he could barely make out the distant darkness of rocky mountain faces in the moderate distance, and down below, nothing but the same white void. "I can't tell. None of their lights are breaking through the whiteout, and I can't even tell how far or close we are to the slopes."

"We just have to hope we get in close enough for the Pussycat-sensei's to pick up the trackers in our earpieces. Maybe then Mandalay-sensei can reach out to us and direct us from there-kero," Tsuyu summarized their best hope, by now having at least managed to warm up under the cloak against Nikolay's back enough to where she could speak without stuttering from the cold.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Suddenly, the most intense updraft of biting icy gale force winds came rushing up from out of nowhere, hitting at just the angle to send Mezo barrel-rolling through the air, and sending all those he was carrying free-falling through the whiteout; all, if any, screams being drowned out by the howling winds.

Regardless, the moment he knew the danger everyone else was in, Mezo immediately took action, sending multiple extending Tentacles in every direction he glimpsed the others falling as quickly and as far as he could. The moment his fingers brushed against fabric, he immediately gripped tight and pulled his arm back, seeing within the seconds that he'd only managed to retrieve Fundoshi before he had him held tight to his chest and extended his webbed Tentacles to try and regain his glide.

At the same time, Nikolay was desperately trying to regain balance and a steady flight path of his own as he repeatedly fired his Kinetic Blasts from both hands and feet in rapid succession as he and Tsuyu tumbled through the air. As soon as he'd finally managed to steady himself, only to now worry about where the ground could possibly be below, he was shocked when Tsuyu's tongue suddenly shot forward right past his head, disappearing into the haze ahead, only for the sound of Shakumo's surprised yelp to reach his ears, just before Tsuyu reeled her tongue back, pulling the child back at top speed, just for Nikolay to open his arms and catch him.

As soon as he knew they had secured the hyperventilating child, the howling of the storm was suddenly broken by the deep and resonating sound of…growling, unlike anything either of the two young Heroes had heard before, just as they could all soon see a large monstrous shape just barely form amid the snowfall, resembling some kind of winged, horned demon, before it ended up completely vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared; its growl just as swiftly replaced by the wind once more.

"What in the hell?" Nikolay muttered in disbelief, just before his eyes fell and he realized he could actually see what looked like moving ground just beneath his feet, prompting him to fire another hurried Kinetic Blast to slow their descent, before they finally met the snow-covered ground in a much more controlled roll, right at the same time Mezo likewise managed to finally touch down not too much farther from them.

"Are you all okay?" He immediately asked upon seeing Nikolay, Tsuyu and Shakumo, while the two small boys desperately raced to grab onto each other in relief; both of them long since past the point of trying not to cry after it had felt so certain that they were about to die.

"Yeah, we're okay…but did you see that… that thing in the snow ahead just now?" Nikolay asked, before he and Tsuyu could clearly see the look of shock in Mezo's eye, pretty much answering the question for him.

"Hello? Are any of you out there?"

The sound of Akira's voice through the wind snapped all to attention, and they all just as quickly began trudging through the snow, Mezo immediately calling back in the hopes they could follow each other's voices. It was in nearly no time at all before the shape of Akira and Kashiwara both began to break through the haze; both boys thankfully looking none the worse for wear, although the latter looked deeply shaken.

Upon seeing this, Fundoshi and Shakumo both instinctively began to call out: "What happened, Kashiwara-kun? Yeah, what did Akuma-kun do to you?"

Mezo and Nikolay both momentarily tensed up, readying themselves for the two upright bullies to start getting physically violent once they'd close the rest of the distance. However, just before they did, Kashiwara suddenly held up a hand, stopping his two friends in their tracks, before his star-shaped eyes slowly shifted to Akira himself, who had one of his arms over his shoulders to help move him along.

Finally, he spoke up from his lethargy, barely able to be heard ay anyone else midst all the wind, but easy enough for Akira to hear clearly beyond the shadow of the doubt: "He…saved me."

The whole event was, in fact, still repeating over and over in Kashiwara's head. When they had all gotten thrown by that updraft, he was just about ready to either die or be lost in the fury of the storm for nobody to find him, and then die. Truth be told, using his Shooting Star Quirk to take all of them from the resort slopes all the way to the top of the mountain had been the farthest he'd ever pushed himself, and thus he had never experienced such a deep drain of energy before. As far as he knew, it would be a matter of hours, if not maybe even a couple of days, before he would be back to normal again.

But as gravity took him, and he could see nor hear a single sign of anyone else coming to rescue him, that was when he had caught only the briefest glimpse of Akira falling just nearby. But, had he been able to see him for any longer than that, he would have seen how the satyr-legged boy wasn't likewise screaming with fear, but had instead focused in on him.

What had unfolded next, he wasn't sure anyone would ever truly be able to believe, at least not unless they saw it for themselves. When Kashiwara had gone corkscrewing through the air, the next time he'd made a full rotation mid-plummet and saw where Akira had been, this time he was instead met with a sudden obscuring of the daylight, as he found himself being rapidly reached out to by a hulking red figure that looked like so many old drawings in dusty old books of devils and demons; horns, wings, cloven hooved feet and all.

Such a sight practically gave the poor boy a scare enough to shave multiple years off his life…until it quickly became clear that the monster wasn't reaching out to kill him, but was instead scooping him up out of the air to catch him and pull him in close. Of course, Kashiwara's panic had been so intense, it had caused him to momentarily black out, hence why he didn't even distinctly recall the landing in the snow itself.

But he was able to wake back up just as quickly, once his heart had stopped racing. When he came to, he was nearly blinded by the pure white of the snow all around him again, except that this time he could feel the cold wetness of actual snow around his arms and legs; proof positive that he was back on solid land again.

And this time he wasn't alone, as he quickly realized Akira was planted in the snow right beside him, struggling to catch his breath from the adrenaline rush of their fall and landing…and it was then that Kashiwara noticed how Akira had actually been holding onto the front of his jacket, as if he'd just pulled him in.

Even with his mind racing as it was, even a child like him was able to quickly put together exactly what it was that had happened. For reasons he couldn't possibly understand after everything that had been elading up to this point, Akira had decided to unveil his Quirk in order to save his life, when so many other bullied kids could have easily chosen to have just let their tormentor perish and simply brush it off as an accident.

Kashiwara knew all too well that he and his friends had given Akira every possible reason to do just that…and yet he didn't, and instead chose to save him without even being asked to. How in the world was a kid who had lived with so much anger and resentment, and who had taken that all out on others, supposed to process something like that?

Kashiwara didn't know, and he wasn't sure if he or his friends ever would…but the one thing he did know with any certainty right now, was that he owed Akira his life, and the only thing he could do right now was tell this to Fundoshi and Shakumo, and simply hope they would take that as his sign for backing off from their former victim.

Akira simply looked to be glad nobody was hurt, before the fact that Kashiwara had actually stood up for him to his fellow bullies finally sank in, leaving him visibly dumbfounded.

All the while, Nikolay and Mezo both had their own distinct looks of pride on their faces. Clearly, both boys in question had taken their heartfelt words seriously, and for all they knew, this could have been the moment that could set off the spark that would signal something new, something truly wonderful.

KRRSSCCHHT!

Suddenly, both Nikolay and Mezo's earpieces burst with a moment of static, causing them both to jump in surprise before it went quiet once more, and they were instead met with the sound of Mandalay, Pixie-Bob, Tiger and Ragdoll's voices all at once: "Hello, come in! Froppy, Tentacole, Solovei, do any of you copy? We just got the signal to two of your trackers on the outer edge of their area of effect! Are you hurt? Were you able to find any sign of those children?"

The relief the trio felt was immeasurable, as Nikolay handed Tsuyu her intended earpiece so she could answer: "Yes, we can hear you, Sensei-kero! We're more or less all right. We were able to recover the missing children, but we got caught in a surprise avalanche near the mountain summit. Solovei lost his earpieces, and my hot water collar is broken, so I'm not able to do much-kero. We just touched down on what we can only hope is one of the direct slopes, but we can't see the resort from here at all."

"Not to worry, Froppy. Now that we've got eyes on you, can we give you the directions you need to get on the right track. We can use that to coordinate the rescue staff here to rendezvous with you and get you back the rest of the way. Good work, you three…really good work."

True to their word, the Pussycats were able to finally give the Heroes and the children the direction they needed to finally head back to safety; Mezo deciding to cut time by now using his Tentacles to form a sled for the children to sit inside, while Nikolay rode upon his back, once again using his Kinetic Blasts to accelerate and steer them the right way, regardless of the biting sting of the flying snow and ice.

Along the way, the four kids simply sat in total silence. As much as Akira felt really good deep down for having helped save Kashiwara, he still couldn't help but feel a twisting sensation of resignation in the pit of his chest, when he saw how neither Fundoshi or Shakumo were willing to look in his direction. At least they weren't calling him names or making fun of him more, but the fact they wouldn't at least say a single 'thank you' for saving their friend, made it all the more clear to him that he was right; nothing he did or said would change how they ultimately felt about him.

"Hey."

An unexpected light tug at the sleeve of his jacket broke Akira out of his own thoughts, as he looked to see Kashiwara himself was at least looking him in the eye, looking as though he'd just reached the end of an insane mental struggle of his own for an elementary-aged child.

"I just…I just wanted to say…thank you…for, you know…saving me earlier. I haven't given you a reason for that…so the fact you did…I just really appreciate it, okay? And your Quirk…well, it's pretty cool looking, that's all."

As hard as it was for Kashiwara to swallow his childish pride enough to say all this, he could clearly see how hard it was for Akira to process what he was hearing, especially from him. Frankly, he was just bracing himself for the satyr boy to simply tell him off; he surely had every right to.

"You're welcome, Kashiwara…and…thanks." Akira finally spoke up just under his breath, similarly catching Kashiwara by surprise, before he proceeded then to nod in acknowledgment.

"It's…it's Ryo; you can call me Ryo if you want. What…what do I call you, that isn't Akuma?"

Now, Funodshi and Shakumo couldn't help but listen in and watch this exchange wide-eyed, while Akira's own surprise at Kashiwara's extension of an olive leaf, quickly turned into a smile of pure happiness: "Akira."

Unbeknownst to the four kids, up above, Mezo, Nikolay and Tsuyu were all silently listening, and by the end, all smiling approvingly at what a milestone had just been crossed between these children. Today, what had once been all-but-sworn enemies may have finally taken the first step towards undoing and preventing untold amounts of emotional damage otherwise to come.

It was shortly after that the whole bunch of them had finally come sledding the rest of the way down to leveled out ground marking the foot of the mountain, and the outer edges of the main resort complex, where a multitude of floodlights had already long since been lit to help serve as a beacon for them to steer towards.

Immediately, the four children were practically swarmed by their fellow orphans and their caretakers, whilst first-aid staff was quick to usher them in to check for any signs of frostbite or hypothermia. The process was very much the same for the three Heroes as well, for while Hanako and many other adults were insistent on thanking them for putting their own lives at risk for the sake of the children; The Wild, Wild Pussycats, this time even including Ragdoll in person, were similarly persistent in getting them inside and warmed up, with Tiger even carrying two large armfuls of steaming towels for Tsuyu to finally properly heat herself back up with.

Although, most peculiarly, even once they were finally inside the warm confines of the main resort lodge building and the cloak keeping them wrapped was removed, Tsuyu was still clinging onto Nikolay's back, to which he carefully felt at one of her hands to be sure. "Tsuyu-san, you don't feel frozen stiff any more, I think you can move again."

This finally got Tsuyu to react with a little jolt of surprise, hurriedly releasing her grip on her foreign classmate. "Sorry about that, Kolya-kero…and, thank you for helping me, despite what I said-kero," she answered while hurriedly taking some of the towels Tiger was offering, quick to drape one atop her head in the hopes neither he, Mezo nor any of the Pussycats would see how much the froggy girl was blushing at what she'd unwittingly been doing despite now being out of the cold.

Watching as Tsuyu took her leave to a nearby sauna door to make sure she was warmed back up as thoroughly as possible; Mandalay and Pixie-Bob turned to Nikolay and Mezo, both of them smiling just as bright and proudly as Tiger and Ragdoll had been since the start. "You kids did a heck of a job out there to bring those kids back, and it looks like you all left quite an impression on them too while you were at it." "Yeah, I personally think that constitutes this little team-up lesson of yours a resounding success, wouldn't you?"

Tiger nodded his head with an abundance of pride and enthusiasm as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Here, here! Let's just hope you boys aren't at any risk after all the time you'd spent out there, with or without that nifty little cloak."

Nikolay couldn't help but let out a brief yet good-humored chuckle. "Well, considering all the hard work we did to keep the blood pumping, I think we might be okay. Besides, me and my Dad are pretty much tailor-made for surviving in weather like this."

…

Yuuei Academy, Class 1-A Dorms

And that was a claim Nikolay would be hesitant to ever echo again, as for the rest of the night and the following day back at school, he and Mezo both would find themselves brought low by an awful cold; forcing them to remain essentially dormitory-bound under their own veritable cocoons of blankets, forced to keep their feet submerged in small tubs of warm water, and matching warm water sacks perched atop their heads, in between the times when Mina and Tsuyu respectively wouldn't be personally tending to them with piping hot servings of soup; much to the amusement of their friends, and Minoru's thinly veiled jealousy.