Just as they were told the day before, Tokage and Yanagi were up bright and early to ensure that they made it to the basement in time for morning training. They still had a couple of hours before sunrise. But their excitement more than made up for the limited amount of sleep than they were used to. The only real consolation prize to all of this is that they didn't have to worry about going to class today.

"I wonder what kind of training they're gonna have us do today." Yanagi wondered in her usual stoic tone.

"Fubuki probably just wants to get a good baseline on our skills before heading out today. Edgeshot did the same thing on the first day of our last internship." Tokage replied after a quick yawn.

As the two teens stepped out of the elevator and walked through the hallway, it only took them a few seconds before locating the door to their destination. Right before the girls were about to set foot out of the corridor into the room, they both heard the familiar voices of Katsuragi and Midoriya from around the corner.

"...it really wasn't that big of a deal. Honestly, I came across him and Air-Jet completely by accident." The voice of Katsuragi said with a quick laugh.

"Really? Well, I guess it was a lucky break then." Midoriya chuckled.

'I wonder what those two are talking about.' Tokage and Yanagi thought simultaneously.

"Just be glad that you missed the media firestorm that came after. Once it went public, there were reporters camping outside the building trying to get me to do an interview. It was a total hassle."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"They must be talking about that whole Stain thing." Tokage whispered to her friend.

"That wasn't even the worst part. My parents ended up coming down here and raised all sorts of hell. Just be glad that you weren't here for that." The green haired heroine then joked.

"Oh yeah, I never did ask you what your parents were like. I feel like I'm going to have to meet them at some point." Midoriya asked.

"They're...some interesting people." Even though the two students couldn't see her face, they could definitely hear the sudden uneasiness in her voice. "I'm still trying to figure how I'm going to break the news to them. I mean, how exactly am I supposed to explain that some boy they never met is in possession of their daughter's quirk. And that we're all technically related now."

You could almost hear the record scratch in Tokage and Yanagi's heads after that statement. Okay, something was weird about this conversation. That much was clear. And for multiple reasons. What exactly did she mean by Midoriya being in possession of their daughter's quirk. And how exactly were they related? Sure they looked similar and had identical quirks, but that was just a coincidence...right?

"We shouldn't be eavesdropping on them like this." Yanagi whispered to Tokage, only for the green haired girl to place her hand over the 'poltergeist' user's mouth.

"Well, I'm sure they can't be that bad." Midoriya countered the woman's declaration.

"I never did tell you this, but I come from a rather...high class background. And when it comes to people like that, things can get a little...crazy. Especially when it comes to children."

"What do you mean?"

"You've heard of quirk breeding before, right? It's a pretty common practice, even nowadays."

All three teenagers paused at the same time. Of course they've heard of quirk breeding before, who hadn't? Arranged unions by carefully selected donors with the sole purpose of choosing or enhancing a specific quirk or set of quirks. Although the practice was technically illegal, there was no real way to regulate it.

"W-wait...you don't mean…" Midoriya slightly shuddered.

"Yeah…" Katsuragi nodded. "My parents spent a lot of time and money making sure that they had powerful children. I love them and all, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to meet them just yet. I still need to find a way to break the news to them without it becoming a whole spectacle."

All Midoriya could do was nod and agree. "I understand."

"But don't worry, I'm sure they'll like you. And once they see what a fine young man you are they'll be happy to welcome you into the family. I mean, you are technically related to them now that you have onee-chan's cells in your body."

"I guess you're right."

Deciding that continuing to eavesdrop on what was certainly meant to be a private conversation wasn't a good idea, the two girls quickly entered the room to make her presence known. Albeit a bit obnoxiously. Pretending as if they didn't just hear the last part of their talk. However, now that they couldn't erase what they heard from their memories both Tokage and Yanagi had some serious questions about the exact nature of Midoriya and Katsuragi's relationship.

'I guess this is just one more thing that I'll need to ask him about.' The green haired youth thought to herself.

Before long, all the necessary parties were present and accounted for. Much to the student's surprise, the training room was actually quite big. It was a wide open area that encompassed nearly the entire bottom floor of the building's basement. Whatever they were going to do, it was certainly going to require a lot of space.

"So, what's the plan boss?" Tokage inquired. Presumable speaking for the other two students.

"Just some basic battle training." Katsuragi replied. "I want to see how well you guys handle yourselves in a fight. I got a pretty good assessment of your abilities from your end of semester exams. But I'm curious to see how you've all improved."

"Sounds pretty straightforward." Said Yanagi.

"There has to be more to it than that though, right?" Midoriya looked at his pseudo-sibling.

"Correct!" The woman said with a very suspicious grin. "For this training, the three of you will be facing off against Lily and Ozehana-chan." She then pointed to the two other women in the room. Directing everyone's attention towards them.

Both women were on the floor a few meters away from them, stretching out and getting warmed up. Ozehana was dressed in a pair of orange sweatpants and a black tank-top that helped show off her superior physique. While Lily was wearing a simple black sports bra and leggings.

"Three against two? Doesn't that seem a little unfair?"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about us." The 'flame control' user grinned. "I think the two of us will be quite alright."

"Wait, isn't Lily-san your assistant?" Yanagi asked.

"Lily actually has her hero license. She may prefer doing office work, but she's pretty skilled."

"I only have it for emergencies. I prefer to leave the real hero work to the pros."

'I never got a chance to learn what her quirk is. She never used it the last time I was here.' Midoriya realized. The worst part about this was that there were absolutely no indications as to what her power was. His best guess was that it might be something plant based judging by her nickname and the accessory that she usually wears on her head.

"Alright, I know how these things usually go. What's the catch?" Tokage asked.

"An astute observation, young lady. The rules are as follows. Izuku and Yanagi-san aren't allowed to use any long range attacks. Close combat is where they are the weakest. As for you Tokage-san, you can do as you please."

"And what about them?" The grey haired teen followed up.

"Ozehana-chan doesn't have fire starters on her, so that's her handicap. Lily on the other hand can do as she pleases."

"So you won't be participating?" Said Midoriya.

"Oh no. I'm just going to sit back and observe." Katsuragi responded in a weird tone.

It was blatantly obvious to the young trio that they were being set up. But there wasn't really anything that they could do about it. They may have had the advantage in numbers. On top of that one of their opponents won't be using their quirk. But they would be foolish to take this lightly.

"I'll give you guys a minute to strategize. After that, we'll get started."

"Yes ma'am." Midoriya, Tokage and Yanagi all said in unison before huddling up to go over their attack plan.

-(o)-

"So, what's the plan?" Tokage asked her partners.

"Our best bet is to work with what we already know." Midoriya answered. "Ozehana-san can manipulate fire, but that's useless in this scenario. But with her build she looks like she can handle herself in a fight."

"And we don't have any information on the other one do we?" Yanagi inquired, only to get a negative head shake from the boy.

Tokage then spoke up. "Alright, so here's what I got. My quirk is the best matchup against Ember's since I can cover multiple areas at once. So I'm pretty sure I can handle her on my own. You two have the best chance against flower girl over there, so you can take her on."

"Are you sure?" The boy gave her a concerned look. Sure he was confident in her abilities. But Ozehana was handpicked by Endeavor of all people.

"Totally!"

"Alright." He nodded. "In that case, me and Reiko-san will flank Lily-san on both sides to keep her busy. We can't use long-range attacks, but that doesn't mean that we can't use our quirks on her directly."

"I don't have my support items, but she seems to be within my weight limit. So we definitely stand a chance."

"Hey kids, you done talking yet?! I'm starting to get bored over here!" Ozehana suddenly shouted to them from across the training room.

The three students simply nodded at each other before taking up their fighting stances and giving the all clear. As the two adults sized them up, they had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do. Logically speaking, they would send Tokage after Ozehana but Lily was their main target.

"I can leave the boss' baby brother and the pale one to you, right?"

"It shouldn't be a problem." Lily shrugged nonchalantly.

"Alright, you can start whenever you're ready!" Katsuragi announced from the sideline. She had her cellphone in her hand and was obviously recording the fight. Which only further bolstered the students' suspicion.

With nothing more that was needed to be said, the battle quickly went under way. Like they predicted, the first one to make their move was Tokage. The green haired girl sprinted towards Ozehana at full speed while the other two made their way towards the lavender eyed woman. In mere seconds, the two opposing sides met the other head on.

"You gotta deal with me, Ember! Don't worry, I'll be sure to go easy on you!" Tokage began taunting before launching one of her arms towards the woman's head. Only for Ozehana to dodge it with little effort.

"Oh good, then that means I'll get to relax a bit." The black haired heroine countered by charging at Tokage herself with her fists raised.

On the other end of the equation, Midoriya and Yanagi were quickly upon their opponent. While the boy chose to use his flight advantage and take to the sky, Yanagi covered him by flanking the woman on her left side.

In one split second, the grey haired girl used her quirk to lift Lily's body off of the ground and move her into prime position for Midoriya to follow up with an across the body kick. None of this seemed to phase the woman however, seeing as she kept a very calm expression on her face. Just as the boy's foot was about to make contact, the woman let out a slight smirk.

"Bone Swing!"

The moment those words left her mouth, Midoriya and Yanagi's eyes widened at the almost terrifying sight before them. Without any warning, Lily's exposed skin briefly ruptured before several large white protrusions practically exploded from her body. This action was so quick that Midoriya didn't even get the chance to stop before slamming face first into a hardened wall of what felt like solid metal.

"What the-" Yanagi gasped, only narrowly avoiding the attack by throwing herself to the right.

Hoping to quickly recover, Midoriya pulled himself back to get a good look at what just happened. To his surprise, and slight horror, he was now able to see what was going on. From the area where her ribs were supposed to be, four large talon-like objects were sticking out of her body.

"That was a pretty good move. But you're going to have to be faster than that." Lily said in a calm tone.

"What kind of quirk is that?" Yanagi inquired. 'That actually looks kind of cool.'

"My quirk is 'bone spur'. I can manipulate the bones in my body to various degrees. In addition to this, my bones are far stronger than a normal person's. It's range is limited, but it gets the job done." The woman announced.

With that brief explanation, Midoriya quickly realized why they were given the handicap by Katsuragi. Close combat fighting was their weak point. And judging by what he just saw, Lily's quirk was perfect for that kind of thing.

'Well, this isn't going to be easy.' He clicked his teeth.

-(o)-

At the other end of the training area, the battle between Tokage and Ozehana was in full swing. Once the two got met in the middle of the floor, the green haired girl was doing her best to avoid a flurry of well aimed punches at her head.

"What are you waiting for, Lizardy? Let's see that quirk of yours in action." The black haired woman taunted with a slight smirk on her face.

"Oh, I was planning on it. I was just trying to see how well you can handle yourself." The girl retorted before activating her power and splitting herself up into twenty pieces and surrounding her opponent. Ozehana suddenly paused at the sight of seeing Tokage's quirk in action. But that moment of hesitation was all that the girl needed to attack. "Scalestorm!"

Without missing a beat, the 'lizard tail splitter' user launched herself at her opponent from multiple directions. However, she certainly wasn't expecting what happened next.

In a rather stunning display of speed and dexterity, Ozehana quickly lowered herself to the ground and power-slid underneath the girl's body before any one of the pieces could hit her.

'No way she was able to react that fast.' Tokage's floating head looked on in amazement.

Hoping to quickly recover from this, the girl proceeded to launch her pieces at the woman. Leading to a veritable game of "cat and mouse" all across the training area.

-(o)-

"Reiko-san, behind you!" Midoriya shouted just in time for Yanagi to dodge one of Lily's surprise attacks.

By now, the entire fight had been going on for a few minutes with no sign of stopping anytime soon. Like Midoriya had predicted, this was a lot harder than what he originally thought. Despite the clear advantage in overall abilities, the woman was a tough opponent to take down.

Initially, the boy thought that simply using his quirk to throw her against a wall would put her down. But every time either one of them tried that, Lily used her bones to catch herself to lessen the impact. And direct blows were next to impossible since they were liable to get skewered if they got in too close.

'Her range seems to be limited to about four meters. Even so, it's dangerous to get in too close.' Was the conclusion that Midoriya was able to come to so far.

"This would be a lot easier if we could work from a distance." Yanagi said in an uncharacteristically annoyed tone.

"Yeah...but that's kind of the point isn't it?"

"Fubuki-san was right. Short range distances aren't your strong suit." Lily stated in a calm tone. "In that case, I'll just have to use this."

The two teenagers watched as the 'bone spur' user extended out her left arm and forced the bone right out of her skin. In terms of visually disturbing quirks, this definitely took the cake. Surpassing even that of Tokage. Once she was done, Lily was now holding what could only be described as a sword-shaped piece of bone in her hand.

"Bone Spike!"

'I'm guessing that she can also regrow bones that she loses. Her quirk is insane! It's almost like Setsuna's.'

Midoriya and Yanagi didn't even get a chance to think before the woman dashed towards them at an impressive speed and made a slashing attempt at them. At that moment, the lightbulb went off over the girl's head. The weapon that she was holding wasn't attached to her body like the rest have been so far. Meaning that she could easily use it for herself.

"Heist!" The 'poltergeist' user ripped the object out of her opponent's hand. Once the sword was in her possession, she got into a sloppy "kenjutsu" stance and readied herself to attack. 'Hopefully those tips I got from Musha-san will help me out.'

"I probably should've thought that one through a bit more." Lily sounded a bit disappointed in herself before assuming a new stance. "Eternal Fang!"

-(o)-

At the moment, Tokage was still chasing Ozehana around their section of the training area. The black haired heroine was surprisingly nimble on her feet. Somehow managing to avoid every attack that came her way. Looking to conserve her stamina, the girl decided to give up on the chase and put her body back together.

"You're giving up already? I'm just getting warmed up." Ozehana taunted. Feeling a bit more lively than she was a few minutes ago.

'I guess I'll have to use my new ultimate move on her.' Tokage resolved herself. In battle, there was no time to second guess yourself. If she had any chance at winning this, she was going to need to catch her opponent completely off guard.

With her mind made up, the green haired youth charged at her opponent full speed.

"Really, a frontal attack?" Ozehana tried not to feel insulted at such an obvious feint. Her two years of working under Endeavor taught her not to fall for tricks like these. The woman got into a boxing stance and prepared herself to maneuver out of the way but she wasn't ready for what happened next.

"Scale Dash!"

Mere centimeters before making contact, Tokage's body exploded into about forty pieces and breezed past Ozehana's body faster than she could blink. 'She can split herself up that much?!' In the time that it took her to process that thought, Tokage had rapidly put herself back together and delivered a resounding backwards kick right into the woman's body. Knocking her onto the ground.

"You like that!" The girl shouted in satisfaction. "I've been working on my speed and precision! It doesn't matter how brawny and muscle bound you are. No one can react that quickly to my attack." She continued with a newfound sense of confidence.

Instantly, the air around Tokage grew stiff.

'Ah shit…' Katsuragi cringed upon hearing her brother's girlfriend's foolish declaration.

"Who the hell…" Without any warning, Ozehana was suddenly back on her feet and closed the distance between the two of them. Except at this particular point in time, the woman was surrounded by an aura of pure intimidation.

*Pow!*

"...are you calling a gorilla cyclops, you brat!" Unfortunately for Tokage, her momentary lapse in judgement was enough for her to be completely unprepared for what could only be described as the most devastating shoulder chop in human history. One that would put even Kendou's best effort to shame.

-(o)-

Across the other end of the room, Midoriya and Yanagi were barely able to avoid a multitude of bone spikes erupting from Lily's body. The sound of the impact to Tokage's shoulder was enough to momentarily distract the two teens, which was a costly mistake.

"Setsuna!" Midoriya shouted.

"Bone swing!"

At the exact same moment that Lily made her move, Yanagi used her own quirk to launch the bone sword directly at the woman. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side today as the weapon simply bounced off her extended rib and sent it flying in the other direction.

'Okay, now the kid gloves are off!' Midoriya said to himself before flying towards his opponent at high speed. The boy managed to dodge another attack while zooming past the woman's body and catching her off guard.

'He's fast!' Lily had just enough wherewithal to extend the bones out of her spine and send another attack aimed at his chest, but by that point it was already too late.

"Palace of Inertia!"

Right away, the woman felt her body freeze in place. Including the bone protrusions sticking out her back and shoulders. This wasn't her first time being on the wrong end of a telekinetic quirk, but this a far different feeling than what she was used to.

"Reiko-san!"

"Got it!" Yanagi responded before once again taking control of the bone-sword and throwing it towards Lily. At the very last second, Midoriya released his quirk and the woman was helpless to avoid getting hit in the face with the blunt side of her own weapon. The force of which was strong enough to knock her down to the ground.

That proved to be the final move of the match before Katsuragi shouted at everyone to stop. "Alright, that's enough! I'd prefer to not have to send anyone to the hospital this morning."

Everyone in the room instantly relaxed, minus Tokage who was still on the ground reeling from that last hit.

"What was that?" Lily directed her attention towards the boy.

"Oh, i-it was just a new move that I learned." The boy answered. "It lets me stop movement within a certain area."

"Huh, I swear I've seen that somewhere before. Did Fubuki-san teach you that?"

"No."

On the other side of the equation, Ozehana decided to have pity on Tokage and help her back onto her feet. "Sorry about that, Tokage-san. I blanked out there for a second. I get kind of sensitive when people comment on my physique." The woman said in an apologetic tone with a bit of blush on her face.

"It's fine. I kinda deserved it for letting my guard down." Tokage gave her a weak grin in return. "Jesus Christ, I don't think I've ever been hit that hard before."

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I guess fighting fires isn't the only thing that you're good at."

"Definitely not."

"Y'know, my mom was actually a firefighter. She used to work near this area before she died on the job."

"Oh...I-I'm sorry to hear that." Ozehana's expression instantly changed after that statement. Her bashful disposition shifted to one that looked a bit dark. Almost apologetic even. The woman looked like she wanted to say something else. But stopped herself before the words could come out.

"That was a pretty good job you three." Katsuragi drew the attention back to her. "Technically I should call that a win for Lily since "Palace of Inertia" could be considered a long range attack. But I'll let it slide this time."

"Sorry about that." Midoriya sheepishly scratched his cheek.

"Obviously you've all improved on your personal abilities. But you would've been better off working together as a group. Tokage-san, confidence is good to have. But don't underestimate your opponents when they have the advantage in battle experience."

"Noted." The green haired girl nodded while tending to her now bruised shoulder...and pride.

"As for you two. You got too caught up in the rules of the fight and let that limit you. Try not to overthink things in the future. The better strategy would have been for you all to get Ozehana-chan and Lily close together. Lily would've been severely limited in her attacks and Ozehana-chan wouldn't have had so much room to work with."

"Understood."

"You're all still kids, so I don't expect you to have all the answers yet. But use this as an example of what to expect when we go out this morning."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Alright, go shower, get breakfast and meet me on the roof in two hours. We have a lot to cover today."

The three students gave a set of mock salutes before taking their leave and making the journey towards their rooms. Inside the training area, the other two heroines couldn't help but notice the odd expression plastered all over the 'flame control' user's face.

"You okay Madoka-chan?" Lily asked in a concerned tone.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine!" She waved her hands in front of her face rather unconvincingly before looking back towards the doorway. 'I almost slipped up a minute ago. Now really isn't the best time to tell her. Hopefully I can work up the nerve to confess before she finds out on her own.'

"Rescue, battle and evacuation. Those are the three basic duties of a hero." Katsuragi said to the three teenagers as their group flew through the sky above Saitama Prefecture. "Most agencies serve a specific purpose, and use that to filter out the kind of requests that they take on. However, when it comes to rescue heroes like myself it helps to be proactive instead of reactive."

"And what do you mean by that?" Midoriya looked to the woman for a response.

"Depending on the type of area that you work in, you have to learn the landscape and possible hotspots for disasters to occur. For example, if we were in a city next to the coastline or a river then flooding and typhoons would be a regular hazzard."

'Geez, talk about learning as you go.' Tokage thought to herself. She knew that work studies were going to be harder than their previous internships. But this was different. During her time with Edgeshot, she felt more like a guest than an actual hero in training. Now, she was more concerned about keeping up with their leader.

"So what should we be on the lookout for here?" Yanagi was the next to speak.

"The entire town is primarily metropolitan and suburban areas. On top of that, we're pretty much the transportation hub of the country. So large scale attacks, earthquakes, and traffic accidents are what I keep my eyes on. There's also the nuclear power plant nearby that every hero agency in the area keeps tabs on." Said the green haired heroine.

"It's also a Monday, so we should probably take that into account too, right? Since there will be more people out and about."

"That's an excellent observation, Lizardy!"

"Thank you." Tokage smiled, feeling slightly proud of herself.

The group continued their aerial observation of the city for the next thirty minutes or so with little to no issue. Despite the abundance of people roaming around, things were relatively quiet. Apparently, there was a lot of empty time in the everyday lives of pro heroes. If nothing was going on, then there was nothing to do. Local heroes typically handled all of the minor incidents around the city. While the specialist just waited for a call to come in.

During this downtime, Katsuragi took it upon herself to make sure that the students paid attention to all of the little things that were easy to miss. Such as weather forecasts, traffic reports and events in the area that would attract large crowds of people. This went on for a good while before the woman's phone began ringing.

"Go for Blizzard."

"Blizzard-san, we have a situation on the south side of town!" The unnamed dispatch employee practically shouted into the phone.

"What's wrong?!"

"There's a runaway bus heading right towards Sakitama Bridge. You're the closest hero in the area from what we can see. It's gaining speed and the two people inside are ignoring all police commands!"

"I'm on the way!"

"Sakitama Bridge? That's pretty close." Tokage pointed out, looking in the direction of the specified area.

"We can get there in less than five minutes if we hurry. Alright kids, no time to waste. Let's get a move on!" The 'psychokinetic' heroine ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" Without missing a beat, Yanagi whipped out her new hoverboard and Tokage hopped right onto Midoriya's back. In terms of airspeed, she was slowest out of the group and time was obviously a factor. With nothing else that needed to be said, the quartet took off in the direction of the bridge at top speed.

-(o)-

Like Katsuragi had said, the group was near the location in only a few minutes. And from what they could see, they weren't a moment too soon. Down below, they spotted the vehicle in question which was speeding through the road with little regard for anything in sight. Luckily, there weren't a lot of pedestrians on the ground. And traffic was pretty light.

"Stopping that bus is top priority! Me and Skywalker can get if off the street. Lizardy and Emily, grab whoever is inside that thing and be careful!"

"Got it!" The students quickly nodded before splitting off into two teams.

Both groups were quick to catch up to the runaway vehicle and flanked it on either side. On first glance, there was no one inside besides two individuals dressed in all black. Hoping that they would listen to reason, Katsuragi yelled out to them from the open window. "Stop the bus and pull over, this is your only warning!"

"Fuck you, you quirky bitch!" One of the men shouted back.

'What did he just call her?' Midoriya wondered briefly. Now that he thought about it, that was same thing that suicide bomber from before said.

"This bus is rigged to blow in about one minute. If you value your lives, I suggest you get the hell back!" The female driver followed up.

Everyone's eyes widened at that declaration and it suddenly became very clear that the situation was much worse than they thought. Midoriya looked ahead to see that they would be upon the bridge in about the same amount of time. Realistically speaking, there was no way that they would be able to evacuate the area that fast. So their only option was to get the bus as far away from here as possible.

"You three, get the hel-"

"You bastards!" Tokage wasted no time in crashing her body right through the window on the opposite side of the bus to grab the two villains.

"Setsuna-chan!" Yanagi called out to her before removing the strap on her belt and sending five of her mini-disks into the door and shattering the glass.

"What the-"

The two villains inside the bus were obviously not prepared for such a reckless move. And in a rather impressive display of speed both girls landed two simultaneous blows that were strong enough to knock the wind out of them.

"Ghosty, grab that girl!" Tokage then ordered the other before taking hold of the man and pulling him out through the shattered doorway. With Yanagi using her mini-discs to do the same to the other.

'Whatever works, I guess.' Katsuragi took a moment to be impressed before turning her attention towards Midoriya. "Head to the bridge and get ready. It'll be tough, but I can move the bus on my own."

"Got it!" Was the only thing the boy said before flying ahead posting himself above the traffic.

Now that the kids were out of the way, Katsuragi didn't need to worry about their safety. Something like this was well within her weight limit. But there was one problem. There was nowhere for her to safely deposit the bus. The sideroads were a no-go and lifting it up into the air could mean that the blast radius would be that much greater. On top of that, she had maybe thirty seconds at the most to make a decision.

'I guess I'll have to toss it in the river and hope for the best.' She decided before summoning her power and levitating the bus towards the water. Seeing as she didn't have the luxury of time on her side, the woman launched the vehicle into the middle of the river about six hundred meters away from the bridge itself.

'Shit, that's too close!' Midoriya realized only moments before everything went sideways.

*Boom!*

The deafening explosion rang through the area as the bus finally detonated. Sending a pillar of water and mud into the air. It was so loud that Midoriya had to cup his own ears for safety. Somehow, despite the shockwave itself doing enough to stop every car and truck on the road. The vehicles were able to remain on the bridge. Whatever kind of explosives were in that thing, they definitely packed a punch.

"What the hell was that?!" One of the citizens hopped out of their car and frantically shouted.

"Is there a villain attack?"

"Was that a bomb?!"

One of the vital rules of being a hero was making sure that people were calm and didn't start panicking. So Midoriya decided to take care of the job and call out to the people below. "Everything is alright! Please try and remain calm! The situation has been handled so there's no need to worry!"

"A hero?"

"Is that Blizzard?"

"What the hell is going on?!"

Just before the boy could speak to try and further contain the situation, something strange happened.

"Help!" A frantic voice suddenly called out to him. Except something was off. Midoriya couldn't really describe it, but it sounded like it was coming from inside his head. What was even more strange was that he instantly knew where it was coming from.

His body practically moved on its own and the green haired youth quickly flew under the bridge to see what was going on. When he finally got a good look at things, he was shocked by what he saw. There in the middle of the water was a man and a small child frantically splashing about.

"Hold on!" The boy shouted then used his quirk to lift the two citizens from out of the river and over to safety.

Once they were on dry land, Midoriya immediately rushed to their aid. Now that he was able to focus, he could see them clearly. The man looked to be about his mom's age with black hair and a mustache. While the other was a small girl with bright red hair.

The closest person to him was the child so that was who he tended to first. "Are you guys alright?" He asked. The little girl briefly looked up at him before a look of fright etched itself onto her face and started to back away.

'Oh right, I forget that this mask is kind of intimidating.' The boy quickly realized what must've startled the girl so bad before removing the object from his head to reveal his face. "Hey, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you." He then said in a soft tone while giving her an honest smile.

Apparently this was enough to calm the girl down just enough for her to relax a bit.

"Jean? Jean? Oh my god, there you are!" The man shouted in a very noticeable American accent as he ran towards the two of them.

"Everything is fine sir. Your daughter looks to be okay." Midoriya replied in English. Now more thankful than ever that his father took the time to teach him. The man quickly grabbed hold of the child and pulled her into a tight hug while speaking way too fast for him to understand.

"Skywalker, there you are." Midoriya looked above him to see Katsuragi flying towards him with a worried look on her face.

"Onee-chan!"

"What's going on?"

"I think these two were caught up in the blast and got thrown into the river." The boy motioned over to the father and daughter. Katsuragi glanced over at the pair to see that while the man was still holding on to the girl tightly, the child was looking at Midoriya with a set of bright green eyes that were focused solely on him.

"Are you guys alright?"

"We're fine, thank you young man! We were walking under the bridge when that explosion happened. Neither of us can swim and the water was too violent." The man answered her.

"Let's get you two over to the street so you can get out of here." Katsuragi suggested, then proceeded to use her power to levitate the two just off the main road.

"Thanks again, hero. I don't know how you found us in all that water, but I'm grateful."

Midoriya tilted his head in confusion before responding. "Didn't one of you call out to me? I heard someone screaming for help."

Now it was the man's turn to be confused. "Well, it wasn't either of us. I was barely able to keep my head above the water, let alone yell. And my daughter here, Jean, is mute. So she can't even speak."

"Really?" Midoriya then looked at the kid whose face hadn't changed one bit. That was weird, he could've sworn that he heard what sounded like a small child call out to him. Now that he got a better look at her, the girl couldn't have been older than four or five.

"In any case, I suggest that the two of you get far away from here. The main road is backed up but it's safe for you to head down the other street."

"Right, thank you Blizzard. And thanks again to you too young man!" Was all the man said before running in the direction opposite of the bridge.

"Let's go find those other two. Our job here isn't done yet." Katsuragi placed her hand on the boy's left shoulder.

"Right!" He replied by putting his helmet back on his head.

"Thank you." The same voice from before once again ringed inside Midorya's head. The boy whipped his head around to see the little redhead girl still staring directly at him despite the distance between the two of them. Was she the one that called out to him? It had to be. How else would he have known where to find them? 'She must have some sort of telepathic quirk.'

-(o)-

Back with Tokage and Yanagi, the two girls had made quick work of subduing the criminals after taking them off of the bus. Things got kind of dodgy there after the massive explosion. But they were still able to detain the two figures dressed in all black.

"Emily, be careful! We still don't know what their quirks are." Said Tokage while continuing to pin the man against the ground with his hands behind his back.

"I wonder why they haven't used them already." Yanagi wondered out loud as she held the unnamed woman in the air.

"That's because we don't have quirks you damn idiot!" The woman responded in a very irritated tone.

"What?"

"Yeah, yeah...laugh it up while you still can, you bastards. She's right, the two are just a couple of quirkless rejects." The other one said.

They were quirkless, well that certainly explained why they hadn't attacked them yet. There may have been a slight sense of relief at the knowledge that they didn't need to worry about any surprises. But neither one of the two girls were dumb enough to let their guards down.

"What the hell were two thinking anyway? Do you know how many people could've been killed! Do you actually realize what you were about to do?!" Tokage shouted.

"And what of it?!" The woman barked. "You quirky bastards think that you're all so powerful, huh? We may not have any fancy powers. But we don't need them to kill as many of you as we can!"

"You may have foiled our plans today. But our brothers will finish where we have failed. We won't stop until every last of your hellish kind feel the pain that we've felt for so long!"

"These guys are psychotic." Said Yanagi in her usually stoic tone. Despite her calm exterior, the girl shuddered slightly at the wild look on the two criminals' faces.

"Who is "we"? Are you part of some type of group or something?" Tokage further questioned. "Is that why you did this? Because you're quirkless? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

That seemed to be the end of the conversation since neither one of the two criminals decided to respond. Tokage did not have a good feeling about this at all. Something about this didn't sit right with her. These people sounded like a couple of religious zealots instead of your run of the mill villains. Obviously there was something bigger at play here. And her best guest was that their quirkless status had something to do with this.

"There's no point in talking to them." Yanagi interjected. "The police can handle that. We just need to make sure that we can keep them under control before Blizzard and Skywalker get back here."

"Yeah...you're right." Tokage nodded. Still feeling very unsure about what she just heard.

-(o)-

It wasn't long before the group was reunited along with the police. By some miracle, no one was gravely injured in that attack. Thanks to Katsuragi's quick thinking by throwing that bus into the river all of the damage was limited to that one area.

"This was an excellent job you three." The green haired heroine complimented them. "There were no deaths and I think we finally caught a lucky break." She then motoined over to the two quirkless criminals who were now in handcuffs and being put into an armored vehicle.

"Yeah, we got really lucky didn't we?"

"Indeed."

"So what happens now?" Midoriya asked after removing his helmet once again to push his hair back.

"We can worry about filing our reports later. And those two will be taken in for interrogation. There won't be another repeat of last time. So I suspect that we'll be able to get a lot more information this time around."

"Good." Tokage folded her arms with relief. She was still trying to wrap her head around what she heard. Was it possible that they were dealing with some sort of quirkless villain group? It certainly wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

She then looked over to her boyfriend. The image of the way those two criminals looked was still fresh in her mind. They had a fire in their eyes and she could tell that they meant every word of what they said. Was this common amongst quirkless people? Did a lot of them feel like that? More specifically, did Midoriya ever think like that?

The girl quickly shook her head to expel that thought.. That was impossible. Midoriya was way too nice of a guy, especially for something like that. However, one thing she was certain of was the pain in their voice when they admitted that they didn't have quirks. It was the kind of pain that would lead someone to do something crazy.

Tokage then drifted her eyes over to the right side of Midoriya's abdomen. There was still a talk that she needed to have with him about those scars on his body. Unbeknownst to her, she was obvious enough for Yanagi to notice this.

"In the meantime, we have to continue our patrol of the area. Hero work is never done and we have a tight schedule to keep." The teens were brought out of their thoughts by Katsuragi's voice.

"Yes ma'am." Midoriya answered for all three of them.

With that, the quartet continued on about their business for the rest of the day before heading back to the agency and finishing up their work. The students needed to get ready to head back to school tomorrow and Tokage resolved to have that much needed conversation with her boyfriend when they were finally back home.

~Somewhere in Japan~

"Watanabe and Nakamura were unsuccessful in their mission. And they were taken into custody."

"It won't be long before the police catch on to what we're doing. I trust those two to keep quiet, but I'm not getting my hopes up."

"Agreed, we're gonna have to push up our timetable."

"There is one good thing that came out of this though."

"And what is that?"

"We now know that Nitro's new product is a lot more powerful than the last. And we know exactly how much we'll need for our big operation."

"I guess it was worth all the extra money, huh?"

"He said that he'll be able to resume manufacturing by the end of this week. Also, he's given us the contact information for a supplier of those quirk bullets that are going around."

"That will help us out a lot."

"Indeed."

"In any case, this was a good test run. I suggest we stay low for a while before we're ready to make our move. There's sure to be a lot of eyes on us very soon."

"Agreed. I'll contact everyone when all of our pieces are in place. Until then, stay under radar and keep finding new members to recruit. We're going to need them for what's to come."

A/N: Woah! I bet you guys weren't expecting another update so soon, huh? Well me neither! It's been a while since I wrote an "action" chapter. So I decided to scratch that itch and give you this. Obviously we're going to be moving into the major threat of this story. Which is the quirkless terrorist group. Now that the heroes finally have two of them in custody, a lot of information will be revealed.

1. For those who were wondering, Lily's quirk is based off of the character Zenon from 'Black Clover'. I like his magic so much that I just had to find a way to plug it into the story (Sorry to all you Sister Lily fans out there). Also, if you couldn't tell by now, Ember is based off of Maki Oze from 'Fire Force'.

2. Next chapter is going to be the long awaited talk between Midoriya and Tokage about his problems. It will also be used to reveal the second part of his "origin story". It's going to be a bit emotional and dark. But after we finally get this part of the story out of the way, the mood will lighten up significantly.

3. I've decided that I'm going to do a "raid" like the canon one on the yakuza, so I need help picking out a team. What students/heroes do you all want to take part in it? It can't be anyone who's taking part in the Yakuza raid for obvious reasons. Nor can it be students who didn't get their provisional licenses. Besides that, anyone from 1-A or 1-B is on the table. Hell, even students from other schools could work.

Like always, thanks for reading this dumpster fire of a story. And don't be afraid to leave a comment/review. I greatly appreciate all the support and feedback. Writing fics is pretty much how I spend my free time when I'm not working, doing classes or working out.