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-(Y/N)'s POV-
Gone. The two villains who I'd have liked to put under Eiji's control... were gone.
"Damn it," I muttered, moving over to the centre of the USJ. "Stupid warp gate!"
"(Y/N)!" Chiyori shouted, running over to me before I even made it half way to where everyone else was grouping up. "Are you okay!? You-"
"-are fine," I said to cut her off as she looked me to check for the injuries I already undid. I could still feel something akin to phantom pains from the memory of the physical shock, but there was nothing wrong with me. "You know nothing bad ever happens to me for long. You know that, right?" Chiyori didn't answer and kept looking me over, moving around me until I felt her lean on my back.
"I know..." I heard, barely a whisper. "You fixed me as well, remember? But that didn't stop me from being scared for you..." I was about to turn around, but I felt her hands start shaking a bit as her voice wavered. "If you hadn't been able to say anything, you wouldn't be able to fix yourself. Rin was fixing herself and too far away to help, and Eiji isn't all that good at healing. And I... I can't do anything." At this, I turned to face her, bringing us both to sit on the floor.
"That's not quite right," I started, but she didn't want to listen.
"It is! I couldn't do anything! Midoriya, Tsu, and Mineta were the ones who got us out of the shipwreck zone. Aizawa held off the villains alone until you-"
"-until we," I corrected. "You helped with the fight as well, and were the first to come with me, even though straight fights aren't your thing."
"I dealt with one guy," she argued, small tears starting to show on her face. "You... and Eiji... Rin... Midoriya and the others..."
"All fought for our lives against villains," I told her, "like you did. If you're fussed about how many people you dealt with, Hagakure just sat by, invisible, while I fought some big guy with bone armour. I don't think she fought anyone."
I wiped the tears away from her face and brought her close for a hug. "Chiyori, you've been someone who's been with us from the start. You can fight when you need to, but even if you didn't get much chance to fight today, I'd say that's a good thing. It means there was little chance of you getting hurt."
"But that doesn't stop you from getting hurt," she said, muffled from the fact that she was burying her face in my chest. "You get into more fights than even Eiji does, and he can stop anything he wants. I... I just don't want you getting hurt, but you jump into fights like that anyway. Usually, your fine, but that thing..." she pulled away and looked at the 'Nomu' that was still locked by Eiji.
"Yeah, that was a surprise," I admitted, "but it's dealt with. I'm not putting it past them to have more, but we can clearly deal with them."
"Eiji can deal with them," she corrected.
"And I can undo any damages they cause. Rin can heal anyone I can't reach, and you can work with us all, as the coordinator. That's what we had planned, right?" I asked, reminding her of our plan for a hero agency. She nodded, but still looked a little unsure. I stood and pulled her to her feet, smiling at her as we rose. "Come one then. We still have to graduate before we become heroes."
And speaking of heroes, they had arrived. The pros had started rounding up the many, many villains that Eiji had locked down. Midnight, Snipe, Ectoplasm, Present Mic, Power Loader. Possibly others, but I couldn't see them from where Chiyori and I were stood. All Might was probably here somewhere, but I wasn't sure which form he'd be in.
Everyone in our class was asked to gather outside, where we met a detective.
"Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four," the detective counted, looking at a wad of papers. "And no injuries among any of you. Considering what you just went though, that's seriously impressive."
"Ojiro," I heard Hagakure say beside me. "I heard you were fired up this time. You were strong by yourself, huh?"
"I thought everyone was by themselves," Ojiro mentioned, seeming to feel a bit awkward that he was being singled out and praised for what he did. "Where were you, Hagakure?"
"In the landslide area," she answered, pointing at me and Todoroki. "Todoroki was really strong, and (Y/N) knocked out this big guy bare handed. I was surprised!"
"Anyway, I'm glad you weren't hurt," Ojiro smiled, while I looked to my left at the red and white haired boy.
"You had no idea she was there, did you?" I asked.
"Not a clue," he answered. "You?"
"Only after I finished fighting. It took a second for me to notice her, even after she called out to me."
"I guess that's just a problem with an invisibility quirk," he mentioned, and I nodded in agreement.
I noticed the stupid glittering, spinning outfit of Aoyama, who was trying to get people's attention on him. It wasn't working.
"Do you think that he'll keep that up for long?" Rin asked.
"Probably until someone actually asks him about where he was, so... yes," I answered. "Anyone know where he was?"
"Nope. I didn't even see him as I flew over everything," Eiji noted. "For someone who shines that much, it's a bit surprising how easy it is to ignore him."
"Where do you think I was?" Aoyama asked Asui, who hadn't anyone to talk to.
"Where?" she asked, likely just to be nice.
"It's a secret!" Glitter boy announced, making us all face palm.
"Let's have the students return to their classroom for now," the detective said, getting everyone's attention far better than a glittering outfit could. "We won't be questioning them right away, anyway, right?"
"Actually, I'd like to talk to a few of them first," Nezu said, bring carrier to us by Aizawa. It wasn't unexpected, all things considered. "Hoshimiya, Kurenai, Chiyori, and (Y/N). Come with me please." He was carried away by the tired teacher, leaving the four of us to glance at each other and follow.
"Before the principal starts, I'm going to tell you that I took Kurenai's advice," Aizawa told us once we were out of earshot of the rest of our classmates. A considerable distance, mind you, with Jiro and Shoji's quirks among them. "I'm giving you four detentions for putting yourself in unnecessary risks." Stunned silence followed. I didn't expect that. I, along with Eiji and Chiyori, turned and glared at Rin, who was looking away. "But, you did well today," Aizawa continued, smiling. "Better than anyone could ask for."
"And on that note," Nezu started, "I want to talk to you about your analysis on what happened. You took notes, I'm sure." I smirked and recounted everything I remembered, from the combat level of the grunts to the seeming amount of planning for the attack.
"That's... concerning," Nezu muttered. "A warp quirk is rare, and having one among an organisation of villains makes it impossible to track them. And this 'Nomu' creature..."
"It's locked in place, but it hasn't tried fighting against my Order since the two villains escaped," Eiji explained. "Not that it could, but people tend to try struggling when they suddenly find themselves immobile." Nezu nodded, understanding.
"Bio-engineering, you said? It's possible that it was designed to take orders," Nezu suggested. "And a quirk?"
"We aren't sure," Rin said. "It was strong enough to match All Might, I'm sure, but whether that was via a quirk or just engineered, we can't tell."
"Principal," the detective said, walking over to us, "we would like to investigate every corner of the school, just in case."
"Of course!" Nezu answered. "Some police might complain, but you police have more authority. Investigating is what you're good at. I'm counting on you!" The detective put his hat on and turned away
"Teams, proceed with the investigation of the school!"
"Police," I muttered. "Great."
"Not a fan?" Nezu asked.
"They're good people who do good jobs," Chiyori explained. "It's just that our many experiences with police usually involve running from them."
"Ah, right," our principal realised.
The sun was setting when we made it back to the school. We were all asked to head back to class. The day had nothing left in it that was eventful, so the four of us just went home when we could. And quite frankly, as today involved the first big fight we've had in a while, we were all quite tired. We had something to eat and sat down to relax.
"Well... that was something," I said, stretching back on the couch.
"'Something' is definitely the right word," Eiji agreed, sitting on the chair across from me. "Villains, villains, and more villains."
"Though most of them weren't anything to worry about," Rin noted from the chair next to Eiji. "I took out six in the storm zone before I met up with Koda and Tokoyami. Did you know Dark Shadow is stupidly strong in the dark. He's a bit wild when that happens, but he's strong."
"I think everyone in our class is strong," Chiyori realised, curling up next to me. "I didn't think it, but even Mineta was able to trap ten? fifteen? villains when given the chance."
"Hagakure asked me to help her work on a fighting style," I mused. "Invisible fighters. On our side is good, but I'm not sure how we're meant to fight someone like that."
"Invisibility, super strength, explosions, ice and fire, acid, sound, lasers," Rin listed. "I guess there's a lot of strong powers in our class.
"And you ignored the strongest..." Eiji prompted, smirking at us. To his annoyance, we ignored him like he said, staying quiet for ten minutes before he gave up waiting. "Me! It's me, okay? Me!" We laughed a bit at his frustration, even though we did exactly what he said. We ignored him, as he was technically the strongest of our class.
Rin's laugh turned into a yawn, and she decided that it was time to sleep. I then realised that when we laughed, Chiyori didn't, and looked over to see her asleep on my shoulder.
"Heh," Eiji smirked, taking a picture of us with his phone. "What's this (Y/N)?" Despite his teasing, I smiled slightly.
"To be decided when one of us isn't unconscious," I told him. "But it seems that my bed for tonight is this couch."
"You sure?" Rin asked. "I can move you to our room if you want."
"Thanks, but it'll be fine." I pulled a mechanism on the side of the couch, and the front of it moved forward into a footrest position and the back fell backwards, making a bed out of the couch.
"You know, I didn't think that was going to be useful when we got it, but now..." Eiji trailed off as he and Rin left. "I'll grab you a blanket."
Later that night, I got a sudden spike of feeling and images flickering through my head that woke me up. I saw the Nomu and myself, and witnessed my body getting flung by a backhand until I could barely be seen. It woke me from what I admit was a rather unpleasant dream, so I wasn't too fussed about that part. What I was fussed about, however, was where the spike came from. My eyes snapped open at the same time I felt Chiyori's weight lift itself from my chest, where she had positioned herself while asleep. She was breathing quickly, and I sat up with her as she calmed down. When she turned and saw me, she dived at me and hugged me, burying her face in my chest again, as she did at the USJ.
"I'm fine," I whispered to her, already knowing what her nightmare was of. "I'm fine." She didn't say anything. She didn't move. I Visited Eiji and Rin as well, as they had also been woken up and were confused. When I came back to my perspective, I couldn't tell if Chiyori had fallen asleep again or not, so I just sat there, holding onto her for the rest of the night. I had to wait two hours for it to be time for everyone to wake up, but I was fine with it.
"Good morning," I said, seeing Chiyori opening her eyes and sitting up. She was still lying against my chest, so I was expecting some kind of reaction to appear in a few seconds.
"Mhm... mornin'," she mumbled sleepily, looking around with half closed eyes. "This isn't my room... is it?"
"No, this is the couch. You fell asleep here, on my shoulder," I told her, and watched her attention focus in an instant. Her eyes opened fully and locked onto me, seeing me in the same clothes as last night. Her face went red and she froze, not moving an inch until she decided to leave. It didn't even take her three seconds to run out of the room after jumping to her feet, leaving me on the couch to smile at the sight.
"She's a bit more energetic than usual," Eiji pointed out as he entered the living room, hair still wet from the early shower he took. "How long did it take her to figure out?"
"Only a second after she realised I was here," I said, standing up and putting the couch back to normal. "Though, I did say good morning to her as she woke up, so it took her longer than I expected to notice me." Eiji chuckled a bit as he moved to the kitchen to make breakfast.
While that was happening, Rin was hogging the shower, so I had to resort to using my Order to undo the effect that yesterday had on me and my clothes.
"You realise that's a bit gross, right?" Eiji asked as he worked.
"There's not much I can do about it," I responded. "We both know Rin will take forever in there. Chiyori doesn't take long, but put both of them together, and it'll be time to go before I get my turn. Besides, it's not like I've never caught you doing something similar with Bind Dominator." At my argument, he shrugged and focused on the eggs he was frying.
"This is a follow up on yesterday's incident at the UA rescue training facility, where hero course students were attacked by villains," a reporter announced on the news. I had the news page open on my phone as we walked towards the school, checking for how this was being handled. Any announcement of a villain with a warp quirk would cause worry and fear to spread around Japan, especially if they're targeting heroes. "According to police investigation, the criminals call themselves 'The League of Villains' and have been plotting to kill All Might, who has been teaching at UA since spring this year. Police have arrested seventy two villains, but they still do not know the whereabouts of their ringleader."
"Ooh! That was me! That was me!" Eiji laughed after they announced the number of villains caught.
"Not all of them!" Rin argued back. "I took out six of them by myself, and more with the other two I met up with." I nodded in agreement.
"While they aren't heroes, our class had the strength to capture and incapacitate the vast majority of those they fought," I reminded the boy. "You just played round up with those who weren't staying down."
"Which was still a lot, yeah?" Eiji prompted, and I had to give him that one. Over half of the villains were still active, especially those in the shipwreck and fire zones, so he dealt with most of them himself. Then there's the Nomu, which I noticed was left out of the report as well.
"Hey, do you think the heroes in our school went over what we know of the attack last night?" Chiyori asked as we entered the school building.
"Oh, definitely. They'd be fools not to," I replied. "Disintegration, teleportation, and whatever made that Nomu... while what that 'Shigaraki' guy did at the end seemed a lot like a child's tantrum, I can't deny he's got power, backing, and something about him that let him gather over seventy villains to charge recklessly at the USJ."
"Was it reckless though?" Rin wondered. "Eiji... that Nomu thing..."
"It could have fought toe to toe against All Might, easy," he confirmed. "That speed, the strength it showed, and possibly a quirk that wasn't shown..."
"If it has a quirk, I don't think it'll be a complex one," I said, looking back on the little info we have on the creature. "It took orders and was, apparently, bio-engineered. I don't think it has the will to activate emitter type quirks, or even transformation types. It's probably limited to mutation quirks."
And on that note, we made it to our class. Everyone was already inside, and we were just waiting on Aizawa.
"Yo!" Kirishima called as we entered. "Don't you guys live next to the school? How come you're usually the last to arrive?" he asked as we approached.
"Because we live next to the school," Rin answered. "We don't have to get up early and rush around to catch a train or bus."
"Lucky, kero," Asui said, trying to fix part of her hair. "I don't get much time to get ready."
"Nah, me neither. Must be nice, getting to rest for longer before school," Kirishima mused. Not exactly a part of the conversation, Eiji, Chiyori, and I made our way to our seats while Rin stayed with the rock and the frog.
There were a number of conversations going on before classes started. I heard Hagakure complain about not standing out when the class got shown on screen during the initial news broadcast last night on the attack. Granted, a floating pair of gloves can be hard to see, but I'm pretty sure someone would have noticed her. She was right at the front of the crowd, after all.
"Who knows what would've happened if the heroes hadn't come... or if Hoshimiya didn't have such an absurd ability," Sero mentioned, which got a loud reaction from the grape.
"Stop that, Sero!" Mineta shouted, seeming close to tears at the thought. "Just thinking about it's making me wet myself—"
"Shut up!" Bakugo yelled, having quickly grown tired of Mineta's crying. The unlucky green haired boy was in the middle of shouter and shoutee, however, and got massively startled in the process. "Be quiet, scum!" I couldn't fault Bakugo's labelling of the grape. In all honesty, I was wondering why he was here.
"Everyone, homeroom is about to start!" Iida called, running to the front of the class. "Stop talking and take your seats!" He was then called out on being the only one not in their seat, and returned to his desk with an irritated face.
"He really tries to be a good leader, doesn't he?" Chiyori asked. I nodded.
"But he's a bit... I want to say 'strict'... especially on himself," I responded. "He's not bad. Just enthusiastic."
As per Iida's message, homeroom was starting. The door to class opened, revealing our still tired, but uninjured, thanks to Rin's on-site healing, teacher.
"Morning," he greeted, walking slowly to his stand. I'm going to get straight into things. Your fight is not yet over." His wording made mutters sprout around the room, each student thinking something along the lines of 'Villain'. "The UA sports festival is drawing near."
""That's a super normal school event!!""
Most of the class shouted what I can assume was a mix of relief and excitement at our teacher's words.
"Wait a minute," Kaminari cut off, putting his hand in Kirishima's face to stop his shouting. Once that happened, everyone calmed down and too a second to think.
"Is it okay to have a sports festival so soon after the villains snuck inside?" Jiro asked, raiding a vilid concern. Holding this event is like opening the doors for people to enter school property without issue.
"What if they attack us again or something..?" Ojiro continued.
"Apparently, they think of it as UA showing that our crisis management system is as solid as a rock by holding the event," Aizawa explained. "Security will also be strengthened to five times that of previous years. Above all, our sports festival is a huge chance. It's not an event to be cancelled because of a few villains."
"But that's a good reason isn't it?" Mineta complained, clearly not liking this idea. "It's just a festival of sports."
"Mineta, the sports festival has turned into the event, after quirks made the Olympics invalid, unfair, and generally boring for the vast majority of Japan," I told him, aware that the class had stopped and focused on me. "It something that the majority of people watch for a few reasons. The main one, however, is that we're demonstrating our strength, as the next generation of pro heroes. We're making them feel secure. But that doesn't mean they can't just enjoy watching as well."
"I know. That's not what I meant..." Mineta tried cutting in.
"Of course, all the top heroes from around the country will be watching," Yaoyorozu continued, pumping herself up for the event. "For scouting purposes!"
"I know that..." the grape boy muttered.
"After we graduate, it's typical to join a pro agency as a sidekick," Kaminari moved on, ignoring the muttering of Mineta.
"A lot of people miss their chance to become independent after that and become eternal sidekicks, though. Kaminari, I feel like you'd be one of them. Since you're dumb," Jiro verbally jabbed.
"Of course, joining a famous hero agency will get you more experience and popularity," Aizawa said. "Time is limited. If you expect to go pro, then the path to the future will open up at this event. One chance a year... a total of just three chances." Everyone looked serious, ready to jump at the chances their teacher mentioned. "No aspiring heroes can afford to miss this event. If you understand that, then don't slack off on your preparations!" Aizawa ordered.
""Yes, sir!""
"Homeroom is dismissed."
At lunch time, the class was still buzzing about the sports festival.
"Even after everything that happened, I'm really getting excited!" Kirishima shouted after Cementoss left the class.
"If you put on a good show and stand out, we'll have taken the first step to becoming pro!" Sero said, with just as much enthusiasm. Other conversations were going on like that as well, discussing how well people'll stand out during the event.
"Do you think we'll need to stand out, then?" Chiyori asked as we stood to leave for the cafeteria. "I mean, we're going to split off on our own once we graduate, right?"
"It's still good to have work experience beforehand, though," Rin responded. "Getting scouted gives chances to make connections with agencies, and get used to working as an actual agency, and not just as vigilantes like we've been doing."
"Though the making connections thing is something we can start doing in class, as well," I said as we approached some of the people we've gotten used to being around.
"Everyone's so into it," Midoriya muttered, looking around the class.
"You're not?" Iida asked. "We enrolled here to become heroes, so of course we would get fired up!" Apparently, Iida's version of 'getting fired up' involved weird movements that made him look like he's dancing... badly. I clearly wasn't the only one who thought so.
"Iida, you have a unique way of getting fired up. It's weird," Asui mentioned with wide eyes... though I couldn't tell if that's just how they are normally or if she's surprised.
"Midoriya, you don't feel the same?" the engine boy continued like nothing had been said.
"About your weird method of self encouragement or that the sports festival is a big deal?" Eiji asked, making everyone realise that we were here.
"Deku, Iida, everyone..." we all heard from behind Midoriya. "Let's do our best at the sports festival," Uraraka 'encouraged' with the most pumped up, yet possibly restrained, attitude of us all. At this point, it probably wouldn't be strange for her to start manifesting an aura if this was an anime.
"U-Uraraka, your face..! It's..." Midoriya stuttered, his knowledge of our language failing him.
"What's the matter?" Ashido asked. "You don't look carefree at all, even though that's what your name means." Mineta blushed a bit at a thought he had.
"PM-" he started, but was slapped in the face by Asui, who had taken it upon herself to act as Mineta's filter.
"Everyone, I'm gonna do my best!" Uraraka yelled with a fist in the air, receiving a chorus of 'Yeah!'s in response. And when some people didn't respond, she turned on them with crazy eyes and repeated herself. "I'm gonna do my best!"
""Y-Yeah..."" some of the guys echoed after a moment's hesitation. Uraraka then noticed the silence of us Orders.
"I'm gonna do my best!" she shouted again, getting closer to us until she shouted in our faces. I faced away and covered my ears.
"First off, ow..." I started, but went on as I saw her ready to shout again. "Second, Eiji?"
"Order," he responded, taking a deep breath in. "YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" The shout was amplified, but blocked from our ears. Everyone else, bar Uraraka, who seemed like she found it acceptable, covered their ears and leaned away from the noise.
"What the hell!?" Bakugo shouted from across the room. "Why are you trying to act like Mic?!" Eiji, however, just laughed.
Over lunch, we sat with Uraraka, Iida, and Midoriya.
"So... what was that about in the classroom?" I asked Uraraka after we sat down. "And don't say that you're just going do your best," I continued, trying to prevent another shouting situation. It didn't seem like that was going to happen anyway though, since she didn't seem to have an answer.
"How about... why did you want to become a hero?" Midoriya asked, trying a different angle.
"Huh? Um... because..." she stuttered.
"For money?!" Midoriya nearly shouted in surprise.
"Real subtle," I muttered, a bit conflicted at Uraraka's reasoning, as were the other Orders.
"To boil it down simply, yes..." she admitted, scratching the back of her head. "Sorry it's such an unwholesome reason. It really doesn't sound much like a hero's reason, does it?" she glanced towards me, remembering my definition of a hero, which is what most of the class remembered me for.
"Why? How is having a goal to support your livelihood not admirable?" Iida asked, trying to reassure the girl.
"Right," Midoriya agreed. "But it's unexpected."
"My family owns a construction company, but we haven't gotten any work at all, so we're flat broke," Uraraka explained as we ate. "This isn't really something to tell other people, though..."
"Haven't you offered your own quirk to help?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure quirk usage is legal if used in certain areas of business as long as it's green lit by the government first. Construction should be easy for you, and costs of lifting equipment would disappear."
"Right? That's what I told Dad when I was little!" Uraraka exclaimed, but she quickly went back to showing her sad and unsure side. "But Dad wanted me to do something that I wanted, instead of trying to help the failing business." Then her seriousness came back, if only in a reduced state. But this time, it felt more real. Not like the over enthusiastic shouting back in the classroom. "So I'll definitely become a hero and make money and let my parents take it easy."
There was a short silence that followed. Both Midoriya and Iida had a feeling of pride around them, but I noticed that multiple inquisitive gazes were on me. I felt a feeling from Rin, Chiyori, and Eiji... one that I had already felt myself. Acknowledgment.
I stood, having finished eating, and looked towards the Orders.
"I'll go on ahead, see if I can start planning a training schedule for the festival," I told them, picking up my tray. "Midoriya, Iida, I'll see you in class." The two nodded, looking slightly confused at my lack of response. "And Uraraka..." she looked at me, expectant, but nervous. I raised my fist into the air.
"... We're going to do our best, right? Hero?" I asked her, to which she smiled widely and nodded.
"Yeah!"
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A far, far shorter chapter published later than I intended, simply because college is being a pain. That, and the first episode of season 2 is mainly flashbacks and that one "Midoriya-All Might" talk. It was a pain to write, and feels weird to end the chapter with it being so short (which is probably why I'm writing this note), but ah well...