Well, hello again. Yes, I know, it's been a while. I'll keep the apologies brief, and all I'll offer for an explanation is that life shit, plus working on my Marvel/Devil May Cry fic got in the way of this one.
Before we get into this chapter, I just want to take a bit to address some of what was said in the reviews about Chapter 10 (on all three sites that this fic is being published on), or at least everything I can talk about without getting into spoilers for later on in the fic:
1) Gwen's characterisation during the USJ: One's mileage may vary on how Gwen was handled here, but my personal interpretation of her being how she is in UAF (generally a bit more serious and level-headed than her more famous cousin), plus the modifier of the general situation she and Ben are in in this fic (namely in an entirely foreign universe from which they really want to get home) would result in her being a bit quicker to action when in an intense situation. And if someone's threatening a new friend of hers with DEATH? She's gonna take appropriate action.
2) Midoriya's involvement (or lackthereof) during the USJ: I'd already decided when writing Chapter 8 that anything that happens during that arc that's close enough to how it went in canon (namely, Midoriya, Tsu and Mineta's battle with the villains in the Flood Zone and everything surrounding Iida escaping to go get help) wasn't going to be covered in the fic, and that Midoriya wouldn't be much use during the battle with the Nomu after Gwen shot Shigaraki, because he'd just get crushed within a few seconds flat.
Those two pieces of info just didn't click together in my mind to make me realise that Deku's overall page-time in the USJ was going to add up to essentially... nothing. I'm perfectly willing to hold my hands up and accept that I messed up a bit there, and only hope that what he gets up to in the Sports Festival makes up for it.
3) Chapter 10 being pretty close to 'Cast Reacts To' fics: Yeah, I can see why some people would think that. Let it be known that I don't like those kinds of fics either... but for what I'm planning to go down involving U.A.'s staff later down the line to make sense and have the intended impact, I had to steer pretty close to that line. All I can hope for is that you don't think I crossed it, and I can't think of any moments in the future where I can imagine anything close to Chapter 10 happening again.
Alright, I think that's everything I needed to get through, so without further ado, here's the chapter-ly transformation counter, as of the end of Chapter 10:
Jetray: 3
Four Arms: 2
Humungousaur, Spider-Monkey, Diamondhead, Upgrade, Swampfire, Grey Matter, Big Chill, Ball Weevil, XLR8: 1
Anyway, I've waffled on long enough. Once you're done with this chapter, hope you have it in you to tell me your thoughts, or if you want to chat with me (about the fic, Ben 10 or MHA in general, or something else entirely), drop me a PM or look me up on Discord (name for it is on my profile). Any of those methods works out just fine for me, and I hope to chat with you soon!
Now, once again, IT'S CHAPTER TIME!
----- -----
"-Sports Festival is approaching!"
Precisely two seconds of silence passed in the Class 1-B homeroom after those words left Vlad King's throat. Up until then, the room had been quietly excited about what- if anything- he was going to say about the USJ incident that their Class 1-A counterparts had been involved in the day before.
Even if they hadn't been officially mentioned as being the ones attacked by the so-called League of Villains, rumours had spread faster than wildfire… before many of them were clarified by Kirishima to Tetsutetsu, apparently over text.
Ben, for his part, had only been half-listening during Vlad's addressing of yesterday's incident: he wasn't hearing anything that he hadn't heard from Gwen the night before. In fact, he'd heard more from Gwen than Vlad had been initially willing to share with them: such as her trading blows with villains back-to-back with Eraser Head (Ben was still wondering what his cousin might have done in a past life to end up with him as a teacher, given the threat he posed to their current situation), her blasting one of the LoV leader's hands half-off of his body and throwing down with something called a Nomu.
Most of which their homeroom teacher had been forced to address with his own mouth, when people like Kamakiri or Tsuburaba had called out in regards to them.
And even though he'd been somewhat tuned out throughout Vlad's whole spiel about what had happened yesterday, that hadn't stopped him from clocking a few of his classmates- Tokage chief among them- chancing glances in his direction whenever Gwen was brought up.
So when the words 'Sports Festival' left Vlad's mouth, Ben had around three seconds to mentally shift back into gear, just in time for the rest of the classroom to, for all intents and purposes, explode.
"NO WAY!"
"Seriously?!"
"Dude, my whole family's gonna be watching!"
Tetsutetsu practically launched himself out of his chair.
"YESSS!" he bellowed, his entire body transforming as he slammed both fists together hard enough to send sparks flying all over the place. "FINALLY! I've wanted to compete in this thing for FOREVER!"
Shiozaki clasped her hands together, her reaction far quieter than most of the others in the class but still no less obviously excited.
"The Sports Festival…" she murmured. "A wonderful opportunity to display the blessings God has bestowed upon us!"
Komori, from her seat right in front of Shiozaki, was bouncing excitedly.
"Ooh, ooh! Maybe I'll get to cover everyone in mushrooms on live TV!"
"I'm… not sure how that would accomplish anything." Kuroiro muttered, from the other side of the room from where Ben was sat.
Ben himself could only blink a couple of times at how much everyone had reacted. He'd only heard the words 'Sports Festival' a couple of times before arriving at U.A.- Gwen had probably mentioned them during their research-sessions about the school leading up the entrance exams, and he'd gotten the idea that it was important.
But judging from everyone's reactions, it seemed like 'important' was an understatement.
Vlad clapped his hands together once, a few seconds after everyone had reacted to his initial words, returning the classroom to silence just as quickly as it had exploded into near-deafening volume.
"I'm glad to see you're all so enthusiastic." He said. "Because you're going to need that enthusiasm… I also know what some of you are probably thinking. You've all seen the news: the attack on Class 1-A, on our own grounds."
Nobody spoke. A few students shifted slightly awkwardly in their seats as he continued.
"Some of you are probably assuming that an event drawing tens of thousands of spectators, millions of viewers and worldwide media attention would be postponed. Truth be told, I had my doubts about the event going ahead, myself."
"I kinda figured it'd be cancelled altogether." Kaibara piped up, from his seat near the door.
"So did I." Kodai spoke, her voice a couple of decibels above a whisper, from the front.
"Not unreasonable assumptions." Vlad admitted. "The administration certainly considered it… but we came to a different conclusion: that cancelling the Sports Festival would send the wrong message."
Ben mentally shrugged. Made sense, he thought.
Vlad rested both hands on the podium at the front of the class.
"If we cancelled it, then every villain in Japan would see fear, would see the top hero school in the world backing down, a society shaken by one single attack: the Principal's words, not mine." Vlad continued, before a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "So instead, we're doing the opposite, going right ahead with the Sports Festival. However, that doesn't mean that changes won't be made: security will be significantly tighter than in previous years, for one thing. Don't be surprised to see Pros from outside our own faculty being brought in to assist from across Musutafu."
That caused another explosion of reactions from the students sat before the Blood Hero.
"Seriously?!"
"That's… actually insane."
"Imagine getting spotted by Endeavour… he can't NOT be there, his son's in the other class!"
"I'd settle for Mount Lady, dude!"
"You would, Tsubu." Ben heard Tokage muttering dryly from behind and to the right of him. Some scattered chuckles broke out across the classroom, among the other reactive chatter.
Chatter that Vlad allowed to continue for several seconds before bringing his hands together again and drawing the class' attention back to him before he spoke again.
"And that's… exactly the point." he spoke, leaning forward on the podium again. "More Pro Heroes present means more agencies, and more opportunities for you to get scouted by one should you impress. Hell, opportunities for some of you to receive potentially thousands- yes, THOUSANDS, I've seen it happen even with first-years- of internship offers from all across Japan."
He looked around the room, being sure to make eye contact with as many students as possible.
"But to have a chance of hitting that level of success, you'll need to perform, and perform well." He jabbed a thumb against his own chest, a proud smile briefly forming on his face. "I doubt I'd have the career I've had, had I not grabbed a Sports Festival win back in my days as a student."
His eyes swept across the classroom.
"So if any of you want to make it big, you'll train, study, improve in whatever ways you know you're capable of. And when the day comes, in a couple of weeks…"
The smile on his face shifted into a more competitive grin.
"You'll show the country exactly what Class 1-B can do!"
For several seconds, nobody spoke. Then Tetsutetsu shot both fists into the air, his whole body turning to metal again as he roared-
"LET'S GOOOOOO!"
And that got everyone going again. The classroom erupted, just as it done when the metallic young man had bellowed out in excitement earlier, with everyone immediately beginning to speculate about what possible events could be put on during their segment of the Sports Festival, strategies for what events could pop up, potential tactics to use against both each other and their counterparts in Class 1-A, and which Pro Heroes from across the city they'd love to get scouted by.
Ben was, pretty much, the only one in the class that didn't partake in the sudden speculation, simply leaning back slightly in his chair while a grin spread across his own face.
A tournament? That would be watched by some of the biggest and best heroes this world's Japan had to offer? Along with the doubtless hundreds of thousands (at least) that would be watching live?
"This should be fun." He muttered to himself, his fingers absently brushing against the Omnitrix beneath his sleeve. Sounded a lot more his speed than sitting around in class, that was for sure.
"I'm glad you're all excited!" Vlad called out over the cacophony of sound that had erupted from his students, raising a hand in a call for calm that was- eventually- obeyed as he continued. "Because you'll need every bit of that enthusiasm over the next two weeks! What with you starting at a disadvantage, and all."
By the time he'd finished that sentence, quiet had returned to the classroom.
"What do you mean by 'disadvantage'?" Rin asked, from the corner of the room behind Ben.
Vlad let out a breath.
"Look." He replied. "I'm happy that everyone in Class 1-A all came out of yesterday's unfortunate events unharmed. I think we can all agree on that, at least."
Ben noticed a couple of his classmates nodding.
"But the facts are the facts." Vlad continued. "They all possess something now that you, as of now, don't: experience."
If his homeroom teacher's tone, as well as the collective silence of his classmates, wasn't so serious, Ben would've sniggered at that. Hell, he was feeling the temptation to right now… oh, if only they all knew…
"They've faced real villains, and had more of a chance to hone the instincts that make a good Pro Hero than you have, as of now." Vlad explained. "Instincts that I can guarantee will serve them well on the big day. That's the one advantage, and it's admittedly quite a big one, that they have over you. It's not fair, I know, but that's the hand we've been dealt as a class."
Taking a breath, he looked through the classroom door, out of the window that could be somewhat seen through that door, before refocusing his attention on his students.
"It's not something that the audiences will care about, when the day comes. Not the Pros watching, and definitely not whatever events end up getting thrown at you in a couple of weeks. All that will matter is the performances you deliver the day. Which is why the afternoon Heroics curriculum, until the Festival, has been suspended, so you'll have all the time you need to prepare however you see fit, and close the gap that 1-A opened up!"
A chorus of "Yes, sir!" met Vlad's ears as he took another breath.
"Though three of you in particular are already closer to them than others, and will have higher expectations on you than the rest."
His gaze shifted towards the front row.
"Honenuki: you entered through recommendations, I expect you to perform like it!"
The beige-haired boy immediately straightened.
"I will. Quarter-finals of the fighting tournament, that's the bare minimum for me!"
"Good." Vlad replied, nodding as his gaze shifted slightly further back. "And Tokage: the same. I expect you'll also be disappointed if you don't make the final eight?"
The green-haired girl, who'd been balancing one of her detached pinky-fingers on top of her middle finger until that exact second, casually reattached it before meeting her teacher's eyes. Her usual playful grin softened into something slightly more determined.
"I was thinking one step further." She replied. "Only four of us in both classes got in on rec, so it'd be stupid to be gunning for anything less than the final four, right?"
Vlad gave a small nod.
"Quite. And…" He replied, before his gaze shifted, again, towards- "Tennyson."
Ben shifted slightly, in his seat.
"You might not have the recommendation label hanging over your head," Vlad spoke, "but you DO have something arguably just as notable: the fact that you didn't just score the highest out of anyone during the practical exam, but you broke the record of points scored."
"More like he smashed it!" Kamakiri called out, from the other side of the room as he- along with several other students, turned in Ben's direction. "What the hell have you been eating for you to score double the points I did?!"
Ben shrugged.
"Chilli Fries?"
Half the room broke out in chuckles, with Tokage in particular letting out a brief, full laugh. Ben couldn't help but feel slightly warm when he heard that meeting his ears.
"And not to mention," Vlad continued, his voice rising slightly over the response to Ben's remark. "your cousin performed… particularly admirably, during the USJ incident yesterday. So, whether you like it or not…"
The Blood Hero fixed Ben with a level stare.
"…whatever doubtlessly-high expectations people have of Gwen are going to rub off on you to a degree, too. How are you planning on handling that?"
Ben's answer had been ready from the second Honenuki and Tokage had made their declarations about how far they planned on going. And it took him approximately half a second to make that answer known to everyone.
"By winning."
Twenty pairs of eyes had locked onto him, their owners all silent, all varying degrees of shocked at how matter-of-fact he'd sounded when saying that.
Then after a few seconds, Tokage burst out laughing.
"That has got to be the most… you, answer you could've possibly given!" she cried, between wheezes.
Tetsutetsu barked out a laugh of his own.
"You really just said that like you're talking about tomorrow's weather, dude!"
"I mean, he asked." Ben replied, gesturing to Vlad with one hand as he resettled in his seat. "You really expect me, record-breaking me, to try and convince you all to keep your expectations low? Come on!"
He lightly slammed the other hand onto his desk as he finished his answer, though that sound wasn't heard very well as the entire room dissolved into laughter. Tokage threw back her head and let out an even louder laugh than she'd let out just seconds ago, and on the other side of the room, he noticed Shoda and Kodai cracking smiles of their own, and Kendo having to cover her mouth to hide her own giggles.
It took a long moment for the laughter to eventually die down, before Vlad could speak again.
"Your confidence borders on reckless, Tennyson."
Ben scratched the back of his head, letting out a breath.
"I've heard that before."
"Repeatedly, I'd imagine." Vlad retorted. Ben grinned and shrugged, not denying that one.
Vlad, himself, let out a slow breath through his nose.
"I suppose that isn't the worst attitude to have, though." He admitted. "Going into a competition believing you can win. You had all better be doing that too… to a degree." He called out, to the rest of the class at large. "You'll be halfway TO winning if you believe you can."
His gaze shifted back to Ben.
"Just make sure you can back that confidence up, Tennyson."
Ben's grin widened.
"I plan to."
For a second, Vlad simply looked at him, before giving the faintest shake of his head.
"I suppose we'll see, in a couple of weeks." He replied, before he reached for the stack of papers on the podium, while glancing at his phone. "And that's all. Cementoss should be here in a few minutes for your first period. Have a good day, everyone."
Without another word, he strode towards the classroom door, opening it and disappearing through it before closing it behind him.
----- -----
"We're probably gonna get enough homework as is, Gwen, and you wanted to voluntarily go out for more? Actually wait, for you that makes a lot of sense."
Gwen rolled her eyes as she glanced down into her bag, checking that the boxes she'd picked up at the library were still there, before looking back at Ben as the pair of them made their way up the steps of their apartment building to their flat.
"At least this homework will genuinely come in useful in the near future, Ben." She replied, as her cousin followed her up a couple of steps behind her. "Besides, it's sports. Should be right up your alley."
Ben snorted, adjusting his own bag on his shoulder.
"Who knows what sports are even like in this world, anyway?" he remarked, checking the time on his phone as he and Gwen drew closer to the door of their building. "For all we know they could be entirely different to what we think sports are like, given the whole… Quirks, thing."
Gwen shrugged as she reached the door first, unlocked it and stepped inside with her cousin. Ben immediately kicked off his shoes, stretched until he heard several vertebrae popping in his back, and wandered towards the TV while Gwen set her bag down on the table, and pulled the boxes out of her bag: DVDs of highlights of previous U.A. Sports Festivals.
The first thing she'd said to Ben as the pair of them met up at lunch, after they and their classes had been briefed on the Sports Festival's approach, had been a verbalisation of the first thought that had popped into her head when the announcement had left Eraser Head's lips… or at least, the first thought that she could hear herself having, over the din of everyone else's excitement.
There had to be some records of previous Sports Festivals, if they were as big an event as everyone had been making them out to be.
One stop at the library on their way home later, as soon as lunch had finished, and Ben and Gwen were now in (temporary) possession of enough highlight reels that the pair of them would- at least in theory- end up with a good idea of what to expect in a couple of weeks time.
From his spot in front of the TV and DVD player underneath, Ben reached out behind him with an outstretched hand, which Gwen tossed one of the DVD boxes towards. Ben caught it without even looking, opened the box and slipped the disc into the player before grabbing the remote and moving himself over to the couch. Gwen joined him a second later, offering him a glass of water that he accepted.
The television flickered to life, and Ben immediately had to turn the volume on the TV way down as an orchestral fanfare blasted through the TV's speakers, loud enough to momentarily rattle his and Gwen's ears. The music was accompanied by aerial footage of a stadium, that looked like it had sold out every seat in the house.
Ben blinked.
"Damn. Wasn't expecting that level of production value."
"I was." Gwen replied, immediately after taking a small gulp of her water. "I mean, multiple simulated cities and forests, giant robots, what's essentially a theme park…"
"Seriously, where the HELL does U.A. get the budget for all that stuff?" Ben mused to himself, leaning back on the couch.
"Government grants, probably." Gwen replied. "And donations from graduates that went on to become Pros."
"Of which from U.A. there are… loads." Ben trailed off, as a commentator enthusiastically introduced the competitors: that year's third-year Hero course, General Studies course, Support course and Business course. That made an amount of sense to him, at least. "Still, I don't think even you expected this to have as much excitement behind it as the freaking World Cup."
"…No." Gwen replied, giggling a little bit to herself as she leaned back on the couch herself. "I mean, kinda." She corrected herself after a few seconds. "When you're the place that produced All Might, Endeavour, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot…" she briefly counted off her fingers with her free hands "there's gonna be eyes on the kids that you've currently got under your wing. One of them could be the next… one of them."
Ben snorted, as the camera focused in on a small guy with almost comically-large hands waving to the crowd with both of them, trying to make himself as seen as possible.
"Bet you we'd get up there." He remarked. "If we ended up sticking around, that is."
Gwen didn't reply, instead focusing her attention on the TV as it began to play the first event. And for the first half-minute or so, neither Tennyson had much of a clue what they were looking at.
"So…" Ben, who had quickly refocused himself. "is this meant to be dodgeball? Or The Floor is Lava?"
A blue-haired girl flung her hand out to create a bridge, made of ice, between two floating platforms, and rushed across it as half a dozen brightly-coloured foam balls were flung at her. All of them either missed or met frozen shields she flung up with her hands as she almost reached the floating platform, but just as she was about to reach it, the platform disappeared from under her feet, and she went skidding off of the end of her own bridge.
Ben sniggered at the sight.
"Should've learned how to fly, lady." He remarked, in the direction of the screen as the girl dropped into what looked like a giant inflatable pit, to join about a hundred other students that had already been knocked down.
"…I think it's both." Gwen replied, leaning forward slightly. "Got to stay on your toes to dodge what everyone else is throwing at you, and be on the move so you don't end up on a platform that disappears from right under you."
Ben looked from the TV screen down to the Omnitrix, back to the screen, then over at Gwen.
"That actually looks pretty fun." He admitted, after a second. "I'd probably do fine in that with one of my fliers. Or XLR8."
Gwen snorted, like Ben had done earlier while they were making their way home.
"Look who's getting invested in his homework." She remarked, in a slightly teasing tone. Ben glanced over at her, his mouth opening in indignation, before he closed it again, shaking his head.
"Shut up."
The floor is lava/dodgeball hybrid event continued for several more minutes, as more and more students were knocked out until about sixty remained, and things proceeded onto the second event. Once that was underway-
"Hang on."
The camera panned over the field, with the remaining sixty combatants gathering into teams that ranged from four to ten. In each team, one member-
"Why's that one guy wearing a crown?"
Gwen's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I think…"
The match began, and every team immediately surrounded their crowned teammate while charging directly at the others.
"Ohh…" Gwen nodded, after a second. "I get it."
"It's tag." Ben remarked. "With VIPs. And superpowers."
Almost immediately upon the game beginning, the game had descended into near-total chaos, with walls erupting from the ground, people growing giant arms, one competitor duplicating himself at least six times.
"Everyone else protecting one designated teammate…" Gwen mused.
"While trying to capture everyone else's." Ben remarked, grinning at the insane sights playing out on the screen in front of him. "Clever."
The second event passed by much quicker than the first, with enough teams ending up with crowns to make up thirty-two remaining students, whom it was announced would be placed into a tournament bracket of one-on-one battles, of which the final winner of would be crowned the Champion of that year.
Gwen grabbed the remote from Ben's side of the couch, and used it to eject the DVD from the player.
"I think we've been in enough fights for our lives to know what a tournament bracket full of them would look like." She remarked, throwing out a mana-rope with one hand to grab another box from where she'd left her bag, and bringing it around to her hand.
Ben shrugged, before draining the rest of his glass of water with a couple of gulps.
"Yeah, you're right."
Within a couple of minutes, Gwen had the second highlights-DVD up and running, and Ben (with a freshly-refilled glass of water) was fast-forwarding through the opening reveal of all the competing students of the year it was covering to the start of the first event… which was significantly simpler than either of the events that the previous DVD had shown.
Two-hundred and forty students packed into one huge underground arena, with it being every man or woman for themselves.
"…Tag." Ben immediately identified. "Just tag."
"With superpowers." Gwen remarked, as she watched a dozen or so competitors using their Quirks to quickly fly around rooftops, chasing and attempting to tag each other while avoiding being tagged themselves.
"And that makes everything better." Ben remarked, grinning as the picture switched to one guy practically dancing through multiple students as they dived at him, laughing all the while… until the floor he was standing on appeared to reshape upwards into a person that looked like they were made out of liquid metal, at which point he was promptly tagged by said person. "Like, damn!"
Gwen grinned.
"Yeah, this does look pretty fun." She remarked, going to refill her own water around the time that the event finished, and moved onto the second one, featuring the 100 survivors of the Quirk-enhanced tag game. They were in one of the makeshift cities on U.A.'s campus, like the one Gwen had been in during her and Class 1-A's battle trial with All Might, and half of the competitors were shown attempting to escape from the centre of the city while the other half hunted them down.
After ten minutes, the hunters became the hunted and vice versa.
After another ten, the roles switched back.
"Cops and robbers?" Gwen guessed.
"…I think so?" Ben replied. "Tests both capturing and escaping."
He stretched a little bit on the couch.
"Cleaner and more organised than the version I used to play, though." He remarked. "Like, who's meant to be the brutally violent cop that enforces the will of the cartel he's taking bribes from? And where's the wanted terrorist that escaped from- like- Alcatraz, or whatever?"
Gwen stared back at her cousin in momentarily-stunned silence.
"…What the hell kind of cops and robbers were you playing as a kid?"
Ben shrugged.
"The kind that comes from being way too young to watch Law and Order?"
Gwen sighed.
"Why am I not surprised…?" she murmured under her breath, as the second event wrapped up when 48 cops, robbers and/or terrorists remained, and it was explained that after a break, the remaining 48 fighters would be placed into a tournament bracket of one-on-one battles (complete with playoff bouts to whittle the number down from 48 to 32), of which the final winner of would be crowned the Champion of that year.
Ben grabbed the remote and ejected the DVD from the player, getting up to switch discs again.
"Next." He remarked, while he was on the floor changing discs. "Don't need to see that."
The opening event of the third highlights-DVD began with a giant overhead shot of…
"A maze." Ben surmised, simply. "Guessing these guys have just got to reach the centre of it before everyone else."
The commentator of the event confirmed exactly that. With the caveat that the maze itself was constantly shifting as the students shown on screen used their Quirks to make their way through. Walls moved, dead-ends appeared and reappeared, sometimes the occasional hole in the ground would just open up and swallow students whole… before they were transported back to the start of the maze at a major disadvantage compared to everyone else.
Gwen could only let out a giggle at the whole thing.
"Who could even design something like this?"
"I'm guessing that chimera thing that's our school principal." Ben replied. "He seems quirky enough to come up with something like this."
Gwen nodded, as the second event- with about fifty students remaining- began with all of them being transported to…
"An obstacle race." Gwen remarked. "That's… oh, this one's cool."
It didn't take long for the two to both surmise that this was a bit more than just a race. Each obstacle placed before the hopefuls required teamwork, in one form or another. One teammate out of one of the pairs (which had all been randomly selected before the event began) carried the other through a pit full of sticky stuff, another pair combined their Quirks to cross a collapsing bridge… and another duo failed almost immediately because they couldn't agree on who should progress first.
"God, stick us five years ago into this as a pair and we'd have been hopeless!" Ben snorted, looking over at Gwen. She rolled her eyes at the remark, but the smile on her face told Ben what she really thought of that remark. On the screen, another pair of hopeful students' failure to work together descending into bickering between the pair of them seemed to underline his point.
The event finished not that much later, as eight pairs made their way across the finish line of the obstacle course, making a clean sixteen students for the final fighting tournament, which Gwen switched off before it could cut to that.
"I think we get the point, by now." she spoke, into the silent room. "Two events to whittle 240 students down to… some number."
"Yeah." Ben replied. "First one tends to be an every-man-for-himself kind of deal."
"With the second one being a bit more team-based." Gwen continued. "And then after that, every time, a fighting tournament to crown the champion."
"Mmhmm." Ben hummed, nodding. "Looks easy enough."
Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"Does it?"
"I mean… yeah." Ben replied, setting his glass down on the side and absently tossing the TV remote from one hand to the other. "For us, at least. Get through whatever games they decide to throw at us in the first two rounds, and we're laughing all the way to the final. Or at least one of us is."
"I guess so." Gwen nodded, taking a breath. "Probably me more than you, though."
It was Ben's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"And that's supposed to mean…?"
Gwen didn't answer verbally. By way of answer, all she did was point down at Ben's left wrist.
Ben followed her arm, and let out a breath when he realised what she was pointing at.
"…Ah."
"The Omnitrix." Gwen said.
Ben sighed.
"The Omnitrix." He repeated.
"Last time I checked," Gwen remarked. "You can only turn into your aliens for a limited amount of time."
"Yeah." Ben replied. "How MUCH time in question feels like it just depends on the day, sometimes. No limit with the Master Control, though."
"Which you haven't unlocked." Gwen replied. "And you have no idea of how TO unlock it. Hell, the one time you did, it was by total accident. And then I had to head into the Null Void for the first time, to save you from Vilgax… and Kevin."
Ben groaned, sliding down the couch slightly as he rubbed at his left wrist.
"Don't remind me."
"And then it locked itself again after you put it back on."
"Sure did." Ben nodded, slowly getting to his feet. "And one reboot later, I doubt I'll be able to unlock it by accident again. And Azmuth sure as hell isn't likely to tell me, not after he helped me get it off. Little guy probably got a kick out of making this thing hard to understand, at the best of times."
"The point is," Gwen continued. "Those first two events, whatever they throw at us, could last a while and wear you down. In a couple of weeks, we could very well end up going through events that end up draining the watch's battery and leave you all-but defenceless come the tournament, depending on how much of a break you get to recharge it. Your biggest problem is gonna be spreading that charge throughout the entire day… which isn't something I have to worry about nearly as much."
Ben let out a breath, nodding.
"Yup."
"And besides," Gwen added. "It's not like- objectively- I mean, this whole thing really matters to us. I mean, we're not even from this universe- we're stranded here. What's how we do in a couple of weeks going to matter, when this is all over and we're back home, anyway?"
Ben opened his mouth to protest, but before he could get any words out, Gwen pressed on.
"This whole deal- the school, the life, the trying to become Pro Heroes in this world- is temporary. We both know it is, so we shouldn't really care all that much about where we place: whether it's first, tenth, or getting knocked out in whatever event they throw at us first is."
Ben closed his mouth, sinking back down onto the couch and running a hand through his hair, sighing.
"I know." He replied, his face falling slightly. "It does look like a lot of fun, though. Might as well see it to the end, or at least see how far we can go, while we're here."
Gwen let out a breath of her own, before a faint smile crossed her face.
"On that, I think we can agree."
Ben looked over, raising an eyebrow for a second before letting out a chuckle.
"Knew it."
Gwen let out a breath.
"And THAT'S supposed to mean…?"
"You're excited for this too, aren't you?" Ben replied, a grin reforming and spreading over his face.
Gwen looked like she was about to protest, before pausing, and eventually just sighing as the smile across her face began to spread itself.
"Maybe a little." She replied. "To be fair, it's kinda hard not to get caught up in it all when the rest of my class are as ridiculously excited as they are. It's contagious."
Ben nodded.
"I can believe that. Mine were losing their minds over it, too."
"Somehow I doubt anyone in your class was as intense over it as Uraraka was in mine." Gwen remarked. The mention of the name caused Ben to screw his face up slightly in concentration, before he seemed to remember.
"Ohh, the gravity girl. The reporters."
"That's the one." Gwen nodded. "Seriously, it was like she became an entirely different person, that's how intense she got over it."
Ben whistled, before stretching.
"Damn. Maybe she should get that checked out."
He got back to his feet, continuing to stretch.
"Wish I had an alien with gravity-powers. That'd be useful." He remarked to the room at large, as he stretched. "Anyway, I think we need some stuff for dinner tonight."
"Checked this morning: yes, we do." Gwen replied, getting to her feet. "I call our room to change in."
Ben, who had opened his mouth as soon as Gwen had gotten to her feet, closed it again and snorted.
"Fine, fine." He replied, heading for the sliding-doors that led to their bedroom. "Just let me get my stuff, first."
Gwen smirked at the back of her cousin's head as he retreated into their room, and emerged a few seconds later with a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and his precious green jacket.
"Out, grab what we need, dinner, then back to…?" Ben trailed off, pointing at the TV with his free hand.
"Sounds good to me." Gwen replied, as she headed for their room and shut the doors behind her.
----- -----
"-remember to simplify your fractions before submitting your work, everyone."
Cementoss paused, looking over Class 1-A through his block-like facial features, before closing the book that he'd placed on the podium earlier.
"I'll expect the worksheet I handed out to be completed before tomorrow's lesson."
A collective groan answered him from the majority of the room. As if Class 1-A hadn't been dedicating pretty much all of their free time since the announcement from Aizawa that the Sports Festival was going ahead to preparing for it- be it Quirk drills, combat exercises, studying strategy- most of them weren't excited at the prospect of having to deal with homework on top of all of that.
Cementoss merely inclined his heads at the sound that had answered him.
"I'll take that as confirmation that you've all understood. Have a good lunch and rest of your day, everyone."
With that, the stone-bodied Hero picked up his notebook and made his way out of the classroom. The second the doors slid shut behind him, twenty chairs scraped backwards almost simultaneously, and a few conversations began at once
"Oh, thank God…"
"My brain hurts…
"Are we sure maths wasn't invented by villains?"
"I… don't know, actually."
"I knew this place was gonna be a step up from junior high, but…"
Gwen packed her notebook away, stretching as she left her seat and slung her bag over her shoulder. She couldn't help but smile to herself, somewhat strangely comforted by everyone here reacting to a maths lesson in exactly the same way as people back home had done.
In a weird way, it reminded her of home.
She had made to follow the trail of students leaving the classroom to head down to the cafeteria, before she heard some practically bouncing up beside her.
"Heyyyyy, Gwen!"
The orange-haired Tennyson looked up, just in time to see Ashido skidding to a stop beside her. Even when the events at the USJ had shaken her (and the rest of the class, as much as some tried to hide it… with one obvious exception), in the couple of days since she had very much returned to her old self.
"Hey, Mina."
A second later, Uraraka joined them, moving past both Iida's desk (at which Iida was still sat, meticulously returning all of his books and stationary to his bag) and the empty desk where Tsuyu usually sat, adjusting the strap of her school bag as she did.
"Hey, Gwen."
"Hey."
The three girls fell into step with each other as they filed out of the door, and began making the usual trek downstairs. As they began descending the stairs along with the rest of the student body, Ashido and Uraraka looked across Gwen at each other, before the former glanced over at Gwen.
"So…" the pink-skinned girl drew out the word dramatically. "You got any plans after school?"
Gwen looked over at her, blinking.
"Other than training?"
"Actually," Ashido's eyes flicked back to Uraraka for a second before she looked over at Gwen. "It was kinda about that. A few of us, uh…"
Uraraka picked up where Ashido had left off.
"I heard from Mr. Aizawa a few days ago that Thirteen would be getting out of hospital tomorrow, so a few of us were thinking we could go visit her?"
Gwen's expression softened, almost immediately.
"Oh, yeah." She replied. "I heard she needed to go after she got hurt."
"After protecting us, yeah." Uraraka remarked, rubbing the back of her neck. "I just figured it'd be nice, you know?"
Gwen nodded.
"Who's going?" she asked.
"Well, Ashido and I are." Uraraka replied, screwing her face up in concentration slightly. "And, uhh, Iida, Sero, Sato…"
"Shoji," Ashido added, after Uraraka trailed off. "And… Asui. Maybe. I texted her asking if she wanted to come this morning, but she hasn't got back to me yet."
Almost involuntarily, Gwen glanced back in the direction of the classroom as she reached the bottom of the stairs, recalling how ever since class had resumed after the USJ incident, the seat that had normally been Asui's had been left vacant.
"Alright." Gwen replied, adjusting the bag strap on her shoulder. "I'll come."
Ashido pumped a fist, right there in the hallway.
"Awesome!"
"I'll be honest, I almost figured you weren't going to." Uraraka admitted, resisting the urge to giggle at her pink-skinned classmate's enthusiasm. "Almost thought you'd be busy training, with your cousin."
Gwen let out a small giggle, as Ashido practically bounced alongside her all the way to the cafeteria and into the lunch-line.
"Well, you thought wrong." She replied, nodding to Lunch Rush as she paid for a salmon sushi bowl. "I'll come find you after lunch."
"See you later!" Uraraka called, waving to Gwen as she stepped away from the line and quickly scanned over the cafeteria, looking for a certain someone…
Who she found a couple of seconds later, sitting alone at a table and chomping down on a bowl of something she couldn't quite make out. She made her way over, sliding into a seat beside him, and discovering that it was a bowl of chicken katsu curry that her cousin was making his way through.
"That hungry, huh?" she asked by way of greeting, glancing into the mostly-empty bowl whose contents Ben was devouring.
"Present Mic." Ben quickly replied, between mouthfuls. Nodding, Gwen opened her bowl and began chowing down on her own meal.
"You'll have to keep watching more previous Sports Festivals without me, this afternoon." She remarked, after a couple of forkfuls of food.
Ben paused, in the middle of his final mouthful.
"Oh?"
Gwen nodded.
"Yeah, a few people from my class are going to visit one of our teachers. She got pretty badly hurt during the whole USJ… thing, and has been in hospital ever since."
Ben had opened his mouth as soon as Gwen had mentioned the 'going to visit one of our teachers' bit, but closed it in lieu of making any snarky remark once she'd given her explanation.
"Alright." He replied, shrugging. "So, you'll be home later, then?"
"Yeah." Gwen replied. "Not sure exactly when, but it'll definitely be tonight. Just sort yourself out for dinner, I'll be fine doing myself."
"Mmhmm." Ben hummed, filling his mouth with his final forkful of food. "Finally." he added, after swallowing. "I can see if this world's Burger Shack is worth anything."
Gwen blinked.
"How could you even- oh, you zipped around Musutafu as XLR8 while looking for me, of course you'd spot that."
She shook her head and returned to her own meal, while Ben merely grinned.
Lunch passed quickly, without much further conversation between the cousins. Barely had Gwen finished her salmon sushi bowl and looked up the route to any hospitals in Musutafu that she figured she might be heading to with her classmates later did the bell ring, signifying the end of lunch and the beginning of a flurry of activity from all Hero Course students, who headed off in every conceivable direction.
Some, like Honenuki, made for the outdoors athletics fields while many others headed for the various training grounds and gyms scattered around the campus grounds. Bakugo in particular made a beeline for Gym Alpha, explosions popping from his palms with every step he took. And not far behind him, Kirishima followed at a jog, calling for the angry blond to wait up.
'Like that's gonna happen.' Gwen thought to herself, her eyes briefly following Yaoyorozu as she made for the library, a piece of paper with a list of books on it sliding out of the palm of her hand as she walked.
As she hoisted her bag onto her shoulder, she noticed Ben walking out of the building, briefly bidding farewell to Tokage and Kimori before turning and walking down the road, evidently making his way back towards their home.
Their home in this world, at least.
Letting out a breath, Gwen made her way slowly to the huge doors at the front of the building, which Uraraka, Ashido, Sero, Sato and Shoji were all stood slightly off to the side of. As soon as she looked up and clapped eyes on Gwen, Ashido waved her over with both hands.
"Hospital visit!" she cried, throwing both arms in the air.
Sero let out a chuckle.
"You don't have to make everything sound that exciting, Ashido!"
"I try!" Ashido loudly replied, practically vibrating as Gwen approached them. "I mean, it's hard not to be excited when the class queen's coming with us!"
Gwen let out a small giggle as she stopped beside Sato, who nodded respectfully to her.
"Appreciate it, but you don't have to call me that every time, Ashido." She replied, glancing up as she spied Iida approaching out from the corner of her eye, phone in one hand and adjusting his glasses with the other.
"Good afternoon, everyone." He greeted, extending the hand that had been adjusting his glasses out of the door. "Our train departs in seventeen-" seemingly noticing the clock on his phone ticking over another minute mid-sentence, he cleared his throat "-sixteen, minutes. So, if everyone is prepared?"
"We were all prepared before you were, man!" Sato pointed out, turning around and making his way out the doors first out of the gathered group. "Let's go, already!"
The seven students left U.A.'s front gates together, the chatter that surrounded the school at seemingly all hours gradually fading behind the tight-knit group as they made their way through Musutafu's streets. The afternoon sun was still pleasantly warm overhead, and the streets were (relatively clear), with civilians, the occasional students and office workers milling about the pavements. Every now and then, either on the roads or overhead, one of the city's countless Pro Heroes streaked past or above.
Of their group, Ashido was in the lead, chatting animatedly with Uraraka about what they could talk about with Thirteen while they were there. Sero was throwing in the occasional joke that earned eye-rolls from Shoji and chuckles from Sato. Iida was closer to the back, keeping a steady pace and… unusually quiet compared to his normal in-school self. He didn't even call out for Uraraka to keep her voice down when she laughed particularly loudly at one of Ashido's remarks about something she'd seen on TV the night before.
As the septet of students approached a pedestrian crossing, waiting for it to change, Iida eventually, quietly, spoke.
"Tennyson?"
Gwen glanced over.
"You can call me Gwen, Iida, you've got to know that by now."
"…Gwen." Iida corrected himself, inclining his head. "Apologies. There was… something I wished to discuss with you. Concerning a few days ago."
Gwen nodded, as the lights changed and the group began heading across the road.
"Go ahead."
Iida's expression remained serious as the seven students crossed to the other side, and continued their journey towards the station, which was now within sight. Iida and Gwen slowed slightly, so they could have their conversation only between themselves: not that they really needed to, given that Ashido had gotten the other four (not counting her) involved and invested in her last night's TV-recap.
"I've been thinking about that day," Iida spoke, glancing up at the group of five in front of him and Gwen as he spoke "rather extensively."
"I'd be surprised if you didn't." Gwen replied, brushing something off her shoulder as they moved closer and closer to the station. "I think a lot of people have."
Iida adjusted his glasses, taking a breath as if to prepare himself for what he was about to say.
"As Class Representative… I feel like I failed."
Gwen's brow furrowed.
"How'd you arrive at that?"
"As our representative," Iida continued. "I'm supposed to be the one leading us, but instead of that, all I did was run."
Gwen opened her mouth, but before she could even say anything, Iida raised a hand.
"I know what you're going to say, Gwen." He spoke. "I know why I left: Thirteen ordered me to. And it was the correct decision, given that it resulted in the professional heroes arriving when they did. It just… wasn't what I imagined myself doing in my first crisis, when I think of what Tensei- my older brother- does on a near-daily basis."
His shoulders tensed slightly as he took another breath.
"While I ran for help, I can't help but feel that others within our class made decisions in the USJ that were… far more becoming of a Class Representative than mine."
Even though he sounded like he was referring to multiple people, Gwen had a feeling she knew the one person the bespectacled boy beside her was-
"In particular, yourself."
There it was.
"We've all heard about what you did:" Iida continued. "You saved Koda from villains in the Mountain Zone, you assisted Mr. Aizawa in facing off against more villains in the central plaza, you stopped the League of Villains' leader from… from killing Asui, and you stood- alone, briefly- against the creature they brought to kill All Might. Meanwhile, all I did was run to get assistance from other heroes."
Class 1-A's Rep and Vice-Rep walked in silence for several more steps, before Iida came to a stop. Gwen stopped a step or two later, once she realised that Iida wasn't walking anymore, and turned back to face him.
Iida let out another slow breath.
"I cannot help but feel, with all this in mind, that you are far more deserving of the position of Class Representative than I am, Gwen."
Just as the five students in front of them were about to enter the station, Shoji seemed to notice that Gwen and Iida weren't as close to their backs as they had been throughout the entire walk down from U.A. to the station, and turned around. The others seemed to notice within a few seconds as well, and stopped before entering.
"You guys coming?" Uraraka called out, towards the pair of them.
"Yeah!" Gwen called back, waving to the five of them. "Head inside, we'll catch up!"
"Everything okay?" Sato asked, looking between the pair of them, a look of slight concern crossing his face.
Gwen and Iida both nodded, prompting Ashido to shrug.
"Allriiiiiight…" she drew the word out, before turning on her heel and heading straight through the station's entrance, with Uraraka, Sato, Sero and Shoji following.
Once they were all inside, and they were (relatively) alone on the street, Gwen looked back towards Iida.
"I think you're wrong."
Iida blinked.
"Pardon?"
"You heard me." Gwen replied. "I think you're wrong."
"What about?"
"How you said what you said, you're wrong." Gwen repeated. "Because even if that was 'all you did'… so?"
She folded her arms, as Iida blinked again, visibly caught off-guard.
"I'm not sure I understand."
"What was it you said you did again, ran to get help?" When Iida nodded, she continued. "Right. I'll get right to the point and ask: who around you could have done what you did?"
Iida opened his mouth, paused for a second, closed it, and then opened it again.
"Well… anyone, technically." He replied. "Everyone in our class has the capacity to run, so-"
"Okay, okay." Gwen cut across him, before the glasses-clad boy could go off on a tangent. "That wasn't quite the right question, okay: who around you could have done what you did, as well as you did?"
Iida opened his mouth again, paused for slightly longer than he had before answering the first time, closed it, opened it again, but remained silent this time.
"You were the best person for that job, of going to get help from outside." Gwen continued. "I gathered that from you being the best dasher and fastest runner during our Quirk trials earlier this week. And you did said job pretty great, considering I was only fighting against the Nomu for… what, a minute, tops? And I had help for most of that: Todoroki, Kirishima and Bakugo stepped in pretty quickly after I stepped up."
Iida seemed to consider Gwen's words for a second.
"Hagakure… did not mention that you had help." He remarked, his voice slightly softer.
"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me." Gwen replied, suppressing a snort. "Look, my point is that out of everyone that could've ran to get help, you going ended up being the best for everyone. I'd be proud of that, rather than wondering what I could have done had I stayed, if I were in your shoes. Whether or not anyone's role in the fight I temporarily left was… flashier."
She couldn't resist grinning slightly at her own remark. After a second, Iida nodded.
"I… think I understand." He said. "Even so, though, I think what I said about our roles as Class Representative and Vice-Representative… it's about more than just what we respectively did at the USJ. I'll admit, you've definitely rallied… most of the class around you better than I've been able to, in just a few short days. Partly thanks to the USJ, partly thanks to the few classes we had before then."
He let out a breath.
"Would it be wrong to say that had the vote for Class Representative been held again, say, tomorrow, you would win in a landslide?"
Gwen sighed.
"Probably not." She replied. "But I don't think Aizawa would be too happy if we tried to propose that to him now, not so soon after the first vote and with the Sports Festival on the way. He'd probably call something like that illogical, or whatever."
Iida nodded.
"So, I think we're officially stuck in our roles as Class Rep and Vice-Rep…" Gwen continued, before shrugging. "But, unofficially…"
She met eyes with Iida again, a small smile crossing her mouth.
"Maybe we could share those roles? I do some stuff, you do other stuff, whatever fits both of us best?"
Iida seemed to consider this for a moment, before slowly nodding.
"That… is not a bad idea." He replied. "Us appearing as a united front before our class, rather than is seeming like I'm the sole one in command with you as my sidekick, would certainly help when it comes to involving the rest of the class in our duties."
He held out a hand to Gwen.
"I can agree to that, Gwen."
Gwen reached out and shook it. And just as they pulled back-
"Oi!"
The pair of them looked up, and saw Sero sticking his head out from just the station.
"You two done founding a government back there?!"
"We're gonna miss the train!" Ashido cried. "Come on, you guys!"
Gwen and Iida shared an amused glance between each other, before quickly moving to join their classmates. As they did so, Gwen noticed Iida's posture a bit less tense than it had been before their conversation.
Only just a bit, but still.
It didn't take long for the seven students to navigate Musutafu Station, not with several of them already using it to get to school in the first place, and others being smart enough to figure things out for themselves, or help the slightly less (relatively) intelligent of the group through the system the right way. So by the time the train that Iida had mentioned back at school arrived, Uraraka, Ashido and the others were more than ready for it.
Being just after the middle of the day when they all climbed aboard, well after the morning rush and well before the evening one, there were more than enough seats for everyone. Near the end of one carriage, Uraraka and Iida sat together, while Sato took the seat opposite them.
While at the other end, Gwen slid into a window seat, with Shoji beside her, and Ashido and Sero occupying the seats opposite just as the train pulled away from the station. For about half a minute, there was semi-comfortable silence between the four, before Ashido stopped pretending to be looking at all the buildings and people passing her by outside the window and looked over at Gwen.
"So, uh, Gwen?"
Gwen let out a breath.
"How long were you holding that back?"
Ashido gasped dramatically.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"More or less than since Gwen walked in at the start of class this morning?" Sero deadpanned in response.
"Before." Ashido replied, before immediately clasping both hands to her mouth, evidently having revealed that information by accident, before looking back at Gwen again. "Since, uh… I heard about what happened at the USJ, from Kirishima."
"Somehow I doubt Hagakure would've had your restraint." Shoji remarked, from behind his mask.
Ashido blinked, before letting out a sarcastic laugh and taking another breath. She leaned forward, a slightly more serious expression forming over her face.
"I've been wondering- I think most of us have been wondering," she spoke. "How do you… do, everything you did a few days ago?"
Gwen blinked, as Ashido began gesturing animatedly with her hands.
"Rescuing Koda, fighting in the middle of everything with Mr. Aizawa, and blasting… that creepy hand guy's hand off…" she trailed off slightly as her pink face paled slightly, before perking right back up again "and then fighting that giant monster when the guy sicced it on you! Like… what were you even thinking throughout all of that? Because I don't think any of us could do what you did!"
Sero visibly shivered, in his seat.
"Yeah, what she said." He remarked. "It was honestly awesome, hearing all about what you did, but also… kinda terrifying? I mean, you're the same age as us, you do all that, and you're fine?"
Slightly uncomfortable looks were shared between Sero, Shoji and Ashido, before Gwen let out a small sigh.
"I AM fine, for the record." She replied. "You- you don't need to worry about me. I'm okay."
"You do look okay." Shoji remarked. "It's just, when Hagakure told us all what happened, it was… hard to imagine. I would've had a pretty hard time believing her had a lot of the class not confirmed what she'd said as true."
Ashido leaned closer to Gwen.
"Soooo…?"
Gwen leaned back in her seat, glancing outside the window for a few seconds before back at Ashido's expectant face, as well as Sero and Shoji looking interested.
"Well… to be honest, I don't think I was thinking very much, during a lot of that afternoon."
Ashido stared.
"…What."
Gwen shrugged.
"After most of us got separated, Koda needed help. I knew how to help, and I did it. While I was escorting him to safety, I saw that Aizawa needed a hand against those villains he was fighting. I knew I was capable of helping him, so I did it. And Tsu needed saving from Shigaraki- that was the hand guy's name. I knew how to do it, I knew I was capable of doing it. So, I did it."
There was a brief silence, before Ashido shook her head.
"Come on, Gwen, there HAS to be more than that!"
Gwen let out a sigh.
"Maybe once upon a time, there might have been." She replied. "But I guess Ben and I learned that if you're standing around wondering whether you should help someone that needs it, you're probably wasting time."
A slightly melancholy smile crossed her face, for a second.
"Got Grandpa to thank for that."
The three students were completely silent, once again, for a few seconds, before Sero spoke up.
"Was he, like, a hero that trained you, or something?" he asked. "He sounds pretty cool."
Gwen sucked in a breath, running a hand through her hair. She turned back towards the window, blinking a couple of times.
"Yeah." She replied, her voice slightly softer. "Yeah, he was pretty cool."
Ashido had initially opened her mouth, most likely to declare her intention to train with Gwen sometime. But something about either what Gwen or said, or how she'd said it, prompted her to close her mouth and not say anything. The conversation quickly shifted between her, Sero and Shoji though, to slightly lighter topics, such as ideas for methods of training their Quirks, favourite Pros and increasingly ridiculous theories about what sorts of games the Sports Festival was going to throw at them in a couple of weeks' time.
Gwen enjoyed the ride, just quietly sitting with her classmates and watching Musutafu roll by, with the occasional unusual-looking building or eye-catching billboard advertising some product or other and the Pro Hero endorsing them outside the window being more than enough entertainment for her, and an occasional glance at the screen inside their train car displaying upcoming stops sufficing when neither of the former sights showed themselves.
The conversation between her close classmates paused, though, when the train rolled to a stop at another station, and the four of them clocked the latest automated announcement chiming overhead.
"The next stop will be: Korushant General Hospital."
Sero jostled a bit, in his seat.
"Finally. My butt's going numb."
"That's probably more the fault of the seats at school than anything else." Ashido quipped, stretching her arms above her head. "But yeah, I'm happy to be almost off."
The doors opened with their customary chime. Some people got up off their seats and filed off onto the platform. Some people from the platform filed onto the train and found seats for themselves, or remained standing. But just before the doors could slide shut and the train could get going again, Uraraka- from her seat at the other end of the car- spotted someone making her way into their car, and visibly lit up at the sight of her, enthusiastically waving her over.
Ashido, a second or so later, once she'd clocked Uraraka waving and followed her gaze to see who she was exactly waving at, looked like she was resisting the urge to jump to her feet and slide across the car to greet the girl that had sat down with Uraraka, Iida and Sato.
"That who I think it was?" Gwen asked, looking over at Ashido.
"Yeah!" Ashido replied, practically bouncing in her seat again. "Tsu just showed up."
Gwen nodded, a smile crossing her face briefly.
"Good." She replied. "That's good."
"Hope she's doing alright." Shoji remarked, quietly. "I mean, what she went through at the USJ had to have hit her pretty hard, if she hasn't been in since then."
Ashido nodded, a look of concern crossing her face.
"Guess we'll find out when we're off." She replied.
The trip from the platform that Asui had stepped on was a short one. Only a few minutes after the train had begun moving did it again stop, at another platform that the automated voice announced was-
"Korushant General Hospital."
Before the train had even stopped, Ashido was on her feet. By the time it HAD stopped, she was partway down the aisle of their train-car, clearly intent on greeting Asui herself: Sero was also shifting across his seat, quickly getting to his feet and making his way over. Shoji and Gwen waited until he was past them to rise themselves, and make their way off the car onto the platform, before heading over to meet the others as they stepped down onto the platform from the other end of the car.
By the time they'd made their way over, though, Gwen immediately noticed that things weren't a hundred percent okay. Uraraka and Ashido looked varying degrees of upset, Sato, Sero and Iida were looking concerned, while Asui- almost invisible in the middle of all of them- looked a mixture of sheepish and sad.
"What's up?" Gwen asked, briefly breaking out into a jog as she made her own way over.
"Tsu just told us that-!" Ashido began loudly, before catching herself and coming to a stop once a few of her fellow students fixed her with looks. "Sorry."
Asui- who had blinked once she noticed Gwen's presence on the platform with everyone else- swallowed before speaking up again.
"My parents…" she began, looking down briefly. "are considering pulling me out. Of U.A. They haven't decided," she added, slightly more firmly, before anyone could speak up again, "but… I think they might go through with it, kero."
No-one spoke for a few seconds, as the train pulled away behind them.
"…Because of the USJ." Iida eventually spoke, rubbing at his chin with one hand. "I suppose that's understandable. They were expecting you to have three years of education, not be unexpectedly thrown into a life-or-death situation in three days."
"Yeah." Sato replied, frowning. "I think the only reason my parents didn't have a collective heart attack over it all was because I got home before news of it broke out. Was able to get ahead of it and tell them I wasn't in any danger."
"Well, relative to, uh…" Shoji began to reply, before trailing off slightly as his eyes slid over to Gwen, along with several others. Gwen shrugged, adjusting her school bag on her shoulder.
"It's fine, you can say it." She replied. "And, uh, weren't we going to…?"
She gestured outside the station with one hand, where the hospital that the station they were standing on was named after loomed over them. Uraraka jumped a bit, having seemingly briefly forgotten about that.
"Yeah!" she replied. "O-onward!"
She led the way out of the station, though everyone noticed her glancing back at Asui a few times. Ashido walked next to her, having tempered the volume of her voice as she walked and talked beside her.
"They can't do that! I mean… they- they can, obviously, but it's only been a week! There's no way anyone could have KNOWN there was gonna be a villain attack! And it's not like U.A. is, you know, known for letting villains sneak onto campus! Your parents- I- I hope they realise you belong in the Hero Course, Tsu."
Asui smiled, scratching an itch around her shoulder.
"Thanks, kero. I hope so too, but I'd probably do the same if I was in their shoes. They…"
Slightly, ever so slightly, her voice trembled as she spoke. Which came as a surprise to all her classmates walking around her, considering how level- almost uncannily so- they'd all heard the frog-girl whenever in class with her.
"They nearly lost me."
The group's walk to the hospital after that was a quiet one. No-one could really argue with Asui's point. Things only picked up once again once they made it up to and through the doors of the massive building, the interior of which was every bit as clean and bright as its exterior suggested.
And it was busy, too, with nurses moving briskly in all directions carrying medicines of all shapes and sizes, doctors rushing past carrying clipboards, with patients and visitors also milling about in various seating areas.
Iida and Uraraka took the lead, approaching the reception desk in order to figure out where Thirteen was situated. As they did so, Asui turned to Gwen.
"Hi."
"Hey." Gwen replied. "You been alright? Apart from, you know, your parents."
Asui hesitated for a second, before nodding.
"Yeah." She remarked. "You know, as okay as I think I really could be. After, you know…"
Asui trailed off before she could finish the sentence. Taking a breath, she turned back to Gwen and resumed.
"Gwen, I just wanted-"
"Come on, guys!"
Uraraka and Iida returned from the reception desk, with Iida finishing typing something on his phone.
"You got where Thirteen is?" Sero asked, looking up from his conversation with Sato.
"Yes." Iida replied, reading from his phone and pointing towards the lifts. "Hero Care Ward, Eighth floor, room 814. Left after exiting, third room on the right."
"Alright!" Ashido replied, immediately rushing off towards the lifts. Everyone else followed at a walk, making their way over to the free lift that the pink-haired girl had called and heading inside, before silently ascending to the eighth floor, as the receptionist had told them.
It wasn't hard to find Room 814 after that. Not only were the directions after the lift extremely simple, but it was hard to miss the nameplate beside the door that simply read: THIRTEEN.
"Just one off, huh?" Uraraka remarked, her eyes flicking from the nameplate to the room number, though no-one laughed. She turned to the group of eight, shifting slightly on her feet for a second. "Oh! Didn't the receptionist say there wouldn't be room in there for all of us at once?"
"Yes, she did." Iida replied. "It would probably be best for us to go in… four, at a time?"
"Sounds good." Gwen remarked, plopping down into a seat. "I don't mind not going first."
"Me neither." Sero replied, remaining standing and leaning against the wall beside her, folding his arms loosely and looking over. "Uraraka, isn't Thirteen your favourite hero? You should definitely be first."
Uraraka blinked, before nodding.
"Yeah." She replied, turning towards the door for a brief second before looking around at everyone. "Who else wants to, uh…"
"Me!" Ashido replied, moving over to the door as well. Iida and Shoji moved over as well, a bit more quietly than the horned girl had done, making four. Uraraka, after a second, reached out again to knock on the door, and when they heard a quiet "Come in!" from the other side, she opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Ashido, Iida and Shoji.
Out in the hallway, Sato remained standing, his eyes focused on something just outside the window, while Asui sunk into a chair on the opposite side of the corridor from Gwen. For a little while, no words between the four of them were spoken, and no major movements were made. In fact, the only ways in which anyone in the corridor moved at all was Sato scrolling on his phone, and him and Sero occasionally glancing at Asui. Asui herself was staring at the floor, not moving at all, while Gwen stared up at the ceiling.
The only sound that met any of their ears throughout was the muffled sound of Ashido enthusiastically greeting Thirteen, and some assorted laughs.
Things remained still outside Thirteen's room for about ten minutes. Every now and then, a nurse or doctor would pass by with a polite nod, and a couple of them would enter and leave the surrounding rooms. As the initial volume of whatever was being said inside descended down to the level of a normal conversation, then descended further to the point that nothing could be heard inside, Sero glanced over at the door, letting out a breath.
"Is this the longest we've ever heard Ashido using an indoor voice?"
Sato snorted.
"Probably." He replied. "She's gonna be even louder once we get out to make up for it, isn't she?"
That remarked earned a small giggle from Gwen.
"Next couple of days, more likely." She remarked, earning assorted chuckles from both Sero and Sato.
The door opened a few seconds later, with Ashido the first one back out. She looked noticeably calmer than when she'd gone in, and was immediately followed by Uraraka. She herself was smiling, which Gwen took as a good sign, though she also noticed said smiling fading ever-so-slightly as she looked over at Asui for a second. Iida could then be seen holding the door open, allowing Shoji to step into the corridor before he followed, closing the door behind him.
"She's ready for you guys." Ashido remarked, gesturing back towards the door while looking over at Asui, Gwen, Sero and Sato. Nodding, Gwen got to her feet, as did Asui, as Sato made his way over to the door. He opened it, allowing Gwen and Asui to step through first before he and Sero brought up the rear.
The room itself… looked just like a regular hospital room, Gwen thought, as Shoji pulled the door shut behind the four of them from outside. Bed, chair (occupied by Thirteen's spacesuit-like hero costume, which had been repaired), beside table/cabinet, window with a view of the city outside, about what she expected to see.
There were a few get-well cards lined up along the window ledge, and a fruit bowl on top of the bedside table, with Thirteen herself sat upright on the bed. Beneath the costume, she was a young woman with short navy-blue hair, with a blonde patch stretching out of the roots kind of like a spiral. She had hazel eyes with rings around her irises, and her arms were covered in what looked like a black substance, though it didn't look like it impaired any ability to use her hands.
She did look somewhat tired, and under the gown she was wearing the bandaging around her shoulders and upper torso was impossible to miss.
But she was conscious, rather than stuck beneath piles of medical equipment, and had been heard laughing with Ashido just minutes ago. So, that was reassuring.
"Hi, everyone." She greeted Gwen, Asui, Sero and Sato once the door was shut behind them. "It's good to see you again."
"It's good to see you doing alright." Sero replied, stepping forward a bit. "I mean, if you actually are. I mean, you do look better and all."
Thirteen let out a short breath.
"I certainly feel better." She replied. "And the doctors definitely seem to agree that I'm doing better. I'm being discharged tomorrow, actually."
Sato blinked.
"Seriously?! That's great!"
"Yeah, I can't wait to get out of here." Thirteen replied, reaching out and stretching her arms a bit. "There's just a few final checks I need to go through. Making sure my back's healed properly, after all the… everything, I had to go through after being brought here."
"What DID you have to go through?" Gwen asked. "I only saw you being taken away once we all got out of the USJ, so I don't know what specifically happened. Only that Kurogiri was involved."
Thirteen's face fell slightly, as she leant back on her bed.
"My Black Hole Quirk did quite the number on my back, when Kurogiri, that portal-mist villain, turned it on me." She spoke, slightly more quietly. "Tore out most of that whole area, all the way down to the muscle. I've got pictures of how bad it was, but… you definitely shouldn't be seeing them."
"Yeah, I think I'd prefer not to." Sero remarked, wincing slightly at Thirteen's words.
"Thankfully, though," the Space Heroine continued, "a combination of Recovery Girl's visits, and rather more skin grafts than I'd care to count over the last few days, have put me back together… there's an irony to it all, isn't there?"
She let out a sigh, as no-one answered immediately.
"You spend your entire career being as careful as humanly possible not to let your Quirk hurt anybody, and then you end up having it turned on you."
"Hell of an occupational hazard, I guess." Sero replied, rubbing at the back of his neck slightly awkwardly. He glanced at his tape-dispensing elbows, almost as if wondering about potential scenarios he could potentially have his own Quirk turned on him.
Thirteen let out another giggle.
"I suppose." She replied, her eyes sliding between the four students stood around her bed, focusing on Gwen and on Asui a fraction longer than Sero and Sato. "Are you all doing alright, though? I've heard that the Sports Festival is still going ahead."
"Yeah, we're alright." Sato replied. "All working hard and preparing as best we can."
"Good." Thirteen nodded. "I'd rather you weren't taking it easy on my account."
She paused for a second, looking between everyone once again, before her eyes settled on-
"Asui."
The frog-girl, who hadn't spoken since stepping into the room, looked up.
"Kero?"
"While the others were in here, I heard something rather concerning from your classmates."
Asui let out a breath.
"About my parents, right?"
Thirteen nodded slowly.
"I see."
Several seconds passed, before Thirteen looked over at everyone else.
"Would you mind giving Asui and I some time alone?"
None of the three questioned it.
"Not at all." Gwen replied immediately, turning and heading for the door. Sero and Sato nodded, and followed.
As Gwen reached out for the handle to pull the door open, she heard Thirteen speaking again.
"Do you have your phone on you, Asui? …Would you mind calling your parents?"
All three students glanced back momentarily, as Asui reached into the small bag she'd been carrying, and pulled out her phone.
"Now?"
"If that's alright." Thirteen replied. "I'd like to talk to them with you."
Gwen pulled the door open, and stepped out into the hallway, with Sero and Sato right behind her. As the door swung shut behind them, Ashido got to her feet from the chair she'd sank down into since they stepped in.
"Everything alright? Where's Asui?"
"Still inside with Thirteen." Gwen replied, leaning against the wall just past the door. "And calling her parents."
"Seems like she's gonna try and talk them around." Sato remarked, looking back at the door and sinking into a chair between Iida and Shoji. "I hope she can."
"I mean, if anyone can," Uraraka, who had remained standing the whole time, piped up as she pointed to the closed door to Thirteen's room. "It's probably Thirteen. "I mean a) she's a teacher, b) she's a Pro, and c) she… she nearly died too, at the USJ."
"Indeed." Iida nodded. "Her words probably carry more weight than anyone who was on the front lines that day."
"And if she can't, then we could just ask All Might to vouch for her, or something!" Ashido remarked. When she caught some of the iffy looks that some of the students fixed her with, she rose her hands. "What? He's the Symbol of Peace, they'd have to listen to him!"
There was a brief pause among everyone gathered.
"Maybe." Gwen remarked. "Though there's always the chance that they wouldn't. I mean Asui said herself that she'd probably do the same as her parents, if she was in their shoes. And I can't exactly disagree."
Ashido opened her mouth to speak back, but Gwen spoke up again before she could.
"Let's just hope it doesn't come to going to All Might for help. Which, also, who knows if he'd agree to help?"
Ashido's mouth remained open, before she closed it again and sank back into her seat.
Minutes passed, with the seven students in tense silence just outside Thirteen's room. More minutes passed after that, with no speech- not even muffled sound- coming from inside Thirteen's room. Evidently the conversation in there was that quiet, and that private.
Not long into the silence, Ashido had taken to wandering up and down the corridor, unable to sit still. A little bit after she'd started, Uraraka and Sero had joined her. Truth be told, Gwen had almost taken to joining the three of them as well before the door eventually opened, just as Ashido, Uraraka and Sero had passed it again.
All turned to see Asui stepping out, slipping her phone back into her bag, taking a couple of slow breaths and wiping at her face with her free sleeve.
It was almost foreign, to the other seven students, to see any kind of cracks in the frog girl's composure, even after only a few days of knowing her.
Lowering her arm, Asui took another breath, and with still-slightly-glistening eyes, looked over at everyone and spoke.
"She convinced them."
A wave of relief immediately passed over the group.
Ashido herself gasped.
"Really?!"
Asui nodded.
"I'll… be back at school." She swallowed again. "Tomorrow."
That was all Ashido needed to hear, before throwing her arms around the small girl without another second's hesitation. Uraraka joined the hug from the other side. Iida stepped forward, resting a reassuring hand on Asui's shoulder.
Gwen herself grinned at the sight of the group hug, adjusting her own school bag on her shoulder again as she let out a breath, and the octad of students began making their way back towards the lift.
By the time they'd headed down to the ground floor, and were on their way out of the hospital, things had returned to a much more relaxed state between the eight students. Asui had managed to convince Uraraka and Ashido to let go of her, while Iida had begun giving her a brief rundown on everything she'd missed at school while she was absent.
Sero, Sato and Shoji had bidden the group goodbye, and gone ahead back towards the station, as did Iida after a while.
"See you back at school, Tsu!" Uraraka called, waving to Asui along with Ashido as they left as well, leaving Asui and Gwen together, just outside the entrance. Gwen herself had made to follow her classmates back to the station, but she noticed Asui slowing to a stop out of the corner of her eye.
"…Gwen."
The orange-haired girl turned.
"Yeah?"
Asui looked at her, blinking a couple of times. As she did so, Gwen noticed the frog-girl's eyes becoming wetter by the second, until tears left her eyes and began slowly falling down her cheeks.
"I wanted to say… th-thank you." she spoke, her voice quieter than Gwen had ever heard her. "For saving my life."
As soon as she saw the tears falling, Gwen moved over. Closing the distance between herself and Asui in only a few strides, she gently wrapped her arms around her without a word. Asui froze for a fraction of a second, her breath hitching briefly before she returned the hug.
"It's okay." Gwen replied softly, as she felt Asui wrapping her arms tightly around her. "It's okay, Tsu."
A few seconds later, she felt part of her uniform becoming slightly wet, as Asui seemingly continued to cry into it.
"I don't know how I can ever repay you…!"
Gwen let out a breath, feeling herself inwardly wavering a little bit as she took a breath.
"Just… show up, tomorrow." The Anodite replied, as Asui pulled away from her after a couple of seconds. "That's all I need. What everyone needs."
Asui sniffed, reaching up to wipe her face with her sleeve again, before nodding.
"Okay." She replied. "I can do that, Gwen."
"Good." Gwen nodded, reaching over to Asui's shoulder and gently squeezing it, before taking a couple of steps back. "See you at school, then."
"See you, kero!" Asui replied, a genuine smile breaking over her face for the first time since she'd stepped onto the train to the hospital earlier. She waved to Gwen, who returned the gesture as she turned around and crossed the road.
She headed back into the station, her heart considerably lighter than it had been when she'd left it earlier, and pulled out her phone to text her cousin that she was on her way back home.
----- -----
The next two weeks passed by for both Hero Courses, in what felt like the blink of an eye. The constant loop of mundane school lessons in the morning, followed up with preparation by way of training, studying, strategy development or more training had all blended together. What everyone did really depended on the student in question and how they thought they could play best to their strengths on the biggest day of the school year.
So, by the time the day in question did roll around, Ben figured he was pretty well-prepared. Even if he couldn't quite figure out why they weren't allowed to compete in their hero costumes.
Instead, everyone had been bidden to compete in their U.A. P.E. uniforms. Though it didn't really matter to him, not being allowed to wear his costume. It wasn't like he needed it, Ben figured, as he adjusted the blue shirt he was now wearing.
After giving himself one last glance in the nearest mirror, he stepped away from it and perched on one of the benches, rolling his shoulders a couple of times as he heard the dull hum of thousands of voices blended together above him, seated in the stadium itself, and the much more immediate cacophony of the voices surrounding him in Class 1-B's waiting room.
"COME ON!"
Kamakiri was stood on top of one of the other benches, pumping his bladed arms into the air like some sort of demented motivational speaker. He had the attention of the vast majority of the room.
"This is our chance, to be the ULTIMATE BADASSES!" he yelled. "Everyone's gonna be watching us today, so let's give them a show to remember!"
"Damn right!" Tetsutetsu roared from nearby, slamming a metal fist into a nearby table. "Every Pro that showed up there-" he gestured up at the ceiling, to the stadium above their heads "-reps from every agency in Japan too, probably watching us on TV! God, I can't WAIT!"
He slammed his fist down again, this time with enough force to break the table beneath his fist, which he realised a second later.
"…Ah, shit."
Laughter broke out throughout the room at Tetsutetsu's unintentional destruction, some of the loudest of which from Tokage, who was perched on one of the chairs and was effortlessly rocking back and forth on it.
"If you thought as well as you punched, man, you'd have this in the bag!" she remarked. "Just save that strength for the fighting tournament if you get that far, yeah? Especially if you end up against the other you from 1-A!"
"Hey, screw you!" Tetsutetsu cried, amidst the continued laughter. "
Ben rolled his eyes at the goings-on around him, resisting the urge to chuckle himself. He was one of the only people not laughing in one way or another.
"Everyone!"
The class-wide laughter subsided slightly as Kendo turned around, having been occupied with tying up her hair.
"Maybe we should save the enthusiasm for when we're, you know, out there?" she remarked, gesturing to the door that led out of the waiting area. "Rather than wasting all of it in here?"
"Come on, Kendo!" Kamakiri called out, leaping down from the bench he was standing on. "We can still get ourselves hyped up for this thing without getting burned out!"
Tsuburaba stepped up beside Kamakiri, grinning and flexing one of his arms.
"Yeah!" he replied. "We can't hope to beat 1-A if we aren't pumped up!"
"Okay, but Kendo might have a point." Shoda remarked, stepping up beside Kendo. "We've got the entire Festival ahead of us, and there's time to get pumped up while we're, you know, actually on the field?"
Tetsutetsu folded his arms.
"Sounds like quitter talk!" he replied. "Besides, we'll be up and at 'em any minute now, why not start hyping ourselves up now?!"
Shoda let out a breath, and looked over at Kendo, seemingly hoping that she'd be able to come up with some sort of rebuttal to his classmate's point. However, though, Kendo was grinning, and resisting the urge to giggle.
"You know what?"
The orange-haired girl shrugged.
"Screw it."
As everyone heard the crowd in the stadium roaring particularly loudly above their heads, Kendo clenched a fist.
"Every single year, I've watched this festival." She began. "Every year. And ever since I knew what it could mean for me to do well, I've wanted to compete and prove myself. And now… I-I'm finally here. We're finally here!"
She let out a little giggle, folding her arms around herself a bit as she looked up at the ceiling, at the stadium above Class 1-B's heads, before looking back at the rest of them.
"So, you know what? Yeah, let's do this. Let's show Japan what Class 1-B can do!"
There were assorted cheers and some applause from the rest of the class, as Ben felt the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. It definitely seemed to him that, random as it was, Vlad had made the right call in appointing Kendo as 1-B's representative.
Even Shoda, level-headed and calm as he seemed to be, looked pretty pumped-up by Kendo's words. As the applause and cheers died down, the speakers in the waiting-room briefly crackled overhead.
"Attention, first-years."
Whatever conversations that had briefly started up in the aftermath of Kendo's speech ceased immediately.
"Please proceed up to the field, as the opening ceremony is ready to begin."
Another brief crackle, and then silence.
A few seconds later, Tetsutetsu grinned.
"Showtime!" he cried, slamming a fist into an open hand. He was the first out the door, with Kamakiri, Kendo, Tsuburaba and a few others seemingly the next out all at once. Ben himself hung out near the back of the back, slipping his hands into his gym-pants pockets as he moved through the door and shut it behind him with his foot.
As they filed towards the tunnel leading out into the arena, Tokage- who herself was also pretty near the back- dropped back still further so she was walking in step with Ben.
"You nervous?"
Ben glanced down the tunnel, at the end of which he could see the bright light from the stadium beyond spilling into it.
He smiled to himself as he looked back at the green-haired girl.
"Little bit."
"Yeah… same." Tokage replied, rubbing her arms against themselves a little bit. "Think a lot of people here, are, even if they're all pumped up to hell…"
She glanced over at Ben, a grin spreading across her face.
"Still think you're gonna win?"
Ben snorted.
"Damn near certain."
Tokage let out a giggle, running a hand through her hair as she caught back up to the middle of the group.
"That's the spirit!" she called back.
The students continued down the tunnel, joined by Class 1-A just in front of them. Ben noticed Gwen pretty near the front of the group of students that made up her class. As the stadium entrance grew closer and closer, he pulled his left hand out of his pocket and glanced down at his wrist.
For whatever reason, the Omnitrix felt like it was pressing particularly tightly around it. Ben stuffed his hand back into his pocket, taking a slow breath before quietly, quietly enough that nobody else could hear-
"…Talk to me, Grandpa."
He knew Grandpa Max couldn't hear him, definitely not now. But even in spite of that, just saying the words settled something inside him.
Straightening his shoulders as he came up on the entrance to the stadium field, he followed Class 1-B out into the light.
----- -----
Good luck, Ben. And remember, if there's any point to all of this, it's to prove that you can manage even without him guiding you.