Hoo boy…

This one's going to be a doozie.

Part 1 of (hopefully) 3 of the USJ saga. Initially I planned to make this all be one chapter but i get the feeling that dropping a 30k+ chapter on all of you would be a bad idea.

This chapter's going to be a long one. More than likely longer than the 10k average I've been trying for the previous chapters, but still around the same length. Theres probably more comments at the end of the chapter.

Oh well, we'll see how it pans out.

For now, on with the show!

Chapter 13: the USJ - Part 1

Faint, barely audible sounds echoed in the dimly lit room, gone unnoticed as the sole occupant slumbered. The sounds, a veritable playlist of random tunes recommended by friends, played quietly next to his head, as he'd fallen asleep while browsing his phone.

The screen of it had long since shut itself off, with only the playlist continuing through the night, watched only by the collection of hero memorabilia.

However, the music had an odd effect on him, as rest turned fitful, and the boy began to dream…

Violins screamed as a vast, dimly lit expanse flooded his vision, brushing past toppled pillars in his rush as he ran. The air felt still, as if nothing had been there in a long time. Pillars were everywhere he looked, some still standing, but others crumbled on the ground.

Karamiau meikyū meikyū, soredemo yuku to iu no?

It felt as if he was running through a labyrinth. Leaping over one of the toppled pillars, he continued running forward. Footsteps echoing behind him, accompanied by… Was that a guitar? Playing from somewhere in front of him. Was he chasing the sound? The thought registered in the back of his mind.

He could see something red and glowing in front of him, something which the pulsating red glow coming from his chest (?!) seemed to draw him towards. The glowing ahead of him was steadily growing bigger and brighter as he approached it, until he finally saw what it was.

A strange canister floated in front of him, roughly at the height of his own heart. Curiosity filled him as he reached out to touch it, and the light started pulsing in time with his own supposed heart.

Chīsaki tabibito ga kanaderu hajimari no kane no ne

The sound of a bell echoed throughout the labyrinth as the floor underneath him started shaking.

'That's not good-' leaping to the side, he dodged out of the way of a falling pillar, and watched as more particles started falling, not just from the pillars dotting whatever this place was, but also from the ceiling above.

Yuku ate mo, DON'T KNOW DON'T KNOW

He needed to get out of there. His breathing hitched as he planted one foot in front of the next, rushing back in the direction he'd come from. But How long did he have to run? Where was he even running? He couldn't see where the entrance was, he didn't know where he was going, he didn't know.

Hontō wa kowain ja nai no?

Gritting his teeth, he tried to run faster, as fast as he knew he could, but for some reason, his limbs felt like they were made of lead, and there wasn't any feeling of power in his veins, as if something was blocking the flow of his quirk completely.

His body felt like it was on fire as he ran, footsteps hammering as pillars chased after him, collapsing like dominos as he spotted a light in the distance, growing closer and closer, to the point where he had to squint and cover his eyes.

Fumidasu sono ippo ippo ga kaete yukeru sa

The light in his chest blinked rapidly with each step, synchronised with his heart as he ran blindly into the light, chased by pillars as he dashed vaguely through some kind of doorway. Almost immediately it subsided, with the sound of blinding pillars fading out behind him as he ran out of whatever building he was in with a leap.

THE DAY HAS COME

Only for there to be no floor underneath him to land on, as he started to fall, flailing around as he felt gravity taking hold on him. Looking back at the supposed cliff that he'd run off of, he saw… A giant man made of stone or steel, shining eyes looking off into the distance as a valley of clouds rolled at its knees.

He couldn't help but look on in awe, before realising the shape of a familiar V at the crown of the supposed statue's head.

"Wha-! Ack- Ow-"

Fabric shifted as a series of dull thuds echoed inside the room.

Izuku Midoriya clutched the back of his head as flailing legs dragged what remained of the lightweight covers off the bed and onto the floor.

He rolled around in pain, clutching his head as he tried to figure out what had happened. It took him a moment to stop as he stared up at the ceiling. His arms flopped down beside him, resting on the partially fallen blanket beside him.

Then, as if adding insult to injury, his phone fell onto his face, having been dragged off by what little was left of the covers on the bed.

"Ack- Ow ow ow…." he hissed to himself as he picked himself up off the ground. "The hell was that dream…?"

He started picking things up as the images drifted in his mind. First, the pillow, then the blankets, which he dusted off first before placing them back on the bed neatly.

"..." Picking up his phone, the last thing on the floor, he held it up as if it had offended him, which, in all honesty, it kinda did. Izuku was pretty sure that the ever-so-faint sound of music playing from it was the reason why he had such strange dreams.

"What song even is this? 'The Day'? What kind of name is Porno Graffitti?" He muttered to himself, "Okay. No more late night internet scrolling…"

Though at least as far as strange dreams went, that wasn't the worst of them. Nightmares always sucked. Not the best way to start the morning, but definitely not the worst. *That* would have entailed a metal table, dubious syringes and burning Burning BURNING-

He shook that thought off almost as quickly as it entered his head, instead turning his attention to his phone. Turning the screen on, he put a stop to the playlist, but that's when he noticed…

"Aw come on- the battery's almost dead…"

Hopefully it charged enough to last the whole day while he had breakfast.

"I will say, I didn't expect to see your kid there, Nana." A voice echoed in a dimly lit, concrete space. There were a few dimly lit hallways to either side of the room, though neither of them looked into the hallways that often. Everyone deserves their own privacy after all.

"Have you seen the kid's room?" she smirked, raising an eyebrow at him before looking back at what was essentially a window in a mostly empty room. Though it was dimmed right now, they could always pull up the metaphorical curtain and see what their latest successor was doing.

"Besides, who knows how dreams work, though I guess a part of it is Daigoro's fault too. Even now I can still hear him humming that song"

"Hahaha… Fair. Your kid's going to have an aneurism if he ever finds out, you know," stepping into the view, the sickly man with alabaster hair leaned against the wall, looking back at her.

"For sure, as long as Toshi doesn't burn himself out anyways," she glanced back at the wispy figure sitting in one of the chairs of the meeting room.

"I hope you won't have to join us here for another forty years at least, you hear me, Toshinori?" she smiled sadly before looking back at Yoichi, at the origin of One for All. "Still though, it's a little odd that the Ninth was affected to this degree. When we watched through Toshinori's eyes, we didn't have anywhere near this kind of influence. Did Rei-" she paused, contemplating the words. "Did Zero say anything? Or is she still asleep?"

"Still asleep sadly, though if she was awake, she'd probably be chewing out Daigoro at this point if she wasn't." the man chuckled.

"Would be funny to see at the very least, though being able to hear music all night was kinda nice too," she floated over to her seat in the rough semi-circle before plopping herself down. It'd been too long since any of them had heard anything resembling a radio.

"That last one was a nice song too, it sounded like the type that girl would have liked," the first joined her, sitting in his own seat, and glancing at all the other empty ones.

While inside of the quirk-space, though they had a meeting hall, it wasn't all that there was there. They had their own separate rooms too, to get something akin to a sense of personal space. Apparently this came to be after the second and third arrived because Rei wanted somewhere to sleep without others watching her.

"Though maybe next time we should get the Daigoro to reign in his imagination, otherwise that kid will keep getting dreams like that," she said, before growing contemplative. "Maybe it's about time we held another meeting, it's been a while since he last held one, and at this point I feel like it's kinda needed if we're gonna keep accidentally poking holes into the kid's dreams."

"I can see why you suggest as much, though first I'd like to wait for Zero to wake up. This… council of ours wouldn't really be complete if all its founders weren't here," the first said, clasping his hands together, elbows resting on knees while his chin rested on his hands.

"Can it really be called a council though? This place only really exists because of both yours and Zero's quirks after all."

"While my quirk allowed me to pass it on, it would have been meaningless if nothing else got passed on with it. All that would have resulted in my sentience going from person to person and providing whatever guidance or wisdom I could if that were the case. From my perspective, it's Zero's stockpiling ability that lets us talk together like this, and together we'd figured out most of how this worked in the first place."

"So now we wait then? Seeing as we're kinda relying on Zero's senses to figure out what's happening to One for All?"

"Not much else to do besides that,"

She couldn't help but sigh as she also got comfy in her seat.

After finishing breakfast, Izuku quickly hurried into his room to change into his uniform, tucking the button-up's edges into his pants before readjusting and tightening his belt. The jacket wrapped around his shoulders as he draped the tie loosely around his neck.

He wasn't quite sure what to expect of the day, seeing as there was an excursion. Grabbing his phone and backpack, Izuku grimaced at the still low battery, before slipping into his red shoes and leaving the apartment. Mom was still asleep at the moment, and Dad was still out on patrol, so he had to lock the door fully behind him.

It was earlier than normal for him to leave for school, mainly because of the excursion. On a normal morning at this point, he'd usually be out jogging around the neighbourhood- not that the light exercise seemed to do much for his musculature at this point- before returning home to have a quick shower and breakfast.

In all honesty, he was a little worried about Kodai tomorrow. He'd figured out that she wasn't much of a morning person from the past weeks of walking to school with her, and it was 1-B's turn to have the excursion tomorrow. Perhaps he'd have to wake her up tomorrow when he left on his usual jog.

By the time he and Kodai exited the apartment complex, the streets would be fairly well lit by the morning sun's rays, at which point they'd end up walking towards the station while talking about this or that. Usually, it was about the shows that she introduced to him, or recent news about heroes, but occasionally she'd ask him for advice in terms of class work or hero course stuff.

However, since he'd left much earlier than normal, he could feel the silence weighing as he commuted to school. Despite the bustling of the crowd in the station, or the soothing, rhythmic clack-clack clack-clack of the train's wheels on the track, he felt… Lonely.

Although he'd put up with this silence for essentially all of his school life before UA, he felt lonely now that silence was all that accompanied him on the way to the campus. Not even the infrequent student walking up the road in the same direction as him could do anything to soothe this loneliness.

It was only now, after getting proper friends, that Izuku noticed just how much quieter his mornings felt without someone to talk to on the way to school.

'You can't miss what you never had, I guess,' he admitted to himself as he entered his classroom.

He wasn't very surprised to find out that the class was mostly empty. There were a small handful of students here already, namely Iida and Yaoyorozu, who he could hear were talking about something to do with their class-representative duties, and Todoroki who was seemingly asleep in his-

The two-toned teen opened his eyes and looked at him the moment he stepped into the door. Heterochromic eyes locked onto emerald orbs, and they just… stared at each other awkwardly for a moment, before Todoroki nodded at him, and decided to close his eyes again.

… Okay, never mind. Todoroki wasn't asleep.

Besides the three of them, four now with him stepping into the room, the class was completely empty. Not even their homeroom teacher, Aizawa-sensei was present, as the nook behind the teacher's podium was vacant, only holding a swath of now iconic yellow fabric, a sleeping bag.

He waved good morning to the class representatives before walking to his seat and depositing his backpack under his desk. There was a while to wait before they were to head to the buses, so Izuku pulled out one of his notebooks, the one he'd accidentally dropped during the break-in stampede and continued sketching out the hero costumes of his classmates inside of it. He'd finished all the analysis about a week ago, so now it was just a matter of giving the analyses some accompaniment in the form of sketches.

It didn't take much longer before more of his classmates started spilling into the room. Students started coming in droves while he was sketching.

There were some odd occasions where something distracted him from his sketching, such as when Sato walked in, smelling strongly of freshly baked goods, when Uraraka arrived, holding the remains of Lunch Rush's meals, or when the door was slammed open by Kaachan. He jumped pretty badly when that happened, but at least he wasn't the only one.

He denied any and all allegations that he squeaked though. No matter how much Jiro or Shoji looked at him, he wouldn't say a word about it.

At some point, Kaminari entered and made his way towards his desk.

"Piss off Pikachu, go back to your own desk"
"Mind your own business, blasty, I was going to Midoriya's table, not yours"

"You wanna say that again, punk?!"

"Chill out, Bakugou, yeesh"

Izuku watched as Kaminari bickered with Bakugou for a moment, periodically glancing at the latter's hands warily. He tried not to let it get to him, but he couldn't deny that he was still… on edge around Bakugou.

Somehow, namely with the timely intervention of Yaoyorozu and Iida, they'd managed to talk down the Irate Explosion user.

"Morning, Midoriya, continuing with those sketches?" his blonde friend approached his desk, bypassing Kaachan to take a look at the sketch.

He was currently working on sketching Sero's first costume. He'd already done the posing of everyone's accompanying images, though none of them had any real details, and were just collections of overlapping shapes, and faintly written text trying to explain poses.

Sero's sketch, meanwhile was starting to take form, as Izuku was slowly but surely adding in detail after detail, methodically shading in areas to replace colour, while adding various shapes to create detail.

It was, to the extent of his talent, a recreation of the pose Sero tried to strike during the Battle Trials. Or at least, as good a drawing as Izuku could manage.

He assumed that they would start chatting about it, but the next moment, Aizawa-sensei entered the room, his presence announced by the sound of the rolling door.

Their ever sleepy teacher glanced around the rooms, taking count of all the students there, making note as Kaminari, as well as a few other of his classmates, rushed back to their seats.

"Good. You're all here." Aizawa-sensei said as he approached the teacher's podium.

"Sensei! What are we doing today?" Sero called out, raising his hand in the air as he did.

"We'd heard that today was going to be an excursion that takes most of the day, but even then, we haven't been told too much about it."

Aizawa-sensei looked at Sero, then at Jiro, who followed up on the former's question.

Rummaging around the drawer under the podium, looking for cards, he started to explain the day's planned excursion.

"Today's excursion has become a three-way joint lesson between myself, All Might, and another hero, who you'll be meeting on site, and all of what you'll be learning today can be summarised in one of the three main fields of Heroes."

Izuku watched as Aizawa-sensei pulled a card off the table, with the word "Rescue" written in bold, blue letters.

"Disasters, Shipwrecks, and everything in between. Today's excursion is all about Rescue training."

Comments and chatter erupted from his classmates at that point. He could hear some enthusiastic remarks, while some were apprehensive. He could distinctly hear Bakugou in front of him scowling, but he didn't let it dampen his enthusiasm.

Heroes were all about helping people after all.

"Calm down, I haven't finished yet." Their teacher silenced the class for a moment. "As a rule, Heroes should always prioritise the rescue, however, they may not always be the best suited for it. There may be harsh conditions or a bad matchup of quirks. That's the focus of today's excursion. To carry out a variety of rescue exercises under such conditions, find ways to circumvent or work around a bad quirk matchup, and to introduce you to Rescue-work as a whole. We'll be taking a bus to the off-campus facility."

"Whether or not you wear your costumes today will be up to you." With the press of a button, the shelves where their hero costumes were stored in extended out from the wall. "However, I would strongly recommend wearing them, so you can see whether or not these costumes help or hinder your ability to save lives. Take this chance to consider major changes to your hero costumes. You have 20 minutes to get dressed and meet at the parking lot. That's all."

As Aizawa-sensei started to walk off, his classmates started to crowd around the shelves, leaving for the nearest changing rooms.

Izuku joined them, grabbing his suitcase before following the trail of classmates walking towards the changing rooms.

It was in the changing room, surrounded by his male classmates and more lockers than he could count, that Izuku opened up his case, only to find that it looked… different from what he remembered. The green colouring that comprised the majority of the body was now much darker, a similar shade to his hair. Almost immediately after noticing this, he found a folded note on top of it. It was the user manual apparently, as it contained a list of all the parts and components based on the plans he'd sent before school started. However…

After picking up the manual, a piece of paper drifted back down into the case.

'A letter?'

Dear Izuku Midoriya. Apologies that it took so long to get these parts added to your costume. Your helmet is now fully air-tight as per the original design specifications. There are also canisters of air hidden along the base of the neck-guard. They should be enough for at least 10 minutes underwater. Additionally, we've finally filled the weird bunny ear/hair tufts you wanted with electronics for communications! You can now connect it to your phone and the handful of earpieces in your belt. Oh- and your belt has been fully stocked up now too, with a variety of tools according to the specifications. It took a while to get a number of those cleared for deployment with the legal department at the design agency, though. Besides the emergency hammer and seatbelt cutter, One of your belt's pouches now contains a compact air compressor to refill the air canisters in your helmet. There's also a few spare canisters. Now as for the most important change… While making modifications to your costume, our company decided to make some changes to the design. It's still the same high durability material as earlier, but we've made some changes to the Aesthetics. Thank you for understanding.

I mean, it will definitely be a lot cooler like this!

The green doesn't compete with the shiny silver of the extra armour anymore!

Izuku stared blankly for a moment, before sighing and putting the note down.

"Didn't think that the support studios would be crazy enough to do that without asking…" he muttered as he stripped out of his uniform, and began slipping into the now darkened jumpsuit.

The jumpsuit was easy enough to slip into, but now the black undercoating of it was less contrasted from the green. The material still felt the same though.

Next came the armaments, with the chestplate coming first, pressing firmly onto his chest, before attaching at the white squares on his shoulders. After clicking it into place, the chestplate readjusted itself, getting pressed even tighter to his body, to the point where it didn't jostle itself whenever he moved.

Then came the gauntlets, slipping on the snug fabric one arm after the other and tightening the straps, they were the same as last time, albeit silver instead of alabaster white. The shin guards were similarly stripped of their paint, too.

There didn't seem to be any major differences in his armaments other than his chest plate.

Now as for the helmet…

Izuku placed the metal ring around his neck, rotating it slightly until it clicked into place. The neck guard tightened into place as the armoured hood, now filled with various electronics, draped over his shoulders, within the homage to All Might's hair tufts, and the electrical components inside of them dangling around the upper half of his back. Now, with the tap of one of its buttons, the entire thing snapped up and engulfed his head in the helmet form. But there was also this odd whining noise, before the air itself felt different.

It was only an instance later that he realised, but a light appeared on the inside of his helmet. It looked like a gauge to monitor the air canisters in his helmet, among other things. He now had a Heads-Up Display.

'Neat.'

He pressed the button again, deactivating the helmet and letting it settle around his neck as a hood and neck guard once more, before looking around the room. A majority of the class was still changing.

'I guess I should head out first…' He stowed his uniform and suitcase in a locker before vacating the changing room, leaving the closing door behind him

"Hey Midoriya! Wait up!"

The punk-themed teen rushed after his classmate after leaving the door behind him. He'd done his best to change quickly into his hero costume, but even despite the simplicity of the costume, his green-haired friend still managed to leave the room before him. Denki didn't know how Midoriya did it, especially considering that Midoriya's was a full-on jumpsuit with armour and trinkets, compared to his costume of essentially streetwear with a belt and earphone.

"Hey Kaminari," his friend slowed down so he could catch up, before they continued walking at an even pace.

"Dude, new gear?"

"Ehe… Yeah, one of the people in the support studio went a little overboard… It still fits nicely, though. Not restricting at all. What about you?"

"Haven't got anything super interesting for my costume just yet, sadly, not since I got it padded in the third week, though I might consider it sooner or later."

"Oh? Did you discover something?"

"Mhm! So you know the advice you've been giving me on the training, right? Trying to get more control over my quirk?" they continued down the hallways as he spoke.

"Yeah, trying to direct electricity throughout your body like a circuit, right? Have you made any progress on that?"

"Sorta? I managed to get that thing about the current's movement down, but i can't really do much with it other than this." He raised his hands out in front of himself before sending his electricity down the length of his left hand's fingers.

"Well?"

"Give me a sec, this is more tricky without the circuit as training wheels-" As he focused, he felt Midoriya stop him at a flight of stairs, warning him to watch his step.

The electricity visibly jumped from his left hand to his right after a moment of concentration. "There we go!"

"Oh? You managed to get past that roadblock you ran into?"

"Kinda yeah, just with the directional stuff, but no control just yet. But I'm close to a breakthrough, I can feel it!"

"Of course, there's still more roadblocks to go through. Like- for one thing, I can absorb my own lightning just fine, same with regular electricity," stepping out of the main doorway, Denki remembered when he asked his mom for help with the exercise, hoping to get some insight from her electric quirk, "but when I was testing it out with my Mom, I still couldn't absorb hers fully, it was like it was taking a minute to realise I'd absorbed it. And it was another matter entirely trying to pull any electricity from her that she hadn't already brought out, like, I could tell that there was something there, but I couldn't do anything about it"

"That might have to wait until you get a better handle over electricity in general. How about regular batteries?" They started walking down the path, seeing the parking lot, and the solitary bus at the edge of it.

"Easy as pie. Honestly, I'm thinking of keeping a few batteries in my hero costume just in case I run low on voltage."

"Eh? So they restore a lot of power for you?" his friend asked as they got closer to the bus. They weren't the first people here, as both Yaoyorozu and Aizawa, and a small handful of others, were there waiting.

"Uhh.. Not really, I went through a whole pack of store-bought batteries, pretty good ones too, but it barely restored any of my limit."

"What about the batteries used for power tools?"

"Well I was thinking of asking the support department for something, but I should probably test those types of batteries out first, huh…"

"We can check after school, at least if we're not dead tired anyway. Otherwise, we could always make a pitstop before one of the gym days"

"Midoriya! Kaminari! Hey!" Uraraka ran up to them from beside the parked bus. "You got a costume update! It looks good too, not as blinding as your previous one"

"Aw, come on, the last one wasn't that bad, was it?" he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Trust me bro, it kinda was. The neon green with the white was a bit harsh"

"It really was… It still looked nice, don't get me wrong, but it was a little.. blinding I guess,"

"That and it looked like something you could probably buy at a store, apart from the armour, anyways. If I search hard enough, I'm pretty sure I can find a decent jumpsuit for at most ¥40,000. I know a bunch of stores, so I could probably find something anyway."

"Oh! Right, Speaking of yen- Kaminari, thank you for telling me about that thing!"

"Eh?"

"Ah- You mean the cafeteria, right?" Izuku snapped his fingers, creating a satisfying metallic ping. He remembered Uraraka holding what was left of a cafeteria meal when she got to class.

"Mhm! I didn't know about them giving free breakfasts until you told me, and today was the first time I checked it out."

"Ah- yeah, right. That. It's too bad that we'd need to get there so early to get anything though. Lunch Rush's food is to die for"

"Talk about it. Even with all the Lunch Rush Cookbooks at home, we can never get the taste quite right."

"Eh?! Holdup you have Lunch Rush's Cookbooks Midoriya? Plural? As in more than one?"

"I-is it really that strange…? My dad's been collecting them for a while now… That and I hear they're cheaper in the States…"

"Wait, doesn't that mean that they're all in English?"

"Y-yeah, but it's not a problem… I'm fluent… for the most-"

*PHWEEEEET*

"... We'll get back to those cookbooks later,"

"Everyone! Gather round!"

Iida waved his arm robotically, attracting everyone's attention.

"Form Lines of 2 according to your student number in order to make the boarding process smoother!"

"Dang, Iida's really going full throttle, huh…" The electric blonde looked around, noticing that literally everyone's eyes were on their bespectacled classmate

It didn't take long for them to steadily start boarding the vehicle.

Getting all the students to a seat in the bus didn't take as long as the class representatives expected, other than Bakugou refusing to sit next to Todoroki and a handful of others, or every girl's justified refusal of sitting next to Mineta, everyone settled into their respective seats relatively quickly. Before long, the bus was on the road.

There was a cacophony of chatter filling the bus, and impromptu karaoke, though that was quick to be shot down once arguments over the next song started. It was at that point where Jiro plugged her quirk back into her phone.

Izuku couldn't help but laugh sheepishly at that. Of course, there would be arguments, since there were 20 people's tastes in music to consider.

Looking forward, at the seats opposite to him, he couldn't help but look at Iida, slouched over in his chair, vaguely depressed from the fact that their transport's seating arrangements were more open than anticipated.

He did feel a little bit sorry for him, but if anyone wanted, they could have easily looked through the windows of the bus to check beforehand.

"Cheer up Iida, there's always next time!" Uraraka tried to lift their vice-rep's spirits while Ashido patted him on the back sympathetically.

"Kero." Asui nodded empathetically. "You could always look through the windows next time. These buses don't have opaque windows after all, so you could just see the seating arrangements by looking through."

'Ah… she read my mind…'

"Kero?" His frog-themed classmate turned to him after encouraging Iida. She kinda just… stared at him for a moment.

"I-is something wrong Asui?"

"Call me Tsu."

"Um… Right…"

"I tend to say whatever's on my mind, Kero."

"I've noticed,"

"Your quirk is pretty similar to All Might's, isn't it?"

'!?'

"I w-wouldn't really say they're similar… Sure, the strength looks the same, b-but All Might doesn't hurt himself by going all out… That and he doesn't roar." he scratched his cheek as he tried to deflect. He could just barely hear Kaachan muttering from his seat

"Fucking Deku. You can't roar either." 'No point in guessing who said that.' Izuku glanced at Kaachan for a moment before looking away, trying to ignore him.

"Recovery Girl begs to differ…" he muttered, barely audible to most.

"Roar? Kero." Asui- no, Tsu. She looked at him questioningly, as if trying to put together some kind of puzzle.

"Wait, so is that why your voice has been so rough these past few weeks? You've been doing extra training?" Kaminari looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "On top of all the help you give me and the rest of our lunch group?"

"Y-yeah… I've been training after school… Apart from going to the gym with you, Kodai and Yanagi I mean."

"Who are you two talking about? Also, wait- you two go to the gym?" Kirishima looked between him and Kaminari.

"Friends in another class. Also, yeah, we go to one of the campus gyms every Tuesday and Thursday," his electric friend replied, "Though now that I think about it… Lately, it's more like Midoriya coaching us and making sure we don't slack off."

"Ahahah… I think I've outgrown most of the standard gym equipment… " he scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Midoriya, buddy. You can already bend metal without needing your quirk, I don't think you need it at this point."

"Ehh…? I don't think I should be slowing down though… My growth has plateaued ever since school started…" As reluctant as he was to admit it, his growth had definitely stagnated since joining UA. Sure, he still had some time to reach 15%, however long it was until the sports festival at least, but having only raised his limits by 1% since starting UA left a vague unease in his gut.

"Ah, right, your strength powers your quirk, while your quirk amplifies your strength. What was it that your silver-haired friend said…" Iida looked thoughtful as he dug through the recesses of his memories. "Something along the lines of it being akin to a positive feedback loop, correct?"

"Y-yeah, but I need to do a detailed exercise routine to keep increasing my strength. That way, I can make use of more of my quirk."

"Damn, between helping us, all that quirk advice I ask you for, and that insane routine of yours, I'm starting to wonder if you have any spare time for yourself" Kaminari chuckled sheepishly.

"I-I've got time! Usually during mornings and evenings, but I have an off day too!"

Usually it was Sundays that he took as a day off, even though he felt restless for most of the day. His morning runs didn't do much to ease the feeling.

"Hold up, can we backtrack a second? What's this about a training routine?"

"R-right, so um… I spend most of the afternoon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays doing that routine, usually what I do changes between three groups, torso, arms, and legs, though lately I've just been doing one group for each day and rotating through them all. Saturday is for working through whatever my trainer thinks I need, and Sundays are usually rest days for me."

"... Midoriya, Bro." Kirishima placed a hand on his shoulder, reaching from his seat past Asui- no, Tsu. "Think you can hook me up with one, too? I feel like I'm going to need it. Hardening may be good at protecting me, but unfortunately, it's not very flashy."

"Eh? But your Hardening sounds like the perfect quirk for a Pro though…?"

"You really think so, man?" his redheaded classmate looked unsure of himself.

"Yeah. Honestly speaking, at the end of UA, I'm pretty sure that you're going to be one of the hardest to beat," he heard snickering and raised an eyebrow at Kaminari. "N-no pun intended."

When he looked back to Kirishima, his classmate was rendered speechless, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly as the redhead tried to find his words. He could see Tsu chuckling to herself as well.

"I… Damn, that's really cool of you to say man," came the response, even if, to Izuku, the nervous laugh made him sound doubtful..

"No, think about it, what good are most of our attacks if they just don't do any meaningful damage to you? You're basically an impenetrable shield protecting civilians."

"He does make a good point, Kero. But it's not like you need to worry about being that strong right away. We're only first years after all."

"It does sound like something to aim for, though, right? Maybe one day, you'll be known as the Indestructible Hero!" Ashido clapped her hands excitedly, a look of realisation on her face "And you can make that a part of your branding!"

"Branding?"

"You know, how some heroes are more iconic than others because of what they do or what they say? Hell, even their looks can be pretty iconic, basically everyone would recognise All Might's hair if you showed them a picture."

Their discussion devolved from there, as Izuku chuckled at everyone's antics. Because of the large amount of praise everyone dropped on Kirishima, the Hardening user was blushing and bashful, trying to divert the attention away from himself and towards some of the others in the bus, and how they could look after graduating.

Iida had the Ingenium legacy to live up to, Todoroki's sheer power on its own would be iconic outside of the connection to Endeavor, and even Bakugou would be iconic for his explosions, if to a lesser degree, because of how he treated others. Then the topic was shifted to himself, which made him shift a little uncomfortably in his seat. Or rather, made him shift more, as the current shouting match between the middle and the back of the bus was making him question reality.

"SAY THAT AGAIN FROG FACE?! AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON YOU PIKACHU!"

Izuku didn't really know how to feel about this. A lot of people were having a go at Kaachan here, where usually the trigger-happy blonde would be the one tearing others a new asshole.

Kaminari told him it was just friendly ribbing, something which, much to his embarrassment, he didn't know could exist.

He was almost thankful to Uraraka for the topic shift, saying how both his mumbling and roaring could be iconic.

Though he ended up making a strangled noise upon Kaminari's mention of Ryukyu, laughing nervously as he tried to brush it off.

"We're Here! Stop messing around! Make sure you don't leave anything on the bus. We're not coming back until it's time for lunch." Thankfully, Aizawa had put an end to their conversations, as the bus had stopped and he'd ordered everyone to get off.

They started filing out of the bus, standing in front of… a giant golf ball? There was an entrance in front of him, and a little closer was…

"ITS SPACE HERO THIRTEEN!" came the cry, louder than his own too.

Right next to him, Uraraka had exclaimed loudly, fangirling hard enough to make even him flinch, though that was mostly due to how loud it was. Shoji and Jiro had also jumped.

He couldn't blame his bubbly friend though, as he shared the same enthusiasm for all heroes. The two of them exchanged hushed whispers of some of the Space Hero's exploits as they were led into the facility.

Entering the gates, Thirteen started giving everyone the rundown of the facility, pointing towards each of the zones and naming them as they walked towards the stairs.

Denki stretched with his hands behind his head, following behind his friends as they geeked out about the resident rescue specialist. He was a little… Apprehensive didn't seem like the right word; nervous would fit better, but then again, nervous implied that there was something he wasn't looking forward to.

Rescue work was definitely an important part of a hero's career, he could tell that much from all the stories that Midoriya and Uraraka were sharing between them, and a look at Thirteen, holding up three fingers for some reason, made him respect him….

Her? Them? He couldn't tell what gender Thirteen was under the puffy astronaut suit, but hearing tales of their rescues made Denki respect rescue heroes a lot more.

However, he supposed that he just… didn't know how much help his quirk would be in a rescue scenario.

He continued listening as their teachers silenced all the chatting, and Thirteen started to speak, telling tales about the many great things that could be done with quirks, but the tone suddenly shifted from light and bubbly to something a lot more serious in the span of seconds.

Quirks could also be used to kill. He already knew that, and he knew just how easy it would be too. His electricity tended to be… Invasive. He was lucky that it'd never happened when he was younger, but several late night internet searches had shown him just how easy it was for someone to get hurt because they'd been shocked, and he could tell that if he'd just let his electricity run loose, if he didn't hold it back at all, he could easily mess up the pacemakers inside of people's hearts.

Maybe it was thanks to all the practice he'd gotten in holding back, but nobody's had to be rushed to Recovery Girl from Cardiac arrest, as if his lightning subconsciously stayed outside of people's bodies. He liked to pretend that he had good enough control to accomplish that at least.

Perhaps this was why Denki found himself drawn to Thirteen's speech, to the idea that quirks were meant to help people, and not just some problem that people had to plan around, lest they intended to keep breaking things around them.

He clenched his hand as the Space Hero concluded their speech, taking a bow. He could all but feel Midoriya radiating excitement next to him, and if he was completely honest, it was a little infectious, and paired with the speech, pretty damn motivating.

"Hehe… Sorry, Senpai, the mood got all sorts of dark then," Thirteen spoke with Aizawa once more.

"No matter, it doesn't stop what you said from being true. Now let's move on. These kids are supposed to get back in time for lunch break, so we need to make the most of the time they have here today."

"In that case, why don't we start with the landslide zone and work our way around the facility?"

"Whatever works. You heard Thirteen, let's get a-" The lights flickered halfway through Aizawa-sensei's sentence, and he noticed Midoriya immediately snapping his head up in attention.

Upon looking at the green-haired teen, he looked around the facility as the lights dotting the circumference switched off, sparks of lightning gliding around until all the lights were dimmed.

It took only a moment for the backup lights to kick in, but by that time, a majority of the facility was thrown into darkness.

Aizawa-sensei whipped around, his eyes all but burning a hole into the central plaza.

It took him a moment to realise what he was seeing, but that was definitely a purple cloud thing gathering in front of the fountain.

"Sensei, is this part of the plan?" he heard someone asking, though his eyes were thoroughly locked onto the fountain's anomaly.

He didn't know why, but something felt… wrong. He felt unsettled by the way that both of the teachers were acting- Hell, he felt on guard from the way Midoriya was acting, as his green friend had zoned in, eyes wide open from the moment the lights fizzled out.

It was only then that he saw something straight out of some kind of horror film. Some creepy guy covered in hands started to step out of the cloud of purple mist, followed by some… Unnatural looking guy with an exposed brain.

Denki's seen a handful of people with mutant quirks as he roamed Saitama's streets, or on the odd occasions where he ventured into Shinjuku or Tokyo, but never has he ever seen someone with an exposed brain. It looked so… disturbing, so wrong. He was used to seeing things like this in his periodic horror movie binge, but seeing it in real life, it felt wrong, bone chilling, as if the spectre of death had laid a hand on his throat.

What made the feeling worse was when the cloud grew, forming a wall in front of the fountain, as people started stepping through the purple cloud wall. The plaza was filled with these rough looking people in a matter of seconds.

"No. Those are Villains- Everyone, stay close together and evacuate immediately, Thirteen, protect the kids" He tried to snap himself out of it and focus too as Aizawa-sensei turned his eyes to him. "Kaminari, use your radio to try and contact the outside world."

Urgently, he placed his hand upon the communicator nestled by his ear as he started channelling power into it, using his fingers to fine-tune the frequency as much as he could. He'd tried doing the same earlier in the term, with little results, but with all the practice he'd been putting in lately, he was getting much better at controlling electronics like this.

That said, he wasn't picking up any responses, and all the signals he'd sent out were just bouncing back at him.

"Nothing but static- Any signal I send out is just getting bounced right back at me! I get that UA's defences are strong, but blocking signals like this on nothing but emergency power is crazy" He couldn't help but exclaim at the absurdity.

"What about the security systems? Shouldn't they have gone off by now?"

"Are they only attacking this place? Or is the whole campus full of these heinous criminals?"

"There's no alarms being triggered like when the reporters broke through the gate earlier. Does that mean that they're reliant on the main power supply after all? Either way, one of them must have a quirk that blocks all signals. Maybe electricity itself." All eyes turned to the heterochromic teen at this point, well, with the exception of the teachers, as he continued to break the situation down with cold, ruthless logic. "Did they pick this facility because of its Isolation from the main building? And when first years would be here too… that and the fact that there's only two teachers here, Aizawa and Thirteen. They're fools for trespassing here, but they're not dumb. With all these cards aligning, there's no way that this is a coincidence. They must have a plan and a goal."

"Todoroki?!"

Hushed murmurs bounced throughout their crowd of classmates.

"That's enough now," Thirteen's voice cut through everyone's collective gasps. "We need to get you kids out of here, Everyone to the gate, don't worry about blasting it open if the power's out"

The Space hero led the way as Denki followed the crowd. Aizawa was standing by at the top of the staircase like some sort of sentinel, looking at the various facilities, before focusing on the central plaza.

"The moment anyone gets a signal outside, send a message to UA Immediately. All of you should have the teacher's work emails and numbers. Thirteen, Try to get a hold of Nezu. He'll know what to do."

"Sensei, what about you? You're not planning on fighting all of them are you?"

He could vaguely hear footsteps from beside him before Aizawa-ensei yelled "Keep going!".

"Up against that many villains, ambush tactics won't help, and your fighting style- You won't last long against a full frontal assault!"

He glanced back at Midoriya, who had stepped towards the stairs, before turning to look at their teacher, now wearing what appeared to be goggles, his scarf now unfurling, each strand seemingly levitating around him as his fists each clenched handfuls of the durable, fabric-like alloy.

"Midoriya."

"But-"

"You can't make it as a hero from being just a one-trick pony. Don't worry about me and get going. Thirteen, I'm leaving the students to you!" With a running leap, Aizawa- or he supposed, Eraserhead, since his teacher donned the goggles- leapt off the top of the stairs.

He saw his friend lagging behind, staring at the courtyard below. "Midoriya! Come on! We gotta get outta here!"

Running up to him, Denki grabbed the lean green teen by the elbow, dragging him the first few feet, before he started running for himself.

If there were ever a moment where she regretted some of her design choices, it would be now. She was currently running along the runway in her own facility, leading the class to the gate in an effort to try and evacuate before the villains could stop them.

Senpai had gone to stall the villains, mainly the warp quirk user, and while she had faith in her senior, she also knew that, as good at hand to hand as Aizawa was, he wouldn't be able to stall the warper forever. The number of times there had been a landslide or some similar collapse while she was rescuing people was higher than she liked to admit, so she had to get all the kids out of the USJ, and fast. Even if she had to tear the door down herself.

Shaking that thought aside, Thirteen continued to lead everyone closer to the door, keeping a careful eye on the surroundings as she ran.

Her caution was rewarded, as she noticed an ominous purple spot on the ground erupt into a cloud of black and purple mist, holding her arms to either side to halt the class, before they could potentially fall into a trap.

"I'm afraid your escape is not on the itinerary today," yelled the voice of the villainous mist. "Greetings, young heroes. I am Kurogiri, of the League of Villains, and as bold as it may be, we have invited ourselves into these hallowed halls, the home of heroes, U.A. High School, to commemorate the day that All Might draws his last breath."

It was barely noticeable, but after withstanding the chill that ran down her spine, she saw the yellow slits, barely recognisable as eyes scanning over the class behind her.

She recognised the villain before her, or at least the appearance of that quirk from the meeting Nezu held. It was in response to the press breaking through the front door, and one of the other teachers who followed Nezu had gotten footage from the security camera outside the gate.

A different chill ran down her spine next, after realising that Eraser was likely dealing with the villain who broke down the door. As capable as her Senpai was, she couldn't help but worry, especially considering the odds he was facing up against.

"However, it appears that All Might is absent. Has there been an incident?" the villain's eyes shifted once more, as if dismissing them all. "A pity, though it matters not. His absence does not disrupt our plans."

Resolve pooled in her as she uncapped one of her gloves fingers. Her quirk awakened to her pull as she raised her hand towards the villain, who in turn, had outstretched what she could only assume were arms whilst he talked.

"We won't let you!" Came a brash cry from beside her.

Seeing her students, children whom she was supposed to be protecting, leap into the fray, she hurriedly forced her quirk back down, before she accidentally tore them apart.

Kirishima and Bakugou had rushed at the villain one after the other, with the rocky redhead swinging a hardened arm at the villain, trying to clothesline them, before Bakugou got up infront of him, swinging his arm fast before releasing a devastating explosion right in front of the villain.

The moment the blonde boy set off his quirk, a loud bang called forth a massive smoke plume.

She hesitated, grasping at straws to understand the situation. Then she saw a flit of green from the corner of her eye, seeing a third student dash into the cloud, followed by a shout of "Get ready!".

'Get ready? Ready for what?' she couldn't help but think to herself.

Whoever it was, was moving too quickly for her to fully tell who it was, though given the voice, she suspected it was Midoriya.

At this point, three students had ran towards danger, she couldn't protect them like this, as the three in front of her would only be torn apart by her quirk.

"Didn't think you'd lose to- WOAH?!"

"?! Deku you slippery fuck-"

"THIRTEEN! NOW!"

The three voices called out from the smoke, before something flew out from it like a bird flying out of mist. Shock filled her as she recognised what had come out of the smoke- her three students.

Kirishima and Bakugou were each held under one of Midoriya's arms, the former still as a rock while the latter was kicking and screaming profanities. Midoriya himself though was utterly silent, ignoring the two classmates under his arms to look at her as she stared at him, the eye mimicries of her helmet wide open in shock.

"YOU'RE CLEAR!" yelled the slightly metallic and augmented voice from the green themed teen.

Realisation flooded her mind as she psyched herself up once more, her attention locking onto the dust cloud ahead. Pushing through the discomfort of having to forcefully shut down her quirk then start it up again, she aimed at the smoke plume as her quirk roared forth ravenously, eating up the cloud of ashes and making its way towards the rising villain.

"I suppose it would make sense for UA's Hero Students, golden eggs, to- Urkh! You?!-" As the yellow eyes reformed, the mist man spoke, only for the cloud of mist to get violently drawn into the opening of her glove. Black Mist erupted violently from Kurogiri, expanding out to the sides in an attempt to escape her quirk's pull.

Thirteen couldn't see through all the expanding darkness, but her quirk continued steadily.

Everything ahead of her was being drawn in, all into a singular point of nothingness.

All until there was nothing left.

No smoke plume drifted around in the air.

No black mist blocked their way forward.

No bricks paved the area where her quirk had devoured it all.

But no man was standing against them either.

She couldn't help but stay alert, warily watching her surroundings as she turned her head from side to side, searching.

A number of the students had gasped, as she looked back and front for signs of the villain.

She knew she hadn't killed someone, because on the very rare occasions where she had to, she could feel the difference there was when she had used her quirk on someone.

She could feel how different bone would crack and shatter as opposed to how the earth would erode, feel how flesh would tear and bleed, feel how everything would collapse-

Shaking the dissonance out of her mind, she tried to focus on the world around her.

She knew that Kurogiri wasn't dead because she would have felt it if he were, and that feeling would forever haunt her regardless of how many therapy sessions she went to or how many years she served as a hero. A feeling that would likely haunt her until the day she died.

In a matter of moments, the silent class was shrouded in the black mist, screams of confusion and fear coming from a number of the students. Glowing yellow eyes darted around the cloud of oblivion, before silently narrowing on her.

"How… resourceful of you, but evidently, your efforts were not enough. Despite the danger that you all pose, my role remains unchanged." she felt the eyes glaring at her for a moment longer, before they backed away and loomed over the rest of the class as it started scattering around her.

"Your flock shall perish today among the grounds of your own facility. They shall be scattered, tortured, and slain!" The voice of the villain came from all around them as Students panicked. Some of which tried to run out of the cloud, while others tried to blast it away.

Thirteen could only watch as one by one, students disappeared in the darkness, her heart sinking into its own abyss as barely a third of the class remained with her on the runway.

She could only pray that everyone would survive.

He stopped in place the moment when Thirteen raised their arms, feeling someone all but run into his back. He wanted to look back and see who had bumped into him, but at this point, he knew better than to take his eyes off the villain.

It only took him a moment to identify the swirling black mist in front of them, the same one that he'd spotted in the plaza, the warper who'd brought all the villains here.

The villain, a member of this… League of Villains, some group he'd never heard of before- he'd done a lot of scrolling through the internet to research villain fights, it was how he'd known about Toxic Chainsaw before All Might put him away- but he'd never heard of this League of Villains until now, and what's worse was that they'd said their goal was to kill All Might.

'Did they know his weakness somehow? Did they know about his skinny form?' his train of thought only got worse after he remembered what Todoroki had said.

A telltale click drew his gaze back to reality, and back to the Space Hero as he watched them raise an arm at the villain, a glimpse at the glove being all he needed to figure out the hero's plan. Thirteen's quirk, Black Hole, was usually locked inside of their hero costume, with the only outlets being the caps on the tips of their fingers.

'Is their plan to force the villain to retreat, before making it to the gate?'

"We won't let you!" Kirishima let out a war cry as he and Kaachan charged at the villain, the shock of what they were doing momentarily locking his feet to the ground.

'Wait dont charge off- Idiots!' he couldn't help but think through the ringing in his ears. His two classmates had rushed into Thirteen's exclusion zone; they would have gotten torn to shreds if the Space Hero didn't have ironclad control over their quirk.

What was worse, was that they were completely oblivious about it too. With an unknown number of villains, and a total lack of backup, they shouldn't risk getting in their teacher's ways like this.

With a sharp exhale, Izuku leapt forward, dashing around the crowd of his classmates.

He looked at Thirteen, yelling for her to "Get ready!" as he dove into the smoke, his helmet closed around his head automatically as he ran for where he thought Kirishima and Kaachan were.

"Didn't think you'd lose to-"

'There! And Kaachan is next to him too!' he darted in the direction of Kirishima's voice.

"WOAH?!" he dashed up to them with a step, grabbing the redhead first around his torso.

Kaachan was next, as he turned to grab him. Kirishima's exclamations having alerted the fiery blonde.

"?! Deku you slippery fuck-" whatever he was about to say was cut off as he all but tackled his childhood friend turned bully.

His legs tensed for a moment, muscles coiled like springs, smoke parted and pavement cracked as he jumped.

"THIRTEEN! NOW!" He cried out, soaring out of the cloud from only the force of his legs. The well-worn pavement had cracked under the force of his step even without the power of One for All.

Izuku could feel the redhead stiffen under his arm as Kaachan flailed wildly, trying to get out while kicking and screaming profanities.

The armoured teen watched Thirteen looking at them, the eye-indicators on their helmet were wide open in shock..

"YOU'RE CLEAR!" he yelled, watching as the Space Hero's eyes narrowed back on the dissipating cloud of smoke.

He dropped Kaachan and Kirishima the moment after he landed, ignoring the irate blonde as he watched Thirteen catch the mist villain off guard. It looked like this 'Kurogiri' was trying to escape the danger-zone of Thirteen's quirk, but ultimately, any encroaching mist was erased before it could get out of the danger zone.

There wasn't a trace of the mist, or the man when Thirteen deactivated her quirk, and murmurs echoed among most of his classmates.

He would have frozen in his tracks too, at least were it not for the fact that the Space hero still had their guard up, but as they had not, he couldn't help but keep a lookout too, spotting that Todoroki was also observing their surroundings out of the corner of his eye.

It helped that he wasn't completely taken off guard by the mist villain. He felt like things would be much worse if he was running around like a headless chicken, not that he could say much about the rest of the class.

Screams were piercing his ears from every direction as he watched the ominous glowing eyes illuminating the darkness of the mist. The villain's voice boomed as eyes narrowed on the Space Hero, commending their efforts, but noting the futility of such an attack.

For all intents and purposes, they were surrounded on all sides with their backs up against the proverbial wall. The only way through was to get away from the mist, and he could only hope that he could blast it all away with One for All.

A familiar power started pouring into his arm. Not enough to break it, but hopefully more than enough to blow the villain away.

Stepping into a boxer's stance as he levelled his eyes at Kurogiri's.

With a step forward he made to lunge at the mist villain, his fist cocked back, ready to throw a Texas Smash...

Only to slip up when his foot failed to feel any ground below. .

Glancing down in panic, with his quirk Spiking higher than he was comfortable with, he saw his foot sink into the rapidly growing portal, the mere seconds feeling both excruciatingly slow and all too quick at the same time.

All he could do was ignore the stinging in his arm as he tried to brace for whatever was through the portal.

Only for nothing but open air to meet him out of the portal. He saw dim blue ahead of him as his stomach lurched.

"WOOAAAHHH!"

He couldn't help but scream as he plummeted into the murky waters below.

And there we have it.

Part 1 of the USJ… Oh boy.

I've been sitting on this chapter for a while as I try to write part 2 and 3 of the USJ, and while I have a plan for those two chapters, actually writing them and making (what I presume to be) decent quality content is more time consuming than I'd imagined.

That and University woes (assignment hell) get in the way.

This is taking too long, dear lord… ah screw it. Im uploading this now. Sorry for the cliffhanger.

Ahem… Anyways, from the way it's feeling right about now, the first part, this chapter was basically all leading into the USJ itself, while the next chapter is going to be going over individual perspectives from each zone in the USJ:

From Kirishima's woes, to Kaminari in the mountain zone, and of course, Izuku in the flood zone.

Yeah I know I could have remixed the USJ itself, but for the purpose of this fic, I feel like any remixes I attempt would be less worthwhile compared to what I want to change in the original USJ chapter.

For one thing, Aizawa and Thirteen vaguely know of what Kurogiri and Shigaraki are capable of heading into this, and for another, next chapter should be where I start diverging from the canon story a little bit. The original USJ already accomplishes what it did well, so I don't see much of a need to change the lineups.

That and i'm only so far along with the story that not much of a butterfly effect can be felt just yet.

You'll have the next chapter to look forward to, I imagine, as I do something which I've been setting up for a while.

I'm sure it will be quite the electrifying experience.

That is if I can lock in for long enough to pump out another chapter or two in a reasonable amount of time anyways…

Anyway, stay safe everyone.