"I am here- coming through the door like a hero!"
The huge figure of All Might burst through the door, gasps and cheers filled the room as the students bubbled with excitement.
"I can't believe it! All Might's actually going to be teaching us!"
"This year is going to be totally awesome!"
"It's his silver age costume! How vintage!"
"Welcome to Foundational Hero Studies! Think of it as heroing 101! You'll be learning the basics of being a pro and what it means to fight for the name of good. Let's jump right into it! Today's lesson- Battle Trials!"
Yaoyorozu turned to Katsumi, finding her already looking at her, a smug 'I told you so' smirk on her face.
"And one of the keys to being a hero is… looking good! These were designed for you based on your quirk registration forms and the request you sent in before school started! Get yourself suited up and then meet me at ground beta!"
"And don't forget from now on, you all are official heroes!"
Once they collected their cases Katsumi followed the rest of the girls to the changing rooms, Yaoyorozu by her side, wondering aloud about the exact type of battles they would be doing.
Uraraka opened a locker in the far corner, placing her case inside before unlocking it. The room buzzed with the girls chatting, all excited about their costumes. The two most energetic of the classmates seemed to be a girl with pink skin and another who was completely invisible. They giggled as they took off their shoes.
Uraraka's attention drifted to Yagi, who was talking with the girl who had scored the highest yesterday- her name was Yayorozu if she remembered correctly. At lunch, she had noticed the pair standing in line and she had pointed it out to Deku, hoping to ease his worries about Yagi. Uraraka was trying to reassure him that Yagi wasn't alone, but in hindsight, she realized it probably wasn't as comforting as she had hoped. Maybe she should talk to Yagi for him. It was just a misunderstanding, Yagi didn't even seem that upset with him and her casual, even happy face as she spoke to her black-haired classmate seemed to suggest she was over it already.
"Hey, new girl!"
Uraraka was jerked out of her thoughts as the two outgoing girls walked up to Katsumi. The blonde turned towards them and in turn Uraraka, she turned back to her locker before she realised she had been staring at her.
"Am I really any newer than the rest of you?" Katsumi raised an eyebrow at the duo.
The invisible girl giggled, "I suppose not. Seems you've already met Yaoyorozu so it's our turn to introduce ourselves! I'm Toru Hagakure-"
"Mina Ashio!" The bubbly pink girl butted in, she pointed to the purple-haired girl sitting on the bench, "The girl the earphone jacks is Kyoka Jiro-"
"Ah, uh hey," She said, looking a little surprised to hear her name.
"This ones Tsuyu Asui!"
"Ribbit, you can call me Tsu." A slightly strange-looking girl said. Katsumi remembered Yaoyorozu saying she seemed to have a quirk related to frogs, which explained her appearance.
"And this is," Ashido paused for a moment as she gestured to the last girl in the room, "uh, Ochaco Uraraka right?"
"Oh," Uraraka looked up from the large shoes in her hand, "yeah I'm Uraraka."
"Oh good I got it right!" Ashido cheered, "It's just we all sit together for lunch so we know each other's names, but you eat with those boys right?"
"Yeah Iida and Deku." Uraraka looked at Katsumi tentatively, she stared back at her with an uncaring expression, the coolness in her gaze immediately dissipating as she turned back to Ashido.
"Nice to meet you all!" She smiled, "My name is Katsumi Yagi, I'm from America so if you wouldn't mind call me Katsumi instead of Yagi."
"America?" Ashido marvelled," Wow! I knew you looked foreign, I just assumed you were a gyaru!"
"I'm fully Japanese."
"Oh!"
"Katsumi how long were you living in America for?" Hagakure asked.
"Since I was eight," She replied, sitting on the bench and beginning to take off her shoes. "My parents split and after a while, my mum moved us to America."
"Sorry to hear that!"
"So are you living with your Dad now?" Jiro asked.
"Yup."
A small giggle came from beside her.
"What's funny?" Katsumi raised her brow as she turned to Yaoyorozu, a slight grin on her lips.
"Nothing," she smiled before she cleared her throat and looked at the girls seriously, "C'mon stop chatting and get your costumes on, we don't want to be late."
"Okay okay! Ah, this is all so exciting!" Ashido grinned as she went back to her locker.
Katsumi looked at her briefcase, the requested costume folded neatly inside. This was it, the first real heroics lesson of her high school career. This was it, she was actually doing it.
"They say clothes make the pros and behold, you are the proof! Take this to heart, from now on you all are heroes in training! You all look so cool! Now, shall we get started you bunch of noobies?"
Katsumi walked out alongside Yaoyorozu, she had thought her costume was a little risque, but standing next to her friend, it looked modest. Though she could probably guess it was for her quirks functionality, she couldn't help but wonder how on earth it was comfortable? Especially seeing as she wasn't wearing a bra, Katsumi was almost the same size as Yaoyorozu in that department, she knew how uncomfortable being unsupported could be. That's why she made sure to request an outfit with an in-built sports bra.
She had taken some inspiration from the two heroes she liked, sporting a Mirko-like sleeveless gymnastics leotard with the colours of All Might's golden age costume. She even had the diamond pattern across her chest, though she had opted for the actual diamond to be a cutout, unlike Yaoyorozu there was no reason for the exposure, she just wanted it.
"Katsumi are you a fan of All Might?"
"Huh?" she turned around to where the voice had come from, it was the frog girl, "oh hey, Tsu right?"
"Ribbit," she nodded, seemingly happy that she had used the nickname, "your costume is like one of All Mights."
Opening her mouth she wasn't sure what to say. Should she just say it now? "Yeah I'm a fan I guess."
It was best not to cause a scene at the beginning of a lesson.
Despite the many different people around her, she couldn't help but look around for Izuku, but she had little luck. Still talking to Tsu about each other's costumes she saw something in the corner of her eye. A boy dressed in a green jumpsuit with that Uraraka girl. She turned her head to get a better look at the pair, the boy was very obviously flustered as the short girl talked to him. Her costume was just as tight as Katsumi's and it was clearly making him nervous.
It was definitely Izuku, for god sake. Katsumi just bit her cheek and turned away. She was too distracted by her feelings of jealousy to notice the scowl of the scarred boy from the entrance exam.
"I like everyone's styles!" All Might smiled, the smile faulted for a moment as he came across Katsumi. She hadn't let him have any input into the design. On one hand, he was quite chuffed that she had used the design on his golden age costume, on the other hand, he wished his teenage daughter was covered a little more. She didn't even notice him, she was too busy staring at the ground with an angry look on her face. That was strange.
He almost started laughing when he found Midoriya, the rabbit-like ears on his hood almost identical to his signature hairstyle. Way to make it obvious. He was standing quite far from Katsumi, surprisingly, All Might thought they would be together. Instead, he was talking to a brown-haired girl- oh. He looked back to his daughter, talking half-heartedly to a very pink girl.
His thought process was interrupted as a student dressed head to toe in armour asked about where they would be conducting the lesson. He quickly went back into teacher mode, explaining their indoor battle training. The students bombarded him with questions.
"My quirk isn't superhearing! Not all at once! You first!" He said pointing at the armoured boy.
"Sir, there's an uneven amount of students! How will the teams work," he asked.
"I'm afraid one team will simply have an extra person."
"Wait that's not fair!" A student protested.
"Sorry!" Whoops, that was his fault. Principle Nezu had guaranteed Katsumi a spot in UA whether she did well on the written exam or not, but in order to make it fair for the other students he decided to add another seat to one of the classes. He hadn't told Katsumi that obviously, she ended up passing anyway. "That's the way it is sometimes!" he shrugged.
Finally, after pulling out the notes he had made just in case, he finished explaining the rules sufficiently. Now, it was time to draw teams.
He felt a little guilty when he saw Katsumi's face when Midoriya ended up with the brown-haired girl from before. The girl had bad luck. As a consolation luck partnered her up with a black-haired girl she seemed to have already befriended. Good, she had made some friends already.
"What luck it is that we've been put together!" Yaoyorozu smiled.
"Hope you're not sick of me yet." Katsumi half laughed.
"Of course not!"
Subconsciously Katsumi had positioned herself so though she was looking at her partner she could see Izuku behind her as well. His partner looked happy paired with him, he looked just as flustered as before, Izuku didn't act that flustered with her. Great. He looked over to her, she quickly looked away. She couldn't see his expression which annoyed her even more.
"And the first two pairs to do combat will be the following-" All Might rummaged around in two boxes- "Pair A as the heroes and pair D playing the villains!"
Katsumi looked around to see who was up first, it was the boy dressed head to toe in armour (she guessed it was that blue-haired ass from earlier seeing as she couldn't see him anywhere else) and 'Kacchan'. She looked at Katsuki Bakugou properly for the first time, Yaoyorozu's description of him was pretty accurate, blonde spiky hair and vaguely delinquent looking. He looked like the type to bully people with his slouched posture and sharp red eyes, poor Izuku. Katsumi felt a little guilty (despite her current annoyance towards Izuku) as she admitted to herself that with his demeanour and red eyes, he was much closer to her type than him.
His costume consisted of a black and orange tank top with baggy pants. The most interesting thing was the two huge gauntlets on his hands. There must be a practical reason for them, did they actually work? He glared over at her, Katsumi furrowed her brows, what did she do? But after a moment she realised he wasn't looking at her. Turning behind her she saw he was looking at Izuku, who was staring right back.
All Might took the four of them to the building where they would be battling and sent them to their positions before he led the rest of them to another building to watch over the fight through CCTV.
Katsumi watched Izuku and Bakugou as they followed All Might alone with their teammates. Her friend hadn't talked about 'Kacchan' much but from what she did know, he hated him.
She wondered just how far the bullying had gone, she knew she was his first friend in a long time, had this boy's bullying shunned him so much into isolation? Had it been just verbal or had he gotten physical with him? She already knew he had tried to attack him once, if he had done it so easily in front of other people what had he done in private?
Now they would be fighting each other, Izuku still was getting hurt from his own quirk, and going up against someone who would want to hurt him… Fists clenched together, Katsumi followed the class into the surveillance room.
"Now as we watch Team A and B I want you all to come up with strategies of your own." All Might said as the class settled down. Katsumi had gone to the back, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Yaoyorozu had followed her, very obviously in thought about their own strategies.
"If we are put as the villains I think-"
"Shh."
"Pardon?"
"Sorry, can we just watch this one?" Whispering she stared at the cameras. Yaoyorozu looked at her with a frown before she realised, she was worried about her friend.
"Sure, we can strategise afterwards."
The aim of the fight was for the heroes to secure a fake bomb the villains were protecting. The villains had to stop them, either capturing them with tape or holding them back until the time ran out.
The hero team began their infiltration by Uraraka using her quirk to float them up to a window. It was a cool quirk, at least Katsumi would have thought that if she didn't have a grudge against the round-faced girl. As the pair sneaked through the corridors of the building one half of the villain team left the bomb room, and he looked angry.
Katsumi could barely hear the chatter of her classmates as she watched the two teams slowly get closer, at least she thought they were, she couldn't quite work out how the cameras connected. Her throat was slowly tightening and her heart felt heavy, why was she so nervous?
"A sneak attack!"
Bakugou jumped from behind a corner, swung his arm and shot out an explosion towards the pair. They fell back immediately, Katsumi stepped forward from the wall, the camera's view was disturbed with smoke, but she could still see Izuku, half of his mask blown off. She felt her chest tie together like a knot.
"Thats low Bakugou!" A boy with spiky red hair exclaimed. "Sneak attacks are so unmanly!"
"Yet they are a viable strategy." All Might reminded them.
"That Midoriya sure can dodge!" Ashido grinned, obviously pumped.
Bakugou swung his arm towards Izuku, who grabbed his arm, throwing him to the floor. Katsumi wetted her lips.
There was no audio alongside the cameras, but it was clear the two were arguing, shouting at each other. On the other camera Iida was talking to Bakugou over their receivers, Katsumi was too focused on the cameras following Izuku to care.
Bakugou lunged forward, propelled by a bright explosion, Uraraka began to run as Izuku faced his old friend. Katsumi gritted her teeth as he just about dodged his violent attack.
"Run away," she said under her breath. There was no way he could go against him right now. Izuku seemed to be able to read his attack well but that just wasn't enough. She felt the knot in her chest loosen a little when she saw the flash of green disappear around the corner. But the crackles of explosions the seething blonde boy let off as he shouted after him had her anxiety flooding right back.
Katsumi ignored the voices of her classmates around her and watched closely at the cameras, eyes darting from the screens displaying the figures of Izuku and the ones of Bakugou, trying to work out how close they were. The latter boy's gritted teeth and blazing eyes were clear for everyone to see as he prowled the corridors. Her attention was only diverted for a moment to take notice of the fact that Uraraka had managed to get into the bomb room- only to blow her cover through laughing. Stupid.
"Uh oh, Bakugou found him!"
Her sharp gaze snapped back to the last screen she had seen Izuku at, crouched down he turned to look behind him, a menacing shadow stretching across the floor towards him.
"Just run!" Katsumi said softly.
Bakugou was saying something to him, an unnerving grin on his face. He held out his right arm, pointing it directly at Izuku. Something was wrong, he looked crazed as he slowly pulled the pin out of the gauntlet.
"Bakugou," All Might spoke into the mic with what Katsumi thought was nowhere near enough urgency, "Stop it now kid. Are you trying to kill-"
Boom.
The explosion was so loud they could hear the sound. Katsumi's mouth went dry- the cameras flashing bright with yellow light.
"Midoriya!" All MIght gasped alongside the students. Katsumi's face went dark as she saw the small figure of Izuku on the floor, dirty, bruised and eyes wide.
"That's too far!" Pushing past her classmates Katsumi shouted, "D- you gotta stop it!"
Her Dad's back straightened a little but he didn't turn to face the angry girl, "No…" he took the microphone and spoke into it, "Bakugou if you use that move again I'll have to forcibly remove you from the match You will lose. Using massive attacks like that indoors is just asking to have your own stronghold destroyed! It's a bad move, a good way to lose points." Katsumi was right, he knew that. As a teacher he really should stop the match, but for young Midoriya…
"They hell sort of teacher are you?" Katsumi yelled, getting close to her Dad, "This isn't for the sake of the lesson he's trying to hurt him!"
"It's fine, he'll be okay," He said, eyes glued to the screen.
"Seriously? What's wrong with you?" Katsumi gritted her teeth, "Are you stupid or what Da- All Might!?"
"Don't insult All Might!" An annoying boy's voice called out from below, "Have some respect!"
Katsumi almost growled, "Oh shut up-" she stopped when she processed where the voice had come from. Looking down her fiery expression rearranged into one of pure annoyance. The boy the voice had come from was an extremely short boy with purple balls on his head and a metal diaper-like costume. "What the fuck are you supposed to be!?" She snapped.
"Katsumi please don't swear during class! Especially not at your classmates."
"Whatever!" Katsumi barked, attention diverted once again to the screens as Bakugou slammed an explosion into Izuku's back. "Dammint!"
Growling in exasperation she turned her head, feeling a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay," Yaoyorozu said seriously, "Calm down." Katsumi knocked her hand off.
"He changed his trajectory while in midair using a blast that doubled as a smoke screen… very cleverly." A cool voice commented.
Katsumi spun around to glare at Todoroki.
"He doesn't seem like a thinker, but that strategy was fairly intricate," Yaoyorozu noted.
"Damn, this guy's good." Purple Balls agreed.
What the hell? We're they really complimenting him when he was so obviously using the lesson as an excuse to beat the shit out of Izuku? Katsumi had the sudden urge to rip all their throats out.
"Are we just going to ignore that All Might just called Katsumi by her first name?" Tsu asked out of nowhere.
Katsumi blinked as she looked at the froggy girl, glancing over to her Dad who had frozen in place. The entire class turned to Tsu, then All Might, then Katsumi.
"Whoops! Let's focus on the battle for now!" All Might laughed awkwardly, sweatdrops clearly displayed on his neck as he turned to the screens only to be met with the sight of the two boys running towards each other.
"Wait she's right you di-"
"Dad this is bad!" Kasumi gave up on the secret, ignoring the wide eyes of her classmates. She felt her eyes actually start prickling with tears as she pleaded with him, "Dad!"
"Both of you!" He gritted his teeth as he gripped the microphone tightly in his hand, "Stop-"
He was interrupted by another ground-shaking sound as Izuku threw his arm upward, letting out a powerful burst of energy. On the other screen, the bomb room blew apart, the force of Izuku's attack destroying the floor. Using her quirk Uraraka picked up a large pillar, using it to hit pieces of debris toward the off-balanced Iida. She jumped forward to the bomb.
"The Hero team… wins!"