Chapter 6: Control
Izuku's first day at University had been…lackluster thus far. Even though he had been allowed to choose his own schedule, he was required to take so many general education courses that he might as well have not been able to choose his schedule at all. More annoying, at least as far as he was concerned, was that all of the hero-related courses were all afternoon only. That meant that Izuku had been forced to endure an entire morning of classes before he was allowed to expand any actual energy.
He had not thought through this entire reincarnation thing too thoroughly. If he had known that there would have been this much school involved, he would have told Amaterasu exactly where she could shove her offer.
"I know we signed up for this, but this has been the longest day ever," yawned Izuku as he and Kirishima walked through the halls,
"I know what you mean," sighed Kirishima, "I was up every morning in high school for classes at eight, but I couldn't even keep my eyes open this morning for our nine o'clock lecture hall,"
"Still," said Izuku, putting his hands behind his head, "We got Hero Basics, if that doesn't wake us up I don't know what will,"
"You said it man!" Said Kirishima enthusiastically, "I've been looking forward to this all day!" The pair stopped in the hall, "I think this is it,"
"No kidding," muttered Izuku, looking up at the enormous door with "1-A" painted on in red over the frame. All of the Hero Courses were taught in the same room with the entirety of their section.
As grand as the door to the room was, the interior was rather lackluster. Izuku hadn't known what he was expecting, but he had been a little disappointed when he opened the door and found himself looking at just another classroom.
"Well that's a little disappointing," muttered Izuku as he walked into the room. As he had done with every class that day, Izuku headed into the back corner of the room. It wasn't as far as he could get from the professor's podium, but it was close. He was just unpacking his things, when he saw that Yaoyorozu sat down in the seat directly ahead of him.
Annoyance flashed through him as he watched her ponytail bounce up and down. He and Yaoyorozu had not gotten off on the greatest of starts, and he already knew that he wouldn't be overly fond of the woman. She was smart, incredibly so if the classes they had shared together that morning were any indication. But given the way she had spoken the day before, and the rather condescending manner in which she spoke, she just grated on his nerves. Worse still was that Izuku wasn't even sure if she was aware of what she was doing. She struck him as kind of a…naive and sheltered woman. Someone who hadn't had the chance to socialize too much and suffered from it as a result.
Sighing, Izuku sat back in his chair, but he didn't have to wait too long before class began. As soon as the clock struck Two, the door to the classroom was thrown open.
"I AM HERE, OPENING THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"
The class gasped in surprise and delight as All Might strode through the doorway,
"Normal people don't say things like that," Izuku groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. The dichotomy between All Might's different forms could be a little jarring.
"Welcome students, to the single most important class offered during your first year here at U.A. Heroing 101! Are you excited!"
The class roared its agreement, and Izuku felt his heart begin to race in excitement. This was what he had been waiting for. The first real step on his journey.
"Well, I don't believe there is any reason to beat around the bush," said All Might, pulling a small remote out of his pocket.
He depressed a button on the remote, and suddenly the wall on the left side of the room began to shift and move. The wall opened and a series of lockers appeared. Simultaneously the lockers opened, and revealed large, silver briefcases emblazoned with large green numbers on their faces.
"As you will recall, prior to the start of term you were required to submit your applications and designs for your costumes." All Might pointed over to the briefcases, "Those briefcases are assigned by your class number, based upon the scores you received in your evaluation yesterday. Inside you will find the costumes you submitted."
The large ever-present grin somehow managed to grow,
"Change into them, and meet me back on Training Field Gamma!" All Might dashed from the room in a flash of color and a blast of wind.
Unable to smother the stupid grin on his face, Izuku got to his feet and dashed over to the locker with the large number three. The old Izuku had spent many years drawing and designing his own potential hero costume. For the most part, the designs had been largely similar to All Might's own costume, with some slight coloring and style variations. While he had made a promise to the old Izuku to be a hero like All Might, that didn't mean that he was intending to just become All Might 2.0. Rather, he had long since decided that he would try and become the kind of symbol that All Might was, but as his own man. His own hero.
He had spent a number of hours contemplating how he wanted to go about his costume, and ultimately decided on something simple, yet functional. The top of the costume was short-sleeved combat armor. A chest and rib protector was built into the chest-piece, and his back would be supported and stabilized. The armor was a dark green, roughly the same shade as his hair, with black and silver trim.
His pants were simple, black and green, armored combat pants. The pants were tucked into armored leg protectors which wrapped over comfortable, yet sturdy, metal-soled red boots.
Completing the ensemble were simple, black, sturdy gloves.
Overall, the costume was relatively light-in-weight all things considered, and highly functional. He believed it would serve what he believed would be his particular fighting style as well as anything could. Izuku knew he was going to be a close-rang fighter. Someone who would be getting up close and personal, and likely tossed around a fair bit. He needed something that would be durable, yet agile.
He was beyond happy with the way the costume turned out. It felt…it felt like his own. Less like he was just trying to emulate the man that the old Izuku had idolized, and more like he was becoming his own man. Forging his own destiny.
Smiling confidently, Izuku strode out of the changing rooms and into Training Ground Gamma. Most of the students were already assembled. Some had, like Izuku, adopted a more practical approach to their costumes while others were a little more…adventurous.
He had never thought he would see a grown ass man in a diaper, and yet here he was.
"Look at all of you!" Laughed All Might happily when the last of the students had joined them, "You all look so good in your costumes, it's starting to juice me up!" He let out a loud laugh, which almost immediately turned into a hacking cough.
Izuku frowned, he knew that All Might had been having trouble maintaining his form. All Might had told him that he could only keep his form active, if he was fighting or using energy, for about five to ten minutes. He could hold longer if he wasn't relying on it too much, but still, to see the effects so readily apparent struck a chord with Izuku. He had an idea of how much being a hero meant to All Might. It must have been absolutely killing him to be looking down the barrel of being forced to retire like this.
"Now, I'm sure you're wondering what we're going to be doing today," said All Might, "And it's a simple matter. We will be conducting simulated battle training!"
Excited whispers broke out around them at the pronouncement.
"I can see you're eager, good," All Might's smile gained a rather sinister edge to it, "But let's see how well you do when you're going up against your own classmates."
"Our own classmates?"
"I didn't think we would be fighting each other,"
"It makes sense, how else are we supposed to learn if we aren't fighting one another."
"All right, all right, settle down everyone," said All Might and the student's whispering stopped, "Now then, we have taken the liberty of randomly assigning each of you a partner. You and your partner will paired against another team. One of you will be playing the heroes, and the other team will be playing the villains."
A hologram appeared beside All Might, showing an image of inside one of the buildings. It showed what looked like a comically large nuclear warhead.
"The Support Department took the liberty of constructing these replicas for the purposes of our exercises, no need to worry though! I can assure you that they are unarmed and will not explode. The purpose of today's exercise is for the heroes to try and stop the villains by capturing the bomb! Either by capturing the explosive or by capturing the villains, the heroes will win. But on the flip side, if the villains can last until the time expires, or they manage to subdue the heroes, then the villains will win. Are there any questions?"
Nobody raised a hand, and All Might nodded,
"Excellent, then in that case…" He clicked a button on his remote again, and the hologram changed. A list of names appeared in two columns, one fore heroes and the other for villains. "Here are your partners."
Scanning the list quickly, Izuku saw that he would be partnered with Tokoyami Fumikage. Tokoyami was a mutated human. He was born with a human's body, but the head of a black crow. As far as Izuku was aware, bodily mutations were a completely different variant of genetic mutations than quirks. It wasn't particularly clear when or how these mutations began to manifest themselves, but what was known was that a person with such a genetic mutation could also be born with a quirk. As far as Tokoyami was concerned, Izuku had seen the man use some kind of bird-like shadow that appeared from around his naval, meaning that he had a quirk as well as the genetic mutation.
Izuku looked over at Tokoyami and met his gaze. In unison, they shared a nod of approval at their being paired up with one another. Izuku's eyes darted back to the hologram, and nearly groaned as he saw who he would be matched up. Leave it to him to be matched up with one of the few people in class to really get under his nerves. They would be fighting Yaoyorozu and Tsu in the fourth round.
"Those of you fighting first, head to these coordinates," said All Might, as the display changed again and a map appeared, highlighting where the students needed to go. "The rest of you, follow me to the observation room. While the others fight, we as a class will discuss their actions and assess how they did. Now come on!" Once more, All Might disappeared in a cloud of dust, leaving the rest of them behind.
"This is going to be a thing with him, isn't it?" Grumbled Izuku, as he walked over to Tokoyami,
"Guess we haven't been introduced yet," said Izuku, "Midoriya Izuku, nice to meet you,"
Tokoyami shook his hand,
"Tokoyami Fumikage, it will be a pleasure to fight beside you,"
They slowly followed the stream of other students, all of who were also splitting up into their teams,
"If we're going to be working together, I suppose we should know what the each of us can do," said Izuku, "I can go first. My quirk is an enhancement type. Basically, I have a bunch of stored up power which I can release through my body. I use it to give myself superhuman strength and speed. However, if I use too much, it tears my body apart from the inside out."
"Sounds dangerous, but very useful," said Tokoyami, "My quirk is this." From the folds of the dark cloak he was wearing, a shadowy figure materialized. It was a moving, living shadow in the form of a black bird.
"This is-"
"Names Dark Shadow!" Spoke the shadow, "Can't wait to beat their asses together!"
"…It can talk," said Percy,
"And it can hear jackass!" Screamed Dark Shadow,
"He…has a personality of his own," sighed Tokoyami, "But regardless, he is a dear friend and a valuable ally. I can send him several meters away from my body. He is strong and fast, though I have not been able to train much with him yet in live combat."
Izuku hummed in thought for a moment, the vestiges of a plan already forming in his mind,
"I guess we'll need to wait and see how the others approach this and exactly what this is before we plan too much,"
"Agreed," said Tokoyami, "We will wait, bide our time in the shadows. Then, when the moment is right, we will pounce on our prey and show them what happens to those who choose not to revel in the dark."
"…Right," said Izuku, "Sounds…sounds good man,"
This guy certainly was…different. Shaking the thought from his mind, they followed the rest of the class up into the observation room. It was a large data center, with several large terminals and monitors. The monitors flickered to life, as several camera feeds began to play. One monitor showed Iida and Bakugo as they stood silently beside the large bomb.
Uraraka and the short man in the diaper with round purple balls in his hair, Mineta, spoke in hushed tones together. Or, rather, Uraraka was trying to have a conversation and Mineta looked too preoccupied with staring at the woman's chest.
Izuku felt his brow twitch in agitation.
"Heroes…Villains…BEGIN!"
BREAK
Izuku felt his twitch grow even worse. He was wildly annoyed. They had broken down the fights with the teams after every round, and in every round Yaoyorozu had said one thing after another that just grated on him. It wasn't even that she had been overly rude to him specifically, she just said things in a way that made it sound like everyone she was talking to was dumber than she was. She didn't even seem to notice it, and Izuku didn't know if that made it better or worse.
It reminded him painfully of Annabeth when she was a kid. Annabeth had always been the smartest person in the room, but when she had been younger she hadn't exactly been good at understanding that not everyone's strengths were in their intelligence. It had annoyed him then just as much as it annoyed him now. If there was one thing Izuku hated, it was being talked down to, or watching someone else talk down on someone else.
"You seem upset," said Tokoyami, and Izuku sighed. They were walking down the street of the training ground towards their building.
"Yaoyorozu," said Izuku, "The way she's been talking to everyone, like she knows so much more than the rest of us. It's been getting on my nerves is all."
"I have noticed that she was rather…vocal, during the debriefings," said Tokoyami,
"Yeah," said Izuku, "And it just makes me want to really put the hurt on both her and Tsu," He emphasized his point by punching one fist into his open palm,
"I presume you have some kind of a plan then?" Asked Tokoyami,
"I do," nodded Izuku, as he stopped just outside of the building.
"How closely were you paying attention to everyone's quirks during the evaluation last night?"
"Not as close as you I would imagine," said Tokoyami,
"Yaoyorozu," said Izuku, "She can seemingly construct things from her body. I don't know what the limit is, but we should assume the worst and assume that she can create anything. As for Tsu, she seems to just be able to do things a frog can do but on a larger scale. If I were in their position, I would barricade myself in."
"And you think you can predict what they assume we will do?" Asked Tokoyami, it wasn't condescending, but rather a genuine inquiry.
"I do," said Izuku, "Think about it from their perspective. What do they know about us? They likely know I have enhanced strength and speed. If I were in their position, I would be more worried about taking me down, because I'm a heavy hitter." He turned and looked around the building, "From what little they've seen of me, they're probably thinking that I'm going to charge in blindly. I know how I come across, how I present myself. They think that I'm thinking this is going to be an easy win. That I'll barrel through with no caution." He turned back to look at Tokoyami,
"My guess is that right now, they're barricading every door. Probably booby-trapping the place too. Slow us down, maybe catch us off guard. Then they'll barricade themselves in the room. I don't know how good of a fighter Tsu is, but I'm willing to bet that they're banking on taking down at least one of us during the initial assault."
"Those seem like fair assessments," said Tokoyami and Percy shrugged,
"It's what I would do,"
"Then what do you suggest?" Asked Tokoyami, "I do not believe that you want to simply charge forward,"
"Funnily enough," smirked Izuku, "That's exactly what I plan on doing,"
Tokoyami tilted his head in confusion.
So Izuku explained his plan.
BREAK
Momo grunted as she dropped the last weight into the barricade along the door. For the last ten minutes, she and Tsu had been working rather tirelessly to barricade the entire building,
"I do not believe we need to overthink this," she had said to Tsu, "Even not knowing too much about Tokoyami and his quirk, I think we can be safe in assuming what their plan will be."
"You're thinking Midoriya is just going to charge in here?" Asked Tsu, tapping her chin in thought,
"I don't think he'll be patient enough to wait it out," said Momo, "I've been sitting by him in almost every class and I've never seen someone fidget so much. That mixed with the power of his quirk, and I feel confident in my assessment that he will try and charge in here for a quick win."
"That seems fair," Tsu had said, and that had led them to their current situation.
They had thus far managed to barricade most of the doorways in the building. Momo had even done what she could to lay down as many traps as she could. Nothing lethal, but a dozen flash grenades or so, some net-traps, and anything else that she could think of and her lipid count would allow. Momo had been blessed with an incredible quirk, one that had allowed her family to go incredibly far in the business world. Momo, using the natural lipids in her body, could create anything, so long as she knew what it was made up of.
Her parents had desperately wanted her to follow in their footsteps. To pursue her education at a well accredited university and join the rest of her family in the family business. But that had not been what Momo had wanted for herself.
When Momo had been little, it had become abundantly clear to her, that many only spoke to her and tried to befriend her to get close to her family. She wasn't Momo Yaoyorozu, but was simply another Yaoyorozu. The heir to a wealthy business empire. She wasn't a person, she was a name. There was nothing that distinguished her from her family, there was nothing that set her apart.
She didn't want to be just another face of her family's business. She wanted to be her own person. She had been gifted with a tremendous quirk, and all that was expected of her was to be yet another cog in her family's corporate machine. To be an instrument to make money.
She had always considered that a waste. When she had been a little girl, one of her favorite books had been about a woman who had been born with tremendous power. The girl had been expected to simply abide by the wishes of those around her, but she hadn't been satisfied with that. The woman had said that she had been born with a power for a reason, and if she had that power, then it was her duty to use it for the betterment of mankind.
It was a lesson that Momo had taken to heart.
So she had gone against the wishes of her parents. She had begun training and taking lessons in how to be best prepared to be a hero. She had studied hard, and worked even harder, and it had finally bore fruit when she got an offer to take place in the recommendation exam.
She was proud of her accomplishments, proud of how far she had managed to come, and now that she was here she was going to prove that she deserved to be here.
"Heroes…villains…" said All Might over the speakers, "BEGIN!"
Almost immediately, the entire building shook as something exploded under their feet. Momo nearly lost her footing and fell over,
"Well, not a surprise, but I hope he doesn't accidentally cause the building to collapse," said Momo, gripping onto a nearby window. Another explosion shook the downstairs of the building,
"If he's not careful, I think he really will knock down the building," said Tsu, though she didn't sound too concerned,
"The barriers will slow him down," said Momo, though she was beginning to second guess that observation. While the barriers were made out of tungsten, Midoriya had proved that he was far stronger than any person should be.
"It feels wrong just standing here waiting," said Tsu,
"I know," said Momo, "But I'm confident that this-" But she never finished what she was saying. The ceiling directly overhead Tsu had suddenly and violently collapsed. Tsu had barely managed to jump free of the sudden explosion, landing and sticking to a nearby wall.
"He tunneled through the ceiling?" Gasped Momo, stunned. A green blur materialized out of the hole in the ceiling. Midoriya landed on a loose piece of floorboard, before springing forward in her direction. Momo barely had the time to create an iron shield, which she raised in front of her, and blocked the devastating kick that Midoriya leveled against her. Her entire body shook from the force of the blow. The vibrations from the shield reverberated through her body, and sent a shock of pain down to her very spine.
Panic surged through her. Panic and confusion. What had happened, how had he gotten to the roof? Had he jumped? And where was Tokoyami?
"I've got you Momo!" Tsu called out, but she never got even halfway. Just as Tsu leapt off the wall, the window behind her exploded and a dark, terrifying shape streaked into the building. The hawk-like shadow collided with Tsu, leveling a vicious blow into the vulnerable woman. Tsu grunted in pain as she was bodily tossed across the room. The shadow raced after Tsu, pinning her to the ground. A moment later, Tokoyami stepped into the room, off of the ledge of the building.
It had been a deception? But how? When? How had they managed to shake the entire building? When had they positioned themselves? What was going on?
Momo didn't get another chance to think through her situation. Izuku had followed up his kick. Landing squarely on his feet, he gripped the bottom of the shield and shoved it harshly up. The bottom of the shield collided with Momo's chin and she gasped in pain. Her jaw ached and her teeth shook from the force of the blow. Stumbling backward, her eyes closed in a disoriented haze, she felt as Izuku slipped behind her. A foot wrapped around hers and she was thrown to the floor in a heap, her shield clattering uselessly against the floor. A moment later, she felt cool steel wrap around her wrists.
A buzzer went off,
"HEROES WIN!" Called out All Might happily over the speakers.
Her head throbbing, Momo struggled to open her eyes. It felt like the world was spinning, and her jaw throbbed so painfully that she was worried it might have been broken.
A green and black blob kneeled in front of her, she couldn't make out his face, but she was fairly certain it was Midoriya.
"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-just got so caught up in the moment-I used too much power when I hit you, I'm so sorry are you all right?"
Momo tried to speak, but all that came out was a rather pitiful groan.
She felt a pair of strong, yet surprisingly gentle hands wrap around her armpits and slowly raise her off of the floor. The metal handcuffs clattered to the floor as Midoriya freed her from her restraints, and wrapped her arm around his shoulder.
The world finally stopped spinning enough that she could actually make out the worried expression on his face.
It took her a moment, but eventually she was able to stand under her own power. Midoriya, still with that worried look on his face, backed off and allowed Tsu to take over, as they walked back to the observation room for their debriefing. As much as her head ached, and her jaw throbbed, none of it hurt more than knowing that she had failed. That she had been beaten.
Badly.
She had overestimated herself. Underestimated Midoriya.
This was what it was really like to be a hero. To go up against the best of the best. To fight others who might want to be a hero just as badly as she did. Probably even more.
Which begged the question.
Did she really belong here? And had her parents been right?
BREAK
Izuku barely paid attention to the debriefing of their match, he already knew what he had done wrong.
He'd gotten too wrapped up in it. Gotten too enamored by the sound of his blood pounding in his ears. The feeling of the adrenaline coursing through his veins. It had been intoxicating, and he'd lost himself to the fight.
He'd lost himself and Momo had paid the price. Granted, it was only likely that she was minorly concussed, but it was the principal of the matter. He'd been in enough fights in his life to know what happened when he lost control. When he didn't take care to not lose himself to his power and he lost control. Granted, he didn't have the ability to summon hurricanes or shake the very earth, but he still had more than enough power to hurt someone, not to mention himself.
He didn't pay any attention to the remaining matches that day. He wasn't in the right headspace for it. As soon as they had been dismissed for the day, Izuku changed and made his way to the infirmary. Yaoyorozu had been directed to go to see Recovery Girl, the school's nurse with the ability to use a person's own stamina to heal even debilitating injuries in only a matter of moments.
Perching himself against the wall by the door to the infirmary, he didn't need to wait long for the door to open, and for Yaoyorozu to step out.
She paused as she saw him,
"Oh, Midoriya," she looked genuinely surprised by his presence, "I didn't expect to see you here,"
"Yeah well," Izuku rubbed unconsciously behind his ear, "I wanted to check in on you,"
Yaoyorozu smiled, and shook her head, "You didn't need to that,"
"Yes I did," said Izuku, "You deserve an apology."
"Midoriya," said Yaoyorozu, almost exasperatingly, "It was a training exercise, accidents happen."
"I know," said Izuku, "But that doesn't change the fact that I fucked up,"
Yaoyorozu flinched at his course language,
"Yaoyorozu, you don't understand. My quirk…it's more dangerous than most realize. If I don't use precision, if I don't take tremendous care, I could kill someone." He raised a hand to his face, gazing down at his palm. The phantom feeling of One for All tingling beneath his fingertips, "I can't afford to slip up. Can't afford to make a mistake like that. Because when we make mistakes like that, people get hurt."
He looked up, and met her gaze fiercely.
"And a hero's job is to help people, not hurt them. So I'm sorry that I hurt you, I'm sorry that I lost control. But I promise you, that it won't happen again."
Yaoyorozu looked stunned for a moment, and then she smiled.
"You're going to be stubborn about this, aren't you?" She chuckled, and Izuku couldn't help but smile back at her,
"You have no idea,"
"Then apology accepted,"
As they walked back to the dorms, Izuku's smile didn't falter.
The old Izuku had told him to be a hero, to be a man like All Might. A hero that helped others, that protected humanity with a smile on his face. As they walked back to the dorms, Izuku looked up at the clouds.
Wherever he was, Izuku hoped that the original Izuku Midoriya was looking down on him.
Proud of the man he was becoming
Chapter 7: USJ
How could it all have gone so wrong. His entire life; his dreams, his ambitions, all of it, gone in an instant. One terrible, horrifying instant. He'd put in so much work. Had trained so hard. Had given it his all, and this was how he was repaid? it was wrong, it was so damn wrong.
How could he have been voted class representative?!
They were traitors. All of them. They had to be, and that bastard Kirishima was the worst of them all. He led the revolt, Izuku was sure of it. There was no other possible explanation for it.
A week ago, Aizawa had come into class telling them all that it was time for them to choose a class representative. Izuku didn't even know that such a role still existed in university, but he supposed it could have been a holdover from the old days. Way back at the founding of U.A., it had originally been a high school. But after a rather terrible villain attack over a hundred years previously, the Japanese government had reconsidered the role of young heroes in society. They had upped the age limit, and U.A. had reopened its doors as a university, yet some of the old holdovers remained.
Izuku hadn't thought much of it at the time. He had been supremely confident that there was no way he would have been elected. half of the class had voiced their desire for the role, and he had simply sat back and watched the chair unfold.
Up until that fateful moment.
That damned moment when specs had opened his wide trap and announced he had been made class president.
With more than half of the fucking votes.
He'd tried to pawn the job off to Yaoyorozu, who had been elected his vice president, but she had told him in no uncertain terms that she would not allow him to skirt his new responsibilities.
And were there ever responsibilities.
Two times a week, Izuku had to drag himself out of bed even earlier and meet with the other representatives in the school.
It was his actual nightmare.
Maybe he was being a little overly dramatic, but he supposed it didn't matter. He was here to train, to become a hero. It hadn't been his desire to be made any kind of a "leader" of his class. He just wanted to fight, to prepare. He was here to do a job. To become as strong as humanly possible in order to stop whatever had scared Amaterasu enough to consider bringing him into the mix. But then again, Class Representatives often did get the best offers from the pros. The better the offer that he received, the better training he would get, and the stronger he would become.
So he had accepted the position, with only some minor griping and complaining.
But he had decided not to let the threat of his mounting responsibilities get him down, because their hero coursework was doing something different and fun. Aizawa had come into their course-room, and had informed them that they would be taking a trip to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint or the USJ. It was an enormous indoor facility capable of simulating any number of potential disaster scenarios. Their entire Section would be going there for specialized training with Thirteen, a professional hero who had made her career in rescue operations.
The building itself was a spectacular thing to look at. If he were honest, it looked a lot like the dome-shaped building in Epcot at Disney than some kind of specialized training facility.
Thirteen was waiting for them as they got off of the bus. Thirteen was a strange hero, even by pro standards. She was short, and completely encased in what appeared to be an enormous spacesuit. Izuku had often wondered if she even had a body underneath the suit at all, or if she merely was some kind of gelatinous mass.
"Greeting's heroes-in-training!" Said Thirteen cheerfully, "And welcome to the USJ. I created this facility years ago in order to train our society's future heroes on the importance of rescue operations. I hope you're as excited about today as I am."
"All right, clock's ticking everyone," said Aizawa, "Get inside."
The inside of the USJ was even more impressive than Izuku had expected. It seemed like every potential terrain that a hero could find themselves in had been built in the facility. Even from the top of the atrium which stared out over the facility, Izuku could make out at least five different terrains. There was a mountainous area, a large manmade lake and waterfall, even a couple of cities.
There were times that Izuku didn't genuinely appreciate how cool it was to live two-hundred years in the future.
This was not one of those times.
"We'll be starting in the city," said Thirteen, leading the students down the immense staircase and into the bowels of the facility. "We have systems set in place that we can simulate multiple different catastrophic incidents. We'll start with fire and rescue operations and begin working our way through. Once we've done that, we'll make our way through the rest of the biomes." Thirteen let out a small sigh,
"Unfortunately, we won't have the time to go as in-depth into rescue operations, but you'll have the opportunity to take more comprehensive rescue operation classes in the future."
Izuku was only half-paying attention, his attention divided by the all of the different locations and opportunities for training. He would definitely be taking those upper-level courses as soon as he could.
First-years at U.A. were forced to take a pre-determined hero class load. They took introductory courses in all sorts of the basic elements of doing hero work. From combat, to rescue operations, first-aid, investigative work, everything. Then, as they progressed through their education, students had the opportunity to refine their workload. This was so a student who was maybe a little more oriented to work in a support capacity would have the opportunity to take courses that suited their particular skills better, and the same for those who were more combat oriented.
It was a good system, and it was part of the reason that U.A. had a reputation for spitting out some of the most well-rounded, and skilled heroes that were out there.
They started out in the city working through a variety of rescue operations. First, they had found themselves in the middle of a city that was actively burning. They'd needed to go from building to building, working together to not only evacuate the buildings but to help evacuate any trapped civilians along the way. After that exercise, they'd repeated the exercise, on that time they weren't battling against fire but against weather. Thirteen's facility apparently had the ability to generate a manmade hurricane.
Izuku had felt right at home in the middle of the rain and wind, and he'd mused that maybe a little more of his old life had bled over than initially thought.
They'd gone from biome to biome, working for hours on learning how to properly evacuate civilians, treat their wounds, and wage war on mother nature itself.
It had been over the course of the day that Izuku had a bit of a revelation.
He was not good at rescue operations.
At all.
As a matter of fact, he was tremendously bad at it.
For the most part, it was a matter of control over his own power. One for All was a wildly powerful quirk, even a minute amount of it could be incredibly dangerous. As of now, Izuku lacked the refinement to be able to use the power without shooting the power out in a sort of black blast. Whenever he tried to use his quirk to jump off of a ledge, or part of a building, he would accidentally use too much power and nearly destroy whatever he was standing on.
And then there were the civilians.
Izuku had approached the exercise at first with a "speed wins out" kind of mentality. Only human beings were not ragdolls. Especially human beings that were dealing with potential injuries. Again, it was a matter of refinement. He would try to move too quickly, would jostle his wounded civilians and would end up either dropping them or causing more harm than good.
It had been a good lesson in what he needed to start focusing on.
It had been an eye-opening experience, but one that he had been happy to have.
All told, it was dark by the time they got back to the dorms. He was sore, tired, and stank to high heaven. All he wanted was a shower, and an early bedtime.
Izuku sighed as he closed the door to his room. He was exhausted. Of all the abilities from his previous life that he missed, he thinks he missed more than anything being able to simply take a shower to recover his energy.
"Hello, Perseus,"
Izuku jumped, and only just managed to keep himself from screaming at the sudden voice in the room. looking up, he froze as he saw Amaterasu standing in the middle of the room. She looked irritated. Her brow furrowed and her nostrils flared. There was a manic look in her eyes as though she were immensely worried about something.
"We need to talk,"
"For fucks sake," grumbled Izuku, "How about a little warning before you just pop into existence like that."
"What happened today?" Demanded the goddess.
"What do you mean 'what happened?' Nothing happened," said Izuku, tossing his bag onto his empty computer chair and striding past the goddess to sit on his bed.
"That is my point exactly," said Amaterasu, "Nothing happened!"
"You're saying that like I'm supposed to have any idea what you're talking about," said Izuku as he untied his shoes,
"The Unforeseen Simulation Joint," said Amaterasu through gritted teeth, "Nothing happened!"
"I would hardly call spending four hours training nothing," said Izuku, "But from your tone, I take it that's not what you're talking about,"
"Of course it's not," snapped Amaterasu, "You were supposed to be attacked today!"
"Excuse me?" Said Izuku, looking up and at the goddess,
"You. Were. Supposed. To. Be. Attacked." Said Amaterasu slowly, taking care to enunciate each word, "A large group of villains was supposed to attack you today, they did not."
"I'm not seeing how that's a problem," said Izuku,
"Of course you don't you fool," said Amaterasu, "You were supposed to be attacked today. It was supposed to be the start of everything. It was supposed to be what kicked off your trials. What led you to begin your path to prepare you, and it did not happen!"
"Again," said Izuku slowly, "I'm not seeing how me and my classmates not being put in danger is a bad thing."
"It's bad you fool," hissed Amaterasu, "Because it means that things aren't happening as they should be. Something has happened, the natural order of things has been changed."
"No shit," said Izuku with a roll of his eyes, "What did you expect? You took my soul and shoved it into someone else's body. Of course things are different. Izuku was never supposed to try and kill himself either."
"Have care how you speak to me mortal," said Amaterasu, "Do not test my patience,"
"Don't play that game with me," said Izuku, getting to his feet and getting up close and personal with Amaterasu, "If you think I'm going to be intimidated by some upstart goddess with a superiority complex you've got another thing coming, lady. I've been dealing with your kind since I was a fucking kid. Let's not pretend like you're in any position to do shit right now. You need me, because of your fuck up. So don't come here, intrude on my life, casting accusations because you fucked up and changed how things were supposed to be."
Amaterasu looked like he'd just spat in her face, but Izuku was beyond the point of caring. None of what he had just said was wrong in any way. Moreover, he'd faced down more intimidating gods and titans and come out on top. He was not in any mood to be intimidated by any divine entity any more.
Amaterasu sighed, turning away from him and striding over to the window. She gazed out along the campus, the light of the moon shining through and illuminating her already pale features.
"You are correct," she said after a moment, "But it does not change the fact that the future has been altered. I once knew precisely what was in store, knew how to prepare and how to prepare Izuku for what needed to be done. But now…" She trailed off.
"Look," said Izuku, running a hand through his hair, "I'm not going to pretend to get how you're feeling, but I'm guessing you've been removed from humanity for too long."
Amaterasu shot a quizzical look over her shoulder,
"You've spent so long knowing what's going to happen, how it's going to happen, and where it's going to happen that you've completely lost the ability to adapt." Izuku shrugged and shrugged off his shirt, grabbing a loose night-shirt he slept in and tossing it over his head,
"For the rest of us, we don't know what's going to happen either. But we adapt. We improvise. So shit isn't going the way that it was supposed to happen. All right, that's fine. We can deal with that. Chances are the overall scheme hasn't been changed too much, just some of the finer details. Fate has a funny way of happening regardless of how you get there."
"I suppose you would know," sighed Amaterasu, "And you do not seem nearly as concerned about this as I had thought you would be. I cannot decide if it is wisdom or mere foolishness."
"Column A and Column B," said Izuku casually, "Honestly though, you deal with gods long enough and you learn that you need to be flexible. Besides, it's not like I knew what was going to happen. It was always going to be a surprise, now it's just a surprise for both of us,"
"Which is perhaps even more distressing," muttered Amaterasu, "But I suppose you are correct. Fate cannot be truly defied. The end of the game is set in stone, perhaps it matters not how we reach that destination,"
"Do you have to speak like you're the lead in a shitty high-school play?" Groused Izuku, but when he looked up, Amaterasu had already disappeared.
He might have been reincarnated, but some things were always the same.
Gods were assholes.
Though he would be lying if he said he wasn't troubled by the news. As much as he had tried to put on a front of apathy for Amaterasu, it was worrisome that things were apparently changing more than they should have. Minor changes would have been expected, true, the relationships Izuku normally would have had. Maybe the way he was viewed by his classmates. But for something as drastic as a villain attack not occurring when it was meant to?
That was very troubling.
More troubling still though, was what that implied.
Izuku was still long away from facing whatever evil had Amaterasu concerned. He was more focused on the here and now. And right now, Izuku was concerned with the fact that apparently villains were supposed to attack his classmates. We're going to attack U.A.
That was unprecedented.
Such an attack had not happened since the U.A. massacre nearly one hundred years ago. For villains to be so cavalier was troubling.
But then…they hadn't attacked, had they? So what did that mean? If things were becoming drastically different, then did that mean that none of what Amaterasu had foreseen would come to pass? Did that mean that the villains really weren't working together.
Izuku growled, and snagged a pair of workout shorts from the floor.
His head was beginning to hurt and he needed to vent his frustrations. As he made his way out of his room and towards the gym, Izuku came to a decision.
He would simply have to abide by his own advice, and adapt.
But he prayed for mercy on any who dared threaten him and his classmates while Izuku Midoriya drew breath.
Chapter 8: Called Out
"Did you need to be so…aggressive?"
"Yes,"
"Well…maybe you felt that way, but Izuku, I really don't think the school-"
"To hell with what the school thinks, I'm not going to sit back and listen to some pretentious clown talk down to me. That's not even counting what he said to you,"
"While he was certainly rude, I really think that what you said was a tad…excessive. We're here to be heroes, Izuku,"
"Someone should tell him that," grumbled Izuku as he and Momo stomped their way down the halls and towards their first lecture hall.
They'd had one of their weekly meetings that morning, and like all of the other previous meetings, Izuku had gotten into a squabble with another representative.
Or rather, that trumped up charlatan from 1-B had been running his mouth off again, and Izuku was not in the mood for dealing with it. Normally, he was far better at simply tuning the guy out, but he, Kirishima, and Tokoyami had been up almost all of the previous night preparing for their midterms in English and World History. While Izuku certainly felt prepared, he was also exhausted, and when Izuku got exhausted his patience began to run thin.
So, when Monoma had begun to run his mouth again, Izuku had told him exactly what Izuku would be doing with the boy's colon tract and a rather painful cactus if he didn't shut up.
It had been surprisingly effective, though the other representative for 1-B, Kendo Itsuka, had seemed a touch annoyed with him.
Though really, Izuku was nearly as irritated at her. Sure she immobilized the bastard when he started to run his mouth, but as a student rep it was her job to curtail that behavior in the first place.
Mineta didn't pull any more sexist shit after Izuku had had a rather enlightening talk with him, after all.
"Regardless," sighed Yaoyorozu in exasperation, "You can't just jump to violence when you disagree with something."
"Wouldn't bet on that," grumbled Izuku,
"Midoriya," said Yaoyorozu warningly, and Izuku had to bite back a curse. He knew that tone,
"Please can we skip the lecture?" He groaned, covering his ears, "I can't deal with it today,"
"If you don't want me to lecture you, then maybe you should begin acting like the class representative that you are," said Yaoyorozu.
Izuku groaned, and shoved his hands into his pockets in defeat, it was always like this with Yaoyorozu. She was the mother hen of all mother hens, but she took it to another level when it came to Izuku.
"I'm serious Midoriya, you slept through the entire meeting on Monday. We would have been in big trouble if the rest of the class had been there for the bunker inspection at the dorms if I hadn't reminded you."
Izuku grumbled petulantly, to himself, but didn't refute the comment. She was right after all, a representative from the staff had inspected the secret bunkers in all of the dorms-built after the attack nearly one hundred years previously-and were known only to the staff and the class representatives. Had it not been for Yaoyorozu, he could have been in serious trouble for having the class in the building for the inspection.
Still though, she didn't need to nag him so persistently.
Opening the door to their lecture hall, Izuku paused.
"Aizawa?" Said Izuku in surprise,
"Good, you and Yaoyorozu can take your seats and we can get this over with," said Aizawa as he absently ran a tired hand through his hair. Izuku shared a confused look with Yaoyorozu, who shrugged at him, before the pair took their seats.
"As some of you might be aware," said Aizawa, "Every year U.A. University hosts a Sports Festival." Excited murmuring broke out among the students,
"Quiet," commanded Aizawa and the room fell silent, "Now, for those who don't know, the U.A. Sports Festival is one of the most prominent sporting events of the year. Not even the Olympics are watched as much as the Sports Festival. But what you might not know is the real reason the festival is held." His eyes darted around the room, watching them all closely,
"The Sports Festival serves as a way for you to show off your growth and the result of all of your hard work. It puts you in the spotlight. Heroes across the country will be watching you, and this will be your chance to show them that you're capable of being a pro hero. Following the Sports Festival, pro heroes will be able to submit an application and request to take you on as an intern for a weeklong internship."
More excited murmuring among the students,
"Quiet," hissed Aizawa, "This is important, and as a result, classes for the next week will be cancelled in order to allow you to prepare as efficiently as possible for the event."
"I feel like this could have been an email," muttered Izuku,
"Got something to say, Midoriya?" Said Aizawa,
"I said," said Izuku, not backing down, "That this could have been an email. Why did we have to get dragged out of bed for this if classes were going to be cancelled anyways?"
"And deprive you of the opportunity to use every possible moment of free time to prepare?" Said Aizawa, a nasty gleam in his eye. "Regardless, be prepared. Do not disappoint me, and do not embarrass this school. Any questions? No? Then dismissed." With his piece said, Aizawa shuffled tiredly from the room.
As the door closed behind Aizawa, Izuku felt a flutter of excitement dance through his stomach. Some of his fondest memories were watching the U.A. Sports Festival with his mother on national television, and it was like a dream come true for him to even have the opportunity to be a part of it.
Even still, the moment of excitement was fleeting as Amaterasu's words from the week before came back to his mind. If whoever was supposed to attack at the USJ hadn't, then maybe they were biding their time for this. The moment would be perfect for it. To attack U.A. and its most promising students live, on national television, when it would be most public…It was something that Izuku would do if he were in their position.
He didn't like it, which meant that he needed to start preparing early. Glancing around the room, he felt his anxiety only grew even more. These young men and women…they might have been fully grown adults, and they might have chosen to engage in a dangerous profession, but they weren't ready for this. They didn't know what actual combat looked like, felt like.
A real fight was entirely different from a spar. Even in the most well-simulated situation, at the back of someone's mind was the understanding that it wasn't real. That no matter what happened, they weren't going to be in any actual danger and the only real threat was perhaps a lower score and a few bruises.
But an actual fight? When the powers were flying, and the guy looking across from you really wanted to kill you?
It wasn't something you could prepare for.
His fists unconsciously tightened, as hate began to flood through him. He didn't know if these bastards were going to pull something, but if they were…Izuku was going to be ready. He was going to be ready for whatever it was they were going to throw at him, and he was going to make sure that as many of his classmates were ready for it too. He stood up abruptly,
"I'm going to the gym," announced Izuku, "Anyone who wants to train with me is more than welcome."
"You can count me in!" Said Kirishima immediately,
"I'll join in as well," said Tokoyami,
"Might as well," said Shoji,
A number of the other students were all in agreement, and with the exception of only a handful, the entire class was soon in the gym.
"Gwah!" Grunted Kirishima, flying backwards as Izuku closed in. Kirishima tried to shrug off the blow, and sluggishly threw a haymaker with his right hand, but Izuku was too quick. Ducking under the blow, Izuku leveled a blow of his own into the solar plexus of his sparring partner. Gagging in pain, spittle flew from Kirishima's mouth. Wrapping a fist through Kirishima's hair, Izuku threw three more punches, each one causing a minor crack in Kirishima's rock-hardened body.
With a groan of misery, Kirishima fell onto his back as his quirk deactivated.
"Fucking hell," hissed Izuku as he shook out his wrist, "Punching you feels like punch a lead-boulder,"
"Thanks for the compliment," groaned Kirishima.
Striding over, Izuku extended a hand to his sparring partner, and Izuku hefted him to his feet.
"Does your quirk get better the harder you get hit?" Asked Izuku, as he and Kirishima strode away from the middle of the gym and over to their bags.
"I think so?" Said Kirishima, looking down at his hand, "I hadn't noticed it until recently, but any time I get hit, I can feel my defense grow even stronger."
"I want to say that makes sense, but it absolutely doesn't," said Izuku as he downed half his bottle of water in one gulp,
"Like you're one to talk," said Kirishima with a laugh, "That quirk of yours is absurd. You're lucky man, wish I could have been born with a flashy quirk like that. Power enhancement sounds awesome."
"It's got its drawbacks," shrugged Izuku, his gaze flitting over to the rest of the class, "It's hard to keep my concentration when I'm using it. Kinda like tunnel-vision. The more I use it, the more I think my quirk controls me, not the other way around."
"Can I ask you something," said Kirishima after a moment of silence,
"Go for it," said Izuku,
Kirishima rubbed uncomfortably at the back of his neck,
"You and Bakugo," said Kirishima, "There's some history between you two…isn't there?"
Izuku almost sighed. He had been expecting this kind of question for a while, ever since Bakugo had approached him on the first night of classes. He supposed it shouldn't have been surprising that Kirishima would be the one to say something first, Kirishima had been spending more time around Bakugo lately than pretty much anyone else.
"Something like that," said Izuku, "We've been going to school together since we were little, and things haven't been…good between us for a while."
"What happened?" Asked Kirishima, "Unless you don't want to talk about it or whatever, because that makes sense if you don't! I just saw the way you two talk to each other and just thought-"
"It's fine," said Izuku dismissively, "You've been spending time around him, so I'm pretty sure you've gotten a pretty good read on him. Bakugo…Bakugo believes in power above all. It's how he's been ever since he got his quirk. Everybody was always fawning over him, telling him what a strong quirk it was and how strong he was because of it…it just started to go to his head after a while."
"Yeah," said Kirishima, "But you have a powerful quirk too! That can't be why you two don't get along,"
"I do," nodded Izuku, turning to look at Kirishima, "But I've only had my quirk for six months,"
Kirishima's eyes went wide. "Wait what?"
"Yup," said Izuku, "Fourteen years; everyone thought I was quirkless, even me, for fourteen years." He looked meaningfully at Kirishima, "So you tell me, knowing Bakugo like you do, how he would have reacted to some quirkless nobody trying to become a hero like him."
Kirishima didn't know what to say.
After all, what was there for him to say?
BREAK
The day of the Sports Festival had arrived, leaving Izuku with mixed feelings. While he was incredibly excited about the prospect of participating in the Festival, Amaterasu's words still hung over his head.
For the last week, it was seemingly all he could think about. He would close his eyes, and would be gifted with images of death and destruction. Of his classmates and friends torn to pieces. Dead and broken on the sidewalk.
It was starting to drive him mad.
It had taken Izuku some time to become accustomed to having normal dreams. In his old life, dreams never meant anything good. But he no longer had that connection to the divine world. His dreams were no longer premonitions, or visions of things happening hundreds of miles away.
At least he hoped.
A knock on his door caused him to pause, walking over, he was surprised to find Mr. Yagi waiting patiently for him.
"Sir?" Said Izuku, "I wasn't expecting to see you,"
"I didn't think you would be," smiled Mr. Yagi, "May I please come in?"
"Of course," Izuku stepped aside and allowed Mr. Yagi into the room. He looked around at the rather bland and plain room for a moment, before taking a seat in Izuku's computer chair. Izuku sat down on his bed facing his teacher,
"I wanted to speak to you briefly before the festival," said Mr. Yagi, "This will be the first time you put One for All on display for the world to see,"
"You want me to hold back a little?" Asked Izuku. Mr. Yagi had on multiple occasions, stressed to Izuku the importance of making sure that people didn't connect the dots between Izuku and All Might. Izuku wasn't entirely sure why, but he was fairly certain that his mentor was worried about his enemies targeting Izuku.
"Far from it," said Mr. Yagi with a smile, "This…this will be your moment. Your moment to prove not just to the world, but to yourself that you are a hero. I know how hard you've worked, and I couldn't be more proud of you, more proud of how far you've come."
Izuku felt himself smile, it was a large and dopey grin that belonged more on the face of Mr. Yagi's alter ego.
"Today, Young Midoriya, I want you to go out there and show the world that you belong. That you are the future." Mr. Yagi's eyes closed as a happy smile fell on his sunken cheeks, "My time as a hero is coming to an end. Soon, all too soon, you will be asked to take up the mantle. You will need to take my place, to become a symbol of peace and hope for humanity, and that journey starts today. So when you go out there, I want you to smile, and I want you to tell the world…that you are here."
Izuku smiled,
"I think I can do that."
BREAK
"Man, why do we have to wear these stupid jumpsuits?" Whined Kaminari, "Why can't we wear our hero costumes?"
"They probably don't want to give an advantage to those who use support items," said Tsu thoughtfully,
"That makes sense," said Izuku, "But I think I'm with Kaminari on this one, these jumpsuits are just…"
"See?" Said Ashido in exasperation to Tooru, a girl whose quirk left her completely invisible at all times, "Midoriya gets it,"
"I don't know," said Tooru, "I think they're kinda cute,"
"They're too restricting," complained Izuku, tugging at his top,
"I thought I told you to put in a request for a new uniform," said Yaoyorozu,
"…I forgot,"
Yaoyorozu groaned, "I can't believe people voted for you to be Class Rep,"
"Hey," said Izuku in faux indigence, "Words hurt, ya know?"
"Well maybe if you actually did something for once, instead of pawning all of your responsibilities on me I wouldn't have to be so hard on you," said Yaoyorozu,
"There's just so much shit they make us read!" Said Izuku,
"You're supposed to actually be reading those, Midoriya, they're important," sighed Yaoyorozu,
"I was elected to lead, not to read," said Izuku,
"Guys," said Kaminari teasingly, "Mom and Dad are fighting again,"
"What!" Squealed Yaoyorozu, her face coloring wildly. For his part, Izuku just rolled his eyes. The more he learned about Yaoyorozu, the more he realized that she wasn't in any way stuck up, she was just incredibly, incredibly, sheltered. The poor woman couldn't handle any kind of innuendo or even the mildest saucy remark without blushing like a tomato.
They were all sequestered in one of the waiting rooms in a large stadium on the U.A. 's campus as they waited for the Sports Festival to begin. Izuku, deciding that he was not in the mood to have the movement of his upper body so restricted, shucked the upper half of his tracksuit off, leaving him in just a tightly fitting tank-top.
"Midoriya," said a monotone voice over his shoulder. Turning in his seat, Izuku met the steely-eyed gaze of Shoto Todoroki.
"Can I help you, man?" Asked Izuku,
"You're powerful," said Todoroki bluntly, "Maybe one of the more powerful ones in the class, but you're not the strongest. Not yet. Still, you are strong. You will be a useful stepping stone in my quest."
"Quest?" Said Izuku, amused,
"I need to prove my strength. Prove that I'm strong enough on my own so that I don't rely on the powers of…others."
Izuku didn't know if he had ever met someone so melodramatic before in his life. Not even Nico would be as bad as this guy was.
"That is why I'm declaring war on you."
Izuku blinked,
"What?"
"I will beat you today," said Todoroki, ignoring Izuku's confusion, before walking away to sulk in the corner.
"What…what the fuck was that?" Izuku said under his breath to Tokoyami beside him,
"It would appear that you have gained a new rival," said Tokoyami casually,
"Yeah but…declaring war? What the hell does that even mean? Is-is he planning on invading me or something?"
"I should hope not," chuckled Tokoyami, "I fear that would be an exercise in futility,"
"Why you gotta make it nasty, man."
Izuku checked his watch, before standing up. He cracked his back, reveling in the comfortable and satisfying pops.
"All right people, time's here, let's go." Announced Izuku,
"All right!" Cheered Kirishima, popping out of his chair from beside Bakugo.
Izuku led a leisurely pace out of the room and into a large tunnel that led out onto the field. The sounds of a large crowd could be heard over the sounds of their feet. The louder the crowd got, the more excited and anxious Izuku became. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. That there was going to be an attack. He could only hope that whatever security was around the building would be enough to ward off anything that would potentially happen.
Over the din, as they approached the mouth of the tunnel, Izuku could hear the voice of his World Literature Professor, Present Mic, speaking loudly over the crowd.
"It's that time folks! The moment you've all been waiting for! Now join me in giving a plus-ultra welcome to our first year Hero, Support, Business, and Liberal Arts students!"
Taking the cue, Izuku led the way out of the tunnel and into the sunlight. He had forgotten that the other students from the other departments would be taking part in the event as well. The students from the liberal arts school in particular were students who had managed to make it into the school on academic credits, but failed to get enough points in the entrance exam to enter into the hero program. They were able to fight for a chance to be entered into the hero programs, through an exhibition of their skills and abilities in the Sports Festival.
The atmosphere was nothing like he had ever experienced before. Izuku was not inexperienced by any means, but he had never been in the middle of such a large crowd of people before. There must have been more than fifty-thousand people in the stands, each and every one screaming as loud as they possibly could. It was even more invigorating than he had imagined it to be. Hearing the screaming fans, the raw energy coming from every member of the crowd fueled him with a drive he didn't know if he could quantify.
All thoughts and worries drained away from him, as adrenaline began to flood through his system. All he could think about was putting on the biggest, best show he could possibly put on. He wanted to show everyone the fruits of all of his hard labors. All of the hours training, all of the hard work he'd put in to getting a handle on One for All. He was ready for this, and he would show the entire world that, whether they knew it or not, that Amaterasu had chosen correctly when she had chosen him to take over.
With a large grin on his face, Izuku led his section to the large cement platform in the middle of the stadium. The Pro Hero Midnight, an Art History and World History Professor, was waiting for them. Midnight was a taller woman, with long purple hair that trailed down her back. She wore a skin-tight olive-colored jumpsuit over a corset. The red eye-mask over her sky-blue eyes glistened brightly in the early afternoon sun.
Looking around, Izuku recognized a lot of people that he shared some of his non-hero courses with.
"Looks like they really brought everyone out for this, huh?" Said Izuku,
"So it would seem," nodded Tokoyami, "Truly a mad banquet if ever there was one,"
"I'm worried about you, man."
There was a microphone on the stage in front of Midnight, who approached and cleared her throat,
"All right everyone, can we please settle down now. Plenty of time for excitement later."
Izuku groaned, sometimes Midnight got a little too into her whole BDSM schtick.
"Before we begin, we will have the annual student pledge, so Mr. Midoriya if you please hon?"
Izuku groaned, "Nobody told me I needed to speak,"
"They told you during the rep meeting on Friday," sighed Yaoyorozu, "The one you were sleeping through,"
"Yeah, yeah," said Izuku dismissively, climbing up the stairs. He got up to the mic and cleared his throat,
"Yeah…so I don't have much of a speech in mind. But I'll just say that as cool as all of our training has been lately, it's been getting kinda repetitive and boring. So here's hoping some of y'all can make this interesting, yeah?"
The crowd didn't seem to know how to react to that one, and judging by the way Yaoyorozu was twitching he supposed that maybe it wasn't the right thing to say. But at least he had been honest. Things had been boring. Classes could be interesting at times, but it was getting boring fighting the same people in the same way over and over again.
"Well, it looks like you've certainly got a spritely one in your section Aizawa!"
Present Mic's comment was met with an annoyed sigh. Apparently Aizawa had been dragged into doing color commentary with Mic.
"Did you really need to call everyone out like that?" Huffed Yaoyorozu,
"Wanted to fire everyone up," shrugged Izuku, "People fight more intensely when they're pissed and have someone to channel they aggression against,"
"Are you trying to say that you said that intentionally?" Said Yaoyorozu skeptically,
"Yup," lied Izuku,
"No you didn't," sighed Yaoyorozu, "And you're a terrible liar,"
"Takes one to know one, miss grocery store," said Izuku cheekily, and Yaoyorozu's cheeks colored considerably,
"I told you that in confidence," said Yaoyorozu, scandalized,
"Don't start what you can't finish," said Izuku cheekily,
"All right everyone!" announced Midnight, "With that…colorful presentation, we shall now determine our first event!"
A large holographic wheel appeared behind Midnight. There were a number of different events on the wheel, and a large arrow in the dead center.
"Time to spin the wheel!" Cried out Midnight, and on cue, the wheel began to spin wildly. Steadily it began to slow, until it finally came to a rest with the arrow point down on the chosen activity.
"All right! Looks like we'll be starting the festivities off with a bang! Our first event will be the student free-for-all."
"That…sounds ominous," muttered Kirishima,
"Each student will be required to wear these sensors!" Announced Midnight, producing a pouch of technical looking watches, "They will monitor each of our students. Each student will start with a stock of three "lives," and a set amount of "hit points," for every hit or attack that is landed, a student will lose points. When the points hit zero, the students will lose one of their 'lives.' When a student runs out of lives, they will be out of the competition."
"This is a literal video game," said Izuku, his brow twitching slightly in agitation,
"I would have thought that the exercises would be…a little more serious," said Yaoyorozu.
The watches were handed out to each of the students. Izuku's sprang to life, as three cartoon-like images of Izuku's face appeared on the watch face.
"Students!" Called out Midnight, when all of the watches had been handed out, "You will have ten minutes to complete the task! Best of luck, and those ten minutes start…now!"
A flash of movement out of the corner of his drew Izuku's attention, and he just narrowly managed to avoid the hardened fist of Kirishima as he charged at Izuku,
"Sorry about this man!" Called out Kirishima, a wide grin on his hardened face, "But you did call us out, can't expect us to take that lying down!"
A moment later, Izuku was forced to duck as an overly large fist shot over his head,
"You shouldn't be disrespecting us like that Midoriya!" Called out Kendo Itsuka, a orange-haired woman with blue eyes from Section 1-B, she was the other Section class president and someone Izuku had gotten to know fairly well.
Only just narrowly avoiding her attack, he felt something slick and wet wrap around his midsection. Looking down, he saw that Tsu had wrapped her tongue around him and was preparing to heave him in her direction,
"Sorry Midoriya," ribbitted the woman, "But you deserve this,"
"And it looks like all of the other students have started to gang up on Midoriya!" Announced Present Mic excitedly, "You reap what you sow little listener, any words of encouragement for your student Eraserhead?"
"Should have known better than to make such a stupid comment Midoriya," said Aizawa,
"Thanks for the vote of confidence professor," grunted Izuku as tape, courtesy of the black-haired boy with tape dispensers for arms, Sero, wrapped around his legs, effectively pinning him.
Well, if this was going to be how the others wanted to play it, then they would need to deal with the consequences.
Channeling One for All, his skin and muscles tingled with the familiar flash of power. Reaching down, he gripped Tsu's tongue and the tape respectively, and tugged while simultaneously flexing his legs. The tape around his legs snapped, as Tsu and Sero yelped in surprise as they were hauled towards Izuku abruptly. Leaping into the air, Izuku dodged out of the way as both Tsu and Sero collided painfully into one another underneath him.
Knowing he was at a tactical disadvantage in the air, and in a desire to keep himself from being boxed in on all sides, Izuku maneuvered himself in the air and released a punch of compressed air. Several students screamed in surprise and pain as they were blasted back by the surprise attack, and Izuku was launched backwards like a rocket.
Landing on the grass several meters away from where the scrum was, Izuku was not granted a reprieve. Several of the liberal arts students had been standing around the perimeter of the ring of students, and they took the opportunity to try and jump on him at once. Izuku was forced to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge out of the way of the flurry of blows coming from the other students.
One student managed to jump on his back, and punched Izuku in the side of the head. It wasn't the strongest blow, but it was somewhat disorienting. His watch beeped and glancing down, he saw that his "life bar" had dropped a few points. Growling in frustration, Izuku leaned back, jumped off his feet. He and the man on his back slammed onto the ground, and the student cried out in pain as Izuku's head smacked off of his nose. A pair of students came charging forward to try and pin Izuku to the ground, but Izuku channeled One for All into his legs and kicked out at the students. His blows connected with their midsection, and they were sent flying across the field.
Jumping to his feet, he was quickly blown back off of his feet as a beam of sparkling energy smashed into him with the force of a car.
"Mes excuses, monsieur," said Aoyama, "But you have not been very sparkly today Midoriya,"
"Fucking French bastard," growled Izuku, as a man who seemed to be made of iron came charging at him, screaming wildly. Sidestepping the charge with ease, Izuku's arm darted out and grabbed the back of the man's head and used his momentum against him, to drive him headfirst into the wall behind Izuku. Hearing Kirishima coming from behind him, Izuku wrapped his hands into the back of the iron-skinned man's jumpsuit, and dragged him around in front of Izuku. Kirishima and the iron-skinned man collided with a thud, and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.
Unable to even have a moment to catch his footing, Izuku was suddenly tackled to the ground as a large, furry beast barreled into him. His watch beeped again, before a rather pitiful sound emanated as it signaled he lost a life. The large furry beast of a student didn't stop as he punched Izuku viscously in the face, and then dragged Izuku to his feet, holding him in a half-nelson.
Another student was racing forwards, his hands a whirlwind of movement, almost like they were made of drills darting at him.
"This will show you for mocking us!" Roared the student.
Timing his moment perfectly, Izuku waited until the man was just about on top of him, before he jumped in the air. The student passed harmlessly under him, and his fist connected with his partner. The beast-man grunted in pain, before he was thrown bodily back, his grip on Izuku broken.
Still in mid-air, Izuku maneuvered over top of the drill-handed student. Gripping one hand around the student's arm, Izuku heaved with all his might and threw the man at a gaggle of charging students. The students all fell into a heap on the ground, groaning in pain and disappointment.
Izuku, panting heavily, sweat dripping from his forehead, turned to face the next wave of students. Steeling himself, Izuku brought his hands up into a defensive posture. However, just before the wave could descend on him, a large buzzer rang out around the stadium and Midnight's voice rang out.
"TIME!"
The students charging at him stopped in their footsteps, looks of disappointment on their faces. Izuku let out a soft sigh of relief. He had been wanting a challenge, but he wasn't sure that he had wanted that kind of a challenge. Checking his watch in worry, he was relieved to see that he still had at least one life left, though his health bar had dropped worryingly low.
"And would you look at that! While the rest of the class was focusing on Midoriya, both Todoroki and Bakugo were cleaning up the remaining students who weren't paying attention, and neither of them even lost so much as a hit-point of health! As their professor and advisor Aizawa, you must be proud that two of your students did so well!" Cheered Present Mic,
"It's a credit to their situational awareness. Heroes need to be able to look at a situation and determine how to use what's going on to the best of their advantage. They did that well in this exercise," agreed Aizawa,
"Still, you gotta give some credit to Midoriya! He had the entire stadium gunning for him and he managed to overcome the situation."
"It was a situation that he didn't need to be in. If he hadn't been so arrogant, then he wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. For all his power, Midoriya needs to learn to exercise better judgement."
It annoyed him to no end that Aizawa was right. Still, in spite of how foolish it had been, that had been an absolute rush. Izuku didn't know if he'd had that much fun since coming to U.A. All of the energy, the adrenaline coursing through his veins, the sound of his blood pumping in his ears. He hadn't realized how much he had missed live combat. How much he had reveled in the thrill of the fight.
Smirking broadly as he helped haul Kirishima to his feet, Izuku couldn't help but be excited for whatever was thrown at him next.