The Force will Set Us Free
(Inspired by Star Wars and Binding the Galaxy Together by AutoKnight01)
A year before the beginning of canon, something enters Earth's atmosphere, trailing down like a fiery comet. All Might arrives to help, deflecting the unidentified object out of the way of a city and into the ocean, but is shocked to see that the unidentified object that had fallen into the sea was not a meteorite, but an alien spaceship, shaped like an arrowhead and surrounded by a broken metal ring.
And inside the broken spaceship is a gravely wounded green-haired teenager, who does not recognise the heroes that help him out of the crash, or the world itself as well. He is covered not in pilot's gear and safety vests, but in a tattered robe.
This is Izuku Midoriya, and he is a Jedi Padawan, having just escaped Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order
It takes him a while, but Izuku is able to slowly learn Japanese (as he had no equivalent language, and Galactic Basis was a vastly different language to anything on Earth) and understand the world that he has found himself in. When he tries to explain what he is and where he came from, All Might and the locals are not quick to believe him, making him realise that Earth is completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy and they have no understanding of life beyond their world. It is only when he shows them his abilities through the Force and the police force's forensic teams give word back on the remains of Izuku's shattered Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptor and the hyperspace ring surrounding it, that All Might and the few other heroes with him begin to believe the boy.
In actuality, Earth may not even be in the same plane of existence as the rest of the galaxy. The Force around this planet is... strong. Unusually so. It is so strong that Izuku feels his connection to the Force strengthening just by being in proximity to it. It's like a tether, pulling him in closer to it.
But that is not what is on Izuku's mind at the moment, as he goes to the warehouse where they were keeping his ship to see it utterly ruined, pulls his damaged astromech droid, the grumpy and surly astromech droid R4-D1, and recovers a holocron that replays Obi-Wan Kenobi's message to the rest of the Jedi Order, telling them to go into hiding.
Realising that he has no home left, and even if he did, he had no home left to go to, Izuku breaks down into tears, leading to All Might deciding to let him stay in All Might Tower whilst they decide what to do with him now.
Izuku is thankful to at least have a place to stay for now, and grows quite fond of All Might because of it. As it turns out, Izuku was considered to be very selfless as a Jedi during his time in the order, but also had a problem with forming attachments, as he tended to cling those who meant well to him more than is appropriate for the standards of the Jedi Order. The very nature of the Force and the Dark Side makes attachments dangerous, which is why the Jedi constantly teach to be able to let go of things and people when their time to pass comes, as clinging onto them may lead to negative emotions that will fuel the Dark Side of the Force and begin their descent into becoming Dark Jedi or even Sith. As such, the no-attachment rule exists as a form of safety net for the Jedi to keep them safe from the Dark Side, but it is a rule that Izuku has been struggling with all his life.
(This is a shoutout to the Legends novel Shatterpoint, in which Mace Windu refers to the Jedi not as moralists but moral pragmatists. The Jedi are so strict when it comes to age of recruitment and attachments because such measures, as well as fighting for civilisation (not peace, as peace is a slogan and is only as real as the civilisation that forms to make it a reality) and the innocent, are the safest route for them to take. The Dark Side is extremely corruptive by its nature of being fuelled by negative emotions such as envy, anger, and jealousy, and anything less than the strictest measures will lead to the inevitable fall to darkness.)
Throughout this story, Izuku will be struggling with his connection to the Force, his adherence to the Jedi Code and hero society, and his potential for a violent fall to the Dark Side, on top of all his trauma from fighting in the Clone Wars and the damage that it has done to him. Suffice to say, Izuku will have some serious close calls in this story.
Soon, Izuku begins to learn and explore the world, and finds himself struggling to find any semblance of peace in this seemingly peaceful world. The Force is strong here, but his past traumas from fighting in the Clone Wars as early as thirteen years of age (even if it was just for the last year of the war) continue to haunt him and dig at the deep scars of his mind. He now spends just as much time deep in meditation to try and regain some equilibrium over his mind as he does exploring the city of Musufatu.
However, during one of his jaunts out, he ends up coming across the Sludge Villain attacking Aldera Middle School, trying to inhabit the body of one Bakugo Katsuki. Immediately leaping into action, he lifts the Sludge Villain up with the Force, frees Bakugo from the villain's grasp, and then defeats him via bursting a nearby waterline with his Lightsaber and diluting his body to allow him to be easily collected by the heroes and police.
Izuku is given an earful by the heroes for his vigilante actions, and he is taken away by the police for charges of vigilantism. Izuku is confused by the whole thing, as he was only doing what he had been taught by the Jedi Order since he was young: to always help those in need, no matter what. When did that suddenly become a crime?
It is only when All Might arrives and bails Izuku out does he explain the rules of hero society to the young Jedi, informing him that because of how dangerous many quirks are, laws were put in place to prevent people from acting out and using their quirks, even if it is for a good reason, without a proper license to prevent the situations that they are involved with from getting any worse. It does tend to stimmy general goodness in favour of security as a natural, unfortunate consequence, but it was a rule passed to prevent the destruction that the dark ages before All Might's rise to fame had wrought. All Might goes so far as to equate them to the Jedi Order's rules to prevent people from falling to the Dark Side, something that Izuku cannot deny.
However, where the other heroes see what Izuku did as a danger that could've potentially made the situation even worse, All Might sees it as an example of Izuku's noble heart and selfless desires, and offers to enrol Izuku into U.A., where he can learn how to become a hero; the closest thing that their world has to a Jedi. He might not become his direct successor to All Might's legacy (as giving Izuku One for All when he already has an immensely powerful connection to the Force would be redundant), but he would be able to continue his dreams of helping people wherever he went. Preferably without getting into trouble with the police for it.
Izuku, not seeing any reason to turn it down, accepts his offer.
And so, Izuku would spend the next ten months studying and catching up with everything that he can about hero society, finding a sense of respect for them and equating them to the Jedi that he served alongside for all his life. It is not an accurate comparison to say the least, but Izuku is still recovering from some very deep and raw emotional wounds from the Clone Wars and Order 66, and is latching onto whatever resemblance of the Jedi Order he can find so that he can gain some sense of normalcy in his life.
In fact, the main focus of this story is to compare the Jedi Order to hero society at large, compare their similarities and differences, and basically deconstruct both organisations, showcasing their pros and cons and discussing the impacts that they may have on people, whether for good or ill.
During this time, he meets a girl by the name of Ochako Uraraka, who he ends up befriending easily. He also encounters Bakugo once again, who expresses anger and vitriol at the boy for saving him, something that Izuku is deeply confused by as he doesn't understand why Bakugo wouldn't want to be saved. He senses that it is Bakugo's inflated sense of pride that is talking for him, and he cannot believe that someone's ego is so big that they see being saved or helped by another as a grave offense.
Meanwhile, All Might is still searching for a successor to take up the mantle of One for All, and ends up stumbling upon one Momo Yaoyorozu, who impresses him with her training, skill, and intellect. He approaches her with the offer of One for All, and she accepts.
Soon, the day of U.A.'s entrance exam begins, and Izuku and Ochako attends together. Previously, Izuku had assisted Ochako in training for the practical exam, and she is able to put up an better fight than she did in canon, having taken Izuku's DC-15A carbine from his salvaged Delta-7B wreck (though it was on the stun setting) and taking out robot after robot with it.
Izuku, meanwhile, begins the entrance exam as well, and has to bite down a panic attack when he finds himself surrounded by villain bots, his mind flashing back to the battlefields of the Clone Wars. Instead, he carves through the machines, teaming up with Ochako to bring down the zero pointer, and ends up saving two other examinees, Ojiro and Tetsutetsu, from the bots.
Izuku and Ochako are able to pass the exam as some of the top markers, and assist in bringing Ojiro and Tetsutetsu up in the ranks as well. All Might, after the entrance exam, introduces the newly empowered Momo to Izuku, and the two greet each other cordially, though Izuku is a bit put off by how aloof and serious the girl is.
At the beginning of MHA's story, Momo was characterised as someone who was confident in her abilities, as well as her potential as a leader hence her being disappointed that she didn't get the role of class representative for 1-A. However, she is also a girl with a lot of confidence issues and doubts about herself, which would logically be compounded by All Might giving her his quirk and making her the heir to his legacy. As such, Momo has become a mess of anxiety and issues over her being the holder of One for All, and compensates for it by acting aloof and always serious, seeking any opportunity to prove her worth and secure her place in All Might's eyes as the rightful heir to his crown.
And it does work for a while, as Momo adapts and masters One for All quicker than Izuku did in canon, and becomes one of the strongest members U.A.'s hero course, using her quirk to compensate for the damage that All Might's quirk does to her.
However, One for All continues to build and stir within her, and the disastrous effects and consequences have yet to emerge...
When the new school year begins, Izuku accumulates well to 1-A, along with his new friends in Ochako, Ojiro, and Tetsutetsu (along with Tetsutetsu's new best friend Kirishima), and becomes a sort-of mediator for the class in balancing out the various personalities within the group. Bakugo (who is in Class 1-B instead of A) immediately proves to be hostile to Izuku, but he quickly realises that it is just who Bakugo is and elects to ignore it, instead focusing his efforts into making as many friends with the rest of 1-A as he can. Some like Mina, Sero, and Hagakure, prove to be friendly enough. Others, like Todoroki, prove to be less so.
However, Izuku proves to be hesitant to take up leadership in the class like many expect him to, his experiences with leading clone troopers into battle wearing down on him, leading to Momo taking up the reins of leadership as class representative in the class. At first she is pleased by this, but it soon adds even more pressure onto her.
This leaves her open to hear the words of a political ally of her parents and family by the name of Akari Tengan, who lends her an ear to listen to and express her worries and stresses. In turn, Momo offers to hear Akari's own political stances, including her slightly more... radical propositions to changes in policy.
Soon, Class 1-A departs for the USJ, and find themselves being confronted by the League of Villains, only this time it is a completely different force that they are up against.
Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and the Nomu are all present, but with them aren't a mob of thugs and villains...
But a small army of B1 battle droids, which immediately opens fire on the class.
The teachers, and even Ochako with her DC-15A carbine, do their best to defend their class from the droids (with Izuku in shock at the sight of Separatist droids on Earth where they shouldn't have been able to follow, his mind filled with so many panicked thoughts that he can't even summon the strength to pull out his lightsaber), but Kurogiri catches up to them and scatters the class across the USJ, leaving them to be hunted down by the droids.
Now trapped in the USJ, the students and teachers find themselves being hunted down by the small army of droids, either the standard ones armed with E-5 blaster rifles or modified to wield electrostaffs (basically the melee units from Kinect Star Wars), and even have to contend with a squadron of B1s on STAP speeders flying overhead. It is a gruelling fight, and it is one that the students find themselves losing as they are captured by the superior enemy one by one. Even Momo, armed with her quirk and One for All, finds herself being overwhelmed by the amount of firepower that the droids are throwing at her.
However, not everything is going well for the villains either. Shigaraki is growing increasingly frustrated with the casual stupidity that the B1s regularly show, and the other villain that is with them is continuing to grate on him. The villain in question, an armoured and jetpack-wielding bandit by the name of Juzo Hikoi, asks why Shigaraki even bothered to scatter the students when they had the obvious advantage and could've killed them all easily. When Shigaraki tells him that it was to spread misery in the hearts of the students and make sure that they live in terror before they are rounded up once again and killed, Juzo calls it a hopelessly stupid waste of time and resources, and tells him that his League of Villains still has yet to prove that they deserve membership to his organisation.
As it turns out, the B1s are actually on loan to the League of Villains, the latter of which are attempting to join the Bandit Confederation, a loose collective of mercenaries and raider clans (basically a combination of the Bedlam Raiders, the Nihil, and the Banished from Halo). Shigaraki dislikes the idea of joining an army of pirates and raiders, viewing them as opportunists and not real villains, but his Sensei had told him to at least entertain the possibility, and so he brought them here to the USJ to kill All Might and all the hero students there.
However, so far, Juzo - who is acting as a representative for the Bandit Confederation - has been unimpressed.
Meanwhile, Ochako, Tsuyu, and Mineta find themselves trapped on a simulated boat in the middle of a lake, one that the droids have electrified by throwing generators and exposed wires in to electrocute them to death if they try to swim to safety.
However, Ochako spots the STAPs flying overhead, and uses her quirk to hijack one, kicking off the droid pilot and ordering Tsuyu and Mineta to jump on. Speeding off, they burst through the domed glass roof of the building and, pursued by the rest of the droids on STAPs, speed towards U.A..
Soon enough, whilst under fire from half a dozen pursuing droids, Ochako, Tsuyu, and Mineta reach U.A. and are saved by All Might, who brings down all the hostile STAPs with a single punch and demands to know what is going on.
At the USJ, things are only getting worse. Most of the class and teachers have now been rounded up, and Izuku and Momo are the only ones left to put up any kind of resistance. Deciding to work together, Izuku uses a combination of the Force and Momo and All Might's shared quirk (One for All) to send a telepathic message to All Might, who responds that he's on his way with an army of pro heroes, as well as additional reinforcements shortly after them. With that done, Izuku and Momo prepare their own plan...
Soon, every other student and teacher are brought before Shigaraki, who's grown angry at how All Might has not yet arrived. Deciding that he needs a message written in blood to get All Might's attention, Shigaraki orders his droids to line up the students and teachers against the wall five at a time and then executed.
However, just as he has five of them pushed against the wall, Izuku and Momo suddenly appear, standing tall on a nearby cliff and staring down at the villains.
Izuku ignites his lightsaber, and the droids realise that they are up against a Jedi and open fire.
Izuku, knowing that the droids will focus on him due to his being a Jedi over the other heroes, proceeds to lead them away as Momo sends a One for All-infused punch directly into the villains, scattering them and giving her classmates and teachers the chance to retreat. Then, Ochako arrives in her commandeered STAP speeder, firing into the droid crowds and drawing their fire...
Just as All Might and the rest of the heroes arrive.
All Might takes on the Nomu whilst the heroes deal with the droids and remaining two villains. But even they find themselves struggling against the amount of firepower that the battle droids are throwing out, inexperienced in fighting against an armed force rather than a mob of thugs and villains. Only Izuku and a few heroes such as Snipe are able to successfully put a dent in the droids, widdling down their numbers-
And that is when Juzo attacks Izuku, pulling out a lightsaber of his own - a gift for his service to the Bandit Confederation - and duelling the boy, eager to kill his first Jedi. The two engage in battle, with Juzo pulling out every trick in the book, from his jetpack to grappling hooks to flamethrower gauntlets to simple slugthrower wrist guns and blasters.
Izuku is pushed to his limit by Juzo, and he is forced to stab the villain, killing him.
Izuku flashes back to the Clone Wars, all the people that he's killed via directly or indirectly, and almost shuts down at having been forced to take a life once again. Meanwhile, All Might is barely able to defeat the Nomu, but finds himself on the verge of running out of time in his All Might form for the day and is surrounded by droids, whilst the rest of the heroes find themselves being beaten back by the battle droids as well, supported by Kurogiri's quirk. It seemed like Shigaraki would get his victory after all...
But then the additional reinforcement arrive, with LAAT/le patrol gunships firing red laser firing into the droids and disgorging their passengers onto the ground, men and women clad in black clone trooper armour and firing their DC-15As into the droids, wiping out the droids, capturing Shigaraki and forcing Kurogiri to retreat, and saving the heroes and students.
Elite Squad Troopers, working not for the Galactic Empire, but the Japanese government.
Izuku is shocked to see them, and even more so when Momo runs up to hug the woman in modified armour leading them, Ayumi Tengan, proving herself to be as much a soldier as a politician. The heroes and Elite Squads secure the USJ, taking down the last of the droids and hauling Shigaraki away to prison, but there is one issue left to face:
What to do with Izuku, who has just killed a man.
It is ultimately decided, upon the police interviewing him, that Izuku had acted in self-defence and wasn't liable to be charged with anything other than a slap to the wrist. Izuku is let go, but his Lightsaber is confiscated by Nezu and he is ordered to begin attending therapy sessions with Hound Dog until he is deemed ready to have it back. Izuku is returned to 1-A, with Ochako and Momo welcoming him back alongside his astromech R4-D1 - who has now joined the class as a helper - but he is met with distrust by the rest of his classmates for his killing a person, which leads to a lot of tension within the class.
During this time, he meets with Ayumi along with Momo, who reveals where she got the clone trooper armour and gear from, as well as the police gunships and other tech that he is only just beginning to notice. As it turns out, a year ago a different alien ship was found on Earth, and inside it was a lot of gear and equipment for salvage. It had taken the scientists in I-Island a long time to figure out how this alien technology all worked and how to reverse-engineer it, but now they'd figured it out, and Ayumi and the rest of the Japanese Diet were the first to get their hands on this new treasure trove of technology alongside the United States of America due to leveraging All Might as being born in Japan.
In addition to this, Ayumi had set up the Elite Squads as a replacement for the police's SWAT teams and eventually the police themselves due to the increase in villainous activity, with the Battle of the USJ being their accidental first test run, of which was a great success.
However, with the rise of the so-called Bandit Confederation and the weapons and droid army that they had at their possession, there was now a need to further develop their defences. They were beginning to receive reports from across the world of Bandit Confederation raiding parties, supported by droids, sacking towns and villages, and even attacking cities in hit-and-run skirmishes.
Perhaps this was a sign that hero society needed to adapt to survive.
Izuku leaves with Momo, and Ayumi begins to talk with someone who had been hidden away from sight, not sensed by Izuku due to the turmoil in his mind.
Clone Commander Faie, acting commander of the Elite Squads and the few clone troopers on the planet, now working for Ayumi and the Japanese Diet as a secret death squad (if any of you readers know who Faie is and what he's like, you know why he'd be an antagonist despite being a clone trooper). To her sides, the clone commandos Boss and Fixer step out of the shadows to take up their place as Ayumi's guards.
Faie, having adopted the Imperial mindset long before Order 66 was initiated, comments that the Jedi is going to be a problem. Ayumi, revealing herself to be a former Republic intelligence officer named Nayla Amari, reassures Faie that he and his clone squad have killed Jedi before, but this one happened to be in All Might's favour, so killing him now would only draw too much attention from the wrong people. For now, they'll have to leave him be and focus on the current threat, the rising Bandit Confederation and how they got their droid army. Faie wants to take his squad of clones and kill the Confederation's leadership immediately, but Nayla shoots this down, telling Faie that it won't stop others from taking up their mantle or from salvaging the droid army for themselves.
No, they would have to move carefully and dismantle the Confederation piece by piece. It would be a long process no doubt, but considering the demilitarised state of hero society and the world itself, there would be no other way.
And besides, such a conflict would be rife with opportunities for them to push forward with their own plans, especially against the annoyances in the HPSC and WHA, and would help to prepare them against the larger threat steadily approaching the Sol System.
Not the Galactic Empire, but something far worse...
Nayla and Faie begin to plan, the end goal being to phase out hero society and replace it with a new, more authoritative military force. One that would be ready for the battles ahead and be willing to do whatever it took to ensure that Earth, and mankind, survived, with the formation of the Elite Squads being the tip of the spear.
They call it the TK Initiative.
Elsewhere, All for One and Kurogiri rescue Shigaraki from prison, and the supposed leader of the League of Villains instantly goes into a rage over being arrested and failing to kill All Might at the USJ, calling the battle droids that he'd been given worthless. All for One tells Shigaraki to take heed and nurture the hatred that has spurred from this experience. He must learn and grow from what has been taught today if he is to fulfil his destiny.
The other guest in the room, however, does not feel the same. If she had her way, she would have Shigaraki's head on her desk for such a wasteful, idiotic display.
Maya Vermont, leader of the Bandit Confederation operating under the codename of Durandal, spoke to the three villains via hologram, not trusting them enough to speak to them in person. Maya makes it clear to them that Shigaraki's shameful display was enough to convince her that allowing this League of Villains into the ranks of her Confederation would not be worth it. At best, Shigaraki could serve as useful cannon fodder and nothing more. Shigaraki is angered even further by this, stating that he'd come close to killing All Might, but Maya retorts that he'd only done so after dicking around and playing sadistic games with a bunch of children instead of taking the simplest solution and doing away with them at the earliest convenience. Because of that, he's lost not just half a dozen STAP speeders and an entire company of B1 battle droids, but also one of her lieutenants, all for a failed attempt on killing All Might himself, as if he hadn't survived a dozen assassination attempts before.
It is enough of a failure to make it clear that the League of Villains had no place in her Confederation's ranks.
All for One speaks up, but Maya tells him to stuff it. It is very clear right now who has the power in the room, and Maya knows it. As far as she is concerned, the only interesting thing that the League has going for it is its Nomu project, and even then she has a much more efficient bioweapons division up and running now. She has no desire to listen to the council of an old has-been and his bratty child.
Maya states that the League are on their own and cuts communications with them. Shigaraki is thrown into a rage at this dismissal, and All for One grits his teeth. He used to be the demon king of the underworld, and now he has been dismissed as a has-been?
He will tear Maya Vermont limb from limb when he got the chance.
Meanwhile, Maya takes stock of her rising empire. About a year ago, the Bandit Confederation had been nothing more than an idea in her mind, a dream of uniting the criminal gang and villainous enterprises across the world into a single force to be reckoned with. However, back then, she'd only been the leader of a gang of raiders harassing settlements across Europe, a position that had been passed down to her by her father and one that she'd been desperate to earn and live up to.
But then, she and her gang had stumbled upon something that would change their lives forever.
A crashed Lucrehulk-class battleship, with an army of battle droids and war materiel inside that could turn her dreams into a reality.
It was a stroke of pure luck in all honesty, but Maya wasn't about to tell anyone that.
From there, it had been child's play to reprogram the vast amount of droids inside to follow the orders of her and her lieutenants - whom had now designated themselves as Warlords - intimidate several other criminal organisations into joining her growing federation, set up some factories and manufacturing plants with her new resources to keep building more droids and weapons, and then taking the steps necessary to set herself up as a dominant global power, strong enough to challenge the WHA itself.
Now here she was, at the head of a massive empire capable of raiding any location across the world. And with all the nations across the world being demilitarised after the endless Quirk Wars from before All Might's time and the decentralised nature of hero society as a result, that meant that there was no power in the world that could stop them. Her droids had even taken the time to secure that old base on the moon and bring back all those lightsabers, meaning that now, with a base on the moon, they could strike anywhere over the globe.
Soon, they would have the resources needed to complete their repairs of the Lucrehulk-class battleship, which she'd dubbed the Malahayati, and take it up into space. She could start operating on the bases that her droids and men were setting up on Mars and the moons of Jupiter. She could become a real contender in global politics, she could make heads roll, she could create a new future for her world.
If she had her way, Earth would become the seat of a new galactic power. First the Sol System, and then the rest of the galaxy, with nothing to stand in her way. Not even All Might himself.
Except that wasn't so certain now. Not with the Jedi on the field.
Maya frowned. She'd heard stories of the Jedi. Her droids had told her about the Jedi that they fought against in the Clone Wars, and when she'd explored the old base on the moon with her Warlords and raider minions, her droids had confirmed it to be a Jedi base created during the days of the High Republic.
She'd never seen a Jedi in action up until this day, and from what's she'd seen of the recordings that she'd salvaged from her destroyed B1s, she was less than impressed with the boy's abilities and skills. However, she wasn't stupid. The Jedi was going to be a problem in the future, and she needed to get rid of him as soon as possible.
Orbital bombardment was out of the question, at least for now. She didn't have any ships big enough to carry out such an attack at the moment, only fighters and shuttles, and there was always the chance that the Jedi might survive it.
No, this would have to be done the hard way.
Back in U.A., Izuku would try his best to move on from what happened in the USJ, and is shocked and disgusted with himself at how easy it is for him to disregard his killing a man, having already done it enough times during the Clone Wars. Instead, he finds himself alienated by a majority of his classmates, either consciously or unconsciously due to their distrust of him after having seen him kill someone, worrying that they will be next.
He ends up catching the attention of on Reiko Yanagi and her friend Yui Kodai from Class 1-B. Izuku has a tense relationship with 1-B, mostly due to Bakugo's insistent disrespect to him for the Sludge Villain incident. However, now it seems like the one they call Monoma - who's jealousy and envy Izuku could feel rolling off him like waves - seems to be eager to attack 1-A for every little thing that they do, even mocking them as the class that got someone killed due to the news reporting of the death of a villain at the USJ. Reiko and Yui, however, seem to be solid rocks of support against the vitriol that Bakugo and Monoma seem eager to throw out at every given opportunity, and Izuku finds himself enjoying the two girl's company.
But there is something strange about Reiko that Izuku can't place his finger on. Every time she uses her levitation quirk, Izuku's connection to the Force... shivers. It's strange, he doesn't know any other word for it.
When the Sports Festival began, Izuku, through his connection to the Force, would come out as one of the top contenders of the event, alongside his friend group and Reiko and Yui from 1-B. During the third event, the duels between students, Izuku would find himself on the backfoot against many of his opponents without his lightsaber, and would be forced to improvise several times to come out on top against his foes.
However, then he goes up against Reiko, and she begins to absolutely wipe the floor with him. No matter what move he tries to make either through the Force or his own skill, Reiko seems to have a perfect counter every time.
Reiko wins the fight and leaves Izuku in the dirt, and he confronts Reiko about it after the match, trying to understand why the Force feels so strange around her.
However, he becomes weaker all of a sudden, and realises that he has been poisoned, just as Reiko discovers an IG-86 sentinel droid lurking about the building, sent by the Bandit Confederation to kill Izuku Midoriya. The two are forced to work together as Izuku uses the Force to fight the poison in his veins, and are joined by Ochako and Yui (the latter girl revealing herself to be an even better shot with a gun than Ochako) in fighting the assassin droid...
And that is when Reiko stops cloaking her presence in the Force and reveals herself to be another Jedi survivor, pulling out her lightsaber and slicing the droid's head off.
Reiko wasn't just another Jedi; she's a Jedi Shadow, an expert in infiltration and espionage who had a natural talent for masking her presence in the Force. Izuku is shocked to know that there is another Jedi on the planet, and even more so when he discovers that Reiko has been training Yui as an apprentice of her own, the stoic girl showing a latent connection to the Force.
The Sports Festival ends with Momo securing the victory, Reiko having forfeited to deal with Izuku and the assassin droid. However, Momo is starting to feel the strain of One for All upon her, as evidenced by the grey hair that she has gained on her head.
Meanwhile, Izuku is rushed to the hospital, with the poison being drained from his body. Realising that the assassin droid was sent by the Bandit Confederation and that now Izuku's life is in real danger, All Might and U.A.'s staff move Izuku into hiding for the time being, Ochako joining them due to her close and by now known proximity to him.
Reiko and Yui, meanwhile, return to their secret hideout where they compile all the intel that they already know as well as what they have learnt, both about the Bandit Confederation and the growing relevance of the Elite Squads and advanced Republic technology that is being spread out across the various governments across the world, tying it to a global conspiracy known as the Collective, one that Ayumi Tengan is connected to, though they don't yet know how.
Then, the Jedi Shadow and her protégé take stock of their own supplies, that being a single Rho-class transport shuttle that Reiko had arrived to Earth in, the Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor that had been stored in its underside cargo pod, and a lot of blasters and other weapons that had either been stored in the shuttle or stolen from both the Confederation's forces or the Collective's agents.
Yui suggests that now might be the time to begin forming their little insurgency group, the Verity Militia, like they had planned, and Reiko concurs, knowing that the Bandit Confederation are ready to go to war with the entire world, especially with their bases across the solar system, and sensing that the Collective are building up their strength as well, for a war either against the Confederation or with another different foe entirely...
Yui comments that they might lose a lot of people during this battle, but Reiko shrugs it off. War is never without casualties.
If Izuku in this story, whilst going through his own struggles, represents the good side of the Jedi Order, then Reiko is representative of its more negative aspects.
But for now, Yui and Reiko plan out their upcoming internships and put in joint applications for Hosu to chase down the Hero Killer...
Whom they know as the Dark Jedi called Stain.