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Chapter 7: Just school things

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That afternoon, I kept training.

Once the battle trial was over, All Might gave us all 'keys' for the hero costume storage area, saying that we were responsible for them from now on, so long as they didn't leave campus grounds without permission. Where most people got changed out of their costumes and went back to the dorm, I kept mine on and went out behind the dorm building.

At first, it was nothing special. I noticed during the battle trial that I had to move a certain way to stop my tailcoat from flapping around. My shoes had a similar problem at first, slapping against the floor and making noise, but I was able to practice keeping them quiet during my fight against Jiro.

I blinked and realised that Jiro's quirk would be useful to help me train. Unfortunately the girl herself was still a little embarrassed of our final position in the fight, so she squirrelled herself upstairs soon after the trial was over. I'd have to make do with my copy of her power... and I might have to make it up to her as an apology, depending on how well she recovers from my teasing.

Training went well after that, in my opinion. I called it after about an hour of moving around, running, jumping, and climbing the outer walls of the dorm building, and the amount of noise I made lowered a bit. I'd probably want to ask Aizawa for stealth training at some point, but I can add that to the list of things to do.

After that, I returned to my room, placing Anesidora on the machine that makes up my workspace. Once it was there, a few different holograms started projecting in the air over the device, showing the devices that I projected today as I sat down.

First in line was Bakugo's gauntlets, which I had seen demonstrated during his fight. They were styled to look like a grenade, but a few waves of the hand had the outer shell removed and revealed the interior. The mechanics were actually rather simple. The palms had a kind of absorbent in them that passively captured the chemicals the boy sweats and stores it in a small tank. My program pointed out a few devices designed to keep the chemicals inert, stopping them from blowing up whenever Bakugo throws a punch, or such actions. After all, his sweat is very similar to a nitro-glycerine compound. There was also a little tube that could transfer his sweat into the grenades on his belt, but I didn't get a scan of those.

I whistled when I swiped onto the next hologram. "This will definitely help you, Fumikage."

My scans removed the cloak, revealing the bodysuit underneath it that he had been wearing. I highlighted the light sources installed in the fabric, spotting a good dozen of them around the suit. There were three different trigger methods I noticed, on his hands, near his ankle, and, somehow, in his beak?

I zoomed in on that, looking over the wireless device. "It's like a false tooth? Or is it meant for the tongue to activate?" I wasn't sure, since I didn't have the location where it was held. Anesidora doesn't scan people like my portable workshop does.

It didn't matter either way. Between the practice Fumikage's had with being enveloped by Dark Shadow and the fact that it doesn't take full control of the body, there's now next to no risk that Dark Shadow will go rogue. Now he just needs to get those smoke grenades to make an area darker, and he'll be set for the time being.

I moved on to the other devices I scanned today. Kaminiari had a headset that worked as a long range communicator that could be powered and overcharged by his quirk. Todoroki's ice themed costume contained warming devices, seemingly to counter some said effect of his ice. Jiro's boots had been tweaked a bit, but were mostly the same as the entrance exam, and...

No one else seemed to have anything. I'd have thought that someone like Ojiro, who's quirk simply gave him a tail, might have had something, but no. He didn't even have shoes, which contributed to his loss against Todoroki in the trail earlier. Kirishima seemed to style himself as a shield, so didn't bother with weapons, even though a method of capture would be useful.

I was interrupted in my thoughts by the speaker near the door. "Monoma?" Hagakure. "People are wondering if you were planning to cook again. I remember Bakugo said he might yesterday, but he's not said a word since he lost his fight against Midoriya."

I rolled my eyes. I get that I'm a good cook, Faerie Feast makes that a fact of life, but I had to wonder if my proving Fumikage right yesterday had made me the de facto cook of 1-A.

[-]

The next morning, Aizawa called everyone down to the communal area.

"Before you get on with your day, I've been told to have you select two student liaisons for class 1-A," he told us. "They will be the people in charge of bringing major problems up with us staff, as well as coordinating with staff and the other liaisons for access to our more specialised training facilities. They will also be responsible for organising and representing you and your dorm, should any incidents come up."

Several people weighed the responsibilities against the authority and decided that they wanted to put their hat in the ring. Normally, I don't think it would be such a coveted position, but having it on record that you are able to lead was a good thing for pro heroes who may end up in charge of a hero agency in the future.

People started speaking to each other, trying to convince people to give them the position. All were silenced when Aizawa's glowing red eyes glared at them.

"What are you, some stupid high schoolers?" he asked, letting up on his quirk and letting his glowing eyes fade. "I'll be back in half an hour. If you haven't chosen by then, I'll decide myself, based on yesterday's battle trial."

He left, leaving the silence behind for a few seconds before I broke it.

"Well, shall we get to voting?" I looked around the rest of the class. "It's more... sane, than everyone trying to convince everyone."

"Do you think voting will work?" Asui asked. "Won't everyone just vote for themselves?"

"It'll depend on who wants to be liaison, I guess." Jiro shook her head. "I know I don't."

"I'm not concerned over the position either," Fumikage agreed. "Perhaps we should ask who is interested before voting?"

Yaoyorozu helped do just that, producing a board from her quirk and getting the interested people to write their names down on it. That still left thirteen people in the running, so Yaoyorozu produced some paper for everyone to use to vote. They were all made anonymously before being pulled out and counted.

"One vote, one vote, one vote..." I read off of the final tally. Quite a few people just voted for themselves. "Here we go, Yaoyorozu and myself, four votes each." I looked over at the girl, who looked surprised at the result. Still, she smiled happily. "Next one was Midoriya with three votes-"

"WHO THE HELL VOTED FOR DEKU?!" Bakugo was ignored, though I smiled when I saw Uraraka failing to whistle innocently.

"And the other candidates got one vote each... except Iida," I looked over to him, apologetic. "He got zero. Sorry, man."

"It's fine," he said, nodding in acceptance. "I shouldn't have expected people to think I was most suited to the position if I myself did not think the same." So he didn't vote for himself then?

Yaoyorozu and I hung around for Aizawa while most of the others left to get ready for their classes. When he eventually showed up, he had us follow him out to a car and drove us to a building on the other side of U.A.'s main building.

"This is staff housing," he said as he stopped. "You'll both be given my emergency number, but this is likely where you can find me when it isn't an emergency. It's unfortunate that 1-A is about as far as you can get from this place, but there's nothing I can do about that." He turned to give us a slight glare out of the corner of his eye. "I'm hoping that university students are mature enough to not need constant oversight." The two of us nodded.

He led us inside, where a bunch of people were already waiting. It seemed that we were the last to arrive, actually, based on the number of people. Two people from each class, two classes a year, three years. This meeting seemed to be for the hero course students, which made sense given Aizawa's comment about liaisons being in charge of organising facility timetables.

What followed was a meeting with Nezu, a little, white, rat-dog-bear thing (he wouldn't clarify) that was the head of U.A. University. Introductions happened between our fellow liaisons, and we were informed about a part of U.A.'s website that we could log in to in order to reserve priority use of training areas. Apparently Cementoss has a very sought after training area that he runs every Monday and Friday afternoon, giving priority to a different class every session if they wanted to book it.

Then Nezu talked us through what we'd be doing for our dorms before we were left to our own devices... meaning that we were accosted by one of our upperclassmen.

"Hey, you four are the new first years, right? And you two came in with Aizawa. Did anyone in your class get expelled?" One of the girls who stood with the third years asked, floating over to us on spirals of golden energy. "I know a lot of people complained when he expelled all of last year's class for no reason, but I heard someone started a big fuss over their quirk and annoyed him. What about your quirks? Did they impress him?"

The girl was the bubbliest person I could think of, and us four first years just stared at her. I was mostly wondering how she could keep her hair looking that good when it was that long, but I still stared. She hovered over to Shishida Jurota, looking him over and apparently not paying attention to personal space.

"Is your quirk animal related?" she asked. "With that shaggy hair and those teeth, you remind me of an animal. Can you become one?" Then she spotted Yaoyorozu and I and floated over to us. "What about you two? You don't look like you have any mutations from your quirk, but Mirio, Tamaki and I got permission to watch the practical entrance exam. I don't recognise you-" she pointed at Yaoyorozu, and then me. "-but didn't you destroy the big robot? You had a shadow-"

I cut her off by holding out a hand for her to shake. "Monoma Neito," I introduced, finding myself all kinds of amused at her behaviour. Her response was to blink in surprise before smiling at me, shaking my hand happily.

"Hado Nejire," she returned, still not having touched the ground as she kept shaking my hand. I think she noticed me observing her quirk, because she tagged it on the end of her introduction. "I can make these spirals using my energy. I can fly, and break buildings, and-"

She stopped speaking when golden spirals sparked into existence around our hands. I let go and pointed my hands towards the ground like Iron Man, creating similar, if bigger, spirals around my feet that I increased the power of until I lifted off the ground.

I almost immediately shook in the air, not having any experience with flight before. Very quickly, I found my torso supported by Hado, who was watching what I was doing with wide, nearly sparkling eyes. Photographic Memory helped me into the same position Hado was using to float still, practically sitting in the air while using wide spirals from her arms to hold herself up.

"You can copy quirks," she said, grinning as she watched me settle at the same height she was floating at. "Is it permanent? How many can you copy? Have you found any quirks that you couldn't copy, like mutation types? Is that how you got your shadow in the practical exam? What about how you were made of metal, where did that come from? Can you..."

By the end of that conversation, I had been pushed to promise to visit my 'senpai' so she could teach me how to fly. Hado's classmate looked at me in pity while a tall blonde boy next to him was grinning excitedly. Meanwhile, Yaoyorozu was using me as Hado bait and talking with class 1-B's liaisons while she avoided the periwinkle haired girl's attention.

[-]

"Hmm, I don't know who's better," Uraraka muttered to herself as we ate in the cafeteria. "Lunch Rush's meals are deliscious, but we can order what we want from Monoma. He even managed to make Yaoyorozu's rich girl food, somehow." Said 'rich girl' honestly looked confused, and the thought crossed my mind that she may not realise how extravagant the meals I've cooked her are.

"Lunch Rush wins," I declare in deadpan, "because I'm not making lunches for you." I ignored the snorts and Uraraka's pout, choosing instead to focus on my own food.

"Monoma, did you often cook before coming here?" Iida asked. "You must have a lot of practice to be so good."

"Well, I cooked for Fumikage when we trained together."

"Payment was required for me to subject myself to Monoma's training schedule," Fumikage agreed/complained, only for Dark Shadow to poke his head out of the boy's shirt.

"It wasn't that bad. Fumikage just wanted to find some excuse to keep asking Monoma to cook for him. He spent a few days trying to come up with- SQUAWK!" People laughed as Fumikage slammed his fist into his chest, where Dark Shadow's body was.

Any laughter was cut off by an alarm that rang throughout the building, followed by a voice over the speaker system.

"Warning. Level three security breach. All students please evacuate the building and return to your dorm buildings in a calm and orderly fashion."

"Level three," I mused, watching almost everyone around me make an embarrassment of themselves. "Someone's broken into campus." That explained why people were speed walking to the door, knocking others aside when they could and trampling over people.

"Monoma, come on!" I ignored whoever shouted for me and turned towards those who looked as calm as I was.

"I need quirks," I said simply, grateful when I was almost immediately offered hands. Four quirks bloomed in my mind. "Stay here for a second."

I looked back towards the exit, now growing jacks on my ears with the quirk that let me hear several people calling for those around them to let them up. Pads grew on my finger tips as I leaped forwards, placing those pads against my own skin and cancelling the effect gravity had on me. My jacks stretched and anchored themselves into the wall, pulling me forwards as I swung through the air.

With a second swing, released the wall and launched myself feet first towards the spot over the door. I 'landed' in a crouch, using my jacks to anchor myself and stood straight on the wall as I called Kuro under me (from a normal perspective) to block most of the door.

"EVERYBODY, STOP MOVING!" I shouted, projecting my voice as best I could to be heard over the mess of voices and shouts. Thankfully, the sudden appearance of Kuro looming in front of them seemed to be enough for me to get everyone's attention. "Thank you. Now, I don't give a damn what idiot decided that attacking a university staffed almost entirely by pro heroes was a good idea, but it's not a reason to act like energetic children hopped up on sugar!" The chastisement was accompanied by Kuro slipping between the students to pick up those who were being knocked down and trodden on.

While that was happening, I heard Jiro's voice enter my ears, just loud enough to hear. "Monoma. There's a bunch of press outside. They must be who broke in." I rolled my eyes at the stupidity of the media, before using my jacks to right myself in the air. I was getting a bit nauseous standing sideways.

"As it is, there is no actual danger," I continued as Kuro kept making its way around. "The press were the ones who tripped the alarm, so we SHOULD be able to head back to the dorms... CALMLY."

And yet, there was still a fair number of people who tried pushing to get out first. I had Kuro handle those situations, lifting up the aggressor until there was a gap to put them in where they couldn't cause trouble. It had to do that more times than I feel it should have for university students, which, by the way, should be zero.

[-]

The next day, everyone's schedules all said the same thing.

'Hero Training: 10:00 - 16:00'

There was a little note under it that said we were to be in either our hero costumes or gym uniforms by the time the session arrived, and were to be waiting outside the dorms.

"You have any idea what we're going to be doing?" Jiro asked as we waited for Aizawa to arrive. Apparently our supervisor was going to be accompanying us during today's session.

"No, though I find Aizawa's presence interesting," Fumikage responded. "It reminds me of some class trips we took in high school where the homeroom teacher would be in charge of us."

"Some kind of simulated field work then?" I proposed, keeping my hands busy by toying with my mask. I could remember the times he was talking about, and our homeroom teacher always kept us close. This did indeed feel like that. "U.A. is nothing if not flush with money, so I wouldn't put it past them to have other private environments."

"Other ones, as well as the massive cities we've worked in so far?" Jiro asked with a raised eyebrow. "There's rich, and then there's 'I can own this country' rich... and then there's apparently 'U.A.' rich, I guess."

I snorted at that as a vehicle got close enough for me to hear. I looked down the road, spotting the incoming bus that Aizawa was driving. It came to a stop in front of us and the man got out, facing the waiting 1-A. He nodded in approval, likely for not wasting time.

"Today's training will be a little different," he started. "Me, All Might, and another staff member will be keeping an eye on you as you're led through training exercises pertaining to rescue operations." Students started whispering among themselves until Aizawa's eyes glowed red. "U.A. has an off-campus facility dedicated to rescue scenarios, capable of replicating the effects of natural disasters of many kinds. Get on the bus. It'll be a bit of a ride."

We were on the road within five minutes. People broke into conversations with friends as a way to pass the time, but Fumikage and I were content to sit quietly together. It brought back memories of high school field trips where we were often left to our own devices.

I only abandoned that when I heard something interesting.

"Midoriya, your quirk is kind of like All Might's, isn't it?" The question was asked by Asui, or Tsu, as she wished people to call her, and caused the green haired boy to yelp and stutter.

"Y-y-you think so?" I smirked. Midoriya's words could probably be discounted as a fanboy's hope of being like his idol, but I remembered where he got his quirk from.

'Eat this!' 'Eh?' It was one of my daughter's favourite scenes in the anime, at least for the comedic value.

"What do you think, Monoma?" I tuned back into the conversation when I heard Kirishima say my name. "Do you know how similar their quirks are?"

"No idea," I admitted. "I've never copied All Might's quirk before, and honestly, I've never thought about trying to. I don't think I would enjoy that kind of pure physical power. I'd use it, but I prefer the less flashy stuff. It let's me sneak around more."

I ignored Jiro's muttered 'Don't need help with that' from behind me.

"Really?" Kirishima asked, flexing his arm. His flesh hardened, producing a jagged surface. "My Hardening can be super strong, but I've wondered what it would be like to have something that looks impressive too. You have to think about that if you want to be a popular pro hero."

"I think you're definitely pro material," Midoriya denied. "Your quirk looks awesome."

"My Navel Laser is pro level in both flashiness and strength," Aoyama bragged, only to be quickly shut down by Ashido.

"That doesn't help when it gives you a stomach-ache so often."

"If we're talking flashy and strong in this class, it's gotta be Todoroki and Bakugo, right?" Kirishima pointed out, making me nod.

"That's true. If I ever need something truly eye catching, those two are near the top of my list."

"Like that's ever gonna happen, damn copycat."

"Maybe it will," Tsu countered. "Bakugo's quirk with Monoma's personality would probably make Monoma more popular than Bakugo could ever get."

That little comment lit the blonde bomb's fuse. "What the hell! You picking a fight, you fucking frog!"

"See?

We haven't known each other very long," Kaminari cut in, "so it's amazing that everyone already knows his personality is crap steeped in sewage." I laughed at that while Bakugo kept shouting at those who were teasing him.

"Quit messing around," Aizawa called, "We're here."

[-]

Aizawa led us inside a large, domed structure after we got of the bus, towards a pair of doors with a person in a hero costume was waiting.

"Everyone, I've been waiting for you," they greeted, their voice distorted by the altered astronaut suit they were wearing. "I'm Thirteen, a hero that specialises in rescue operations and first responses to natural disasters."

Thirteen quickly led us inside, where the interior of the dome impressed everyone. Even with a shot glance, there were clearly several different kinds of environments within the facility, including a large body of water, mountainous land, and a collapsed building.

"This is the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, a training ground I designed to help teach students what it's like to work in hazardous environments, such as a fire, a landslide, a windstorm, and more."

Everyone took in the layout of the USJ (not Universal Studios Japan, as some students thought at first), letting Thirteen and Aizawa talk quietly to each other.

"Thirteen, where's All Might?" Aizawa asked. "He was supposed to meet us here."

"He called me just before you arrived," Thirteen responded. "He did a bit too much hero work on his way to work and ran out of time, so he's currently resting in the lounge."

The sudden nudge I felt on my arm and the surprised look of disbelief on Jiro's face made it clear that she'd heard the two talking. I looked at her and placed a finger to my lips, getting a small nod in return, though she looked worried.

Still, this is what I hated about the current society. All Might was the one pillar holding things up. Simply hearing that he was slowing down had that kind of reaction in Jiro... what would happen when the man just can't go on any more, or if he's beaten?

"It can't be helped," Aizawa eventually stated. "Shall we begin?" Thirteen nodded as the man stood aside.

"Well then, before we begin, let me point something out to you all," they said. "My quirk is known to the public, I know. I am sure that quite a few of you are aware of it; Black Hole. I can suck up anything and turn it to dust when it gets close enough to my body. Now, I've made use of this by sucking up rubble, excess water from flooding, and other such things. However, this power can be used to kill people."

That was obvious to me, and apparently to a few others, but quite a few people froze at their words.

"Some of you have quirks like that, yes? Ones that could seriously injure people if used incorrectly." Aizawa was looking pointedly at Midoriya. "In our society, quirks have been registered and regulated. One of the reasons for this is to prevent people with dangerous quirks from hurting people with them, so it's not something you hear of very often. However, please don't forget that you all hold a power that could cause damage to others with one wrong step.

"Aizawa put you through a physical exam so that you could learn the maximum output for your quirks, and in All Might's battle trial, you learned how it feels to use them against others, as well as the possible dangers. This class will be something different. It will have you using your quirks to save people. Your quirks can harm people, yes, but you do not have them just to do that. You are training to be heroes, so you understand that your powers are meant to save peoples' lives.

"That is all. Thank you for listening." Thirteen bowed as an applause built from her new students.

Aizawa stepped forward, getting our attention. "Alright then, first-"

Suddenly, the ring of lights along the edge of the dome went out, darkening the area where we all stood. That was the first indication that something was wrong, and what stopped Aizawa talking. Then I noticed that the constant white noise from the fountain in the central plaza stuttered a few times as the water stopped flowing for instants before starting again. That was what had me looking towards it, a gaze which Aizawa followed.

Black mist surged from nowhere, bright yellow eyes within it visible even at this distance.

"Don't move," Aizawa ordered. "Everyone stay together! Thirteen, protect the students!" He was in a stance to let him move quickly, and people had noticed. I stepped forwards, Anesidora's controls active and a hand reaching for my quirk case.

"We've got intruders in the USJ," I told the class calmly. I watched people climb out of the black fog. "Dozens of them in the plaza alone."

"They're not part of the class, are they? Kirishima asked.

"No," Eraser Head confirmed, moving his yellow goggles up to his eyes. "Those are villains."