MyHeroAssociation

by PhineasFlash25

After a Mysterious-Cube falls from the sky, Class-1A finds themselves transported to a strange alternate-universe, and until they can return home to stop All-For-One and Shigaraki, they must train under the Class-S Heroes of this Other-World, and grow strong enough to win the Final-War that awaits them... (An Alternate Take on Lumpeistbark3's CYA: What Defines A Hero Series)

6. Chapter-5: Rivalries

My Hero Association Chapter-5

Month 1: Week 2:

Rivalries

---

Strength vs Skill: Bang, DarkShine, & ZombieMan's Groups, plus MetalBat

A couple of days had passed, and after Ojiro and Hagakure both expressed the thought of Hagakure training under Bang's Fist of Flowing-Water Crushing-Rock, Bang, seeing the opportunity to have more students, happily opened his doors. In fact, he extended the same offer to the Association that he had previously some months ago; Any Individuals willing to learn or even just experience his martial-arts was welcome to come and join in his demonstration.

The teens were waking up and going about their normal business in the common-room, when none other than ZombieMan, DarkShine, and MetalBat entered the room. Kirishima was the first of the group of students to rush over and greet his teacher, followed slowly by the others.

"Yo, DarkShine! What are you guys doing up here?" Kirishima asked, bowing to his master.

"Bang had sent out invites to his dojo, and since we're all going, we decided to go together." DarkShine mentioned. At the mention of Master Bang, Ojiro and Midoriya also made their way over.

"Bang wants to give you a demonstration before you decide to join." Ojiro said next to Hagakure.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see it!" Hagakure exclaimed in reply.

"It might not be Bang you learn from, though. I had some ideas of my own about which fighting-style you should take on, but I'm no martial-artist, so I wanted a second-opinion." ZombieMan said, leaning against a wall and smoking one of his cigarettes.

"That's ok, as long as I can get stronger." Hagakure said, pumping her fist into the air.

"Still, just because we might be learning under different teachers, that doesn't mean we can't still train together sometimes." Ojiro commented, giving Hagakure a fist-bump.

Suddenly the room was silenced by the harsh tone of MetalBat.

"I don't care about any martial-arts. Just a bunch of fancy poses, if you ask me. All I need is my bat, and the only reason I'm going to is because the old geezer reminded me about our rematch. I'll clock him real good this time." MetalBat said, tightening his hand on his bat.

"Is he always like this?" Kaminari whispered to Koda, who only nodded his head in reply.

"Either way, if you can learn something from the old coot, then by all means." MetalBat said as he left the room, shouldering his bat behind his neck. "Doctor Dolittle, you're picking up my sister from school today, and for your training, just hit the gym! We'll do more tomorrow."

"While not quite for the same reasons, I'm with MetalBat. When it comes to martial-arts, I'm just using this as a chance to spar with Bang." DarkShine said with a laugh as he to walked out of the room. Leaving only ZombieMan to let out a sigh from his colleagues' behavior.

"Well, I guess I'm the only one who's going there to actually learn something. Just meet us in the garage when you're finished with breakfast." he said solemnly, taking his leave as well.

Midoriya, Ojiro, Kirishima, Hagakure and Tokoyami all said their farewells to their classmates before taking off as a large group, off to Bang's Dojo.

(1 Hour and 45 Minutes Later...)

The large group got out of the limousine and stared up at the dojo on the large mountain.

"So that's Bang's Dojo huh? Did it have to be on top of a mountain?" ZombieMan said as he let out a sigh in resignation.

"It probably gives him peace of mind." DarkShine suggested.

"Whatever reason doesn't matter, it ain't that far up!" MetalBat said.

"You know a shortcut?" Hagakure questioned.

"Of course I do. The quickest way between any two points is… straightforward!" he said while running forward towards the steep, rocky mountainside and leaping upwards.

"Well, he ain't wrong about that." DarkShine said while following after him, passing him and landing on top in a single leap.

"So Manly!" Kirishima said, clenching his fist.

"I think that's the smartest thing I've ever heard him say. Well, it beats taking the stairs." ZombieMan commented, as he started towards the mountain side. Instead of jumping like the others, he reached into his trench coat and pulled out a device that shot out a grappling-hook towards the mountain's summit, reeling him upwards.

"He's got a grapple-gun? Cool! Hey guys, how about we race to the top?" Kirishima suggested.

"I doubt any of us could beat Midoriya." Tokoyami commented.

"A contest for second-place, then! Come on you guys, it would get the blood pumping and ready for what's to come!" Kirishima said with a wide smile.

"I'm up for it!" Hagakure said excitedly, even though she knew that she would undoubtedly come in last place.

"Fine. We need to get up there anyway." Tokoyami replied.

"I'm game." Ojiro answered.

"Sure, I'm on board." Midoriya said.

After all the contenders lined up and counted-down, the race began. Tokoyami summoned DarkShadow and used his Dark-Fallen-Angel technique to take to the sky. Kirishima charged towards the mountainside headfirst, Hardening his hands into claws as he scaled the mountain straight up. Ojiro used his tail to bound up the cliff face, and as expected, Midoriya made it to the top in a single bound, similar to DarkShine. Midoriya came in first, as expected, with Tokoyami arriving just seconds later. Ojiro and Kirishima both made it to the top at around the same time, and without any precise way to measure who got there first, they accepted it as a tie for third-place. They waited a few minutes for Hagakure to climb the stairs, gasping for breath by the time she reached the end.

"I came in dead-last... again." she said in-between breaths.

"Damn it, maybe this was a bad idea..." Ojiro thought. Hagakure was still beating herself up for being given the lowest rank in the Association out of all her classmates. Coming in last for their race wasn't going to make her feel any better. Thinking quickly, he thought of a way to console her.

"I mean, it's a contest of speed, so it's understandable you wouldn't do all that well. If it were a contest of stealth, then the rest of us would've totally blown it, and you'd be the automatic winner."

That seemed to cheer her up a little bit, but Hagakure could still feel the wide chasm between her and the rest of them. It was one of the reasons they were here, because she needed to catch up.

With the race concluded, they all entered Bang's Dojo. The martial-artist was waiting for them, along with Charanko.

"I thought I heard a familiar voice." Bang said as he looked at MetalBat, then promptly redirected a strike from his bat that was aimed for his head.

"I told you, ya old geezer, that I'd come back to settle the score!" MetalBat said, hefting his bat and getting ready to strike again, but pausing as Bang held out his hand.

"I'll take you on again. Can it just wait until after my demonstration?" Bang asked.

"Tch, sure whatever you say, Gramps." MetalBat conceded, walking off to the side.

"I hope that invitation extends to me as well." DarkShine said as he walked up behind MetalBat. causing Bang to just let out a sigh. He hadn't had these many challengers since the dojo-hunters started leaving him alone.

"Sure, after MetalBat, I can spar with you as well." Bang said, nodding his head in acknowledgement, and receiving a nod in return from DarkShine. He was followed closely by ZombieMan and the group of teens behind him. He stopped Hagakure with a pat on the shoulder.

"You must be the invisible-girl Ojiro and Midoriya have been telling me about. Ms. Hagakure, correct?" he said with a graceful smile.

"Yup, that's me. Although ZombieMan may still have different plans for me." Hagakure replied.

"Ah, I see. Hopefully today's demonstration can change his mind."

Midoriya and Ojiro were partially surprised at how dressed-up Bang made his dojo. For this occasion, there were fancy banners decorating the walls, as well as more decorated rugs that clearly outlined the arena. The students took up seats next to the front of the arena while the heroes all took up residence near the edges. Ojiro noticed the annoyed look on Charanko's face, and asked him what the problem was. Charanko responded with a tiny sideways glance at MetalBat.

"That guy, he has absolutely no respect for Bang, or his martial-arts. I don't even know why he came back a second time." Charanko noted contemptuously.

"He mentioned that he wanted payback for last time. What happened?" Midoriya asked.

"A few months ago, he challenged Bang to a duel, and Bang defeated him fair and square, but MetalBat wouldn't accept it. Like I said, no respect."

Ojiro grinned sincerely.

"You really do care about Bang, don't you? I'm sure he doesn't mind, so you shouldn't get yourself so worked up over it. He can defend his own honor."

Any reply that Charanko had died in his throat, as Bang took center stage in front of them. He began like he usually did, showing off the forms and stances of his fighting-style, but quickly grew into faster and more fluid motions, some that the group besides Charanko had never seen before. His pace became so fast that they could no longer even see his hands moving, before slowing down and showing the motions and steps one-by-one, and finished the demonstration with a bow.

The teens in front of him offered a round of applause at his performance.

"I don't know what I just saw, but it sure looked cool!" Hagakure exclaimed, clapping her hands.

"It was so fast, but it looked like that move where you sped-up was an omni-directional defense?" Ojiro asked. Bang was thrilled at the boy's observation.

"You are indeed correct; It is called the Water-Stream Encampment, a defensive technique that repels attacks from multiple angles." he said confidently.

"Woah, that sounds awesome, like an absolute defense!" Kirishima said with growing excitement.

"Most impressive." Tokoyami commented with a nod.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... you done now? I'm itching for my rematch!" MetalBat said from his corner.

"You could learn a few things from these people in front of you about patience, MetalBat. But sure, it would always be better to show an in-action demonstration. But not here, I don't want another wall to break." Bang remarked as he approached the door and proceeded outside, followed closely by the rest of the group.

Bang brought the group towards the back of the dojo; it was a rocky and barren landscape surrounded by a couple of trees and a small stream passing down further back. He approached one end of the arena and prompted for MetalBat to step up as well, each opponent standing 40 paces apart. Bang explained the rules of the match. It would be a timed duel that lasted for 15 minutes, or until one of the opponents couldn't fight any longer. Bang and MetalBat both took their stances.

"Oh man, I can tell this is going to be tense! Who do you think's going to win?" Kirishima asked.

"Bang already showed this idiot the boot once before. There's no way he'll lose now, especially if he still just swings that bat around." Charanko said confidently.

"I'm with Charanko. From what I've seen so far, Bang's martial-arts are extremely effective in dealing with straightforward attacks." Ojiro reinforced.

"Only one way to find out..." Hagakure said in anticipation. After a small countdown, the two combatants charged at each other.

MetalBat was the first to strike, attempting to deliver a savage blow down onto the old man's head, but the blow was easily deflected with a quick swipe of Bang's hand. MetalBat continued swinging his signature weapon and namesake, growing more and more furious as each of them were either diverted or dodged by Bang, with the occasional counterstrike in-between. Then, when MetalBat retreated a few steps and started charging at him, Bang calmly stepped to the side, and just as MetalBat passed him, unable to halt his momentum, Bang kicked him in the back and sent him flying across the arena. Only 5 minutes had passed, and Bang clearly held the advantage, angering the younger hero greatly.

"You're still just running away! Be a man, fight me straight-up!" MetalBat shouted as he got back onto his feet.

"Fighting takes on many different shapes and forms; your opponents will not always fight the way you want them to fight." Bang replied.

"Oh, you're dead, old man!" MetalBat roared, charging back into the fight, moving even faster than before and swinging his bat even harder at the old hero, but this didn't seem to make a difference. Bang was still able to evade and deflect all his attacks. Their fight accelerated and intensified, as the two combatants became blurs of motion across the arena, their strikes growing stronger and louder than bombs going off.

"Is it just me, or is he getting faster?" Midoriya wondered out loud.

"You're not wrong. The further they go, the harder it is for me to follow what's even happening." Tokoyami confirmed.

"Same here." Ojiro stated.

"This is just a rumor, but I've heard that MetalBat only gets stronger the more damage he takes." ZombieMan said while taking a puff from his cigarette, causing the teens to finally take their eyes off the battle for just a moment.

"Wow, that's so MANLY! I wish I had something like that!" Kirishima nearly screamed.

"But... how?" Midoriya questioned. "Quirks don't exist here, so how could an ability like that exist?" he wondered. ZombieMan only shrugged in return.

"No Idea. I doubt even he knows how he does it. He just calls it Fighting-Spirit." ZombieMan said.

The duel was coming to a head when Bang managed to knock him down one last time just as their 15 minutes were up. Although MetalBat didn't listen to the time, as he continued to attack.

"Times up, you've lost." Bang said finally.

"I didn't lose anything! You never even hit me!" MetalBat exclaimed, slamming his bat down one more time, hitting the mountainside and nearly causing an avalanche with the resulting vibrations. He was about to strike again, but upon seeing that Bang was already turning around and walking away, he reluctantly conceded that the fight was over.

"Tch, whatever. If this is all martial-arts have to offer, then it's just as stupid as I imagined. My little sister's piano-lessons are almost done anyways." MetalBat said, shouldering his bat again before walking off to wherever he needed to be for the rest of the day.

Bang started to make his way over to the group, as he approached, he looked towards ZombieMan.

"So ZombieMan, what are your thoughts?"

"Well, I can definitely see why they call it the ultimate defensive martial-arts, but I was thinking of something a little more offensive." ZombieMan said politely.

"The Fist of Flowing-Water Crushing-Rock provides plenty of offense, as well as defense." Charanko countered.

"With that, I have no doubt." ZombieMan acknowledged.

"You seem to already know the style you're comparing it to." Bang summarized.

"Indeed, the art that I planned for her was the Fist of Whirling-Wind Slashing-Steel. I'm sure you're familiar with it."

"My brother's fighting-style? What made you pick that one?" Bang asked.

"Well, I think it would be best suited for her power." ZombieMan elaborated, then gestured to Hagakure to emphasize what he said next.

"She's completely invisible, so she already has a great defense, or rather evasion, when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. What she's currently lacking the most are offensive capabilities."

Bang rubbed his chin in thought before replying.

"Yes, that does seem quite logical. These children have a strong moral-code that demands they avoid using lethal-force whenever possible, and while that particular style is very aggressive, it still has non-lethal applications and is not nearly as devastating as..."

Bang closed his eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

"Uh, what is it, Master Bang?" Ojiro asked.

"It is nothing, just some old memories," Bang replied, opening his eyes and returning to the conversation. "Yes, I think my brother's fighting-style would be an excellent match for her."

"Alright then, I'll go meet him. Are we going now?" Hagakure asked. ZombieMan nodded his head. Offering their thanks to Bang, ZombieMan and his two students all bowed in respect, and then left to visit Bomb's Dojo.

"Well, with that out of the way, I guess it's my turn." DarkShine said.

"Yes, I believe I kept you waiting long enough, DarkShine." Bang gave a nod and proceeded back to the arena.

"Oh yeah, it's DarkShine's turn, I can't wait to see how THIS will play out." Kirishima said, pumping a fist into the air.

"You think he'll do better than MetalBat?" Midoriya said curiously.

"It doesn't matter. Bang won't be defeated." Charanko said with admiration.

The two opponents stared each other down. Under the same rules as the previous bout, the two stood 40 paces apart, and after a brief countdown, the match began. Unlike before, where MetalBat charged forward to attack Bang head-on, DarkShine started with a more cautious approach, which Bang also implemented. They both slowly but steadily walked towards the center of the arena, tension building as they met. The first one to launch an attack was DarkShine, a straight jab that Bang redirected away with both of his arms. The force of the jab blew away all of the dust that was kicked up by the previous duel. DarkShine struck again with his other fist, which Bang intercepted using his Perfect-Counter technique, reflecting his opponent's attack back at him with triple the force. The blow landed, and yet it barely moved the wall of muscle that was DarkShine. Still, the movement was enough to throw him off balance and stagger back a little. Capitalizing on this, Bang used a leg-sweeping kick to knock DarkShine off his feet, and in the split-second before he hit the ground, Bang struck him with an ultimate-move called the Piercing-Fang. This attack sent DarkShine hurdling dozens of meters across the arena, slamming into a stone wall at the edge.

DarkShine seemingly felt that one, but he recovered quickly and rushed back in. Bang dodged out of the way of the charge, but was nearly taken off-guard from the reverse backswing of DarkShine's massive fist. He ducked under the blow and then sidestepped another massive jab from DarkShine's other fist. The musclebound hero then balled up both of his fists together and slammed them into the ground, striking like a meteor and fragmenting the terrain, with some chunks of earth even getting propelled upwards by the force of the impact. Despite this, Bang was somehow able to maintain his footing, and didn't let the sudden shift in terrain distract him from the gigantic follow-up punch that DarkShine sent his way.

The struggle continued, and Bang never once took a direct hit, and was even able to damage DarkShine a little. But unlike with MetalBat, every time DarkShine was knocked to the ground, there was nothing but a smile on his face as he got back up and tried again, until their time finally ran out.

"Whoa, even DarkShine couldn't lay a finger on him!" Kirishima said, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped in utter amazement.

"I told you so! Bang is the best!" Charanko said triumphantly.

"Yeah, but even still, those muscles aren't just for show. I could feel the power behind his punches all the way from here!" Ojiro said.

"Yeah, DarkShine's an absolute boss. This was the first time I got to really see him fight, but I knew he had to be crazy strong. He might even be as strong as AllMight... wait..."

Kirishima turned around and stared at Midoriya, the gears turning inside his head.

"Huh? Uh, what is it, Kirishima?" Midoriya asked, as his friend continued to stare at him.

"Midoriya, you should challenge DarkShine!" he yelled.

"Wait, What?! Why?"

"Because it would be super awesome! You have the same power as AllMight, plus all those extra Quirks! If any of us could beat him, you could!" Kirishima said in excitement.

"Oh, so you're that Midoriya kid! Kirishima spoke very highly of you." DarkShine said, walking up and entering the conversation. "He says you're the strongest one in your entire group. I'm down for another match if you are."

"Umm… sure I suppose." Midoriya said, getting up and entering the arena. He could hear Kirishima shouting with excitement behind him.

"Oh Yeah, now we're talking! This is gonna be so manly!" He said as he got his phone out, ready to record the upcoming battle.

"Actually, this might be a good test for me," Midoriya thought. "To see what level I'm at right now."

Shortly after arriving in this world, Midoriya had decided to aim for the same standard of power that Blast had demonstrated. If he could get even halfway there, he was certain that he could defeat Shigaraki one-on-one. But that was still a long ways away, and so testing his strength and skill against another opponent, another Class-S Hero, seemed like a good learning experience.

"You sure he'll be alright?" Charanko asked Ojiro, worried about Midoriya.

"Don't worry about Midoriya, he's really strong too. He was made a Class-S Hero right off the bat."

"What!? No way!" Charanko replied in disbelief.

"Yup, Rank-18 I believe." Ojiro stated.

"I think that would make him the second youngest in the Association's history." Bang noted as he came over to join the spectators.

"Yeah, and I think Todoroki was ranked 19." Kirishima commented.

Before anyone else could say anything more, Charanko signaled the match to begin. After some warm-up stretches, DarkShine took a wide stance, leaving himself as wide-open as possible.

"I'll let you get the first shot in. No need to hold back either. Nothing has ever hurt these muscles." DarkShine said confidently. Midoriya turned to Bang and Kirishima, silently asking for their thoughts on the matter.

"He's not bluffing. Even I would have trouble actually damaging him." Bang confirmed.

"It's true, I injured myself trying to punch him, even in my Unbreakable Form!" Kirishima shouted from the sidelines.

Believing them, Midoriya nodded in understanding. He powered-up his Full-Cowling, going all the way to 75%, his current maximum. His hair stood up and brightened, and green lightning began to surge through and around his body. DarkShine whistled in surprise, the grin on his face growing with anticipation. Midoriya launched himself with a mighty leap forward. DarkShine stood still, just like he said he would. Midoriya punched him right in the chest, making him take a step back in disbelief. He actually felt that punch. He touched his chest and felt a small phantom of pain there, just enough to feel where the punch had landed. He looked back up with a an even bigger smile.

"Damn, you're definitely strong enough to be in Class-S. Now I hope you're ready for my COUNTER!" DarkShine said, winding up and delivering a straight right punch. Midoriya used a cross block to defend against the massive blow, and yet the power of it sent him flying back dozens of feet before he skidded to a halt. DarkShine was incredibly strong, but also surprisingly fast, closing the gap on Midoriya in less than a second. He unloaded a series of jabs in rapid succession, but it soon became clear that Midoriya was still the faster of the two, and with his DangerSense, he could evade all of DarkShine's attacks as long as he remained focused on defense.

Midoriya jumped back, shooting out multiple air-blasts with his fingers, but DarkShine simply let the attacks wash over him unscathed. Changing tactics, Midoriya used his BlackWhip to wrap around DarkShine's legs, tripping him over, and used Float to fly up into the air. He then used BlackWhip to create two grapple-lines that embedded themselves into the ground on either side of DarkShine. Midoriya then used these lines as a slingshot, propelling himself feetfirst into DarkShine's face for a powerful dropkick, but to his surprise, DarkShine didn't even budge. Midoriya acted quickly, swinging his right leg around trying to perform another kick, this time aimed for the side of his head. DarkShine let it land, and the resulting tremor was tremendous, sending powerful gusts of hurricane-level winds blowing in all directions. But surprisingly, not only was DarkShine still undamaged, but he was also able to grab Midoriya by the leg, lifting him up and slamming him back down into the ground. Thinking fast, Midoriya used his SmokeScreen Quirk to cloud his movement, hoping that the shock of the maneuver would loosen DarkShine's grip. He managed to get out from under DarkShine, and was about to unleash another series of attacks from the cover of smoke, but with a single clap of his hands, DarkShine cleared the smoke away with a thunderous shockwave.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" DarkShine said with a grin as he prepared for his next attack. Midoriya racked his brain on what else he could do. His punches didn't have enough oomph to really hurt DarkShine, and his BlackWhip and SmokeScreen Quirks didn't help, but there was still one trump-card he hadn't used yet.

Midoriya jumped back and prepared to use FaJin. He had spent the entire fight building-up kinetic-energy, and was now ready to channel it all into his fist for one final attempt. His fist began to surge with immense power. He charged at his opponent with a Pseudo-100% Texas-Smash! DarkShine reacted in kind, becoming enthralled with the battle, with a SuperAlloy Bazooka!

The two punches collided, sending a massive shockwave that could be felt from many miles away. Bang breathed a sigh of relief, as that final clash was the end of their bout. The smoke and dust cleared, and both combatants' fists were still connected. It was Midoriya who stepped back first, shaking his hand in pain.

"That was a great match!" DarkShine said, holding out his other hand for Midoriya to shake.

"It was! You're incredible, Mr. DarkShine!" Midoriya said in admiration.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Kirishima yelled after he put his phone away.

"Well at least there wasn't any damage done to my dojo." Bang said as he looked over the surrounding area. The mountain had barely survived, and the arena was utterly demolished, but at least his actual dojo was left untouched by the three duels.

"So, what do you have planned for the rest of the day, SilverFang?" DarkShine asked. Bang rubbed his chin in thought before looking over to Ojiro and Charanko.

"Would it be too much if you took them out for patrol? Ojiro was hoping to, and Charanko can use the experience." Bang questioned.

"Sure thing, I don't get to patrol very often these days. Everyone cool with that?" DarkShine received a wave of excited confirmation before the group headed out to the city, while Bang stayed behind to clean up the mess from their matches.

---

Patrol: DarkShine, Midoriya, Kirishima, Ojiro, Charanko

The motley crew of DarkShine, Kirishima, Midoriya, Ojiro, and Charanko all walked through the streets of City-Z. So far nothing of note was happening, only petty criminals that were quickly apprehended by the teens, until suddenly the monster-alarm rang out. There were four Tiger-Level Threats and one Demon-Level threat that appeared without warning. They immediately rushed towards the action, and were surprised by what they found. Up in the sky, there were four pterodactyl-like monsters, flying down and wrecking multiple buildings as the flew straight through them, and on the ground was a giant bipedal dinosaur that resembled an allosaurus, standing about as tall as Gigantomachia. The dinosaur had a gray-and-black coloration, its hard flesh making it look like it was made of granite and igneous rock. However, the most dangerous and startling thing about the reptilian beast, were the orange fireballs it was spitting out of its mouth. Though "magma-balls" might've been more accurate, as the glowing hot projectiles appeared to splatter on contact with their targets, acting similar to lava from a volcano.

Midoriya, Ojiro, and Kirishima immediately got to work saving all the fleeing civilians from the magma-balls and debris from crashing buildings. Meanwhile Charanko just cowered behind DarkShine, who stood motionless in the center of the street, watching the teens in amazement.

"They might be young, but these kids know their stuff." He commented.

Midoriya quickly finished rescuing a few civilians from a collapsing building, using BlackWhip to grab them and pull them out before they were crushed. Then his DangerSense went off. He turned around just in time to see a magma-ball fired directly at him. He charged his Full-Cowling up to 55% in his right-leg, and kicked the magma-ball away with a St. Louis-Smash: AirForce!

"Kirishima! Ojiro! Evacuate the civilians! I'll handle the dinosaurs!"

They both agreed and began evacuation. Midoriya used Float to ascend high into the city skyline, matching the altitude of the pterodactyls. He fired his BlackWhips at them, tying them up and closing their wings. They began to plummet downwards, but Midoriya had also used BlackWhip to fashion a net between buildings, breaking their fall and further restraining them, caught like flies in a spider's web. With the aerial threats neutralized, all that remained was the giant allosaurus-looking monster. Midoriya flew towards it, and the creature took notice, but seeing the other heroes escorting the civilians away, it tried to blast them with one of its magma-balls. Midoriya was fast, however, and kicked it off-course with another AirForce attack.

"Green hair, green energy, and the ability to fly... but you appear to be a male human, not the one that I've heard tales about." the dinosaur said.

Midoriya immediately rushed forward, soaring through the air and punching the monster in the face, sending it flying in the opposite direction of his friends and the civilians.

"Why are you doing this? Who are you?" Midoriya asked.

"I am the Ancient-Prince! My father was King of the Tyrant-Lizard Clan! Millions of years ago, back when there were seven continents, our proud race and bloodline ruled the Earth! But a gigantic meteor left our empire in ruins, and the nuclear-winter that followed forced us into hibernation! We patiently waited ages for the planet to heal itself, but by the time we had awakened, dominion over the Earth had been claimed by these warm-blooded creatures, and the various monsters and other races that continue to spawn or awaken as well! My father had attempted to reclaim the Earth for our kind, but he was slain by one of you humans! As Prince, it falls on me to avenge my father, and lead our proud race to glorious victory!"

"I'm sorry your father was killed, but these people are innocent, they had nothing to do with any of that! Why take your anger out on them?" Midoriya tried to reason. "And is this really the only option for you and your people? Isn't there a chance we could coexist in peace?"

"I'm afraid I have no interest in peace." the Ancient-Prince retorted. "Why compromise and share the world with others, when you can simply eliminate them and have it all?! It's far less annoying! No need for diplomacy, trade deals, debating over beliefs and principles. Simply dispose of anyone who isn't on your side, and things will always go your way!"

"I guess I know how the Tyrant-Lizard Clan got its name..." Midoriya thought. It became clear that he wasn't going to be able to reason with this creature. He raised his power-level up to 65%, and kicked the Ancient-Prince high up into the sky, and while in midair, wrapped him up in a massive web of his BlackWhip tendrils, then used his super-strength and Float ability to tow the giant reptilian despot far away from the city.

Meanwhile, down on the city streets, Kirishima, Ojiro, DarkShine, and Charanko had successfully escorted the multiple civilians to the nearby evacuation-shelter, but just as the shelter doors began to close, they felt a rumbling tremor beneath them. More dinosaur-like monsters began to erupt out from underneath the streets, these creatures resembling velociraptors and dilophosauruses. Ojiro counted 15 raptors and 5 dilophosauruses in total, but then, another, larger dinosaur came into view, one that looked different from anything Ojiro and Kirishima had ever seen before. The creature had blue-colored scales, and a head shaped like a crocodile's. It stood on two legs like a human, but its arms were longer, nearly touching the ground with its knuckles like a gorilla. Dark spikes protruded from its body in disordered and unsymmetrical fashion.

"I'll handle the big one, you kids can deal with the smaller guys." DarkShine told the teens.

The 15 raptors then dashed at the young heroes. Kirishima and Ojiro stood ready to face them, while Charanko still cowered behind them, unsure of himself. Then the two factions clashed. Kirishima hardened his body to block the strikes of two raptors simultaneously. Ojiro fought a dilophosaurus, the overgrown iguana trying to spit venomous goo in his face, but he was able to evade the attacks, get up close and knock the creature out with a tail swipe. DarkShine simply charged ahead towards the big one, plowing right through five of the dinosaurs that tried to stop him. Charanko started to walk backwards out of the way of the fight, but before he could, another raptor appeared in front of him, bearing down on him with daggerlike claws. He fell on his back and let out a shriek of fear, but was surprised when the assailant was knocked aside by Ojiro's tail.

"What are you doing? get up!" Ojiro demanded, grabbing the boy by the arm and lifting him back on his feet. Ojiro took a glance at his fellow disciple and saw how he was trembling. He was clearly terrified of the numerous enemies in front of him.

"Don't worry, they're a lot weaker than they look." he tried to encourage him. But Charanko didn't even register what he said, he was so terrified. Ojiro tried something else.

"Did Bang teach you to be a coward? He wanted you to experience hero-work, and this is it! Are you just gonna run away and embarrass him?"

This time Charanko looked right at him, and after processing what he said, managed to steel his resolve. Ojiro noted that his body stopped shaking, and he got himself into a fighting stance.

"I don't know if I can do this, but I'll be damned if I don't try." Charanko said.

Three more dilophosauruses and two more raptors showed up, attacking from five different angles. Back-to-back, Ojiro and Charanko used the Fist of Flowing-Water Crushing-Rock to evade their poisonous spit, while holding defensive stances that left no openings or blind-spots for them to strike from. However, they couldn't maintain this formation forever, and eventually they'd have to go on the offensive. Knowing this, Charanko closed the distance between one of the dilophosauruses and punched it in the face, leaving it open for Ojiro to wrap his tail around its leg and spin the creature, throwing it into a nearby wall. One down, four to go.

With a renewed determination not to disappoint Bang, Charanko pivoted away from one of the raptor's attacks, using his momentum to spin around and deliver a reverse roundhouse kick to the creature's neck. Then he did an open palm-strike to the creature's chest, knocking the wind out of the raptor and causing it to collapse as well. Two down, three to go.

Meanwhile, Ojiro was tackled by another dilophosaurus, and the two of the rolled around on the ground, until Ojiro halted their movement and choked the monster out with his tail. Three down, two to go.

Ojiro stood back up, only to find the last dilophosaurus standing right in front of him, already preparing to fire poisonous spit into his eyes. He saw the attack coming and briefly panicked, but remembered Bang's training. He wasn't sure if this would work, but stranger things had happened these last couple of weeks. He got into the stance as fast as he could, and miraculously, he managed to redirect the trajectory of the toxic spitball back at the monster, which then landed squarely in its face, causing it to reel back in pain and fall over, paralyzed by its own toxin.

"Perfect-Counter!"

Ojiro felt a surge of pride run through him. He had successfully performed one of Bang's ultimate-moves, and in a real fight, no less! All while neutralizing the last of the dilophosaurus monsters. Four down, one to go.

There was only one raptor left in sight. It was black with piercing red eyes, and hissed at them like a snake. Ojiro and Charanko resumed their stances, when suddenly they heard the ferocious sound of Kirishima, now in his Unbreakable form, rushing in and unloading a massive Red-Gauntlet into the raptor's face, knocking it out in one hit.

"Alright, I think that's the last of 'em!" the sturdy red hero exclaimed.

The young heroes had successfully incapacitated all the smaller dinosaur monsters, and DarkShine finished off the large blueish crocodilian beast, having delivered a punch that completely obliterated it in a single blow.

"We did it! We won!" Charanko shouted at the top of his lungs, raising both fists into the air, smiling and overwhelmed with a sense of triumph.

"Feels pretty good, doesn't it?" Ojiro said, happy to see his new friend get such a massive boost in confidence. Charanko wasn't the bravest or most talented of the three students, but his loyalty to Bang was absolute, and he was even more afraid of letting his sensei down than he was of getting hurt or killed.

"Yeah, it feels awesome!" he replied, not yet coming down from his high. "I only wish Master Bang were here to have seen it!"

Midoriya called Ojiro on his cellphone, confirming that he had incapacitated the Ancient-Prince, and was awaiting the Association's cleanup-crews and prisoner-transports.

"My DangerSense isn't picking up anything else, so I think we're in the clear. I'll catch up with you guys at Bang's Dojo as soon as the prisoners have been transferred to lockup." He said.

"Okay, see you soon!" Ojiro replied, before he, Charanko, Kirishima, and DarkShine all started heading back in the direction of the dojo, their patrol for the day a rousing success.

---

Deconstruction: Tatsumaki, Uraraka

Uraraka was back at the training-field between cities. Again.

Tatsumaki had escalated her training methods, now using her psychic-powers to exert 3-Times Gravity on her student, instead of the previous 2-Times that she had been training under. The added weight was excruciating, but Uraraka was adapting to it faster than Tatsumaki had expected. She assumed that it must be a side-effect of her power, and already being used to altering her own gravity, albeit in the opposite direction.

Today she had her running through another obstacle-course constructed in real-time out of the stony terrain by her telekinesis. She wanted Uraraka to get to the point where she could run, jump, dodge, fight, and just in general function under 3-Times Gravity without any hindrance, and continue to crank up the G's as much as they could for her. This, combined with the additional Quirk-training she had her doing in her off-hours, levitating heavier and heavier blocks, would steadily increase her physicality and Quirk-potency by a significant degree, maybe even an exponential increase if pushed far enough.

Uraraka struggled through one whole hour of agony, franticly running through an ever-shifting obstacle-course. First, she had to scale a massive rock-wall with protruding stones acting as footholds. It seemed simple enough, but Tatsumaki must've thought so as well, and used her powers to make the foothold move inwards and outwards at seemingly random intervals, forcing Uraraka to time her movements carefully. Once she reached the top of the cliff, she was over 50-feet above the ground, and Tatsumaki moved dozens of boulders of various shapes to make a series of platforms for her to jump onto.

"Actually, come to think of it..." Uraraka thought to herself, "This kind of reminds me of one of those old videogames I've seen Kaminari play back in the UA dorms." Uraraka herself didn't have much experience with videogames, but she had at least heard of a gaming term called "platforming", and she wondered if this was what that meant.

"No, this isn't a game," she thought. "This is training. Take it seriously."

She started Jumping from boulder to boulder, having to also account for the increased gravity causing her to fall faster. The boulders started moving around, some tilting back and forth to test her balance, while others flew out of reach, and she had to use her grappling-hooks to latch on and then swing to a lower platform. She kept this up until finally she found herself back on solid, unmoving ground. She let out a huge sigh of relief.

Then she was hit in the gut by one of Tatsumaki's bullet-like pebbles, making her kneel over in pain.

"Don't lose focus!" Tatsumaki yelled at her. Uraraka clutched at her gut, before quickly recovering in time to dodge the next rock. But the attack threw her off balance, and she was still under the effects of 3-Times Gravity, causing her to fall on her back. Anticipating the next barrage of stones, Uraraka rolled over before getting back on her feet and running in whatever direction might let her avoid getting hit for a few extra seconds.

"Hmpf! That was decent enough." Tatsumaki said, as she picked the girl up again and began to fly towards another city. Uraraka mentally preparing herself for another tough battle. They flew all the way to City-C, and then finally landed on the roof of what looked like a gigantic shopping-complex. The familiar monster-alarms were ringing out, urging civilians to evacuate, and announcing that there were 2 Demon and 3 Wolf or Tiger-Level Threats nearby.

Upon closer examination, Uraraka was able to confirm that they were indeed on the roof of an abandoned shopping-mall, with multiple stores locked-up, and a fancy fountain in the center of the circular atrium, the sort of fountain that people toss coins into and make wishes. The mall was an impressive 5 floors tall, with three lanes of stores branching-off from the atrium, and the ceiling was one massive skylight. Tatsumaki then used her powers to cut a perfectly-circular hole out of the skylight, and lowered Uraraka down, setting her right next to the fountain, before flying away to eliminate the 2 Demon-Level monsters.

"You should know the drill by now!" she shouted on her way out.

Once again, Uraraka found herself alone in an unfamiliar part of an unfamiliar city, with her only backup being a psychotic psychic who was prone to diva tantrums.

"And people criticized the teachers at UA for child-endangerment." Uraraka thought begrudgingly. She scanned the atrium for signs of life, but the mall appeared to be empty. She also noticed that she was still being affected by the Three-Times Gravity. Whatever enemies she was going to find here, would she really be able to stop them? She didn't even know what these monsters looked like...

As if on cue, something came crashing through the walls of the shopping complex, something huge and metallic. It was some kind of robot, but nothing like the ones she and her classmates fought for the UA entrance-exams. This robot was rusty and gross, and looked more like a collection of old construction machinery welded together into a rickety mech. Where there wasn't rust, there was yellow and black paint. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, but with four arms, each one with a different weaponized construction-tool at the end; A set of five jackhammers on the upper-right, a massive drill on the lower-left, an excavator claw for the lower-right, and a wrecking-ball with spikes on the upper-left. Its head was a faceless boxy-shaped thing with headlights and a circular 'mouth' made of numerous rotating blades. It unleashed a loud piercing noise that hurt Uraraka's ears, then started lumbering in her direction.

By the time it noticed her though, Uraraka was already running straight towards the mech. This thing was big, but not nearly as big as the Zero-Pointer that Deku had smashed, and it looked pretty slow. The mech confirmed her suspicions by launching its first attack, swinging its excavator claw at her, at a pace that Uraraka could easily dodge... or at least she WOULD, if she wasn't currently under the effects of Three-Times Gravity.

The sweep-attack sent Uraraka flying back several meters and landing on the hard stone tile of the shopping-mall. She cursed herself for forgetting how much the extra weight slowed down her movements and reaction-time. Her thoughts and perception were exactly the same, but her body couldn't move at the rate she wanted it to, and she had to always put in three-times the effort and forethought to function normally.

The mech made a number of clanking and grinding noises as it turned to face its opponent. Uraraka stood back up, and entered a fighting stance, preparing for another assault from the deadly droid...

"Stay out of my way..."

Uraraka was so surprised, that she nearly dropped her guard, even after all the lessons that Tatsumaki had been drilling into her.

"You can talk?!"

"I have no quarrel with you. Leave now, while you still can."

The mech was speaking through some kind of distorted bullhorn or speaker system. It had ceased its attack and stood in the middle of the mall, weapons lowered, and aggression put on hold.

"Who and what are you?" Uraraka asked. "What are you even doing here?!"

"My colleagues and I call ourselves The Deconstructors! Do not confuse us for mindless monsters, we do not wreak havoc for havoc's sake, and I do not wish to hurt you, young hero. But I still have a mission to accomplish, to destroy this shopping-complex, and I cannot let anyone get in my way. So, for your own sake, leave now!"

"Not gonna happen!" Uraraka countered, "Unless you're a certified demolition crew or something, and unless this building is condemned, what you're doing is against the law! That makes you a criminal, and it's my duty to stop criminals! I won't look the other way!"

"So be it..."

The Deconstructor raised its weapons, and the battle resumed.

It was a difficult fight, especially with the excess gravity, but Uraraka was able to evade the jackhammers and drills, dodge the wrecking-ball, and sidestep the excavator claw, this time remembering to account for the added weight and timing her movements better. She saw an opening in the Deconstructor's defense, and quickly sprang into action, rushing in and tapping the massive, mechanized monstrosity with her Quirk. It started to levitate, and using her grappling-hook, she executed a technique that she decided to call, Orbital-Slingshot!

After building-up centrifugal-force, Uraraka let go of both her grappling-hook, and her Quirk's hold on the robotic behemoth, launching it out of the Atrium, flying past a food-court, and down one of the massive hallways of the shopping-mall. The Deconstructor crashed through the glass doors leading out into the mall parking lot, and Uraraka winced at the realization that she caused a bit of property damage with that attack, and hoped that the damage she had prevented was far greater.

It took her an exhausting 3 minutes to run through the mall and out to face the Deconstructor in the open air, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she had won. The robot was severely beaten, oil pouring out like blood, and it wasn't getting back up.

"You win... I surrender..."

Suddenly the chest of the robot opened up with a loud and painful metallic screech, not unlike a garage door struggling to open or close. Inside the torso of the mech, was a human pilot.

"I surrender." The man said, raising his hands up to reflect his words. He was broad and hefty looking, but his bulk appeared to be comprised of muscle rather than fat. He had a brown, bushy mustache, and wore a yellow construction-worker's outfit.

"Who are you? And why did you do this?" Uraraka asked.

"My name is Monty, and my brothers and I run a construction and maintenance company," The man explained. "Our dad was the best builder and handyman there ever was, and he taught us everything we knew. With all the monster-attacks that keep happening, and the damage they cause, there's always a ton of demand for repairs and reconstruction. We should've been set for life..."

"What happened?"

"Bofoi happened," Monty said, resentment coming out. "Although I guess you Association heroes know him better as Metal-Knight. He owns one of the biggest mega-corporations on the planet, and he's all but monopolized the construction-industry. He gets every good contract, and all the other companies have either been acquired, or run out of business. Or they're on the brink of being run out of business. My brothers and I, we're barely hanging on now..."

Uraraka was speechless. Monty's whole story was so gut-wrenchingly familiar, it was almost unreal.

"So, my oldest brother, Brixx, he had this idea," he continued. "We build these mech-suits, right, and we attack and destroy several buildings that belong to Bofoi's company, to y'know, stick it to him and open-up some more contract opportunities for us at the same time. There was this loophole we found in Bofoi's contract with City-C. His company gets to repair any and all damage caused by monster-related incidents, but our mech-suits aren't technically monsters, right? So..."

Uraraka understood. She understood better than most...

"We were never gonna hurt anyone, I swear! We waited for the people to evacuate before we really started wrecking everything! We just... We just couldn't let him win."

Monty avoided making eye-contact with Uraraka, and Uraraka remained silent.

The remaining four Deconstructors were soundly defeated as well. The strongest one, an 80-foot-tall, Demon-Level mech piloted by the oldest brother Brixx, had been effortlessly dismantled by Tatsumaki within seconds of arriving, and the three smaller and weaker ones ended up surrendering without a fight.

Monty and his brothers were all arrested and loaded onto a prisoner-transport. They were designated as falling under the Hero-Association's jurisdiction, and would be locked-up in one of their special supermax prison-facilities. Though Uraraka only learned about this later...

Tatsumaki was very indifferent about the whole thing, grabbing Uraraka and carrying them both away immediately after neutralizing the threat, not bothering to stick around for any paperwork. Uraraka, however, spent the rest of the day wondering...

"If I never got into UA... If things went a little different for me... Would I have made the same mistake as them?"

---

Invisible Yet Fierce, Like the Wind: ZombieMan, Bomb, Hagakure, Tokoyami

After a long drive, the group finally arrived at Bomb's Dojo. It was a stark contrast to Bang's, resting in the middle of a valley instead of on top of a mountain. Bomb had just finished teaching his class for the day, and over two-dozen students rushed out of the building. Upon noticing the trio of misfits coming in as they were coming out, many of the students were halted in shock.

"Whoa, is that who I think it is?"

"It's him! It's ZombieMan!"

"No way! Can I get your autograph?!"

Apparently ZombieMan was ready for this, and pulled out a pen and notepad to sign his name for some of them, and when asked what he was doing at Bomb's Dojo, and who his strange companions were, he politely told them that they were there on Association business, and that most of the details were classified. After that, the students thanked ZombieMan for the autographs, and left them to go about their business.

The group entered the Dojo, and were greeted by the martial-arts grandmaster known as Bomb. He was an elderly man with flowing long white-hair in the back, bald on top, and a long beard. He wore traditional green and blue robes, and unlike his brother, who appeared to be in a permanent slouch, Bomb had a straight posture that complimented his taller stature. He waited for the group to come closer to him before he spoke.

"My little brother called me saying I'd have some visitors from the Association, hoping to learn my fighting-style. You are the Class-S Hero known as ZombieMan, correct?"

"Yes, I am, and these two are young heroes I've agreed to tutor. But we're mostly here for this one." ZombieMan said, jerking his thumb at Hagakure.

"Hello sir, I'm Hagakure!" the invisible-girl said, extending her hand for the old man to shake.

"Hello miss Hagakure. My brother told me you ended up choosing my style over his." the older gentlemen stated while shaking her hand.

"That's right, Mr. ZombieMan thought that your style would suit me better than your brother's, because I'm naturally invisible, and what I need to improve the most are my offensive abilities."

"Well then, you've come to the right place." Bomb said with a smile. Both he and Bang appeared very stern at first glance, but they both had a very gentle and fatherly demeanor that seemed to even it out, Hagakure realized.

"It is true that my style provides extraordinary offensive abilities, though perhaps a demonstration would better explain it..." Bomb gestured for the three heroes to follow him outside, and they all exited the dojo to see what his martial-arts could do.

The valley outside the dojo was a flat, verdant grassland with City-Z far off in the distant horizon. Plenty of open space to show off and practice one's combat-abilities.

"Observe..." Bomb said, as he walked towards one of the many stone monoliths that dotted the entire landscape. It was a thick and sturdy rock, about 12-feet-tall and 10-feet-wide. With a calm yet confident way about him, Bomb approached the monolith. He got into a stance, formed his right-hand into a claw shape, and thrusted the claw forward, twisting his arm as he did so. There was a powerful and sharp gust of wind, and the rock was suddenly cut into perfectly circular chunks, the center blasting off and the outer-rings following behind it.

"Incredible!" Tokoyami exclaimed.

"What he said!" Dark-Shadow commented.

"Most impressive." ZombieMan agreed, exhaling another puff of smoke from his cigarette.

Hagakure was speechless. Was it really possible for her to do that? With just martial-arts?

"That is one of the more advanced opening-moves that my style employs. Unlike the Fist of Flowing-Water Crushing-Rock, which provides the ultimate in defensive and evasive techniques, waiting for your opponent to strike and reflecting their attacks, the Fist of Whirling-Wind Slashing-Steel can unleash devastating offensive techniques which, at their apex, can defeat even some of the mightiest of foes, as long as you're the one who makes the first move."

"That is so cool..." Hagakure whispered.

"For now, I would like for you to show me how you currently fight. If you do end up choosing to learn my style, then it will help me tailor my training-methods to fit your needs." Bomb said.

"Oh, ugh... Sure, but who am I going to spar with?" Hagakure asked.

"Ah yes, one moment." Bomb said, before quickly heading back into the dojo. When he came back out, he was accompanied by a young man in his early 20's, wearing a red Gi and black-belt. He had messy black hair and a red bandana. He stood 5-feet and 11-inches tall, and bowed in greeting to the three visiting heroes.

"This is Akakaze, my best-student and personal assistant. He will be your sparring-partner."

The two students got into their respective stances, Akakaze's looking identical to the one Bomb had demonstrated, and Hagakure doing her best to copy the stance that Ojiro taught her.

"Begin!" Bomb exclaimed, and the two students began their duel.

---

Game-On, Game-Over: King, Saitama, Genos, Bakugo, Todoroki, Shinsou

Shinsou and King were just on their way towards the gaming-convention, which was hosting a tournament for the latest in fighting-games, Wild-Animals 2. Apparently the first game was a big hit, with dozens of playable characters, each one an anthropomorphic animal with their own abilities, fighting-style, and even backstory and character-arcs you get to follow in the game's story-mode, which according to King at least, was far greater than the stories of most fighting-games, and he was hoping that the sequel would continue to excel in the storytelling aspect, as well as the action, graphics and gameplay mechanics.

King was wearing his typical clothing, but today chose to also wear a black baseball cap with a golden 'K' on the front, some shades, and one of those medical masks of questionable effectiveness. Shinsou noticed King's getup, and made a quick deduction.

"I'm guessing the hat, mask and shades are meant to conceal your identity, so you don't get recognized and swarmed by reporters and the like?"

King confirmed the boy's inference with a nod of his head.

The gaming-convention was massive, and there appeared to be hundreds of people attending. Some were there to compete in the tournament, while many were simply there to spectate or cheer on their friends. There were dozens of booths for all the contenders, some of them using the new VR headsets, while others stuck to their handheld controllers. Beyond the many booths, there were rows of chairs for spectators, and a stage in the front. A man in a tuxedo stepped on the stage and started to speak. He explained all of the rules, regulations, and controls that will be used for the game. After finding their stations and selecting their characters, the two were ready for the tournament. King chose an anthropomorphic koala in a red bikini of all things, while Shinsou selected an anthropomorphic raccoon character. King was in the first round, and his opponent was a giant gorilla. Shinsou knew that King was wicked strong at videogames, so he wasn't really worried about the match up. Still, he deliberately chose the weakest character in the entire roster, and he was up against one of the biggest bruisers. Even King would struggle in a match-up like this... Right?

"This better not be another one of your stupid errands, Toaster!" Bakugo said as he and Todoroki followed behind Genos.

"Master Saitama told me that a large-scale battle will soon take place at this location." Genos said while running. The three heroes ran into a massive building. Genos paid no attention to any of the posters and ads outside, but the two teens stopped at the entrance to read it all.

"Is he for real?!" Bakugo said, holding back his anger.

"I…I don't know. He made it sound like a real threat. Must have misinterpreted Saitama's words." Todoroki tried to reason. The teens looked around the convention-center, seeing all of the branding for a worldwide gaming competition for a videogame called Wild-Animals 2. According to posters, it was being heralded as "The Latest Innovation in Fighting-Games", and this tournament had venues in multiple cities, so all the best gamers in the world would be competing against each-other online. The two caught up with Genos and Saitama, just as the former was questioning why everyone would be so calm when a large-scale battle was imminent.

"Because it's not a real battle, you idiot!" Bakugo stated as he marched up to the Cyborg.

"It's a worldwide tournament for a videogame of some kind." Todoroki noted.

"Yeah, was that not clear in my text-message?" Saitama asked.

"It probably was, the Toaster just takes everything way too seriously." Bakugo answered.

A gong rang out through the arena, and the group of heroes followed the crowd into a large waiting-area filled with people in front of a big stage, where a skinny man in a tuxedo began to announce the importance of the event, how it was taking place in venues all over the world, how anyone could register, and lastly, the 5-Million Yen cash prize.

"The Association still hasn't given us that bonus-check yet, and I wanted to practice my gaming skills, so I figured, why not cover both problems at once?" Saitama reasoned.

"You idiots are just wasting our time! We should be training for real fights, not competing in some stupid videogame tournament!" Bakugo shouted with his hands in his pockets.

"You two can spar with each other in the Gorge when this is over." Saitama promised. "But in the meantime, you two wanna get in on this? Doing it's a lot more fun than just watching it."

"I don't care about some stupid videogame!" Bakugo insisted. "This whole thing is total bull..."

"Wait, WHAT?! Am I reading that right?!" Saitama interrupted, distracted by a sign explaining the different gameplay options available for the competitors. In addition to handheld controllers, gamers also had the option to use VR rooms and headsets to compete in the tournament.

"Interesting." Genos commented. "If I recall correctly, Doctor Kuseno once mentioned that, in order to fund his research, he had sold some of the earlier components for his Virtual-Combat-Simulator to a videogame company, before he invented the current model we have in his lab. They appear to be using the same technology, but unlike the VCS, the users of this VR-system still physically function in the real-world, and the game copies their movements, matching their strength and speed..."

"So that means, the one who's strongest in the real-world, will also be the strongest in the game..." Saitama said, smiling and balling his hand into a fist. "That 5-Million Yen is as good as mine!"

"Oh yeah, cause you're the strongest in the world?" Bakugo questioned.

"Just watch, I'll win every match with one punch!" the Bald-Hero confidently stated.

After getting adjusted to the VR headset and having them calibrated for their body types, the contestants were ready, and Saitama was the very first match. For his character, he had chosen a massive gorilla, and his opponent was a koala.

Saitama had a devious grin on his face, absolutely certain he would win, but immediately after the match began, his character's health-bar was obliterated, and the Koala had secured victory.

"What was that you said about winning every match with one punch?" Bakugo smugly asked.

Saitama didn't even respond, and neither did Genos. Both of them were too dumbfounded by what had just happened.

Since the VR system copied the player's moves in the real world, Bakugo and Todoroki had both decided to enter the tournament, seeing it as a chance to test their hand-to-hand combat skills. The software and VR booths hadn't been developed with Quirks in mind, so neither of them could rely on their powers to win.

Todoroki was next. He had very little experience in hand-to-hand combat, and he didn't care much about winning this tournament, but for the sake of self-improvement, and preparing for the war back home, he would give it his best. After selecting a white-tiger with red-eyes to be his game character, he met his opponent in the VR world. The challenger was a black-bear that wielded a gigantic caveman's club. Todoroki did his best, but was ultimately overwhelmed. He wasn't used to fighting without his Quirk, and the Bear's attacks were ferocious. His health-bar hit zero, and the words "Game Over" flashed onscreen.

"Really, that's all you got Half-And-Half?" Bakugo grunted.

"Your hand-to-hand combat skills are quite lacking." Genos commented.

"It wasn't really focused on in my training." Todoroki defended.

"Which is to say, it was neglected in your training." Genos countered. "Not every opponent will remain at a safe distance. In the future, I would suggest you focus on developing more close-range attacks and techniques."

Todoroki nodded his head, but remained silent.

As they were talking, it was Bakugo's turn to fight. For his character, he chose a Lion, and his opponent was the same Bear who defeated Todoroki. Bakugo's cocky smile returned.

Even without his Explosion Quirk, Bakugo was a talented fighter with keen instincts, and while his adversary had the advantage in stature, the Bear was no match for him. He dodged almost every punch and swing of its club, returning fierce and cunning blows with speed and precision. He had a lot of experience controlling and focusing his explosions to only destroy specific targets while minimizing collateral damage. It was actually somewhat refreshing to not have to worry about such things in battle, and instead rely on pure hand-skill. After 2 minutes, Bakugo defeated the Bear.

"HELL YEAH! That's how it's done, ya stupid extras!" Bakugo roared.

"The player you fought was obviously inexperienced. Let us see how long you can keep this up." Genos said in challenge.

"That means we got to stay, huh?" Saitama sighed with annoyance.

King had already dominated two matches by the time it was finally Shinsou's turn. He wasn't sure which gameplay method he should use, but ultimately settled on the controller. His first match was against a hippopotamus, whom he soundly defeated in less than one minute. The next match was far more difficult, his opponent being a Doberman-pinscher with a very aggressive series of attacks, but all that time he spent practicing with King had really paid off, and Shinsou was able to win the match with a good chunk of his health-bar remaining. The third opponent, however, was even more ferocious than the Doberman, a Lion with incredible speed and battle-fury. Shinsou was quickly put on the defensive, and for a while it looked like he was about to lose, but King had taught him well. Right before his health-bar was drained completely, Shinsou turned the tables and activated one of his super-moves, which he'd been saving-up for the entire match. The Lion took serious damage, and was briefly stunned, giving Shinsou the opening to unleash a rapid-fire series of punches and kicks, whittling down the Lion's health-bar, and finishing him off with a deadly dropkick...

Bakugo took off the headset and nearly crushed it in his hands. Stewing with frustration, he exited the VR booth and grumpily returned to his group.

"DAMN IT ALL! I had that stupid rat DEAD TO RIGHTS! I can't believe I let him beat me like that!"

"You lasted a lot longer than I did." Todoroki commented.

"Can it, Half-And-Half!" Bakugo shouted.

"You do realize he was complimenting you just now, right?" Saitama asked the explosive teen.

The group went back to the viewing area, with a giant screen showing fights taking place all throughout the world at different venues. Bakugo, still angry about his loss, demanded that they stay and watch, at least until the Raccoon went down. Saitama wasn't enthusiastic, but chose not to argue, since he was the reason they came to the tournament in the first place. They found some seats and watched as the matches continued to escalate.

The Raccoon, much to Bakugo's annoyance, was able to win the next match as well, but that winning-streak was ended by his next opponent after that, an eastern-dragon character who had been decimating every opponent it faced. The Raccoon was no different. After a rapid flurry of kicks, The Dragon annihilated his health-bar and won the match, leaving a grin on Bakugo's face.

All that was left were the finals and semi-finals. The top-four contenders were the Dragon, the Wolf, The Fox, and the Koala. The Fox was incredibly skilled, based on what they'd seen of him in previous matches, and yet he was beaten by the Koala just as easily as Saitama was beaten.

The last of the semi-finals was between the Wolf and the Dragon, and it soon became clear to Genos, Bakugo and Todoroki what they were witnessing; a VR battle between veteran martial-artists.

The Wolf and Dragon were very evenly-matched, though after a couple minutes of back-and-forth, it looked like the Dragon was finally starting to gain some ground... Then the Wolf started using a fighting-style that reminded Genos of somebody...

"Is that SilverFang?" Genos wondered aloud, as the Wolf finally began to lead a counter-offensive, using the Fist of Flowing-Water Crushing-Rock to turn the tide of the battle.

"No way does that old dude play videogames." Saitama stated with a blank face.

"And yet the Wolf player was using SilverFang's fighting-style." Genos commented.

"Could be a former student of his..." Todoroki theorized.

"I admit, they're pretty damn good..." Bakugo watched as the two characters fought it out, matching each other blow for blow. The two of them were almost equal in skill.

"Oh, hell yeah, now we're talking! A real contender!" The Wolf player remarked internally to himself, as a wicked grin grew on his face. The Dragon was clearly a martial-artist using VR, just like him. When the match began, he was holding back to study his opponent, and to see if he was worth using his more advanced techniques. So far, the Dragon's been able to keep up with every move he made, and neither of them had their health-bars depleted even halfway.

"Alright, now let's kick things up a notch..."

"What happened?" Shinsou asked in confusion. The Wolf had suddenly stopped moving, the screen glitching around him, and the Dragon seized the opening to win the fight.

"The Wolf probably overloaded the controls and froze the system by moving too fast." One of the tournament workers explained, before looking over to King, who was about to go next.

"Is that why you decided to use a controller, King? The inputs probably wouldn't work, given how strong you are." The worker thought aloud.

"...Yeah, let's go with that." King responded.

"Not that I doubt you, but be careful with that Dragon, he seems tough." Shinsou warned.

"Don't worry, I got this." King assured him. The finals were finally here, and everyone was on the edge of their seats. But despite how good the Dragon was, King was in a league of his own, and just like the other matches, he completely overwhelmed the Dragon and won the fight in mere seconds.

All the people were escorted back out into the lounging area, and King was called up towards the stage to give a few parting words.

"I heard this was the latest innovation in fighting-games, so I figured I'd give it a try. Sorry if I made the final match boring for you guys. I guess I'm just too strong, hehe."

Saitama, Genos, Todoroki and Bakugo all left the convention-center, with Bakugo still pissed-off that he lost to the Dragon, and now even more pissed-off that the Dragon had lost to some no-life with a handheld controller.

---

Concerts and Convicts: SweetMask, WatchDogMan, Aoyama, Asui

Aoyama was starting to get the hang of this reflection thing. He was now able to reflect his laser off of 8 of the 12 mirrors. Just when he was about to break his record and reflect it off 9, SweetMask walked in, disrupting his concentration. Instead, the laser bounced off the 8th mirror and zapped Aoyama in the foot, making him fall back and land on his butt. The most graceful hero, he was not.

"Get up, we're going." SweetMask told him. Aoyama quickly got back on his feet and followed the star out of the training-gym.

"Where are we going, Monsieur SweetMask?" He asked.

"I'm having a concert in City-Q." He explained. "You will be running security for the event, along with a few others, not that you'll be needed, not if the Mutt has anything to say about it, but I digress."

"The Mutt? Do you mean WatchDogMan?"

"Why yes, are you a fan or something?"

"No, it's just that one of my friends is training under him."

"Ah, yes, I've been meaning to look up your friends. What can you tell me about this one?"

"Oh well, her name is Asui, and her Quirk gives her the abilities of a frog."

"A frog? Interesting..." SweetMask said rubbing his chin.

The two took off towards City-Q. SweetMask had Aoyama's hero-name changed to Shining-Knight, insisting that he needed a more dramatic and less absurd moniker, and also commissioned a new costume for him as well. It wasn't complete yet, and SweetMask said that he would like for him to only reveal it to the public during or after their live-interview next month. So, for the time being, Aoyama was still in his original hero-costume. The two made it to the concert and got out of the car. There was a loud gust of wind, and Aoyama saw a man in a white dog-costume right in front of him on all fours, sniffing the air and looking at them both with cold, unreadable eyes.

"I see you're as rude as ever, WatchDogMan." SweetMask said, brushing off his clothes. WatchDogMan said nothing, only stared at him with laser-like focus.

"And as talkative as ever. Don't mind me, I'm just here for my concert. Feel free to go about your own business, but please don't interrupt the show for my fans." SweetMask then turned to Aoyama.

"As for you, Shining-Knight, you are to ensure that nothing interrupts my concert. Shouldn't be too difficult a task. Familiarize yourself with the area. My concert starts in 2 hours." SweetMask said before walking away.

Though he continued to be very strict, Aoyama had come to respect his mentor's no-nonsense attitude. SweetMask took the duties of a hero very seriously, and practiced what he preached.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a faint sniffing noise next to him. He jumped a bit when he saw WatchDogMan sniffing his leg, but immediately calmed down.

"Hello there. You may not know me, but I'm friends with Froppy." Aoyama told him. WatchDogMan lifted up his paw to shake, and Aoyama obliged.

"It is nice to meet you." WatchDogMan softly replied.

"So, uh, where is Froppy, anyway?" Aoyama asked him.

"You just missed her. She wanted to revisit the prisoner she spoke with the other day..."

(Meanwhile, back at Hero-Association HQ, in the Sub-Level Detention-Facility...)

Asui returned to the underground cell-block where they kept Jordan, aka Tongue-Stretcher. After gaining their permission to speak with him again, she was let into his cell, and the door shut behind her. Jordan was startled by the noise and movement, but once he saw who it was, his shoulders slumped, and he had a grumpy look on his face.

"Oh, it's you. Come to lecture me, again?! Well, forget it! I don't need your damn pity, and I'm not gonna waste my time playing hero for a bunch of jerks who never did me any favors! So beat it, ya damn toad! All you're doing is adding insult to injury!"

Asui sighed. It was just like the guards had said. No change.

"First of all, I'm a frog, not a toad, there's a difference. Second, my name is Asui. And third... If you don't want me to come by anymore, then I won't. I just thought you might get lonely down here..."

Asui left the cell without another word. Jordan lied back against the wall of his cell, and spent the rest of the day with nothing to do, except think about what the frog-girl had said to him.

"Heh, she doesn't know what she's talking about! I'm not lonely. I don't need anyone..." He insisted.

"And even if I was lonely, why would she care? Why would anyone..."

---

Disordered-Discharge, Part-2: Drive-Knight, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu

Kaminari was continuing to train with the super-battery, and Yaoyorozu was out on another mission with Stinger. He spent a solid hour discharging electricity into the device before taking a small break, and Drive-Knight asked him another one of his questions.

"I was meaning to ask, what sort of fighting-style do you have? I was going to find another hero for you to go out on patrol with tomorrow, while Yaoyorozu trains in the lab with me."

"Fighting-style? Uhm, well... I guess I don't really have one per se. Up until now, whenever I got into a fight with someone, I just sorta unload my Quirk on 'em, and improvise the rest."

Kaminari sulked a bit, realizing how pathetic and stupid he must sound, especially to someone as intelligent as Drive-Knight, but the Cyborg didn't mock or berate him.

"In that case, I know someone who might be able to give you some formal combat-training. His hero-name is Lightning-Max, and he is Class-A Rank-18. He is a very talented martial-artist and one of the top-disciples of an even more renowned fighter, known as Volten. I believe that both of these men could help you develop a fighting-style that would make the most of your abilities."

"Ya think so?" Kaminari asked.

"I will need to contact him first and see if he is interested, but yes."

Kaminari considered the prospect of learning an actual fighting-style to go with his Quirk. Midoriya and Ojiro were already learning martial-arts from SilverFang, and Hagakure was planning to learn some as well. So far, he'd only really focused on boosting the power of his Quirk, but not every opponent was going to be vulnerable to electricity, and any fighting-style had to be better than no fighting-style. He couldn't think of a single reason not to learn martial-arts.

"Alright then, I'll give it a shot!"

"Excellent." Drive-Knight stated.

"Hey, I was wondering, I know my discharge-limit right now is a little over 5-Million Volts and 50 Amps, but that's only the limit of how much I can release without frying my brain. I kinda wanna see how much more I can discharge when I go past that..." Kaminari said with a smirk.

Drive-Knight simply nodded his head and indulged the boy's request. Returning to the super-battery, Kaminari unloaded everything he had, exceeding his limit and going into his "brain-fried" mode. After a couple of minutes, he stopped drooling and making the 'thumbs-up' gesture, and eventually regained consciousness and higher-functioning.

"So, how'd I do?" Kaminari asked.

"That time you discharged 15-Million Volts, and 150 Amps of electrical-power which is triple the amount of power you could discharge without incurring the side-effects."

Kaminari smiled. "I'll keep training until that becomes my new baseline. And I'll learn to kick-ass even without my Quirk until then!"

He remembered the conversation he had with Yaoyorozu a few days ago, and silently swore that he wouldn't let his setbacks be the end of his future, or his optimism.

"Instead of just comparing myself to others, I'm going to learn from them. That's how Midoriya got stronger. And that's how I'll get stronger, too!"

---

Gluttony: PigGod, Sato

Sato had the beginning of his day to himself, since Kirishima and DarkShine had left that morning for their thing at SilverFang's Dojo, but he didn't let that stop him from going to the gym like normal, lifting weights and doing all the standard exercises that DarkShine had them go over previously.

He had just finished repping with the barbell when he was interrupted by PigGod entering the gym.

"You're alone today?"

"Yeah, DarkShine and Kirishima had some business with SilverFang."

"Oh yeah, I remember getting an invitation on my phone for that. I might've gone, but I'm not really... not really built for martial-arts, y'know?"

Sato nodded. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"Today we're heading out to patrol one of the cities. To give you some real-world experience."

Sato was immediately thrilled. The Association HQ was starting to get tiresome, and with all the crazy stories that he'd been hearing from his classmates, he was curious to see what else this world had to offer. He and PigGod left the gym, and went down some hallways he wasn't familiar with.

"Where are we going, exactly? Sato inquired.

"City-R."

"How long a drive is that?"

"Not as long as you might think. The Association-Headquarters has a network of public-freeways, but also high-tech metro-lines that get heroes to the farther-out cities within the hour. Cities B, C, D, and Z are all relatively close to City-A, so you can drive to the outer areas of them quickly enough, but City-R's on the other side of the continent, so we'll take the metro-line."

The metro-line was basically a high-tech bullet-train, long and streamlined, and conveniently large enough for even PigGod to fit inside, though he did take up a lot more space than anyone else. According to him, the metro-lines could maintain speeds over Mach-3, which Sato was thoroughly impressed with. Even with all the technological advancements made back in his world, the best bullet-trains only had a top-speed of 350 Miles-Per-Hour. Faster vehicles existed, but they weren't ready to be mass-produced and commercialized. During the train-ride, Sato asked a bunch of questions about the world he had found himself in. PigGod did his best to answer them all, but before Sato could finish grilling him, the train had come to a stop, and they had reached City-R.

As the two began their patrol, they were almost immediately alerted to a sudden monster-attack of Threat-Level: Tiger. The two heroes made it to the commotion to see a muscular, four-armed cyclops rampaging through the city, overturning cars and throwing them at the fleeing civilians. PigGod, being much quicker than his bulk would imply, intercepted the car and killed its momentum with his blubbery form, saving a little girl and her father from being crushed by the car. They thanked PigGod for his help as they ran towards the local disaster-shelter. Sato quickly opened one of the pouches on his belt and popped one of his sugar-pills. Powering-up, he charged headfirst towards the cyclops, yelling the name of his Ultimate-Move...

"SUGAR-RUSH!"

Sato unleashed a rapid-fire series of punches, but found that the monster had incredibly sharp reflexes, and was able to block or evade the majority of his strikes. He retreated back before it could retaliate, and in that moment, PigGod, who surprised him by being able to sneak up behind the cyclops despite his immense size, grabbed the monster and trapped it in a bearhug.

"Hey, Sitch told me that you kids prefer to capture the monsters instead of killing them whenever possible, right?" PigGod asked. Sato nodded.

"In that case, I'll make sure to put him in the safe-stomach..."

Before he could ask what he meant by that, Sato stared in utter bewilderment, disgust, fear, and many more mixed emotions, as he watched PigGod open his mouth to utterly inhuman proportions, and swallow the cyclops monster whole.

"What…. what…. What did you just do?!" Sato exclaimed.

He thought back to what DarkShine said, and how he described his fighting-style as ravenous.

"Does that mean he eats every monster he fights?!"

"Don't worry, I put him in my safe-stomach."

"Your what?"

"I'm not sure why, but I was born with three stomachs. One for digesting food like normal, but then there are two others. I can store people and objects in my safe-stomach, and then regurgitate them later. Then there's my third stomach, which can switch between saving or destroying its contents."

"Huh..."

Sato was at a loss for words. Thankfully he didn't need to say much, as another siren went off. This time it was Threat-Level: Wolf, and the attack was happening at a nearby school. Sato shook himself out his daze, and the two heroes ran towards the danger. For such a big guy, PigGod was able to keep up with Sato's speed surprisingly well, even in his Sugar-Rush enhanced state. They came upon an open area and spotted the monster in question. It was almost as big as a horse, and looked like a cross between an armadillo and an anteater. The creature was sniffing around the edges of the school, seemingly in search of humans to prey upon.

"Is it okay if I handle this one?" Sato asked, and PigGod agreed.

Sato popped another sugar-pill and charged the monster. It whipped its head around after hearing footsteps, and saw the approaching hero. The creature then shot spikes out of it tail in defense, but Sato was able to dodge the attack, grabbing the monster and tossing it away from the building, wanting to place himself between the enemy and the people inside the school.

The scales on the creature seemed to bristle as its anger grew. It charged at Sato and lunged out with its clawed hands, trying to slice open his chest. Sato dodged to the left and punched it right in the face, staggering it backwards. Siezing the moment, he unloaded his Sugar-Rush attack on the monster, knocking it out cold.

"Good job, kid. You handled that better than I did on my first patrol." PigGod complimented him.

"Thanks..." Sato said, slightly winded and starting to feel the side-effects of his Quirk. "So, now what do we do?"

"We call the Association and wait. They'll take it away." PigGod said lazily.

Before they could make the call though, a crowd of children rushed out of the school, thanking the two heroes and showing them with praise. The teachers were right behind them, and some of them apologized for their students' hyperactivity, though a few of them were just as eager to get their autographs or take selfies with them.

It took about 30-minutes for the Association's prisoner-transport to arrive. They collared the strange armadillo/anteater monster, and PigGod completely barfed the cyclops monster back up, completely intact. Sato did his best to hide his disgust.

With both monsters detained and being transferred to lockup, and City-R completely quiet, PigGod and Sato figured they were done with patrol, and got back onto the metro-line, commuting back to Association-HQ. Once they arrived, it was already past lunchtime, and after 3-hours guzzling down whatever the cafeteria had to offer him, PigGod decided to turn in for the day. Sato was also getting sleepy from the use of his Quirk, so he wasn't going to object.

Before leaving, PigGod left Sato with one final comment.

"I don't know it any of these monsters can be saved or not, but I think it's pretty cool that you kids are trying. I hope you succeed."

---

Deliberations: Class-1A

The Class was back in their original spot in the common-room. Everyone returned from their day of training and were conversing about a variety of different topics. Most of the guys were huddled around Kirishima's phone as he showed them the fight he recorded between DarkShine and Midoriya, gasping at the spectacle.

"Woah, that DarkShine guy's tough!" Kaminari said.

"Yeah, I know right?! So Manly!" Kirishima said, clutching his shirt with his fist.

"It really was something else." Ojiro added.

"That explains the wind-pressure we felt and the noise we heard as we were leaving the place." Tokoyami commented.

Meanwhile, Hagakure was lying back in a recliner, exhausted and bruised from her sparring-match with Bomb's disciple Akakaze. She told the Class all about it, how Bomb's fighting-style could harness wind-pressure in a different way from AllMight and Midoriya, releasing powerful air-slash attacks that could slice right through solid stone.

"Whoa, for real? That's awesome!" Ojiro said.

"I know, right?!" Hagakure replied excitedly.

"And people can really just... learn that stuff? That's crazy!" Kaminari said. This made him even more eager to study martial-arts as well. If Lightning-Max could teach him any tricks that are even half as cool as what Bang and Bomb could do, it would be a serious gamechanger for him.

Another group was Sato, Shoji, Shinsou, and Ashido. Sato had just got done telling them about his time spent with PigGod, and how he usually fights by eating the monsters.

"Okay, so this world's had some really messed-up stuff, but THAT, is by far the worst!" Ashido said.

"It certainly is... weird, to say the least." Shoji said.

"Yeah, it's just like you said, this world really is just built different." Shinsou added. "At this point, we should just expect things to get weirder and weirder."

Uraraka returned from her daily training with Tatsumaki, still carrying the compressed stone block with her, though she seemed to be getting better at it. Despite this, Midoriya could sense that something was troubling her again. But before he could ask her, Bakugo stormed in with Todoroki right behind him. Bakugo was festering over something, and while he didn't say a single word, everything else about him, from his body-language to the look on his face, to the way he entered the room and aggressively took a seat in the common-room, made it abundantly clear that something must have really ticked him off.

"Uh, Kacchan, did something happen?" Midoriya asked, causing Bakugo to scoff at him.

"It's fine, I don't need you to pity me."

"He's mad that he lost the videogame tournament this afternoon." Todoroki said offhandedly. Bakugo sent a death-glare in his direction.

"AT LEAST I DIDN'T LOSE IN THE VERY FIRST ROUND!"

"I'm not a close-range fighter, it was to be expected." Todoroki shrugged his shoulders indifferently. Bakugo glared one more time at him and then marched out of the room.

"I'm confused, what does hand-to-hand combat have to do with a video game?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"The tournament had a VR system that copies your movements in real-life."

"Wow, that sounds pretty advanced." Midoriya commented.

"Yeah, in a system like that, I bet martial-artists would have a big advantage." Uraraka said.

"That's what I originally thought as well, but apparently the winner was someone using a handheld controller instead." Todoroki said.

"That person must have had no life." Jiro said.

"Well, he won 5-Million Yen from the tournament, so I guess it was worth it." Todoroki reasoned.

"5…MILLION?!" Uraraka nearly fainted.

"Well, shit, I stand corrected then. Who won?" Jiro asked, retracting her previous statement.

"No idea, they never told us. You had to be in the same venue as him to know who he was." Todoroki answered, shrugging his shoulders.

Shinsou, who was listening to Todoroki's story in the background, pieced it all together, and after realizing his own role in the story, and who the Lion player must've been, quietly left the room, deciding it was best if Bakugo NEVER found out.

The Class continued to talk and discuss about each other's day before everyone went off to sleep.

---

Some Author's Notes:

1: Bomb's disciple Akakaze is an OC I created on a whim. His name is a combination of the Japanese words "Aka", which means Red, and "Kaze", meaning Wind, so his name is literally RedWind. Appropriate, given his fighting-style. As for how powerful and skilled he is, I would say that he scales to Lightning-Max at the moment, though he might one day reach the same level as Bomb himself, albeit much later on, after the events of this entire series conclude. He's basically a Chad version of Charanko, and whenever the Neo-Heroes finally show up, he'd definitely be scouted by them.

2: As for the Deconstructors, they'll be sent to the same prison that Sonic and Puri-Puri Prisoner were locked-up in, because I have to assume that place is some kind of supervillain prison if both of those guys were sent there.

3: I'm sure people are gonna assume or ask about this, so I'll just clarify now: No, I am NOT shipping Asui with Jordan aka Tongue-Stretcher. I do have an arc planned out for the two of them, but it's not going to be romantic, really. It's going to be more along the lines of how Deku and Shigaraki's dynamic is, or Uraraka and Himiko Toga. Crap! Did I just spoil it?! :(

Also, there's one more note I forgot to leave in the previous chapter, so I'll just leave it here:

4: Yaoyorozu's tactical-visor is meant to resemble the scouters from DragonBall Z, but with her costume's red-and-white color-palette, and instead of reading an enemy's power-level, it stores and displays data for hundreds of different tools, weapons, and support-items for her to create with her Quirk. It can scan the battlefield for vital-signs and stuff, too, but it's mostly to do away with the stupid book and bookshelf thing, and give her something more high-tech instead.

---

I'm gonna try to get at least one chapter published per month from here on out, and if this series continues to do well and I manage to complete it, I'll either move on to some new series, or I'll try to finish one of the other two series I had previously started.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and that you've been enjoying this story as a whole! If you did, make sure to favorite it and leave a review, because I really do appreciate the feedback! Thank you, and GodSpeed!