Chapter 24
'Let's play a game' their teacher had said.
'It was going to be fun' Mina had laughed.
'How bad could it really be?' Hagakure had cautiously reasoned after Momo reminded them of the past.
It turned out that,
bring the traumatised civilians to safety while being hunted by a flying sniper, was a lot less pleasant in reality.
Really, Ochako should have expected nothing less from this school. Anyone who worked here appeared to be either moderately insane or just plain sadistic. Although she understood on an intellectual level that this was probably an effective teaching method, her lizard brain did not respond well to getting nailed in the head by bullets that looked like they could kill if used incorrectly.
"Uraraka out! Don't forget to look ahead! Back to the starting position!" yelled their diminutive blond torturer from the rooftop across the street while she was still busy rubbing her aching chest.
Idly Ochako picked up the plastic ball that had sent her sprawling on the asphalt and once again wondered how the hell their teacher had learned to shoot a gun so well. That didn't even have anything to do with her quirk! This was such bullshit.
Yes, she said it…
Still, she stood up without complaint and hobbled back to the starting line. If this was how she could grow stronger, braver,
better, then she would take it! She was not going to get saved again! Instead one day she was the one who was going to save everybody!
Well, she wouldn't mind getting saved by Deku... but that was a thought for later, she blushingly thought.
Somewhere in the concrete jungle behind her, she faintly heard another shout:
"Kaminari out! What were you thinking? When I allowed you to attack me, I meant without huge collateral damage! This technique could have seriously hurt anyone in the building! I am not the only one touching that metal! Nonetheless, good creative thinking. I want to see more of that in the future! Just think about the consequences more often. Back to the starting position!"
Honestly she was kind of glad for the progress that the ditzy electro quirk user made in the last few weeks. He still fried his higher cognitive functions on occasion, but he was overall a lot more mindful of his power output as a result of his training with Snipe. Despite not being allowed to bring his weird mini railgun to the exercise – because nobody trusted him enough with the thing yet to not accidentally shoot someone – he had done well so far.
Her invisible friend Hagakure was unsurprisingly in the lead as she could simply check every street before carrying the doll that represented a civilian over to the next hideout. If Ochako remembered the callouts correctly then her easily hideable classmate had already saved
four disaster victims!
She needed to do better! There was no way she was not going to get at least in the top five!
"Attention class! You have fifteen minutes left! Thirty three civilians remain unsecured!" droned Argent's announcement from the speakers around the training facility.
Something in that sentence gave Ochako pause, but she couldn't put her finger on why it was so strange. There was an underlying message here, she was sure of it...
As she looked at the waiting crowd of white mannequins sitting at the starting area, it struck her. A child-sized puppet seemed to clutch what could be seen as its mother, either due to random chance or careful positioning. Of course these were mere objects, but they represented living, breathing humans and had to be treated as such. Ultimately this game was designed to demonstrate necessary skills for their actual hero careers!
This was just like the entrance exam! Everyone had been too focused on defeating the robots back then to notice the hidden rescue point system. In a way, this test was the opposite of that, because now everybody was only attempting rescue without much fighting and most importantly without working together!
Teamwork was a core tenant of hero work, wasn't it?
And the rules never said that they couldn't help each other...
So why
shouldn't they do it?
If she treated this situation like she would in reality, then every single person that got left behind was a tragedy; a stain on her conscience that she could never forgive herself. By letting these people 'die', the whole class would lose!
Frantically Ochako looked around for any other participants that could share her plan with. Spotting three of her classmates who were catching their breath or picking up more mannequins, she gathered her resolve and hastily approached them.
'What would Deku do?' she asked herself.
The answer was obvious:
Find a way their individual strengths synergized together!
~[#҈#]~
Tanya walked with purposeful slowness across the flat roof, averting her eyes from the darkened side-streets to give her students some modicum of opportunity. Destroying all their hopes instantly might be weirdly entertaining and filter out the truly great among them, but her goal was to give every one of these children the chance to prove themselves. This wasn't war and despite their demanding training she was never cruel to them.
At least she hoped so.
Maybe she was slightly overestimating them.
"Mineta, stop crying! You are not wounded! Mineta!"
As the small crumpled form of the boy didn't stop shaking and writhing on the floor, she sighed and floated to the ground. Hopefully his pain tolerance was just really low and he wasn't actually injured. She had been careful to adjust the air pressure in her gun to only hurt moderately, but perhaps she had gotten unlucky and messed up her aim last second.
"Mineta? Can you hear me? If you can't say me what's wrong I will-"
"Argh!" screamed the purple-haired child and threw himself at her.
Instinctively she wanted to push him away, but her concern for his wellbeing stayed her hand. Too late did she notice the characteristic fuzzy balls in his grip.
Silence reigned over the training ground.
"I- I did it!" Mineta cheered, unaware of her icy glare. Smiling, he looked up and immediately froze as he met her contemptuous gaze.
"What I said to Kaminari applies to you as well,
Mineta. I value your creativity, but if you just stopped a moment to think about the unbelievable level of idiocy you just committed then we wouldn't be here."
"Uh-uhm..." he stuttered, unable to move under the pressure of Tanya's irritation.
Four of his quirk-produced sticky balls were glueing her feet to the pavement, but with a casual flicker of her power two golden energy barriers cut
into the street around them and simply lifted the whole chunk thirty centimetres into the air.
It had taken some experimentation on her part to find out what Being X did to her quirk, but it seemed that with some willpower her force fields cut turn 'static' for lack of a better term. They were distant and fuzzy in her awareness, but she also had not to expend any conscious effort to keep them up. Even travelling nearly a kilometre away from their location had not been able to dispel them so far. These golden barriers could exist without energy supply from her quirk apparently and paradoxically were much stronger for it.
From her casual test they behaved around twice as resistant to physical trauma as her standard silver fields. Their biggest downside however was that it took far longer for them to be created or modified. As such, flying with them would be somewhat unwieldy, preventing her from making sharp movements and sometimes painfully limiting her mobility. Nonetheless, moulding them to her will was a technique she was keen on training in the future. The permanent shields' natural golden colour appeared to be the only constant that she could not change.
"Your tactic to delay me was completely ineffective and if this wasn't a training exercise you would be dead. While I can appreciate you standing up for your colleagues and trying to immobilize a dangerous villain, suicidal bravery is not a virtue."
And with these scathing words she shot him again from point blank range, just to hammer her point home. Of course she aimed at where his costume was thickest, but it still had to hurt.
"Back to the sta-"
Unimpressed she dodged the second attack as well as she was able to with her feet stuck to her floating platform. Asui's inhumanly long tongue harmlessly passed by her face, but curled up in the last moment to wrap around Tanya's left arm which she had stretched out to keep her equilibrium. If not for the reflection in a nearby window front, she would have missed it.
Not wanting to hurt her student, she resolved herself to merely pulling at the fleshy organ with regular strength. The froglike girl had obviously planned for this though as her powerful legs catapulted her towards Argent's position, taking advantage of her off balance state.
Summoning a standard silver shield to stop the flying girl from kicking her skull in, Tanya was once again surprised by
another student trying to nail her from a blind spot. Two large boulders were hurtling at her torso, temporarily suspended from gravity which was undoubtedly Uraraka's work.
Secretly Tanya was quite pleased by the creative teamwork of A-1. To fool her twice in the span of a minute and defy her previous expectations by hunting for her directly was commendable. After smacking Bakugou out of the sky so spectacularly at the start of the lesson she had not anticipated such a brazen assault.
Shattering these giant projectiles was easy, but the fact that she needed to split her attention between two sides gave the whole thing some challenge. Compared to getting swarmed by hundreds of Keigo's razor sharp feathers however it was nothing.
Asui attempted to fling herself around the barrier using her tongue only to crash into a third one that instantly winked out of existence to prevent the girl from cutting her flesh on its edge. Nevertheless her momentum got completely arrested and she unceremoniously fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
To her credit, she managed to roll with it and get to her feet quickly, doing the smart thing and backing off to a more sensible distance in order to collect her bearings and find a new strategy. Tanya approved.
Mineta cried out unintelligibly and threw himself off her platform, drawing the hero's awareness to the point above her head that he had been fearfully staring at. Trusting her intuition, she put up two barriers in the general space over her. In the next moment she was very glad that she did.
The highest shield strained and shattered a mere second afterwards which left her to stare incredulously at the dumpster resting on top of her second energy field. Uraraka's quirk could be extremely troublesome with the right applications for even a small object would flatten her if it got dropped from low orbit. Maybe it would also inconvenience All Might.
"Very good!" Tanya called out to where she thought the gravity manipulator was hiding. "Just be mindful that this trick could kill villains if you miscalculate the mass or altitude!"
No answer returned which was sensible. They were still training after all.
"You know what, Sensei? You have no chance of beating us, ribbit."
Humouring Asui, she raised an eyebrow and pointedly checked over the drum of her air gun.
"And why is that?"
"Because we are too many, ribbit."
"That hasn't stopped me before."
To illustrate her superiority in this engagement she raised her faux weapon and lazily aimed at the greenette, giving off a shot that sent the froggy girl hopping for cover. It was important to instil a distinct respect for firearms in these children before their arrogant overreliance on natural mutations got them killed.
"Ribbit. We will win, Miss Degurechaff!"
Mmmhh... Why was the normally stoic Asui so insistent on carrying on a useless conversation?
"Are you trying to distract me again?" Tanya asked amusedly.
"Yes, Miss Argent! So far it's working, ribbit!"
"Very well."
Of course foiling their plan now would be child's play, but it was both her duty and her pleasure to see what her students came up with. Giving them the opportunity to work together and grow beyond their previous limitations was what this was all about after all. Denying them here would not meaningfully teach them anything besides the obvious: Announcing a secret made it not secret anymore.
However that did not mean that she would sit still and take it.
"And why are you wasting time then? Shouldn't you attack me? Else I might just fly off..."
"We are waiting for reinforcements, ribbit. You told us to always have someone watching our backs, ribbit!" called Asui from behind a car she was using to hide.
"Right..."
To incite more urgency in her students she slowly willed her power to move her platform up, keeping an eye out for more of Uraraka's projectiles in the meantime. That was how she spotted a green blur rocketing towards her, although the accompanying scream of "Austin Smash!" made missing it all but impossible.
While forming three layers of golden shields at the last second, strangely all Tanya could wonder was:
'Isn't that trademarked?'
Brutally, Midoriya's fist crushed into her protections, demolishing two and finally stopping at the last one. Tanya grinned appreciatively. It was flattering that they came at her with everything they got, testing their super moves against her experience and not holding back in the slightest, just as it should be. Her class was treating this seriously, proving their dedication to the training.
In honour of their commitment she squashed her smirk and adopted her instructor voice once more:
"I hope you did not break your bones for that one!"
The boy stopped mid movement and uncertainly glanced over his arm.
"We'll have to check it later."
Promptly a small rock hit her back.
'What a dirty trick.'
But she knew very well how winning sometimes took every advantage one could get. Life was never fair. Flipping the switch on her gun to full auto, she sprayed in Asui's direction. Her goggles would ensure that she would not be majorly injured.
Unwilling to take her eyes off the boy who could punch through her shields and then her ribcage if they both weren't careful, Tanya thought about the immediate future with excitement. Relying on only strengthened, multilayered energy fields or golden ones would marginally slow her down which in turn was going to make her more vulnerable for however many students showed up.
Perhaps she herself would even have to take this fight seriously?
Wonderful.
~[#҈#]~
As the timer ran out Toru was panting in exhaustion, an invisible smile stretching her lips.
They did it!
They got them all!
During Ochako's distraction of their teacher, Sato had managed to carry most remaining dolls on a large piece of reinforced sheet metal that he somehow ripped from a roof. How he accomplished that – even while overdosing on sugar to fuel his quirk – remained a mystery to her. Hanta's tape might have helped. That stunt likely cost them a few points for urban destruction, but the result was undeniably worth it.
When he inevitably collapsed under the strain of carrying what looked like half a house hundreds of meters, they collectively shared his cargo amongst themselves. Transporting the unwieldy, realistically weighed mannequins to the finish line was a hard job, especially for her who specialized in agility and stealth, but they did the seemingly impossible.
Thanks to a third of their class diverting Argent's attention the rest could simply haul the 'civilians' undamaged through the open streets. Without having to hide and check every corner the trip to the safe zone was a lot faster than before.
Koda's birds made reconnaissance relatively easy when the battle moved to a different part of the city and Jirou's support item – directional microphones – saved their collective skins more than once. She could transmit warnings over long distances with them which were direly needed.
Bakgou apparently still needed to work some issues from the interrupted sports festival out, because he opened in a childish competition with Todoroki over who could pummel their teacher the best.
Or at least try to… His explosions spread so much dust over the area that navigation could get genuinely tricky at times, worsened by the temperature fluctuations of his 'rival' in the air which created very weird winds.
In the end though, their teamwork ensured their success.
Toru was proud.
She was proud to be part of such an amazing team.
It hadn't been easy, but she felt like with her friends in tow... she could do it. She wasn't strong or smart or tough, yet if she could simply trust in others to not forget about her...
Then together they would be able to take on the world!
~[#҈#]~
Nedzu closed the video feed and took another sip of his earl grey. Paying only half of his attention to the screen ,
which was still more than enough, he first sent an email to Cementoss to repair the Urban Training Grounds Six again and then filed a couple legal forms which unfortunately tended to accumulate on his desk despite his best efforts. Being able to write algorithms that could relieve him already of most of that tedious bureaucracy was indeed a comfort the principal couldn't imagine living without.
From time to time his eyes wandered over to the window, looking out over his beautiful school and envisioning how much grander it still could be.
With time, he reminded himself unnecessarily.
As long as All for One and the HPSC were breathing down his neck he needed to focus on the bigger threats. Nedzu was already spreading his resources thin by simultaneously trying to wrestle Japan's politics away from destruction and hunting down the assets of the most notorious super-villain in history in addition to his usual worldwide operations to secure the fragile peace humanity was dependent on.
Although his work might accelerate soon if the two talented newcomers in his home became able to lend him their support. Despite the hard battle he fought behind the scenes of society, the principal held strictly to his own moral code, knowing full well that it was what differentiated him most from the beasts in human skin that he had sworn to fight. He never wanted to devolve into one such being, because he was unsure if the world would be able to stop him should he one day fully lose himself to the slippery decline of self-righteous corruption.
Naturally he had to bend these rules over the years quite a bit, but the wellbeing of children was always a top priority for the humanoid rodent. Subsequently, employing young Himiko's aptitude as a spy was distasteful to him. Many of his plans would only be possible with a person on the inside cooperating and her shapeshifting was a perfect tool for that...
Was a person with a double digit kill count even a child anymore?
'Yes' Nedzu decided as he remembered how innocently she held hands with her mentor or delighted in observing cute animals. There was still a certain purity to her that even murder could not taint.
Degurechaff in comparison held quite the pragmatic outlook on life. Some would even call it cynical. Yet she was neither jaded nor nihilistic, from what he could tell. Simply unaware of where she saw her place in this cruel, magnificent world.
The principal glanced down at his empty cup and mirthfully questioned if the caffeine combined with a mild case of sleep deprivation was making him overly emotional.
Maybe he should check up on those two potential troublemakers...
A click of a button took Nedzu to an overview of every security feed on his premises. Toga Himiko appeared to be training still which was unsurprising and Degurechaff Tanya was just in the process of locking the door of her apartment behind her.
He would have ended his invasion into their private lives there if the small package Argent was carrying had not caught his eye. The formless, brown bundle stood out especially due to its non-descriptiveness.
It was a bit hard to make out from the angle of the camera, but he thought he saw her lips tighten as she stared down at the wrapped object in her hands.
A sign of uncertainty? Grim determination?
Peculiar...
Nodding determinedly she placed the package in her pocket and made her way over to the direction of the main building and indirectly
him. When she took the stairs on the right his assumptions were proven correct:
She was definitely coming to his office.
Argent was most likely preparing to hand something of immense importance over to him. Probably information stored in digital form on a hard drive or a similar device. Tanya was paranoid enough to believe that he had bugged her phones – even though he did not need to drastically violate her privacy like that to know what was going on – so it would not be anything that could be straightforwardly inferred from reading their memory data.
Judging by the fact that she had not announced this meeting prior, it was most likely that the intel in question was going to be of a sensitive nature for her personally. Obviously she had been ringing with the decision making process to potentially further incriminate herself, but Nedzu was honestly happy that she trusted him enough to pull through with it in the end. Her life was not an easy one, yet her courage to do the right thing was admirable. God only knew that he was never going to fully reveal what those scientists had done to him in their sick experiments.
He would have to reward her for her efforts somehow...
But first...
A tiny amount of tomfoolery…
His paw reached for the button underneath his desk that automatically opened the doors exactly before she could knock herself.
"Welcome! What can I do for you today, my valued employee?"
Her tiny facial expression was positively hilarious to him.
"Good evening to you too,
headmaster. I am fine, thank you for asking."
'Uses sarcasm to hide her nervousness.'
"Did you have fun during your lesson?"
"Whether I have fun or not is unimportant to the progress of my students. But it was nonetheless excellent training for the newly developed aspects of my quirk. I am still testing my limits."
'So she did
have fun. A sign of her deepening connection with class 1-A.'
"Mmh. That's good to hear. Quirk science is a fascinating field of study."
It really was. Neither their origin nor actual functionally had been discovered despite centuries of dedicated research. The greatest puzzle in the history of intelligent life was a conundrum he could not wrap his head around.
"Quite. Anyways, I have come here for the purpose of cooperation."
'Wants to keep this conversation brief. Body language is stiff and formal. Likely habitual response to stress. Trained to suppress emotions from childhood?'
Nedzu felt a spark of pity flicker inside him, so he sent her his most relaxed smile.
"Ahhh... Do you have something for me then?"
"Yes... I have something you will certainly find interesting, Mister Principal. On patrol this morning I retrieved it from my old apartment and in the name of our... business agreement thought it prudent to share."
'Long hidden secret. Reluctant to give trump card away. Thinks that she will ultimately harm their relationship by withholding information. Feels pressured by him? Feels dependent on his good will.'
While that may be useful in the short term, any true partnership was built on trust not fear. Else resentment and anxiety would spiral out of control and lead to betrayal or division as many tyrants throughout history could attest to.
Blunt honesty was an underrated tool that seemed to be particularly effective on her in the past.
"Thank you, but please know that I am perfectly happy to wait for your help until whenever you are comfortable to provide it. No extremely time sensitive issue has popped up that would require your assistance. I believe you are a great person, Tanya. You don't have to prove that to me."
Her shining blue eyes flickered hesitantly over his office while Nedzu patiently kept his smile affixed to his furry face.
"I appreciate your concern, Nedzu."
The wind from the open window blew Argent's short blond hair around, temporarily obscuring her expression. As it settled however her gaze had softened remarkably and he noticed the tiniest twitch of her lips.
"You do like to mess with people, don't you."
It wasn't a question, but he cheerily nodded anyway.
If it weren't for his sharp ears he wouldn't have heard her grumbling:
"My life seems destined to be ruled by madmen."
Only decades of experience prevented Nedzu from laughing out loud.
With deliberate slowness she produced the package from her pocket and slid it over the table.
"Password is 'Salamander 95'. Have a good night, headmaster."
"Good night!" he grinned back, pleased with her reaction.
What great fun!