The first match was... chaotic.
Rei watched the monitors as Midoriya and Uraraka navigated the building, searching for the fake nuclear weapon. Bakugo, predictably, immediately abandoned any pretense of strategy and went straight for Midoriya like a heat-seeking missile.
'He's not even trying to guard the weapon,' Rei observed. 'He just wants to beat Midoriya into the ground.'
The fight was brutal. Bakugo's explosions tore through hallways. Midoriya barely dodged, clearly outmatched in raw power and experience.
Then came the moment—Midoriya wound up a punch, One For All crackling around his arm, and released it in a massive shockwave that punched a hole straight through multiple floors.
The shockwave rattled the entire building.
The monitor room went silent.
"Did he just—"
"That power!"
"His arm is completely destroyed!"
Rei watched Midoriya's arm hanging limply, clearly broken, and felt a mix of respect and concern.
'He can't control it,' Rei thought. 'He's gambling everything on single attacks because he destroys his body every time he uses One For All.'
In the end, the hero team won—Uraraka used her Quirk creatively to secure the weapon while Bakugo was distracted. But the victory felt hollow with Midoriya barely conscious and headed straight to Recovery Girl.
"THAT WAS A GOOD MATCH!" All Might announced, though his smile looked slightly strained. "BOTH TEAMS SHOWED GREAT SPIRIT! NOW, LET'S MOVE TO THE SECOND MATCH!"
He reached into the box again.
HERO TEAM: C (YAOYOROZU & MIZUKI)
VILLAIN TEAM: G (KAMINARI & JIROU)
'We're up,' Rei thought, standing.
Yaoyorozu stood as well, her expression calm and focused.
"Villain team, head inside and set up!" All Might instructed. "Hero team, you have five minutes to strategize!"
Kaminari and Jirou headed into the building—a different structure from the first match, multi-story with more complex layout.
Rei and Yaoyorozu stepped outside to plan.
The moment they were alone, Yaoyorozu pulled out a small notepad she'd created with her Quirk.
"Analysis," she said immediately, all business. "Kaminari has an electricity Quirk—powerful but indiscriminate. He'll likely set up in a central location where he can electrify multiple pathways. Jirou has sound-based abilities—detection and offense through her earphone jacks."
"So they'll know we're coming the moment we enter," Rei added. "Jirou can hear through walls, detect footsteps, heartbeats. And Kaminari can turn entire rooms into electric death traps."
"Exactly." Yaoyorozu tapped her pen against the notepad. "Direct assault is inadvisable. We need to neutralize Jirou's detection first, then isolate Kaminari before he can discharge."
Rei thought for a moment, running through scenarios.
"Can you make insulation?" he asked. "Rubber soles, non-conductive materials?"
"Yes, easily."
"Good. Make us rubber-soled boots. That handles Kaminari's electric floors." Rei pointed to the building layout on the map All Might had provided. "I'll handle Jirou. My movement is quiet enough that she won't detect me until I'm on top of her—spider abilities include near-silent wall-crawling. Once she's down, you create a faraday cage around Kaminari. Trap him, contain the electricity."
Yaoyorozu's eyes lit up. "A faraday cage... yes, that would work perfectly. But it would take time to create something that large."
"I'll buy you time. Once Jirou's out, I'll keep Kaminari distracted. You build the cage, we capture him, secure the weapon. Clean win."
"Simple and efficient." Yaoyorozu smiled—actually smiled. "I like it. Let's execute."
She placed her hand on her arm, and light shimmered. Moments later, she handed Rei a pair of rubber-soled boot covers.
"These should fit over your costume boots. Full insulation."
Rei pulled them on. Perfect fit.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready," she confirmed.
---
The timer started.
Rei and Yaoyorozu entered the building through the ground floor entrance.
Immediately, Rei's enhanced senses kicked in. He could hear the faint hum of electricity somewhere above—third floor, probably. And the almost imperceptible sound of someone's heartbeat—Jirou, likely positioned to detect intruders.
He held up a hand, signaling Yaoyorozu to stop.
"Second floor," he whispered, so quiet that even the monitors probably couldn't pick it up. "Jirou's near the stairwell. Kaminari's on third floor with the weapon."
Yaoyorozu nodded and created a small earpiece, handing it to Rei.
"Communication," she mouthed.
Rei put it in and heard her voice clearly. "Can you reach Jirou without her detecting you?"
"Yeah," Rei whispered back. "Give me thirty seconds."
He fired a web line at the ceiling and pulled himself up, adhering to the wall. Then he started moving—completely silent, using his wall-crawling to bypass the floors entirely. Up the exterior wall, through an open window on the second floor, into the hallway.
Jirou stood twenty meters away, her earphone jacks plugged into the wall, eyes closed, concentrating on sound.
'She's good,' Rei thought. 'But she's listening for footsteps. Ground vibrations. Not for someone on the ceiling.'
He crawled along the ceiling, directly above her, moving with the patience of a predator.
Ten meters. Five meters. Three meters.
Rei dropped.
His webbing shot out mid-fall, wrapping around Jirou's earphone jacks and yanking them out of the wall. Before she could react, he webbed her arms to her sides and swept her legs.
She hit the ground, and Rei webbed her to the floor completely.
"Capture tape," he said calmly, pulling out the capture tape All Might had provided and wrapping it around her.
Total time: eight seconds.
Jirou blinked up at him, shocked. "What the—how did you—"
"Sorry," Rei said. "Nothing personal."
He tapped his earpiece. "Jirou's down. You're clear."
"Excellent work," Yaoyorozu's voice came through. "I'm moving to the third floor."
Rei web-swung up through the stairwell, joining Yaoyorozu as she ascended.
The third floor opened into a large room—and there, in the center, was Kaminari standing next to the fake nuclear weapon.
He saw them and immediately grinned. "Oh man, you guys are fast! But it doesn't matter!"
Electricity crackled around his body.
"I'll just electrify the whole room! You can't dodge if there's nowhere to go!"
"Now!" Rei shouted.
He fired webbing at the walls, ceiling, and floor, creating a three-dimensional web network. Then he grabbed Yaoyorozu and swung them both onto the web structure—suspended in mid-air, completely off the ground.
Kaminari unleashed his Quirk.
Electricity flooded the room, arcing across every metal surface, every conductive pathway.
But Rei and Yaoyorozu hung in the air, supported by non-conductive webbing, completely safe.
"What?!" Kaminari stared up at them. "How are you—"
His electricity ran out, and he slumped forward, clearly overextended.
"Whey..." he mumbled, going into his signature dumb mode from overusing his Quirk.
Rei dropped down, secured him with capture tape, and turned to the weapon.
Yaoyorozu landed gracefully beside him.
"That was..." she started, then smiled. "That was perfect execution."
"Team effort," Rei said, securing the weapon. "Your insulation idea made the difference."
"And your mobility made the plan possible." She looked at him, and for a moment, there was something in her expression—respect, maybe. Appreciation.
"HERO TEAM WINS!" All Might's voice boomed through the speakers. "EXCELLENT WORK, YAOYOROZU AND MIZUKI!"
---
Back in the monitor room, the class erupted into reactions.
"Dude, they destroyed that match!"
"Mizuki took out Jirou in like five seconds!"
"That web strategy was insane!"
"Yaoyorozu and Mizuki are a scary team!"
Rei and Yaoyorozu walked back into the monitor room, and immediately people started asking questions.
"How did you move so quietly?!" Hagakure asked.
"That web suspension was genius!" Iida said, chopping his arms enthusiastically.
Even Todoroki, who rarely showed emotion, gave a small nod of approval.
But it was All Might's analysis that mattered most.
"THAT WAS AN EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE!" All Might announced. "YAOYOROZU, YOUR STRATEGIC PLANNING AND QUIRK APPLICATION WERE TOP-NOTCH! AND MIZUKI—"
All Might's eyes focused on Rei.
"YOUR STEALTH, TACTICAL AWARENESS, AND COMBAT EFFICIENCY WERE EXCEPTIONAL. YOU NEUTRALIZED THE ENEMY'S DETECTION BEFORE THEY COULD RESPOND. THAT'S PRO-LEVEL WORK."
'Pro-level,' Rei thought. 'Careful. Can't stand out too much.'
"Thank you, sir," Rei said simply. "Yaoyorozu's plan made it easy."
"We both contributed," Yaoyorozu added, and when Rei glanced at her, she was looking at him with that same analytical expression.
But there was something else there too. Something softer.
'Mutual respect,' Rei realized. 'She sees me as an equal. Someone who can keep up with her thinking.'
The matches continued—other teams fought, won, lost, made mistakes, showed potential.
But throughout it all, Rei kept noticing something.
Yaoyorozu kept glancing at him. Not obviously. Not awkwardly. Just... observing.
And when their eyes met, she didn't look away immediately.
'Interesting,' Rei thought.
After the battle trials ended, the class returned to the locker rooms to change back into their school uniforms.
As Rei was packing his costume back into its case, he heard a voice behind him.
"Mizuki-san."
He turned. Yaoyorozu stood there, already changed, her expression composed but... was that nervousness?
"Yes?"
"I wanted to say—" she paused, choosing her words carefully. "That was excellent teamwork today. Your tactical thinking is impressive. I don't often meet people who can keep pace with strategic planning."
"Same to you," Rei said honestly. "Your Quirk application is on another level. And you adapt fast."
"Perhaps..." Yaoyorozu hesitated, then continued. "If you're interested, we could exchange notes sometime. Compare strategies. It might be beneficial for future team exercises."
'She's asking to study together,' Rei realized. 'Or... is that code for something else?'
"Sure," he said. "That makes sense. We work well together."
"Excellent." Yaoyorozu smiled—a genuine, warm smile that lit up her usually serious face. "I'll bring my analysis notes tomorrow."
"Looking forward to it."
She gave a small bow and walked away.
Rei watched her go, then turned back to his locker.
'Well,' he thought. 'That was... unexpected.'
Behind him, he heard Kaminari whisper to Kirishima: "Dude, did Yaoyorozu just ask Mizuki to study together?"
"I think she did," Kirishima whispered back. "Lucky guy."
"She's so out of everyone's league, man."
Rei suppressed a smile and finished packing his costume.
'First real connection at UA,' he thought. 'And it's with one of the smartest, most capable people in the class.'
'This could work.'
The day ended with students heading home, talking about the battle trials, already forming opinions about who was strong, who worked well together, who to watch out for.
And somewhere in those conversations, Rei heard his name mentioned more than once.
"Mizuki's scary good at stealth."
"Did you see how fast he took down Jirou?"
"Him and Yaoyorozu together? That's a terrifying combo."
'So much for staying under the radar,' Rei thought with mild amusement.
But as he walked to the train station, he realized something.
He didn't mind.
For the first time since coming to this world, he wasn't trying to be invisible.
He was trying to be a hero.
And maybe, just maybe, he was starting to figure out what that meant.
-----
Author's Note:-
Next up: More UA life, classes, and building relationships!
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