MHA Universe, Earth, Japan, Musutafu.
Going back ten minutes or so, in Nezu's office in the U.A. main building.
"I don't know what to do with you." Nezu said, his usual cheerful smile slightly twitching.
At the end of Nezu's line of sight, Toshinori, in his skinny form, was sitting on one of the couches in the office. However, instead of wearing his civilian clothing, he was wearing his Hero costume, which looked like it was several sizes too big without the exaggerated musculature of his Hero Form. On top of that, he was huffing and puffing as if he had just run a marathon.
"You know you have classes this afternoon." Nezu continued before Toshinori could get himself together enough to speak. He then looked at the clock hanging on the wall and continued. "In fact, it should have already started. Yet, you were out running around, taking care of every crime, whether they were committed by a villain or a normal person, that you see on your way to school. What are the students supposed to do without you, their Foundational Heroics teacher?"
"*Pant* *Pant* I know, Nezu. *Pant*" Toshinori replied with ragged breaths. "But I couldn't just leave those people alone. *Pant* *Pant* They needed me. *Pant*"
"That attitude is why you're the Symbol of Peace." Nezu said while shaking his head with a fondly exasperated smile on his face. "And that's why I'm not scolding you right now. But there are other Heroes that could have handled it, you know?"
"*Pant* Yes, I am aware." Toshinori replied as he started to get his breathing under control. "But I was there. And I had the ability to do something. So, I did."
"Yes, you did." Nezu said with a nod. "But now you won't be able to teach your class this afternoon."
Toshinori had no retort to that. As a result, the only thing he could do was hang his head, a slight blush of embarrassment coloring his pale cheeks.
"*Sigh* Well, I guess it's a good thing that I managed to hire a teaching assistant for you." Nezu said, his tone returning to its usual cheerfulness. "He should have no issue teaching the students what it means to be a Hero."
Immediately, Toshinori, despite how tired he was from pushing his Hero Form to its limit, snapped his head up in Nezu's direction. And when Nezu saw the expression on Toshinori's face, he could not help but chuckle a bit.
"You look like you just found out your parents were going to have another child." Nezu said, mirth heavy in his tone. "And now you're afraid that they're going to love the new child more than they love you."
Toshinori's embarrassed blush returned with a vengeance at Nezu's analogy. He then turned his head away in an attempt to hide said embarrassment. A moment later, however, he turned back to look at Nezu and opened his mouth to ask a question.
"I know what you're about to ask, Toshinori-Kun." Nezu said with a chuckle. "And I'll keep up the analogy as I answer it. No, we're not trying to replace you. You're our child just as much as your new sibling, and we love you both."
Nezu would swear that he had never seen Toshinori blush as brightly as he was at that moment. Not even when people teased him about his crush on his master when she was still alive. Hell, Toshinori never even blushed that hard when he was teased in front of his master.
And that caused Nezu to laugh out loud, making Toshinori even more embarrassed. So embarrassed, in fact, that he raised his hands to cover his face completely.
It took a few minutes for Nezu's laughter to die down. When it did, Toshinori finally lowered his hands, peeking at Nezu to see if he was still planning to tease him further. But when he saw that Nezu seemed to be over the topic... For now, at least, he breathed a sigh of relief before lowering his hands completely.
"*Cough* Anyway, who did you hire as an assistant?" Toshinori asked in a tone filled with feigned calm. "Do I know them? Have we worked together before?"
"Yes, and yes." Nezu replied with two nods. "IN fact, you've worked together recently. Though, it was not during your respective Hero works."
In response, Toshinori tilted his head while trying to think of who Nezu could be referring to. Then, after a few seconds of contemplation, he opened his eyes wide as he stared at Nezu with a shocked expression.
"Are you talking about Young Alfonzo?" Toshinori asked in a disbelieving tone.
"Exactly." Nezu replied with a smug smile and a nod.
"But how?" Toshinori asked. "He's still at the height of his career. This could cause him to lose popularity."
"*Sigh* You don't really believe that he cares about something like a ranking on the Hero Billboard, do you?" Nezu asked, his tone and expression turning serious as he spoke. "In fact, I did not even recruit him. He chose to work here. And it's all because of what happened yesterday at the gate."
Nezu then went on to tell Toshinori about his meeting with Tatsuo and Alfonzo, about what Tatsuo noticed with his [Quirk], and Alfonzo's desire to keep his cousin safe. All the while, Toshinori's expression turned grimmer and grimmer as he clenched his fists tighter and tighter with every word.
"Once again, I know what you're thinking, Toshinori-Kun." Nezu said calmly. "That incident was not your fault."
*Vroom~~~~~!*
At that moment, just as Toshinori opened his mouth to try and take responsibility for the incident, the sound of engines revving at high speed drifted into the office through a slightly opened window, causing both Toshinori and Nezu to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Hmm... Ida-Kun?" Nezu muttered as he turned to look out the window. "Why is he back?"
After asking his rhetorical question, Nezu turned back towards his desk. He then pulled up the security camera feeds, tracking Tenya as he ran through the school's hallways. Finally, when he saw Tenya enter the elevator and press the button for his floor, he turned to Toshinori once again.
"Ida-Kun is probably on his way here." Nezu said calmly.
"I only have about seven minutes left." Toshinori said before taking a deep breath. A moment later, his muscles ballooned as he filled out his costume and continued. "Hopefully, that will be enough time."
"Hopefully." Nezu replied as he turned to look at the office door.
*Bang!*
Less than half a minute later, Tenya, without knocking, violently opened the door.
"Villains!" Tenya shouted. "Villains are attacking the USJ."
As soon as his words ended, Tenya felt a gust of wind pass by him. And because he was wearing his helmet, he was able to just barely see that it was All Might. Otherwise, he would have been forced to close his eyes.
"*Sigh* There he goes again." Nezu said, his fondly exasperated smile returning to his face. "Without even thinking about it, he goes to save the day. That's the Symbol of Peace for you."
After that, Nezu shook his head lightly. Then, he looked at Tenya.
"Calm down, Ida-Kun." Nezu said in his usual cheerful tone. "All Might will make sure nothing happens. So, just calm down and tell me what happened. It will make reporting to the police much easier if I know the entire story. But for now, have a seat. Would you like a cup of tea? I'm sure you must have worked up quite the thirst running all the way back from the USJ."
Slowly, Tenya calmed his breathing. And when he thought about what Nezu said, although his worry did not subside completely, the fact that All Might would be there shortly helped him calm down quite a bit.
A few moments later, after drinking a cup of the tea offered by Nezu, Tenya began telling the little rodent what happened before he was sent back to the main part of the campus.
Meanwhile, Toshinori, moving faster than the speed of sound, pushed himself to the limit to make it to the USJ to make sure that none of the students were hurt by the villain attack.
At the same time, back at the USJ, with the Nomus and the two ringleaders defeated, the group of cannon fodder villains Tomura and Kurogiri recruited for this attack lost most of their morale. And with Shota's [Quirk] stopping them from activating their own [Quirks], they had no clue how they were supposed to get out of the situation they found themselves in.
"You know, when I saw that some of the guys got left behind, I was gloating." A male villain dressed like a cowboy said in a downcast tone.
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Another villain said while patting the first villain on the shoulder. "Now, I kinda wish I would have been one of the ones left behind."
"Seriously." A third Villain said in a defeated tone. "I mean, I could be robbing a bank or something right now. Instead, I'm caught in this electric cage with all of you."
*Sigh!*
That last comment led to all the Villains who were still conscious sighing in unison. Meanwhile, Alfonzo, Shota, and Anan stood watch over them from just outside the electric barrier.
"Can you do something about them?" Shota asked, a clearly uncomfortable expression on his face. "My eyes are getting really dry. I won't be able to erase their [Quirks] for much longer."
"I was just about to handle that." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "I don't know how we'll restrain them after that, though. I can move metals with electromagnetism, but I can't shape it."
*Zap!*
As soon as his words ended, arcs of electricity, the exact number equal to the number of conscious villains, broke off from the electricity jumping between the rebar spikes before hitting each Villain and knocking them unconscious.
"There." Alfonzo said with a grin. "You can let your eyes rest."
As soon as the Villains fell unconscious, even before Alfonzo said anything, Shota had already closed his eyes. At the same time, he reached into a pocket of his costume and pulled out a small bottle of moisturizing eye drops.
"You handled that so easily." Anan said, her tone making it clear that she was smiling under her helmet. She then turned back to look at the students. More specifically, at Tatsuo. "And that student, Soramoto-Kun is very impressive for his age. Amazingly, he showed no fear when facing those Villains."
"Well, he is my younger cousin." Alfonzo said proudly, sounding as if he actually had anything to do with Tatsuo's mentality. "I've been training him for the last three years. And with his desire to keep any other kids like him from going through what he went through, he's on track to be a great Hero."
"It's not just Soramoto." Shota said in his usual tone. Though, a hint of approval could be heard if one were to listen closely. "None of those kids showed the fear that would normally accompany a first encounter with Villains. Sure, they were all surprised, but definitely not afraid."
"That's true." Anan replied with a nod. "They're all going to go on to do great things in the future."
Both Alfonzo and Shota nodded in response.
Meanwhile, the students of Class 1-A were gathered and having their own conversations.
"That was amazing, Soramoto-Kun!" Izuku cheered like a fan boy.
"Yeah, I didn't know you could lock down space with your [Quirk]." Hanta added.
"Things could have been a lot more dangerous if you weren't here, Soramoto-Chan. *Ribbit*" Tsuyu chimed in. "Static would not have had the time to set up his trap without you."
"Hmph! I could have taken them all on even if he wasn't here." Katsuki growled. "The pretty boy bastard just got started before I did."
As if they had agreed on it before, the rest of the class ignored Katsuki's need to be seen as the alpha. Yet, there was one student whose thoughts aligned with Katsuki's. though, he substituted himself for Katsuki's role. And that was naturally Shoto, the guy with an equally large chip on his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Akatsuki said, cutting through all the praise aimed at Tatsuo. "You guys can talk about how great Tatsuo-Kun is later. More importantly than that, do any of you remember what that guy with the hands all over his body said?"
The guy Akatsuki was talking about was Tomura. Though it was not mentioned before, his Villain costume consisted of a black long-sleeved shirt and matching pants with seven pairs of bluish-grey hands that looked as if they were cut off the arms of zombies clinging to his clothes all over his body.
"You're talking about when he asked where All Might was, right?" Sakura asked. "Yeah, that was weird. Where did he get that information from?"
Hearing that, all the chatter came to a complete halt. Though not all of the students were academically gifted, none of them were dumb or stupid. So, they all understood the implications. However, before anyone could give voice to the suspicion that everyone was having…
*Boom!*
"I am Here!"
… the front entrance to the USJ was slammed open and a familiar voice resounded through the entire structure.
And sure enough, when everyone turned to look in the direction the noise came from, the silhouette of a massive man stood against the light of the outside. And thanks to the familiar voice and catch phrase, everyone knew who had just arrived.
Yet, when the new arrival, Toshinori, ready to help fend off the Villain threat, looked around, he did not see any of the chaos or destruction he was expecting to see. Standing at the top of the stairs leading to the central plaza were Alfonzo, Shota, and Anan talking calmly about what happened and how to handle the aftermath. Between his current position and where the teachers were talking, the entirety of Class 1-A was also gathered.
Yet, no matter how he looked, Toshinori was unable to find any Villains running around and causing trouble.
"What's going on?" Toshinori asked, evident confusion written all over his face.
"The crisis, if you can even call it that, is over." Shota replied in his usual tired tone. "In other words, you're late."
The dumbfounded expression on All Might's face was a sight to behold, something that none of the students would ever forget.
"Aizawa-Kun is right." Anan added. "Thanks to Static and Soramoto-Kun, everything was handled without issue. In all honesty, no one else even had a chance to act."
"Yeah, and after knocking out the guy with he [Quirk that jammed all the communications, we were able to talk to the principal." Alfonzo said, putting the final nail in the coffin. "He said we just missed you. We tried to call you, though. But the Principal answered your phone. I guess you left it in his office when you rushed out."
Hearing that, Toshinori's shoulders slumped. Then, without another word, he staggered towards one of the resting rooms lining the sides of the entrance hall. And though no one could be completely sure, several students swore that they heard him muttering something along the lines of: "They didn't even need me. I might be getting too old for this." But because of their image of All Might, those students immediately dismissed it as a hallucination.