Chapter Twenty-Four: Rescue Training: Take Two
Tooru Hagakure's head hurt for more reasons than one. Well, technically it was all because of the same thing; namely that she had been hit in the head.
But, butbutbut, that had happened for multiple reasons. First off was self-explanatory: Fight Club. Taking hits to various body parts sort of came with the territory. She got that, even if her Quirk made those morning-after regrets somewhat interesting to deal with. For one, she didn't have to worry about any ugly bruises since she was, well, invisible.
On that same note, she never really had any visual reference for how injured she actually was because, again, invisible. Bit of a mixed bag, that.
Her Quirk, as a doctor had once explained to her, worked on a cellular level. That is to say, every part of her body and everything that came from her body was invisible. That obviously meant her skin, hair, eyes, teeth, nails, etc, but it also meant sweat, tears, spit, blood and all other various bodily fluids. Thankfully, this also applied to things that she consumed. Grossness-potential averted.
What this all meant was that Tooru had become very in-tune with her body over the years. Moreso than any "normal" person would have. After all, neither she nor anyone else could rely on their sight to tell what was going on with her. She had to rely on physical sensations and her own sense of touch, as well as occasionally smell and taste. Most commonly this was used to determine if some wetness on a sore area was sweat or blood (it was sweat this time).
Needless to say, when she got injured, self-diagnosing was never a fun thing to do. She had developed a heightened tolerance for pain very, very quickly when she had to go poking around her own wounds to find out just how bad they were. Fortunately, from what she could tell, there was no bleeding. She was just bruised up a little. And she had a headache.
Geez, Todo really let her have it. That was reason number two for her current status: She had insisted on sparring with Mr. Icy-Hot himself in spite of their difference in rank. He had protested, but she just kept on pestering him until he gave in.
On the bright side, if there had been any doubt as to whether or not the high-rankers deserved their positions, it was quickly dashed. While her Quirk, Invisibility, had a lot of downsides to it, it also had a lot of strengths. One of those, theoretically, was that any opponent she faced would have a hard time reading her movements and reacting to them. After all, you can't fight what you can't see, right?
Wrong, apparently.
Now, granted, she hadn't been in her Hero Costume (hey, if others could give it a nice name like Birthday Suit then she could call it whatever she wanted), but she had made sure to roll up the sleeves of her gym clothes to disguise her arm movements. In spite of this, she hadn't been able to land a single hit on Todo.
Tooru had thought that she was doing well at first. She was pressuring Todo and forcing him to keep his guard up. Or so she thought. It turned out that he was using his guard to figure out her reach and learn to read her movements just by watching her torso. Which he then proceeded to punch.
The heck of it was that Tooru knew for a fact that he had been holding back. He had never followed up on any of his attacks, just taking single shots at her and letting them speak for themselves. This either meant that he had some hang-up about hitting her (yeah, right) or that she was just that bad.
It didn't help that he was also hiding a very nicely-toned body underneath those clothes. Now, she wasn't Mina, but it was still hard to overlook this particular fact when she had spent a large portion of the USJ incident clinging onto him as tightly as she could.
In spite of all this, it still didn't account for her headache. Whenever Todo had gone after her head, she had either seen it coming and avoided it, or he had pulled his punches and turned them into love-taps. No, that particular hit had been entirely, one-hundred percent her fault.
That brought her to reason number three: Tooru had been distracted. To her credit, while she was naturally bubbly and occasionally a bit of an airhead (because all anyone saw when they looked at her head was air), she knew how to focus when the situation demanded it. She was also, thanks in no small part to her Quirk necessitating her over-exaggeration of it, very good at reading body language.
This meant that when she had side-stepped one of Todo's punches (go her, by the way) and had seen Midoriya sitting on the sidelines with a bent back and hunched shoulders, clearly only pretending to pay attention to the proceedings in stark contrast to what he usually did, alarm bells had gone off in her head.
This had the unintended side-effect of causing her to freeze up at exactly the wrong moment and eat a punch that Todo had clearly not thought would land and so had neglected to pull quite as much.
Tooru, meet flooru.
"Oh, sh- Hagakure? Are you still conscious?" Todo was kneeling down next to her, looking slightly to the left of where her face was.
"Agh…yeah. Yep. Definitely still wide-awake." the pain in her head was confirming that for her quite nicely.
"Right. Stupid question, but…you know." he looked a bit sheepish underneath his stoic expression.
"Can't see my eyes, I get it."
"Can you sit up?"
"I dunno. Haven't tried yet."
"You probably should. You might be concussed."
"That'd be bad."
He merely blinked at her, prompting her to prop herself up on her elbows and attempt to push herself – uh-oh.
She would have fallen back and hit her head again if a warm left hand hadn't caught her back.
"Dizzy." she managed, "Just a bit dizzy. Sat up too fast. 'm fine."
"Any nausea? Tiredness? Double-vision?"
"Well, there's this weird thing where one half of you looks a bit different from the other."
"I'm being serious."
Nothing. Not even a smirk. Tough crowd.
"Okay, Senpai, no. I think I just got my bell rung a bit, that's all."
He helped her to her feet and she took a moment to steady herself.
"I think something's wrong with Midoriya." this prompted him to glance over at where the other boy sat.
"…He did just get sorted into mid-tier, likely contrary to several people's expectations. Couple this with the fact that his last match was something of a disaster and it's not surprising that he's brooding."
In retrospect, Tooru realized, that was probably the most that she had ever seen Todo say to someone in one go outside of answering a question in class or something.
Back in the present, however, Recovery Girl was currently snapping her fingers at her.
"Dearie, I am quite used to students being quiet and still during my assessments and treatments, but given that you are invisible and came to me with a head injury, I would ask that you refrain from doing so. The eyes are quite important in assessing a case like this so I am relying on your insight in lieu of this."
"Right. Sorry, ma'am. I just zoned out for a bit there."
"Well, from what you've told me I don't think that you have a concussion. Even so, you were right to come to me. Head injuries should never be taken lightly." just a moment later and the living embodiment of Granny's Magic Kisses had her feeling much better. Tooru thanked her and went on her way, sucking on the hard candy that the elderly nurse had given her.
She rolled Todo's summary of Midoriya's situation over in her head and, while it made perfect sense on the surface, she couldn't help but feel that there was something more to it. Granted, she didn't know the green-haired boy all that well, so she could be completely off-base, but he didn't strike her as the type to get all bent out of shape just because he got his ass kicked by a girl. If anything, he'd be too busy analyzing the fight itself to care.
…Unless the fight itself had been the problem. Even as beat-up as he had been, Tooru had been surprised at how effortlessly Yaomomo had taken him apart. Couple that with the fact that one of the smartest, most logical guys in class was apparently incapable of hitting a girl and she really couldn't blame Todo for his choice of words; "disaster" seemed appropriate.
Maybe that was the problem? Midoriya was, from what she could tell, a fairly withdrawn person. He was the type that could carry on a conversation just fine once he warmed up to you or if you got him going on the right subject matter (Quirks, Heroes and Tactics seemed to be his primary choices), but nobody had really seen him just…shut down.
If this was really that big of a problem for him, Tooru decided, then she would have to get the rest of the girls together and figure out a way to help him with it. After all, he had already done so much for the rest of the class in less than two weeks. There was the ice-breaker on the first day, the advice and feedback from the Battle Trial, serving as the Class Vice-President, helping out with Fight Club…
…Oh, and there was that small thing where he basically saved everyone's lives at USJ.
Yes, Tooru mused as she made her way home, Midoriya had definitely more than earned whatever help they could offer him.
Plus, what boy would ever say no to some extra attention from the girls? Unless he was gay, but Tooru was pretty sure he wasn't.
Another perk to being invisible: you could catch people looking, even if it wasn't at you.
You could also ogle to your heart's content.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
It was Thursday, and Izuku Midoriya, along with most of the rest of the class, he imagined, had mixed feelings about the day's Hero Training that Aizawa had just announced.
Barely a week after the events that had transpired there, events that had changed their lives and even prompted one of them to leave U.A. forever, they were going back to USJ.
"Surely you didn't think that you'd never be going back?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow after the initial outburst had subsided, "USJ is an incredibly valuable training facility. It would be completely irrational to abandon it."
"Hey, hey," Kaminari had stood up and was attempting to calm the class, "come on. Have some faith in Aizawa-sensei, yeah? I'm sure if they're sending us back then that means they've beefed up the security so we can't be cut off like we were before. It'd be irrational not to, right, Sensei?"
"That is correct." Aizawa nodded, "We have installed a wired emergency communications system with redundant connections in case any are cut. In addition to this, all wireless radio communications across the entire U.A. campus are now pinged at regular intervals. If any of these experiences latency that is outside of our acceptable spectrum, all faculty are notified immediately. Likewise, if our devices fails to receive a routine all-clear from these pings, then it will trigger our individual alarm."
"There, you see?" the Class President spread his arms, "There's no need to worry."
Even after this, a few students still appeared reluctant. Among them, Izuku noticed, was Uraraka. She was looking directly at him and biting her lip anxiously.
Of course she'd feel that way. She had, arguably, had it even rougher than him. At least he'd been unconscious after he'd pulled his stunt. What she'd gone through…he didn't want to imagine. He'd pick his role in a heartbeat over having to wonder if one of his friends was going to make it or not.
"I understand your nervousness." Aizawa addressed the class, "Let's not forget that I got pretty roughed up there myself, but answer me this: when was the last time any of you heard of a Hero refusing to patrol a certain street because something bad happened there? Surely you're not irrational enough to think that Heroes always succeed? They have bad memories too. They constantly have to revisit areas that have terrible things associated with them. Hell, if you're a Hero for long enough, I'd imagine that you could hardly walk two blocks without passing by the site of an old failure. A mistake that could have been avoided. A Villain that could have been stopped. A life that could have been saved."
The class was silent. All eyes were on their teacher.
"Hell, compared to all of that, I'd say what you all went through was comparatively tame. After all, we made it through USJ without losing a single student or teacher. The worst of it was myself and Midoriya and we're both fine. Do you disagree, Midoriya?"
Izuku stood up and took a steadying breath. He needed to do his part now.
"Looking at it from a reasonable standpoint, USJ was a success on our end. We were attacked and we successfully captured nearly all of the Villains involved. Only two escaped. Apart from the two cases that you have already mentioned, Sensei, our casualties were kept to a minimum. It would be foolish to suggest that there was not emotional trauma as a result of the event. I know that it impacted me and I have no doubt that it also impacted everyone else in varying degrees. However, as you have said, part of being a Hero involves finding ways to deal with those feelings. I'd be lying if I said that I was chomping at the bit to return to USJ, but at the same time I understand the logic behind it. In addition, your description of the additional security measures that have been put in place has helped to set my mind at ease."
Izuku caught Kaminari's eye and nodded.
"Also, as Class Vice-President, I would like to second Kaminari-san's stance on this matter: we should all have faith in not only Aizawa-sensei, but U.A. as a whole. If we let the USJ Incident impact our progress, then the Villains win. That is all." he dutifully sat back down, noticing the glint of approval in Aizawa's eye.
"If everyone understands, then suit up and get to the bus. Oh, and unlike last time, All Might will be with us from the start. So there's that."
Izuku would be lying if he said that this particular piece of information wasn't reassuring.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
After the class had all changed into their costumes (Izuku included, as the Support Department had finished repairing his) and boarded the bus, Izuku made it a point to take a seat next to Uraraka.
"Are you okay?" he asked in a tactfully-low voice. She opened her mouth to give him what he knew would be something akin to "of course" and he cut her off before she could get it out, "Uraraka-san, I know what last time did to you. I'm the only one here who does, so please don't brush this off just because you don't want me to worry." her eyes widened for a moment before her gaze fell and she rubbed her arms as if to warm herself.
"Deku-kun…you're right. What you said in class, I mean. I know that we all made it through and that if I let it get to me then I'm doing what the Villains want. It's just…it's just so soon."
He understood. He understood better than most.
That was why he knew that small platitudes and reassurances just wouldn't cut it.
"Uraraka-san, do you remember how All Might wanted to talk to me during lunch last Friday?"
"Huh? Yeah." she looked momentarily taken aback at the sudden change of subject, but rolled with it, "The rest of us thought that he might have wanted to congratulate you for holding off that Villain back at USJ and then for giving him that warning before he fought it."
Carefully. He had to choose his words carefully. Tell the truth without telling too much of the truth.
Because Izuku refused to lie straight to the face of someone he cared for. The fact that it was Uraraka was only partly relevant.
"You're partly right. In fact, you might be completely right. He started off trying to talk about one thing, but…"
Why was this hard? Honesty, right? That was what he had promised himself. When in doubt, just go with the truth.
Or at least as much of the truth as he could without breaking his oath to All Might.
"Deku-kun?" Izuku suddenly made up his mind and grabbed one of her hands in both of his, taking a moment to thank whatever had given him the stroke of inspiration to take a corner seat behind Shoji so that the larger boy could act as a blinder.
"Uraraka-san," she was clearly surprised at his sudden vehemence, but Izuku ignored this, "I need you to promise me that you won't spread this around, alright?" in the process, he tapped the back of Shoji's seat with his elbow, prompting the other boy to clap two of his six hands over his ears.
Uraraka locked his gaze with her own and nodded wordlessly.
"He could tell that something was wrong. All Might, that is. I'm not sure how he knew, but he knew. So I…I told him. I told him everything. I know that it wasn't right of me to do that when you told me in confidence but…I was desperate. I wanted to help you and I didn't know how and before I could stop myself…" he trailed off.
"You look up to All Might." she responded, covering his hands with her free one, "You idolize him and you felt safe confiding in him. I'm not mad, Deku-kun. You did what you did because you wanted to help, right?" he nodded, "Though, I do have one question: was that what prompted you to ask me out for Saturday? Because you were trying to make me feel better?"
It took all of Izuku's self-restraint not to raise his voice in denial.
"N-no! No, nothing like that. In fact, it was actually Kacchan who suddenly asked you out on my behalf out of nowhere! I had no idea what was going on!" realizing that he might have just put his foot in his mouth, Izuku hurriedly added, "N-not that I'm not g-glad that you said 'y-yes!'"
Well, this had gotten off-track in a hurry.
"B-besides!" he hurriedly attempted to salvage the conversation, "You'll get to see Thirteen again! You like Thirteen."
"I do. I do like Thirteen." she rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh of resignation and looked up at him with a small smile, "I'm glad I said 'yes' too."
Then again, what had staying on-track ever done for anyone really?
"I just realized, I never actually thanked Shoji-kun for saving Thirteen. I should do that."
In front of the pair, unnoticed by anyone, Shoji smiled underneath his mask.
It was always nice to be appreciated.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
"Welcome back, Class 1-A!" Thirteen greeted them at the entrance, just like their first visit, "Unfortunately we were unable to conduct class as normal last time, so we will be playing catch-up today! Ordinarily we would have gone through each individual zone as a group, having done half of them last time and half of them this time. Instead, to make sure that we don't fall behind, we're breaking up into three groups and everyone will hit every zone today! Plus Ultra!"
The idea of getting through two days' worth of lessons in a single day was a daunting one, but Izuku couldn't argue with the necessity of it, or the solid planning behind it.
"Right! Now, a quick explanation before we divide you up." Thirteen continued, "Similarly to how we have Faux Villains, we here at U.A. also have Faux Civilians for the purpose of Rescue Training! You will each, in turn, attempt to rescue these Faux Civilians from the individual zones. We will cycle through them in an orderly fashion and then, once everyone has made an attempt at every zone, we will reconvene for a bit to discuss things and then we're all done for the day! Easy enough, right?"
The students indicated their understanding.
"Straight to it, then! Students one through six will be with me, students seven through twelve will be with Aizawa and students thirteen through eighteen, as well as student number twenty, will be with-"
"I AM HERE ON TIME TODAY!" All Might materialized in his muscle form from wherever he had been hiding, most likely to conserve his transformation time, Izuku thought.
"Good, good. Now that everyone is here, let's have my group start in the Flood Zone, Aizawa's group start in the Ruins Zone and All Might's Group start in the Mountain Zone. We will all proceed in a clockwise manner around the facility, okay? Meet up in the central plaza when you're all done. Rescue Training: Take Two!"
The teachers agreed to the plan of action and all walked off with their respective charges. Thirteen led Aoyama, Ashido, Asu- er, Tsuyu, Iida, Uraraka and Ojiro. Aizawa had Kaminari, Kirishima, Koda, Sato, Shoji and Jiro in tow and All Might was followed by Sero, Tokoyami, Todoroki, Hagakure, Kacchan, Izuku himself and Yaoyorozu, being the only group of seven.
"Wow, man," Sero commented half-jokingly as they made their way to the south side of USJ, "if we do end up getting attacked again, I gotta say this group is the one to be in. Between Bakugo, Midoriya and Todoroki, we've got the heaviest hitters in the whole class! And All Might-sensei, of course."
"It also means that if it's the same group, they'll come straight for us since their target was All Might-sensei in the first place." Tokoyami pointed out.
"More importantly, why didn't you include me in that list, Tape Man?!" Dark Shadow demanded.
"Now, now," All Might chastised, "none of that talk. Let's not start thinking of being invaded as a regular occurrence, alright? You let the staff worry about that. Be ready at all times, of course, but to not let yourselves become so paranoid that it detracts from your primary purpose here: learning. These are your high school days and in spite of whatever I'm sure Aizawa has told you, you should enjoy being in the prime of your youth while you can. Trust me, you'll all be tax-paying, productive members of society before you know it! HA HA HA~" his trademark laugh boomed across the landscape.
When they arrived at the Mountain Zone, All Might directed them to climb to the plateau at the top. Once there, he lined them up for instructions.
"Now, I think to keep things moving right along we shall proceed in seating order. This means that Sero will be first. You may all use your Quirks in whatever manner you see fit, but any damage to the Faux Civilian or needlessly reckless behavior will result in a point deduction. You have five minutes each to rescue the Faux Civilian. Begin!"
"Great," Sero chuckled as he donned his helmet, "I get to spend the whole lesson getting one-upped by everyone."
"Help me! Help me!" an artificial voice emanated from the nearby canyon and Sero immediately took off towards it, followed by everyone else who still kept enough distance to let him work.
"Hoo boy," Sero said as he surveyed the area, "looks like they're stuck down there pretty good. Nothing else for it then." he then raised his voice, "Don't worry! I'm coming down for you! Just stay still!"
"Help me! Help me!" Sero found a large boulder nearby, wrapped his tape around it a few times then, without breaking the strand, began to rappel his way down the side of the cliff to where the Faux Civilian, which looked like a crash test dummy, was waiting for him.
"Ah, All Might-sensei?" a thought had suddenly occurred to Izuku, "How much functionality do these Faux Civilians have? That is, if we ask if one is hurt or tell it to hang on, can they respond?"
"They can respond to specific prompts, yes." All Might nodded before stopping for a brief moment, "I probably should have mentioned that to young Sero. Excuse me."
As All Might hurriedly shouted this belated information down to Sero, Kacchan gave Izuku a smirk of approval.
Sero had no issue whatsoever retrieving the Faux Civilian, his Quirk having been tailor-made for just such a rescue. All Might returned the Faux Civilian to its original position and then it was Tokoyami's turn.
Things proceeded fairly smoothly. Tokoyami enlisted the aid of Dark Shadow to help him scale the cliff and when he was at the bottom, in the shade, Dark Shadow was able to reach far enough to safely deposit it on a few ledges as they made their way back up. Todoroki's approach was even more straightforward, consisting of him sliding down using his ice, and then ascending with the Faux Civilian in tow on a pillar of ice.
When Hagakure's turn came around, she took one look at the situation and then turned around. "Yaomomo-chan, could you make me some rope and stuff?"
"I would be happy to, but aren't we supposed to do this on our own this time around?" she looked to All Might for confirmation.
"Hmm…" he stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Well, requesting aid from other Heroes on the scene is a fundamental strategy in real situations, particularly in those where one's Quirk is ill-suited to the task at hand. I shall allow it for today and then we can ask Aizawa and Thirteen about it at the end of class. Those who can perform the rescues without aid will receive more points though, just to keep things fair."
So it was that Hagakure mirrored Sero's strategy, except she used the length of rope provided by Yaoyorozu to do so. She also had to ask for help in getting the Faux Civilian back up the cliff, not being as physically strong as Sero or Dark Shadow.
Kacchan, for his part, dove headfirst off the side of the cliff and used a stream of explosions to land himself safely next to the Faux Civilian in record time. After ordering it to hang on, he scaled the cliff by hand, using small explosions to create handholds or make the occasional leap.
For his turn, Izuku utilized his physical fitness as well as the strength boost from One For All to use the same strategy as Hagakure with the rope that she had left behind. The main difference was that he was able to do it more quickly and did not require any assistance coming back up.
"Did you really need the rope, Deku?" Kacchan asked him.
"Maybe not," Izuku responded, "but it sure made things easier. Why not use it if it's there, you know? Besides," here, Izuku grinned, "my chance to show off is coming up next."
Yaoyorozu used the tried-and-true rope strategy and that was that. They descended and made their way to the nearby Conflagration Zone.
"You all did quite well there, I must say." All Might was pleased with their performance thusfar, "There is, after all, no need to reinvent the wheel. If a method works, use it. The safety of the civilians is your number one concern."
Once they reached the Conflagration Zone the rest of the students, having not seen it before, suddenly understood what Izuku meant by his confident statement earlier.
"Damn, Deku," Kacchan whistled, "this place is like a fucking playground for you, huh? All the fire you could ever need."
"Guy sees a literal hellscape and thinks to himself, 'Ooh, fun.' I'm a little bit scared of him right now, I gotta admit."
"One man's darkness is another man's dream, after all." Tokoyami said sagely, "We should count ourselves lucky to have such a one among us."
"Help me! Help me!"
"This time your target is holed up somewhere in that burning building. It is set to relocate after every rescue, so keep an eye out for that." All Might advised before giving Sero the go sign.
"Hnn…I'd rather not be in there for any longer than I have to." Sero mused before shouting, "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, COME TO YOUR WINDOW! I CAN SAVE YOU!"
"A risky maneuver," All Might commented, "I believe that will result in a random check to see if the Faux Civilian is injured enough to comply."
Fortunately for Sero, the crash dummy stuck its head and arms out of a window about three-quarters of the way up the building and started waving.
"Help me! Help me!"
Sero immediately shot his tape at the building and reeled himself up to the Faux Civilian. It grabbed on to him and he hauled it out of the building just as a sudden burst of flame blew out the window and caused Sero to detach.
"SHIIIIIIIIIT!" Sero fired off more tape wildly, trying to reattach himself. He succeeded and was forced to turn in midair, taking the impact against the wall with his back so the Faux Civilian wouldn't have to. He was then able to let out more tape and lower them the last remaining ten feet or so to the ground.
"Jesus Christ!" Sero gasped, "That's one way to get the blood pumping, eh? I mean, I know that if push came to shove that Sensei would've caught me, but still."
"Rescue situations are rarely predictable, especially ones such as this." All Might advised as the Faux Civilian walked back into the burning building to relocate itself for the next attempt.
Tokoyami was next and he attempted to employ the same strategy as Sero had of asking the Faux Civilian to come to a window.
"I can't! I can't! Help me!"
"Well, that's a problem." Dark Shadow commented.
"What do you mean?" Izuku asked, fascinated as always by the idea of conversing with a Quirk.
"Well, as you know, I'm Dark Shadow. That place is neither dark, nor in shadow."
"He gets weaker when exposed to the light." Tokoyami clarified, "Darkness makes him stronger, but there is precious little he can do in bright sunlight or, say, the middle of a raging inferno. My costume helps with this somewhat by keeping my body in the shade, but it will do precious little in such a situation. Furthermore, we do not know the precise location of the Faux Civilian. As this leaves me little recourse save to ask someone else to do it for me, I propose that we move on to Todoroki-san's turn."
"A sound proposal. Your reasoning will be reflected in your score. Have at it, Todoroki!" All Might barked.
Todoroki proceeded to freeze the exterior of the building, leaving the windows exposed. He then systematically checked each one until the third floor up where he found the Faux Civilian, who was caught underneath a support beam. One ice slide later and he was home free.
For Hagakure's turn, she took one look at the building, walked over to Todoroki, and indicated him with her gloved hands forming a "ta-dah" gesture.
"Sorry, but there's no way I can do anything about this. I guess I could operate a fire hose or escort people away from the building, but it'd have to be someone like Todo who gets them out of there."
"Good job noting some other ways that you could help." All Might acknowledged, "As I said before, some Quirks aren't suited for certain situations. Heading into a burning building could be especially risky for you given your, ah, costume. Bakugo, my boy! Let's see what you make of this!"
Kacchan apparently already had a plan in mind. He immediately turned to Yaoyorozu.
"Gas mask."
"Could've said 'please.'" she muttered as she produced the requested article from her stomach. No sooner was it in his possession then Kacchan ran at the building.
"You'll get a 'thank you' if it works!"
Credit where credit is due, Izuku thought. Nobody had actually just run into the building yet. Not much could be seen or heard except for the occasional shout and explosion. Suddenly, about three minutes later, a massive explosion ripped through the side of the building, proceeding Kacchan's exit through the hole with the Faux Civilian on his back just before the building collapsed.
After he had landed safely, Yaoyorozu stormed over to him, a look of furious disbelief on her face.
"What on earth was that?!"
"It was coming down anyway."
"What?"
"It was on fire. Structurally unsound. It was *cough* coming down anyway."
"Did you inhale smoke? What did you do with the gas mask I gave you?"
At this, Kacchan gestured over his shoulder at the Faux Civilian, which was now wearing the gas mask.
"…Oh." Yaoyorozu suddenly deflated, "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."
"Thanks."
"I'm sorry?"
"Weren't you listening to me?" Kacchan cocked an eyebrow at Yaoyorozu, "I said you'd get a 'thank you' if the mask worked. It worked. I used it until I found this bozo."
"Well, the Faux Civilian appears to be unharmed." All Might observed, "I will have to dock points for the building, but, as you stated, it was structurally unsound and would likely have collapsed anyway…if it wasn't made entirely of concrete. Still, for any live scenario, that would have been true, so I will be lenient. As I said, the safety of the civilians comes first and your civilian is most assuredly safe."
The Faux Civilian made its way to a new building that was situated next to the ruins of the old one, and then it was Izuku's turn. He rolled his shoulders, fixed his respirator in place and kicked down the door.
The respirator may not have been a proper gas mask, but it still helped and Izuku was glad to have it. Additionally, his heat-resistant costume made it easier for him to move about and he did not have to worry about touching hot surfaces as much. This meant that he could conduct his search largely unimpeded, only pausing to devour particularly troublesome patches of fire. Once or twice he had to expel the excess flames through a nearby window so he could take in more, but it went about as smoothly as a trip through a burning building could be expected to.
He even found the Faux Civilian with just over a minute to spare and was preparing to escort it out when it suddenly made an unexpected exclamation:
"My baby! My baby!"
Ah, shit. That changed things.
Izuku booked it to the window and shouted at the group below.
"Todoroki-san, ice slide! There's a kid in here!"
"WHAT?!" Kacchan, Sero and Hagakure shouted from the ground below, clearly surprised. Todoroki, true to form, acted immediately and produced the requested ice formation. Izuku practically threw the reluctant Faux Civilian down it before he frantically resumed his search of the apartment.
There was no sign of any other crash test dummies in the living area, so he kicked open the nearest door, which turned out to be the bathroom. No dice. The next one led to a bedroom with a crib and a miniature dummy in it, stirring feebly.
Well, that wasn't good.
Izuku tore off his respirator and put it over the child's face as he scooped it up and ran back to the living room, leaping onto Todoroki's ice slide. Thankfully, someone was at the bottom to catch him, because Izuku would have acquired a nasty case of road rash otherwise.
"The child's weak! I think it might have inhaled smoke!"
"Give it here." Todoroki commanded, "Yaoyorozu, can you make an oxygen mask?"
She flipped through her encyclopedia with inhuman precision and after a quick scan of a particular page, produced a small canister of oxygen with an attached mask.
"Turn the flow on but keep it low. Hagakure, hold the mask over the child's face. Hopefully this wakes them up but if it doesn't then we'll have to start CPR. If that still doesn't work then hopefully an ambulance shows up soon. Midoriya, Sero, keep the parent back, we don't need them getting in the way."
He then looked up at All Might, who was watching them attempt to resuscitate a crash dummy.
"I hope you realize that I feel really, really dumb administering oxygen to a dummy."
"You look dumb too, if that helps." Kacchan supplied.
"Shockingly, it does not."
All Might started frantically flipping through a small notebook and muttering.
"No, no there's nothing in here about this at all. I'll have to ask Thirteen about this." he then glanced up to see his students looking at him expectantly, "Right! Well. Good response time! As I said, rescue situations are unpredictable! You must be able to adapt to the situation and you all have clearly done that! I am not a medical professional, but you certainly seem to have a handle on the emergency treatment!"
"Sensei, has something gone wrong?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Well…" All Might spoke hesitantly, "…sort of. To be perfectly honest with you all, I was never briefed on the possibility of children factoring in to this particular exercise. I think the dummy, er, the Faux Civilian might be malfunctioning. Let's try and get through Yaoyorozu's turn and then we can move on. We are still under a time-constraint, after all."
Yaoyorozu took the gas mask that she had originally produced for Kacchan and donned it herself. She also produced a fire extinguisher and a pair of thick, heat-proof, elbow-length gloves. She entered the building and emerged after only a couple of minutes with the Faux Civilian.
"They were only on the second floor." she explained, "I got off rather easy."
"Well, the unexpected aside, you all did well once again." All Might proclaimed as they made their way to the Flood Zone, "Those of you with ill-matched Quirks were quick to realize your situation and request aid. Practicality is an important part of being a Hero too."
When they got to the Flood Zone, All Might pointed to a ship a few hundred feet off-shore.
"Your next target is that. That ship is sinking and there is a Faux Civilian on-board. It won't actually sink, of course, but I think that adds to the tension, don't you? This time a small boat has been provided for your use." he indicated a small, three or four-person jon boat with a rear-mounted engine.
"Alright, let's get this baby moving!" Sero hopped in and started the engine with a couple of tugs. He made the mistake of going full-throttle right off the bat and causing the engine to stall, necessitating a restart. The second time he was more gradual about it and was able to reach the ship without further incident.
Sero used his tape to scale the side of the ship and rappelled his way back down with the Faux Civilian in tow. After figuring out how to turn the boat, he made it back to shore with time to spare, thoughtfully leaving it running for Tokoyami.
"There are multiple Faux Civilians on the ship, so there is no need to reset them." All Might revealed, "That would take too long."
Sure enough, another crash test dummy was standing on the deck, waving its arms.
Tokoyami was even quicker than Sero. He never even had to leave the boat, simply sending Dark Shadow up to retrieve the Faux Civilian and then turning around and returning to shore. When it was Todoroki's turn, he was about to touch the water before he turned to All Might.
"My plan is to freeze the water out to where the ship is. At that point it won't be sinking anymore and the Faux Civilian can escape at their leisure. Thawing it out might take some time though, so can we just call this good?"
All Might considered this for a moment.
"If it helps, Sensei," Hagakure said, "I don't think he's bluffing. He showed off some crazy power with his Quirk before. He even made a giant wall of ice!"
Izuku nodded. He remembered that. It was certainly impressive.
"Very well then." All Might nodded, "As your plan is a sound one and your classmates maintain that you are quite capable of such a feat, I will give you a pass in the interest of saving time. That means Hagakure is up."
"Whee~" the invisible girl shot off towards the ship and circled around it, seemingly looking for something. She vanished on the other side of it and then, a couple of minutes later, emerged with the Faux Civilian in her boat.
"What did you do?" Sero asked in disbelief.
"Hmm? Oh, I just had the civilian use the pilot ladder while I held it in place." when she received blank looks she continued, "The pilot ladder? The ladder that goes off the side of almost every ship? Kinda dangerous but still beats jumping off the side?"
Well, Izuku had learned something today. From their reactions, so had everyone except for Yaoyorozu.
Before Kacchan departed, All Might stopped him.
"Bakugo, my boy. I know that technically this ship is supposed to be sinking, but that excuse of 'it was coming down anyway' will not fly here, okay?"
"Fine, fine." *vroom*
In the absence of anything flashier, Kacchan apparently had decided to use Hagakure's ladder strategy, as did Izuku and Yaoyorozu after him.
Hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Next was the Downpour Zone which, while it looked like an innocent dome on the outside, was cold and wet and miserable on the inside.
Izuku had never had a problem with rain per-se, but when it was coming down sideways in sheets that stung his face amidst howling wind and prompted him to put his respirator on to try and get some relief, he found himself being not particularly fond of it.
Poor Hagakure though.
"I don't wanna be here anymore!"
Izuku felt for the poor girl, he really did. It was about that time that he noticed that the thick rain was impacting her form and trailing down it in rivulets. He could sort of make out the basic features of her face as well as…everything else.
"Yaoyorozu, would you please make her a poncho or something?"
Izuku snapped his mouth shut, having been beaten to the punch by Todoroki of all people. Yaoyorozu took one look, understood the situation immediately, and produced a hooded, yellow poncho.
"Yaomomo-chan, have I told you that I love you?"
"You're welcome, Hagakure-chan."
"Ah, right. Can you all hear me?" All Might's voice emanated from nearby speakers. He had taken his leave when they arrived to head to an observation room. Izuku took note that this likely served the dual purpose of allowing him some time to un-transform and recover, "I think I may have accessed the wrong speakers the first couple of times. In any case, I believe that I should be able to control the conditions inside the dome from here, but for the life of me…"
"OH SHIT!" Kacchan tackled Izuku moments before a bolt of lightning struck the ground where he had just been standing.
"Ah. No. Definitely not that one. Going to put a sticky note there. Now, let's see, what about…"
"Ow!"
"Sero-san, what's the ma- ouch!"
"What are you dumbasses do- OW, FUCK!"
It had started to hail.
"Oh, dear. Let me turn that off. Which one was it again?"
*KROOOM*
"ALL MIGHT!"
"No, that was the lightning again. These are really bad sticky notes."
"Fuck this, I'm outta here!"
"I second that!"
"Wait a minute, where's the door?"
"What do you mean 'where's the door?!'"
"I mean the door's gone, Kacchan! It was here and now it isn't!"
"Deku, I swear to god if you're fucking with me right now- OW!"
"Now, how on earth did that happen? Kids, try and find some cover until I can figure out this infernal contraption."
"No. NO! FUCK THIS! I'M GONNA BLOW A GODDAMN HOLE IN-" *KROOOM*
"Oh, god HE GOT BAKUGO! RETREAT!"
"I must say it's very relieving to know that this lightning machine is set to 'stun.' Perhaps if I adjust this dial here…"
"Todo, I don't wanna die!"
A solid half-hour later, the drenched and shivering seven stepped out of the hell-dome to behold All Might back in his muscle form scratching his head anxiously.
"…Would it help if I said you all got A's on this portion?"
They all stared at each other, made a wordless, unanimous agreement to ignore this and trudged off towards the Ruins Zone.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Prometheus
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Now, now, Eraserhead, I'm sure there's a valid explanation for this. Besides, it all worked out in the end, right? That is, except for the Downpour Zone."
"Thirteen, if he had possessed even the slightest amount of rationality, he would have realized that neither of us had someone like Yaoyorozu in our groups. He would have then questioned exactly how they were supposed to have rescued their Faux Civilians if they had zero access to any form of basic equipment."
Toshinori Yagi, currently in his muscle form, suddenly felt about thirty years younger. It was as though he were a young man again watching his master and Gran Torino debate the best way to punish him for his most recent blunder.
His group had made it through the Ruins Zone and Landslide Zone without incident, though they were certainly still miffed at him for his admittedly spectacular failure in the Downpour Zone. They had made their way to the central plaza as instructed and once the class was all together again, Toshinori had pulled Aizawa and Thirteen aside to pick their brains a little. He had explained the judgement calls he had made as well as the reasons for them and asked for feedback from his colleagues.
What he had not expected was for Aizawa's eye to start twitching and for Thirteen to be struck completely dumb.
"I beg your pardon," Toshinori piped up, desperate to gain some semblance of understanding as to just what he had apparently missed, "but do you mean to say that there wasequipment provided for the students?"
Aizawa, who looked like he was about ready to start foaming at the mouth, gestured for Thirteen to explain.
"You see, All Might," Thirteen began with the air of someone who was trying to break bad news as gently as possible, "each zone has a cache of equipment by the entrance that is designed to facilitate exactly the sorts of training exercises that we have been performing today. These are designed to blend in with the environment in order to add realism, but they are all very simple to find once you know about them."
Toshinori opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find a way to bring up the fact that he did not, in fact, know about these equipment caches without sounding like a complete moron. Aizawa took the matter out of his hands when he suddenly facepalmed, taking a moment to groan in pain before he started speaking.
"Thirteen, he wasn't at the briefing, remember?"
"Briefing?" Toshinori was getting more and more confused, "When was this?"
"Last Wednesday, before class." Thirteen supplied, "At that time every teacher was informed about various things within USJ, the supply caches included. We hold such meetings a few times a year when I move things around in here a bit to keep it fresh. You were not there because, ah…"
"Because you were busy doing other Heroes' jobs for them." Aizawa bluntly concluded.
And burning through my transformation time.
Aizawa had not made the statement outright, but Toshinori caught the unsaid reprimand just fine. He tactfully did not bring this topic up himself either, as he knew for a fact that two of his students had enhanced hearing and a third was invisible.
Wait…that meant that his students were probably listening to him getting chewed out.
Well, he supposed that he deserved it after the Downpour Zone and the unused equipment and the-
"Wait a moment!" Toshinori suddenly remembered, "What about the child in the Conflagration Zone?"
"Oh, that?" Thirteen had not seemed the slightest bit surprised when he brought it up earlier, so it had slipped Toshinori's mind momentarily, but it had never actually been explained, "The Faux Civilians are programmed to reset either in the most recently-used facility or the next-closest one. In the Conflagration Zone in particular, different buildings are assigned different difficulty levels. My guess would be that the building in question was level two or three. Usually I don't throw children into the mix until second-year or perhaps as a wild-card for first-year finals."
"It was fortunate that it was Midoriya who got hit with that." Aizawa reflected, "His costume and Quirk are tailor-made for the Conflagration Zone. It may all be supervised but we shouldn't forget that there's an element of real danger. You can't fake a burning building, after all."
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
"Wait, you guys went through each of those venues withoutusing the equipment?!" Jiro demanded incredulously from where she was eavesdropping on the teacher's conversation with the aid of her Quirk.
"W-well," Izuku was getting flustered from all of the attention his group was getting, "it's not like we didn't have any equipment. Yaoyorozu-san was kind enough to provide us with some essentials."
"Tell the whole story, Deku." Kacchan interjected, "We got bonus points if we went in without any extra equipment and I can tell you all right now, there's two people here that never used a single piece outside of their own shit."
"Bet we can all guess who one of them was eh, Bakubro?" Kirishima grinned.
"No, actually." Kacchan shrugged, "I used a gas mask for the Conflagration Zone. Didn't feel like inhaling all that smoke."
"Wow, that was gonna be my first guess too." Kaminari stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Ooh, ooh!" Hagakure's shoes were bouncing up and down while one of her gloves waved wildly in the air, "Can I say one of them? Can I?" without waiting for permission she presented Todoroki to the onlookers, "Ta-dah! It was Todo! He just used his ice to rescue every single one of his targets except for the one from the Downpour Zone but we'renotgonnatalkaboutthatbecauseitwasatotaldisaster."
"Well, no surprises there." Ashido commented.
"Indeed." Iida wiped his brow, having removed his helmet, "I would hazard a guess that the other was Yaoyorozu-san, then? It stands to reason that, as her Quirk allows her to produce nearly any equipment that she would require, that she would qualify."
"You're correct, Iida-san." Yaoyorozu smiled a bit sheepishly, "It really does feel like a technicality though; I was still using equipment, it was just of my own making."
"I mean," Uraraka said thoughtfully, "if you're gonna think about it that way, then isn't the Hero system just one big technicality?"
"Uraraka-san!" Iida burst out seemingly on reflex, "That is an incredibly dangerous way of thinking! Why, it almost makes you sound like a Vigilante!"
"That's what I'm talking about though!" Uraraka insisted, "Think about it: if a Hero saves someone and a Vigilante saves someone, then what's the difference?"
"Well," Izuku saw where she was going and decided to keep the ball rolling, "assuming they both used their Quirks to do so, then the actions of the Vigilante would have been illegal because they didn't have a Hero License."
"Right! See? Technicality." Uraraka shrugged, "At the end of the day, they both saved someone. They might even have stopped a Villain to do it, but one of them gets praised while the other gets arrested."
"By that logic, laws in general are nothing more than technicalities, Uraraka-san." Tokoyami stated, "We must be careful how we view things. After all, if the ends justify the means no matter the case then you must consider murder to be acceptable, no? What better way to ensure that a Villain never harms another soul?"
"Sometimes Heroes aren't given a choice." Kacchan pointed out.
"Yeah, but you know that's not what she was laying down." Jiro debated, "You're taking her beat and remixing it."
"There is one key point in all of this that you're failing to consider." Todoroki piped up, much to everyone's surprise, "Those who become licensed, Pro Heroes, in other words, have one more key difference between them and everyone else: they get paid for their services. They have the financial ability to treat Heroism as a full-time occupation."
"That's right!" Izuku seconded, "The first generation of Heroes were technically Vigilantes since there wasn't a legal system in place to regulate their activities yet. This also meant that there was no way for them go make money doing it unless they were being paid under the table by a private citizen or something. The concept of being a full-time Hero just wasn't feasible unless you were independently wealthy or had someone else covering your living expenses."
"Indeed." Iida continued, "The government wisely saw the value in the idea of institutionalized Heroism and so they hand-picked who they saw as the most desirable Vigilantes and offered them what essentially amounted to a government sponsorship. They were free to use their Quirks within certain limits in the service of their community. Namely, assisting in disaster relief, search and rescue, patrolling and, of course, fighting against Villains. Unfortunately for many, this also included their former-comrades in the form of those Vigilantes who had not been sponsored."
"Yeah, it sucked to be those guys." Kacchan pointed out, "There weren't any legal grey-areas to this: either you were government-sponsored or you weren't. If you weren't, then any Quirk usage was considered illegal, whether it was Heroic or not. Legally, you were just as much a Villain as, well, the Villains. The fucked-up thing about this was that it forced a lot of Vigilantes into becoming full-on Villains, especially the ones who were a bit more extreme in their treatment of justice as they saw it. There were more than a few who, just like Birdman said, saw murder as the ideal way to cleanse the world of Villainy. 'Burn away the corruption and let a clean new world rise from the ashes,' wasn't it?"
"Ah!" Izuku recognized the quote, "That line's credited to Prometheus, the first recorded holder of a Fire Quirk!"
"Prometheus, the one who brought fire down to mankind, huh…" Yaoyorozu said almost to herself, "A fitting name, since he also became credited as the first Supervillain."
"There's some debate as to whether he chose that name himself or if it was given to him by others later." Izuku explained, "It's generally accepted that he was originally a Vigilante, but turned to Villainy when his former comrades, now government-sponsored Heroes, were given orders to hunt him down and arrest him. His ideology was just too violent to mesh with modern society."
"There's one thing I don't get though." Kaminari raised his hand from his place in the semi-circle of students that had developed in front of the speakers providing this impromptu history lesson, "Yaomomo said that this guy was the first Supervillain, right? Well, why him? What's the difference between a Villain and a Supervillain anyway? They're all Villains at the end of the day, aren't they?"
"That's a stupid question, Prez." Kacchan scoffed, "By that logic you'd say that All Might is just another Hero, same as someone like, I dunno, Backdraft, Death Arms or Manual, right? No fucking way. He's in a class all his own compared to them. In other words, he's a Superhero. Get it?"
"So," Kirishima crossed his arms, looking intrigued, "you're saying that, way back when, this guy was in a league of his own among Villains. He must have been legit powerful then, yeah?"
"Powerful enough to make his way into the history books, Ribbit." Tsuyu pointed out, "Though, I don't think it was just about that. The fact that he's both the first recorded Fire Quirk holder as well as the first Supervillain seems like kind of a big coincidence, doesn't it?"
"It does indeed, Asui, my girl." All Might, Aizawa and Thirteen had joined the conversation, "In fact, Fire Quirks had quite a bit of stigma associated with them for a while, thanks in no small part to Prometheus. It only really died out with my generation, so it's not surprising that kids your age don't really know about it."
"You talk like you're an old man, All Might-sensei." Ashido giggled, "How old are you anyway?"
"Hmm? I shall be fifty in a couple months."
"He's…older than I thought." Hagakure stage-whispered.
Izuku privately agreed. He had thought that All Might was in his forties, but had not realized that the man was pushing fifty! It was kind of like how Kacchan was almost always the oldest student in their year even though he didn't look it. His birthday was in mid-April after all.
What day was it again? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…April eighteenth.
Wait, eighteenth?!
Oh, shit.
Kacchan's birthday was in two days and Izuku had completely forgotten. This was bad. This was very bad. He needed to come up with something! He usually started planning what he was going to do at least a week or two in advance so that he could cycle through ideas and work things out with his mom and Mitsuki. Two days…he couldn't plan something in two days!
Help. He needed help. Who could he ask?
Wait. Idea. That could work. Not now though. After class.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
You have created the group: Emergency! Panic Mode! Added 4 members.
All Might: Everyone! This is bad! I need your help!
Glasses: Midoriya-san! What has happened?!
Star: Deku-kun are you okay?!
Octopus: What can we do?
Potato: WHERE IS CRIME?!
All Might: Kacchan's birthday is on Saturday and I forgot and I have no idea what to do pleasehelpme!
Star: Oh no!
Potato: wait, is this that big a deal? i forget friends' birthdays all the time.
Star: This is different, Kirishima-san! They've been friends for, like, EVER. Total besties!
Octopus: When you put it that way, this does sound serious.
Glasses: I concur. What manner of aid do you require, Midoriya-san?
All Might: Well, I don't know what to do for him. Usually I take some time to figure out something fun to do and organize it with our moms, but there's no time for that this year! I need…ideas? Organizational help?
Potato: i want in.
All Might: What?
Potato: whatever u guys are doing. i wanna hang.
Star: That's a good idea! We should all do something for Bakugo-san together!
Glasses: A capital idea!
All Might: I don't want to impose on you guys…
Octopus: Midoriya-san, Bakugo-san is our friend too. Of course we would want to be involved.
Potato: yeah, right?
Potato: brb getting advice from the expert.
Glasses: An expert? On what?
Star: Birthdays?
All Might: Did Kirishima-san mention knowing someone like that?
Potato: kk so first thing we need is to figure out a budget and decide on some possible activities.
All Might: Well, Kacchan likes spicy food, so each year I always try to incorporate that somehow.
Star: I'm sure I can figure out an affordable restaurant that has some good spicy stuff!
Potato: can't go wrong with a movie. i'll check what's playing. expert suggests arcade. u can kill time there without spending too much if money becomes an issue.
Octopus: I can keep a spare eye on the local newsfeeds just in case there is any Hero activity. Catching a live incident would be both educational and entertaining while also being free.
Glasses: I confess to not being one who often goes out on the town, so I will simply provide what funding I am able to. Do you think about 20,000 yen would help?
Star: a;sdlkd;lkasdmvs;lk
Potato: holy shit dude
Glasses: What? Is it too little? I suppose I could ask for an advance on my allowance.
Star: NO
Star: Iida-san…that's just way too generous. You don't have to give that much.
All Might: Seriously! That's just…
Octopus: It is a significant amount considering the situation.
Glasses: Ah, I see. I did not mean to…flaunt. Nevertheless, as I am contributing precious little to the overall plan, I feel that it is only right that I at least contribute financially. I would sooner have money not be a concern for our plans.
All Might: If that's how you feel, then thank you, Iida-san. We will accept your contribution. In fact, why don't we put Uraraka-san in charge of budgeting? She knows the area and has a good idea of how much things cost, since she lives on her own.
Potato: for real? i didn't know that. i'm good with that. i can probably pitch in about 3,500 yen.
Octopus: A good idea. I can contribute 3,000.
All Might: I can do 3,000 too.
Star: If that's what you want, Deku-kun, then sure, I'll handle the budget! Though…I can't contribute that much. Maybe…1,500 yen? I'm sorry.
All Might: Don't worry about it, Uraraka-san. This isn't a contest.
Glasses: Indeed! Do not get yourself down over such a trivial matter.
Potato: ^
Octopus: I concur.
Star: Thanks guys. Well, if we add this up then we have a total of 31,000 yen, which breaks down to 5,000 yen and change for each of us and Bakugo-san. I don't think we'll have any issues buying movie tickets and lunch with that! We should even have a little bit left over for the arcade!
All Might: That's great! Tell you what, each of you figure out a good place for your suggestion and get back to me. I'll work up a schedule for us. That means Uraraka-san for lunch and Kirishima-san for the movie and the arcade. Shoji-san's thing will kind of be on-the-fly.
Potato: roger that boss-man.
Star: I'll let you know, Deku-kun!
Izuku slumped back on the couch, letting out a long sigh. It would be alright. He had a plan now. Not for the first time he considered just how thankful he was for his friends.
*vmmm vmmm*
Izuku picked up his phone, expecting another message in the group chat. He was surprised, therefore, to see All Might's number.
"Midoriya, my boy, if you are agreeable, I would like to hold your first extra training session at USJ tomorrow after class. I have secured all of the necessary permissions, so you don't need to worry about that."
If Izuku was being completely honest with himself, he had nearly forgotten about that. He hurriedly responded.
"Yes! I can do that!"
*vmmm vmmm*
"Very good. Make sure to bring your Hero Costume. I will text you with our meeting place tomorrow."
It was, Izuku decided, even more fortunate than he had realized that he had the assistance of his friends in planning Kacchan's birthday.
He was probably going to be extremely tired after the following day, after all.
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
Izuku sat in the teacher's lounge, alone and waiting. All Might had informed him that he was wrapping up with a short faculty meeting and would meet him there afterwards.
Excusing himself from his customary trip home with Kacchan and the others had been tricky. In the end, he had managed to convince Kacchan that he was undergoing remedial Quirk training to help him handle the backlash better, which was not altogether untrue. Predictably, he had been asked if his friends could offer their services in some way. He didn't have a good reason to give them and simply said that this was something he felt that he had to do on his own. Kacchan had given him a bit of the evil eye as he left and Uraraka appeared unconvinced, but it was Shoji of all people who had convinced them to leave it alone after extracting a promise from Izuku that he would come to them if he needed anything.
Izuku was honestly getting tired of the half-truths. He knew it was necessary in order to protect All Might's secret and the secret of One For All, but it was a necessity that he cursed nonetheless.
The door opened and All Might entered in his muscle form.
"My apologies for the wait, my boy. The principal may be a genius but he can be rather long-winded at times."
"Oh, no, sir." Izuku shook his head, "From the beginning, you're doing this for my benefit so the least I can do is make sure it doesn't get in the way of anything."
All Might ruffled Izuku's hair as he guided him out the door.
"It wouldn't kill you to be a little bit selfish every now and then, you know?"
"Speak for yourself. Are you sure you're alright to be walking around in your muscle form?"
"I still have some time left today. Besides, I will revert once we board the bus."
Sure enough, All Might did just that before sitting down across the isle from Izuku.
"So, what do you intend to focus on first, my boy?"
Izuku took a moment to consider.
"Well, I think I should spend some time working on controlling my exact output when I've got a full tank. It's really easy to accidentally use too much, especially in the heat of the moment. Plus, I need to get better at gauging exactly how much I have in reserve. Repeatedly expending all of my fuel and then refilling should help with that naturally. I also can't neglect Flame Magnet, so I should practice more on manipulating large amounts of fire at once with it. If I can get to the point where I can simultaneously use Flame Magnet and One For All, then that should increase my repertoire as well."
"In short, you want to start with the basics and improve your overall foundation first. A wise policy."
Izuku grinned.
"Well, I can't take all the credit. This is the same type of thing that you had me doing before, remember? Building myself up so I can use my Quirk without worrying."
All Might let out a bark of laughter that was followed shortly thereafter by a spray of blood.
"Hah…as you say, my boy."
T – o – r – c – h – b – e – a – r – e – r
Izuku stood in front of the now-familiar inferno that comprised the Conflagration Zone. He had done a few warm-up exercises and now he was ready to try something that he had been working on since before he had started at U.A.
Focus the attraction point into the tips of your fingers, but don't cement it there. Keep things loose. Any lapse in concentration and this won't work.
Izuku extended his right hand towards the burning building in front of him and activated Flame Magnet with a middling amount of force. Too little would be pointless, while too much might be too difficult. As desired, a torrent of flames rushed towards him, coalescing into a shapeless blob as he adjusted the strength of the "magnet." By the time the fire was nearly upon him, Izuku had nearly halved the initial force. By virtue of the amount of fire he had summoned, it was still moving at a decent clip.
Time to start phase two.
Izuku brought his arm around in a large, looping motion, turning his body roughly forty-five degrees as he did so. The fire followed his arm's trajectory, circling his body at arm's length. So far, so good, but now was the tricky part.
Keep cool. All you're doing is the same thing, but on the other side and all at once.
With a bit of extra "oomph" of course.
Izuku brought his left hand back to touch the fingertips of his right. In that moment, he cancelled the attraction point on his right hand and activated an identical attraction point on his left.
"Smash!"
He then pushed Flame Magnet up to full power for the instant that it took him to make a violent forehand swipe with his left. At the furthest point of his motion, Izuku cancelled Flame Magnet completely, causing the suddenly-condensed glob of flames to shoot forward and violently dissipate in a reaction that resembled nothing so much as a minor explosion.
The theory behind the technique was simple, even if the technique itself was incredibly difficult to do properly. Izuku would attract fire towards him, condense it using a surge of Flame Magnet at a precise attraction point, accelerate it using One For All, shut off Flame Magnet and let physics do the rest. With nothing holding it together anymore, the fire would expand outwards while maintaining its velocity.
Voila. Poor-man's Explosion. Kacchan would either be impressed or pissed.
The best part was that the technique didn't consume any fuel. In fact, if he timed it right, Izuku could probably let the explosion happen and then devour the resulting fireball. Two birds with one stone.
Hell, in theory he could keep recycling the same fire over and over again as long as he managed to ignite something new each time he used it.
Baby steps.
"I daresay you've just created a new move, my boy." All Might said appreciatively, "Have you thought of a name for it?"
"Well, I could just name it 'Explosion' to annoy Kacchan."
"You could. I would advise against it though."
"I can't very well make it a Smash, since I deliberately keep my usage of One For All to a minimum while using it."
"Try a different angle then, my boy. In what context do you see this move most often being used?"
Izuku thought about that.
Well, it'd be most effective if I've already got fire headed towards me, so it could be a counter to other Fire Quirks? Flame Counter, maybe? No, that's not right. It's not exclusively for that, after all. I'm taking fire and redirecting it back towards its source, so…
"How about 'Reflect Fire?'"
"Hmm…" All Might mused, "'Reflect' for the initial windup and then a quick, sharp 'Fire' for the finish? Yes. Yes, that could work."
"What are you talking about, All Might?"
"My boy, do you know the purpose of naming one's Super Moves?"
"The point…well, it's because it sounds cool and inspires confidence, right? It's for marketing and appeal."
"To an extent, yes, but there is also a far more utilitarian use for it as well." All Might held up a finger, "My boy, are you familiar with the use of mnemonic devices?"
"Those are used to help people remember things, right? Like 'Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally' for the order of operations."
"Correct. Due to the fact that many Super Moves involve a complex series of steps that often need to be carried out instantaneously, learning to associate the name of one's Super Move with those motions can make it easier to carry them out. Often the associated actions align with the name of the move when spoken aloud. For instance, you may have noticed that all of my Smashes have two-word names. Detroit Smash, Oklahoma Smash, etc. This is because they all have two steps to them: wind-up and release."
All Might cocked his fist back "Texas…" and then punched forward with it "Smash! You see, my boy?"
Izuku was beginning to understand.
"I see! So you mean that if I time my movements with the name of the move, then I can eventually learn to do it without thinking!"
"It will be difficult at first." All Might cautioned, "Your first instinct will be to focus entirely on the move and maintain your silence, but you must not do this! You must form the correct habit from the start. Having to break it down and re-learn it later will be far more challenging than just doing it all at the same time from the get-go."
"I understand." Izuku nodded, mouth set in a determined frown. "I'll do my best to learn good habits!"
"Very good, my boy. Well, I can still spare another fifty minutes or so. Why don't you spend the rest of today's session getting that move drilled into your head? I'll give you a minute for the first ten attempts, then fifty seconds, then forty, then thirty and so on. Eventually I want to see you being able to fire Reflect Fire off seamlessly. Left, right, hook, Reflect Fire. Something like that. That's when a move becomes usable in a real fight, you understand? We're going to be switching hands with each attempt too. This should also help to improve your overall control over Flame Magnet."
And there was that All Mightian training from hell that Izuku had missed so much. He wasn't about to complain though; it had worked wonders for him so far, after all.
"Reflect Fire!"
Izuku wasn't complaining.
He was, however, extremely thirsty and feeling a little crispy around the edges as, while he had suffered no burns during his training, it had gotten very, very hot.
All Might had been pleased with the day's progress. While fifty minutes had not been enough time for Izuku to be able to use Reflect Fire without thinking, he had managed to reduce the necessary "casting" time to three seconds. The mnemonic device had indeed worked wonders.
Now, he just needed to get a drink, take a shower and go over his plans for tomorrow one final time.
No rest for the weary it seemed. Oh well, he would get used to it. Besides, this was a special occasion.
It wasn't every day one's best friend turned sixteen, after all.