Signing up for Hero Team training was, as it turned out, far less complicated than either Izuku or Mina had thought. Literally, the only thing that it took was Ectoplasm taking a note of both of their names, and their Team Hero Name. After a small amount of debate between the two young students, they had agreed that the name Awkward Energy did suit them best - Even if Izuku's contribution to the team name being his meek disposition hurt his pride. Once that had been attained and noted down, Ectoplasm would send it off to the Headmaster for confirmation, and their names would be officially added to the roster by the end of the day.
It almost felt too easy, like there was some sort of catch to these extremely simple conditions that was just waiting to be sprung on them that were going to catch them out and put a crimp in their plans. But there wasn't one. No tricks or temptations to sway them, or any info-drops dumped on them designed to test their resolve by trying to scare them away.
No, it was as simple as a few scribbles on a piece of paper, and one signature later they would be ready to go.
It caused Izuku to blink a few times after it was done, feeling like he'd just blacked out through half of the conversation. Thanks to how Aizawa-sensei did things, he was used to expecting trickery or deceit during this sort of thing now.
"You alright?" Ectoplasm questioned, looking at Izuku with the closest look to concern that his Hero Costume and his grotesquely bizarre face would allow him.
"S-Sorry." The green haired boy apologised, shaking his head rapidly to snap him out of his stupor. "I was just... I didn't expect it to be that easy, that's all."
Sharing his surprise, Mina nodded in agreement with her boyfriend, nearly mirroring his expression exactly. "Yeah... Aren't you gonna like, try and throw us off, or intimidate us or something?" The pair had almost been essentially conditioned to expect such straightforward things to be overly complicated when dealing with Yuuei staff. It was hard to remember that not every single teacher was as... Eccentric as theirs were.
Sitting back into his chair, their Clone Quirk using teacher responded in a relaxed, calm manner. "I might have done normally, but you first years have already been through a huge amount this year. The USJ, the Kiyashi Ward incident, and now your training has been accelerated up in pace considerably, and you're all still attending classes. To top that off, you're also here to attend extra-curriculum sessions on how to work as a Hero Team, willingly. As far as I'm concerned, that's good enough an indicator that you're both serious about becoming Heroes. Trying to freak you out about this sort of class would be pointless."
Neither of them could be persuaded out of doing this, both of them knew this much. Izuku's awkwardness was one thing, but he wasn't going to back down from this once he was certain about it. Nor could they be intimidated from doing so. Basically, any of the traditional Yuuei attempts to shake their students faith before sending them off into a drastic and dangerous test wasn't going to work on them right now.
The logic was there, but...
"That's a bunch of crap!"
... The other Hero Team Students didn't seem to feel the same way about it.
Rising from his seat quickly, the Professional Hero stood tall as he could on his prosthetic limbs, like he were a kindergarten carer about to scold a naughty pupil. Pretty clearly an action that Ectoplasm wasn't happy to have to take with third year Hero Course students. "Kuroshi -"
"We all had to go through some sort of initiation to attend these sessions! How come the first years can get away without doing one!?" The third year student sounded seriously angry at the prospect of a simple entrance into the classes. The ferocity of which he seemed to oppose this startled Izuku and Mina both, throwing the pair of them off completely.
"I agree." This time, the very same feather covered student Mina had questioned when they had first entered the room spoke of his agreement. It's basically a tradition at this point. If they want to prove that they actually can work as a team."
Entrance examinations, those were one thing, and they made sense. They were designed to test the strength of an individual's Quirk, their judgement, their ability to work under pressure, and to maximise their results under a short amount of time - At least that was the point of the Physical exam.
Though this was a first for both the first year students. An Entrance exam that was treated as a tradition in order to test if they were capable of attending extracurricular classes?
"Both of these students have already faced their fair share of danger. Making them go through an initiation isn't only unfair, but it's a waste of time too." The teacher in the room kept defending his stance, leaving the clear impression he wasn't pleased with how his students were behaving right now.
"Sir, the Villains aren't going to care about things being fair." The first student argued, though this time, he seemed to maintain his composure. "If they want to be in a Hero Team, we have to make extra certain that they can manage it."
Though it appeared as though Ectoplasm was about to argue again, he instead sat down with a hefty sigh. "That's true. Villains can't be predicted. Expecting them to play by the rules is naive..."
"Um... What're you talking about? What's this 'Tradition' you keep mentioning?" His curiosity finally getting the best of him, Izuku spoke up. He didn't address the question to anyone in particular. Just anyone who was going to be able to give him a straight answer.
"With the rate at which they are on the decline, we have to make sure to produce the highest quality of Hero Teams that we possibly can. As the frequency of the teams decreases, the ones that do go on to become official Hero Teams have to be shining in quality in order to pick up the slack." Ectoplasm addressed Izuku's question. "Imagine if there were only a few Heroes in Tokyo at this time. In order for them to keep up with the rate at which Villains keep appearing, they would all have to be as strong as All Might." The mention of Izuku's favourite Pro Hero made him flinch, remembering the only possible cause for Ectoplasm being late to the session. "Of course, we have to make sure that all of the students who leave here are the best that they can be, but if only a few exist, they need to be absolutely beyond the best. The same rationality had to be applied to how we produce Hero Teams."
"The Tradition is how anyone gets onto these classes." The first pupil, who Izuku had picked up was called Kuroshi, carried on in place. "Since we all need to know at least the basics of what we're doing, we had to complete a physical exam with the people we've chosen to form a team with. Basically to make sure that we can at least work with the people we've chosen. Some people just aren't compatible with the people they chose to work with in practice. Maybe because of ideas or incompatible Quirks."
This caused Izuku and Mina to glance towards one another. Quirk compatibility was a concern of theirs. Coming to these sessions - Learning to make their Quirks work together was the point in the first place!
And now they were being told there was some sort of 'Minimal Requirement'?
"Wait, hold up!" It wound up being Mina who called this out. "We got told that we'd be trained to make our Quirks more compatible with each other! That's pretty much the whole reason we're here!"
"How many Hero Teams do you see where one guy has a Fire Quirk and the other has an Ice Quirk?"
"...You know we have a guy in our class with that exact Quirk, right? He was at the Sports Festival, he was sort of hard to miss, on account of the giant ice glaciers and fire tornados he shot out."
"Okay, bad example. Then someone who can dissolve things and a Strength Enhancement Type." The pale skinned third year gave another example. "The point being, some Quirks just aren't going to work with one another at all, based in how they work individually. I'm not sure if I can think of a worse pair."
Neither Izuku or Mina moved. Either this person had an uncanny ability to make disturbingly apt comparisons, or he was messing with them intentionally. Irrelevant of how he was doing this... He had a point.
Inherently, a Quirk that relied on physical contact mixed with a Quirk that was emission based was going to be a struggle... But Acid was dangerous even after it made contact with an opponent. The best case result was Izuku having a few hydrofluoric burns in his arms.
The worst case was his entire face melting off.
Expressions that they made earned them a few odd looks, like they'd just swallowed a set of exceptionally sour candies and were trying their damnedest to look like it wasn't affecting them and failing miserably, until Kuroshi seemed to get the message, and laughed. "Oh-ho, this is gonna be good."
"What're you doing, Izuku?"
There was still a bit of discomfort regarding Mina using his first name while they were in public. He'd said she could call him by his first name, sure, and he stood by that. He had absolutely no problems with her doing so. In fact, he liked it. It made them feel much closer to one another than he felt to anyone else, and it acted like a reality check. That their relationship was in fact, real. That he wasn't just dreaming this all up as he sometimes expected it to be revealed he had been doing so.
That being said, that only applied to when they were alone. He had said as much when he first said she could call him that, and for a while, she'd kept with it. Calling him Izuku only when there wasn't anyone around, or when they were on their own... But as time had passed, she'd started using his Midori nickname less and less, and his first name more and more. Now, she barely even called him Midori, even though she had claimed it was cuter. Even the honorifics were gone now. No longer was he Midoriya-san, Midoriya-kun, or Midori-kun.
Now he was either Izuku, or Izu-kun. And she made especially sure to call him Izu-kun when they were in front of their friends. He was convinced that she was just showing off at that point.
Granted, he had done the same. He never referred to Mina in the polite, correct term, but instead, by her first name. Although he felt he had an exception, since Mina had basically told him that she preferred him to call her Mina, without honorifics at all. Izuku hadn't said that he was comfortable with Mina doing the same to him...
But he had gotten used to it. He didn't mind so much anymore, but it did still make his heart race when she called him like that when surrounded by others. He could hear some murmurings and even snickers around him when Mina called him that, though he knew none of it was malicious in any way.
Looking up to his pink girlfriend, Izuku's cheeks were tinted the same pigment lightly themselves. Even after being with her for such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, they were closer than some adult relationships that he knew of. And it still all felt new and exciting to him, and he still got that charge when she used his first name like that.
Though the pink cheeks were mostly due to the glances he was getting from Mineta in the corner of his eye. Thankfully, he was keeping his mouth shut for once.
"I-I'm just going over some... Costume improvements I've been thinking about." He explained, sliding a piece of paper that he'd been scribbling on, filled with a sketch of his costume, and with notes for specifications that he was requesting.
Pulling the nearest chair away from its desk - Which belonged to Bakugou, but thankfully since it was lunchtime, he wasn't around to blow a gasket at her - And sat herself directly opposite her boyfriend, reading over the design. "I thought you didn't want your costume to be too heavily altered from the original design?"
"From the design, no, but the specifications are stuff I'll just have to get used to being flexible with." He explained. "I already had modifications added by my support company, even though I didn't ask for them. If the overall design is the same, then it's not that much of a problem."
Understanding why, Mina continued reading. She did find it both cute and slightly odd that his reasoning behind not wanting a flashy costume like she had designed was because his had been made by his mother. Cute because it still had that childish feel to it, and odd for... The exact same reason.
It felt a tad odd that someone with such a powerful Quirk and a Heroic drive was keeping his costume basic because his Mom had made it for him. That sounded like something that you'd get the crap beaten out of you for in middle school.
Yet Izuku made it seem sweet.
He was an odd guy.
Scanning over the improvements he wanted making, Mina's eye was caught by a specific request to his costume. "Acid proof capabilities?..."
"Yeah." Beamed Izuku. "I thought that maybe if I asked for them to either change the material to something acid proof, or provided some sort of costing method that should help keep my costume and my skin safe from your Acid Quirk, it'd help make our ability to work well together much better!"
It was a very smart, and genuinely kind thing to be thinking about. Aware that she wanted to give this Hero Team situation a serious attempt, he had gone out of his way to get a costume modification form and was planning to send off his costume to get it fixed just to aid in the compatibility front. Just so they had a half-decent chance at being able to make the Hero Team thing work.
Yet at the same time... It also did upset her a bit. She knew that he was right, but...
"...So you don't think our Quirks are compatible, then?" Obviously, he had no intentions to upset or offend her in any way. And to be frank, he hadn't, in particular. But it just stung a little to know that for all his intelligence and creativity, he couldn't find a way to make their Quirks work without the need for external modifications.
With a heavy sigh, Izuku looked at her. "We knew that we were a bad match when it came to Quirks... I tried, but... It didn't work. The only way I could think of is if I used mine to knock out a Villain, and then you used your Acid on them afterward... But at that point, I already beat the Villain, so it's sort of pointless... Even if I could find a way to make your Quirk and mine work... This is just safer for me. All it takes is for a slight miscalculation from you, or a bad wrong-way step from me, and I'd get a nasty scar..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know..." Slumping into her arms in the desk, Mina rested her chin between her two limbs, and groaned lightly. "Man, this is gonna be such a pain..."
"You mean the initiation?"
"Yeah. Damn third and second years." Muttering under her breath, she glared out the window at a cloud that she didn't like the look of. It looked like a feather, which reminded her of that second year student she'd spoken to.
Persuaded by the arguments that his class had made, Ectoplasm-sensei had relented on the initiation tradition, meaning that Team Awkward Energy was going to have to go through with it after all. Though he claimed that their initiation was going to be different compared to the other students, by its applications. Each initiation for each team was unique, designed around Quirks and individual merit, somewhat similar to how the recent closing semester tests had been. It also presented challenges and criteria based on the same factors teams had been chosen for the semester exams, meaning relationships, Quirks and grades.
For example, a team that had hard hitting, flashy Emitter Type Quirks, filed with people who specialised in fighting Villains, would be tested on their ability to rescue people, and would lose marks based on how much property damaged they caused. It was a basic example, but it displayed how the grading criteria was going to be set out. To help Ectoplasm make his notes, and to provide additional obstacles, the other Hero Team students would also be there.
It was also going to take place after school hours. Since time was limited to three days before the students from the first year went on their training camp trip, that was the only time that they would have to hold the initiation. It would be held at the USJ, since that place had the best environment for the type of thing the initiation would require - A variety of environments, lots of open space to hide and multiple opportunities for a 'Villain incursion', whatever that meant.
Almost certainly nothing good.
The end of the day came around a lot faster than either Mina or Izuku expected. Usually, the day felt like it would last forever under similar circumstances, but discussions and preparation for the school trip had helped the hours fade away without a huge deal of frustration building up in either of them due to time feeling like a crawl. Both of them did feel the nerves that came when they were faced with an examination or a quiz that was thrown at them out of the blue. Nerves were natural whenever anything major like this, although Mina did seem to have a quiet amount of confidence in the pair of them at the same time. She wasn't dreading this like she was the Semester finals, since the worst case scenario was just that they wouldn't be able to take Hero Team classes. It would suck, but there was sure as hell worse things to happen.
Thankfully, there were no written tasks that they had to complete in said initiation either. It was a totally physical abilities based examination, since they already clearly knew the theory of Heroism. The rules and theories of Hero Teams was the exact same as it was for Solo Heroes, just with additional people along for the ride. Therefore, the Initiation was to be based on physical prowess. Which Mina felt she was pretty damn good at. Admittedly, she had to confess that her abilities needed serious improvement. The aforementioned semester Finals had shown her that much. Either way though, her skills in fitness and her Quirk were the things she was the best at.
Intellectual tests were Izuku's strong point, and since he had gained better control of his Quirk, he was a very competent fighter. Fundamentally, his Quirk was a lot stronger than Mina's was. Once he mastered it within time, he was going to be an unstoppable superhuman that no one was going to be able to beat without breaking a few bones, overexerting their own Quirks, or just being one hell of a lucky bastard… But…
There was something that Mina had noticed about him since he had mentioned his doubt about his worthiness to own the One For All Quirk. He just… He seemed to have lost a lot of his confidence regarding it.
Not that he ever seemed to show any exuberant levels of overconfidence, like Bakugou did. He wasn't some sort of hyper-self-assured individual who had been born with powerful abilities. He'd been born powerless, and had to claw at whatever straws he could grasp until he received One For All. Essentially, despite the fact he was clearly growing more and more accustomed to having a Quirk… He still didn't really think of it as being his own ability.
Mina couldn't even remember the last time that he'd referred to it as 'His Quirk' after she'd learned about One For All and they were alone. If he did, she couldn't remember it, but they were few and far between.
For everything her personality might suggest about her, Mina wasn't oblivious, and she could put things together. She understood the various things Izuku felt… Well, she wouldn't ever be able to understand them exactly, but she could at least get where he was coming from. She couldn't understand how it felt to be Quirkless in this day and age, and she couldn't understand how it must have felt to receive a Quirk and not feel like it was entirely one's own…
But it wouldn't take someone special to comprehend that it was going to be an awful feeling. Like he was inferior to every one of his classmates. He was getting by on dedication and determination. Admirable traits to anyone at all… Yet it didn't help that Izuku was constantly thrown into the deep end when it came to his situation.
Villains, criminals, killers, and being held hostage…
Looking at him, sat with his hands firmly griping the cloth on his Hero costumes knee pads, Mina wondered, why was it always him? Why was it always Izuku that was thrown into these dangerous situations? Why did he seem to have to always pay the price for the mistakes of those who surrounded him? Why did he always seem to be the one who couldn't ever just have it easy, for once in his life?
It felt like he was the main character in some ridiculous Manga series that always contrived a reason for him to be thrown into a high-octane battle. That sort of thing barely happened to Mina – She started to wonder if she even showed up in this imaginary Manga that was Izuku's life when it went to hell.
Sat next to one another as one of Ectoplasm's Clones drove them, along with the other Hero Team students to the USJ, they would only have a few more minutes to talk until they reached their destination. The original Pro-Hero was stood up near his Second and Third year students, giving them details on the tasks he wanted them to complete in order to help with the Initiation. How they were supposed to help, Mina had no idea, though she would eventually find out, she supposed. Her attention, primarily, was on Izuku though.
She wanted to say something to him to help bring him back around. Something that would bring back that awkwardly nervous but steadily growing confident boy she had ended up falling in love with like the helpless romantic she was.
Surrounded by people who might hear her though… there wasn't anything she could say about One For All directly, in case someone who had particularly good hearing managed to catch wind of what she was saying. That was all it would take, and Izuku would be screwed.
But she knew what she wanted to say… And she could say it without giving away the origins of his Quirk entirely.
"…Izuku… You remember that fight you had with Todoroki at the Sports Festival?" She mentioned, bringing up the scene which had forever been burned into her limbic system for how amazing a spectacle it had been.
He seemed surprised that she was talking to him about something serious, since they'd spent most of the trip in silence, only Mina pointing out interesting observations outside the window whenever one came into sight, her trademark energy shining through whenever she saw a Hero, a cool looking Quirk or something exciting. For his part, Izuku had politely acknowledged her sighting, but hadn't said much, if anything, afterward. He didn't desire to be rude…
Simultaneously however, he didn't want to talk about them either. Though the mention of his battle against the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user… That had caught his attention.
"Yeah?" He responded, interested to see where she was going with this.
"That was the first time I really noticed you properly, y'know. I mean, I saw you during our first combat Training exercise with All Might… But I didn't really seeyou, if you get what I mean."
If she had to explain it, Mina would attribute it to being like seeing a frame of a person in a movie, and seeing them in real life. The face value of a character in a film was something that you only saw what was on the surface. Meeting a person in real life was a totally different experience. They could be a totally different person that the movie implied them to be.
Meeting an actor who played a character that you hated beyond all comprehension… And then meeting them in person. Part of you would just assume that the actor was a scumbag themselves, which is why it messed with people when the Villains actor was actually as nice as one could ever be.
Seeing Izuku in action for the first time was like watching a character in an action movie. Seeing him in the Sports Festival had been like actually seeing him for the first time.
That was how Mina felt, anyway, looking back on things now. It had been what had caused her to approach him the way she had in the first place.
One bump in the road later as Ectoplasm's Clone ran over a speed bump that caused the vehicle to bounce up a few inches before falling back to Earth, Izuku nodded in his acknowledgement of what Mina had said. "Yeah… I think I get it. It's kind of like seeing All Might on the vids and then getting to know him as a student."
Of course he compared it to All Might. "Good enough." Smiling at his default nerdiness, Mina carried on. "You were freakin' awesome back then, y'know. You managed to get Todoroki to use his fire Quirk, and he'd always refuse to use it 'till you made him. It was amazing to watch."
It wasn't like Izuku had forgotten about it…
"I used to think Todoroki was the strongest person in our class… Now I think it's you,"
"…Mina, what are you doing?"
"Hmm?"
"You said all of this when we first started talking… It was the first stuff you ever said to me." Izuku remembered it all very well. The same day as the Sports Festival had been the day Mina had approached him, and that small detail had turned his life into what it was now, with Mina as his girlfriend, a person he loved dearly, and whom he considered to be a fundamental part of how he had become who he was now.
He hadn't forgotten their first conversation. He had no intention to, either.
After letting out a small chuckle at being caught, the pink girl decided to get to the point. "It was televised, you know. I know Mika took what you said to Todoroki to heart."
"What I –"
Suddenly, she jabbed a finger into his chest, firmly enough that she could feel his heartbeat, which seemed to have picked up a few BPM, either from surprise or something else, that was up to speculation. The formerly Quirkless boys eyes shot down to look at her index finger, and then back up, to see here dark eyes looking right back at him.
With a cold seriousness to her voice, one Izuku had never heard before in his entire life, to the point it made his spine shiver, Mina spoke slowly, making her words as clear as possible.
"'It's your power.'"
Since their last visit, the USJ had been fixed up, basically completely at this point. Whoever Yuuei hired, they sure worked quickly, and had the place in full working order the day after it was announced safe from the Villains. It seemed like the construction crew that they hired must have had Quirk licenses, since that was the only what that the building could be brought back up to speed this quickly.
Once exited, and inside the USJ, and atop the staircase where both Izuku and Mina first saw actual Villains, both were his with a wave of…. It was difficult to describe it. Nostalgia implied that it was a good thing and a pleasant memory. Déjà vu would probably define it better. From here, every zone was in sight, the flood zone, the urban zone, extreme weather zone, and so on and so forth.
Izuku gulped. It wasn't voluntarily, but those memories made him remember how he had felt when he had first fought those Villains, when he still hadn't gotten proper control of One For All. He remembered those experiences, and he probably was always going to, since they stood out so brightly to him. His fist tightened as he thought back to those times though, and he remembered.
That he wasn't that weak anymore. That he could fight now.
"You doin' okay?" Mina asked, leaning forward slightly to see his face better than she could at the side of him.
"…Yeah, I'm okay." He confirmed, nodding.
"Okay, all Initiation students, listen up!" Ectoplasm announced loudly, capturing the attention of all the Hero Team students. He had a surprisingly loud voice when he wanted to.
Making a semi-circle just in front of him, the nine students got ready to listen.
As they approached, Izuku and Mina both noticed that Kuroshi Third Year student was grinning towards them, in a manner all too eerily reminded them of Bakugou. He even had the red eyes…. Partly. He appeared to have central heterochromia, making his eyes both blood red near the pupil, before becoming white around the edges. He was the stereotypical appearance of an albino, right down to the white skin and hair.
Somehow that made it creepier.
"Okay, since the primary focus of Hero Team is teamwork, of course, Midoriya and Ashido will be working in their team. The rest of you will be given the option to act independently, or to work in teams, that choice is up to you." Ectoplasm explained. "The Initiation is simple – Treat it as a rescue mission."
Before any questions could be arisen, Ectoplasm's mouth unhinged, and he spawned a large number of clones with his plasma, all of which were already running off in various directions to multiple places. They moved with speed that was impressive for a person who hadn't lost both their legs, so Ectoplasm's ability to run with his prosthetics was a statement in itself.
"My Clones are going to be scattered throughout the USJ, and Team Awkward Energy's job is to rescue as many as possible in a time limit of thirty minutes. You're going to be assessed on your ability to work as a team under pressure, as well as if your Quirks are going to be able to work as if they were one cohesive unit. Mistakes will be noted, and your final grade will be based on how many you save, and how you fight off the Villains."
"Villains?" Mina echoed.
"That's right – The remaining students, you will be acting as the Villains in this exercise – You will be doing anything in your power to stop Team Awkward Energy from rescuing even a single one of my Clones. As Villains, nothing is off the table for you, so make sure that you don't allow them to pass with any sort of ease."
Kuroshi seemed to show off a set of teeth, while his hand burst into flames. "Yes, sir."