Yaoyorozu Momo's POV
Momo had just exited the change rooms in her Hero Costume, ready for a double lesson of Basic Heroics with All Might. Standing by herself in front of Ground Beta, their normal group training area, Momo waited patiently for her other classmates to finish getting dressed.
Briefly mulling over a homework assignment she'd been given earlier, Momo zoned out and conjured up hypotheses about what today's session might involve. With U.A.'s Heroing Course anything was possible, and it had become Momo's default thought to expect the unexpected.
An icy breeze whistled through the air, and Momo hugged her arms to her chest as she weighed up whether or not she should make herself something to keep her warm using her Quirk. With a disappointed sigh, Momo rationalised that she should save her stamina for the upcoming double.
A door swung closed behind her, and Momo turned around with a smile to greet whoever had come out. She blinked in shock as a pair of glittering crimson eyes met her own, but kept her faltering smile up as she politely inclined her head towards Ground Zero.
The Villain cocked his own head at her slightly, looking somewhat surprised himself, before nodding back and leaning against a nearby tree. Momo turned to the front once more, uncomfortable at exposing her back to such an accomplished Villain but doing it nonetheless.
This was day three of the transfer, and other than the small scuffle in the cafeteria, Ground Zero had been doing a good job of keeping his hands to himself. So far.
Momo, like most of her peers, had little against her new classmate. The Villain kept his space from everyone for sure, as he was doing to her now, but he was smart enough to keep up with classes. Momo, having been raised with high standards and expectations for both herself and others, respected that.
Though his manners were, well, essentially non-existent, she could accept anyone with an intellect keen enough to keep up with her and her morals. And even if they couldn't, Momo didn't really mind as long as they tried their hardest.
It wasn't as if he'd been brought here for no reason, and Momo frowned upon the people who had been scrutinising their new classmate so heavily. This was a rehabilitation programme if she'd heard correctly, and there was no way that Ground Zero would ever come to accept the rest of 1-A as his equals or friends if they never let him calm down.
If the environment Ground Zero found himself in was hostile and unwelcoming, how could anyone expect him to respond with anything other than a similar attitude? The base of any decent relationship was trust, and the given situation provided very little of it to begin with.
Momo sighed again, clenching her teeth as another gust of wind swept by, chilling her to the very marrow of her bones. Suddenly the sound of footsteps reached her ears, their shoes crunching against the ground heavily in the opposite direction of the change rooms.
Looking upwards curiously, Momo spotted two of her teachers and the Principal of her school. There stood All Might, Nezu, and surprisingly Mr Aizawa as well. Just as she began wondering what they were all doing here before Class 1-A was present the wind shifted direction, bringing the faint sounds of their voices to Momo's notice on a breath of wind.
"...It's a risk we're going to have to take if we want to know what he's capable of. We've got plenty of precautions in place which should assure your students safety, Aizawa. While I admire the intense urge to protect your students you harbour, surely you of all people should be able to see the potential this activity holds."
Silence settled over them, and Momo found herself straining to hear. Blinking in surprise at her own antics, she mentally scolded herself and restrained her urges. However, she couldn't help but hear the voice of who she assumed to be Principal Nezu as his squeaky voice started up once again.
"Putting him up against other people his age is the best way to measure his aptitude, you must understand that the possible threat your students are being faced with is well outweighed by this. And I'm sure you also know how highly I value my students safety, and how thought through I've made this plan. It's full-proof!"
"This is far from 'full-proof' Nezu, and you know it." Aizawa cut in gravely.
"Hm, perhaps that wasn't the best choice of words on my part, allow me to rephrase. While there are many things that could go wrong here, we also stand to gain a lot of information. Not to mention the fact that you cannot always keep Class 1-A out of harms way, especially since they will be dealing with similar situations on their own in the near future." Came Nezu's voice again as he looked up at the two men in front of him.
Information? What information? Where was it from, what was it about? And what situations were Momo and her friends going to have to be a part of soon?
"Ground Zero fighting the students is inevitable, I think we all know that, so I see it as better to have it happen here during lessons where they're all in a controllable environment. In order to avoid any unnecessary complications, L/N and Midoriya will be taken out of the equation and put on the side-lines to watch rather than having them partake." Nezu reasoned, stirring the liquid in the tea cup he held.
So they were talking about L/N and Midoriya-kun? But what did those two have to do with Ground Zero, specifically him fighting people?
"With all due respect, I must admit that I'm still not entirely sold on this idea myself, Nezu. My time limit is getting shorter by the day, and I'm not sure how efficient I'd be at this point." All Might finally spoke.
All Might? A time limit? What was this about?
"If all goes well nobody will have to step in. But this is the exact reason that the Police insisted on giving Ground Zero the shock collar; so that we can have interactive lessons like these with as few worries as possible." Nezu said quaintly.
And now they were back to Ground Zero again. Momo's teachers had covered a wide range of people in this conversation, and the only way Momo could see them being connected coherently was if they were all closely linked. But no, that didn't make any sense. Momo was just jumping to conclusions, that's all.
"That torture device was just another horrible way to-"
"Aizawa." All Might warned.
"I strongly disagree with the Departments choice of action to do with the dog collar the boy is wearing as well, as I've had personal experience with humans forcing such things on others. At the moment all we can do to try and change that is attempt to keep Ground Zero on his best behaviour without it so that we can coax them into letting us take it off him permanently."
Nezu paused, letting his fellow teachers take in the information.
"But more to the point, as it is, U.A. and our staff still have a very rough idea of what Ground Zero is capable of. In order to change this low level of knowledge, us teachers have had to come up with a somewhat risky plan. If you can think of an alternative that will achieve the same things on the spot I'd be happy to hear it Aizawa, but otherwise we have no choice other than to let Ground Zero face off against Class 1-A."
Momo's mouth fell agape and her homeroom teacher happened to look away from the Principal in disapproval, noticing her. Aizawa's eyes narrowed as she hastily averted her gaze and rearranged her features, schooling them into a neutral and oblivious look.
Unfortunately, Momo had always been taught that concealing the truth from others was a completely and utterly detestable method of deception. This wasn't a problem in itself, but had resulted in her never really learning how to hide her reactions from the people around her. Momo displayed her thoughts and feelings for everyone to see, just like she wore her heart on her sleeve.
But her lying skills, or rather her lack of them, had given her away. With a lowered voice that Momo could no longer decipher, Aizawa muttered something to his fellow teachers and they all moved subtly away.
Twining a lock of inky hair through her fingers, Momo risked a quick glance behind her. As he stood in their school's standard P.E. uniform, Ground Zero looked like nothing more than an average U.A. student.
The Villain was staring off to the side, looking blankly into the distance with his brows drawn together. Had he heard what Aizawa and Nezu had said? Momo wasn't sure. As if sensing her watching him Ground Zero's glare snapped back up and Momo once more averted her gaze, but not before she noticed the quizzical contemplation hiding behind his eyes.
That did at least answer one of her many questions; that Ground Zero had overheard. But now for the important ones, like why her teachers would even consider making Momo and her class fight a Villain where it could be avoided. Although Principal Nezu had explained his thinking just before and it was reasonably sound, Momo wasn't convinced.
But to have Ground Zero face off against all twenty-one of them...Surely even they knew that was an unreasonable and unfair match. Unless...Momo felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather creep down her spine as the words of her teacher echoed inside her head.
"Even for those who got in on individual recommendations, it is more than likely that you would not win in combat against him."
Perhaps it wouldn't be an unfair fight after all. But that didn't change the fact that it was a very extreme and severe risk for U.A. to be taking. Then again, they had Aizawa-Sensei on standby, the shock collar clasped firmly around Ground Zero's neck, and other Pro Heroes one call away on emergency dial.
However, even that couldn't completely ease Momo's worries.
— — —
When the rest of Class 1-A has assembled in the meeting area, Aizawa's repeated what Nezu had said. None of this was news to her, but Momo's blood still ran cold when her teacher's monotonous voice announced it once again and sealed her fate.
Part of her had hoped that she'd miss-heard earlier on, or that Aizawa-Sensei had convinced his colleagues to let them off the hook for this, but Momo knew she was being unreasonable. This wasn't how she normally faced her problems; trying to find ways of quitting or being exempt from participation and hiding behind other people.
No, Momo would deal with this head on like a Hero would. After all, Ground Zero was just one boy against a close knit class of powerful people. How badly could it go wrong, in the end? What was the worst that could happen?