Cover Story: All Might looks at an Old picture of him and Nana.
Looking at the picture with a quivering smile, All Might began to speak to the photo, "Are you still proud of me like you were back then? Have I lived up to your expectations? Tell me, Nana." The hero cried before wiping his eyes. "I hope I'm doing you proud, I'll never forget what they did to you, I swear I'll avenge you!"
(Art by Trevoshere)
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"Alright, listen up class! Everything we're about to do today is going to be very important so don't goof around and take everything I say now seriously, this is classified information so don't tell anyone and don't discuss it unless you know no one is around." Aizawa stated as he crawled out of his sleeping bag, not surprising most of his students. "Good start, a certain bunch of you would've interrupted me by now, but you seem to take my words seriously, so let's get into it." He continued before taking out a white piece of chalk. "Now, to start what do you all know about quirks?"
Immediately raising her hand, Yaoyorozu waited for her teacher to give her the go-ahead, which he did. "The first quirk appeared in China and ever since then, it has been a common phenomenon in our society. Quirks can be viewed as an extra muscle, the more you train it the better it becomes, it can be overworked and if neglected can weaken." She explained, gaining a nod from her teacher.
"Yes, that's correct for the most part, but what about the next step? What about an evolution past that and then one past that?" He asked, earning puzzled looks from his students.
"What are you suggesting sir? I mean, I'd understand if we could evolve our quirks to the next stage as when we have kids their quirks may be even greater than ours, but what do you mean an evolution beyond that?" Ochaco wondered, allowing her teacher to display a book the students had never seen before.
Flashing the fancy-looking book to the class, they all read it out in unison, "Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory."
"Yes, this book details a lot of things and it goes over evolution. At first, all of us didn't believe it until we saw it first hand, this book is real and the man who made it was correct, unfortunately, he works for The Ruler, but that's not the main focus of today's discussion. Today, we'll be going over how quirks can evolve and how you can evolve your quirks." He said, surprising many of them in his class. "Now, to properly begin, I'm going to explain what a 'Quirk Awakening' is. Firstly, a quirk awakening happens when your body and mind are in a sink, this allows you to understand your quirk better, unlocking a new stage of it, and blocking the walls that your body and mind put on your quirk. You may be able to think of many different ways to use your quirk, but your body may not be able to comprehend it and vice versa. Once awakened your quirk will vastly increase and many of the drawbacks you feel now will vanish, but some may stay. A perfect example of someone whose body isn't caught up to its mind is Aoyama." Aizawa explained.
Nodding along to their teacher's words, they all waited for him to continue talking, shocking the hero who expected them to interrupt him.
"Now Quirk evolutions are rare and only a few people ever have been able to do it, but your generation has the highest likelihood to do it. You guys specifically are born in a generation where your quirks are more suited to your bodies and your minds can understand them more while my generation and ones prior are still adapting. The generation after you won't be able to understand their quirks as they'll be too complex, while yours are still easy to understand if that makes sense."
"So what you're saying is that our generation, the fourth generation have the best likelihood to awaken or evolve because we have simple quirks that are more in tune with our bodies since as a species we've been able to adapt to it," Bakugo added.
Smiling, Aizawa nodded. "Yes, that exactly. Now the step after this is more common than evolving your quirk, it's what we call, 'A Singularity'. A Singularity happens when your body completely mutates and turns into something so that you can use your quirk more easily. For example, the hero Firefist, they are a 'Singularity'. Singularities happen at birth and can happen later on in life, but we've only seen birth singularities. With the singularities, it seems like you become one with your quirk. The difference between evolution and Singularity is, when evolving, you only understand your quirk more and remove certain limiters, while a singularity means you merge with your quirk, which means you completely understand it and become one with your quirk. Your quirk is no longer a separate muscle, it's now you, your body will take shape to make sure the quirk is working at its optimal level." He concluded, confusing many of his students.
Sticking his hand up, Ida waited for his teacher to pick him up, which Aizawa did. "But, I understand my quirk a lot and I feel like my body does too."
"You think you do, but awakenings only happen in severe situations. When you're at the brink, you tend to understand things a lot better as your mind is racing allowing you to connect dots. Don't force an awakening because it'll only hurt you." Aizawa added, making everyone imagine how they would be with awakenings.
"Wait sir, what about Izuku's 'Gear four' is that an awakening?" Kirishima asked, gaining a few curious looks.
"I thought that at first, but after analysing him more, I realised it's just a technique. It's very close to an awakening though." Aizawa answered. "An awakening would improve his base quirk, he has to forcefully do it. For example, if he awakened he wouldn't have to blow into his arms or fingers, he'd be able to do it on a whim." He continued, allowing them to envision it more.
Activating her quirk in her palms, Mina imagined what would happen if she got an awakening. "Would my acid get stronger or would my control over it get stronger?"
"Both most likely. You may even gain an extra ability that comes along with it," Aizawa answered.
"I don't know why you guys are focusing on awakenings, singularities are where it's at. Being made out of pure nitroglycerin would make me unstoppable." Bakugo thought out loud, scaring everyone.
"Shouto would be pure ice and fire, wouldn't he? And then Mina would be pure acid. I would be able to sprout hardened skin out of my body right?" Kirishima wondered.
"I have no idea, but I think that's enough of quirk singularity and quirk awakening talk for now, today you will all be fighting in a tournament so get your hero costumes on and meet me in field gamma."
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Once all of the students were standing in front of their tutor, Aizawa began to explain the tournament. "I know this is abrupt, but it's come to our attention that an imminent war is among us, that's why I gave you information about awakenings and the singularity theory. I'm going to be honest with you all, the world isn't in a good spot despite all of the positive propaganda being shoved in your faces. So, I'm going to prepare you as a class and get your roles ready for whatever comes next." Shota revealed, earning many gloomy faces from his class. "Cheer up, life could be worse." He quipped before walking over to the screen in the room. "Alright everyone as you can see, Cementoss has created ten arenas for you to fight in. Your opponents shall be chosen by opposite seat number, 1-20, 2-19 so on and so forth, it should be easy to find your pair. All fights will happen simultaneously so know that if you beat your opponent quickly you'll be able to rest a lot longer than the last person to. The last person will have a small rest time since they'll be the last one back here. There will be a losers bracket but you'll have to volunteer for it. After two rounds, the last five remaining will be separated from the class to work with the agencies they're signed to on a consistent basis. The rest of you will have to stay here and we'll work on training you up. This tournament is to see who's the strongest and what your weaknesses are." He concluded.
"Wait... so what happens to our regular classes if we are in the top five?" Denki wondered.
"Nezu said that learning regular courses isn't needed, instead you'll be taught different languages, history and hero ethics mainly. Maths will be discarded and so will many other subjects as they don't necessarily help with hero work. That goes for the ones that are in the fifteen as well. I know this seems pretty crazy and abrupt, but it's needed." Aizawa said with a stern face.
"Is it me or is he more on edge today, I mean I know he's serious most of the time, but now it's a bit much?" Izuku asked his friend.
Looking at Aizawa and then sighing, Shouto nodded. "The top heroes in the country are tired of the system set in place by the hero association, they want to change things around and make it far more efficient for us to grow into actual heroes. My dad told me this so I know this is pretty classified information, I'm surprised All Might hasn't told you. Then again, he is the only top-ranking hero who's against it at the moment." Shouto explained.
"Maybe there's something we're missing, I'm pretty sure All Might wouldn't go against everyone for no reason," Izuku responded.
"Endeavour told me that he's waiting to see what the hero organisation do about Shigaraki's next attack. If the association don't help then All Might will give them the thumbs up." Shouto answered, gaining an understanding noise from Izuku.
Walking over to the door that led in and out of the room, Aizawa opened it to reveal a familiar face. "With us today, Shinso from the general studies course will be attending this. He's my protege at the moment so he'll be watching you guys to pick a few things up. Now, I'm assuming everyone knows their pairs so I'm going to need you all to find a ring to fight in. Before you leave though, remember these rules. It's a fight until one of you surrenders or gives up, there is no out-of-bounds. Anything goes aside from really dirty shots but that's about it, I'm trying to emulate a real fight on the battlefield, so go hard!"
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Taking a seat at a table located in a secured room in UA, Midnight looked at all of her colleagues and other heroes who were present. "I know all of you know why you're here so I'm not going to beat around bush. As we know, Shota can't make it as he's hosting a class, but he already knows all the details." She stated while turning on a screen that showcased Aizawa watching over his students' tournament.
"As everyone can see, Aizawa has decided to deter from the regular curriculum that we're all used to, instead he has chosen a curriculum that suits these young stars the best." Nezu proudly claimed as he walked across the long wooden table. "Everyone present in this room is a well-respected and trusted associate of mine so I don't expect a word to leak out." The furry creature noted before he made his way to the end of the table. "Now, onto why you're all here. From here on out, everyone in this room is no longer a hero of the International Hero Association, instead, you're apart of the Justice Association. Lawfully right now you may be a hero under the hero association, but in reality, you're apart of our new association." Nezu announced, making everyone in the room smile.
"Finally, we've decided to make a new one, what happened? Was it the Shigaraki incident? Or was it the Nomu attack?" Deku wondered.
"Everything, we're just waiting for one more slip up and it'll be over, we'll wipe them out and take over," Nezu responded.
Twiddling her hair, Mirko looked at the screen to see all her students wiping the floor with their opponents. "Hehe, go girls." She grinned before noticing a certain someone was missing. "Where's the big boy? Is he on the associations' side?"
"All Might is still pondering over this, but we're more than likely he'll join us sooner than we think," Nezu answered.
"I tried to convince him while in the hospital, but he's stubborn and believes they'll pull their finger out of their ass. He'll come around." The number two hero believed.
Taking a sip of his tea, Nezu looked at the students fighting on his screen and smiled, "Everything we do is for them. If you guys don't mind I'd love for you to watch the next generation battle it out, I know a lot of you work with them already, but I'd love for you to watch them."
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"Sparkly Shooter!" Aoyama called out as he hit Momo's shield, pushing her back until she activated her Haki, allowing her to run through the laser and whack him across the face.
"You're gonna need more firepower than that!" She retorted before creating a gun to point in his face. "Give up." She demanded.
"I... give up." The boy sulked.
Winner: Creati
In the cemented arena next to them an injured Mineta could be seen under the foot of Mina who had a smile on her face. "I give up." He wheezed.
Winner: Pinky
Not too far from them, a steaming Izuku dodged another one of his classmate's attacks, making him smile. "You've grown a lot, Tsu, you're pretty strong now." He claimed as her tongue whipped around and wrapped around the boy's waist.
"Stop taking it easy on me!" She demanded before leaping toward the entangled boy. "Leaping kick!" The girl called out as she let go of the boy to kick him hard in the stomach, sending the boy flying into the wall behind him.
"Ah, that hurt." Izuku winced before looking up to see his classmate gone. "Ah, invisibility." He grinned, making him close his eyes. Envisioning his imminent future, Izuku's grin widened as he parried a kick to his face, revealing his opponent's position. "I got you!" He claimed as he elongated his leg to swipe the girl, leaving her airborne for a moment.
Before Tsuyu could regain herself or touch the floor, Izuku grabbed her face and slammed it into the ground. "Give up." He politely asked, making the frog girl wince.
"I... give up."
Winner: Straw Hat Izuku
In an arena adjacent to Izuku's, Bakugo and Ida could be seen breathing heavily while staring at each other. "Of course, it's just my luck to pull someone strong on the first round." The ashy-haired teen complained as he took out his final blade.
"I could say the same thing." Ida agreed, revving his engine while tapping his feet on the floor.
"Alright, how about we turn it up a notch?" Bakugo grinned, activating his quirk and Haki around his blades while Ida's engines revved.
"I agree!" Ida answered before dashing toward his classmate.
Using his Haki to sense Ida's intentions, Bakugo realised that he was going to attack him so he analysed his legs, allowing him to block a ferocious kick and counter with an attack on his own. "You're too telegraphed," Bakugo stated as he went in for another slash only for Ida to surprise him and roll on the floor.
"RECIPRO DANCE!" He called out after rolling onto his hands and then twirling around on his hands to swing his legs around like a Beyblade, kicking Bakugo away.
"Ack!" The boy grunted while colliding with the cemented wall. As he looked up, Ida's foot could be seen directly in front of him, forcing him to duck and slice his leg. "Damn it!" Bakugo grunted as he pushed the injured Ida away.
Looking down at his bloody leg, Ida grinned and stared at Bakugo. "I feel like everyone else has finished their match, why don't we allow the person who wins the next exchange wins the match."
Liking Ida's suggestion, Bakugo nodded. "Santoryu."
"Recipro."
"ONI GIRI"
"BURST KICK!" They yelled out, dashing at each other to attack each other.
When they collided, a massive explosion happened, causing an explosion to go off, clouding the two boys in smoke.
Once the smoke was clear, Bakugo was standing over Ida with his sword pointed at the boy's face. "I didn't cut you, I just exploded my blades before we made contact so don't worry." Katsuki bluntly stated, making Ida smile.
"I forfeit." The boy chuckled, admitting defeat.
Winner: Villain Hunter: Ground Zero
In an arena next to the two boys, Uraraka had already defeated Hagakure. Her sharp observation skills and powerful haki were able to catch the invisible girl off guard and force her to lose.
Winner: Uravity
In the arena next to them, Ojiro could be seen panting as Shouto stared him down with a cold look on his face. "Why haven't you gone all out, you've barely even used your quirks." The tailed boy asked.
"I wanted to see you at your best, ending it straight away wouldn't be fair to you. Although it's a tournament, I still view you as my classmate and fellow hero. Stunting your growth just so I can advance would be selfish." Todoroki responded, coating his leg in fire to end the fight. "I hope you noticed your flaws in this fight, they're not the biggest but they're there." The boy said before suddenly appearing in front of his classmate to Ko him. "Diable Jambe: Joue Shot!" Shouto roared as he kicked his classmate in the face, knocking him out cold.
Winner: Black Leg Shouto
Next to Todoroki's and Ojiro's arena, Kaminari could be seen running around Tokoyami, forcing the dark shadow user to coat himself in his quirk. "Dark Shadow, remember the anime we watched about stands? Protect me like that. I can't move that fast but you can and since we're linked by brain waves, when I notice where he is with my haki, attack." Tokoyami instructed.
"Sure." His quirk responded as Kaminari stopped his loop to run and punch Tokoyami.
"Stop this!" The blonde yelled while crashing his fist into Dark Shadow's hand.
Unfortunately, Dark Shadow wasn't able to stop the punch and sent him and Tokoyami flying into the wall behind them allowing Denki to catch up and throw many lightning-fast punches at the pair.
"Ack!" Tokoyami coughed, trying to hold onto his consciousness.
"Sorry, I forgot my gloves sends out electrical impulses every time I make contact with you. I just hit you with eighteen... no twenty-two lightning-fast punches, my bad I should've held back. Anyway, give up!" Denki rambled, annoying the disoriented Fumikage.
"I give up, just shut up."
"ALRIGHT!"
Winner: Electro
Next to the pair, the arena next to them was empty as Kirishima had already beaten Sero
Winner: Red Riot
Next to the empty arena, Kyoka could be seen leaving it as she had defeated Koda with a barrage of her new vibration gauntlet.
Winner: Earphone Jack
Dodging one of Shoji's arms, Sato cocked his fist back and punched Shoji into the wall behind him, knocking him out cold. "Alright!"
Winner: Sugarman
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"Well done to all of you for giving it your all in the first round. Those who will advance to the second round will be, Sato, Jiro, Kirishima, Kaminari, Bakugo, Ashido, Midoriya, Uraraka, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu. For those who lost and want to fight again, raise your hands." Aizawa asked, gaining a few hand raises. "So, Ida, Ojiro, Tsuyu and Tokoyami. I'll have those matches arranged for after the final round is done." He said, waiting for Cementoss to create new mini arenas for the students to fight in.
"So who will we be fighting this time?" Bakugo wondered.
"Your matchups are, Kaminari vs Sato, Ashido vs Jiro, Midoriya vs Kirishima, Bakugo vs Todoroki, Uraraka vs Yaoyorozu." He responded, making his students smile.
Looking at each other the two fiery boys grinned, "You ready to lose rich boy?!"
"I'd never lose to a spiky freak like you!" Todoroki retorted.
"The pair of you can wait, the arenas are almost done, once they are, you can fight until your heart is content." Aizawa interrupted, placing his hands on both of their shoulders.
Not too long after his words, Cementoss was finished with the arena's allowing the students to battle.
"Remember, fight with everything you have, treat this as a real fight, only pullback if it can be fatal." Aizawa reminded them, gaining a collective nod from his students. "Alright go and fight your hearts out!"
(How did you guys like the chapter? One thing I must ask you guys is, do you guys like the character arcs I've taken in the story and do you feel like I've been doing the characters justice in terms of their character arcs?
I intend on giving more people screen time as well... the final wars coming up and everyone is gonna have a role to some extent (not class b tho, they're erm...) but yeah I intend to give at least everyone some shine.
I'm here to tell you guys that we've entered the second half of the story. I have plans for the story, but I can't say what they are as I'll spoil it.
Just trust me, I'll make sure to keep up the work. Anyway, it's dinner time I'm out)