Plus Ultra.
It means "go further beyond."
I don't fully understand it, but apparently it's something like "overcome any wall, no matter how difficult, you bastard."
This phrase is heard so often at U.A. High School, the place where hero trainees are forged, that it supposedly wears a hole in your ears.
...And U.A. High School is also the name of the school I once aimed for.
If asked why I say "once aimed for" instead of "am aiming for," the situation I'm in now is the answer.
"Kurogiri... is this the one?"
"Yes, he seems to be a capable one. He meets the standards the teacher mentioned. The airspace hero who houses over twenty sidekicks in his agency, High Ace...!"
"You bastards...! Where is this place!? Who the hell are you!? What did you do!!"
The hero before me talks a lot.
Given that he hasn't grasped the situation, trying to gather information from those nearby is, of course, only natural.
But trying to escape from reality in a situation like this is unacceptable.
Choosing to run isn't bad, but if you can't run, you should start preparing for battle immediately.
"Here, no one will interfere. There are no buildings within three kilometers; it's mountainous terrain..."
"!! Y-you bastards... did you kidnap me to kill me!?"
"Look with your own eyes, you can tell. Accept the situation... In the end, no one can escape."
No.
Those words aren't for the hero in front of me. I'm telling myself that.
I've lost count how many times now... for two years, every single day...
And I keep turning my eyes away from the fact that I really could escape if I wanted to.
"Damn it...!! What the hell are you guys!? Villains!?"
"I can say I am... but he isn't."
"That's right, don't lump me in with him. I'm just a lab rat."
Now, let's begin.
Once again today, in my own way, the wrong way.
I feel the earth surging, gathering around me.
Quirk, activate.
__________________________________________________________
Two years ago.
A classroom in a special building at National U.A. Affiliated Sōbu Junior High was being used as the meeting room for a certain club.
The Service Club.
The teacher who set me on the path to join that club once said:
"At the rate you're going, when you meet someone you truly want to save, you won't be able to help them."
So my current way won't do.
Could I not protect the comfort I have now, those girls...?
I enrolled in Sōbu Junior High following naturally in my father's footsteps.
Believing that to become a hero I should go to U.A., I chose Sōbu because it was partnered with U.A.
But after joining the Service Club and meeting two particular girls, my resolve hardened.
The vague, fluffy feelings turned into a firm determination.
Just like my father — I would become a hero.
On the very day I made that decision, the path to that dream was closed.
"Take this!!"
The air-control hero High Ace.
As his name implies, he seems to attack while flying.
His quirk is levitation.
It isn't that his hands transform into wings, so his hands and feet remain free.
It's a powerful quirk that grants air superiority.
He can give himself acceleration beyond gravitational acceleration and strike with a steep dive attack.
...However, if the opponent is a close-range type, we have an overwhelming advantage.
That doesn't change.
No matter how powerful the other is.
"Damn... he's good at dodging!"
After dodging the opponent's attacks multiple times, the opponent started swearing.
Not very hero-like behavior, but whatever.
"...You don't want me to dodge?"
"...What?"
But if our attacks don't land, it's meaningless. So I took a gamble.
"Then try to hit me. I won't dodge."
"You... you're making fun of heroes!?"
"You too... I'm not one to say that, but tell me — are you underestimating me, hero?"
He seemed to get pissed off.
I felt like steam was rising from the top of his head.
Looks like he'll play along with the bet.
"Don't regret it."
The hero got into position. To take down the enemy villain.
"That's an unreasonable request."
The boy braced himself.
For the sake of his own wish.
"I regret things all the time. Two years ago, now, and from here on out. You can't stop that."
__________________________________________________________
"What will you do with him?"
"Leave him somewhere where people are likely to find him."
I answered while brushing the dust off my stomach, and a pain shot through my belly. My organs seemed fine, but maybe I'd strained some muscles.
Taking a direct hit from a pro hero had been a bit thoughtless, as expected. Well, it was the quickest way out, so I gave up on fussing about it. If I stay still the pain should subside. Once I closed the distance, victory would have been mine.
"You won't kill him?"
"Why? I was just told to show my power to a hero who has more than fifteen sidekicks in his agency. There was no real need to finish him off."
We only struck because it was obvious he would have taken us down otherwise. He wasn't someone you could handle with half measures.
"Then why won't you kill him?"
"..."
"Because it isn't necessary."
"That alone doesn't sound like an explanation that will satisfy me, does it?"
"Take him and get out of here, quickly."
"...Yes, let's do that. I'm not exactly eager to see you angry either, Connector..."
The black mist spread, enveloped the hero lying on the ground, and then it drifted away.
...Kurogiri was one of the crew who did this to me. He was the very one who carried me off. Right after I was taken, I had plotted to deal with those bastards and hand them over to the heroes.
But when I saw the person sheltered behind them, that foolish plan died in an instant.
This thing must never be let loose on the world. Let alone with my sister involved...
...Stop thinking about it. No matter how I look at it, there's no way to break the current situation. If there is one possibility, then...
"Connector."
"You were quick."
"Yes. Now, let's return to the hideout. We must prepare."
"Prepare?"
"Ah — you haven't heard yet?"
If there is one possibility...
"Soon we'll launch a large-scale invasion. It's Tomura Shigaraki's plan."
This is for the case when those guys decide to do something massive and reckless.
__________________________________________________________
U.A. High School.
Just the other day, in April, the entrance ceremony ended there, and the new students had only just finished their Quirk Apprehension Test and their first combat training.
At this high school, there are two Hero Course classes per grade:
Class A and Class B. The students in these two classes entered by three different routes. The first are those who passed the grueling entrance exam. Izuku Midoriya, who secretly received One For All from All Might, was also in Class A as an entrance-exam admit. The second are those admitted through recommendation slots—people like Shoto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu.
But the third group consisted of somewhat special students.
On U.A.'s grounds there is an affiliated junior high. Most of those students advance to the General Studies course, but others—those with notable Quirks or particular circumstances that kept them at the affiliated junior high...
They are entrants from the National U.A. Affiliated Sōbu Junior High's Hero Course.
And one of those Sōbu graduates was now driving young Midoriya into a crisis...
(Wh-why is this happening...!?)
"Just answer quickly, Izuku Midoriya. You know something about that incident, don't you?"
"P-please, calm down!"
"Uraraka is right! Compose yourself, Sudden-Girl!!"
The day after combat training, I was in the hallway talking with Uraraka-san and Iida-kun about the incident from the day before yesterday.
The topic was the "Hero Kidnapping Incident."
From the name alone you might wonder who would think up something so ridiculous, but the reality wasn't something you could dismiss as ridiculous.
That day, a certain hero had been reported missing.
Communication had been lost for a mere 30 minutes.
But he was labeled missing because he had disappeared in front of their eyes in an inexplicable way.
The ones who reported him missing were the two sidekicks who had been out on patrol with him.
That hero, High Ace—when the sidekicks looked right and left to check the city for anything unusual, then looked forward again, he was already gone.
The two sidekicks first looked up. High Ace has a levitation Quirk, and when he spots a villain, he immediately flies off using his Quirk.
They assumed it was the same this time, but he was nowhere to be found.
In the first place, it was strange that the hero hadn't given instructions to his sidekicks before acting.
They tried to contact High Ace, but his phone wouldn't connect.
It was found out later that by that point High Ace's smartphone had already been destroyed.
Realizing this was truly an emergency, they requested support from nearby heroes, their own agency, and the police.
However, the large-scale search ended before it really got underway.
An ordinary citizen called the fire department after finding High Ace collapsed and battered in an alley about 300 meters from where he vanished.
High Ace was unconscious, but he didn't have any fatal injuries, and the next day—meaning yesterday—he woke up.
After the interview at the hospital, the police made all the information public to gather tips and clear things up...
"A-and what High Ace saw was a boy in a full-face mask and..."
"A person made of black mist, right?"
"Hm? So you do know about the incident."
"Eh? In that case, there's no need to ask Deku-kun..."
"Do you know anything beyond that, Izuku Midoriya?"
"I-I-I... all I know besides that is that the place High Ace was taken to was surrounded by forest, and that High Ace lost to that boy..."
"...I see. So you only know about that much as well..."
Her expression didn't change, but her tone was clearly different from before—obviously dejected.
Was there something she'd been hoping to hear?
"Um... and you are..."
"Yukinooon!!"
As Uraraka-san tried to address her, a very flustered, cute voice rang out.
We turned to see a beautiful girl with light brown hair tied up in small buns, her standard-issue uniform worn a bit casually like a modern high schooler, rushing over and tackling the black-haired girl—wait, what!?
"Yuigahama-san, perhaps you could show a little restraint..."
"Wah! Sorry, Yukinon! Are you okay?"
Even as she coughed, the girl called Yukinon didn't push the girl named Yuigahama away.
They must be really close... I only made friends yesterday...
Maybe these two have been friends since middle school?
"But you can't do that, Yukinon. If you charge at people like, gwah-wah—like that, everyone's going to get scared!"
"Hold on, Yuigahama-san, that wasn't my intention..."
"Sorry! Yukinon didn't mean anything by it!"
"...Sigh."
...I thought Yuigahama-san seemed like a typical modern high school girl too, but—she's pretty intense. Throughout their exchange, Yuigahama-san kept clinging to Yukinon? the entire time.
"So, I was trying to ask earlier... why are you so concerned about this? In the end, Yukinoshita-san knew about as much about the incident as Midoriya-kun..."
"!"
"Uraraka-kun, you know her?"
It seemed the girl called Yukinon was named Yukinoshita.
...Huh, Yukinoshita? That's not exactly a common surname.
There's a company that comes to mind: Yukinoshita Construction.
They have numerous subcontractors and get a flood of jobs from both inside and outside the prefecture—big-time.
What's more, the company president also serves as a prefectural assembly member, and their eldest daughter is that unusual second-year pro hero, Sun Eyes.
I'd never heard of a younger daughter, but could it be...
"Y-yeah. Yukinoshita-san scored top marks on the written portion of this year's entrance exam. Second overall in total score. I knew she was amazing... And on top of that, she's this beautiful!"
"Ahem!"
"...Why are you the one looking proud?"
"Because it makes me happy! If Yukinon's being praised this much, even Hikki would be as happy as I am!!"
The look on their faces then is something I probably won't ever forget.
For a moment, Yukinoshita-san's face stiffened, and she gripped her arm so tightly it looked like she might crush it, enough to draw blood.
When that shocked me, she immediately put her expression back to normal.
At a glance it was just a poker face, but that's not how it looked to me.
It was brave, like a child trying not to cry, desperately trying to keep it together.
Yuigahama-san was the opposite—she didn't try to hide it.
Seeing Yukinoshita-san's reaction, maybe she realized something.
Her eyes flew open, then she looked ashamed.
Head down, pinching a bit of her own uniform, she was trembling...
"...I'm sorry for losing my composure. Yuigahama-san, let's go."
"...Okay."
"Ah... wait!"
"Uraraka-san?"
"I know. Your earlier question, right?"
They probably didn't want us to pry any further.
Both I and Uraraka-san realized we were about to touch on something precious to them.
Even so, Yukinoshita-san answered.
With a kind of resolute determination.
"I wanted information on the man of black mist. If you learn anything more about him from now on, please let me know. Thank you for today."
"S-see you! I'm Yui Yuigahama! And this is Yukino Yukinoshita—Yukinon!"
"Yuigahama-san, please stop spreading that name around. I'm begging you."
"She begged!?"
The two of them strolled off, playfully (...?) bickering. But I immediately felt something off about them and tilted my head.
On the left side of the hall was Yukinoshita-san.
For some reason, Yuigahama-san walked in the middle.
And on the right side—there was an empty space where no one walked...
They were just walking, and yet their backs looked so very lonely.
"...How should I put it—what a mysterious duo."
"They're both in our class. I think they came from Sōbu Junior High."
"Huh, the one affiliated with U.A.? Then maybe they're a bit ahead of us."
"Exactly! They're the elite of the elite!"
"Right... wait, All Might!?"
"I suddenly appeared!!"
The man who appeared out of nowhere was the Symbol of Peace, All Might.
The No. 1 hero, and my idol.
Last spring, I had the chance to speak with my idol by coincidence, and he acknowledged me.
He said, "You can become a hero."
It was unbelievable luck for me—and he even offered to pass One For All to me. I accepted on the spot.
After about a year of body training, I was finally able to inherit his Quirk.
At the same time, I somehow managed to pass the U.A. entrance exam while ending up covered in bruises.
At last, I started attending U.A. High School—the school All Might graduated from...!
"Right, about what you were discussing just now—try not to poke at it."
"Y-you were listening!?"
"I was behind that object the whole time! I felt bad, but I had to say something."
Facing All Might giving a firm thumbs-up, I was stunned. Wow, I didn't notice at all... Despite his huge build. Can All Might do stealth missions, too?
He seems like he'd stand out—actually, he totally does.
"Midoriya-kun, you know about it, don't you? The villain attack at the seaside park two years ago..."
"Y-yes! The place with the Ferris wheel, right?"
"Because of an attack by three villains, almost all the facilities at the seaside park were destroyed. They were only restored recently."
"Yeah, I remember. It was a strange incident... In the end, the villains just destroyed the facilities and fled before the heroes arrived, right?"
"Ah! Now that you mention it, that did happen."
"Mm. I remember too—my brother was called in about it."
"Right. They're looking for information about the villains from that time. They were there then."
"Eh!?"
"Just like you, they encountered the enemy... Though their scars are likely deeper than yours..."
"...What do you mean?"
"...I'm sorry, but I can't answer that."
It was the first time All Might had refused to answer me. Maybe that's why it made me want to ask more.
If All Might is keeping a secret, it must be a very delicate matter.
Or maybe there's a simple reason he just can't talk about it...
...It's more than a little shocking. If All Might directly rejected me over something important, I might actually die.
"Well, think of it as just a gag order for now! You're choosing class reps today, aren't you!? Off you go!"
"Eh, we are!?"
"Whoops."
"H-hey, All Might!?"
...He left.
Anyway, it had been a while since I'd seen All Might that serious.
Like when we first met last year...
"Mmmm, class reps, huh...!"
"Are you going to run too, Deku-kun?"
"Eh! U-uh, yeah! I mean—leadership is essential for a hero...!"
...The villain attack at the seaside park two years ago...
All Might told me not to ask, but I can't help it—I'm curious.
For now, maybe I should look into it myself?