Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Two days into their second year at UA, class 1-A - now class 2-A - were little different than they had been a year ago; as Aizawa opened the door to the classroom he was greeted by whoops, shouts, uproarious laughter, and assorted expletives punctuated by the pops and crackles of Bakugou’s irritation. Iida immediately redoubled his efforts to quiet his classmates but was ignored until Aizawa cleared his throat from the front of the room. Ashido and Kaminari immediately scrambled for their seats and a hush fell. A strangely expectant hush.

           “I guess you all have heard, then.” Aizawa surveyed the sea of upraised hands. “Yes, you’re getting a new classmate, yes, that’s why there’s an extra desk in the back, no, none of you are being expelled or replaced. Does that cover it?” Most of the hands went down. “Also, she’s American.” The rest of the hands dropped, then more shot back up. Aizawa rubbed the bridge of his nose, already exhausted.

           “Mister Aizawa, sir! For what reason is this student joining our class!” Iida was practically levitating out of his seat with fervor. “UA hero courses are always limited to twenty students maximum! If there is to be-“ Aizawa cut him off with a look that might have been less glare and more a petition for mercy coming from anyone else.

           At that moment the door to the classroom slid open partially and the light brunette head of a tan-skinned, American looking girl stuck through hesitantly. Her brown undercut was gathered into a braid that fell nearly two feet toward the floor. “Class 2-A?” She flinched as Aizawa turned to address her.

           “Miss DeLaine-Hotz. There’s an open desk in the back. Take a seat and pay attention. The rest of you-” he swung his head around to level the weight of his ire on any who dared to get too excited. “Don’t disrupt my class. You can introduce yourselves at lunch. Or never. I don’t care.” And with that he turned to the board and launched into a lesson. The girl at the door hurried to the back of the room, demeanor seemingly cool but the warm tan of her cheeks was flushing a vibrant shade of red. She sat at the empty seat behind Ururaka and propped her elbows on the desk, chin resting in one hand, studiously ignoring any glances her way and seemingly following the lesson. The same could not be said for a good number of her classmates.

           The moment the bell rang for lunch Aizawa was zipping up his sleeping bag and Ururaka was spinning in her seat, Iida and Tsuyu piling up behind her. The rest of the class wasn’t far behind, crowding the new girl with greetings and questions. “Uh, K-Kate DeLaine-Hotz,” she responded to the closest questioner: Ashido was practically crawling onto the girl’s desk in her excitement. “Kate’s probably easiest, DeLaine-Hotz is kind of a mouthful. Or I guess Katy, if you want.” She rubbed the back of her neck, looking uncomfortable at the attention focused on her.

It took a nearly unprecedented amount of hand chopping from Iida and the assistance of Yaoyorozu before the rest had quieted enough for Kate to answer questions one at a time. “I’m, uhm, I’m from Los Angeles-“ this caused another uproar that had to be quieted. “My quirk is Velocity. I can, uhm, launch objects that I touch in, like, any direction.” She gestured vaguely with her hands. “Really fast. Or I can launch myself, I call it ’warping,’ although it isn’t teleporting or anything…” She trailed off, cheeks beginning to turn red again.

Yaoyorozu stepped in and began to herd Kate and the rest towards the door, where Bakugou, at least, had already left. “We should continue this in the cafeteria. I would like to get to eat at some point.” The class trailed after, volume only slightly lower than before, as they continued to hound the transfer student with questions.

“So, what’s it like in America?”

Kate looked toward the bubbly voice coming from beside her and blinked a few times, confronted by an empty school uniform hovering in the air. “Uh, same as everywhere, I guess.” She shrugged. “Kind of crappy, but people are mostly just trying to live their lives, you know? Sorry, what was your name?”

Hagakure struck a pose that somehow seemed to indicate a smile. “Hagakure Toru!”

Kate laughed at the exaggerated gesture. “Nice to meet you, Hagakure-san. You blended in so well, I barely noticed you at first.”

“That’s me! The Stealth Hero: Invisible Girl! I’m thinking of becoming an underground hero like Aizawa-sensei, but it seems kind of lonely, so I don’t know.” She brought her arm up towards her face, imitating a finger tapping her lips in thought. “Oh, and you can just call me Hagakure, it’s easier that way.”

A deeper voice spoke up from her other side. “You could have said something, before.” Kate whipped her head around quickly, a small smile on her face.

“Shinsou-kun! Wait, said something about what?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, skepticism written all over his face. They stared at each other in, respectively, confusion and suspicion, for a few seconds before Shinsou spoke. “That you were a UA student? I though you were just some random asshole who needed someone to watch their back.”

Kaminari stuck his head in between them, leaning one hand on Shinsou’s shoulder, the sudden pressure nearly throwing the purple haired boy off balance. “Hang on, do you guys know each other?” Shinsou made a show of irritably pushing Kaminari’s hand away.

Kate answered for them both. “We took the Provisional License exam together earlier this month. We teamed up, but, uh, I thought Shinsou knew I was coming to UA. Didn’t I tell you Snipe told me to find you? Like, when you brainwashed me?”

Shinsou rubbed one hand down his face in exasperation.

“I told you I could only get surface thoughts. Simple answers. I didn’t ask where you were going to school, I didn’t care. But I might have, if I knew we were going to be classmates.”

“Heh, woops. Well, here I am.”

Takoba National Stadium – Early April

Provisional Hero Licensing Exam – 461 Entrants

Kate stepped out of the taxi from her hotel, staring up at the impressive structure of the arena. The throngs of students, teachers, and moving vehicles did nothing to lessen her anxiety. The amount of people who knew where they were going – compared to her, who knew exactly nothing about where she should be going, here – was disconcerting, to say the least.

She hefted the backpack containing her “Hero Costume” for the exam. In reality, it was just a pair of combat boots, a sturdier pair of pants and an athletic shirt, all of which she’d already owned. She wasn’t technically a student at UA yet, so she didn’t get the advantage of a suit from the support department. She’d dug through her luggage for twenty minutes trying to find these pants, so she might as well get all the use she could out of them.

She looked around for the UA staff member who was supposed to meet her and help her through the whole process. After a few minutes of searching, she spotted what must be him. There could only be so many people in Japan wearing a cowboy hat. She weaved through the crowd towards him.

“Snipe-san?”

The masked man spun around upon hearing his name. “Ah, and you must be Kate. DeLaine-Hotz, right?” Kate nodded. “No need for formality, little lady, most heroes prefer if you just use our hero name by itself. It gets a little weird, otherwise, truth be told.”

Kate looked a little lost. “Oh, okay.” She turned toward the entrance of the arena. “So, what am I supposed to… do, here, exactly? Do I, like, go sign up at a kiosk, or…”

Snipe chuckled behind his mask. “No, no, you’re already registered with UA, we’ll just head on inside and I’ll get you signed in, and then you’ll change and go to the waiting area. Easy as pie.” He started walking toward the entrance, waving for her to follow. She had to hurry to keep up with his longer legs, his spurs jingling with every step as he kept talking. “I brought one of Eraserhead’s kids with me, he’s already inside. You should look for him when you get in there, you don’t want to run this thing alone. Bushy purple hair, dark eyebags, you can’t miss him. Looks kind of like a mini Eraserhead, now that I think about it.” He snapped his fingers. “Shinsou Hitoshi, that’s it. Forgot his name for a second there. He’s comin’ in from the General Studies course, replacin’ that other purple kid, the skeevy grape baby.” He seemed to remember he was talking to a student and glanced back at her apologetically. “Forget I said that last bit, that’s un-professional.” His stream of commentary came to a halt as they walked through the stadium entryway. He headed for a man in a suit holding a tablet. “Hey there, partner, got my other UA kid here. Name’ll be Kate DeLaine-Hotz.”

The man didn’t even blink at Snipe’s peculiar mode of speech. He just nodded and marked something on his tablet. “Thank you, sir. You can head through that door there, miss Hotz. The exam will be starting in thirty minutes.”

Snipe called after her as she headed for the changing room. “Good luck, kid. An’ don’t let the test get in your head. You’ll do fine.” She waved back at him over her shoulder and pushed through the door.  

The women’s changing room was nearly empty, with just a few other girls chatting as they finished up. They all seemed to be from the same school. One girl was gesturing animatedly with a long monkey tail.

“And then I was like, whatever, chump, you wish you could take me on. He was SO mad, it was hilarious!”

Another girl with blue metal disks floating slowly around her head stifled a giggle. “I keep trying to tell him it’s not going to work. He’s convinced if he can just grab your tail it’ll be an easy win.”

Kate began to change as the other girls talked, trying to be unobtrusive. The monkey girl continued to rant about whatever poor boy thought he could beat her in a fight. They wandered out before she finished, apparently going to “scope out the rest of the competition.” Kate could only assume they had been surreptitiously sizing her up as they talked, but her body didn’t show off any physical markers of her quirk, so they probably didn’t have much to go on. She was fit and relatively well-muscled, but that was practically a minimum requirement for anyone wanting to become a hero. They probably weren't sure where she was from, either; Swiss and Mexican blended features probably weren't a very common sight in Japan. She pulled the dark blue compression shirt over her head, shoved her bag in a locker and headed for the door. She fiddled some with the tight cargo pants she’d chosen, messing with pocket clasps nervously. Snipe had said to not let the test get in her head. Well, he was a little late on that advice. The test had been in her head for the last four days. It was the first marker of whether she was fit to enroll in UA. The principle said that she wouldn’t be rejected if she failed, but she got the feeling it would definitely come back to bite her. The other second years already had their licenses. If she didn’t get hers today, she’d probably be left behind on a lot of activities she wouldn’t be able to participate in. Then she’d fall behind, and eventually drop out...

She was quickly working herself up toward a panic attack as she walked. She was staring so intently at the floor as her thoughts spiraled that she hadn’t noticed she’d entered the waiting area. She was knocked out of her trance when her shoulder bumped into a solid mass. She bounced off awkwardly and stammered out an apology as she looked to see who she’d run into. Standing next to her, on the edge of a small group of students, was an unassuming boy in a white t-shirt and loose khaki pants. His skin was darker than that of the other people around them, darker than hers. They stared at each other in tense silence for a few seconds before she stammered another apology and quickly moved away. She could feel his eyes on her back until she managed to put a crowd of other students between them. She looked around, muttering to herself.

“Rude motherfucker. Okay, gotta find that other guy. Whatshisname. Crap. Purple hair, right? Like an eraser? What is that supposed to mean?” As her gaze roved over the mass of hero hopefuls it landed on a mess of indigo hair close to the wall. “Gotcha.” She made her way through the crowd, drawing a few looks as she squeezed past knots of students to get to the edge of the room. A tall, muscular boy leaned easily against the wall, fiddling absently with what looked like a metal mouth guard hanging around his neck as he kept an eye on the people around him. He noticed her approach and subtly shifted his hand from the mouth guard to the scarf resting on his shoulders, hanging on to it loosely like its presence reassured him.

“Hey, you’re from UA, right?”

His eyes narrowed at her, the dark circles under them giving him an almost ghoulish look. “Why do you ask?”

“Bec-“

…

She woke up a minute later. Shinsou was withdrawing his hand from where he’d snapped his fingers in front of her face. She took a quick step back from him, mirroring his suspicious expression from earlier.

“What the fuck just happened?”

“I used my quirk on you. I assumed you were just trying to mess with me before the exam. But you want to team up, and apparently you don’t plan on betraying me. That works for me, I guess.” His voice was deadpan, carefully guarded and condescending.

“Woah, are you a mind reader?”

“No.”

“So, what’s your quirk, then?”

“Tell me yours first and I’ll tell you mine.”

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “But you do want to team up, right?”

His face hadn’t moved from its disinterested expression. “It seems mutually beneficial.”

“Alright. My quirk’s Velocity. I can charge objects or myself with kinetic energy and launch them as projectiles. When I do it to myself, I can hit pretty hard, so it’s pretty useful in a fight.”

Shinsou hummed, his nose twitching slightly. “Flashy.”

She shrugged. “I guess. What about yours? You’re pretty cagey about it, huh?”

He looked at her silently for a long moment. She almost thought he wasn’t going to answer until he finally started talking. “A lot of people don’t like it. It’s Brainwashing. If you respond to something I say, I can control what you do.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “That’s strong, dude! So, you brainwashed me and asked me why I was talking to you?”

“Basically. I can only really get you to say the basic concepts of what you’re thinking at that moment, but physical actions are mostly pretty easy. Although significant outside stimulus will break the hold fairly quickly, so getting people to fight each other isn’t a long-term strategy.”

“Still, that’s pretty cool. Why don’t people like it?” She saw his eyes dart away, shifting to look at the floor as his posture closed up. “Oh. Uh, Sorry. Never mind.” She lightly kicked one of the chairs next to them awkwardly. “Anyway, yeah, teaming up would, like, double our chances, right?”

Shinsou snorted, seemingly amused. “I don’t think that’s how the math works out, but sure. Seems like we would balance each other well, if we can work together smoothly.”

Kate let out a sigh of relief. “Cool. So, uh, do you know what the test, like, actually is? Like, are we all supposed to fight each other, or what?”

Shinsou glanced toward the clock at the front of the room. Ten more minutes. “The people who took it in August said that there were two portions. One that was basically over-complicated dodgeball and one that was focused on rescuing civilians. There were a lot more examinees in that test, I think there’s only around four or five hundred signed up for this one.”

“How many were there in the first one?”

“At least a thousand. Only one hundred passed, in the end.”

“Woah. I’m not a huge fan of those numbers.”

 “Me neither. But I think our odds are better with fewer people this time. And you’re right, we’ll fair better if we stick together. Where are you from, anyway? You don’t sound like you’ve lived here very long.”

Kate winced. “That bad, huh?”

Shinsou shrugged, looking out over the sea of nervous students. “You’re understandable. That’s all that matters.”

“I guess. I just moved here from America. Need my license for this school year. Name’s Kate, by the way.” She stuck her hand out for him to shake. He stared down at it for a long moment. Finally, he took it.

“Nice to meet you, Kate-san.” He spoke hesitantly, like the words weren’t ones he was used to using. “I’m Shinsou.”

“Nice to meet you too, Shinsou-san. We’ve got a few more minutes to talk strategy, right? What’s your, like, style?”

“Stealth and surprise, mostly.” He tapped the loops of gray cloth around his neck. “Medium range combat with this.”

“Your scarf? How does that work?”

“You’ll see. I’m still mastering it, so I’m working with a shortened one for now. What about you?”

“I can do long or short range. If we’re doing dodgeball, I’ll probably have a long-range advantage over most people. Stealth and surprise seems like a good plan to me. I’m not great at taking on a bunch of people at once.”

“Me neither. If we can ambush small groups, that’s probably our best bet.”

They both jumped as someone tapped a microphone at the front of the room. Everyone listened intently as the introductions were made and the test was explained. Apparently it was exactly the same as the previous test. Shinsou attached two of his targets on the backs of his hands, and one on his chest. Kate put one on her hip and one on her ribs on the other side. The last she attached over her collarbone.

“So, once we get out there we head for cover and do some recon, right?”

Shinsou nodded, adjusting his scarf and pulling the mouth guard over the lower half of his face. As he fastened it, the metal began to move, shifting into numerous plates and gaps like some monstrous mouth full of teeth.

“Holy shit, dude. That’s badass.”

He snorted, adjusting the knobs either side for a moment. The metal plates shifted in mockery of a vicious grin. When he turned to Kate and spoke, it was her own voice speaking to her.

“The intimidation factor is just a bonus.”

The mimicry was nearly perfect, with just a slight metallic ring that probably wouldn’t carry further than a few feet.

“Oh, fuck yeah, man. Damn. I came underprepared, huh?” He only hummed in answer.

After a few minutes a horn sounded, and the ground began to shake as the walls fell outward.

“Is that really necessary,” Kate wondered aloud.

The rush was on to get out of the area before the test began in earnest. They had to struggle through the crowd, jostled on every side, to get away from the pack. Shinsou pointed toward what looked like an industrial zone, full of pipes and warehouses and storage containers. Kate nodded and they sprinted for the area.

They had only just reached the cover of some pipes when the second horn sounded.

“Can you get up top?”

Shinsou took hold of the gray capture weapon around his neck and sent one end flying up to wrap around a pipe. Pulling on it and jumping, he launched himself up, shoved off a smaller pipe, and grabbed hold of one near the top, scrambling up into the tangled web above them. Kate gave a low, impressed whistle at the acrobatic display. Setting her footing, she jumped off the ground, gathering energy inside herself and releasing it. To the naked eye she seemed to disappear, reappearing in the same instant twenty feet higher, letting her momentum carry her the last little bit up and stepping lightly onto a pipe. She crouched low out of sight next to Shinsou.

“Took a while to get the hang of that precision. If I do it right, I look like a total badass.”

He answered her, his metal mask still mimicking her voice. “Brag after we’re done. Let’s start hunting.”

She lowered her voice as she followed him along the raised pipeways. “Come on, man, you can’t just say cool shit like that. Especially with my voice. Makes me look twice as bad.”

They crept along until Shinsou held up a hand. The sound of voices floated up to them. He pointed at Kate’s eyes and then over the edge, pointing at his hair to say it would be too visible. Kate shifted her weight, leaning sideways to look between two pipes toward the flat ground below them. She couldn’t get a good enough angle through the pipes to see all of the students below them, but she could see enough.

At least a dozen teenagers were walking down the thoroughfare between two rows of warehouses. The outliers of the group were cautious and alert, looking for signs of enemies. In the middle there seemed to be a pair of sensory types, a girl with what looked like radar dishes framing her ears and a boy next to her who periodically knelt down to lay his hand on the ground. Kate leaned back carefully. She cut a hand across her throat at Shinsou, then tapped her ear. He nodded.

The two of them began to shift slowly away, back the way they’d come, when one of the pipes Shinsou leaned a hand on let out a creaking groan under his weight. They both froze, muscles tensed.

“Hold up.”

The group below had heard them. Kate and Shinsou kept as still as possible, not daring to shift their weight. There were footsteps below them, and then silence for a long minute.

“Guess it’s nothing.”

They locked eyes and shared silent sighs of relief. Any sense of reprieve was quickly cut short as a golden sheet of light sliced up and through the pipes next to them, severing most of them and causing the whole tangle to shift and wobble uncertainly.

“Again,” a female voice commanded from below.

Kate and Shinsou jumped across where the pipes had been cut as another sheet of light knifed through the metal behind them.

Kate tried to keep her voice pitched low enough that the others wouldn’t be able to track their exact location as they dashed along the pipes. “Can you get to that warehouse roof up ahead? We can cut across there and onto the next set of pipes.”

Shinsou got a grip on his capture weapon and wrapped it around a stray girder. He threw a shout with Kate’s voice over his shoulder as he swung off the pipes. “You’ll have to do better than that, wannabes!” There were the beginnings of a couple of responses that cut off almost immediately. “Knock each other out,” Shinsou shouted as he landed on the roof and pulled back his weapon. Startled shouts arose behind them as Kate warped to the roof and they both took off toward the other end.

“Could we circle around and finish them off?”

Shinsou shook his head. “I only got two or three of them. I doubt they’ll do any serious damage before they’re snapped out of it.” He let out a hard rush of breath as they landed on another set of pipes across from the roof. “That’ll work better on a smaller group. They’ll feel more vulnerable and be easier to goad.”

They hunted through the industrial maze for a while longer, avoiding a few more large groups, before they finally found what they were looking for. They perched on top of a large tank of some liquid as they watched four students straggle along below them. They were the survivors of a larger skirmish the pair had watched earlier. All of them had targets that had already been tagged, and two were lightly injured.

“What’s our opener?” Kate watched as one of the injured ones stumbled and ran into another of the group. “I kind of feel bad picking on these guys.”

Shinsou didn’t take his eyes off the students below them. “They’ve already lost. They’re just a free meal now.”

“How are you so hardcore? Do you practice this stuff?”

He ignored her. “We should lead with picking one off from range, if we can. The surprise will make the others more likely to respond to me.”

Kate tossed a ball in the air, catching it absently. “I feel bad, but I can take down that one with the busted ankle from here. He’s already down two targets. It’s definitely gonna hurt, though.” She held the ball out in front of her, palm forward. She focused for a second before dropping her hand, still holding the ball. “I need a better angle.” Before Shinsou could say anything, she warped to another tank, from there to a pipe, to a roof; circling wide until she was ahead of their targets.

The group on the ground was making slow progress. They looked like they were starting to panic, maybe somehow sensing they were being stalked from above. One of the uninjured ones, a boy with a row of spines sticking off his back, was helping the one with a hurt ankle walk as the other two argued.

Kate crouched beside a large drum on a platform several feet off the ground, taking aim on the last remaining target on the injured boy’s chest. The ball shot from her hand and impacted the target with a thump, knocking the student onto his back with a yelp. Shinsou immediately followed up while they were off balance, his voice pitched deep and menacing.

“Are you ready to give up, or do we have to take you apart?” He stepped to the edge of the storage tank he was standing on, looming above them with his weapon loose in both hands. Kate moved out of cover to stand across from him, pinching the group between them.

“You-“

“We-“

The two who had been arguing went still. Shinsou swung to the ground and Kate warped over to a few feet from the boy with spines. He whipped around, bringing his hands up to ward her off. She stood patiently as Shinsou walked toward them. The one’s he’d brainwashed watched him expectantly, apparently waiting for orders. The one who had been tagged watched from the ground, cursing under his breath and holding his chest.

“Both of you, come here.”

Both the mind-controlled students walked toward Shinsou and stopped right in front of him.

“Hey!” The last one still in the fight moved to stop Shinsou.

Kate flashed forward to stand between them. “Sorry, buddy. You guys are done. Just let me tag you out.”

“It’ll be easier for you.” As Shinsou spoke he touched a ball to each of his two victims’ targets, eliminating them both. The targets attached to him blinked and gave a message to return to the waiting area. He snapped his fingers in front of each of them to release them. “You’re both out. Sorry.”

“What? What happened?”

“How did…”

As the spined boy was staring at this, Kate warped forward, slapping a ball against one target and knocking him back a few steps with the force of it. She moved in close to him, shoving him off balance, and made a play for his last target. The other four watched this play out as the two scrambled back and forth, trying to avoid the other’s hands and score a hit. The boy shoved his forearm toward Kate and spines began to sprout from it, forcing her back. He followed her, and she stumbled, letting him dart in and score one of her targets. She growled and warped backward, skidding on the ground a little ways before launching to her feet and warping back in. Instead of going for his target, she landed the ball and her hand hard in his gut, and he doubled over with a gasp. She tapped his last target with a smug smile.

“Told you to give up.”

Once they had made it back to the waiting area, the two of them collapsed into chairs set against one wall.

“Oh my god. That was intense. Like, even when there was no one else around, I was on edge.”

Shinsou leaned his head back to rest against the wall. “I believe that is the point.”

“You must be tired. Your sarcasm quality is slipping.”

“Don’t make me brainwash you.”

Kate, wisely, chose not to respond to that. At one point she got up and grabbed them some food and a couple sports drinks, but the two of them largely just sat there, occasionally making comments about the test or other entrants that came in. Kate saw the boy she’d run into earlier with the intense eyes walk in next to a girl that Kate could have sworn was the grim reaper at first glance. When she focused on the girl there was nothing particularly remarkable about her beyond vaguely sunken cheeks and eyebags to rival Shinsou’s, but if she kept her in her peripheral vision there seemed to be an almost visible aura around her that made others unconsciously shy away from her, and when she turned towards Kate her face almost seemed to take on the visage of a bare skull. The dark cloak she wore certainly didn’t do anything to dispel the image. Fortunately, the two stayed mostly to the far end of the large room.

It took another twenty minutes for the first round of the test to finish. Apparently, the largest groups of students were playing more defensively and dragging things out. Finally, once one hundred people had passed, the second round was introduced. Disaster rescue, just like Shinsou had heard.

Once the round began Kate and Shinsou stuck to the first-aid station; Kate’s quirk was too volatile for moving rubble and Shinsou’s was more helpful in calming hysterical victims than actually getting them out of danger.

“You’re good at this,” mentioned Shinsou as he worked next to Kate. She was running quick, thorough assessments and triage of victims that kept being brought in. “Do you have a lot of first-aid training?”

“Hm, oh.” Kate leaned back, running her sleeve over her forehead and checking the splint she’d just affixed. “Yeah. My mom’s a rescue hero back in the States, she insisted on me taking classes every summer since I was, like, twelve.”

The last words of her sentence were drowned out by an explosion in the wall of the arena not far from the first-aid station, a cloud of dust obscuring the area. Heads shot up, looking toward the explosion with a variety of curses and cries of dismay. The announcement of a second villain attack droned over the speakers, assuring everyone that this was indeed part of the test.

“They’ll come for the first-aid station.” Shinsou was already rising to his feet as he spoke, quick eyes taking in their surroundings as his brain looked for solutions. “We need to evacuate the injured while holding back the villain. Or villains.”

Several others in the area came to the same conclusion, and the evacuation was quickly being organized by some of the more experienced and confident examinees. They were just starting to get the injured moving when a crowd of what could only be villainous minions came charging over the hills of rubble that had separated them from the first-aid area. They began firing blasts of gray material toward the students and victims, although they weren’t yet in range for any sort of focused or accurate fire, just peppering the area in scattered shots to keep the heroes off balance and on the defensive. One of the heroes near Kate cried out in surprise as one of the projectiles splattered their torso, quickly hardening into stiff cement. The examinee staggered under the weight of it but managed to scrape enough of it off that they could keep going.

Over the din, Shinsou shouted to Kate. “Someone has to do something about the minions and keep the fire off of us!”

“It’s no good, all the strong area hitters are off in the rescue zone,” answered another hero off to their side. He helped an injured victim up before turning back to them. “There’s no one here who can take on that many people.”

All of them glanced over at where a shout came from near the flood of enemies that were streaming toward them. A pair of figures were charging in from the disaster zone at an angle to cut off the advancing foes, a long cloak flapping behind one of them. Amazingly, the closer they approached the further the minions shied away from them, the forward rush turning into more of a diagonal stream as each minion tried to continue forward while keeping as far from the advancing duo as possible.

The student next to Kate and Shinsou turned to them. “Can you two run rear-guard and help them keep the enemies off us? The rest of us will handle things here.”

 Kate and Shinsou glanced at each other and nodded, expressions tight. They both knew they weren’t equipped to take on large groups, but hopefully they could back up the other defenders enough to keep the scales tipped in their favor. They dashed toward the fight, Kate warping ahead when she had the room. They climbed over some rubble to reach the other two defenders and found the two Kate had noticed earlier: the intense looking boy and the gaunt, disquieting girl - both just standing still and keeping an eye on the minions that were milling around now, cut off from their intended targets and unwilling to approach. As they came over the edge and slid down toward the pair, both Kate and Shinsou were hit with an unnatural wave of panic that rolled over them and threatened to overcome their reason. Kate felt all her anxieties about the test returning, threatening to drown her in distraction and despair. Both of them scrambled back frantically, trying to get away from whatever assault they were under, until the boy noticed them and jogged over, tapping a hand on each of them. The fear immediately vanished, the other girl glancing over her shoulder toward them with an apologetic look.

“Sorry.” Her voice was soft and smooth, but strangely easy to hear even over the chaos and shouts coming from two directions. “I’m trying to keep it directed over there, but…” She shrugged, glancing away as a smaller explosion shook the ground further away, obscured by the hills of earth and rubble.

The boy offered a hand to Kate, helping her up and then doing the same for Shinsou, who reluctantly accepted. “I’m Nullifier. You should be immune to Hysteria’s quirk for the time being.” He gestured toward the crowd of enemies edging closer. “They aren’t using quirks to attack, so I’m not much use here besides that.” His gray eyes raked across the area where the explosion had sounded. “I think others are engaging the head villain. As long as we can hold these off, we should be fine for now.”

“We’re here to help.” Shinsou looked to Kate. “You can launch some of this stone at a range to attack them, right?”

She nodded. “It’ll take some time between uses, but yeah, I can be the artillery.”

Nullifier nodded, his stoic mask slipping briefly into an expression of relief. “Good, I’m not sure how much longer Hysteria can hold them off alone.”

The girl glanced back at them at hearing her name, concentration bringing beads of sweat to her forehead. “They’re staying too far back for me to keep them panicked. They’re going to mass for a rush and I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop them all a second time.”

“Then let’s give them something else to worry about.” Kate placed a hand on one of the boulders nearby, narrowing her eyes as she concentrated on gathering the right amount of energy into the stone; too much and it could overshoot the targets or prove deadly to anyone it struck. Ideally, it would arc far and slow enough for the enemy to get out of the way, but fast enough to keep them occupied. She found the energy level she wanted, feeling it like an intuitive pressure in the back of her head, and let it loose. With a rumble and a flash of motion, the boulder flew into the air, given velocity with near instantaneous acceleration. All four of them watched as it arced toward the crowd across the miniature valley from them. The enemy scattered at its approach, but it fell just short of them, creating a crater and a crash audible from where they stood.

The four of them were silent for a moment before Shinsou turned to Kate. “Wow.”

She pursed her lips. “Well, now I’ve got the range, at least.” She stepped over to another rock, repeating the process but taking a few seconds longer to let the energy build before unleashing it with another roar and crash. The enemies were beginning to break off in ones and twos now to head back the way they came from, but the main group held steady. Or, shaky, really, but they held. She kept going, keeping her targets dancing back and forth to avoid the rain of earth and rubble and too busy to organize and overcome the mental assault Hysteria kept them under. Shinsou and Nullifier stood by, arms crossed as they watched the two girls hold back a small army.

Nullifier glanced to Shinsou. “So, you two know each other?”

“Just met today. She mentioned she could do this, but I didn’t really realize what she meant until now. Flashy quirks, am I right?”

The other boy chuckled good-naturedly. “Indeed. Always stealing the spotlight. But that just makes it easier for us to work in the background.”

Shinsou looked at him curiously. “Are you planning to become an underground hero?”

“Somewhat. My quirk isn’t great in a fight on its own, but it lets me grant others a level of immunity to the effects of other quirks, although the effectiveness tends to vary pretty wildly. It’s a difficult quirk.”

“I know the feeling. Either everything works perfectly or it’s coming down around your ears.”

They ducked as a few splatters of cement came their way.

“I assume you’re looking to stay underground as well?”

Shinsou nodded, keeping an eye on the two girls as they worked. “My quirk works much better when my enemy doesn’t know what it is. Secrecy is just the logical path.”

They were silent for little while, keeping aware of their immediate surroundings so the other two could concentrate downrange. Hysteria was the first to see it and call a warning as a large figure came over the top of the hill across from them. Gang Orca surveyed them from his vantage with exaggerated disdain. The bracer on his left arm was damaged, and there were scorch marks covering his suit, but he didn’t look like he would be slowing down any time soon. He dumped a bottle of water over his head before calling out across the valley.

“Your best fighters could only slow me down, and now they’re all eliminated. What do you think you can do to stop me?”

 With a sonic pulse he obliterated a chunk of concrete right out of the air, blasting it into gravel and sending it scattering across the ground between them.

“Well, fuck.” Kate turned to the others. “What now?”

Hysteria began to back up slowly, keeping an eye on the advancing villain. “Now, we just try to slow him down. If we can backpedal toward the others, some of them may be able to come help us.”

A burst of soundwaves threw up dust and debris around them, Gang Orca almost within range to start hitting them hard. The four of them took that as their cue and dashed up the hill behind them under a vengeful rain of cement projectiles. Kate occasionally tossed small boulders back toward their pursuers, with limited success. They reached the top to find the first-aid area almost completely evacuated, with only a few stragglers still making their way after the others.

“Thank fuck.” Just as she said that, a cement round caught Kate in the leg, knocking her off balance and sending her toppling down the other side of the rubble pile. She bounced twice before she managed to warp to the bottom, her quirk protecting her from the impact once it was activated. The others scrambled down after her and all four of them dashed to put distance between themselves and the high ground, not wanting Gang Orca to be able to come charging down on them from a height advantage. The cement hardened around Kate’s knee slowed her down, but she kept up by warping instead of running.

An impact shook the ground behind them as they fled.

“So you run, little heroes?” Gang Orca was much closer than he should have been. The four of them looked over their shoulders to see him baring down on them, a hand extended to grab Hysteria at the back of the group. She spun, stumbling but managing to stay upright. She faced Orca and thrust her head forward, staring him down with a look of desperate concentration.

Gang Orca actually faltered, taking a step back from the much smaller girl. His face was unreadable, so different was it from average human physiology, but the grunt he made seemed to carry some sudden concern, at the very least. It only took a second for him to recover, though.

“The fear-monger. Your power surprises me, girl. But it is not enough.”

He took a long step forward and his massive hand wrapped around Hysteria’s head, muffling a surprised yelp. He tossed her aside, making her bounce a few times across the jagged terrain, and his minions pelted her with concrete, sticking her legs and torso to the ground. She didn’t stir. The other three watched in horror, forgetting to flee or fight in those few moments.

Orca turned to the three of them and lowered his head. “Pay attention, heroes.”

Nullifier managed to slap a hand onto Kate and Shinsou’s arms just as the blast of sonic waves plowed into the three of them. The resistance he was able to give them meant that all three managed to stay standing, although they were left shaken and stumbling by the intense vibrations.

“You’ll have to do more than just survive if you want to stop me.”

Gang Orca was among them, lashing out with a backhanded swipe that sent Nullifier bowling into Shinsou. Kate barely managed to warp out of the way of his next swing, but the concrete around her foot tripped her up as she came out the other side, and she fell hard. The back of her head smacked the ground. Her vision alternated briefly back and forth between dark and blinding bright, and the sounds around her became indistinct for a moment. She distantly heard Shinsou try to trap Gang Orca with his quirk, but the faux villain’s only response was a close-range blast of sonics that overcame Nullifier’s resistance and incapacitated him and Shinsou. She blinked several times, trying to clear her vision and scramble to her feet, but a heavy foot on her shoulder pinned her to the ground. The last thing she knew before an agonizing, overwhelming power - reminiscent of the forces she felt when moving at extreme speeds but with none of the innate resistance provided by her quirk - swept over her and drowned her in darkness was the noise of a horn sounding in the distance.

Snipe was waiting for them as they limped out of the test, carrying their new licenses with a little bit of reverence.

“You two looked real good out there. Good field teamwork, good improvisation. And you’ve got one hell of a throwing arm, little lady.”

She rubbed the back of her neck, a little embarrassed. “Ha, thanks." She waved with the piece of paper they'd each been given documenting their mistakes. "Kind of all fell apart there at the end, lost a lot of points on that withdrawal, but we made it. Barely.” She turned to Shinsou. “Thanks for teaming up with me. I don’t know how well I would have done, otherwise.”

Shinsou nodded stiffly. “Likewise, Kate-san.”

“Just Kate is fine. I don’t think I can get used to hearing Kate-san.” She chuckled. “It’s not a very Japanese name. Anyway, I gotta go, see you guys!” She threw a quick salute to Snipe and began to jog toward the exit.

“Hey, Kate,” shinsou called after her. He paused when she turned, seeming to mull over what he wanted to say for a moment. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked back at her. “I wouldn’t mind working with you again, sometime. You’re kind of obnoxious, but… that went pretty well.”

Kate gave him a teasing grin. “High praise, Shinsou-kun!”

He glared at her. “I’m regretting it already.”

She laughed and raced out the door towards a waiting taxi, waiving over her shoulder as she went.

“I say it’s your fault for not asking.” Kate winked at Shinsou before turning away and putting her nose up primly. “You should be more polite.”

The crowd around them erupted in ‘Ooh’s’ and laughter as they kept walking. Shinsou shook his head ruefully, although he couldn’t quite hide his smile. “I never should have trusted you.”

By the time the class reached the lunchroom the line for food was piled up nearly to the door. Most of them quickly rushed to get a spot in line, abandoning their interrogation of Kate. She ended up near the back, sandwiched between a boy with a bird-like head in front of her and the boy with six arms behind her. The bird-headed one introduced himself as Tokoyami Fumikage, and the other as Shouji Mezou. Shouji nodded to her politely but didn’t say anything.

“I fear you may have gotten more than you expected by joining our class, Kate,” Tokoyami went on. “The forces of darkness hound us at every turn.”

Kate blinked at him, surprised and a little confused. “The- what?”

A mouth on the end of a tentacle came around her shoulder from behind her to explain. “We’ve been regularly attacked by villains since we came to UA, starting on our third day of classes.”

Tokoyami huffed, his feathers ruffling a little. “That’s what I said.”

“Wait, why are villains attacking you? You mean the whole class?”

Tokoyami made a sound in his throat that sounded suspiciously like the beginning of a raven’s croak before he cut it off. “They invaded one of our exercises to attack All Might. He wasn’t there, but we were. We beat them rather soundly, and they’ve harbored a dark grudge against us ever since.”

“And that was the third day of classes?” Tokoyami nodded. “You guys fought, like, real villains three days into your first year as hero students. And won.”

“It was a close thing,” spoke up Shouji from beside her. “There were several villains we weren’t able to handle, and several of us were nearly injured or killed. Aizawa-sensei and 13 sacrificed a lot to keep us safe, almost their lives. Fortunately, the other teachers arrived and All Might took down the Nomou. The leaders escaped, though.”

Tokoyami ruffled his feathers again. “I suppose it wasn’t as thorough a victory as I may have made it sound. But it was a victory. The only real injury was Midoriya, but that was already par for the course.”

Kate leaned around him to look for the mop of green hair she’d been introduced to earlier. “Does Midoriya get hurt a lot? He is kind of small.”

Tokoyami made that raven croak again. Kate was beginning to think that was how he laughed. Shouji actually did laugh, quietly. “Midoriya doesn’t get hurt, so much as he hurts himself. Although not as often anymore.”

Tokoyami stared Kate in the eye. “Midoriya is like unto a wise war god. Slow to anger, but quick to justice with overwhelming force. His body cannot contain his full power; he rips himself apart to save others.”

Kate shut her gaping mouth after a moment, realizing there wasn’t really anything to say to that. The three of them shuffled forward as the line moved.

“He is adorable, though.”

Kate and Shouji were unable to cover their spluttered laughs at Tokoyami’s deadpan remark.

“Do you think he’s cute, Fumikage?”

Tokoyami turned to look at Shouji, raising an eyebrow at the teasing tone. “I would find myself in scant company if I didn’t find him so. Don’t tell me you’re the only person in class who hasn’t had at least a flicker of attraction to him.”

Shouji looked away, trying to feign nonchalance. “I wouldn’t dream of saying such a thing. I just didn’t think you cared for such things.”

“It does not seem to matter what one cares or does not care for, when it comes to the Kingpin. He is greater than such petty concerns, apparently. Whether he strikes with his fists or with his smile, all will be struck, regardless.”

Kate watched them banter back and forth, and if she didn’t quite follow everything that was being said, well, she wasn’t going to tell them that. She did have some pride, after all. But she was beginning to wonder if maybe she had gotten into something bigger than she bargained for.

Chapter Text

“Hey, uh, mind if I sit here?" The students at the lunch table looked up as Kate stood nervously by.

“Of course, be our guest,” Tokoyami waved to the empty seat next to him.

“Thanks.”

She sat as Tokoyami gestured at the other students at the table. “This is Honenuki Juzo, Kuroiro Shihai, Tokage Setsuna, and Yanagi Reiko, of class B.” Shouji arrived, giving a greeting as he set his tray on the other side of Tokoyami. A ghostly hand grew from the table in front of Reiko and waved to Kate, although her face remained mostly hidden by her hair. Kate waved back hesitantly.

“Hello, it’s, uh, nice to meet all of you.”

“She’s just transferred into our class from America,” mentioned Tokoyami offhandedly. His casual stoicism couldn’t hide the small amount of glee he got from throwing out what had already proven to be a reliability uproar-inducing tidbit. It didn’t disappoint, although the class B kids were much quieter than the majority of class A.

“Oh!” The green haired girl Tokoyami had pointed out as Setsuna leaned over the table. “That’s so cool! I want to travel for a while once I graduate; like visit America and a bunch of other places. I have to show you this amazing place like twenty minutes away from the school, it’s got a bunch of memorabilia and stuff from, like, Hollywood, I bet it’s super goofy to someone who actually knows American stuff.”

Kate spluttered into her cup, trying to keep from spewing out the bite she’d just taken as she coughed out a laugh. “Yeah, that- yeah. I’m from Hollywood, so…”

“Really? Are your parents movie stars?” Everyone was leaning in now, some of them less subtly than others. Kate ducked her head, muttering slightly into her plate.

“No, my mom’s a hero. And a doctor, kind of. Her name is Dove, I don’t know if you guys pay attention to American heroics.” A chorus of murmured no’s trickled into an awkward silence. Juzo broke it by offering his hand across the table to Kate. She shook it, a little confused.

“Welcome to UA, Kate. Hope you’ve got better luck than the rest of Class A.”

The table dissolved into stifled chuckles and casual conversation as lunch continued on, the air of discomfort dispelled.

           After lunch, Aizawa announced they would be running quirk exercises in one of the gyms.

“I’m sure you’re all dying to see your new classmate in action, but some of you need to work on your endurance and sustained quirk usage.” He glared meaningfully at Kaminari, who sank several inches in his seat. “Grab a partner. Miss DeLaine-Hotz, with me.” He stalked out the door, the class scrambling to gather their things and follow.

In the gym, Cementoss provided them with a staggered terrain with eleven individual platforms. The platforms were staggered in a wave so that everyone had a good view of those at the bottom – suspiciously convenient, Kate thought - and the students rushed to partner up and claim the higher platforms so that they would be able to watch her. Shinsou even nudged Midoriya to the side of their pillar to watch.

“You’re going to want to see her.”

Kate followed Aizawa to the lowest platform, acutely aware of the number of eyes on her. Turning to her, he rested one hand on his capture weapon. “I’ll work with you today to get an idea of your skill level. I would have preferred to be able to judge you for myself before you were placed in my class, but that’s not your fault. Go ahead and attack me.” Kate felt a little surge of anger at the sort-of insult, but she nodded, setting her jaw and taking up a fighting stance, shrugging the blue UA exercise uniform to lay better across her shoulders. Aizawa watched and waited.

Without warning, Kate became a blur of motion. She flashed forward, skidding to a stop nearly five meters away. To the students watching, it seemed like Aizawa should have been bowled over by her passing. Instead, he was standing only a step or two to the side of where he had been, rotated slightly as if he had just watched Kate soar by instead of had to get out of the way. “Not fast enough,” the Pro Hero called out. “Show me why you were recommended to UA. Unless you want me to send you home right now?” Kate’s expression morphed quickly to surprise, and then anger, before she clenched her fists and disappeared again. This time the others could see Aizawa move, stepping aside just enough to let her flash past. She reappeared with a sickening crunch that caused several gasps from the onlookers as a small cloud of cement dust rose where she slammed full body into the side of one of the adjacent pillars. She shoved off, unharmed by the heavy impact, and disappeared again; this time she reappeared several meters in the air, well behind Aizawa and sailing towards the far wall. She spun in the air to face him as he watched her over his shoulder, one hand in his pocket as the other rested on his scarf. She blurred again, thundering down to punch a web of fissures into the concrete where he had been standing only an instant before. “Better,” Aizawa stated calmly down at her from a few inches away. “At least you’re not holding back. But your form is sloppy, and you give away your moves before you make them.”

Beside Shinsou, Midoriya began to fall into a bout of muttering, noting that the Pro had apparently easily read tells that the rest of them couldn’t see at all. The others watching seemed to be thinking the same thing, judging by the whispering going on all over the gym. Kirishima had been distracted from sparring with Bakugou by the display, and the blond boy was yelling angrily about it as Kirishima ignored him to lean over the side of their platform.

Aizawa turned his head to glare up at the rest of the class, hair beginning to rise ominously. The students scrambled to look like they were working diligently instead of gawking. He turned back to Kate once they had all fled his line of sight. “You’re not as far behind as I expected.” He raised a finger at her smug grin. “Still not where you need to be, but I’m not going to expel you, at least. Yet.” She pouted for a moment as he stuck his hands back in his pockets, but soon she had a smug smile again, her eyes narrowing slightly.

           “You’re not as mean as you try to seem, huh?”

           He shrugged. “I can be meaner, if you like.”

           She took up a combat stance again. “Nah. Show me how to not telegraph my hits.”

           He looked at her for a few moments, making her feel uncomfortably like he was dissecting her with just his eyes.

           “Alright. Your first issue is that you’re trying too hard to end the fight in one hit.”

           At the end of the session, Kate - massaging already-sore shoulder muscles - once again found herself surrounded by clamoring classmates as they all walked toward the dorm together. Iida was alternating between chopping at the other students to quiet them down and chopping at her in his own amicable enthusiasm. “There is no need to get the answer to every question right this instant! She will be here all year!-What’s your top speed? How quickly can you accelerate?-Calm down Ashido!-Does your speed come from musculature or energy manipulation? Oh, you’ve already told us that.”

Midoriya was keeping pace on her other side, but he was too lost in a stream of mumbling to interact with anyone. Todoroki followed behind him and guided him with a hand on his shoulder whenever he might run into something.

           “Don’t mind Iida,” Tsuyu whispered in her ear while the Class Rep was distracted with Kaminari and Sero. “He gets excited around other fast people.’’

Kate managed to keep a straight face, somehow. “Yeah, he’s very… enthusiastic.”

By the time the crowd of students reached the dorms Kate had gratefully accepted the rest of the girls’ offer of showing her around.

“I know my room’s on the second floor, and I think my stuff is supposed to be there. I need to unpack, I guess.”

Tsuyu patted her on the back genially. “We can help with that if you want, kero.” Yaoyorozu nodded in agreement as Hagakure groaned.

“Can we at least take a shower first? Shouji made me run all around that stupid column, he’s too hard to hide from!” The group laughed and they all headed for the stairs together.

“Kate? What is this?” Uraraka was standing over a box in Kate’s room, gingerly holding up a glass tube that was curled on both ends. The tips were connected to metal boxes with rings to mount it on the wall. The rest turned to follow her question, Mina popping up from the pile of clothes she was sorting.

           “Oh, hey.” Kate came over and took the piece from Uraraka. She hit a switch on one of the boxes and the entire rod lit up a pinkish purple. “Real neon, not LED or anything. She glanced around for the best place to hang it.

Jirou held up a pair of leather pants. “Not that I’m one to talk, but this is a lot of black.”

Mina threw a hand up. “I’ve got all the colors over here!” She looked down at the small pile surrounding her. “It’s not really that much though.”

“You were sitting with Tokoyami at lunch,” Tsuyu croaked from her spot on the bed, which Uraraka had floating several feet in the air as Tsuyu tried to get it to fit next to the dresser properly. “Do all goths recognize each other?”

Everyone laughed as Kate huffed. “I’m not goth. I just like black. And leather. If anything, I’m punk!” She glared at the other’s condescending looks. “It’s a nuanced difference, okay!”

Jirou tossed the pants into the appropriate pile with a shrug. “I can respect that.”

It was seven o’clock before they had everything mostly sorted and put away. Kate surveyed the relatively organized room. The top of the UA-supplied dresser held a few boxes of miscellaneous items, and a large collection of athletic shoes and different kinds of boots lined one wall. Besides that, the room was somewhat bare. The neon light hung over the head of the bed, and a tall mirror hung on a closet door. “I probably brought too much stuff.”

“Are you serious?” Mina looked at her aghast. “This is, like, half as much stuff as I’ve got in my room!”

“Well, it’s not like you can just run home and pick something up if you need it,” mentioned Yaoyorozu as they headed for the stairs to grab a late dinner.

Kate gave a sharp bark of a laugh. “I’m not that fast. I don’t know, I like to keep my space, like, simple, you know? Just the stuff I really like.”

Uraraka snorted, only letting a small twinge of sullenness color her voice. “Like expensive shoes?”

Kate shrugged. “I like what I like. I got most of the boots used, anyway.”

Hagakure bumped her shoulder into Kate’s. “You should see Shouji’s room, it’s so empty. He’s really into, like, minimalism.”

“He’s the one with multiple arms, right? He seems cool.”

“You were sitting with him at lunch, you should know his name!”

Kate threw up her hands as she joined them in the elevator. “Give me a break, there’s twenty of you people!”

Kate shuffled in to breakfast the next morning, eyes not even half open, and scraped some fruit and toast onto a plate before thumping down into a chair and staring into the depths of the table’s polished surface. Midoriya shifted next to her, not quite prepared for someone to sit down so close to him all of a sudden.

“Uh, hey Kate. Good morning?” She turned her head a few centimeters towards him, still staring into nothing.

“Mmh,” she mumbled, finally taking a bite of toast.

“Right. I uh…” She seems really out of it. I wonder if she had a hard time getting unpacked last night? Or maybe the other girls kept her awake? Maybe she’s still adjusting to the time zone! I’m surprised her Japanese is as good as it is, when she just-

“I’ve been studying Japanese for a while,” she said, interrupting his mumbling. She took another bite of toast, staring absently at the far wall. “I mean, I’m still not super great at, like, pronunciation and stuff, and I really can’t write in Kanji. But I’ve got vocabulary down pretty good.”

Midoriya squeaked and covered his mouth with both hands. “Did I say all that out loud?”

She looked at him, a little surprised. “Oh. Yeah, I guess so.” Another slow round of chewing. “I’m not a big morning person. Don’t really like breakfast. Upsets my stomach.” Her contemplative chewing went on a while longer before she seemed to remember to swallow.

Other students were making their way to the table now, starting up low conversation all around. Jirou sat down on the other side of Kate, pausing the music she was listening to through one ear plugged into her phone as Todoroki slumped into the chair opposite. He looked no more awake than Kate. Midoriya rolled an orange across the table at him, wincing when Todoroki only barely caught it before it rolled off the table.

Jirou looked between him and Kate. “Bad night, huh?”

Todoroki grunted, slowly peeling the orange and icing each piece before he ate it. Kate made an echoing grunt in solidarity. After a few minutes of silence Kate turned abruptly to Midoriya. “You’re the one who kept hurting himself.” Todoroki choked on his orange slice, his deadpan expression changing to one of mild shock. Midoriya’s face began to turn red. “Tokoyami said you’re really strong.” Midoriya made an unidentifiable noise somewhere in his throat, hiding behind his hands.

Jirou leaned over, gesturing toward Todoroki and Midoriya. “These two and Bakugou are the big powerhouses.” She took a bite of cereal, chewing contemplatively. “I bet Yaomomo could beat them with enough time to prepare, though.”

“Who’s Bakugou, again?” Kate’s answer came from the elevator as the doors opened.

“Son of a Fucking Shit!”

Kate startled so badly she nearly knocked over the cups on the table, and fell halfway out of her chair, catching herself with one hand on the floor. Behind them, Bakugou had just exited the elevator with Kirishima, and seemed decidedly annoyed about something, judging by his loud outburst.

“Jesus Christ,” mumbled Kate as she climbed back into her chair.

Midoriya looked embarrassed as he helped her up. “Sorry. Kacchan swears a lot.”

Kate retrieved one of her grapes from where it had been bounced off her plate. “Just fuckin’ loud’s all,” she mumbled as she stuffed it in her mouth.

Yaoyorozu sat down on the other side of Jirou and leaned in. “What are you guys talking about?”

Jirou yelped in surprise and jerked back, nearly slamming her head into Yaoyorozu. “Yaomomo! Just, uh, about Bakugou.”

Yaoyorozu looked disapprovingly to where Bakugou and Kirishima had taken up residence on one of the couches. Kirishima was laughing and patting Bakugou’s head while Bakugou’s hands smoked dangerously. “He is certainly something to get used to.”

Aizawa spent the rest of the week running them through Quirkless combat practice.

They were dressed just in gym uniforms, which suited Kate just fine since she didn’t have a suit yet. The class crowded around Aizawa on the grassy training field.

“I want to make sure you’re all fresh on physical combat. Two sparring at a time, the rest watch and pay attention. Shouji and Ojiro first; you’re free to make use of your mutations but try to keep it simple.”

Shouji and Ojiro nodded to each other and took up stances. They edged back and forth, testing each other’s reach and reactions. Finally, Ojiro dodged in, feet a blur as his foot- and tail-work kept him just out of Shouji’s grip as he landed a few hits and backed off. Shouji straightened up, rubbing the inside of an elbow Ojiro had jabbed.

“You got faster.”

Ojiro chuckled. “I’ve been-“ He cut off with a yelp as Shouji lunged, ducking under one set of arms completely but unable to avoid the hands that came down around his tail. Ojiro’s eyes went wide as Shouji pulled back and spun, yanking him backward and flinging him several meters across the field. Everyone watching winced as he very clearly got the wind knocked out of him on the second bounce. Kate managed to choke down the embarrassing gasp she almost let out, mentally berating herself.

What are you, six? Calm down

She tried not to think too hard about how she hadn’t even been looking at Ojiro fly through the air when the rebellious sound had almost slipped out. Instead, she’d been paying more attention to the way Shouji moved, the show of strength and ruthlessness.

Shouji dove after Ojiro, trying to get him pinned before he could recover, but the distance he had thrown the other boy worked against him. Ojiro barely managed to regain his feet before Shouji was on him, a storm of fists and grasping hands bearing down on the blond boy. Ojiro dropped for a tail sweep, trying to follow it through with a slide across the grass to put some distance between them. He didn’t get far. A hand came down on the back of his collar before his tail even made contact with Shouji’s leg. He gave a little strangled gurgle as he was hoisted up, valiantly trying to swing his heavily muscled tail as he reached his hands up to try to free himself. Shouji pulled him close, tucking the tail under his armpit and wrapping Ojiro in what amounted to a very thorough hug.

Although, hugs don’t usually involve sleeper holds

Shouji put the other boy down on his feet after he tapped out, one eyebrow raised.

“You had to know that wouldn’t work a third time.”

Ojiro shrugged and laughed. “Worth a shot. I didn’t really have a whole lot of options there.”

“Alright, next pair.” Aizawa scanned the students standing around. His eyes fell on Kate, then narrowed as they swept across the rest. “DeLaine-Hotz and Uraraka.” Kate sighed. She’d begged Aizawa to just call her by her first name, but apparently, he wasn’t feeling cooperative. She tipped a nod to Uraraka as they took their places, mentally wondering if she should go easy on the other girl. She had the height advantage by an inch or two, as well as a slightly heavier build. And she worked out four days a week, so she figured she was probably stronger than Uraraka, too.

“Let’s do our best, Kate!”

Aaaand, now I feel bad

As they dropped into their ready stances, Uraraka’s grin changed from sunshine to savage, and a predatory look in her eyes rooted Kate to the ground when Aizawa called the start. By the time Kate shook herself out of her surprise Uraraka was already two steps forward and bearing down on her; she braced to take the charge, out of time to dodge. Uraraka sped toward her, angling for Kate’s left side, and Kate shifted to counter. Uraraka pulled her fist back, but before she struck she planted a foot solidly and lunged to her left, bringing her momentum to an almost full stop on Kate’s exposed right, clenched fist trailing behind her almost as an afterthought. Kate’s eyes tracked her, but her body felt like it was moving in slow motion, nowhere near fast enough to react to the change in threat. Lashing out with a foot and planting it behind Kate’s knee, Uraraka followed up with two quick jabs to the gut, only the second of which was Kate able to deflect with her forearm. Uraraka pressed her advantage, not leaving any time for Kate to recover. She only barely managed to avoid being thrown by Uraraka’s aggressive leg bar, but she sacrificed a solid footing for a split second in order to achieve it.

Uraraka’s grin hadn’t faltered for a second, and as she pushed forward Kate found herself eye to eye with the shorter girl, falling backward with a fist driving the wind out of her gut and a hand wrapped around her right wrist, pinky out. Twisting as she fell, Kate managed to slide out from under Uraraka before they hit the ground. Continuing the roll, she spun hard enough to jerk her hand out of the other girl’s grip and scramble to her feet.

The class was cheering for both of them, although Kate noticed somewhere in the back of her head that while the calls of encouragement were all aimed at her, the whoops and shouts of pure excitement were for her opponent. There didn’t really seem to be any question in the other student’s minds as to who the winner would be.

They circled each other, Kate panting as she rolled the shoulder she’d strained by pulling that arm out of Uraraka’s grasp. Uraraka was still smiling, although some of the sunshine was leaking back into it, and she couldn’t help but give a little laugh as she charged forward again. This time she didn’t bother changing directions or slowing down; instead, three steps away from Kate she put all of her force into a leaping kick that, even though she blocked it with her forearms from connecting with her chest, bore Kate to the ground. Kate almost couldn’t even process what was happening, only barely acknowledging the urgent siren in the back of her head that was her sense of equilibrium screaming that she was falling, hard. Her head thumped against the grass as Uraraka rode her to the ground and skipped nimbly off, spinning to see if Kate would get back up. The class went wild, cheering the impressive move and shouting encouragement to Kate.

Kate just lay on the grass, staring up at the sky above.

“I give.”

She sat up, rubbing the back of her head. “How did you even do that? If this was on concrete, I think I’d be unconscious.”

Aizawa nodded. “Accurate assessment, Uraraka’s one of the best hand to hand fighters in your year. You two will be sparring together for the rest of the week. Try not to underestimate your opponent next time.” He gestured for Sato and Kirishima to take the field, and Uraraka offered Kate a hand up, smile as bright as ever.

“That was pretty good, Kate!”

Kate took the offered hand, levering to her feet. “Thanks, but it really wasn’t. You’re a beast.”

Uraraka laughed. “I did an internship with the hero Gunhead last year, and I realized I really enjoy fighting, you know?” She threw a few punches at the air, making sound effects with her mouth. “I guess I got pretty good.”

“How can you be both adorable and terrifying?”

Uraraka gave her another smile so wide her eyes screwed shut, but Kate didn’t miss the glint in them that sent a small shiver down her spine. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t listen to her, she knows exactly what she’s doing, kero.” Tsuyu poked Uraraka in the side accusingly as she walked over to stand with them. They watched Sato and Kirishima beat each other into the dirt for a few minutes.

“Not a lot of technique there, huh?”

“I think they just like doing it this way. I know they both know how to fight, so I guess they just like brawling like idiots.”

“Hey!” Kirishima’s momentary distraction at Tsuyu’s comment earned him a punch to the jaw. It didn’t seem to do much.

Aizawa turned away from the slugfest, apparently content to let them have it out, bad form and all. “Bakugou, Midoriya. Are we going to have a problem if I put you two together?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“No sensei, we’ll be okay.”

Aizawa blinked slowly at them, unimpressed. “You’re next, then.” He turned back to Kirshima and Sato, somehow sidestepping out of the way as Kirishima was thrown towards him. He looked down at Kirishima blinking up at him. “I’m calling it here. We don’t have all day for you two to play around.”

Kirishima and Sato limped off the field, looking put out that they had been cut short.

Midoirya and Bakugou took the field, yelling at each other the whole time, although it didn’t seem particularly heated. Kate leaned over to whisper to Uraraka.

“What’s their deal?”

Uraraka let out a long, exhausted sounding sigh. “It’s a long story. We’ll just be lucky if nobody has to go to Recovery Girl by the time they’re done, including us.”

“Uh huh.” Kate side-eyed the pair facing off on the grass, still shouting and gesticulating wildly. “So, Aizawa said you’re one of the best. Who are the others?”

Uraraka put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. “Well, Ojiro and Shouji, obviously. Bakugou’s fun to fight, although he’s a huge jerk sometimes. And Kamakiri and Kendo in 2-B are pretty good.” She giggled, a slight blushing appearing on her cheeks. “Deku’s not technically very good without his quirk; his fighting style kind of relies on the enhanced strength. He can outsmart almost anyone, though.”

“Wait, who’s Deku?” Kate was grabbed from behind and pulled back, narrowly avoiding being hit by Midoriya as he sailed between her and Uraraka, flailing the whole way. Uraraka blinked down at him, but he didn’t seem particularly injured as he scrambled up and threw himself back at Bakugou. She looked back to Kate with a grin.

“That’s Deku. See what I mean? Bakugou’s fun!”

Kate watched the two snarling boys go at it, Bakugou clearly with the upper hand but Midoriya persisting by apparently just refusing to lose. “I can imagine. They both seem pretty scrappy.”

Uraraka giggled again. “Yeah, you could say that.”

By the end of the first week of school Kate had fallen into Tokoyami and Shouji’s group of friends at lunch. Ojiro and Koda joined them around half the time, sometimes accompanied by Hagakure or Sato, But the three of them and the B class students were always there.

Kate was usually content to stay quiet and listen to the conversation, watching the back and forth between Tokoyami and Kuroiro as they seemed to vie for supremacy as The Most Dramatic. Yanagi was mostly quiet, although when she spoke everyone stopped to listen. Which was good, because it took a lot of concentration to understand her flowery language. Tokage was interested in the Mexican side of Kate’s family, although it took a while to explain to her that the Amazon Rainforest wasn’t actually in Mexico.

“Yeah, I didn’t really get to talk to my dad a lot about that stuff, so anything I wanted to know about, like, Mexico and cultural stuff I kind of had to figure out on my own. And I didn’t start to learn Spanish until I was twelve, so I didn’t really have any Latino friends either. I've actually been speaking Japanese longer.”

“Oh, bummer.” Tokage made a face, sticking her tongue out a little between her sharp teeth. “That sucks. Maybe if you, like, texted your dad about it he could tell you more?”

Kate dropped her eyes, focusing on the noodles in her bowl. “He’s, uh, he’s gone.”

Everyone else at the table dropped their conversations awkwardly as Tokage’s face fell. “I’m sorry.”

Kate shrugged, still not looking up. “It’s whatever.”

The awkward silence went on for a while until she couldn’t stand it. She turned to Tokoyami and Shouji. “Tell me about the class.” She sighed at the confused looks on their faces. “Like, funny stories, stuff I should know, whatever. Give me gossip or something.”

“Ah, well.” Tokoyami and Shouji exchanged pointed looks.

“Oh come on, just tell her something from like, the Sports Festival or something,” cut in Honenuki with exasperation. “You don’t always have to go straight to the messed up stuff.”

“The messed up stuff is important,” muttered Tokoyami.

Shouji leaned an eye and a mouth around Tokoyami to speak to Kate. “Gossip, then. Before the Sports Festival last year, Todoroki almost never used his fire. He refused to use it for anything beyond melting his ice or little things like that. Until his match with Midoriya, where they tore the stadium apart beating each other to a pulp. He finally used his fire to win, but he wouldn’t use it against Bakugou in the next round. There’s a ton of theories about why, we know they were shouting at each other the whole match, but nobody could tell what they said.”

“I remember that,” interrupted Tokage with a mischievous grin. “They probably would have done more damage to the arena if they had actually been pissed instead of just horny.” She winked at Kate as the whole table groaned. “It was a good fight, though.”

Shouji waved a hand at Tokage resignedly as she preened. “That is one theory, yes.”

Kate snorted. “From what you were saying about Midoriya the other day, it sounds pretty accurate.”

Tokoyami sighed, cutting a slice out of an apple for Dark Shadow. “She has a point. It’s entirely in character.”

Shouji put a hand over his eyes, hiding the long-suffering look on his face. “Fine, I’ll concede it’s a possibility. Kingpin is many things, but socially competent is, admittedly, not always one of them.”

“Why do you call him Kingpin?”

The rest of the table froze for a moment before turning slowly to Kate in eerie synchronization. Then each of their eyes made their way to Shouji.

“Yes, Shouji, tell us why he’s called The Kingpin.” Kuroiro’s voice was teasing, some inside joke that Kate clearly wasn’t in on. Shouji ran a hand through his hair. “Sure, I guess that's my job,” he said sarcastically.

Tokoyami made his little croak-laugh. “Well, you are ranking officer here, Assault.”

Shouji glared at him. “You know that’s not how it works, Fumikage.” He sighed and turned to Kate. “There was a school exercise last year, the Civil War. Midoriya was the leader of our team, the designated ‘Kingpin’. Suffice to say, he proved just how lucky society is that he wants to be a hero and not a villain.” He sat back, apparently done with his explanation.

“That’s it?” Tokage seemed almost offended. “That’s all you’re going to say about it? Come on, man!” She slumped back, arms crossed over chest and lip screwed into a pout.

Shouji smirked with one of the mouths at the end of a tentacle. “I think it would be more amusing if she heard it from the Hero Team first.” He turned to Kate again. “Probably Uraraka and Iida. They love talking up Midoriya anyway.”

Kate put on her best ‘are you kidding me’ face. “So, I’m supposed to go talk to Uraraka – the girl who’s been kicking my ass all over the training field for the last week – and Iida - the most uptight person in the whole class - about how their best friend would make a good villain. Because it’ll be funny.”

Shouji shrugged his impressive shoulders. “Yeah.”

Kate shook her head, going back to her noodles. “You guys are fuckin’ weird.”

After school, Kate stood up from the dining room table in the dorm and stretched, taking a break from slowly typing an essay and walked over to watch Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Iida play Scrabble in the common room. Uraraka was holding her face in her hands in despair while Iida tried with growing consternation to find fault in the forty-point word Tsuyu had just played. The frog girl’s normally innocent face had a small smug grin as she marked the score down. After a few minutes of watching, Kate posed the question Shouji had given her at lunch.

“Hey, so, the guys at lunch said there was a, like, civil war exercise last year? They said I should ask you about it. I think they were just being dumb or dramatic or something.”

“It would be pretty hard to be over-dramatic about it,” said Tsuyu over her shoulder. She was trying to shuffle her new letter tiles into something resembling a word and having no success. There are only so many words without consonants. “It was pretty intense, kero.”

“We got beat pretty bad,” added Uraraka as she took back a four-letter word that didn’t quite reach the multiplier tile she wanted. “Class A and class B had to mix together and break into a Villain Team and a Hero Team and run a simulation to try and get objectives and capture each other and stuff. Deku was the villain leader, and he really out-played us the whole time.”

“I mean, that sounds cool, but like… doesn’t sound like that big a deal.”

Iida shifted and stood up and began to circle the coffee table, seeming to look for a different angle to play his six ‘T’ tiles. “I’m not sure if it was originally supposed to be more than just a regular large-scale exercise, but Midoriya certainly turned it into something more. He and the Villain Team really went above and beyond in their roles. They used code-names, recruited Shinsou from General Education and Hatsume Mei from Support,” he made a face as he said the second name, “and tricked Tokage Setsuna into becoming a double agent, as well as incorporating advanced technology and psychological warfare into their tactics. Midoriya made sure they never went willingly into a fight for which they didn’t have a prepared advantage.” He stopped for a moment to stare into space. “We all learned a lot. It truly was a magnificent move on the part of the administration, as we ended up teaching each other lessons that many students may not have truly processed or accepted if they had come from the teachers.” He finally added one of his ‘T’ tiles to another word and sat down, apparently accepting his impending vocabularic defeat.

Kate came around the couch and sat next to Tsuyu. “Okay, so the hero team crashed and burned, but-” None of them spoke up to defend themselves, but they didn’t look particularly ashamed either. She gestured with her hand for emphasis. “-how were you guys surprised by getting beat by Midoriya? Can’t he, like, bring down a city block or something?”

Uraraka giggled. “Oh, Deku didn’t beat us in a fight.” She paused. “Well, he did, but that’s not why we lost. You know, he used to be a lot less confident. He was actually kind of shy. Now, we all sort of look to him in a crisis. I mean, he was always strong, he’s always been amazing! But we didn’t really think of him the way we do now. Now it’s almost like he’s our leader!”

“The final play of the whole thing was Midoriya orchestrating his own assassination to get full points, kero. He set a new record for getting a perfect score for the villain team.” Tsuyu put three tiles down for another 28 points.

“So, people just call him Kingpin, now?”

Iida nodded, pushing his glasses up. “He asked everyone not to, since he doesn’t want to be known just as his villainous persona, but members of the former Villain Team often instinctively call him that in stressful situations. It’s a testament to how closely he brought the team together in such a short time. Shinsou performed so well that he was transferred into the hero course this year, although I’m given to understand that the administration had already been thinking about transferring him anyway because of his performance in the sports festival.”

Uraraka leaned forward and played another four-letter word, one that Bakugou would have been proud of, smirking under Iida’s glare. “Hatsume made an anti-aircraft gun for them and they shot me with it.” The deadpan delivery of the statement kept Kate from processing it for a full ten seconds before she choked. “They did what?” Uraraka laughed, but didn’t elaborate, and the other two were engrossed in their game tiles. “You know what, maybe I don’t want to know any more. This is too much. The fact that you guys are so calm about it is kind of disturbing.”

“It’s a coping mechanism,” murmured Tsuyu as Kate got up and went back to her laptop.

Kate paused on her way to the table, turning around coming back to hover behind the couch. “Actually, Uraraka?” She tried to stomp down on a slight flush of embarrassment. “I, uh, I wanted to say thanks.”

Uraraka looked up at her in confusion. “Uhm, you’re welcome? For what?”

Kate gave a sort of half laugh. “For kicking the crap out of me, mostly. That was actually pretty fun. But also, for like, helping me train and get better.”

Uraraka gave her a savage grin. “No problem! It’s my pleasure.”

They both laughed and Kate went back to her computer, grabbing some chips from the kitchen on the way.

3 am

Kate still sat at one of the tables in the dining area, headphones plugged into her laptop, languidly flicking between the assigned paper and half a dozen tabs of internet distraction. She sipped from a mug that was more creamer than coffee, although she could still taste the bitter energy shot she’d mixed in. She skipped a song in her playlist and scrolled through an info-page for her essay.

She startled as someone sat down across from her, only faintly illuminated by the reflected light from her screen. She pulled her headphones down to hang around her neck.

“Jesus Christ, what are you doing down here, Shinsou?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

She was surprised further when Midoriya walked out of the kitchen, putting a cup of tea down in front of Shinsou and keeping one for himself. Shinsou took a sip, leaning back in his chair and hunching down into his hoodie, eyes closed.

“We both tend to have a hard time sleeping,” Midoriya offered. “Honestly, I’m kind of surprised it’s just us down here.” He frowned into his cup, a look of worry – or maybe frustration – on his face. “No one sleeps well, really.”

Shinsou spoke without opening his eyes. “There’s a big difference between chronic insomnia and waking up screaming. Don’t lump me in with the rest of you traumatized losers.” There’s no bite to the words, and Midoriya smiles fondly.

“Don’t worry, you’ll join us soon enough.” His face turned serious, and he looked at Kate, his gaze kind but hard as steel. “You both will.” After a beat he must have realized how ominous he sounded, probably seeing the look of mixed confusion and alarm on Kate’s face. He rubbed the back of his neck ruefully. “Sorry, it’s just that we’re sort of used to being targets. You guys haven’t really had that beaten into you yet. But yeah, most of us have pretty bad nightmares. Everyone’s got their own personal fears and failures. I’ve seen almost everyone down here at some point or another over the last year.”

“Everyone but the Baku-pile, I bet.” Shinsou leaned forward to take another sip of his tea.

“Baku-pile?” Kate ran the phrase through her head, trying to piece together a translation. “Oh, I get it. Why not them?”

“They don’t exactly have to go far for comfort. Can I see your headphones?” She passed them over and Shinsou slipped them on, nodding approvingly to the music.

Midoriya elaborated, since Shinsou clearly didn’t plan to. “It’s probably not my place to say, but it’s not like it’s a secret or anything. They all sleep in the same room most nights: Kacchan, Kirishima, Mina, Kaminari, and Sero. I don’t know the exact arrangement, but they’re all basically dating each other, more or less. They seem happy.”

Kate moved her laptop to the side, nursing her mug between both hands. “That’s cool. I’d kind of wondered what their whole deal was. You and Bakugou used to be close, right?”

“Yeah. We grew up together.”

“I figured. Bakugou’s spent so long bullying you he’s only now figuring out how not to.” She watched Midoriya closely for a reaction, but Shinsou moved quicker. Before she’d finished talking, he had a hand on her wrist. Not grabbing hard, just resting it on her arm. His gaze was intense when she glanced at him.

“That’s not your business.”

His voice was calm and quiet, almost gentle, but it was cold. She looked at him indignantly for half a second, feeling anger rising up inside her before forcing herself to relax, and nodded.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Midoriya.”

They both looked to the green haired boy. At another time he might have spluttered a defense or denial, but tonight he was too tired. He just stared into his cup.

“How did you figure that out?” His voice was missing its usual inflection. It was flat. Dead, almost. He felt the night weighing heavily on him, reminded of all his problems.

“Personal experience.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“No, Midoriya, I was the bully. That’s why I know what it looks like.”

He looked at her in surprise. “I’m sure you weren’t-”

She cut him off with an upraised hand. “And I’m very sure I was. It’s fine. He is trying to do better, you know.”

Midoriya nodded, still lost in the little reflections her laptop screen made on the surface of the tea in his cup, but Shinsou looked at her closely, eyes narrowed.

“How do you know all that? You haven’t been here long enough to see a difference in Bakugou’s behavior.”

She shook her head. “I haven’t. Aizawa showed me some records of the class the other day. Videos, sound recordings, shit like that. I asked because I wanted to understand the, like, social dynamics and stuff better, but I never expected him to say yes. I got why he did once I saw some of the more, uh, terrifying footage like the USJ, though. He wanted me to know what I was getting into. But there were definitely plenty of times in there where Bakugou’s behavior was not okay.”

“Ah.”

There was a long silence as they sat, occasionally sipping their drinks. It wasn’t unpleasant, surprisingly. There should have been some tension or negativity after that conversation, but they all seemed content with each other’s company.

“You never did say why you were down here. Are you cramming last minute?”

She shrugged. “Not really. I just like to stay up through the night sometimes. It gives me a few more hours when I feel like I’m running out of time.”

“Out of time for what?” The look on Shinsou’s face showed he knew he might be pushing at something he shouldn’t but was determined to anyway, just to be contrary. Kate could hardly hold it against him when she’d just done the same thing to Midoriya.

Midoriya put a hand on Shinsou’s shoulder reprovingly, looking to Kate. “You don’t have to answer that.”

She shrugged again .“It’s fine. Mostly just anxiety, I guess. Sometimes I feel like everything’s going too fast, ironically.” Taking a drink for her mug, she gestured with it. “Plus, I like the feeling of stimulants.”

The three of them chuckled, lapsing back into companionable silence. Dawn was still hours off.

Chapter Text

           A pleasant surprise on Saturday night was Class Movie Night, apparently a long-running tradition. Kate could only assume that the argument over what to watch was part of the tradition. She was excited to get to do this every weekend, not so much for the movies themselves, but for the opportunity for human contact that classes, training, and homework left little time for during the week. She was already gaining a wealth of insights into certain social dynamics that weren’t normally advertised.

Distracted by the movie, Bakugou seemed perfectly happy to let Kirishima and the rest of their squad drape themselves over and around him, taking up an entire couch and then some between the five of them. Bakugou’s hand rested on Kirishima’s thigh while the redhead wrapped both arms around Bakugou’s arm and leaned his head against the blond’s shoulder. Ashido was laying across both their laps, resting the back of her head on Sero’s legs next to them. She and Kaminari seemed to be texting back and forth, despite being the two who had argued loudest for this movie.

On the other side, the weird muddle of tension that she’d seen come up sometimes between Todoroki, Shinsou, and Uraraka as they all orbited around Midoriya evened out to a comfortable casualness, all of them and Iida squished onto one couch and sharing snacks.

Jirou, helplessly unsubtle at the best of times, was especially noticeable in her pining when she thought nobody would be watching; often picking a spot on the floor against the foot of the couch that wasn’t especially well angled to see the movie but was quite well angled to keep an eye on Yaoyorozu. To be fair, Kate mused, the soft, flickering lighting from the television was pretty flattering to Yaoyorozu’s features. And she made a lot of cute faces when watching movies.

Cut it out, Jirou was here first. Don’t be that bitch

The only one who seemed to really share her affinity for watching their classmates was Hagakure. Of course, Kate would have remained just as clueless to that fact as everyone else if Hagakure hadn’t snuck up on her and whispered in her ear as she was watching Uraraka laugh at one of Shinsou’s deadpan comments while stealing popcorn from the purple haired boy.

“They’re pretty good friends when they aren’t fighting for Midoriya’s attention, huh?”

To her credit, Kate managed to cover her squeak of surprise with a cough, but Shouji had definitely noticed. There was an extra ear now angled her way that she was pretty sure hadn’t been there before. Hagakure giggled before pulling away again, leaving Kate more self-conscious than she felt she should be under the circumstances. It was at that point that Jirou let out a very distinct sigh, and all Kate could do was quietly facepalm.

She tried not to let her disappointment show when the movie ended and everyone started to get up to head to their rooms. She hung around with Tokoyami and Shouji for a few minutes until they said their goodbyes and left. She was headed for the stairs when Mina and Tooru flanked her from behind, guiding her to the elevator instead.

“We’re not done yet,” giggled Hagakure.

“Yeah, it’s still girls’ night. Plus,” Mina waggled a small opaque bottle in front of Kate as the door to the elevator closed, “I got saké!” She pulled it back protectively. “You can’t ask where I got it, though.”

Kate snorted. “Alright, fine. So what do we do at girls’ night?” The elevator opened to the fifth floor and the girls made their way to Yaoyorozu’s room.

“Talk, mostly. Nails, sometimes. Just chill.”

The door opened on Yaoyorozu, Tsuyu, Uraraka, and Jirou sitting cross-legged on the floor with space between for the other three. Kate sat between Uraraka and Yaoyorozu, Hagakure and Mina flopping down together between Tsuyu and Jirou. Yaoyorozu clapped her hands officiously.

“Alright. Sorry, Kate, but we’re going to interrogate you.”

Kate shrugged. “Go for it.”

“You don’t have to answer stuff you don’t want to, kero,” said Tsuyu to her right.

Kate gave her a slight smirk. “Wasn’t going to.”

“First,” Yaoyorozu turned to face Kate fully. “I promised Midoirya I would get a full account of your Quirk, if that’s alright.”

Kate pursed her lips. “Yeah, okay. What do you want to know?”

Everyone laughed. “It’s for Midoriya, so… everything.”

“Right. I guess that makes sense. So, you know I call it Velocity. Basically, I can fill objects with energy, and then use that energy to launch them in a specific direction.” She settled into a more comfortable position, leaning back against the massive footboard of Yaoyorozu’s bed. “Technically, I apply potential energy to objects that I touch and then transform that potential energy directly into kinetic energy. The longer I touch the object the more force I can apply to it, and I can do the same thing with my own body. Since I’m, you know, touching it.” She got some laughs out of them with that. “I can technically do it without direct skin contact, like through gloves or my sleeve, but it’s harder and takes longer to build up the energy. And I can only affect so much material at a time. I could blow a section of a wall apart, but I couldn’t launch a whole building off the ground. I can control the direction – vector - I throw things at, but it’s not always perfectly exact, since I’m just relying on sight to aim. When I launch myself I have much better control, although that’s partially just from practice, and the effect is a little different. Visually, it looks more like a Warp Quirk when I launch myself, which is why I call it Warping. Obviously. What’s actually happening is I move at extremely high velocity until I reach the point that I want to be at, then I instinctively reduce my velocity while still retaining a significant portion of the momentum. I haven’t been able to figure out how to slow myself down manually, or apply the effect to objects or other people, and I’m not sure I can do it at all outside of that one specific instance. The reason I can use the speed boost to fight is because when I Warp my body is able to absorb or cancel any of the effects an impact at that exact speed would have. So I can punch a wall hard enough to crack or break it without destroying my hand, but if I were to Warp into something exerting significant force on its own, like an oncoming vehicle or a punch from someone with enhanced strength, I would be affected by that the same as if I had been standing still and been hit. I have some blunt force and physical trauma resistance as well, just in general.”

She poked Uraraka in the side. “Fortunately for me, or I’d be smeared all over the training field thanks to you knocking me around.”

“There doesn’t seem to technically be a limit on how much energy I can charge something with, but after a certain point the rate of energy gain drops to almost nothing. An object charged for two minutes is realistically the most powerful it’s going to get. Something charged for fifteen or twenty minutes is only going to move a little faster and farther than an object charged for two minutes. But thirty seconds or so is usually enough. More than that and it starts getting way too dangerous for anyone downrange. Like, sniper bullet dangerous. I’m not really sure of the numbers, especially at higher power levels since it’s proven pretty difficult to measure my power output in any scientific way. Gauging how fast I can send objects flying is hard to measure at those speeds without some super expensive equipment, and it really doesn’t translate directly into how much force is applied to them anyway.”

Yaoyorozu was writing furiously in a notebook she’d produced halfway through. “You said you could blow a wall apart, does that mean you can effect each brick individually to send them in different directions?”

Kate shook her head. “Every object has a rate of acceleration after which it can no longer maintain structural integrity. The wall would explode because that section can’t keep its shape with that sort of acceleration, and because the parts around it aren’t charged it would tear itself apart anyway when it started moving.”

Yaoyorozu hummed, still writing.

“That’s a lot of, like, physics,” said Mina from across the circle. “The only stuff I have to know for my Quirk is pH’s.”

“Yeah.” Kate looked at her hands in her lap. “Physics is really the only science I’m good at. I have to be.” There was a chorus of understanding murmurs as the others nodded at that.

“You’d be surprised how easy it is to seriously hurt someone with sound waves,” muttered Jirou. She looked up quickly, waving her hands in front of her. “Not that I have, I just was doing some reading on it.”

Kate winced. “Yeah. Gotta be careful with vibrations.”

Uraraka spoke up hesitantly. “Sometimes I have nightmares about floating away and not being able to release it.” Tsuyu leaned over and wrapped an arm around Uraraka’s shoulders. They were all quiet for a few minutes. Mina pulled out the bottle of saké and uncapped it, taking a sip and passing it to her left. Yaoyorozu gave her a disapproving look but didn’t say anything.

Hagakure took it but ended up just holding it as she started talking. “So, I know I kind of already asked, but what’s it like in America? Like, what are the heroes like? Do you guys know about All Might and Endeavor and Hawks? Oh, who’s the strongest in America?”

Kate considered her questions for a moment. “We knew All Might, especially since he was there for a while. I think the whole world kind of knew him, and everyone saw that last fight. We don’t really know anyone else, I might have read something about Endeavor somewhere but most people wouldn’t know him. The big names in America right now are Reactor and Cosmos. Reactor’s just a nuclear-powered asshole, kind of a combo of All Might and Bakugou.” There were a few shudders and looks of horror at that. “Cosmos is alright. Kind of spacey. Like, they always seem zoned out. But they help a lot of people, so whatever. I’m not sure if Sorceress counts? She was the strongest basically ever and came from America originally, but she was never technically a Hero.”

Yaoyorozu frowned. “Is she still alive? I though she was from a hundred years ago?”

“Wait, The Sorceress? Didn’t she set herself up with like a big wizard’s tower in Africa and threaten to kill anyone who came near,” Jirou asked. Uraraka and Tsuu nodded in agreement.

Kate blinked in surprise. “I never heard anything about her threatening anyone. But I mean, yeah, that was like seventy years ago or something. I just know she was from North Carolina originally, and left to live in, like, the geographic center of Africa or something.”

Hagakure spoke up, almost spilling the bottle as she gestured with it. “Was she really, like, all-powerful?”

Kate shrugged. “As far as I know. She basically controlled reality within a certain distance of her, I think.”

“Huh. So does the Hero system work the same in America as it does here? With a Number One, and rankings?”

Kate frowned at the question. “Maybe originally. But it’s a mess now. It’s more corrupt than not, really.”

There were a number of gasps and expressions of surprise and anger. “What? That can’t… Please, Kate, you’ve got to explain this.” Yaoyorozu’s face was so earnest and concerned that Kate had to look away.

She stared into her lap for almost a full minute, folding and unfolding her hands as she thought. Finally, she let out a sigh that seemed to deflate her like a popped volleyball. “Okay. Do you know about “Pro Villains”?”

The others looked confused. “You mean like the League of Villains?” ventured Uraraka.

Kate pulled her braid over her shoulder and began to pick at it unconsciously, her eyes still downcast. “Not exactly. In America, anyone with a Quirk License is automatically conscripted by the US military, unless they’re sponsored by a corporation or some other entity that has the right paperwork, which is really hard and expensive to get. So all heroes are pretty much either military reserve forces/government police, or private corporation thugs; although they mostly do try to keep up the, like, face of public heroism. There’s plenty of heroes who act mostly in the same role as heroes do here. Reactor is a military guy, Cosmos works for some secret government branch, I think, but they spend most of their time going around punching bad guys and saving people. Mostly for the PR, I think. They all have a leash, and they have to answer to whoever’s holding it. Both the government and the corporations want things that either aren’t legal or wouldn’t look good to the public. So they use secretly employed ‘villains’ to do their dirty work and take the fall if it goes bad, and just quietly clean up the mess behind them. Sometimes it’s not so bad, I guess. Some Pro Villains aren’t really bad people, so they make sure to not actually hurt anybody too bad as long as they get their job done. But obviously there’s a lot of people who like the idea of a license to hurt people. Before quirks came around those people just became cops. Ironically, with the rise of quirks the American police have become a lot less corrupt and terrible, because the worst of those who just want to abuse power become heroes or villains instead.”

She paused, then held her hand out to Hagakure. The other girl passed the bottle over and Kate took a gulp, gasping a little after she swallowed. She handed it off to Uraraka next to her. Uraraka looked at it with trepidation, before bringing it to her lips and taking a small sip, but Yaoyorozu leaned across Kate and swiped it away from her before she could decide if she wanted more and gave it back to Mina.

“The point is, sometimes you get awkward situations where two ‘heroes’ end up fighting each other because their bosses say so. Or, like, a pro hero and a pro villain who are married, like my parents.”

          Everyone shifted uncomfortably, Uraraka making an “O” with her mouth and Jirou murmured something under her breath. Kate began to tug harder on her braid, not looking up.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” put in Yaoyorozu. “We don’t want to make you talk about things you’re uncomfortable with.” The others nodded in agreement.

Kate sniffed a little at that and frowned to herself. “It’s not that big a deal. That part isn’t so bad. My relationship with my dad wasn’t terrible, but we weren’t super close. I think he was afraid of me getting hurt. Like that wouldn’t happen anyway.” She stopped, leaning back slightly and letting her head hang backward to look at the ceiling for a moment. “I don’t usually cry about it this easy.” She chuckled and rubbed one of her eyes before going on. “My mom works for a charity. One of the only ones with the money and infrastructure to be able to employ heroes just for the public good or whatever. Her hero name is Dove, she has a flight quirk. She does rescue and emergency response, mostly. My dad worked for some tech company, I never found out which one. He mostly did stuff like stealing other companies’ technology or secrets or whatever. Didn’t really hurt any actual people. Except once. There was an accident or something on a job he was doing, and a building was damaged. A big skyscraper. My mom was in the area and got called in to help get people out before it came down. I think there were some other heroes there too, and maybe one of them went after my dad. I don’t know. Whatever happened, my mom had to choose between saving some civilians and saving my dad. She let him die. And in the end, she couldn’t save all of the civilians, either. He had a telekinesis quirk, but it wasn’t enough to…” She shook her head. “It wasn’t enough.” There were several gasps, and Yaoyorozu covered her mouth with a hand. She heard a quiet “damn” from Jirou. They came together in a big group hug around Kate. At that point she broke down and began to sob, burying her face in Mina’s shoulder.

After a few minutes she managed to get the sobs racking her body back under control. She sniffed hard and wiped her eyes, sitting up and pushing the others back to their places. “God, I fucking hate crying. So, yeah. That was five months ago. My mom doesn’t do as much hero work anymore, although she still does other stuff with the charity. She wanted me to come here to Japan, away from the whole fucked up American system. And like, I agree with her, I don’t want to be a part of that either. I just. I feel like she’s afraid of me hating her for letting my dad die, and she’s so afraid of confronting that that she won’t really talk to me, and she sent me away so she doesn’t have to deal with it.” She sniffled and held her hand out to Mina. After a second of confusion, Mina handed over the bottle, and Kate took another drink. She noticed Yaoyorozu furrow her brow at her in concern. Kate shrugged. “Ni modo. Estoy bien.”

Uraraka reached over and took the bottle from Kate and took another swig, leaning back away from Yaoyorozu and Tsuyu’s attempts to grab it away from her. She wrinkled her nose and handed it off, then wrapped Kate in another hug, resting her head on the other girl’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Kate. That’s terrible, I can’t imagine.”

Tsuyu nodded in agreement. “It’s almost like losing both parents.”

Yaoyorozu looked shocked. “Tsu, please, you shouldn’t just say that!”

Tsuyu quirked her head to the side and croaked. “It’s true, though.”

Kate laughed a little, sniffling. “It’s okay. It’s true. I’m not mad at my mom for saving those people. Well, I am. But I don’t want to be, because I think she did the right thing. But I am mad at her for shutting me out.” She sniffled again and wiped her nose on her arm. “I just- I just want my mom-“ She broke down again, leaning on Uraraka and cried quietly, shoulders shaking.

Yaoyorozu stood up and clapped her hands together softly. “Alright. We’re having a sleepover.” The rest looked up at her in surprise and had to catch the pillows that were suddenly raining down on them as Yaoyorozu began to produce enough blankets and cushions to cover the entire floor of her room, rotating back and forth like a pillow-sprinkler.

“Hagakure you have got to leave your clothes on.” Everyone looked over to the floating pair of pajama pants and a tank top that was already halfway peeled off.

“Aw, come on!”

The room dissolved into laughter as pillows began to be arranged for more comfortable lounging. Kate caught Yaoyorozu’s eye and mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to her. Yaoyorozu simply smiled.

Eventually everyone was settled. Jirou was leaning against the wall as she fidgeted with her phone, her ankles laid over top of Yaoyorozu’s legs as the taller girl leaned back against the bedframe beside Kate. Yaoyorozu laid a hand on Jirou’s ankle, making her jump, but she quickly relaxed, trying to hide a small smile.

Wow, look at you girls practically flirting. I’m so proud

Tsuyu and Uraraka were laying close together, propped up on their sides facing each other, whispering and giggling, Uraraka’s back pressed comfortably against Kate’s thigh as she leaned against the massive bed’s footboard next to Yaoyorozu. Mina and Hagakure were slowly finishing off the bottle they’d brought, uncharacteristically quiet, simply enjoying the company of their classmates. Hagakure leaned sideways against Mina, and the pink girl wrapped an arm around her shoulder and laid her hand on top of her head. Her eyes grew huge, and she carefully began patting all around the top of the invisible girl’s head. “Hagakure!”

“Hm?” She already sounded like she was falling asleep.

“You don’t have any hair!” The others looked over in surprise. Their might have been a faint blush hovering in the air under Mina’s hand.

“Yes I do! It’s just short.” She might have crossed her arms, judging by how her shirt shifted. “I cut it after Bondo got me last year. You try taking care of hair you can’t see.”

Mina laughed and wrapped her up in a hug, nuzzling her face into Hagakure’s close-cropped hair. “Kate, it’s like yours is on the sides!”

Kate rubbed a hand along the side of her head. “I should probably get that touched up soon.”

Hagakure bounced up and down in Mina’s grip. “I could do that for you! I bet I’m real good at it! Although, it’s hard to tell since I’ve only done mine.”

Everyone laughed again. “It’s a deal.”

Kate shifted and brought her long braid around in front of her again. She had picked at it too much earlier and hairs were starting to come loose all over. Sighing, she undid the band at the bottom and began to pull the braid loose. Yaoyorozu’s gaze followed her hands with interest. “Do many girls wear their hair like that in America?”

Still pulling at stubborn tresses, Kate blushed slightly. “Not really. I watched a movie about Vikings a few years ago, and there was a character with hair kind of like this. I really liked her, and I loved the hairstyle, so I started growing my hair out so I could do it. It was just in a regular bob before.” She finally pulled the last fold free and let the whole cascade fall on one side, nearly enveloping Uraraka’s head as Uraraka giggled helplessly.

“Tsuyu who’s do you think is longer, yours or Kate’s?”

Tsuyu, with a mischievous grin, shot her tongue out to stick against the far wall. “Mine.”

“Oh my god!” Kate stared at the tongue stretching across the room. “I knew you were a frog, but like… You’re really a frog!” Mina began laughing uncontrollably at her shock.

“I meant your hair!” Uraraka covered both cheeks with her hands in exasperation, accidentally floating up a few inches before Jirou tossed a blanket over her to weigh her back down.

Tsuyu retracted her tongue and gave one of her characteristic smiles, eyes closed and tongue hanging out the side. “I know, kero.” She reached behind her and pulled at the bow her hair was tied in, letting it fall free. She pulled a lock over her shoulder and held the end out to Kate, who took it and traded the end of one of her own. The held them up, trying to match the angle of each other’s heads. Tsuyu had to switch to a different strand of hair, one that came from the top of her head to match Kate’s. Finally, Yaoyorozu handed over a measuring tape. Tsuyu’s turned out to be longer by a few inches.

Eventually the conversation wound down until everyone was startled by a sudden soft snoring. It took them a few minutes to figure out it was Hagakure, as she was still kind of sitting up, slumped forward. They leaned her over flat and gave her a pillow and blanket and turned out the desk light. Kate fell asleep soon after that, still leaning against the headboard.

Kate woke up in stages. First, she knew that she was very comfortable. Huddled under several blankets, she was contentedly warm, with a pleasant weight over top of her and other weights pressed against her sides. Second, she became aware that there was someone snoring in her ear. Not unpleasantly, per se, but enough to keep her from drifting back into a deeper sleep. Third, she knew that she had to pee. Finally, as she contemplated the horror of leaving her magnificent sleep cocoon, she began to wonder what was draped over her face. It might have been a blanket, but it might have been her own hair. Not an uncommon occurrence, either way. She opened her eyes to find that it was neither. Far too close to her face hovered the only thing she could see that wasn’t pink: a yellow, curled horn. Mounting evidence was beginning to suggest that both the pleasant weight on top of her and the not-unpleasant snoring could likely be attributed to Ashido Mina. Given Mina’s well documented sleeping habits, this wasn’t terribly surprising. Kate actually found it more surprising that the body part pressed against her face wasn’t a foot. Unfortunately, she still had to pee.

In order to facilitate her unfortunate but necessary escape from Prison Ashido, she took full stock of her surroundings, now entirely awake. And while the situation she found herself in was one that she would normally be fine with, it was with a growing urgency that she began to seek escape from the press of bodies around her. Uraraka’s back pressed into her right side, while her left arm was trapped under Yaoyorozu’s pillow. She was entirely pinned, and not too happy about it. With a sigh of frustration, she began to pull her arm out from under Yaoyorozu’s head, trying her best not to wake the other girl, but not holding out much hope of that. Just as she had almost gotten her hand free, there was a mumble from beside her head, and Mina shifted in her sleep, bringing her arm up and dropping it to slap onto the lower half of Kate’s face.

That’s it. Fuck it

Abandoning consideration for the girl draped over her, she rolled onto her side and then sat up, letting Mina fall into the spot she had just vacated. Surprisingly, Mina only mumbled more and reached out, grabbing Uraraka around the middle and pulling herself tight to the other girl. Kate sat there for a moment and stared, impressed by Mina’s ability to ignore the waking world, before tearing off the remaining blankets to rush to the bathroom.

“This wasn’t exactly how I was envisioning spending my Sunday. Not that I’m complaining.”

“Mei, please. You’re overwhelming her.”

Kate was standing stiffly as Hatsume rushed around her in a blur, taking measurements and asking questions she didn’t wait for the answers to. The expression on Kate’s face was conflicted. Yaoyorozu sighed. Maybe this hadn’t been a great idea. She had known Hatsume would be thrilled over the potential uses of Kate’s abilities, and she had assumed Kate would get some useful gear out of it, but she’d forgotten just how intense Hatsume could be. Kate was very clearly trying to force down a blush as Hatsume measured her chest, and Yaoyorozu was beginning to suspect Hatsume knew exactly what she was doing. “Mei, behave yourself.” She came up behind the pink haired girl, laying a hand on her shoulder. Hatsume shot up with a grin, winking at Kate before rushing to her computer to input values. “So. Tell me all about your quirk, so I can make you some fabulous babies!” Her crosshair eyes were zeroed in on Kate’s, who was blinking furiously as she tried to keep up with the inventor’s train of thought.

“Uh, I can charge objects with kinetic energy and launch them at high speeds, or I can do it with myself.”

Hatsume was immediately back in her face, eyes wide.

“Really! Interesting! Okay, so anything you use will have to be extremely resilient to account for high velocities - ” She was off, potentially giving Midoriya a run for his money in the mumbling department, except that she organized her thoughts at full volume. Kate actually relaxed a little, more comfortable with the familiar physics jargon. As Hatsume chattered, she was looking up designs, sorting through materials and structures. She whirled on Kate, pointing a finger imperiously “Projectiles!”

Kate looked confused. “Y-yes? I can- ” Hatsume cut her off, trampling over her words.

“What kind of projectiles are you using? Ball bearings? What kind of material?”

“Uh, I don’t…” She rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed. “I don’t carry anything to use as projectiles or anything. I can’t really throw a ball bearing hard enough to be useful but soft enough to not be, you know. Lethal. I’ve tried. It’s too dangerous.”

Yaoyorozu stepped up, putting a reassuring hand on Kate’s shoulder. “Perhaps something like rubber bullets?” She looked to Hatsume for confirmation. “Something modeled after nonlethal riot gear like the small bean bags they use?” Hatsume nodded in agreement, rushing back to her computer.

“I… Hadn’t thought of that.” Kate looked even more embarrassed. Smiling, Yaoyorozu created a riot-shotgun beanbag and a rubber bullet, handing them to her.

“Try these. They’re probably not perfect for you, but we can at least get an idea whether it’s possible. Mei, do you have any ballistics dummies?”

Hatsume gestured vaguely at a closet, which Yaoyorozu dug through for a suitable test target. Kate watched over her shoulder in horror at the contents of the closet.

“What… What is this stuff? That’s a gun. And that’s half a robot. The left half. What the fuck do you do with this stuff?”

“Oh! That’s where I put Kingslayer. I’d forgotten.”

“I’m sorry, your robot is named Kingslayer?”

“No, the sniper rifle is named Kingslayer. The AI inside the rifle is named C.R.O.S.S.H.A.I.R. He’s in my computer too. I should probably sync them up.” Hatsume bounded over and grabbed the gun from a shelf, propping it up next to her computer and plugging a cord into the stock.

“There’s an AI in… Nevermind.”

Yaoyorozu laughed, pulling out a white mannequin torso. “That’s not even the most terrifying thing in this closet.” Propping up the dummy on a table in front of a padded wall – Kate was beginning to think they did a lot of unauthorized testing in here – she pulled Kate to the other side of the room. “Alright. Whenever you’re ready. Mei, live fire, pay attention.”

Hatsume spun around, watching closely as Kate held up the rubber bullet between her fingers, took a breath and… Waited. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds. Hatsume opened her mouth to say something, when the bullet disappeared. She whipped her head to see the test dummy rock backward on its weighted base, A bloom of red and orange showing around a small, ragged-edged hole over the ribs indicating probable lethality.

“Hm. Try the beanbag.”

Kate raised it, holding it in her hand like a baseball, although it was smaller than that. After another thirty seconds, she held it straight out in front of her and let fly. It struck home, wobbling the dummy and bouncing off. A splotch of purple where it had hit the torso indicated bruising and possible bone fracture, but a statistically nonlethal result.

Hatsume let out a whoop and Kate grinned. Yaoyorozu smiled softly at her, watching her eyes light up at the new functionality she had access to. She was glad she had brought Kate. Kate turned to her, eyes shining. “How many of those can you make?”

Yaoyorozu responded with a smile and dropped a dozen onto the table next to her. She moved over to Hatsume’s computer as Kate got to work testing higher and lower velocities. She searched for different designs for the bean bags and rummaged through the stash of candy bars Hatsume kept for her. Hatsume took a break from watching Kate to come up behind her, wrapping an arm around Yaoyorozu’s waist and resting her chin on her shoulder.

“You’re a genius Momo.” Yaoyorozu rolled her eyes as Hatsume brought her lips close Momo’s ear, her voice rough as she pressed herself against Momo’s back. “Not as much of a genius as me, but pretty close.”

Yaoyorozu reached back to bat her on the forehead gently. “You’re terrible at flirting.”

Hatsume giggled as she returned to the tests. It was a sound that Yaoyorozu was slowly beginning to decouple from an instinctive fear response, but it still sent a shiver down her back. Munching on a chocolate bar, she produced another experimental bean bag, this one underfilled to increase air resistance. Hefting it in her hand she set it aside and tried for one with a textured surface. After coming up with a few more variants she passed them to Kate to try out and leaned back, watching Hatsume take detailed notes on charge times, relative velocities and impacts, and a host of other data.

The tests lasted another forty minutes before Kate sagged, finally feeling the exhaustion of repeated Quirk usage. Hatsume snapped her notebook shut, satisfied, and went to her computer to draw up designs.

“Also, I’m going to make some modifications to your suit design before it gets made. You already submitted it, right?”

“Uh, wait. What kind of-“

Hatsume ignored the question “You know what the next step is, right?”

Kate looked at her questioningly - and maybe a little fearfully - and Momo tensed, unsure where this was going. Hatsume turned to them, a glint in her eye. “Testing on Kirishima.”

Well. That couldn’t be too bad, right? As long as everyone was careful. And supervised. Very closely supervised. She sighed, realizing she’d now committed herself to a huge amount of time supervising this whole affair. At least Kyoka would probably help her, right?

Iida could not find out about this.

Chapter Text

Monday morning, the class sat in their seats waiting for Aizawa to arrive. A cloud seemed to have settled over the room, suppressing conversation to murmurs and monosyllables. Finally, Kirsishima smacked his hand on the top of his desk, making a number of the class startle or jump in their seats.

Jirou turned to glare at him. “What the hell, man?”

Kirishima ignored her. “Who’s going to say it?”

There were a number of groans and curses from around the room. “Don’t do it, mon amis,” Aoyama said from where he had his head in his hands.

Kirishima folded his arms across his chest, refusing to back down. “Seriously. Someone’s got to say it.”

Kaminari turned in his seat to look at Kirishima. “No one wants to say it man. Don’t do this.”

There was a loud pop from over by Bakugou. “Don’t be fucking cowards. I’ll fucking kill them if they show their damn faces.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to have to deal with it!” Jirou was almost shouting as she rounded on Bakugou. He just sneered at her, slouching into his chair. There was silence for a few minutes. Class wouldn’t start for another five.

Kate leaned forward in her chair to whisper to Uraraka.

“What are they talking about?”

Uraraka shook her head, not turning around. “I’m not going to be the one to say it.”

Kate sat back with a huff, unconsciously mirroring Bakugou with her posture.

Tsuyu croaked discontentedly but didn’t say anything. The silence was finally interrupted by Aizawa walking into the room, looking more rumpled than usual. There was a scratch on his face that looked like it had probably been bleeding an hour ago. He stood at his desk, watching them fidget.

“Congratulations. You made it through the first week without anyone trying to kill you.”

The entire class erupted in shouts and groans of dismay.

“You jinxed it, Sensei!”

Kate sat down at the lunch table with a rattle of silverware. She squinted at the extensive bruise over Setsuna’s eye and cheekbone and the hat Honenuki was wearing that looked like it had been borrowed from Tsunatori. She stuck a piece of fish in her mouth, chewing as she spoke.

“What the hell happened to you guys?”

Kuroiro gave her a morose look. “Apparently it was our turn this year.” Kate raised an eyebrow at him as she popped another piece into her mouth.

Setsuna snorted and slumped onto the table, propping her chin in one hand. “Oh, nothing too crazy. We just bumped into half the League chilling at a café downtown. No big.”

Tokoyami thumped Kate on the back when she choked on her fish. “The League of Villains?”

Setsuna nodded. “They weren’t even in costume, they were just having lunch. It went pretty well, honestly. Beat the crap out of Twice before Spinner and Dabi got to us. And no civilians got hurt, so I call it a win.”

After a moment of contemplation, Shouji spoke. “You think it counts?” He sounded skeptical.

Tokoyami’s feathers puffed up in some gesture Kate wasn’t familiar with. “I doubt it. That would be far too easy.”

“Speak for yourself,” grouched Juzo. He gestured to the hat he was wearing and his missing eyebrows. “Dabi scorched my whole damn head, and Recovery Girl’s Quirk can’t grow back hair. Not exactly what I call easy.”

Kate’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit. How bad did that hurt?”

Setsuna answered for him, with a little bit of friendly sadism. “He looked like a burnt chicken nugget!”

Juzo muttered something under his breath about a “flesh wound.”

“Does that happen often?” Kate was beginning to look worried. “Like, horrible injuries that you just get over like it didn’t happen just because it goes away?”

The table was silent.

“Would you prefer the alternative?” Shouji had somehow managed to fit an eyebrow onto the eye-tentacle he was looking at her with and was raising it quizzically.

“I would prefer the alternative of not getting horribly maimed in the first place, yeah!”

There were various pitying expressions around the table.

“That’s probably not the most likely outcome.”

Kate threw up her hands. “Fine. But if it has to hurt a lot it better be the good kind of hurting or I’m going to be grumpy.”

A moment passed and then everyone shrugged. “Fair enough.” Everyone continued their lunch.

Kate felt someone kick her under the table and looked up to see Setsuna smirking at her as she ate. She discreetly made a couple gestures with her hands where no one else at the table could see that Kate recognized as sign language. Kate pulled a face that she hoped was universally recognized as “I don’t know what you’re saying.” Setsuna stuck her tongue out in mild frustration and shrugged, waving her hand. Kate gave her an apologetic face and went back to her food.

“Hey,” Setsuna caught up to Kate in the hall after lunch. “You’ve got to learn sign language, girl! It’s super useful.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kate said, hands up defensively. “But I’m on my third language already! I still haven’t got Spanish down great.”

Setsuna bumped their shoulders together. “It’ll help with Spanish too! The more languages you know the easier each new one gets, right?”

Kate snorted, resuming walking toward the classroom. “I’m not sure that’s how it works. Fine, you teach me, I’ll do it. And I’ll help you with English if you need it”

Setsuna pumped her fist in victory. “Sweet. Here, put your number in my phone, I’ll text you later.”

They parted at Class A’s door, Setsuna giving Kate a wide smile with her sharp teeth that Kate couldn’t quite keep herself from returning. In fact, she caught herself smiling at nothing a few more times before school was out, getting a lecture from Aizawa during training for her troubles.

The week passed quickly. Aizawa’s training methods focused on drilling movements and quirk usage so deep that responses turned to reflex and combat became instinctual. Which invariably meant that the students were dead on their feet by the time they made it to the dorms each day.

“Does your ass hurt? My ass hurts.” Kate stretched her back as she stepped out of the dorm showers, sighing in pleasure at the series of pops that followed. She’d pulled on a black tank top and a pair of soft drawstring camo shorts that came down past her knee to relax in.

Uraraka gave her a quick jab in the side as her arms were raised, giggling when Kate yelped and jerked away. “That’s because you aren’t stretching right.”

Kate tossed her towel at Uraraka’s head, letting out a satisfied “Ha!” when the other girl failed to duck in time.

Mina stepped out behind them, already in her pajamas despite it only being four o’clock on a Friday. “We should go shopping tomorrow! The whole class together, to celebrate a whole two weeks villain-free.”

Yaoyorozu came out behind her, a towel wrapped around her head and shaking the wet spots out of her t-shirt. “I’m not sure how wise that would be. The quiet is making me more nervous, if anything.”

“But I’m booooored!”

They ended up going shopping.

Tsuyu and Uraraka were away visiting the Asui family for the weekend, and Midoriya and Todoroki were out of town on a trip with All Might, but everyone else had come. Even Bakugou had let himself be dragged along, caving to Mina’s puppy eyes and quivering lip - not that he would admit it. Almost everyone had gathered beside a fountain outside the mall. The skyscrapers across the street turned the area into a sort of sheltered plaza under the cloudy sky.

The students were enjoying themselves thoroughly, despite the cool spring wind and gray skies. They were showing off whatever they had bought or just chatting quietly, always conscious of the small amount of celebrity they had and the attention they garnered when out in public in large groups. The steady hum of people and vehicles was shattered by a call that rang out across the plaza.

“NOMU!”

Ashido and Sero came around the corner where they’d gone off looking for a place for everyone to have lunch, Sero swinging on a line of tape and Ashido sliding for her life on a trail of acid. Thundering behind them was a massive Nomu, at least three meters of navy-blue flesh and blackened scar tissue. As it passed the corner of the building with its lumbering gait it grasped the corner to pull itself forward, tearing out finger-grooves of concrete with its passing. A long tongue lolled where a lower jaw should have been, eyes rolling wildly in the exposed gray matter.

The two skidded to a stop, Sero stumbling slightly as he hit the ground running. Everyone was dropping their bags, freeing themselves to move, when a screech rent the air behind them - a long, keening, almost mournful sound - and a second Nomu swooped down to make a pass over the plaza.

“What the fuck is that?!” Kate shouted over the sound of screaming citizens and shrieking monstrosities. She looked around, seeing her classmates’ eyes set like iron all around her as they braced for a fight.

Shouji was beside her, eyes and ears trained in every direction searching for more threats. “Nomu, like the thing from the USJ attack. Hopefully not as strong.”

“I fucking told you! I knew something would happen,” shouted someone angrily, picking up the dropped argument from earlier that week that had everyone responding with shouts of their own.

For once Bakugou wasn’t at the middle of the dispute. He flew forward to meet the oncoming titan, letting off a blinding assault against the Nomu’s exposed brain as he soared over it. The monster plodded slowly to a stop, turning ponderously to chase after the teen that now had its attention. It reached a hand out to grab at Bakugou, who ducked under it by dropping his returning charge into a slide on his knees between the thing’s legs, firing another blast into its back as he passed.

“Go to hell, you piece of shit muscle bag!”

“Dammit Bakugou!”

Half the class surged forward to back Bakugou up. Iida’s engines sputtered to life and he took a few steps before he turned to look worriedly up at the Nomu still in the air.

“Go, we’ve got that one,” reassured Yaoyorozu confidently. Iida nodded, jaw firm, and continued on to engage the larger Nomu. Yaoyorozu turned to those still with her: Aoyama, Kate, Jirou, Shinsou, Tokoyami, Shouji, Koda, and presumably Hagakure, although there was only a pile of her clothes on the ground among the dropped shopping bags where she had been standing. “Aoyama, Tokoyami. We need to bring it to the ground.” She shrugged off her jacket, beginning to produce what looked like a weighted net from one arm. “Be careful of the crossfire between your quirks. Koda too, if you can.”

Aoyama finished buckling the belt he’d pulled out of his bag. “Oui, ma chère, we will bring it down sparklingly!”

Yaoyorozu turned to the rest of them.

“They won’t respond to you. They can’t,” she said to Shinsou, producing a metal bo staff from her other arm and handing it to him. He accepted it with a nod.

“Flat,” barked Shouji, pushing Kate and Shinsou to the ground beside him. Kate glanced up to see blur and a set of talons scrape by overhead, chased through the air by streaks of light and darkness. Shouji grunted beside her, and she scrambled up to see a couple shallow cuts along his shoulder as he levered himself to his feet.

“Kate, Shinsou, be careful. Nomus have multiple quirks, usually at least one that isn’t obvious held in reserve.” Yaoyorozu’s voice was a little shaky, but her expression held firm. “Here, Kyoka.” She handed a device to Jirou, who quickly strapped it around her wrist and plugged both Earjacks into it. She threw an experimental punch, looking satisfied with the weight of it. Jirou moved to join the others trying to bring down the Nomu, holding her hand out to it as she waited for an opening.

Yaoyorozu sagged a little as the net dropped from her shoulder. She was already looking exhausted from producing so much so quickly. Shouji gathered up the net. “Take a rest, Yaoyorozu. We’ll bring it down.”

Kate and Shinsou moved to Yaoyorozu’s side worriedly, but she waved them off. “I’m alright. You two don’t engage it if you don’t feel ready, Nomu are extremely dangerous.” She looked down at her hand, brow furrowed like she wasn’t sure what to create next.

Kate felt a surge of irritation rise in her gut. “I’m in this class too, you know. Don’t treat me like a bystander.” Her voice was sharper than it really should be, she noted in the back of her head. But Yaoyorozu’s astonished expression made a smug smile curl inside her chest.

Don’t you dare patronize me

“Kate, that isn’t what-”

She shoved Shinsou’s hand off her shoulder, turning away to look up at the Nomu as it swooped low. “I’ll bring it down.”

“Kate, wait!”

She was gone, warping up toward the Nomu.

Moving through space at speeds that would tear apart a lesser being continued to be Kate’s greatest satisfaction in life. She could never explain the sensation of power that came with it, with moving faster than the eye could see or the brain could track. When others spoke of getting a “rush” from something she always had to suppress a derisive laugh. She alone knew the real rush.

She had never and would never admit that warping herself was an experience that lasted far longer than the action actually took to complete. Her perception slowed. The world around her went still and she saw everything around her in a sort of blurred clarity.

And then she moved.

She broke away from the ground, the air around her buffeting against her impotently as she felt the pressure and pull of celestial forces determined to rend her to pieces as she slipped through space. They failed, as always. Halfway up she shifted her weight, bringing her legs up so that she impacted the bone of the creature’s wing with one knee, grabbing the limb with her hands and yanking against the impact .

And then she was out, the world rushing into focus around her as it caught up.

There was a bone-numbing scream from the Nomu as Kate reappeared, its wing shattering and crumpling under her assault. The creature wobbled in the air, turning a glide into a rolling tumble. An indistinguishable shout from someone on the ground followed the scream as the Nomu reacted violently. It split open a mouth full of sharp, serrated teeth, and its neck extended from between its shoulders like a viper striking from its lair, growing longer than any human neck should be. Jagged teeth sunk into Kate’s shoulder as she clung to the injured wing. A surprised scream of her own was ripped from her throat as the Nomu shook her like a rat and threw her away as they both fell. Its wing was already snapping back into place, flesh and bone pressing horrifically into shape, but that didn’t stop it from crashing into the ground.

And then Jirou and Aoyama’s combined attacks landed. A nauseatingly intense, vertigo-inducing heartbeat washed over the thrashing form as a bright laser burned a slash through one wing and into its side.

As Kate sailed through the air, the searing pain in her shoulder and hot blood on her face – mostly hers, but a little bit of it the thick gray of Nomu blood – made it hard to focus on her Quirk.

But I do NOT want to hit the ground at this speed without it

She pulled energy into herself and released it, flinging herself straight down into the concrete. The innate resistance granted by her Quirk kept her from being pummeled into soggy gravel, but it didn’t keep the ground from digging into her bleeding shoulder. She gasped, pushing herself up on one elbow. She was next to the fountain, Shinsou and Yaoyorozu rushing to her side. She looked down at the blood splattering onto the concrete beneath her.

“Fuck, that’s bad.”

“What the hell, Kate!” Shinsou crouched down next to her, anger and worry mixing on his face. He carefully had her roll over so that she could sit down and started peeling off her bloody and shredded leather jacket. “You goddamn idiot.” He snapped his mouth shut as soon as he could see the injury, stopping in silence for a few moments before Yaoyorozu jostled him out of it.

“We need to stop the bleeding.” Yaoyorozu glanced over at the Nomu as it screamed again. Its neck was waiving around, keeping those around it at bay like some prehistoric sea creature stranded on a beach, the weighted net tangled around its body. She quickly looked away as Hagakure shouted a warning and made herself known with a quick flash that had the Nomu rearing back. She crouched and began producing medical gauze, passing it to Shinsou.

“How-” Kate broke off with a whispered “ah” as Shinsou pressed gauze against the injury.  “How deep is it? Might need to – Fuck – pack it.”

Yaoyorozu put a reassuring hand on her uninjured shoulder. “Don’t worry, I got my EMT certification last year. Just focus on not moving too much.”

“Idiot,” added Shinsou under his breath.

“Right, okay.” Kate let her head hang backward, eyes closed. “I'm starting to get lightheaded.”

She felt someone cut out the section of her t-shirt around her shoulder. She ventured a glance down but couldn’t make out much through the smeared and still-flowing blood. She could feel the skin stretched and torn in places from her upper arm to a stinging spot almost at her neck. The whole area was on fire down to the bones, and she was sure there was more damage than just lacerations.

Fucking idiot

Goddamn fucking idiot

She managed a look over at the Nomu fight. Shouji and Koda had the Nomu just behind the head, holding it still as Dark Shadow made sure the net was thoroughly entangled around its body. Jirou and Aoyama stood by, weapons ready in case they were needed again. The creature was still screeching at odd intervals, but the four sets of muscular arms around its neck seemed to be slowly choking it into submission.

“Well, I kind of helped.” Her voice was starting to slur from the blood loss.

Shinsou grabbed the back of her head and forced her eyes forward. “Sure. Now stop moving. You’re still bleeding.” She gasped at the motion, but did her best to remain still.

There was a shout of warning, and then the fountain above them exploded as something solid flew through it, dust and bits of concrete showering the three of them as Kirishima bounced to the ground next to them.

Yaoyorozu didn’t seem too worried as she turned to him. “How’s it going over there?”

Kirishima held up a thumbs up but didn’t move to rise. “Ow.”

“Oi! Shitty Hair! Where’d you go?”

Kirishima chuckled under his breath and got to his feet. “We should be done soon. He’s all regenerat-y so I think we’re just gonna wrap him up in tape or something.” He glanced over at their Nomu. “Same as you guys, I guess.” He gave them a quick salute and jogged off.

“He’s cute.” Shinsou and Yaoyorozu stopped what they were doing to stare at Kate, who was definitely feeling dizzy now. “He looks huggable.”

The other two looked at each other, Shinsou mouthing something that she thought might be “losing it” before turning back to their work.

“He is very huggable.” Yaoyorozu didn’t look up as she worked on Kate’s shoulder, causing her to twitch or groan periodically. “He’s gotten bigger since we first met, and the hug quality has only improved. I’m sure he would be happy to give you one if you asked.” She was silent for a moment before her head shot up to look at Shinsou. “Did anyone report that there was an ongoing incident? Or an injury? Or text Aizawa-sensei at least?” They stared at each other again for a moment before Shinsou swore.

“Surely someone…”

“He’s going to kill us.”

“Yes.”

Shinsou leaned back and took out his phone, texting furiously. His face went white when the answering chime sounded. “We’re dead. He’s never going to let us leave campus again.”

Yaoyorozu shrugged. “I mean, it happened on campus the first time. At this point I’m not sure it matters.”

“I should’ve warped away as soon as I hit it, huh?”

Shinsou glared down at Kate. “Oh, you’re just figuring that out, are you?”

Kate waved at him groggily. “I’m injured, leave me alone.”

“It’s your own goddamn fault!”

“Enough, Shinsou.” Yaoyorozu leaned back, wiping a forearm over her forehead, leaving a little smear of blood behind. “I’m not sure we can do anything else until professional help arrives besides keep her hydrated.” She produced a full water bottle from her arm and moved to pour some in Kate’s mouth.

“Should I worry where that water came from?”

“Its not sweat, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Not really what I was thinking, but okay.” Kate reached up to take the bottle with her good arm. She looked over toward the Nomu as she drank. Shouji was still occupied trying to throttle the creature, and seemed to be mostly succeeding. Jirou was next to him using a weaker burst from her wrist weapon next to its head to keep it docile.

“Damn. They took care of that pretty fast.”

Yaoyorozu glanced over. “The average villain fight takes five minutes at most. We’ve been here for at least fifteen.” She thought for a moment. “I guess we’re on schedule for most Nomu fights if you take Endeavor and All Might out of the numbers, though. This is certainly going better than the first time I personally faced one.”

Shinsou frowned. “When was that?”

“The summer training camp attack.”

He made a silent “o” with his mouth. “I see.”

“Yes. That was… not pleasant.” She glanced down at Kate. “Not to say that this is pleasant, per se.”

Kate didn’t register she was being spoken to. She was quickly headed toward unconsciousness, the blood loss catching up with her with a pull toward sleep that felt like an ocean current dragging her down. She did register when Shinsou started shaking her, sending lances of pain through her shoulder and making her gasp.

“You can’t fall asleep. Hey! Kate!”

His voice sounded like it was drifting away, coming through a fog that muffled and dispersed it like a shadow. She blinked a few times, trying to clear away the darkness closing in on the edges of her vision, but it only grew stronger. Slowly, she fell backward, like falling into honey as consciousness faded away. The last thing she saw was the gray sky, and a winged shadow passing overhead.

Kate flickered back to consciousness dazed and distracted by the throbbing in her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see that she was surrounded by vaguely human shaped blotches in various colors. The pink one must be Mina, but she couldn’t identify the small one or the tall dark figure, although the last one did seem familiar. They were speaking in low voices that Kate couldn’t make out. It was a few minutes before she managed to force her eyes to focus enough to really see. She was in some sort of metal room? Looking down at her was an elderly woman with her hair in a bun and a pink visor on, an expression of patient disapproval on her face. Flanking the woman was Aizawa, with a much less patient-looking frown, and a blond, pink skinned woman she had mistaken for Mina. The woman gave a sigh of relief, smiling down at her.

“Thank goodness. I’m glad you’re okay.”

Kate sat up, wincing in pain. She realized she was sitting in an ambulance, the open door showing her classmates gathered around the broken fountain and a crowd of police officers scattered around speaking with them and others. Snipe was standing by the door and tipped his hat to her with a nod.

She spun around to the three inside the ambulance with her. Her shoulder whined in protest, and she realized her arm was in a sling. “What happened?”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “You don’t remember?”

“I..” Kate thought for a second. “I do, but what happened after I was…”

The pink woman spoke up “Your classmates resolved the issue, for the most part. I arrived in time to help them finish up, but I wasn’t really needed.”

Aizawa snorted. “Ryukyu came and retrieved Recovery Girl and I so we could get here faster. You could have been much worse off if she hadn’t.”

Kate blushed, turning to the dragon hero but not quite meeting her eyes. “Thank you. It was my fault I got hurt in the first place, though, you didn’t need to go out of your way.” Kate found herself staring at the woman’s muscular arms and blushed even harder, looking away completely in embarrassment.

The older woman who must be Recovery Girl reached up with a syringe-shaped cane and smacked her on the head.

“Ow! Hey!”

“You should be grateful, young lady.”

Kate rubbed her head, trying not to glare at the old lady. “I am. I just don’t deserve it.”

Aizawa sighed and turned to step out of the vehicle.

“Sensei? Where are you…”

He didn’t answer, just walked to the group of students who perked up at his approach.

“It isn’t about deserving,” said Recovery Girl reproachfully. “Keeping you safe and healthy is our responsibility.”

Ryukyu reached out a hand to Kate, hesitating before putting it on her uninjured shoulder. “Helping people is what we do. It’s what you’ll do, too, I’m sure. Besides, I’m always happy to help out a friend of my interns’.”

Kate nodded, not trusting herself to look at the heroine without embarrassing herself further. “So, how bad is my arm?”

Recovery Girl sighed. “I closed up the wounds so you wouldn’t lose more blood, but what you did lose left you too exhausted for me to heal your broken clavicle. There’s also likely some damage to your scapula and humerus. We’ll wait until later after you’re rested up to fix those.”

They were interrupted by a shout coming from Ashido by the fountain.

“I swear it wasn’t our fault, Sensei! They just came out of nowhere!”

Ryukyu frowned. “Excuse me. I would like to hear what happened.” She flashed Kate another smile and climbed out of the ambulance to walk gracefully toward the assembled teens.

“I didn’t die, right?”

Recovery Girl raised an eyebrow at the question. “No, you are very much alive. I’m at least that competent.”

“It’s just,” Kate gestured outside. “It’s hard to wake up to see her and not think ‘Angel.’”

Recovery Girl rolled her eyes and sat down with a huff. “They used to say that about me, you know.”

That evening, Shinsou, Yaoyorozu, and a bandaged Kate sat in an empty 2-A classroom. Kate had a jug of water she was supposed to drain twice before she went to bed to help replenish her fluids, but other than a little dizziness and a lot of soreness she felt fine.

Aizawa leaned against the desk at the front, staring at each of them in turn, his arms crossed in front of him. “So, what happened?”

Yaoyorozu spoke up. “It’s my fault.” She turned to look at Kate. “I didn’t mean to insult you like that. I apologize.”

“Interesting.” Aizawa’s eyes flicked to Kate. “Miss DeLaine-Hotz?”

“You didn’t insult me. You were just being careful, and smart. I just…” She looked at her free hand, clenching it into a fist. “I get so mad sometimes. I don’t even know why that pissed me off. I guess I just wanted to prove I was as good as you guys. You all just… flowed. As soon as it started you were all ready to go and knew what you needed to do.” She looked at Aizawa, wiping away a trace of frustrated tears. “You’re going to expel me, aren’t you.” She didn’t phrase it like a question.

Aizawa tapped on the desk thoughtfully. “No. Your potential remains unchanged, even if you are a young fool. Do you know why your classmates work so seamlessly together?”

She shook her head, eyes wide.

“Because they’ve had to, to survive.”

Yaoyorozu’s face held the same grim expression, though she didn’t meet Kate’s eyes.

“This class has come under attack more than all the other classes I’ve taught, combined. If they had faltered for even a second, many of them would most likely be dead. They have more experience in actual combat than you, which certainly gives them a leg up, but their teamwork comes from the kind of trust they can only have because they’ve fought for their lives beside each other. They know each other. They know what each other will do. You got hurt because you made a foolish judgement, based in inexperience. But it could have been much worse if you had done so when one of the others was launching an attack at the same time. Listen to your classmates. Lean on their experience. I won’t pretend you’re never going to go through something like this again while you’re here. So be smart about it when it does happen. Next time, wait, and watch closely. If someone gives you instructions, do it. Ask why afterward. You can’t learn if you don’t survive.” He sat back, looking at the others. “Do you two have any comments?”

“I believe,” spoke up Yaoyorozu thoughtfully, “that the strategy of immobilizing the creature could have been accomplished more effectively with something like bolas or cords wrapped around its limbs, rather than the net.” She tapped her chin, musing in her head.

“It’s possible. Small differences like that can make all the difference, especially with your Quirk. But make sure to not get caught up in finding the perfect solution out of infinite options if there’s a perfectly workable one in front of you. Anything else?”

Shinsou hummed. “I should have sent out the alert first thing. I didn’t really have any other way to help, so I should have been coordinating between the two teams and everyone off-site.

“You should have. That’s the biggest mistake any of you made, not sending an alert as soon as you saw the Nomu. But you handled the situation well, overall.” Aizawa stood to leave. “I don’t want to ever hear any of you saying things like how you don’t deserve to be saved. Never again. We don’t save people because they deserve it. And no one deserves to die. Now go to bed.”

They watched him go, Yaoyorozu and Shinsou’s mouths hanging open.

“Was that a compliment?”

“I… I think so?”

Kate pursed her lips.

Even so. The next time you need saving you better have earned it. Don’t settle for being weak.

That evening, movie night was subdued, everyone winding down from the day’s adrenaline. Todoroki and Midoriya returned from their trip full of questions after the multiple texts they’d received. Actually, Midoriya was full of enough questions for the both of them. Todoroki didn’t seem to care much once he knew everyone was safe.

Currently, Kate was in one of her favorite spots: wedged between two people – Shouji and Mina, in this case – on an over-full couch as an old sci fi movie droned along on the television. Changed into shorts and an old shirt, with her knees pulled up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs she listened to the quiet hum of conversation around her. Recovery Girl had decided that she was well enough to have her collarbone set and fixed before she went to bed, thankfully, so she was no longer restrained by a sling. No one wanted to disrupt the movie, but nobody was actually following it very closely. Shouji and Mina were carrying on a conversation over her head, Shouji speaking through a mouth on one of his arms draped over the back of the sofa. Midoriya was talking quietly with Tokoyami about his quirk on Shouji’s left, while Kaminari hassled Jirou on the other side of Mina.

Her shoulder still pulsed occasionally with a dull ache under the bandages, but it was sort of pleasant. She didn’t mind blunt aches and pains; as long as they weren’t sharp and demanding like the headaches she sometimes got, most instances of pain were fine. A soft throbbing in her shoulder was actually kind of enjoyable. It was warm. Even if the cause of it was still embarrassing.

It took her a moment to register the poking in her side, as Mina spoke louder and louder.

“Kate. Kate! Kaaaaaatyyyyy”

“Uh, sorry, what?” She looked up to see both Shouji and Mina looking at her expectantly.

Shouji’s eyes crinkled, the smile covered by his mask, and Mina giggled on her other side.

“I said what are you doing for your Quirk History project? The one Midnight assigned?”

“Oh, uh, I was thinking about doing something about the relationship between mutation quirks and contemporary art, how some types of quirks are portrayed compared to others.” She paused, slowly looking between the two mutation types sitting either side of her. “Uh, I mean. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I didn’t really think about…” She gestured to her body and the lack of mutations.

Way to go, asshole

“I think it would be interesting.” She looked up in surprise at Shouji as he spoke. “I’d like to see your take on it, from an American perspective.”

“Oh, yeah,” Mina chimed in. “Like, the difference between my secondary mutation and Shouji’s primary mutation! That would be cool! And you would know a bunch about how stuff works in Hollywood, too, so you could use that!”

Kate looked at them for a moment, surprised by their enthusiasm. “Oh. Okay. Yeah, it’s something I’m curious about, I haven’t really thought about it much before.”

Shouji nodded, and Mina poked her in the side again happily. The conversation was soon pulled into Kaminari and Jirou’s argument over music and fashion. Mostly it was those two arguing and the other three trying not to laugh, although Mina and Kate both had some strong opinions on certain points.

Before the movie had ended, Kate found herself slowing down, drifting slowly toward sleep. Apparently her shoulder was still drawing on her energy stores to heal. But she was comfortable, and surrounded by quiet, reassuring chatter. Honestly this was her favorite way to sleep. She hated being alone, even just a room away from anyone else. Isolation seemed to smother and bury her, like the walls were melting and falling in to seal her in a tomb. But this was good. Lots of people around, a faint, flickering light. This was ideal.

She felt like there was something she wasn’t remembering, something that should have been important. She gave up thinking about it as she leaned against the comfortable warmth on her left, falling steadily into unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Kate shifted as she woke, nestling further into the warmth against her left side, shrinking from the cold air on her exposed right. Her shoulder ached, throbbing deep in the bone. As if in response to her discomfort, spots of warmth began to bloom on her right side as arms wrapped around her. A hand made its way to the crook of her knee, pulling her legs up tight to her chest. Another gripped her thigh just below the leg of her shorts. A third arm wrapped around her middle. It was really nice. Comfortable. Secure. She settled back in, pillowing her head on the broad, muscled chest next to her.

Then a thought struck her.

Sleeping sitting up on a couch isn’t usually this nice

She mentally shrugged. Oh well.

She was almost back to sleep when her brain finished that train of thought and worked out why she was so comfortable. It was because she was curled up against – practically in the lap of – someone. Someone that could only be Shouji Mezo.

Oh my god

Why

Why Shouji

Literally anyone else would be less embarrassing

Her mind, traitorously, went to Setsuna’s sharp grin, and Yaoyorozu’s kind eyes, and Shinsou’s deep, smooth voice.

Well, okay, some others too, I guess

Still

She was carefully avoiding thinking about the fact that she was having this internal freak-out while still pressed as close to Shouji as she could possibly get and had made no move whatsoever to pull away.

I guess I have to do something about this, huh?

Kate finally cracked an eye open, shifting her head slightly to see if anyone else was around.

There was. Five people, in fact.

Kaminari was sprawled on the floor cuddling with a couch cushion, while Bakugou and Kirishima were slumped against each other on the far couch. Sero and Mina took up the third couch, both face down on opposite ends with their legs tangled in the middle. Apparently the entire Bakusquad decided to camp out for the night. Or they wore themselves out and just slept where they dropped. She wouldn’t be surprised, she’d only known them two weeks and already she knew they were terrifyingly dedicated to late-night chaos.

But that meant the entire Bakusquad was here to witness her and Shouji tangled up together like hormonal teenagers - which, to be fair, they were - if any of them happened to wake up before she could figure out how to extricate herself.

“Bro.”

Of course

“Shut up,” Bakugou mumbled back as he shoved Kirishima over. The two of them yawned themselves awake and stretched languidly. Kirishima seemed perfectly content to stay on his side where he’d been pushed and swung his legs up to lay them on Bakugou’s lap. Bakugou cursed under his breath as he rubbed his back, surprisingly considerate of his volume compared to his usual shouting.

The others began to stir, Sero lifting his head out of the couch to look around at the rest of them. He looked a little nauseous, strangely.

There was a sudden snorted laugh from Bakugou as Kate and Shouji finally caught his eye. “Oh my god! Fuckin’ losers.” His voice was no longer quiet.

Shouji’s grip tightened slightly as he began to wake up, and Kate unconsciously curled into him even as she began to panic, but his hands quickly disappeared when he woke enough to realize who and what he was grabbing. Despite the fact that she quickly scrambled a few feet down the couch away from him as soon as she was freed, Kate found herself disappointed as the contact vanished, leaving cold spots as the air hit her bare leg.

She and Shouji stared at each other for what felt like minutes.

“Sorry, I- uh, I didn’t want to wake you up, but… I didn’t mean to…” She just stared at him as his sentence trailed off. He was blushing. And she could see it, because his mask was pulled down and hanging around his neck. His stark nose and high cheekbones gave him an air of nobility, despite the look of vague panic on his face. A deep, jagged scar ran up one side of his neck, across his jawline, and up through both his lips on the right side, tugging them sideways in a sort of permanent snarl before it ended beside the bridge of his nose just below his eye. It looked like a knife had been dragged through his skin, the wide, ragged edges of white scar tissue hinting that the injury had probably been anything but clean and painless. When he realized what she was looking at he quickly pulled the mask back over his face. “Sorry, I- it’s not good to sleep with it on.”

“Oh, shit!” The tension between them was interrupted by Mina’s loud interjection. She was sitting up now, slapping Sero’s leg, not looking at them at all. “Did you take your binder off?”

“Ah, tits ,” Sero muttered, bringing a hand up to his ribs. “That’s why I’m so sore.”

Mina groaned and helped him up, pushing him toward the elevator. “Come on. You need a back massage or something.”

Kirishima and Bakugou followed behind them, Bakugou cursing genially as they hauled Kaminari up between them. Kaminari’s hair was flattened straight up on one side as he mumbled incoherently.

That left Kate and Shouji alone. The lights in the common room were still off, but sunlight was beginning to stream in shafts through the windows, enough to be slightly blinding as it hit Kate in the face.

“I’m sorry, it seemed like you needed the rest after your injury, and I didn’t know how to get up without waking you, so…” Shouji sounded even more embarrassed than before, if anything.

Kate nervously rolled the hem of her shirt between her fingers. “It’s fine, just… you didn’t have to do that. Stay all night. I would have been fine.”

“Well, I didn’t mind. But again, I am very sorry about, uh- my hands. And my face.”

She snapped up to look at him now, brows furrowed together, a glint of something beginning to form in her eye. “What about your face?” Her voice was tight, and he flinched, almost imperceptibly. He ran a hand self-consciously over his mask.

“Well, you know. It, uh, it makes people uncomfortable, if they’re not expecting it. Kids, especially.”

“Shouji.” She scooted a little closer, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm. “There’s nothing wrong with your face. Kids are stupid. And mean. I know I was when I was little. And anyone else that says shit to you about how you look is garbage. Okay? They don’t know you, and they shouldn’t even need to, to know how wrong they are if they think-” She bit off the rest of what she had been about to say. Going further probably wouldn’t help anything, and Shouji was already looking away from her, an unreadable expression on his face now that the mask was back on. Kate dropped her hand, sitting back. “Thank you. For staying all night. That probably wasn’t comfortable for you.”

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes.

“It wasn’t bad, actually. And I wouldn’t mind anyway. It’s the least I could do for a friend. And I’m so sorry, again. It was entirely improper of me to let my hands, uhm… Do that. Even if I was asleep, that doesn’t excuse it.”

Kate shrugged and stood up, wincing as she stretched out her shoulder. “It’s fine. Not like I was any better.” She headed toward the stairs, intending to go loosen her shoulder up with a hot shower. She stopped at the doorway, looking back at Shouji as he stood up from the couch, swinging his own probably sore arms in circles to work out the knots.

“Actually, uhm,” she steeled herself, trying desperately to keep from blushing. “It was really nice. You’re really nice. I’d like to do this again sometime, if you want.”

She fled up the stairs before he could respond.

Super eloquent, idiot. He’s going to think you’re a fucking weirdo

She hid in her room for a solid twenty minutes before she ventured her head out to make sure no one was around before she made her way to the showers.

Kate stood in front of the foggy mirror, shame and fascination warring in her skull as she looked at the marks on her shoulder. She rubbed at one of the eleven small knots of pale, ropy tissue that ran in even intervals from the base of her neck, down to just above her breast and over to her upper arm. A matching set mirrored them across her back, she knew. She had always thought of scars as something to be proud of.

She had a few small ones, silvery little lines on her knuckles or her ankle from some childhood accident or another. Nothing impressive, she’d thought. Instead, she’d always been fascinated by the scars that so many heroes sported: marks of strength and valor. Proof that they could take a hit and come out grinning. Raised in a culture of violence, how could she see them any other way?

But looking at the scars the marked her own skin now, she couldn’t find any pride in them. She only saw the worry on Shinsou’s face as he leaned over her while she lay bleeding on the concrete. His voice echoed in her head.

Stupid. Idiot.

She knew he’d only said it out of concern, but that didn’t mean he was wrong. These weren’t marks of courage. Just stupidity.

“Watcha doin’?”

Kate nearly jumped out of her skin as Hagakure walked out of one of the shower stalls. The pink wrist and ankle bands she sometimes wore to let people know where her limbs were danced crazily as she scrubbed herself dry with a towel covered in flower designs.

“Nothing. Sorry, didn’t realize you were in there.”

Hagakure stopped for a moment, whatever look she was giving Kate lost to her quirk. “Obviously. Although being invisible doesn’t hide the sound of a shower running, so something’s obviously up.” She moved over to one of the cubbies where Kate now realized she should have noticed another person’s stuff waiting. “You feeling alright after yesterday? That was a pretty nasty fall, wasn’t it?”

Kate gave a noncommittal sound, putting both hands on the rim of the sink in front of her and leaning on it, looking down at the drain briefly. “Wasn’t really the fall that was the issue.”

Hagakure hummed as she walked behind Kate, pulling on a long t-shirt and nothing else. “I know. What’s the real issue?”

Kate shot a glare at her over her shoulder, although it didn’t hold much heat. “Do you purposely act like a ditz to hide that you’re actually a sneaky psychoanalyst or something?”

Hagakure stopped for another moment, turning toward Kate. “No. I act however I want to. If you think I’m a ditz, that’s your problem.” Then the bubbliness came back to her voice and Kate only realized it had been missing by its sudden return. “Everybody freaks out a little after they get hurt. Well, almost everyone. It’s traumatic, don’t beat yourself up.” She gathered up her stuff and left the bathroom.

Kate kept looking at the door for a while after she left. “God, I’m an asshole.”

What, like that’s news?

She flopped onto her bed once she was back in her room.

“Everything sucks and I hate it.”

Her phone lit up next to her head and gave the rising windchime of her mom’s ringtone. She rolled over and scooped it up.

“Hey.”

“Sweetie, how are you doing?” Her mother’s voice floated through the speaker, infuriatingly serene as always. “I got an email that you got hurt, are you alright? It didn’t seem too bad, so I thought I’d wait until everything had probably calmed down to call.”

“Mom, I’m fine. It was just an accident.”

“Katy, we both know when you say ‘accident’ it means something different than when other people say it. What happened?”

Kate grumbled but eventually gave a much-sanitized and abridged account of the incident. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Alright. But please be careful, honey. I know you’re strong, but you’re still a teenager. You should be avoiding villains, not attacking them.”

Oh my gooooood, mooooom

“Yeah, I will. I got ahead of myself.”

“I suppose you won’t be able to leave campus to go to mass this week, then. Maybe next week you can get someone to go with you. Just to be safe.”

“Mooom, there isn’t even anywhere to go, here.”

“Don’t try that, I happen to know there’s a fine church not far from UA. One of your year-mates goes there.”

“How do you even know that?”

“I have friends, dear. You think I would send you off a continent away without someone I trust to watch over you?”

“Kind of.”

Her mother tutted disapprovingly. “Don’t be silly. How are classes?”

“Fine.”

“Meet anyone interesting?” She was starting to sound distracted now, like she’d finished what she’d really meant to say and was just going through the motherly motions now.

“It’s a hero school, mom, everyone’s interesting. I’ll talk to you later, I’ve got homework to do.”

“Alright, have a good week, sweetie. I love you.”

“Love you too. Bye.”

She hung up and tossed the phone away.

“Bleh.”

It vibrated on the other end of the bed and she debated just ignoring it. Unfortunately, she didn’t actually have any homework, and so had nothing better to do.

Shinsou-kun: How do you feel?

Shinsou-kun: Just so I know what to expect for when I eventually get my ass kicked because of you people

Me: Fucker

Me: You care

Shinsou-kun: Just answer the question. You can’t prove anything.

Me: I’m fine. Just tired.

Me: Probably going to take a nap or something

Kate rolled over, staring at the ceiling. She had just been making an excuse, but she was actually really tired, now that she thought about it. A nap wouldn’t be too bad.

“I shouldn’t have taken that nap.”

Kate was laying in bed, staring at the red numbers of her clock as they slowly ticked toward morning. She’d woken up at eleven pm and was hopelessly wide awake now. She rolled out of the bed and pulled on some socks. The halls and bottom floor were surprisingly cold at night, she’d found.

She made her way down to the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets for something to quiet her growling stomach. She had just sat down at the table with a cup of ramen when the elevator dinged.

“I don’t fucking care, I’ll kill her. She couldn’t take on a goddamn Nomu without getting her ass fucked up.”

Kate’s eye twitched as Bakugou and Kirishima walked out of the elevator.

Seriously?

“Oh, come on, bro. She didn’t do that bad. Even Yaoyorozu got taken down the first time she went up against one.”

“That was a different fucking thing. That was in the goddamn woods, and -” Bakugou paused for a second when his eyes met Kate’s glare across the room, but he quickly shifted into a sneer. “Tch.” He marched over to one of the couches in the common room and snatched up a jacket draped over the back. Kirishima made a soft sound of surprise and consternation when he noticed Kate. Bakugou grabbed him by the wrist and began to march back to the elevator when Kate’s voice stopped him.

“ Suck a dick , Bakugou. You don’t know shit.”

“What the fuck did you say to me?”

Kate scoffed. “What, did the sound of your shitty attitude make you deaf or something?”

There was a beat of silence as Bakugou’s face contorted in rage. Kirishma rushed to stand between them, his back to Kate.

“Woah, dude, cool it. She doesn’t know.”

Bakugou shoved past him, growling something incomprehensible. “You wanna get killed, you useless bitch?” He slammed his hands down on the table across from her as she stood to meet him.

She matched him glare for glare over the table. “Call me that again, fuckface , see what fucking happens.”

“Bitch.” Bakugou spat it at her, red eyes practically glowing with scorn. There was a crash as the table was flung sideways by Kate’s quirk, toppling over another table and several chairs as it went. Kirishima frantically tried to step in, but he was too slow to stop them from meeting in the middle, fists swinging. No explosions cracked, and Kate moved at a normal human speed; the only sound was their grunts and growls and indecipherable curses, and the occasional thump of fist hitting flesh as they grappled with each other. Bakugou quickly bore Kate over onto her back and was kneeling down straddling her with a fist raised to hit her in her snarling teeth when Kirishima got there. He grabbed Bakugou around the wrist and the ribs and yanked him up and backward. He looked angrier than Kate would have thought he could . He put a firm hand on her shoulder as she scrambled to her feet, forcing her back a few steps.

“Both of you, stop being idiots. This is embarrassing. Katsuki, let’s go.” He shoved Bakugou when the other boy just stood there glaring at Kate. “Now!” She answered the glare with a single upraised finger as she watched them all the way to the elevator. She was pretty sure they couldn’t see her shaking in fury in the dim light, thankfully. She turned around and jumped when she saw the figure standing in the downstairs hallway. It took a moment for her to match the silhouette with its owner.

“He does have hearing loss, actually.” Aizawa sounded tired. Not like his usual lack-of-sleep tired, more like an I’m-so-done-with-teenage-bullshit tired. “Regardless, you’re both getting detention tomorrow.” He turned away, heading back down the hall to his apartment. “Clean up that mess.”

She gave him the finger too, not that he could see it.

Kate spent the better part of Monday morning in a distinctly foul mood. That mood was slightly buoyed when Tokoyami mentioned that All Might would be teaching their Heroics class on the way to lunch.

“Oh my god, I totally forgot All Might teaches here. Why haven’t we seen him before now?”

“He spends a week with each class, starting with 1-A and cycling up.”

“Makes sense.” She threw a covert glance at Shouji walking on Tokoyami’s other side. She caught a tentacle eye hastily averting its gaze as she turned her head towards him. “What’s it like having him as a teacher? Especially after… you know.”

Tokoyami nodded. “Indeed. His teaching style was, uhm… somewhat unrefined, to begin with.” It was amusing watching Tokoyami try to find a delicate way to phrase that. “But there’s no denying the value of his decades of experience.”

“This is going to be so damn cool.”

Tokoyami croak-laughed. “It usually is.”

After lunch they crowded back into the classroom, buzzing with excitement. A few silent cheers broke out as a tall, lanky man in a hideous but well-fitted yellow suit with a mane of blond hair walked into the classroom. It took Kate a moment to realize that this was All Might himself; the rest of the world had much less frequent reminders of the Symbol of Peace’s condition than Japan, and she still hadn’t shaken the image of the smiling giant she remembered from so many years of television. A shadow of his old smile peaked out between the long bangs that framed his face as he looked them over from the podium.

“Are you ready, young heroes?”

His voice somehow still rang with all the confidence and reassurance it always had, though it was pitched differently. His smile took on something akin to mischievous anticipation.

“Because today, you’ll be contending against each other in a three-way team showdown , to hunt and capture a designated target from one of the other teams!” He held up a clipboard, looking proud of himself. “The teams have already been randomly assigned, but each team will designate for themselves – in secret - which of their members will wear the headband that marks them as a target. Team One’s objective will be Team Two, Team Two’s objective will be Team Three, and Team Three’s objective will be Team One.” He held up a remote and dramatically pointed it to the wall. The panels slid open to reveal everyone’s hero suits. “Everyone suit up! We’ll meet at Ground Beta, where you’ll be partnered up with your team and have fifteen minutes to find a starting location and strategize before the exercise begins.”

Kate was one of the last to grab her costume and make it to the locker rooms. Mina looked up from jumping on one leg to get her costume on when Kate came in.

“Oh, we finally get to see your costume!”

“Uh, y-yeah.” Kate quickly looked away from a very undressed Mina. “It’s nothing fancy.” She moved over to her locker and set down the case. She popped it open and pulled out the item on top: a black leather jacket with thick shoulders and elbows and a grey hood. She set it aside and started pulling on the rest of the suit.

Once she finished, she pulled on the jacket. She looked down at herself as she stretched her arms and legs, testing the suit’s fit. She wore black combat boots, reinforced at the ankles and with a wide, aggressive tread for maximum stability and grip. Above that were a pair of gray camo fatigue pants overtop of the bottom half of a dark purple and gray bodysuit. The top half of the suit extended to three-quarter length arms under the jacket. There was an alteration to the design that Kate hadn’t expected: attached to the neck of the suit was a cowl that covered her neck up to her jaw and her face from the nose up, open above the temples to let her hair hang free. She tapped the hard lenses over her eyes, surprised at the lack of vision impairment. She sensed Hatsume’s mad design touch at work when a HUD overlay popped up.

“I look like fucking Batman.”

Mina stuck her head around the door of her locker. “Who? Oh! Your costume’s like Jirou and Kaminari’s, with the jacket! That’s super cool.”

Kate waved her hand in front of her own face, trying to see what the overlay was actually doing. “Great minds, etc.” There was a loud scoff from Jirou across the room at the implication of including Kaminari in that. “What did she put in this thing?”

“Who? Did you have someone else do your design?”

“Hatsume. She said she was going to make some alterations to blueprints or something. There wasn’t even a cowl on here, originally.”

Mina made a strangled noise of alarm and ducked behind her locker door. “Don’t look at me! She might have put lasers in there or something!”

“Woah, laser vision? Can she do that?” Kate squinted at the ceiling, trying to figure out how or if she could melt a hole in it.

Yaoyorozu noticed her and came over from across the room. “How do you like the changes? Hatsume showed some of them to me.”

“I think it’s cool, but I don’t know what this stuff I’m seeing is.” Kate held her hand up and looked at the faint pink outline around herself.

“Oh, Mei put a streamlined version of her C.R.O.S.S.H.A.I.R. AI into the cowl. Here, I think…” She came over and fiddled with something on the suit under Kate’s jaw, and kanji began scrolling in front of Kate’s eyes.

“Jesus, okay, uh… Is there a way to slow this down or something?

Yaoyorozu frowned. “You should be able to alter the settings. There’s a simple directional gesture system if I remember correctly.”

Kate held her index finger up in front of her and swiped it to the right. One vertigo-inducing shift of light and color later and a new set of information overlays covered her surroundings. “Okay, I can’t handle this right now. How do I turn it off?” Yaoyorozu showed her the small pressure switch in the lining by her throat. “I’ll work it out later when we’re not in class.”

They headed out the door and ran to Ground Beta to catch up with the others outside the gates.

“Ah, there you are.” All Might consulted his sheet. “You’re both on Team Two.” He gestured to one of the three separated groups. “I’m excited to see you in action, young Kate. I’ve heard nothing but good things.”

Kate pursed her lips to keep from outright frowning. “Then somebody’s been lying to you, sir.” She turned to join her group, but a bony hand on her shoulder stopped her. All Might’s face was kind when she turned to him.

“Chin up, young lady. We all stumble. You just have to get back up and get going again.” He removed his hand. “Now go join your classmates and let’s get this underway!” The last words were said loud to everyone as the gates began to swing open behind him. “Your fifteen minutes starts now!”

Kate hurried to catch up with her team in the rush through the gates. They had rounded a block by the time she got to see who her teammates were. She was running between Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami in the back of the group, behind Kaminari, Koda, and Tsuyu. Bakugou was charging ahead at the front, much to Kate’s displeasure.

Yaoyorozu and Kaminari were working on what seemed like a practiced assembly line of Yaoyorozu producing small earpieces and handing them to Kaminari, who pumped a few volts into them to fill the battery and passed them out to everyone. Bakugou took his grudgingly, slowing down to fiddle with it and another small device tucked behind his ear that Kate had never noticed before. They all ducked into an alley in the crowded cityscape.

“So, what’s our strategy?” Kaminari was looking to Yaoyorozu as he spoke, and everyone else followed suit. Bakugou muttered something under his breath but moved to take his place in the ring they were standing in.

Yaoyorozu held up the red headband with a white “2” on it that she’d been given by All Might. “Who do we think should wear this? Whoever is least likely to be captured, yes?”

Everyone glanced to Bakugou. The look on his face made it look like he couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or smug. “Waist of my time,” he muttered as he took the proffered headband.

“Perfect. Now, who can keep up with his mobility and stay with him to back him up?” She turned to Kate but was met with a firm “no.” from both her and Bakugou.

“You fuckers’ll just slow me down. Don’t worry, I’m not an idiot. They won’t catch me.

Yaoyorozu pursed her lips, considering. “Alright. The rest of us can split into pairs to try to track down Team Three. Try to stay close enough to one of the pairs that we can back you up if needed.” Bakugou huffed, but he nodded assent. “Who should the pairs be?”

Koda signed something beside Kate. After a few moments, Yaoyorozu nodded. “That sounds good to me. Does anyone have any objections?” Everyone shook their heads as Kate leaned over to Tokoyami.

“What did he say?”

“You and I will be the heavy strike team and try to stay close to Bakugou until we’re called in.” Tokoyami muttered back. “Kaminari and Koda will focus on tracking, and Yaoyorozu and Tsuyu will coordinate and try to stay between the two groups.”

When Kate looked back to the rest Yaoyorozu was handing out headbands identical to the target band, except with “Fake” printed on the inward side. She took hers. “Can we do this?”

“We weren’t told we couldn’t .” Yaoyorozu looked around. “Are we missing anything?”

Tsuyu raised her hand. “What are the makeups of the other teams? And who do we think will have our target band?”

There was some muttering as everyone stopped to think.

“Kiri and Mina were on Team Three,” listed Kaminari. “Jirou and Iida, too. That’s four, right? Who were the other three?”

“Aoyama, Iida and Midoirya.” Yaoyorozu rubbed her temple. “Can we assume Iida will have the headband?”

Kate looked confused. “Not Midoriya?”

Tokoyami shook his head next to her. “His top speed is lower than Iida’s, and he can’t maintain it as long. He’ll likely be better served on their hunting team.”

Yaoyorozu nodded agreement. “With a team this small I think they’ll stick to two squads. They won’t be able to communicate and coordinate like we can.”

“Deku’ll have Kirishima and Ashido, at least, guard Glasses. Maybe the laser idiot too. Kirishima and Laser will run interference while Ashido and Glasses bolt. Tail will go with him and Ears to hunt Team One.” Everyone stared at Bakugou after that detailed analysis. He glared back at them. “What the fuck are you looking at, I’m right.”

Kaminari shrugged. “Makes sense to me.”

“Alright.” Yaoyorozu had a notepad she was marking on. “That means Todoroki, Uraraka, Shinsou, Sero, Hagakure, Shouji, and Sato will be hunting us. Be ready for any of them, and don’t respond to anyone you can’t see. Watch for attacks from above and sudden temperature shifts. Bakugou, try to stay off the ground and moving so Hagakure can’t sneak up on you.”

“I’m not fucking stupid!”

She ignored him. “If you’re up against Sato or Shouji, and maybe Uraraka, they’ll probably be running distraction for Hagakure, Shinsou, or Sero to ambush you. Avoid Todoroki wherever possible. He’s getting good at nearly instantaneous capture with his ice.” They all jumped as an electronic alarm sounded across the artificial city. Yaoyorozu made eye contact with each of them in turn as the claxon ended. “Stay in contact, don’t fight when you don’t need to, and remember the objective. Let’s go.”

They all nodded, and Bakugou shot into the air with a roar of explosions. Tsuyu wrapped her tongue around Yaoyorozu and headed for the roof above them. Koda and Kaminari headed out one end of the alley and Tokoyami gestured Kate toward the other.

“Let’s go. We can keep moving, Bakugou will stay near us. He won’t admit it, but he usually follows the plan, lately.”

“Surprising, considering he’s a massive dick .”

Tokoyami made a disapproving cluck in his throat. “True. But focus on the mission, not Bakugou.”

“Right. Sorry, we kind of got into it last night. Ended up with detention.”

Tokoyami gave her one of his deadpan looks. “Would you like to talk about it? Later, I mean.”

“I guess. Just to bitch about it.” She paused. “Uhm, did Shouji tell you about…” She petered off and glanced at him. His expression of patient expectation somehow felt patronizing, but she shoved the undeserved annoyance away. “Nevermind. Talk about it later. Let’s do our job, I guess.”

“Yes.”

They headed down the street roughly toward the edge of the district, the occasional pop of explosions sounding between the buildings above them as Bakugou trailed them.

“Would it be better if we moved up to the roofs with him?”

Tokoyami hummed. “Probably.” His soul-shadow slid out from under his cloak, grinning the whole way. “I’ll need something for Dark Shadow to grab onto to pull me up, like a fire escape or something.”

They spent a few minutes jogging through the streets, keeping an eye out for climbable buildings or enemy movement. Eventually the sound of breaking glass and grinding steel could be heard in the distance, cutting off one of Bakugou’s quieter blasts as he redirected to land on a roof.

“So it starts,” Tokoyami murmured.

There were no more sounds of fighting or demolition as they stopped to listen, the miniature city eerily quiet after the sudden destruction.

Tsuyu’s voice came over the earpiece. “Iceberg on the east side, kerro . We’re not near there are we?”

“Northwest corner,” Bakugou growled in response. “Just find Deku and his idiots and let’s get this done.”

Tsuyu ribbited in response and the line went quiet.

“Let’s head south, we can circle around east from there and be ready to engage when the target’s spotted.” Tokoyami pointed down a street to the left as he spoke, and they shifted that direction.

A few minutes later they stopped to catch their breath for a second. Tokoyami put a hand up to the earpiece hidden under his feathers. “We should be near the center now. Anyone see anything?”

Bakugou landed beside them, sending a sneer at Kate which she answered with one of her own.

“We’re tracking Todoroki and Uraraka, kerro . Maybe Sato, too. They’re still in the northeast quadrant.”

“Iida’s moving west with the headband,” came Koda’s soft whisper.

Tokoyami nodded. "We’ll move to intercept," he paused as he and Kate noticed Bakugou squinting at something behind them. Before Kate could turn to look, Bakugou raised a gauntlet, finger on the firing pin.

“Move,” he muttered. Kate and Tokoyami threw themselves to either side as a massive blast roared through the air between them.

“What the fuck, man!” Kate picked herself up off the ground, glaring at Bakugou. He just nodded toward where the blast had hit. She turned to see a small café, the front of the building blown in and smoldering. There was a shadow of movement inside the darkened interior as some of the façade shifted and crumbled. A hand reached into the sunlight and grabbed the outer edge of the still standing doorframe, the strength of the grip imprinting the outlines of fingers into the metal. Shouji shrugged his way through the shattered wall, knocking loose bits of plaster and glass as he stepped into the sunlight. One of his arms sported a smirk that Kate doubted she would have been wearing were she in his place. He straightened up, brushing some dust off of his shoulder.

“Good eye. Didn't think you'd see me.” His voice was deeper than usual, the words drawn out in what Kate could only describe as a brogue . She hadn’t ever considered what that would sound like in Japanese, but it sounded good . “Now,” he tapped the side of his skull with two fingers. “Which one of you’s got the real one?”

Tokoyami’s eyes went wide, and his hand went back to his earpiece. His voice was urgent over the comms. “Eyes on Assault, he’s here for the headband!”

Chapter Text

“Eyes on Assault, he’s here for the headband!”

Yaoyorozu’s voice came over the earpiece. “Assault, or Shouji?”

Tokoyami leveled a baleful stare on Shouji. “Assault, most definitely.”

“Disengage with the objective if possible, no reason to fight if you don’t have to.”

“Right.”

Shouji smirked, but he didn’t move forward, keeping his stance wide and slowly reaching a hand behind him for a pair of escrima sticks strapped to his back. “Sero, you’re clear to engage.” The words, lazily drawn out longer than they needed to be, carried the same smirk his mouth did.

White strands suddenly wrapped around Bakugou from behind them, accompanied by Sero’s triumphant shout: “I got you, babe!”

Bakugou’s roar of anger at the pet name trailed off, and he went still halfway through spinning around to face Sero. Or, rather, Shinsou, as Kate and Tokoyami realized when they turned and found him standing behind them, his mouthpiece leering at them. “Don’t let them touch you, and give me your headband.” His voice still sounded like Sero, but his inflection had returned to its natural flat tone. The effect was jarring.

Kate swore and lunged for Bakugou, but was blown back as he blasted into the air. A shout from Tokoyami brought her attention from Bakugou just in time dodge Shinsou’s capture weapon as it shot toward her.

“Watch yourself, Fumi,” Shouji teased as he shot forward, engaging Tokoyami and Dark Shadow with a flurry of attacks.

Kate warped herself to the side, then again toward Shinsou, trying to break his concentration. He leapt into the air, letting her run into a coil of his scarf instead. She managed to duck under it before he could pull the loop tight, and she backed toward Tokoyami. Shouji and Shinsou circled them as they stood back to back.

“Go after Bakugou,” Tokoyami muttered out of the side of his mouth, keeping his eyes on Shouji. Bakugou landed behind Shinsou and began to walk toward him.

“Can you keep them off me?” She tensed, preparing to warp forward.

“Yes. Get Bakugou and run. I’ll keep them busy.”

“But-“

“Just do it.” She felt Tokoyami go stiff against her back and felt Dark Shadow brush against her neck as they prepared to attack.

Kate kept her gaze steady, meeting Shinsou’s as they both watched for the other to slip up. Shinsou’s eyes flicked toward Bakugou, and Kate flashed forward. She sped past Shinsou and reappeared next to Bakugou, slapping him across the face to break the mind control and trying – rather unsuccessfully – to not enjoy it too much while she was doing it.  Bakugou stopped, and was still long enough that she thought – hoped, maybe – that she would have to hit him again. Then he looked at Shinsou, who paled slightly.

“You motherfucker.”

“Shit,” Shinsou muttered. Then he was sent bowling over onto his face as Dark Shadow hit him on the backswing of a swipe at Shouji. Bakugou sneered and turned away to blast himself toward the rooftops, but before he could launch there was a shout and Tokoyami slammed into both him and Kate, tumbling all three across the sidewalk and leaving them groaning and cursing as they levered themselves up. Dark Shadow tried to cover for them, hovering between them and Shinsou and Shouji defensively, but the sun was beginning to drain the shadow creature. Kate took a half step forward, preparing to warp forward to attack, when Shouji held up a hand, palm out in warning.

“Careful, Katy. That's not going to work.”

She stopped, thrown off by the warning he so casually drawled. “W-what?”

He smirked. “I know what you’re about to do. It’s not going to work.”

At that point Kate went into what Shouji would later jokingly call Manual Reboot Mode, trying to figure out what exactly Shouji was saying and what she was supposed to do about it. She was jerked out of it a few moments later by Bakugou cursing at her, Tokoyami speaking urgently, and the loops of Shinsou’s capture weapon wrapping around her, all at the same time. Before she could do anything, she was yanked off her feet and flung straight into Shouji’s waiting grip where she was quickly relieved of her headband.

Shouji chuckled, showing Shinsou where “Fake” was printed on the inside. “It’s Bakugou.” He did something with his arms that spun her around a few times, wrapping her tighter in the capture weapon and winding her toward Shinsou, who steadied her with one hand. She let out an embarrassing squeak as she tried to get her vision to stop spinning and regain her balance.

“Go, now.” Tokoyami’s command grabbed her and the other two’s attention, and Shinsou swore as Bakugou shot into the air, the backdraft making them all blink and shield their faces; except for Kate, who, since her arms were trapped, had to just scrunch her face up and suffer through the stinging hot wind and dust. Shinsou tried to get his capture weapon untangled from her to bring Bakugou down, while she in turn fought to tangle it further and keep it unusable.

Shouji watched Bakugou disappear over a roof and began to chuckle quietly. He looked between Kate and Tokoyami. “Well.” There was a change in his body language, some unidentifiable shift that seemed to shed the aura of threat that he’d held from the moment he stepped into the sunlight. He was Shouji again, no longer bearing the persona of Assault. “I guess that’s that.”

Kate wobbled slightly as she and Shinsou tugged the weapon back and forth, nearly losing her balance when Shinsou got several loops free. “I’m gonna kick both your asses. Give me thirty seconds, I swear to god. SHINSOU!” The last part was shouted in outrage as she finally overbalanced and fell on her ass. She sat there, arms still strapped tight to her sides, and leveled all the glare she could manage at Shinsou from her compromised position. “Get it off me!” The mask of her cowl was surprisingly expressive, Shouji noted.

Shinsou managed to last all of six seconds before he broke down laughing. “You were just fighting to keep it on,” he wheezed as he doubled over laughing. Shouji switched his tentacle mouth to an eye to cover the fact that he couldn’t keep a straight face seeing Kate sitting there pouting.

Tokoyami rolled his eyes, taking off his headband and smoothing out his feathers before replacing it on his head. “Let’s get this over with so we can get back to our teams.”

Shouji laughed again, taking a step toward Kate and bringing his foot down on the trailing end of Shinsou’s capture gear that Kate had been subtly working loose. “If you insist.”

Shinsou managed to get his giggles under control and dropped into a fighting stance with something approximating a serious face. Kate scrambled to get her feet under her, as Tokoyami circled the three of them threateningly, but a large hand came down on the top of her head and held her in place.

Just as the tension reached a snapping point, as Tokoyami was bracing to move in, a second electronic alarm sounded over the false cityscape, signaling the end of the exercise. Everyone stopped, Shinsou looking toward the sky with a look of confusion, and Shouji took his hand off Kate’s head. He crouched down next to her and began to try to unwrap her, when Yaoyorozu’s voice came over Kate’s and Tokoyami’s earpieces.

“Todoroki’s iced himself and most of Team Three in a glacier, in case you were wondering. I think that technically makes us the winners, as long as you still have our headband, Bakugou.”

“Obviously I fucking do. Seriously?” Bakugou’s voice would have sounded somewhere between exasperated and incredulous, if Kate had known him well enough to hear anything else in it over the constant roar of his temper. “He’s gonna fucking kill somebody. And not even on purpose. Goddamn incompetent jackass.”

Tsuyu’s voice came over the line. “I know you’re worried about your date-mates, kero, but Todoroki’s already halfway thawed out. They’ll be fine.”

Kate tuned out Bakugou’s response, since it was mostly just incoherent screaming and denial. She turned her attention to Shouji as he fiddled with a knot around her middle. “How did you know what I was going to do?”

He blinked, then shut his eyes in approximation of a sheepish smile. “I didn’t. I just wanted to throw you off.”

Kate’s mouth fell open. “What?! You were bluffing, seriously? I hate you.” She accompanied her words with a half-hearted shove from her left arm that he’d freed for her. He hurriedly put a few hands down on the sidewalk to catch himself, laughing all the while. “I mean it, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Despite her words, she raised her arm to allow him to keep untangling the horrid mess she’d made struggling in the capture gear.

“I like your costume, by the way.”

She looked up at him in surprise, hoping the mask hid any blush that might color her cheeks. “I, uh, thanks. At first, I wanted to have it be sort of an homage to an old American comic book heroine, but…” She shrugged. “I’m not really a leotard-and-fishnets kind of person. I like this.”

“It suits you.” He glanced up from his hands for a moment. “It has personality, but it’s subtle.”

She was grateful for the mask covering her own eyes as she met his unreadable gaze. “Are you saying it’s hard to tell I have a personality?”

Thankfully he seemed to take that as the joke it was meant to be and chuckled, looking back to what he was doing. “Not at all. But I can’t exactly imagine you in something like Uraraka’s or Sato’s costumes.”

“if you could imagine me in something like that then I would have to rethink what I’ve been doing wrong with my life. Although I am technically still wearing a skintight bodysuit under here, so I guess I’m not too far off from them.” There was a slight pause in his motions, almost too quick to notice before Shinsou joined them, kneeling down on her other side, his eyes lidded slightly more than usual and a slight smirk on his face.

“You want some help?”

“Yes, please, God, get this off me. My ass is falling asleep sitting here.”

The class reconvened in All Might’s observation room. Sero, Uraraka, Midoriya, Iida, Kirishima, and Ashido were still damp and shivering, clustered around Todoroki’s left side like kittens around a space heater. Todoroki had the decency to look embarrassed, at least. All Might stood in front of them all, silently watching as the last made their way into the room.

“Tell me, students, who do you think won the exercise?”

There were a few moments of hesitant silence at All Might’s question. They had all thought they knew, but the way he said it made even Bakugou pause. Tsuyu raised her hand. “Wouldn’t it be Team Two?”

All Might smiled. “Tell me why you think that.”

Tsuyu put a finger to her lips in concentration. “At the end of the exercise, our headband wearer was free, while Team One and Team Three's were caught in the ice.”

“Interesting.” All Might looked around. “Is that everyone’s consensus?”

There were a few scattered murmurs of agreement, and Bakugou opened his mouth to say something, when Midoriya and Yaoyorozu’s hands shot up. All Might nodded to the both of them, and Midoriya waved for Yaoyorozu to speak first. She nodded in thanks, then took a step forward.

“I didn’t even think about it until now, but you never said that protecting our own headband was necessary. Only capturing our target’s. We all focused significant resources on defense, but we didn’t need to in order to win, did we?”

All Might broke into a grin. “Young Midoriya, anything to add?”

Midoriya shook his head ruefully. “What she said.”

All Might let out a laugh that was far too resounding to come from his thin frame before briefly falling into a coughing fit. “Very good, young Yaoyorozu. You’re correct. You could have simply handed over your headbands to each other and all been winners. We usually focus on conflict and how to fight, but it’s worth remembering that conflict is not always necessary. Some battles are more easily won by communication and thoughtfulness.”

There was a distinct, earsplitting crack form the back of the room. Everyone turned to see Bakugou fuming, smoke rising from his clenched fist. He looked like he was about to start shouting, but he stopped. He closed his eyes for a second, and slowly loosened his fingers. “All Might, can I be excused?”

Everyone stared incredulously at what must surely be an imposter in Bakugou’s body. Only All Might seemed unsurprised, and, if anything, proud. “Of course, young Bakugou. We’ll be heading back shortly.”

Bakugou gave a jerky nod and stiffly left. Kirishima and Ashido both had their hands over their mouths, eyes shining as they watched him. Once he was gone, Mina let out a little squeal. “Oh my god, I’m so proud of him!” Kirishima turned and wrapped her and Kaminari both in a hug that lifted the two of them off the ground, laughing triumphantly. They and Sero all fell to whispering amongst themselves.

“Sir!” Iida’s arm shot up, perfectly vertical.

“Yes?”

“Does that mean that nobody passed the exercise?”

All Might chuckled. “Actually, I’ve decided that I won’t be assigning grades in my classes this year.” Iida looked scanadalized. “I think too strict a focus on what is the ‘right answer’ does you all a disservice. You’re going to be heading out into a messy, complicated world, where the correct answer to a problem won’t always be clear, and sometimes might not exist at all. Some of you have already seen that. I believe your training should reflect that, rather than a strict binary of correct or incorrect.” All Might held up a finger at kaminari and Sato’s cheer. “That doesn’t mean I won’t be holding you all to the highest standards; I still expect your best. Plus Ultra is a lifestyle, not an activity, kids. Now, you're dismissed. Meet me in the classroom once you’re changed, I have some reading assignments for you.” There was a groan from several students - whether over the cheesy phrase or the reading assignment, who’s to say - as they all filed out. “Miss DeLaine-Hotz, could I have a word with you?” Kate turned in surprise to see All Might patiently waiting, not having moved from where he stood. Tokoyami gave her a quick pat on the shoulder and she nodded to him and Shouji as they left. She walked over to the tall, thin figure of the former Number One hero.

“Yes, All Might?”

He switched to English. “My dear, I am hardly All Might these days. Please, call me Toshinori. You know, you used to call me Tochinowy when you were little. You were too young to say my name right.” He smiled at the memory.

Kate stared up at him, uncomprehending. “I… what?”

He looked down at her in surprised realization. “I suppose you wouldn’t remember, would you? You must have been only three or four the last time I visited your mother.”

“My… mom? You know my mom?”

He furrowed his heavy brows. “Of course I know her, she’s a dear friend. You know I got my start in America, right? She and I both had our debuts around the same time in Los Angeles. Did she really not tell you?” A look of hurt, infinitely brief, passed over his face, wiped away before Kate even realized it was there. “But yes, I count your mother among my dearest friends. It was my suggestion that she send you here to UA, and I filed the recommendation for your acceptance.”

Kate tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing. “You- but I thought…”

A look of deep sadness shadowed his gaunt face. “I promised her I would look out for you and do my best to keep you safe. Clearly, I have failed at that.”

Kate spluttered in confusion and horror. Seeing that pained expression on the face of her childhood hero set off some sort of alarm klaxon in her head, like seeing an injured baby animal or a child in danger: this is wrong.

“All- Toshinori, what are you talking about? I’m fine!” She waved her left arm in the air to emphasize how healed it was.

“I'm not so concerned about your injury. I've been in Recovery Girl's care enough times to trust you are of sound body. But what you said to me before the beginning of the exercise, that’s not the product of a content and untroubled mind, Kate. I’m failing in both my duty as a teacher and my promise to your mother if I just ignore that you’re clearly struggling with something.”

Kate felt the desperate desire to go back in time and punch herself in the back of the skull. “Toshinori, I promise, I’m fine. It’s just, like, dark humor, you know?” Her voice cracked in her rush to reassure him.

He shook his head, hiding a slight smile. “My dear, let me tell you something. When I hear a fellow hero start using that sort of humor, that’s when I know they’ve stopped seeing their therapist. Every time, without fail. It simply isn’t a healthy mindset for someone in our position.”

“Oh…” Kate hesitated. “Do you go to a therapist?”

Toshinori nodded. “I do.” A look of consternation crossed his face briefly. “Although, it shames me to admit that during my hero career, I did not, and I often placed that burden unfairly on those I cared about, as a result. I…” He looked away, staring into the distance. “I lost a dear friend because of my own issues that I should have worked through with a professional, and by the time we reconciled, it was too late.”

Kate stood awkwardly, staring at the floor. “I’m sorry.”

Toshinori shook himself out of it, looking back to her. His eyes, luminous blue, glistened with emotion. “Thank you, Kate. I’m sorry about your father. I never met him, but from what your mother told me, he was a good man.”

“I- Yeah.” There was a moment’s hesitation as Kate stared at the floor, then Toshinori opened his arms in invitation. She couldn’t help throwing herself into them, in one of the most satisfying hugs she'd ever received. After longer than Kate would have liked to admit, she pulled away.

“I want you to talk to either Midnight or Hound Dog, okay? They’re the school counselors. I promise, they’re very good at it.”

Kate nodded, not looking up.

“Good.” He patted the top of her head paternally. If it had been anyone else, she would have slapped them away, but from Toshinori it felt like genuine fondness. “Now, hurry back to the classroom, I’ll save a reading packet for you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Great, thanks.”

Back in the classroom, Aizawa entered as they were preparing to go back to the dorms.

“Not that I should have to remind you of this, but the Sports Festival is in two weeks. If you want to get in extra training before then, make sure you get permission from a teacher. I don’t want someone breaking their neck without supervision.” With that, he left, followed by some murmurs of consternation at his last comment.

A silence fell over the room when Midoirya got to his feet, standing unnaturally still. Several others around the room sat up straighter, mirroring his stillness. He turned toward the rest of the room wearing a smile disturbingly unlike his normal one, sharp and distantly mocking. He looked to his right to Shinsou and Yoyorozu, meeting both their gazes, then to his left to look Shouji in the eye. Each of them nodded in turn, and he picked up his bag, walking quickly and confidently out of the room. The other three got to their feet more slowly, following him out.

Sound returned to the room, flooding back in as if a quirk had smothered it and then been released. Kate leaned forward to Uraraka. “What was that?”

Uraraka was frowning, staring at the door where Midoriya had disappeared. “I hate when he does this.”

“Yeah, okay, but does what? What is he doing?”

“He’s shutting us out. He’s not going to really talk to anyone but those three until after the Sports Festival, probably.”

“What, why? Is he trying to get a head start on the competition or something?”

Uraraka hummed absently. “Could be, I guess. But this usually comes when he’s planning something big, bigger than just winning the Festival. At least he’s including somebody this time. Last time he locked himself in his room for a week, and then walked out and gave Aizawa-sensei a huge folder full of papers. He looked terrible, like he hadn’t slept all week. The next day, the police busted one of the biggest human trafficking organizations in the country. The whole network collapsed. Obviously we don't know for sure that the two are connected, but, well... Deku was spontaneously falling asleep on people for the next two weeks with this super satisfied look on his face.” She blushed for some reason when she mentioned that. Then she straightened up, and Kate could practically see the gears turning in her head. “He’s going to make a statement.” She didn’t seem like she was really talking to Kate anymore. “He’s got something to say, and he wants to make sure everybody hears it.” She brought one hand up and started chewing on one knuckle, seeming oblivious to the fact she was doing it.

Riiight

Kate leaned back again, gathering her things. Clearly, she wasn’t going to get a good explanation. Again.

Why does everybody get so weird about Midoriya?

Chapter Text

Kate bumped her shoulder into Tokoyami’s as they were nearing the dorms. “I think we did pretty good, huh?”

He nodded slowly. “Indeed. It was not a terrible performance. Mezo certainly caught you off guard, though.”

She frowned. “Hey, don’t tell me that hasn’t worked on you at least once.”

“I will tell you that, because it has not. Mostly because I was there the first time he tried it.”

Kate huffed. “Fine, whatever. It’s not my fault he has a sexy voice. What was with that accent, anyway?”

Tokoyami gave her a sideways glance but ignored the statement in favor of answering her question. “His mother is Irish. He only lets the accent come out at certain times.”

Kate frowned. “Why not? It sounded super cool.”

Tokoyami stopped walking and turned to face her, bringing her to a stop as well.

“Kate, I need you to understand that having a highly visible mutation-type quirk isn’t always pleasant. You understand that, right?”

Kate crossed her arms and frowned, trying to ignore a hot flush of embarrassment. “Yeah, I know that.”

“Then you can understand how compounding that with sounding like a foreigner may not be the wisest course to take if one can avoid it, yes?”

Kate dropped her pretense of sourness and covered her mouth with one hand. “Oh my god. I’m an idiot. Is that where-“ She motioned to the side of her face where Shouji’s scar would be.

Tokoyami shrugged. “I don’t know, but I can’t imagine it would help matters. I’m surprised he’s showed it to you.”

“I, uh, he didn’t really mean to.”

Tokoyami looked at her in silence for a few seconds, then grunted. “Then you probably shouldn’t ask about it.” He turned back toward the dorm, Kate jogging behind him to catch up.

“I wasn’t going to! Hey, slow down, Edgar Allan Crow!”

“I’m a raven, and Poe wrote about ravens, not crows,” Tokoyami said over his shoulder, seemingly unruffled. Dark Shadow appeared out of his back to make a rude gesture at her before being reeled back in.

They spent the afternoon with Tokoyami helping her with homework. Shouji and the rest of those Midoriya had singled out didn’t return until later in the evening; Shouji joined the two of them at one of the tables, brushing aside Kate’s questions about where he’d been.

Tokoyami snorted at her insistence. “Shouldn’t you be more focused on this math I’m trying to teach you?”

Kate glared at him. “Are you in on it?”

Tokoyami’s feathers puffed up cryptically. “No, I just know a lost cause when I see one. You won’t get it out of him.”

Shouji laughed a little at that, prompting Kate to turn her glare on him, and he held a set of hands up defensively. “Don’t worry, you’ll find out when it’s time.”

“That just makes me want to know more.”

Shouji didn’t say anything, but one of his arms carried a self-satisfied smile.

The next two weeks passed quickly. All Might set them an intense regimen of training exercises covering a wide array of circumstances, focused equally on combat and rescue operations. Kate found that everyone grew hesitant to spar with each other, even Tokoyami and Shouji turning her down.

“It’s nothing against you, Kate. Everyone’s just keeping things close to the vest until after the Festival, it’ll go back to normal afterward.”

Ojiro’s reassurance didn’t quite take the sting out of the rejections, but it at least made her determined to do well in the competition.

Prove you deserve your spot here

She shook her head, trying to ignore the needling voice of self-doubt that whispered in the back of her skull.

Several of her classmates were often conspicuously absent during that time. Shinsou, Shouji, Yaoyorozu, and Midoriya drifted in and out, regularly disappearing after class for hours before showing up again, coming into a conversation or group and acting like they’d been there the whole time. The conversation topic of their frequent disappearances seemed almost as taboo as sparring; no one wanted to talk about it, and most looked vaguely uncomfortable or nervous if it was brought up. Bakugou had taken to glaring suspiciously at any of them whenever they were in the same room. No one liked not knowing what was going on, and Bakugou least of all, but the tension forced an artificial calm that let everyone keep to themselves and train for the Festival as the pleased.

The morning of the first day of the Sports Festival dawned in drizzling rain, not that it deterred the crowds pressing to get into the stadium. Most of both second-year classes crowded into a box in the stands to watch the first years compete.

The eager feet of the competitors tore the ground to a muddy slush as they vied for glory and praise from the public and professionals. Kate found herself watching intently as the fights in the tournament steadily grew in brutality as they progressed, each contestant more desperate for victory than the last as they approached the finals.

Both classes were silent as the last match ended, one student raising his hands in victory before the roaring crowd while the other was rushed off to the infirmary. Frowns decorated many of their faces as the winner gave a ferocious grin through the rain dripping down his face and hair plastered to his forehead.

Sero leaned forward in his seat next to Kate, planting his elbows on his knees with his brows furrowed. “Somehow it’s less disturbing when Bakugou does it.”

Kate gave him a sidelong glance, but even she had to admit that there had been something unpleasant about the fights, beyond even Bakugou’s aggressive attitude and compulsive need to win. Bakugou hadn’t bothered coming to watch, citing indifference toward how the “pipsqueaks” did. She looked out at the student who had come out on top of the bloodbath; he was merciless toward his classmates, beating them into the ground with far more force than necessary, but the more disconcerting thing was that he wasn’t unique among them. They had all made it very clear that any one of them would have been just as savage if their places were reversed. They were nothing like her class.

Or maybe you’re just a fool, and they’ll put you down just as hard when your turn comes tomorrow.

Everyone was subdued as they left the stadium, Setsuna walking beside Kate with her hands shoved in her pockets, scuffing at the wet sidewalk with each step.

“That was… uncomfortable.”

“How do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t feel it last year - didn’t notice, maybe - but somehow I feel more like a gladiator than a hero all of a sudden. Is that how it’s going to be, when we’re heroes, out there, tearing at each other as much as at villains for a spot in the sun?” She shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just, like… I’m tired of screwing around. I want to go fight the League! Or any villain, really. I’ve fought everyone in my class and most of yours, I don’t see how doing that over and over is helping anybody. The world’s falling apart out there and we’re just, like, busting each other up on tv.”

Kate blinked. “You, uh, you been thinking about this for a while? Seems like you’ve been thinking about it for a while,”

Setsuna shrugged again. “I guess? I don’t know.”

They walked in silence for a while. There was still a light rain, making all the students hunch into their jackets and generally making the walk seem incongruously mournful for some reason. As they neared the 1-b dorm, Kate spoke.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Hm?” Setsuna’s look of confusion almost made Kate laugh.

“Like, are you going to pull out of the festival and not compete?”

“Oh.” Setsuna frowned. “I mean, that wouldn’t really change anything. I guess I’ll just go along with it like everyone else. It’s not like the Sports Festival is bad, it just feels… Pointless, kind of. And I’m not going to sabotage my career just because I don’t really like the system or whatever.”

The both laughed, saying their goodbyes, and Kate headed for her own dorm.

The rain was even harder the next morning, the clouds darkening the sun so much that the stadium lights were turned on for the events.

“Hellooooooo and welcome back, viewers everywhere!”

Present Mic’s voice echoed as the Second Years cleared the entrance tunnel and stepped out into the lights of the stadium, blinking instinctively against the rain falling on their faces as they looked up to the crowd. The stands had awnings stretched over top of them to protect against the rain, but the open center of the arena provided the students with no such protection.

“Raise your hands and voices to give a welcome to our Second Year contestants! You’ve seen them before, but you’ve never seen them like this!” Each class grouped up before the stage as Present Mic introduced them; some shifting uncomfortably as they endured the soggy weather, while others stood stoic and unbothered. “Now, my good buddy Midnight will get us started with the contestants’ address.”

Midnight gave a nod to the announcer’s box from her position on the stage, and strutted forward. A holograph screen appeared next to her and kept pace, names and portraits spinning like a slot machine. She wasted no time once she got to the edge of the stage. “This year’s commencement speaker for the Second Year entrants will be –“ she gestured dramatically to the screen, and the spinning characters stopped on a portrait of a handsome young man, hair split between red and white, a burn scar marking the left side of his expressionless face; “Todoroki Shouto!”

Heads were just beginning to turn toward Todoroki when there was a concerted gasp from the crowd. The hologram screen had dissolved into static, and as Midnight turned to look – seemingly surprised as anyone – it resolved itself to display the name and face of Midoriya Izuku wearing a stern, confident look that Kate wouldn’t have thought he could even make.

“What’s this? Oh!” There were sounds of rustling and a door closing over the speakers. Present Mic’s voice was in a normal register when he spoke again, addressing whoever had just entered the commentator’s box, rather than the crowd. “Principal Nezu! Good, maybe you can explain what’s going on?”

“Principal!” Midnight sounded relieved. “What exactly is...?”

There was a slight moment of feedback as the microphone in the booth was adjusted, then the cheerful voice of the principal came over the speakers. “It would seem our systems have been hacked!” The audible smile in his voice didn’t match up with the alarming announcement he’d just made, and it took a few seconds before the crowd burst into an uproar, students and spectators both. “The only logical thing to do would be to leave the decision of who shall give the address up to Todorkoi Shouto, I believe.” More confused shouting came from all sides, and Midnight hesitantly gestured toward Todoroki.

The boy’s face remained impassive as he walked toward the stage, but instead of stepping up onto it he stopped in the grass at the the foot and held his hand out to Midnight. She stared at him for a moment in confusion before handing over her microphone. Todoroki looked back toward the assembled students as he brought the mic to his mouth.

“I’d like to hear Midoriya speak.”

The boy handed back the microphone and went back to his place, leaving Midnight looking slightly flustered. “Uhm, very well. Midoirya Izuku, please come forward?”

The noise of the crowd died down as the small figure of Midoriya slowly moved toward the stage. He paused for a moment to whisper something to Todoroki as he passed, then slowly, purposefully, mounted the stage. He took the proferred microphone, taking his time as he brought it to his lips. As he spoke, everyone in the stadium felt something: a heavy weight settling itself on their shoulders, the sort of weight one feels when they’ve just been trusted with a great responsibility.

“I’m not here to win.”

Silence fell over the stadium at his words, and Midoriya took a moment to find Bakugou’s eyes: a silent acknowledgement. Bakugou made his irritation known with a small explosion, but otherwise kept silent. It was obvious there was more coming.

Midoriya returned his gaze to the crowd, bringing the microphone with him as he ambled in a short circle, making certain he had the attention of the masses. “I considered ending it there when I was thinking about what I wanted to say here, as a nod to my friend and rival Bakugou Katsuki. You may remember his speech from last year.” A pause. “But that would be a disservice to what comes next.” Midoriya continued pacing in a circle, keeping every section of the audience pinned under his stare. His eyes and voice carried a weight that the crowd could feel all the way in the stands, a heavy intent that kept them hanging on his words.

“So, allow me to explain. As our current Number One can attest,” he turned his head directly to the smoldering figure of Endeavor in the stands, gaze unflinching, “All Might has left behind a legacy and a burden that no one can hope to live up to.” He turned away from Endeavor’s growing inferno dismissively. If the crowd had been quiet before, now it was completely, utterly silent. “But, not only can no hero take All Might’s place,” Midoriya went on, “I say that no hero should.”

The spell lifted, just for a moment, as the crowd broke into mutters and shouts, but quieted again as Midoriya continued speaking. “No one can deny that All Might’s sudden loss has left this country weakened, but I don’t think we’ve realized just how weakened. Criminals reel from the shock of his retirement just as you do, just as we heroes and heroes-to-be do. But they’re recovering. In the nine months since that day, not only have crime rates begun to rise exponentially, far beyond the ability of our current hero structure to control, but we have also been faced with challenges, both as heroes individually and as a society as a whole, entirely unlike any we have faced before.” Midoriya paused.

“And We.

Have.

Not.

Been.

Ready.”

He punctuated each word with a step, encompassing the entire arena in one sentence. The air was static with tension, to the point that several students began glancing at Kaminari, but the charge was coming entirely from Midoriya. Those that looked closely could see tiny arcs of green lightning lancing into the concrete every time he took a step, excess energy bleeding off him into the ground.

“So I ask you, attendees of UA’s Sports Festival -” he turned to look into one of the cameras floating around the stage, “citizens of Japan –“ he spread his arms, “people of every country on Earth. If we have met such challenges so far and only barely scraped through,” he brought the microphone close to his face, his voice low and serious. “What yet waits for us?”

There was a long silence in the stadium. Breath felt stifled, restless fidgeting stilled. Midoriya stepped back and swiped his sodden hair out of his face, his shoulders visibly relaxing even as his uniform soaked through under the rain, and the audience seemed to take a breath with him.

“So then. What can we do to prevent such a thing in the future? And yes, we must look to the future, even as we fight for the present; we do not have the luxury of putting such decisions off. We are in freefall, the pillar that held us up has finally collapsed after over forty years of carrying our society. And I believe - I know - that we can survive this fall, no matter how hard the landing is, but what about the next time? And the next? Should we just allow another hero to rise up and take All Might’s place as our new Symbol of Peace, to carry an entire society on their shoulders, and to let it fall again when they can’t go on?” Midoriya was on a roll, gesturing with his hands as he walked and spoke, never losing that grave aura of intent that kept the audience pinned in their seats, rapt on his words. His voice was clear and firm, without a hint of mumbling or stuttering. “I won’t pretend I have all the answers. I have what I think are the answers. But this isn’t a decision for me to make. It’s a decision that falls on every single one of us.”

“As this festival goes on - and hopefully afterward, as well - I’ll leave you to think about All Might’s final message to us all, and what it really means.” Midoriya leveled a finger at the nearest camera, his expression more confident than ever, his hand unshaking. “Now, it’s your turn.”

After a few seconds Midoriya dropped his hand, but his eyes remained locked on the camera for another moment before he turned and returned the mic to a stunned Midnight and walked off the stage, every step giving off an air as if he’d just come victorious from a battle.

“Alright everybody!” Present Mic recovered from the proverbial mic drop after a few moments. “A rousing - if perhaps controversial - speech from Class 2-A’s earthshaker, Midoriya Izuku!” Next to Kate, Uraraka’s brow furrowed as she mouthed the word ‘earthshaker’ to herself experimentally. “It’s time to get this party started! Take us away, Midnight!”

“Right,” the heroine mumbled into the microphone, before recovering her showwoman’s smile. She snapped her flogger toward the students, making a few of the Gen-Ed and Support students jump. “Let’s head into the first event!” She gestured to the screen next to her, which began spinning like a slot machine again. Probably only the students were close enough to see the anxious glance she sent toward first the screen and then the announcer’s box. When the screen came to a stop on Obstacle Course, there was a tense moment as everyone waited to see if it would change, but it held firm.

“Okay! The Obstacle Course! You may remember that we started off these kids in the obstacle course last year as well, but never fear, we’ve updated this year’s course to challenge them like never before!”

The students spun around at the sound of grinding stone – or concrete, as it turned out – to see the entrance tunnel they’d previously exited shrinking behind them, two walls of cement sliding across the entrance until only a two-foot wide slit remained.

“You know the drill, kiddos,” Midnight called gleefully from behind them. “Stay on the course, and you can do whatever you want! First forty finishers qualify.”

A horn sounded, and just like that the first event had begun. The students surged forward, each prepared to claw their way to a chance through the narrow bottleneck, but a flash of emerald got there first. Midoriya Izuku, wreathed in electrical potential, his stern face replaced with an exultant grin, looked back over his shoulder as he stood in the slim doorway. Many of those at the front of the pack faltered, unsure if they wanted to dare try to push through him, but most of the hero course charged onward, matching his smile with challenging smirks of their own as they closed the distance. Even Bakugou seemed like he was enjoying himself already, preparing to power right through Midoriya. It was Midoriya’s next move that brought even Bakugou to a stop: although whether out of surprise or a sense of self-preservation, who could say.

Midoriya put a hand on the edge of the concrete either side of him, adjusting his grip until he was satisfied. Giving off a wave of power and cement dust that forced most of the front ranks to shield their faces, he pushed against the walls, causing a shudder throughout the structure of the entire stadium and a slight panic in those seated directly over top of the tunnel. In a moment, cracks spiderwebbed through the walls and Midoriya leaned forward into the push, his uniform stretched tight cross his back. With a thunderous snap, both of the impeding walls shattered, rubble falling around Midoriya’s feet thicker than the rain for a few seconds until the entire tunnel yawned open before him. He looked back over his shoulder at the rest of the contestants with a smile that could have melted a glacier.

“Let’s go!”

He dashed down the tunnel, followed after a moment of stunned silence by the rest of the Second Year students.

The Sports Festival had begun.

Chapter Text

Kate ran amidst the crowd of other competitors, jostling for space. She had been preparing to use her quirk to soar over the heads of the rest, before Midoriya had torn down the first obstacle and cleared the path for everyone. Now, she opted to go on foot until another obstacle presented itself.

Better to save your energy until it is needed

She found herself running next to Setsuna in the press of bodies rushing through the tunnel. The enclosed space rebounded back every shout and sound of a quirk firing off until Kate felt absolutely deafened by the caucaphony. Setsuna gave Kate a wink, saying something inaudible before – quite literally – falling apart. In a show that would give Kate recurring nightmares for weeks, Setsuna’s face split in a seam down the middle, the smallest bead of blood welling up where her skin split away. Mercifully, the inside of her body was somehow shadowed, sparing Kate the sight of her gray matter and various other internal organs as another seam formed at her neck to let the two halves of her head separate and hover at eye level, and the rest of her body follow suite. She finally dissolved into a small cloud made of neat chunks of meat that spun and hovered in the air. Half a grin flashed in front of Kate for just a moment before the whole cloud zoomed off over the heads of the other students, into the dark labyrinth ahead.

And it was dark. Kate hadn’t been expecting an enclosed course, but at least they were out of the rain for a while. The tunnel opened into another concrete passage; only slightly larger, lit by floating spotlight camera drones that bobbed overhead around the walls, their lenses constantly whirring as they shifted focus on the crowd of racers. Sharp edged shadows thrown by jutting concrete made it hard to tell what was open space and what was merely an un-illuminated blank wall, complicated more by the softer but more chaotic shadows of the racers. The course was built like an optical illusion, walls and columns branching out at weird angles or creating false perspectives that concealed the path forward. Most of the mob crowded to a stop in the antechamber, clearly nervous at the sudden dilemma that faced them: four paths branched in front of them, three tunnels accessable at floor level, and a fourth twenty feet up the wall.

Kate saw the mass of Setsuna-pieces hesitate above the throng before vanishing into the elevated tunnel. Before she could gather enough energy into herself to launch up to that level and follow, a shout and a light caugh her eye. Someone had slapped some sort of bright reflective yellow arrow sticker on the wall pointing down the rightmost passage, and the pack seemed torn between following the sign and mistrusting it. Some were dashing down the tunnel, while others shouted at them or simply chose a different tunnel. Most of the hero course seemed to be following the sign; Todoroki had left an indicator of his choice with a thin pathway of ice down the marked tunnel. She could hear Present Mic’s voice echoing outside the concrete labrynth, indistinct but enthusiastic. She hesitated, torn between the path popular consensus or the path where she clearly had an advantage in being able to access it. Aizawa’s words echoed in her head: Listen to your classmates. Lean on their experience.

Taking a deep breath, Kate headed for the marked passage. The tunnel twisted and turned and strange, sharp angles; sometimes shrinking to only a few feet or growing to fifteen across and twenty high. How much land they were covering and how this maze had been set up without any of the students noticing was a mystery to Kate. There were paths branching off in every direction, illuminated dimly by the many, many hovering camera spotlights that festooned the corridors. She and a large group of others followed a path set by more glowing arrow lights, although every so often someone would hit their limit for blind trust and split off down a random hallway. They were packed in tight enough that Kate couldn’t use her quirk to dash forward without tumbling everyone in front of her over or shooting up and coming down on some poor sap’s head, but she felt fairly confident in her position.

She’d muscled her way to near the front of the pack, although they still hadn’t caught up to whoever was leaving the signs, when the whole herd was forced to come to a stop as they rounded a corner and were confronted with a blank wall. In unison, those that could see it followed the arrow pointing up to see the tunnel continue, ten feet higher. Crouched on the ledge lazily, his face cast half in shadow from a nearby drone, was one Shinsou Hitoshi - his hair significantly less poofy than normal with the rain dripping from it. He offered a hand down toward them.

“You guys want some help?”

There was a pause, and then Mina took a running leap up the wall, laughing loudly and scrambling her way up until the two of them caught hands and Shinsou tugged her up and over.

“Thanks, Shinsou babe!” Her good natured sing-song echoed back as she charged onward, and Shinsou offered his hand down again. The pall of hesitation broken, and the group surged forward; those who could make it up the wall on their own taking a lead while others waited impatiently for Shinsou’s help.

Kate alighted nimbly next him on the ledge, pausing for a moment.

“You’re just going to stay here? Give up your chance to win?”

He ganced up at her as he pulled Aoyama up and patted the other boy on the back roughly to shove him along.

“You think I want to be on tv? Pass, thanks.”

Shiozaki paused next to them as she crested the edge under her own power, her hair rustling in a strange, slithering halo around her. She frowned slightly, looking at Shinsou contemplaitively for just a moment before she seemed to come to some decision. “This is a righteous thing you’re doing. I would be honored to join you.”

Shinsou just gave her a nod, then glanced at Kate again. “You’re falling behind, you know.” Beside him, Shiozaki called on her quirk to coat the wall below them, forming a more easily climbable surface. Kate hummed in acknowledgement, but took another second of looking at the two of them helping everyone else – lifting others up, literally – before she turned and shot off down the tunnel.

The crowd was broken up now, so she made good time following the arrows through winding corridors, rocketing past other racers as she went. She nearly slipped a few times on the trail of slime Mina had left behind her, and at one point skidded straight into a wall when she came out of a warp over the slippery surface, but she managed to make up a lot of the ground she had given up by not using her quirk initially. By the time she burst, squinting, into the relative brightness of the arena lights, she could feel her shoes falling apart from the – thankfully not too caustic – acid she’d been running through.

Jogging to a stop, Kate stretched her arms over her head as she looked around at who had already finished.  It looked like she had come in about halfway to the forty-person limit; about half of her class and half of Class B, plus a few panting General Studies kids were milling around as they waited for the rest to finish. Even some of the Hero Course students were looking winded, but Kate just felt thoroughly warmed up and ready for the next event. She pulled off her - now quite soleless - shoes and walked over to where Mina was chatting with Sero, feeling her socks immediately soak through. She caught the pink girl’s eye before jokingly throwing one of the ruined sneakers at her. Mina yelped and ducked – right into the path of the shoe. Sero cackled as she spluttered and threw the offending shoe away from her indignantly.

Kate smirked and tossed the other after it. “Nice.”

“You could probably get Yaomomo to make you some new ones,” Sero advised.

“You think so?” Kate looked around for the Creation Hero, finding her standing off to the side from everyone else with Shouji, Midoriya, and Hatsume. They didn’t look like they were talking, just standing there with a very blatant air of conspiracy about them. She excused herself from Sero and Mina and jogged over to them. Hatsume was engrossed in a tablet that she must have made herself for her to be allowed to use it in the Festival. Shouji gave her a small wave when she caught his eye, but otherwise stood silently next to Midoriya, all of his arms folded over his chest. Midoriya, for his part, seemed entirely engrossed his own thoughts, although his usual muttering was absent. There still seemed to be something left over in his posture from his speech earlier: a straighter spine, squared shoulders, little things that gave off a clear sense of purpose.

Kate came up to Yaoyorozu standing with them. The girl looked tired already, like she hadn’t slept well, but Kate refrained from mentioning it. “Hey, Momo, could I ask you a favor?”

Yaoyorozu perked up at the question. “Certainly, what is it?”

Kate pointed down at her socked feet, now wet and slightly muddy. “Mina killed my shoes.” Shouji snorted next to her, his shoulders rising once with a supressed laugh.

Yaoyorozu’s hand flew to her mouth, hiding a laugh of her own. “I think I can probably spare the calories.”

Setsuna joined Kate a minute later as she was breaking in the new sneakers.

“Damn, and I thought I was doing pretty good, too.”

Kate glanced around; it looked like they were close to the cut-off point now, what looked like probably over thirty-five students milling about now. “Should’ve followed the signs.”

Setsuna looked askance at her. “Is that seriously what you did? I figured that was totally a trap.”

“Nah, I think Yaoyorozu left them. They led straight through.”

Setsuna huffed. “How come she knew the right way to go?”

Kate shrugged. “Hell if I know. Hey, so, can I ask you something?”

“Uh, sure?”

Kate looked Setsuna dead in the eye, expression stony. “What the absolute fuck?”

Setsuna went from a blink of surprise to a pleased grin and flipped her hair. “Not my fault you never asked my quirk.”

“Clearly. That was horrifying.”

“Yeah, it’s cool, right?”

Once the first event wrapped up, they moved on quickly to the second.

“Alriiiight, ladies and gentlemen! Are you reeaadyy??”

The crowd roared in response to Present Mic’s hype. The man could lighten the mood at funeral, Kate suspected, so alleviating the seriousness Midoriya had cast earlier while the obstacle course had been going on had probably been a piece of cake for him. Especially with his new co-announcer.

“Sooo, Principal, what can you tell us about this next event?”

“Well,” Nezu’s ever-friendly voice played over the speaker, much softer than Present Mic’s. “I can tell you that it’s intended to challenge the contestants’ teamwork skills, as well as their ability to create and seize opportunity.”

Midnight spun the holographic wheel, and it came to rest on…

“Capture the Flag! A time honored classic!”

“And we’ve added a little twist,” commented the principal. There was a healthy dose of sadistic glee in his voice, now.

Midnight echoed Nezu’s excitement in her own laugh. “Alright then! Get ready to form teams, this event has two goals! Capture someone else’s flag, as well as hold on to your own. You’ll claim a circle marked on the arena that is your territory. If you tag an opponent while they’re in your territory, they must immediately relinquish any flag they are carrying to its rightful owner and return to their own territory before they can do anything else. But play nice: you may only tag you opponents, and only with your hand. Direct assault will result in disqualification, as will attempting to push an enemy out of bounds. The first four teams to acquire forty-one points or more will proceed to the finals. That’s right, points! You didn’t think we’d forgotten who finished where in the last event, did you? Each of you will be assigned a point value based on your finishing position in the obstacle course. The first place earns you forty points, and fortieth place earns you one point. Once you’ve formed a team of four, your points will be averaged and assigned to your flag. Hang on to it, because you can’t achieve victory without it being in your territory. Bring other flags back to your territory to bring your point total up to forty-one, and you’ll have a ticket to the finals!” Midnight paused, looking a little winded. “I want to see a fair and even match, but more than that I want to see passion out there! Now, form your teams, get your flags, and claim your territory.” She raised her flogger and brought it down to signal the start.

There was an immediate rush for everyone to find their preferred teammates. Setsuna turned to Kate. “We should get Tokoyami.”

“We?” The word came off sounding a little more abrasive than Kate had intended, and Setsuna looked lightly crestfallen.

“I mean, if you don’t want to…”

“No, no, I definitely do,” Kate hastily reassured. “I was just surprised. I figured you’d, like, have people in mind.”

Setsuna frowned at her. “Yeah, I do. And you’re one of them. Now come on, let’s grab the goth featherduster and Yanagi and let’s go!”

“The featherduster is here.” They both jumped at Tokoyami’s sudden deadpan voice from beside them. The rain’s effect on his feathers was leaving him looking soggier than he probably actually was, but the result looked like a distinctly annoyed bird.

“Jesus, how long have you been standing there,” Kate demanded.

“Aproximately two seconds.” He shifted his gaze to Setsuna. “I believe Yanagi has already joined Kendo’s team.”

“Dammit,” Setsuna muttered.

Tokoyami motioned over the crowd to someone Kate couldn’t pick out, and a few seconds later Jirou pushed her away through the knot of students and came up to them.

“Hey.” She flushed a little. “Yaomomo’s off playing kingsguard, so…”

“As is Shouji,” answered Tokoyami. “You’d be welcome to join us, I believe.” He looked questioningly at Kate and Setsuna.

Setsuna nodded enthusiastically. “Totally! What are they up to, anyway? Midoriya got more to say or something?” The three Class A students each shrugged. “Whatever, let’s grab our flag and get a good spot.”

Their flag – worth twenty-five points – secured, they made their way to the huge concrete slab where ten ten-foot wide circles were marked irregularly around the rectangular area. Setsuna immediately jumped for the last remaining corner circle, crowing in triumph as she beat Kendo to it and slammed their flag into place in the center.

Jirou quirked one eyebrow. “You know there’s not much difference between any of the circles, since there’s a ton of space between them and the edge, right? We still have to watch our back.”

Setsuna gave a flippant shrug, baring her sharp teeth in a grin. “It’s the principle of it.”

When everyone had taken their places, Midnight strode to the edge of the stage, just outside the marked rectangle. “Alright, Cementoss, you can open it up.”

Over a sudden and disconcerting rumbling came the principal’s voice, sounding practically giddy. “Oh, Did I forget to mention? This is also a test of our competitors’ balance. I hope they can keep their footing.”

“Ruthless as always, Principal!”

Everyone on the field grabbed at each other or crouched down for balance as the whole slab began to shake and grind. From the center of the field, the concrete began to open up in a circle, revealing a hollow space below. The circle expanded, but left a small disk in place, about four feet across, balanced on top of a column underneath. Then it left several more, and then it hit the edge of one team’s territory, and it left that too. By the time the concrete had receded to the perimeter of the field, there were dozens of smaller circles, thin disks of cement spaced a few feet apart atop pylons leading down into a pit fifteen feet below. The bottom looked to be lined with cushioning, but it still seemed like a nasty fall.

Beside Kate, Setsuna was practically giggling. “Oh, this is even better!” She turned to the rest of the team, a gleam in her eye. “I’m on offense.”

“If you fall, you’re disqualified,” called Midnight from the sideline. “Rules about knocking people out of bounds still apply, but if someone’s blocked your landing and you jump anyway, that’s your problem.” As she finished, there was the sound of more rumbling, and the scenario became exponentially worse.

All the platforms, both the smaller ones and the territories, began to spin. Slowly at first, before ramping up to about the speed of a carousel. Worse still, they began to wobble, rocking rhythmically back and forth, each at different angles. There was chaos, everyone shouting as they desperately clung to the ground beneath their feet. One of the three non-hero course students fell off almost immediately with a shout of surprise, and Tsunatori Pony – their fourth teammate – looked expressly offended.

“Uh oh, looks like things are getting a little wobbly!”

The collective groan of the students mixed with the wild cheers of the crowd, nearly drowning out Midnight’s shout of “Go!”

Immediately, Setsuna began to disassemble herself. She seperated into a cloud of body parts again, her head hovering with the team even as the rest of her began to spread out through the field. “So, who wants to go for flags with me?”

“I will remain here to guard ours,” Tokoyami said. As he spoke, Dark Shadow lashed out and grabbed onto their flag, an instant before Asui’s tongue wrapped around the pole and gave a yank. The flag didn’t budge, and Asui gave a good-natured wave as she retracted her tongue. Todoroki and Iida were next to her, both looking distinctly unhappy about the motion of the platform.

“No time to waste!” With that, Setsuna jetted off in search of easy prey.

Kate joined Dark Shadow in keeping a hand on their flag. “Should I go for a flag?”

“Yeah, I think Tokoyami and I’ve got this.” Jirou had one jack plugged into the flagpole and the other anchored into the concrete at her feet, her eyes roving around for anyone headed their way.

Tokoyami muttered agreement, he and Dark Shadow covering as many angles at once as they could while both keeping a hand on the flag.

Carefully, Kate hopped a few platforms toward the middle, pausing a moment as she slowly spun and wobbled to get a lay of the competition. Fortunately for her, she had a great sense of balance. Usually. There were a number of people doing the same as her, not yet moving in to attack, but assessing their targets. On the territory closest to hers, Uraraka and Sero had teamed up to create a veritable deathrap of floating tape, and were working on expanding it to surrounding platforms. To her other side, Tetsutetsu had himself anchored to his flag while the rest of Team Kendou was away. Tsuyu, Iida, and Todoroki held their center territory like it was a slightly nauseating fortress, their flag contained inside a miniature glacier and small walls of ice growing at the edges of the platform.

Kate nearly panicked as Uraraka suddenly touched down on her platform, before she remembered that they couldn’t directly attack each other. They eyed each other warily, the small platform slowly spinning them in place.

“Nice place you got over there.” Kate began pacing around the edge of the platform, pushing Uraraka to move the other way to keep even with her.

Uraraka smirked. “You like it? It’s worked pretty well for us before.”

“I can imagine. You wanna help me take on the metal guy over there? He’s all alone and vulnerable.” Kate waggled her eyebrows dramatically, getting a barely suppressed laugh out of the other girl.

“What are you thinking, both of us go at him and whoever he goes to tag is out of luck and the other gets a chance to get away with it?”

Kate shrugged, faux nonchalant as she threw a glance at her own team. An animalistic boy covered in hair – Shishida – was prowling around their perimeter, but he looked like he was about to move on. She returned her eyes back to Uraraka. “Yeah, pretty much.”

There was a shout as somebody fell into the pit on the other side of the arena.

“That’s the first team to score, the group who not only made the obstacle course their plaything, but also made sure that everyone else could too! And they’re not done yet, Team Midoriya claims first spot in the finals!”

Uraraka narrowed her eyes toward the other end of the arena where Midoriya and his team must have been. “Yeah, alright.” She offered her hand out to shake.

Without thinking, Kate took her hand. In a moment, she found her weight gone and the world blurring around her as Uraraka whipped her around.

“Hey, Tetsutetsu! Catch!”

Kate felt herself rocket away from Uraraka, presumably toward the aforementioned Tetsutetsu, although she was utterly disoriented and seconds from losing her breakfast. On a desperate gamble, she picked what felt like up, and let off a short burst of her quirk.

It wasn’t up.

Kate cracked her head against concrete as she slammed down onto a platform. Her quirk canceled most of the hit, but that didn’t mean it was enjoyable. She scrambled to her feet, shuffling away from the edge as the platform nearly tipped her off. “Motherfuck, ‘Raka!”

A couple platforms away, Uraraka gave her an apologetic shrug and bounced away toward her own territory.

“What the hell are you guys doing?!” The Tetsutetsu guy seemed more alarmed than outraged, and he was definitely curled a little more protectively around his flag.

She sent him a wave in leau of an actual response, reorienting toward her territory to check that nothing was going wrong. She looked in time to see Jirou tag out both Kendou and Kodai as they tried to make her split the difference between them. Kendou tried to slide under her reach as Kodai went high and around, but Jirou somehow managed to reach both of them in a sort of aborted cartwheel that left her landing hard on one knee, but victorious.

“Kate!”

Kate turned at Setsuna’s call, just in time to catch the flag that had been thrown at her like a spear. “Holy shit,” she muttered at the steel pole now held in her hand, right next to her head.

“Go!” Kate looked over to see most of Setsuna encased in a sphere of Tsubaraba’s Solid Air, the girl giving her a thumbs up and a grin even as she pounded on the bubble encasing her. Kate quickly turned and bounded for home. Afraid of the unstable footing, she had to jump from platform to platform without her quirk. A glance over her shoulder confirmed the flag’s owners were giving chase; Rin and Kaibara leaping after her with far more confidence in their landings than she had.

“That’s another team to score!” Present Mic’s voice startled Kate so bad she nearly fell. “Team Iida wins their tug-of-war with Team Sero in a blaze of glory!” Kate spared a look over to see Sero quickly cutting off his tape as fire rushed up it toward his arms where Todoroki had cut through the tape with a burst of flame. The flag in Tsuyu’s hand had the other half of the severed tape wrapped around it, slowly burning out. The platform lurched under Todoroki, Iida, and Tsuyu – nearly throwing the boys – and slowly began to lower into the pit.

“Come on!” Dark Shadow’s hurried squawk pushed Kate to start moving again. The shadow-creature was stretching across several platforms from Tokoyami, its arm extended toward her. As she took another step, her foot slipped on the rain-slick concrete, and she tipped toward the edge. Without thinking, she launched herself toward Dark Shadow. The creature squawked again in alarm when she hit it, but grabbed onto her before she could fall and yanked her back toward their territory. She landed on her back with a thump beside Tokoyami and Jirou, but held up the flag in her hand triumphantly.

She glanced around in confusion when no congratulations came from Present Mic.

“This flag’s only worth fourteen,” groaned Jirou as she took it from Kate. “We need, like, two more points.” At that moment, a disembodied hand floated down from above with another flagpole, this one bearing a seven-point flag. The three of them glanced around for the rest of Setsuna, but she was still trapped in Tsubaraba’s bubble. She handed off the flag to Tokoyami and gave them all a thumbs-up.

“Team Tokoyami takes the third spot in the finals with a smooth double-play! One more and this round is over, folks!”

The platform under them shook, and slowly began to lower into the pit below. Setsuna joined them halfway down, finally released from her prison of air. Her pieces formed together with a discomforting squelch. “Oh my god, you guys! That was awesome!” She threw an arm around Kate’s shoulders as the platform came to a stop.

“Yeah, fantastic.” Jirou’s face was turning a sickly green now that the adrenaline was wearing off. “I’m just gonna…” She stumbled off a few feet, leaning one hand against the cement wall as she tried not to lose her guts.

“Team Bakugou takes the final spot, ladies and gentlemen!”

Kate glanced across the floor of the pit. She could see Todoroki, Iida, Tsuyu and Hagakure from where she was, still standing on their territory at the bottom. Past them, the columns holding up the various platforms were clustered too thick to see much beond some vague shapes at the far end that might have been Team Midoriya, and a few stragglers that had fallen in. She turned to Tokoyami and Setsuna.

“What’s our odds in the finals, you think?”

Before they could answer, the ground beneath them began to shake again, and the entire floor of the pit began to rise up to be even with the rest of the ground. Present Mic announced a break between events for lunch, and Midnight dismissed the contestants. As they were walking to the exit, Present Mic began to announce the match ups for the final tournament. Everyone stopped to look back to the board, to find that the first match would be…

Delain-Hotz, Kate   VS  Todoroki, Shouto

Kate stared at the board. “Oh, fuck me.”

Setsuna turned to her, simultaneously cackling and sympathetic. “Bad luck, bitch!” She jostled Kate with the arm slung over her shoulder, pushing her toward the cafeteria. “You asked what the odds were, there’s your answer. Least you don’t have Kaminari, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do against him.”

Tokoyami sighed behind them. “This is going to be just like last year, isn’t it?”

“Nah,” Setsuna reassured him. “This is gonna be even more of a shitshow.”

Chapter Text

First Round Matchups

DeLaine-Hotz, Kate   VS   Todoroki, Shouto

Kirishima, Eijiro    VS   Jirou, Kyoka

Kaminari, Denki   VS   Tokage, Setsuna

Ashido, Mina   VS   Asui, Tsuyu

Iida, Tenya VS  Shouji, Mezou

Hagakure, Toru   VS   Hatsume, Mei

Bakugou, Katsuki   VS   Midoriya, Izuku

Tokoyami, Fumikage   VS   Yaoyorozu, Momo

Present Mic’s voice rang out as Kate entered the arena, the crowd screaming their excitement.

“Our first contender, the student with the highest score in last year’s final practical exam! Is he hot ? Is he cold ? He’s both ! He’s Todorokiii Shoooouuutoooooo!!”

Kate stepped into the ring. Across from her, Todoroki gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

“His opponent is this year’s freshest face, and the number one student in my English class; all the way from Los Angeles, USA: Kate Deee Laine-Hoootz !

While Midnight reminded them of the rules of the match, Kate was focused far too much on the boy across from her to listen. His eyes were on Midnight, though he didn’t move his head toward her, remaining facing Kate head-on. She could see wisps of steam curl up where raindrops landed on his left side.

He’s already powering up

No frost formed on his right side, the rain rolling off unhindered.

So he’s leading with fire. That’s fine. I won’t be in it long enough to get burned

She glanced up in time to see Midnight raise her flogger, and Kate tensed, gathering kinetic energy, pulling it tight into a knot in her chest. As the flogger fell, she released the energy and rode the wave of it forward.

Time slowed around her as her feet left the concrete. Ringed splashes of water flew up where the power of her departure disrupted the rain pooled at her feet. The crowd was a freeze-frame snapshot, the energy of their cries and cheers muted. Kate saw Todoroki shift - laughably slow compared to her - drawing his left side back to hurl his flames at her. 

But as she drew closer, the fire didn’t come. 

Glancing down, Kate realized with a vague sense of fear that the fire wouldn’t be coming at all. Ice surged up to meet her from the ground, inch by tedious inch. As she first made contact, she could feel it shatter under her knee, but more rose up to engulf her. The impact brought her out of the warp early, and as time rushed to catch up to her, so did the ice. She screwed her eyes shut, suddenly terrified by the idea of ice freezing them solid, and in an instant, all was dark.

The crowd hushed, temporarily awed into silence by the power Todoroki threw around in what seemed like casual indifference. Two thirds of the ring, starting at Todoroki’s foot, was encased in a glittering glacier that reached nearly to the stands across from him. After a moment, Midnight spoke over the speaker, and Todoroki was already lighting up his left side to begin thawing the ice.

“Kate DeLaine-Hotz is immobilized! Todoroki Sho-“

She cut off as a crack rang out clearly through the arena, drawing every eye to the mass of ice in the center. A few chunks fell from the face of it, seemingly innocuous. Then, there was a moment, briefly, where attendees would later swear that they could feel the entire stadium shake, infinitesimally. Another crack rang out, and now all could see the seam in the ice, streaking up from the base to the tip, more cracks spidering out from it. And then, into the baited, silent breath of the stadium; the glacier exploded.

Todoroki and even Midnight were forced to shield their eyes from the spray of glass-like ice crystals, both of them coming away with streaks of paper-thin cuts on their arms and faces. Clouds of vapor rolled over them, and huge chunks of ice fell around them, tumbling from where they were dislodged at the top of the mountain. Between the instant fog and the creaking and crashing of shifting ice, it was impossible to tell what was happening in the ring.

A flash of fire lit up the cloud of ice crystals, burning them away just enough to reveal the two combatants. Kate stood over Todoroki as he reeled back from a punch to the jaw; she was a mirror to him, steam rising from her left side while his flames licked at her uniform and hair on her right.

Todoroki staggered back, flames swirling around him again, and threw them toward her with a flick of his hand. She shot to the side, skidding to a stop near the edge of the arena, then blurred into motion again as ice surged toward her again. She appeared in the air, riding her momentum to hang suspended over the arena for just a moment. 

The two of them locked eyes for an instant; Kate high above, Todoroki looking up from below. Todoroki’s left side burst into flame, brighter even than the lights of the stadium. Superheated air buffeted Kate from below, and she clenched her fists. Like a thunderbolt, she crashed down as a twisting inferno rose to meet her.

The audience cheered as two forces of nature met in the air. 

They roared as the wind of Kate’s passing met Todoroki’s firestorm. 

They screamed as fire and wind exploded outward. 

And they shook the stadium with applause as the fire cleared to reveal the results of the clash. Kate stood - barely - over Todoroki’s prone form in a shallow impact crater. Her clothes flickered with tongues of fire, her knees bent and shaking and her shoulders hanging so that she was nearly kneeling over top of him. But she stood. And he did not.

Kate managed to walk all the way to Recovery Girl’s office afterward, beside the robots that carried an unconscious Todoroki. They nearly overbalanced when he shot upright on the stretcher before they reached the office, his eyes wild in panic for a moment before he blinked back into clarity. 

Kate eyed him warily. “You good?”

“Oh, uh… Yes.” He looked slightly confused. “I… didn’t expect to lose.” To Kate’s surprise, his mouth twitched into something that could almost be called a smile as he looked at her. “That was… fun, I think.” 

After a moment of bemusement, Kate couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty awesome.”

The light-hearted mood didn’t last once Recovery Girl got ahold of them.

They both watched Jirou and Kirishima’s match from the infirmary as Recovery Girl fussed over them. Kate had mild frostbite from her flash-freezing, while Todoroki suffered a few cracked ribs and a mild concussion, both quickly cleared up with a kiss and a reprimand.

“Oh, damn,” Kate commented around a gummy vitamin. Jirou had just taken a hit to the temple on the screen. “That’s rough.”

Recovery Girl clucked her tongue, going over their charts one last time - and maybe contemplating further scolding. “Well, you’re both free to go. I better not see you in here again later, Miss DeLaine-Hotz.”

Kate paused at the door just behind Todoroki and gave Recovery Girl a quick bow. “Thank you, sensei. I’ll do my best!” Todoroki snorted as they closed the door. “What?”

He had another almost-smile as they walked. “You sound like Uraraka.”

Kate rubbed the back of her neck. “Shit, man, I don’t have the energy to be as adorable as her.” Todoroki grunted agreement at that, and they passed the walk back to their box in amiable silence.

They reached the stands at the same time as Kirishima and Jirou. They looked mostly okay, apart from Jirou’s shredded sleeves and a few holes poked in Kirishima’s shirt. Kate elbowed Todoroki lightly in the arm as the two pairs approached each other, speaking in exaggerated accusation as she called out to Jirou and Kirishima. “Wait, you guys don’t look like you almost killed each other!” She turned to Todoroki. “Did we do it wrong? Or are they just wimps?” 

She grinned as Jirou punched her in the shoulder as they joined up. “ Ha ha , you’re hilarious. Some of us aren’t insane, thank you. I know when I’m beaten.”

Kirishima‘s expression was as puppy-innocent and excited as ever. “Hey, don’t sell yourself short!” He poked at a hole in his shirt. “That really rattled my insides. It was super manly!” 

Jirou only rolled her eyes as the four of them separated, following Kate to join her in the seats next to Tokoyami. They sat just as Present Mic was announcing Setsuna’s match against Kaminari. Shouji turned away from a conversation between Midoriya and Yaoyorozu in the row ahead of them, slinging his arms over the back of his seat to look back. One hand morphed to a mouth that had a small, secretive smile. “You put on quite the show.”

Warmth bloomed in Kate’s chest as she she suppresed a stupid-faced grin. Apparently her voice had decided to take a quick vacation, because she suddenly found she could only offer up a choked sort of laugh. Shouji didn’t seem perturbed by her awkwardness, though. “I think Bakugou’s still trying to figure out how to upstage you.”

Kate glanced behind her to see Bakugou whispering crossly to Kirishima and Sero. She grinned back at Shouji, recovering a little bit of composure. “He can try.” She found herself giving Shouji a wink, despite the voice screaming what are you doing in her head. 

To her both relief and consternation, Shouji seemed entirely unfazed. “How do you think Tokage’s going to do against Kaminari?”

“Poorly,” Tokoyami spoke up. “It’s a disastrous matchup for her.”

Kate frowned. “I mean, it’s not that bad, right? She can… Actually I don’t really know what she can do.”

The conversation was abruptly interrupted by Present Mic.

“Lizard Tail Splitter faces off against Electrification; it’s 2B's creepy Tokage Setsuna versus 2A’s shocking Kaminari Denki! Let’s see which one comes out on top!”

“You’ll see,” Shouji said before turning to face forward again. His voice didn’t rise above a deadpan as he commented, “wow, she really just flipped Present Mic off, didn’t she.”

Kaminari charged as soon as the match began. Setsuna backpedaled, separating as she went and flying quickly up and away from the dangerous radius of his lightning. He followed her to the edge of the ring, only stopping when he came to the blue line on the ground. He looked to Midnight questioningly and seemed to ask something, but she just pointed to the other side of the ring in response, where an arm and a leg were hovering near to the ground inside the boundary. Apparently that was enough to satisfy Midnight from calling Setsuna out of bounds. Kaminari very visibly rolled his eyes and headed toward the limbs, clearly meaning to force them out too, when another leg came flying foot-first to hit him hard in the back.

A wave of electricity crackled to life around Kaminari as he stumbled forward - retaliating even while he caught himself on his hands - but Setsuna’s leg was already pulled well back out of range. 

“I think I’m starting to see the problem,” Kate said. “She has to get some part of her close to him to attack him, and she has to get back fast enough that he doesn’t catch her in a shockwave.”

“It’s not just that.” Tokoyami was frowning more than usual as he closely watched the two dance back and forth below. “She also has to contend with his Lightning Cloak. He can keep a constant current running through his body without actually discharging it, so anything that touches him gets that electricity looped through it and back into him so he doesn’t run the risk of expending the charge and losing himself in the voltage. The only way she can touch him is with the rubber of her shoes as a barrier.”

The two were in a standoff now, Kaminari standing in the center of the ring with a faint aura of energy humming around him while Setsuna circled him out of range in a cloud of body parts that made sure he couldn’t track all of her at once. A foot shot out behind him and landed a kick to the back of his head, sending him staggering forward once again, but this time he was ready. Before Setsuna had pulled her foot back even a meter there was a bright pulse of light and the appendage fell to the ground. The rest of the cloud twisted and jerked erratically for a second; it was clear that Setsuna felt the shock all too well, even if it didn’t travel through the rest of her.

Kaminari planted one foot on the leg he’d brought down, rubbing the back of his head with a look of vague frustration. he said something that didn’t reach the microphones, and the camera zoomed in on Setsuna answering back. It didn’t take any great skill in lip reading to see that her answer basically boiled down to “ screw you ,” despite her mouth being on a completely different side of the arena from the rest of her face. The two eyed each other warily, each regaining their bearings for a moment. Setsuna took the opportunity to yank her foot out from under Kaminari’s, once she regained the use of it, and he let it go grudgingly. They circled, both looking uncertain how to move forward.

Present Mic quickly grew tired of the stalemate. “Seems like we’re sitting at an impasse here, folks! Place your bets on who’s going to break first!”

“ Metaphorically, of course ,” the principal’s voice quickly cut in over Present Mic’s. “ Gambling is strictly forbidden on school property .”

Distracted by the commentary, Kaminari never saw the body parts coming together behind him. Arms fitted together onto the upper half of Setsuna’s headless torso, flesh and cloth knitting back together as though they’d always been whole. Kaminari yelped as her arm snaked around his throat, the other pushing against the back of his head in a sleeper hold. Lightning arced across both of them, and Setsuna’s arms clenched even harder as the electricity locked her muscles tight. Her uniform was smoking as Kaminari ramped up the voltage, trying desperately to dislodge her even as he fell to his knees, one hand holding them both up off the ground as the other scrabbled at the arm around his throat.

Many of the audience were on their feet now, trying to see the action over their fellow spectators. Most of the class were the same, several of the front row straining forward in their seats as those behind them leaned forward, the tension palpable as everyone waited to see which of the two fighters - both clearly desperate - would triumph.

Setsuna tumbled off of Kaminari as he fell limp on the ground, her torso and arms no longer hovering but laying splayed out on her back, faint wisps of smoke drifting off of her blackened uniform. The rest of her slowly reattached, one piece at a time until she was whole and sitting up. Midnight’s whip cracked as Kaminari began to stir. “Kaminari Denki is defeated, Tokage Sestsuna wins!” The crowd erupted in shouts and cheers; some supportive of Kaminari, others celebratory for Setsuna, and Bakugou’s angry voice from the top row of seats in their box mixed in for good measure. The two contestants finally made it back to their feet, Setsuna waving at the crowd with an exultant but strained smile, masking what must have been considerable pain, while Kaminari looked rueful but accepting of the loss. The two of them were quickly bundled off by the medi-bots, animatedly chatting with each other from where they sat on their respective stretchers. 

Before the next match began, Kate slipped out of the box to go see how Setsuna was faring. Upon entering the stairwell, however, she was greeted to the sight of Bakugou aggressively shoving Kaminari up against the wall, the pair locked in a deep kiss. They broke apart quickly at the sound of her footsteps, but neither of them looked at her, instead looking each other in the eyes for a few seconds before Bakugou growled, “That should’ve gone to you, you’re the one that could fucking stand afterward,” and pulled away to head back toward the viewing box. He shoved past Kate with a muttered “fuck off,” not meeting her eyes.

Kate and Kaminari stared at each other for a minute in surprised silence, Kaminari blushing up to his ears and looking slightly out of breath. “Uh…Sorry,” he finally managed to get out.

Kate tried to hold back a laugh that ended up coming out as more of a snort. She walked past him, patting him on the shoulder consolatorily on the way by. “Don’t worry about it. Good fight.”

Kaminari murmured an embarrassed thanks as they parted ways, and Kate made her way to Recovery Girl’s infirmary. As she rounded the final corner, she saw Honenuki leaning against the wall outside the door. He gave her a small wave while she walked up, and hooked a thumb at the door. “May want to wait a minute. Recovery Girl’s pissed.” Kate could hear the old woman’s angry voice from there, interspersed occasionally with Setsuna’s protests. The two of them waited awkwardly for a while until the angry lecture began to wind down. After about thirty seconds of silence, Honenuki ventured to knock on the door.

“Might as well come in,” came the irritated response. The two of them peaked in to find Setsuna sitting on the side of a cot in a fresh tank top, swinging her legs like she hadn’t just been electrocuted several times over. 

“Hey, guys!”  Her normally vibrant and energetic voice hitched as she spoke, choking on some nameless emotion. The smile she tried to beam their way faltered as Honenuki closed the door behind them, dropping into a something that might have been an attempt at a pout, although she clearly didn’t have the energy for even that. Green and yellow bruises covered her arms and chest, interspersed with frozen streaks of deeper purple lightning imprinted into her skin. 

Kate moved to her side. “Hey, that was a pretty hardcore fight, are you okay?” She paused before gesturing awkwardly to Setsuna’s discolored skin. “I mean, besides, you know. It’s probably not as bad as it looks, yeah?”

Recovery Girl sighed from her desk, sounding exhausted. “Oh it is every bit as bad as it looks.” Setsuna slumped a little bit, looking forlorn. “There’s no way I can let her continue in the tournament with large-scale internal electrical burns like that.” She held up a finger to preemptively shush Setsuna as she opened her mouth to protest. “And don’t even think about trying to regenerate the damage. Your heart, lungs, and liver are all seriously damaged; if you separate even just your hands right now you’ll likely destabilize one or several body systems and cascade into serious organ failure. Your body can handle the strain of your quirk when it’s healthy, but not with this kind of system shock.”

“Yeah, okay, I get it,” Setsuna whined. “Please no more lectures.” She flopped sideways, forcing Kate to catch her lest she fall all the way off the bed. “I wannaaa fiiiight thoooough.”

“Absolutely not. Now lie down, with how much I’ve healed you, you should be unconscious already.”

Setsuna slumped over even more and clung to Kate, nearly dragging her down onto the cot. “Fiiiine. Somebody has to cuddle me, though.”

“Your friends have a tournament to attend; let Miss DeLaine-Hotz go, please.”

Kate gently extricated herself from Setsuna’s grip, laying the other girl down on the infirmary bed as the other girl whined. “We’ll come see you afterward, kay?”

“ You better ,” Setsuna intoned in a slightly delirious sing-song. “I’m gonna need someone to comfort me tonight.” She managed to sound both lascivious and halfway unconscious. Kate and Honenuki locked eyes with matching conflicted expressions while Recovery Girl just sighed. The two quickly made their exit followed by Setsuna’s punch-drunk giggling.

Once they were back in the hall, Honenuki rubbed his face, a faint blush in his hollow cheeks matching Kate’s own. “That girl’s going to be the death of me.”

“Yeah, I think I know what you mean,” Kate choked out.

By the time Kate returned to her seat, the stadium was alight with clashing chants of “ Frop-py, Frop-py ” and “ Pin-ky, Pin-ky .” Despite the uproar, it seemed that the fight was already over, as Ashido was offering a hand up to Asui where she sat at the edge of the arena. Both girls were smiling, and they each waved to the crowd, Ashido throwing up a peace sign for good measure. 

Tokoyami glanced at Kate as she slid into the seat next to him. “How is she?”

“Too hurt to keep going. And a ridiculous flirt.”

He sighed. “Well, the flirtation at least was expected, but it’s a shame she won’t get to continue. This match was rather good, Tsuyu was very creative in avoiding Ashido’s acid, but she was forced out of bounds when she ran out of firm ground.”

Kate frowned thoughtfully. “Huh. How strong is Mina’s acid? Like, if I fight her am I gonna lose all my skin or something?

“I believe the phrase she used was: stings like a bitch but it won’t kill you. ” 

“Lovely, sounds just so fun. Shouji’s next, right?”

Tokoyami gave her a sidelong glance. “Yes, him and Iida. Why?”

Kate didn’t look him in the eye, shuffling in her seat self-consciously. “Just making sure I remembered it right.” 

It was a long moment before Tokoyami replied. “Ah.”

 “Make sure you’re paying attention folks, cause our next entrant hits like a runaway truck, and just as fast! He’s the bearer of the Ingenium legacy, Iida Tenya!”

Iida walked stiffly to the arena and bowed to Midnight, then again to the cheering crowd.

“Do you need a hand? Because this young man’s got you covered and then some! It’s the armed and dangerous Shouji Mezou!”

Kate smacked herself in the forehead, accompanied by groans from the rest of the class at the well-worn pun. Their attention was quickly diverted, however, as Shouji entered the stadium. As he walked, he peeled off his uniform overshirt and let it drop to the ground, to racy shouts and whistling from some of the hero course section. He ignored them all, stretching his shoulders in a warm-up that pulled his black undershirt tight across his back, displaying wicked musculature across all three sets of shoulders.

“Holy shit,” Kate murmured. She reached over to push Tokoyami’s shoulder, her eyes never leaving Shouji’s toned form. “Dude. ‘Yami. What am I gonna do, man?”

Tokoyami spared her a glance out of the side of one eye, his brow raised in what could be confusion, surprise, annoyance, or possibly a combination of the three. After a long moment, he spoke. “About?”

“ That , man! It isn’t fair.”

Tokoyami looked from her to the stage, where Shouji and Iida were facing each other. “I don’t think it’s a particularly uneven matchup. They both have strong physical quirks, and they’re both skilled close range fighters. The difference lies in fighting style, mostly. And dark intent.”

Kate turned to glare at him before gesturing with both hands toward where Iida was circling Shouji now, the two of them both poised to strike at any moment. “You know that’s not what I mean,” she hissed. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t unsee those muscles .”

Tokoyami gave the most long-suffering sigh Kate had ever heard. “I don’t know what it is you want me to do. But if it ensures you never call me that name again, I will do it.” Kate was distracted from her embarrassment by the sound of impact and gasps from the audience. She looked to find Iida coming out of a head over heels tumble, grounding himself on one knee and a hand braced against the ground. With fire streaming behind his legs he rushed back into the fight. Shouji spun away from the first kick that was aimed at his knee, rotating backward on one heel to avoid the hit and staying faced toward Iida as he passed. Another burst of fire, and Shouji staggered under a kick that sent small shockwaves through the puddles that collected on the stage. Iida pulled back, narrowly avoiding hands that grasped for his tracksuit, and the two contestants eyed each other across the ring. 

There was a tense moment, the arena perfectly still but for the spattering raindrops. Then the two fighters moved again. They charged each other, Iida’s legs lighting up blue in his trademark Recipro Burst; except that wasn’t quite it. The blue fire from his engines flickered and sputtered, although he was undeniably moving at typical Recipro Burst speeds. It wouldn’t be until later, with slow motion replays thoroughly examined by fans and armchair analysts on the internet, that the difference would be revealed. Alternating bursts came from each leg with every step he took, providing increased precision over his typical all-out burst. Just as he was about to be run down under Shouji’s charge, one leg lit up with brilliant, blinding blue, and Iida leapt, leaning sideways so he was sent whirling into the air. Up he spun, and Shouji raised arms to protect his face from the incoming attack, but a second stage of fire burst from Iida’s other leg, throwing him up further and into a faster spin over top of Shouji’s head. A final flash of fire propelled a rocket-powered kick to the back of Shouji’s head before he could hope to react.

Once Iida landed and slowed to a stop, there was stillness again. Shouji stood just where he had when the blow had landed, his arms slowly lowering from where they had shielded his face. Without turning, the silver haired boy rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck to one side then the other in an intimidating display. His arms hung loose at his sides, and it would be easy to miss where they no longer ended in hands, but instead flat duplication nodes. In a rush, his arms lengthened and expanded: six arms split into twelve, split into twenty four, split into forty eight, split into more. Something quite literally out of nightmares now faced Iida across the ring. Easily a hundred tentacles - tipped mostly with hands but for a few ears, eyes, and mouths - swayed like some horrible nightmare tree in a nonexistent wind, obscuring any view of Shouji’s actual body. With a sound disturbingly like the creaking of branches, the thicket surged forward. Hemmed in from either side before he could escape, Iida was quickly buried under the onrush.

It was a long second before Midnight announced that Iida had surrendered, since she was surprisingly leery of approaching the swaying, shuddering coils of muscle.

Kate leaned back in her chair. “Hooooly shit…”

Jirou eyed her from the next seat over. “You’ve gotta chill, dude.”

Chapter Text

“Shouji, Iida, you were both really great!”

“Yeah, that was super cool!”

The two boys reentered the box to congratulations from the entire class. Even Todoroki mustered a “good job” for Iida when he sat down, hair mussed and looking vaguely traumatized. As Shouji took his seat in front of Kate, she mustered her nerve, leaning forward and putting her hand on his shoulder. 

Compliment. compliment. Simple. Super easy. You got this. Ask him out, maybe. No! Stop it! Just compliment

Shouji turned to look at her, his dark eyes crinkling with what must be a smile under his mask, and whatever words she had been about to say immediately fled her mind. Again. 

Fuck

They stared at each other for a second before Shouji finally broke the silence. “Is something wrong?”

Kate opened her mouth and a very eloquent “uuuhh,” rolled out. “N-no, I just, uh…” She drew her hand back. “Good match. That was - “ she gestured vaguely in the air.

“A mad garden, swaying an unearthly wind,” supplied Tokoyami beside her. They both looked at him, and his feathers began to fluff up in embarrassment. “What? You were floundering.”

“This one’s another fight that you might miss if you blink -” Before Kate could recover and press forward with her - admittedly crumbling - plan, Present Mic drowned out any possibility for conversation “- but in this young lady’s case you might miss it anyway! Hagakure Toru of 2A! And her opponent is a bit of a dark horse herself, although this isn’t the first time we’ve seen her here! It’s Hatsume Mei of the Support Course!”

Shouji quickly turned back around and leaned forward, suddenly very intent on the match. Kate let her hand drop, defeated. Beside her, Tokoyami let out a long-suffering sigh and muttered under his breath. “Later, when there are fewer distractions.”

“Totally,” Kate replied glumly.

Yeah, right

The sound and air currents of a shockwave came from the stage, startling Kate out of her moping. The fight had already begun. Below, a head of pink hair stood in the ring, a trench carved into the concrete fanning out in front of her. An empty - actually empty - set of clothes lay on the ground where Hagakure had abandoned them. Kate leaned forward in confusion. “What the hell? I thought her quirk was, like, telescope vision.”

“Look closer.” She glanced over at Tokoyami, confused by the instruction, but she did as he said. Once she was paying attention, it was hard to miss the gauntlet on Hatsume’s left hand. A wicked, sharp-edged thing of black metal, lit from inside by an eerie green light.

“Hey!” Mina, indignant in the top row. “That’s Midori’s!”

“She did design them, after all.” The mollifying voice of Sero next to her.

There was a flash of light down in the arena that had Midnight covering her eyes in pain, although Hatsume remained unfazed other than to fiddle with something on the side of her goggles. “Hagakure’s still up,” murmured Jirou.

Hatsume raised her gloved hand, fingers cocked in a position that had several people around Kate tensing up and glancing toward Midoriya, who was absorbed entirely in watching the match. Poised with her thumb holding back her green-pulsating middle finger, Hatsume spun with a shout and let fly, flicking another trench into the cement. Impossible to say for certain, but there might have been a second cry, swallowed up in the blast. Hatsume lowered her hand, turning to Midnight expectantly. It soon became clear that Hagakure had either surrendered, or been blown out of bounds, as her pile of discarded clothes soon began to be put back on while Midnight announced Hatsume as the winner.

“That thing’s a goddamn menace,” somebody muttered from somewhere near the back.

“At least she didn’t bring a gun .”

“Get ready for a treat, my beloved listeners! All you hero stans out there better count yourselves lucky, because you’re about to witness a grudge match between two fated rivals! The first is a minor celebrity in his own right and no stranger to the 1st place spot, Bakugou Kastuki! The other, well, frankly this kid scares me sometimes! It’s the mysterious hijacker of the commencement address, Midoriya Izuku!”

As Bakugou and Midoriya eyed each other from across the ring, Kate leaned over to Tokoyami again. “Okay, so who wins this one?”

Tokoyami hummed thoughtfully for a minute, a rough warble in his throat. “Mic-sensei called Midoriya ‘Earthshaker’ earlier. If Midoriya is the Earthshaker, Bakugou is the Thunderhead. The Breaking Storm. They’re more or less evenly matched, although the flat terrain here gives Bakugou a mobility advantage. Midoriya can’t shift his direction of travel when airborne, without something to push off of.” His words were punctuated by a thunderous explosion as Midnight started the match. They looked down to see the smoke clearing around Midoriya. He stood behind a huge slab of concrete that he’d ripped from the ground and used to shield himself from Bakugou’s initial attack. Bakugou’s cursing was audible even from the stands as he flew forward. Midoriya hooked a sparking hand under the slab and sent it flipping forward, nearly swatting Bakugou out of the air, following close behind it and landing a strong kick to Bakugou’s side as he was forced to dodge the massive projectile. Bakugou landed a hit of his own even as he was flung away by the kick, and the both of them tumbled to the ground, having switched their original positions.

They charged again without a pause, clashing in the center with a force that momentarily cleared the stage of puddles in a wide ring around them. Even the falling raindrops were pushed away, a clear sphere showing around the two boys where there was no rain at all. They disengaged, circling a moment before slamming together again, flurries of attacks flowing back and forth as the combatants twisted around each other. Midoriya took an explosion to his shoulder that would have put most people down, some tiny mistake in the complex dance of combat - indiscernible from the stands - that had left him open for an instant. Landing by the chunk of concrete from before, he grabbed it and spun, launching it like a frisbee toward Bakugou. Bakugou’s eyes grew wide for just a moment before his scowl returned in full force. Circling his fingers against one palm, he released a focused explosion that blasted the projectile to rubble, the pieces lodging in the walls of the arena in a fan behind him, a few splinters of cement leaving slices on his arms and face. The two glared at each other, chests heaving.

Midoriya straightened up, wiping the back of his arm across a split lip. With a stomp, he shattered the ground beneath his feet, snatching a sharp, oblong shard of cement that was tossed into the air. He flipped the makeshift dagger in his hand, eyeing Bakugou carefully. No patience for caution, Bakugou launched into the air toward his opponent. With a sharp grin, Midoriya dashed forward to meet him. Just as they were about to clash, Midoriya threw the shard with a flick of green lightning. Too close to dodge, Bakugou grit his teeth as the concrete pierced his thigh. Midoriya neary got an explosion in his face for his trouble, giving Bakugou enough space to land and examine his wound.

The screens zoomed close on Bakugou’s face, his eyes flickering back and forth as if calculating unseen variables. He snarled as Midoriya circled him with light steps, stalking Bakugou like a cornered and injured animal. With a shout, he threw an explosion toward Midoriya; more light and smoke than force and fire, and launched himself into the air. Flinching back from the blast, Midoriya tracked his opponent with sharp eyes, coiled to spring at any moment. Bakugou rose higher and higher, flinging himself to a burning spiral. With a roar, he plummeted back down, pushing himself faster with each explosion.

Midoriya leapt up to meet him, clearly expecting a violent clash midair. What he got was a high-velocity kick to the ribs as Bakugou flipped himself sideways in an aerial maneuver that didn’t look like it should even be possible. The cameras caught the exact moment of conclusion in perfect detail; tracking the look of realization on Midoriya’s face that switched quickly to calculation and then acceptance as he shot towards the arena wall. Thrown up parallel on the screens was Bakugou’s fierce, exultant snarl as he plummeted toward the ground, sputtering small explosions to slow his fall. 

Midoriya landed in a cloud of dust as he crashed into the arena wall. In contrast, Bakugou sputtered to a hovering stop before dropping a couple inches to the ground, cursing as his leg gave out under him. Midoriya crawled out of his small crater and dusted himself off, looking largely unbothered, and headed toward the center of the ring where Bakugou was waiting. He stopped nose to nose with the other boy, just staring for a moment before saying something quietly. Bakugou retorted, and the two quickly devolved into an argument that had even Midnight looking uncomfortable. Seemingly coming to the same conclusion, they both spun around at the same time and stomped away from each other. Midoriya looked back a third of the way to the exit, watching Bakugou limp away with his head held high for a second before making his own way out.

“What an absolutely electric match, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! Our next one is a blast from the past, a real throwback to last year’s finals! The shining light of Creation set against the tenebrous twilight of Dark Shadow, It’s Yaoyorozu Momo and Tokoyami Fumikage!”

Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu started their match with a formal bow to each other. When they rose, they each turned and walked a dozen long paces away. Turning to face his appointment, Tokoyami sat down in a meditative pose on the wet concrete. Under the clouded sky and rain, under the glaring lights of the stadium, darkness rose around his shoulders, curling around him as he closed his eyes and simply breathed . Dark Shadow rose, larger than it had any right to be under the lights. The soul shadow threw its head back and screeched in challenge, leaving the audience clapping hands over their ears at the deafening shriek.

While Tokoyami called forth Dark Shadow, Yaoyorozu was making her own preparations. A long, metal quarterstaff - slightly thicker at each end - grew from one hand, which she began to spin idly, giving off an air of casual confidence. With a flick, she sparked the tips off the concrete as it spun, and from each a tiny but brilliant white flame jetted out.

“Magnesium flares,” Jirou said in a hushed tone beside Kate. Her jacks were twitching in agitation, but her voice sounded more awed than anxious. “Smart.”

Dark Shadow swept forward, flying low to the wet ground. Yaoyorozu’s other hand snapped up and a ball of furious light screamed forward to meet the creature. Dark Shadow tipped back in agitation, batting with massive claws at the starburst that flew into its face, its headlong rush brought up so short the beast likely would have stumbled head over tail if it were tethered by gravity and detached from its host. Discarding the empty flare gun, Yaoyorozu tossed something up into the air. Swinging her blazing staff like a baseball bat, she cracked the new creation towards Dark Shadow just as it managed to get the flare out of its face. The shadow’s momentary squawk of alarm was drowned out by the flash grenade’s detonation, close enough to make Tokoyami jerk in discomfort through his bond with the shadow creature.

Dark Shadow recovered, although visibly smaller now, and screeched in outrage. “Cheater!” 

“Focus!” commanded Tokoyami loudly, strain in his voice. Dark Shadow swept forward again, grumbling all the way, to rake a trio of gauges into the concrete where Yaoyorozu had been standing just moments before. 

Lights flashed around the stadium as the battle raged back and forth. In front of Kate, Shouji rubbed his knuckles into his eyes, before leaning a tentacle over and saying something quietly to Shinsou beside him. The purple haired boy winced in sympathy and nodded, and Shouji stood up and headed toward the door. Kate quickly crawled across Jirou to get out of the row and follow, to the other girl’s vocal complaints. She skidded into the hallway to find Shouji leaning against the wall with one hand over his eyes, two arms holding him up against the side of the hallway. 

“Hey.”

Shouji startled at her voice and quickly turned to look. He only made it halfway before it seemed like he was overcome with pain and hand immediately came back to his forehead.

“Woah, dude,” Kate quickly moved to him, reaching up to lay one hand on his shoulder, her other brushing hesitantly over his own. “What’s wrong?”

Shouji groaned, more in exasperation than pain. “I definitely have a concussion.”

“Oh my god why didn’t you go to Recovery Girl?!”

“I thought I was fine-“ Kate cut off his protest with a light smack on one large bicep.

“ Madre de Fuck , man. Even I’m not that bad.” 

There was a beat of silence before Shouji began to shake. There was a flash of panic before Kate realized the absolute bastard was laughing at her. The audacity.

“ Dias I mo thuairimse is breá lion tú, tá tú leathcheann dúr .” Shouji was shaking his head - slowly - with an unreadable expression on his masked face, his shoulders still shaking a little with amusement. “ Cad a dhéanfaidh mé leat ?”

Kate flushed. “I don’t speak Irish you concussed dipshit.” She wrapped a hand around one of his wrists and started to pull him down the hallway, refusing to meet his eyes. “Recovery Girl is going to be so sick of seeing me, and the first rounds aren’t even done.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Shoji murmured as he followed along behind her. “You’ve got a long way to go to catch up to Midoriya. Besides, seems like all the powerhouses are flattening each other in the first heat, everyone’s going to be too exhausted to do much damage by round two.”

“That’s not encouraging.” 

Kate felt him shrug behind her through a little upraised tug of his arm. They walked in silence for a few minutes until they reached the familiar hall outside the infirmary. Shouji slowed to a stop, forcing Kate to do the same if she wanted to maintain her grip on him. It wasn’t like she could actually move him if he didn’t want to be moved, after all. As she turned around to look at him, she found her grip reversed on her; now he was the one holding her wrist. “Now really isn’t the time for this, I should be paying attention to the competition.” His words were slow and thoughtful, like he was musing them out as he spoke them, but they were firm. Decided. “But I can’t get it off my mind. I can’t get you off my mind.” His eyes bore into Kate. She found her breath caught in her chest. “Your fight against Todoroki was… I don’t know. Magnificent. Breathtaking. You were breathtaking.” His hand slid up her wrist to take her own hand in his, and she found herself staring dumbly at the point of connection between the two of them, her mind a few seconds behind on processing what was going on; this was definitely feeling more like a cheesy daydream than reality, now. Just as she was beginning to accept the situation, Shouji’s grip went slack and then abruptly pulled away. “This is weird, I’m sorry,” he mumbled, although his eyes still stared straight into hers when she looked back up at him. “The point is, will you go on a date with me?”

Kate was silent for a moment as her mouth formed a wordless ‘O’ like a fish. “Y-yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Shouji’s eyes narrowed in what might have looked like a glare if she couldn’t see the slight wrinkles above his mask that gave away his smile. “We can work it out after the festival, if that’s alright with you?” Kate nodded dumbly. He squeezed her hands briefly, then dropped them and moved to slip around her - something he did with alarming ease and fluidity, given his size - and headed toward the infirmary door. “You’re up against Kirishima soon, right? You should go get ready.”

Kate watched until the door closed behind him. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.” She made her way back up to the viewing box once again.

What the fuck just happened?

...

Holy shit, I’m going on a date with Shouji

Fuck yes

Kate couldn’t help but let out a little whoop as she made her way into the box, flinching as she drew the attention of several of her classmates. Fortunately they were quickly drawn away again by what was being announced by Principal Nedzu over the speakers.

“- reason to suspect that more than just the selection for commencement speaker has been tampered with by our mysterious hacker.” Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, and Shinsou had their heads buried in what looked like an urgent discussion. “Therefore, to ensure fairness in the ensuing matches -” the rodent’s squeaky voice was practically trembling with manic sadism “- the matchups for the remainder of the tournament will be shuffled and randomly selected, and only announced after the previous match is finished!”

“ Enough,” Midoriya’s whispered hiss reached Kate’s ears as she slid into her seat behind the trio. “This doesn’t change anything, we didn’t actually tamper with the matchups. If anything, this is Nedzu giving his approval by adding an extra layer of challenge.” Shinsou opened his mouth to reply, but his eyes suddenly slid over to latch onto Kate. She stilled from where she had been fidgeting, transfixed. For the briefest second, there was nothing but hostility in his gaze. A paranoid suspicion shot through with frank malevolence. Then he blinked, and it was gone, replaced with a look of sudden consternation. Self-doubt flashed through violet eyes that were normally so keen on projecting an air of cool confidence, so devoted to making anyone they landed on feel naked and picked apart under their discernment. After a half second Shinsou schooled his face into a perfect mask of neutrality to rival Todoroki’s, and leaned in further to continue speaking where Kate couldn’t hear.

She breathed. It had only been an instant, but it felt to Kate like she’d been pinned under that stare, suffocating, for minutes. As Tokoyami slid past the two of them to his seat, looking exhausted, Jirou nudged her with a jack, one eyebrow cocked. “You sure you’re okay? You’re all weird. All jumpy and shit.” 

“Y-yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” What the hell was that “So, I guess I’m not up next then. Or fighting Kirishima.”

Jirou shrugged. “You still might, to be fair. There’s really no telling with Nedzu.”

“WELL NOWWW, EveryBODY! Let’s find out who’s up next in the first match of ROOOOUUNDD TWOOOO!!”

Present Mic was accompanied by a deafening airhorn and pyrotechnics.

“Why wasn’t he using those the whole time?”

The screens lit up with a spinning lottery wheel once again, shuffling through the names of those still in the tournament. It finally slowed to a stop.

“Kirishima Eijiro is up first! Hey, Principal, are you sure you actually changed these?”

The wheel spun again to reveal a second name

“And Hatsume Mei! Will the two combatants please make their way to the field!”

Kate turned to Tokoyami while they waited for the match to start. “Hey, I’m really sorry, I missed the end of your match. Who won?”

Tokoyami shrugged. “It is fine. She defeated me, although I like to think I gave a good showing before I succumbed to the light.”

“Yeah, the part I saw was, like, wild, dude.”

Tokoyami made a scrunched sort of face, and Kate thought for a moment she’s said something wrong, but he dug in his pocket for a second and pulled out his phone. An incoming call showed on the screen, with the - mildly hilarious - name “Foolish Crimson Feathered Angel” printed across the top. Tokoyami’s eye twitched slightly as he answered the call. “Yes?” He sounded like he just knew this conversation was going to be exhausting.

A tinny but very excited sounding voice came over the other end, just short of loud enough for Kate to make out the words. Tokoyami sighed, giving Kate a look that read as an impotent plea for help as the voice carried on. 

After almost a minute he cut the voice off. “I’m sorry, but is there a reason you called me now instead of waiting until later?”

More chatter on the other end.

“I see. Yes, I’m aware you can see me from your seat.” He sighed deeply and glanced at Kate again. “No, she is not my girlfriend.” A pause. “Yes, I’ll pass it along. Is that everything?” A longer pause. “If you’ll have me, yes, I intend to. Thank you. Yes, I’ll call you.” He quickly hung up, and slumped a little in his chair, rubbing just above his beak with one hand. Kate reined in a smile out of sympathy.

“Yeah, my mom’s basically the same. Being able to fly brings a whole new meaning to ‘helicopter parent.’”

“I would rather that had been my mother. She at least speaks at a normal volume over the phone.”

“Oh, sibling?”

He sighed once again. “No, that was, in fact, the Pro Hero Hawks. Although he acts more like an excitable older brother, sometimes.”

“Holy shit, you’ve just got the Number Two Hero on your phone and he calls you like it’s no big deal?”

“Well, I work for him, so it would be even more madness than usual if I didn’t have his number.”

“Seriously?!”

“I interned with him last year. I’ll be returning for the internships next week, and again when work-studies begin for this year. He wanted me to tell you that he plans to extend an invitation to you for the internship week.”

“I… I don’t even know what that means, but that’s awesome! Yes, definitely yes!”

“I will be sure to let him know.”

Hatsume and Kirishima’s match was over frighteningly quickly. As he charged her, she simply tossed a metal canister at his feet. It quickly exploded into fast-expanding pink foam, consuming Kirishima and continuing to grow until it was a pile nearly six feet high and just as wide.

“Behold!” Hatsume’s voice screeched with some distortion over the speakers. “Hatsume Industries’ Special Blend Containment Foam! A modern take on an old classic, my formula is breathable, flame retardant, and insulated; pliable enough to give, but firm enough to prevent leverage. Even this prototype baby is easily a sufficient match for anyone else in this tournament!”

“She’s doing it again,” muttered somebody behind Kate as Hatsume continued to verbally steamroll over both Present Mic and Midnight as they tried to end the match.

Yaoyorozu looked surprisingly put out when she was paired up with Setsuna next and it was announced that she would advance automatically with Setsuna’s withdrawal.

Returned from his visit to Recovery Girl with permission to continue the tournament, Shouji was up next opposite Mina. Kate cheered as loud as anyone, even as it quickly became apparent Shouji was at a disadvantage. Using his regenerative limbs against him, Mina didn’t hesitate to melt any hands that came her way, simultaneously spreading acid across the ground to edge him into a corner and finally out of bounds.

Shouji didn’t seem to be particularly pained by having a dozen arms melted down to the bone one after another; he’d made sure to have several layers of duplication node on any arm that came within range of Mina, and was quick to retract to the next undamaged node and regrow from there every time he came up against her defenses. It was pretty gruesome for something that was being streamed to television, but that’s what the audience was there for, really. It wasn’t for nothing that the UA Sports Festival was constantly compared to Rome’s Colosseum. 

The two looked like they were having a friendly conversation as they left the arena together, Mina gesturing animatedly as Shouji nodded occasionally while he rubbed at a spot on his shirt where a drop of potent acid had splashed and burned him. 

The two returned to the booth, and kate leaned forward to Shouji when he sat down. “Didn’t that hurt?”

He rumbled a small chuckle. “Yes, but not much. The more duplications I make, the less effective and sensitive they are. An ear on a first node -” and he held up an ear to demonstrate “- has hearing about half as good as Jirou.” He nodded to the other girl beside Kate. “Which is still incredibly sensitive, way more than a standard person’s. But an ear on a fourth node would be less sensitive than the normal standard, depending on how many other duplicates I had. I was taking damage at around seven nodes out, so those arms weren’t very strong, and even less sensitive.”

“So, wait, then what you did against Iida, those arms were super weak!”

He shrugged. “They’ve still go the same mass. It took some effort just to swing them, but once they’re moving…” he trailed off with a shrug, leaving the rest to imagination.

“Looks like the last two competitors left are Bakugou and DeLaine-Hotz! This girl’s got some bad luck, huh?

Kate let a mean grin stretch across her face. “Let’s fucking go.” She swung around to see Bakugou had a matching expression. “You ready to get your ass kicked?!” 

He didn’t answer, but his snarl was cruel. Dismissive. They both got up to leave, but Kate stopped when a hand curled around her wrist. She looked down to meet Shouji’s eyes.

“Good luck. You’ve got this.” One of his arms revealed a reassuring smile, which Kate found herself matching with a smile of her own. 

“Yeah, I’ve got this.”

A mouth snaked up to near her ear, speaking so she alone could hear. “Bakugou is smart. He isn’t patient, but he has the skill to make up for it. Be careful.”

Kate reversed his grip on her wrist, the same as he’d done to her earlier, and flashed him a grin and a wink. “I’m not patient either. And I’m faster.” She turned to go, his amused chuckle drifting after her.

She and Bakugou stared each other down across the ring. As soon as Midnight’s fogger fell, Kate’s Quirk threw her into motion. Impossibly, Bakugou was faster. He threw himself to the side with a controlled explosion, just inches from Kate’s outstretched hand as she flew by. His other hand was up and tracking toward her as she skidded to a stop. Eyes widening, she threw her arms up to cover her face as the explosion overtook her.

“DIE!!”

Light.

Fire.

Force.

Nothingness.

Chapter Text

Kate awoke to an ongoing conversation.

“- still hasn’t learned the meaning of restraint . He’s going to seriously hurt someone one of these days and I won’t be around to fix it.”

“Young Bakugou is very… passionate. He’s made a lot of progress over the last year, bar a few, er, relapses. And technically this wasn’t anything out of bounds for the Festival.”

“That’s my whole point. Nedzu has let the Sports Festival become a blood sport, relying on me to reverse any permanent damage. And I can’t always do that, just look at Midoriya.”

“Hm. Admittedly, it was much more focused on actual sports when I was attending.”

Silence stretched for a few minutes. Kate slowly opened her eyes - only then realizing that they’d been closed - as she listened to the conversation nearby. Recovery Girl and All M- Toshinori -sat nearby, eyes focused on the muted screen on the wall. 

Kate slowly rolled onto her back, careful not to draw their attention. She was in one of the infirmary beds, stripped down to her athletic uniform’s shorts and tank top, with bandages wound around her left forearm and wrist. In the bed next to hers, Setsuna was sprawled ungracefully, snoring lightly from under the arm she had flopped over her face.

Her eyes wandered to the screen, which showed what was apparently the end of the final match of the tournament. Three forms lay crumpled on the ground; Mina and Bakugou lay on the left side of the ring, both laying tensed and sporadically twitching as small metal devices that were latched onto them - one on Bakugou's thigh and one on Mina's shoulder - sparked intermittently. Yaoyorozu was shakily getting to her feet from where she’d apparently been thrown out of bounds, the concrete between her and the one remaining contestant torn up into a trench of rubble several feet wide. In the center of the ring, Hatsume proudly stood, surveying her work. The entire right side of the ring between her and Yaoyorozu, besides the torn up trench, was covered in her Containment Foam, chunks torn out of it here and there.

“Seriously, Hatsume ?” The two adults turned to look at her upon hearing Kate’s outburst. “I must have brain damage, cause there’s no way she took out those three.” Kate struggled against the blankets until she was sitting up. 

“I believe that’s part of Young Midoriya’s point, my dear,” Toshinori said. “He hasn’t finished informing us of our collective blindness, just yet.” He couldn't quite hide his proud smile, and something very much like what Kate imagined a 'twinkle in the eye' would look like.

Kate frowned. “Okayyy, so what’s the point, then? ‘Cause I don’t get it.”

“You’ll have to decide that for yourself, Kate. It would go against everything Izuku is trying to accomplish if I went around telling people what to think.”

Recovery Girl levered herself out of her chair and walked over to where Kate had slung her legs over the side of her bed. There was a curious frown on her face. “As for brain damage, you had a concussion, but you should be right as rain now. Bakugou’s normal explosions aren’t large enough to create a concussive wave, fortunately, so primary blast injuries aren’t a concern. I checked for them anyway, of course, but you’re fine. I didn’t heal the burns on your arm fully to conserve your energy, so you’ll have to come see me again tomorrow. Regardless, I want you to come to me the moment you feel something isn't right. If you get severe headaches, nausea, confusion, memory loss, anything like that."

Kate paused. "I… don't know if I'd be able to tell the difference? I already have most of that."

A loaded pause.

"Is that bad?"

"YES that's bad! I was supposed to be informed of previous injuries when you transferred," Recovery Girl glowered.

"I don't have any previous injuries…"

" Clearly you've had a traumatic brain injury at some point in the past. Isn't your mother a doctor?"

Kate’s eyes tightened into a glare. "Yeah, and she's fucking good at it. I never mentioned my headaches, I thought… whatever." She crossed her arms. "Does it matter?"

Kate jumped as a pair of arms and a head draped over her shoulders from behind. “Does what matter? Sorry, I wasn't listening." Kate’s cot creaked as Setsuna climbed up onto it. “On account of trying to sleep and all.” She combed her fingers through Kate’s unbraided hair, forcing her to repress a shiver. Recovery Girl gave a long-suffering sigh and turned back to watch the screen.

Kate let herself lean back against Setsuna, taking some comfort from the contact. “Sorry. Guessing you didn’t see my match?” Setsuna gave a confirming hum, her body thrumming against Kate’s shoulder. “Good. I looked like a fucking idiot. Do you know how much shit I talked to him? And I lost in less than a second.” She turned her head to find Setsuna’s green eyes just centimeters from her own.

“Dude.” Setsuna’s breath was hot between them, tickling against Kate’s cheek. “You should have seen me the first time I took him on. I had it all set. I knew the field, I knew the pieces; I couldn’t lose. And he still walked all over us.” She wrapped her arms tighter around Kate, bringing her legs up so that she knelt behind her. “There’s no shame in losing to Bakugou. There’s no shame in losing to any of us. We’re all on the same field.”

Kate moved her eyes away, unable to meet Setsuna’s gaze. “Doesn’t fucking feel like it.”

Setsuna slithered around until she was practically sitting in Kate’s lap and pressed their foreheads together, bringing Kate’s eyes back to her own. They both had to suppress a giggle as they went cross-eyed at each other from the closeness. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be the best. No one thinks you’re worth less because you lost.”

Kate felt the corners of her eyes burning as tears began to form. "That- I-" She screwed her eyes shut, wishing desperately for the tears to not start falling. Setsuna brought a hand up and cupped Kate’s cheek, and Kate's eyes shot open again as she felt soft lips brush against her own for half a second. They stared at each other for a single moment, still only centimeters apart, before Setsuna closed the gap between their mouths again.

Kate’s mind went blank, her awareness shrunk down to the single point of Setsuna’s lips on hers. It wasn’t a chaste kiss, now that Setsuna was sure she wouldn't be rejected; she gasped against Kate like a drowning woman, sending Kate’s heartbeat leaping into her throat and goading her to respond in kind. Their hands came up to tangle in each other’s hair, nearly falling over on the cot as their weight shifted awkwardly. Kate made a muffled yelp when Setsuna’s serrated fangs nipped at her lip, but there was no instinct to pull away. Instead, she returned the bite in kind, pulling back slightly with Setsuna’s lower lip held lightly in her teeth before letting it go. The two of them paused, their heavy breaths mingling in the small space between their parted lips, their foreheads touching again. Setsuna’s pupils were blown wide as she stared at Kate while she caught her breath.

They both startled at the impatient clearing of Recovery Girl’s throat from her seat. She wore a distinctly unimpressed face, her arms crossed as she stared them down. “If you’re going to do that, go do it somewhere else. You’re both cleared to leave as long as you rest . And you , Kate, are going to come see me tomorrow and we’re going to have a good long talk .” She gave them both a pointed look before swiveling her chair back to the screen where the awards ceremony was waiting to begin. Kate noticed Toshinori was very pointedly keeping his eyes on the screen, stoically ignoring what was going on in the room with an upraised hand to block them out of peripheral vision. It was sort of sweet, but mostly just funny.

Setsuna took Kate’s had and squeezed it before slipping back to the ground and walking toward the door after scooping up her things from next to her own cot. She walked with an exaggerated sway to her hips, glancing back as she reached the door. With a wink and a scandalous gesture with her tongue, she slipped out.

“Uuuhh….” Kate swivelled to look to someone for help. Toshinori had a similar deer-in-the-headlights expression, although at least now he was looking at her. “What do I do?” Her voice came out half a squeak. 

Toshinori blinked. “Uh… Go after her, I suppose? I don’t, uhm, have much experience-”

“I have a date later this week! And it’s not with her!” She was all-the-way squeaking, now.

Toshinori blanched. There was a look of fear on his face that was hilariously at odds with who he was, if Kate had been in a position to appreciate it. “Uhhhh…”

“ Out ," Recovery Girl asserted once again. "I do not deal with teenage drama in my clinic! Go talk to Midnight if you want that kind of help, you won’t get it here.”

Kate quickly found herself bundled out of the infirmary, clutching her things with the door slammed behind her. Leaning back against the door, she let her head tap softly against the painted metal. Her thoughts were confused. It was hard to focus on what to do next when the memory of Setsuna’s lips on hers kept intruding.

What am I supposed to do, here?

Is Shouji gonna be mad? Is Setsuna? 

Full of unresolved questions, she pushed off of the door. Move forward, always move forward. She wandered through the hallways for a few minutes, absorbed in her thoughts, until she nearly walked headlong into a crowd of students coming around a corner. A hand on her shoulder pulled her back and sideways just before she ran straight into Sato. Pulled off balance and jarred out of her reverie, Kate came face to face with Shinsou, his hand still on her shoulder. He moved them both out of the way of the moving crowd, back into the hallway where she’d just come from. He looked at her closely, eyes measuring her expression. “You look like shit.”

Kate tucked a strand of her unbraided hair behind one ear self-consciously. “Really?”

He pursed his lips, letting his glance wander over the moving group of students still passing by before it landed back on her with a frown. “Normally I’d expect you to tell me to go fuck myself after saying that. Then again,” his lips twisted into their familiar smirk. “You did get kind of smeared by Blasty-McSplode earlier. Guess I can forgive you for being off your game.” 

She rolled her eyes. "Fuck off ." She paused. "Have- have you seen Shouji around?"

"He was out there with the rest of us during the awards ceremony, not sure after that. Wasn't paying attention," Shinsou said. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You two got a thing or something?" The mocking smirk was wider than ever, now.

" Shut up ," Kate hissed at him. "I'd tell you if you weren't such an absolute bastard."

He shrugged, all cool nonchalance. He opened his mouth for some undoubtedly stupid and smug reply when something behind her caught his eye. He looked back to Kate and nodded his head forward to indicate whatever it was over her shoulder. Glancing behind, she caught the back of Shouji's tall frame amongst the crowd, Yaoyorozu's ponytail just visible beside him.

"Right, uhm," she hesitated. "I'll talk to him later."

"Maybe after you've grown that eyebrow back?"

Kate's hands went immediately to her brows. "What?! Are you fucking kidding me?" A full half of her left eyebrow was just gone.

"If you didn't know about that , then maybe you should find a mirror," Shinsou drawled. It was less mocking, even with that friendly edge, than she might have expected. Almost sympathetic. His dead stare didn't give anything away, though. 

Alarmed, she ran a hand through her hair on the left side of her head, finding a fair chunk of it reduced to baby-smooth skin around her temple and ear. A little of her longer hair was gone, but it was mostly limited to what had already been shaved short anyway. Small mercy. "God dammit .” She dropped her hand. “Is there a scar there?”

Shinsou snorted in response. “Nah, it’s just kind of pink. Looks pretty dumb though.”

 Kate let a long groan of frustration escape her throat. With so many stresses, so many other things to worry about, it felt stupid to be upset over something so inconsequential, but she couldn’t help it. “I’m going back to bed. I can’t deal with anything else today.”

“You’re tellin’ me,” Shinsou said. He looked even more tired than usual, now that Kate took a second to pay attention. He patted her shoulder as he maneuvered around her to rejoin the flow of traffic, and she followed him into the crowd. 

The walk out of the stadium and back to the dorms was made in a comfortable silence. Many other students were rushing to get changed and enjoy the free time, so the number of people walking at a normal pace was fairly small by the time they actually reached the doors. Taking a straight path to her room, Kate fell face first onto her mattress, letting it muffle an extended groan. It felt like it had been a very long day, despite only being three o'clock. The rain was picking up, tapping insistently at the window. It was like it had waited for the festival to be completed for the day before fully letting loose. Maybe the school had someone with a weather quirk on call for the occasion; UA’s Sports Festival was big enough that Japan could probably justify the limited use of one if another country raised an objection. Quirks that controlled the weather were heavily regulated on an international level, due to how even small shifts in weather patterns could have far reaching and unforeseeable effects elsewhere on the globe, but important enough occasions could have the restrictions loosened.

Kate’s phone buzzed where it had fallen on the floor. Groaning again, she wiggled around until her head and shoulders were hanging over the edge of the bed and flipped it over. The screen showed a waiting video call from her mother. She picked it up and rolled over, letting it project a miniature hologram into the air above her.

“Hey, mom.”

“Sweety!” Angela Hotz was sitting at the dinner table, her blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail. The black turtleneck and reading glasses perched on her nose gave her a vaguely old-fashioned bearing, contrasting with the fact that she looked like she couldn’t possibly be older than thirty. Beside her sat a younger twenty-something Mexican woman with warm, joyful eyes and adorable pixie cut hair parted around a black unicorn’s horn on her forehead, who waved energetically at the projection. “Your Aunt Arabella came to watch your festival with me, isn’t she the sweetest?”

Kate cracked into a smile. “Tia!” Then she frowned. “I guess you guys saw that, huh?” 

“Saw you beat the best student in your class? You bet we did!” Arabella leaned forward. “Your mom said that Todoroki kid is the son of the top hero over there!”

“Yeah well, I wouldn’t say he’s the best in the class. He just got a high score at the end of last year."

Arabella put on a mock frown, turning to Kate’s mother. “I don’t know, that sounds like that would make him the top student in the class, right Angela?”

Her mother’s lips smoothed into a soft smile, playing along. “Yes, Arabella, that does sound right.”

Kate groaned, letting her head fall backward. “Ugh, guys.” She drew out the last letters of the word into a frustrated whine. “I lost . To the guy that didn’t even win.” 

“And you looked wonderful doing it.”

“You’re the worst, Tia.”

“I’m the best and you know it.”

“Ugh, yeah, fine.”

The conversation turned from the Sports Festival to other things: news at home, extended family, etc. Eventually, Kate remembered the paradigm shift that had been thrust upon her that she'd wanted to talk to her mother about.

“Mom!” She pointed an accusing finger at the completely unfazed projection.

“Yes, dear?” Angela took a calm sip of her drink.

“Why didn’t you tell me about, you know, being casual buddies with All Might ?!"

Angela Hotz frowned in confusion. “I… thought you knew?”

“No!”

“But- You were always such a fan of him, I thought you remembered.”

“He’s All Might , of course I was a fan!”

Arabella was glancing back and forth between the two of them, her pearlescent black horn swinging back and forth in agitation.

“But, after his last fight, you were so upset; I thought you just wanted space, and then we’d talk about it later, but then your father… It was just never a good time.” She trailed off. 

“ Jesus, ” Kate murmured.

“Language, young lady.” Her mother’s rebuke didn’t have much energy to it. “Well. This is a bit embarrassing."

"No kidding." There was a long, awkward silence, then, “wait.”

“What is it?”

“All Might, I mean Toshinori, said you guys started your careers at the same time. How..?”

“Wait.” Arabella put her mug down to gesture with her hands. “I never heard that . That doesn’t make any sense.” She frowned at herself. “All Might’s been around for forty years.” She gave Angella a curious look, taking in the youthful appearance she’d never given much thought to before.

Kate’s mother gave a long sigh, removing her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose. “Yes, I’m aware I look young for my age.”

“No, Angela,” Arabella said thoughtfully. “If you’re as old as All Might, then you don’t just look young. You look practically immortal.” Her face said that she was starting to draw conclusions, her countenance slowly closing off from the other woman as she wondered what details she didn’t know.

“I can promise you, Arabella, I am nothing resembling immortal.”

“No, mom,” Kate cut in, now vaguely suspicious. “You’re hiding something. I never thought about it before, but I have absolutely no idea about, like, anything about your life before you had me.”

Angela raised one perfect eyebrow. "I find it interesting that the two of you jump immediately to accusing me of some sort of… something, rather than the more logical assumption that Toshinori simply misspoke, or was telling a fib." The two deadpan looks she received in response to that could have withered grass, though they had little effect on her .

"Mom. It's All Might . You're saying All Might would lie to me?! That's a terrible cover story." 

Her mother snorted, rather mirthlessly. "He's hardly the paragon of virtue you think he is. I've seen him lie through his teeth to save his own butt a hundred times." 

"Not for something like this though!"

"You don't know that," Angela said primly.

"Mom, seriously. What aren't you telling me?"

There was a loaded silence as Angela took another long drink. "I don't have to tell you."

"Mom!"

"I'm serious, Kate. It's my business, not anyone else's. Not even yours or Toshinori's."

"Did Dad know?" The force behind the accusation surprised even Late when it left her mouth, but she didn't back down.

" Of course ," Angela hissed angrily. "We are done talking about this."

"Yeah, I guess we fucking are."

Arabella stretched her hands out, resting one on Angela’s arm, the other stretched out to Kate. “Katy, c’mon. Your mom wasn’t -”

“It’s fine,” Kate cut her off, voice icy. “ Ni modo . Whatever.” She took a long breath. "I’ll text you sometime, Arabella. Love you.” She ended the call. 

Her mother didn’t protest.

Kate rolled onto her side, staring at the wall; thinking, brooding. Eventually, she became aware of the layer of dried sweat that pervaded her clothes. Rolling off the bed, she collected a pair of sweatpants and a towel and swung the door open, intending to take the most relaxing hot shower she could manage. Instead, she found Shouji frozen outside her door, hand raised to knock. They stated at each other for a moment in surprise.

"Oh."

"Hey." He dropped his arm to his side. "I was coming to check up on you, you were still asleep when I came to the infirmary before the awards ceremony."

"Oh."

Twice in a row. Eloquent

"Uh, thanks."

His hand lifted toward the left side of her face before he realized what he was doing and pulled it back. "What did Recovery Girl say?" 

Kate shrugged, an awkward, jerky movement, too fast to feel natural. "Apparently I'm in trouble because I didn't tell her about the injury I never had . She's all concerned 'cause I get headaches. Like, damn, everybody gets headaches, calm down."

She looked up at Shouji to find him trying to hide a smile. The look in his eyes made her heart beat just a fraction faster. "W-what?”

“Nothing.” The smile was, if anything, bigger now, judging by the wrinkles around his eyes. “So, about going out, I was thinking the day after tomorrow?”

Kate sighed, rubbing the back of her neck with the hand that wasn’t full of shower supplies. Her eyes slid sideways guiltily. “That sounds great, for real. It’s just…”

“Just what?” His voice was lighthearted, but Kate almost thought she could detect some nervousness in the undercurrent.

“There’s something I should probably tell you first.” She scrunched her eyes shut, forcing herself to admit the truth and not chicken out. Forward, always forward. “Setsuna kissed me,” she mumbled. After a second of silence, she peeked one eye open to see Shouji with an upraised eyebrow, expression hard to read. “And I kissed her back. And I really liked it.” The words were tumbling out now, and she couldn’t figure out how to stop them. “Like, I really, really liked it and I want it to happen again which totally isn’t helping to tell you that, but I also really really want to go out with you too and I really don’t know what I’m doing anymore.” She took a deep breath. “So…” She shrugged helplessly. “I really like you,” she finished despondently. 

Shouji was silent for a moment, before Kate noticed his shoulders shaking lightly. He was laughing at her, again . “So, the day after tomorrow works for you? I thought we could leave around nine or ten.”

“Uh, so…” 

He kept laughing. “As far as Tokage, well, I’m not really surprised. If I thought you were someone who played by the rules I probably wouldn’t be so attracted to you. I think I could share with her, if that’s what made you happy.” His tone was lighter than she might have ever heard it before. Although to be fair, they’d known each other for all of three weeks. “I’ll let you get back to -” he glanced down, “your shower.” A pause, in which a blush began to creep up both their faces. Shouji abruptly spun on his heel and began to walk back toward the elevator. “Goodnight,” he called somewhat gracelessly over his shoulder.

“That,” whispered Kate once he was out of sight, “was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.” As if breaking out of a trance, she managed to head toward the shower. “What is with this fucking roller coaster of a day?”

After her shower, having thoroughly examined her new hairline and found it severely lacking, Kate settled into bed, resentful of the idea of being seen by anyone in her current state. Only belatedly did the horror dawn on her when she realized she’d held a whole conversation with Shouji and made out with Setsuna while looking like Todoroki’s adopted twin. Now utterly mortified, she searched for a way to distract herself from her frayed nerves. Eventually, she settled for searching out a recording of the Sports Festival’s final match. She really did want to know how it could have possibly ended the way it did.

Instead of the official UA website, she found herself on a fansite dedicated exclusively to contemporary UA students. The roster section had various candid photos for each student attached to each profile, a few of them limited only to school pictures where nothing else had been found. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or insulted that her own profile didn’t have any attached. She quickly discarded both in favor of creeping horror when she clicked on her profile and noticed the recent edit notations at the top of the page. Specifically, the ‘several people are typing’ banner had her quickly closing the tab with a shiver and going back to what she’d originally come there to do: the final match. 

The video started with a distinctly inhuman cackle.

Nedzu seemed to take great glee, again, in changing up the matches. He decided that the final would be a four person match between the four semifinalists: Ashido Mina, Bakugou Katsuki, Hatsume Mei, and Yaoyorozu Momo. The arena was reformed from a rectangle into a square, one student in each corner, and shrunk down to half its original size. Midnight and Present Mic took their time hyping up the match, presumably to fill some of the time that would be lost by skipping an entire tier of the tournament. 

The match devolved into chaos the instant it began. By chance or some unspoken agreement, Bakugou and Mina turned on the other two, Bakugou rounding on Hatsume while Mina skated toward Yaoyorozu on a wave of acid. At the same time Bakugou launched into the air, Hatsume spun on him. The comment Kate had overheard after Hatsume’s first match played over again in her head: “At least she didn’t bring a gun .” 

Oh how wrong they’d been. 

Bakugou hurled himself to the side mid-air as he saw the glint of the revolver’s barrel tracking toward him, but Hatsume had either anticipated it or had fast enough eyes to correct her aim. A snap sounded, more like compressed air than explosive ballistics, and Bakugou tumbled out of the air. Before he hit the ground, Hatsume spun and fired twice more, catching Mina on the shoulder. Her third shot stuck in some sort of rubberized shield Yaoyorozu had ready. The two who had been struck lay crumpled on the ground, convulsing as paralyzing electricity coursed through them on a loop. Hatsume dug into her belt with her free hand, producing a Containment Foam canister that she tossed toward Yaoyorozu. It was struck back toward her by a long pole that sprang from the other girl’s hand, forcing Hatsume to dodge toward the center of the arena as her own ordinance came back at her. She fired again as she rolled, Yaoyorozu catching it again on the insulated shield. Dropping the pistol, Hatsume rolled another canister forward as she threw a second overhand at her opponent. There was a glow at Yaoyorozu’s feet, and she rocketed forward just as the two canisters detonated, tumbling as she hit the ground and coming up swinging at Hatsume with some sort of chain weapon. Hatsume stumbled back, intentionally or not letting the weapon pass just over her head. As she hit the ground, she raised her gauntlet, flicking a finger toward Yaoyorozu and letting of a blast of concussive force. A frame-by-frame analysis showed how Yaoyorozu’s entire body was beginning to light up with Creation when the blast hit her, and the comments on the video were full of speculation on what her countermeasure would have been, had she been quick enough to deploy it.

“Jesus Quirked Christ,” Kate muttered as the video ended. She belatedly crossed herself as a halfhearted apology for the blasphemy. “That’s just embarrassing for everybody.” Except Hatsume, of course.

She spent a while scanning through analyses of the other matches, even eventually pulling together the courage to look at her own. One commenter, going by the name of Small Might, left a disturbingly thorough analysis of her quirk and battle tactics. Kate consoled herself by telling herself that the creepiness was outweighed by the usefulness of the commentary. And they got her name right, surprisingly.

SmllMght09: DeLaine-Hotz falls victim to the same mistake that most opponents do when going up against Bakugou Katsuki, as can be seen in last year’s Festival footage (especially here and here): she didn’t necessarily underestimate him, so much as fail to account for the sheer breadth of his abilities. Bakugou’s greatest strength isn’t his powerful quirk or thorough training, although those are both very important, but his innate combat instincts. He’s very good at reading body language, and DeLaine-Hotz clearly is not very experienced in masking her own. That said, her speed almost balanced out that disadvantage, as she very nearly landed that first hit (almosthadhim.gif) which, based on her fight against Todoroki, might have been enough to end the match right there had it connected. Of course, Ground Zero is known for being far more durable than one might think for a combatant without any real defensive abilities, exemplified here during his public takedown of Atlantean Five-Five a few months ago near the end of his brief internship with Miruko, so it’s hard to say. Ultimately, DeLaine-Hotz has good quirk control and enough versatility to be a very dangerous combatant in the future, but I believe she currently lacks the mental dexterity to see more than one or two steps ahead, compared to Bakugou’s ability to see practically the entirety of the battle ahead of time. A weakness she shares, notably, with Todoroki Shouto, which paints their fight in a somewhat different light. They are both powerhouses clearly accustomed to achieving victory in one or two moves. Todoroki may be more aware of this tendency due to his repeated stalemates against The League of Villains’ Dabi (discussion and analysis of those fights in this thread). DeLaine-Hotz’ greatest weakness in this tournament situation is probably a lack of familiarity with her opponents, who in contrast have been training and fighting with and against each other for over a year now. She doesn’t know the “current meta,”” to put it in the words of my friend @LazyEyebag. I’d put her more in the “could be great with a little guidance” category, rather than the “hit their skill ceiling” camp, but it’s hard to say whether her temperament (which seems like it might be dangerously close to Bakugou’s own) will hold her back from self-improvement. 

Reluctantly, and maybe prompted a little bit out of spite, Kate saved a screenshot of the short essay to take notes of ways to improve later. 

Too much like Bakugou. Fuck you, you little internet creepo, I’m not that big of a dick

A creepo they may have been, but she couldn’t deny that they’d given her a good place to start when training began again. It left her perversely satisfied, thinking about how she’d prove them wrong. Maybe if this intern thing with Hawks worked out, she’d be doing that sooner than later.

Musutafu, Japan, the next day. 9:21 am

In a dimly lit, windowless room, a brown skinned woman sits at one of several plastic folding tables scattered around. She wears a well fitted jacket against the slight chill, her chin resting on her clasped hands while she stares at the screen of the laptop in front of her. It displays the website of a news outlet known for its inflammatory and often less than scrupulous reporting. There’s a video playing; live, streamed at the same time it's broadcast on television. She taps a finger impatiently as the video plays on.

To her relief, the door opens behind her, casting the light of the hallway across her harsh features. A tall Japanese man enters quickly, in the middle of tying back his long dark hair. “What is it?” He leans over her shoulder, luminescent green eyes taking in every detail of the video that’s playing. “Ah.”

The video is an interview, its subject seemingly ambushed just leaving the gates of UA. Midoriya Izuku stands calmly, looking unruffled by the microphone practically mashed against his face.

Interviewer : “You’ve caused quite a stir with your words during the commencement address. Care to elaborate on what you meant?”

Midoriya hides a self-satisfied smile, likely missed by most viewers.

Midoriya : “I thought I made myself pretty clear, at the Sports Festival.”

Interviewer : “You made some disparaging remarks about All Might. Do you feel more entitled to criticize the Symbol of Peace because you’re a student of his?”

Midoriya : “I have nothing but respect for All Might.” His voice is slightly tighter, now. Either he despises All Might and wants to hide it, or he loves the man deeply and hates that people will think him disrespectful of the former hero. “ Go back and listen again, I’m not going to repeat myself just because no one taught you basic listening skills.” 

The reporter seems unbothered by the insult.

Interviewer : “And how do you feel about the impact of your speech being undercut by your loss in the first match? It must be embarrassing to make such dramatic statements and then not be able to follow through.”

Midoriya has that look of patient disappointment a parent wears when they find their child eating glue.

Midoriya : “You’re being obtuse ma’am. Nothing I said during the commencement was dependant on my own strength or skill. I’ll give you a hint, since you seem to need it; if anything, my loss demonstrates the truth of my words. Maybe you should think about the implications of a non-Hero Course student with a quirk nearly useless for combat taking on the best and brightest of the Hero Course and walking away victorious, without a scratch.”

Interviewer : “So you threw your match against Bakugou, then, to ensure the outcome you wanted in the final. Did you convince the others to throw the match as well?”

The man chuckles as he watches. “She’s really trying to antagonize him, isn’t she. But he’s doing well.”

“Yes, sir,” the woman murmurs absently, still intent on the screen.

Midoriya : “-would never disrespect him that way. I gave my best effort, and I lost the match. Just like he gave his best effort in the final and still lost.”

Interviewer : “What about the rest -”

Midoriya : “Enough, enough. No offense, ma’am, but this is pointless, everything I have to say has already been said.” He looks directly at the camera. “It’s up to you to decide what you do with my words.”

Interviewer : “One last thing.” Her voice is tinged with a cruel sense of victory; she's playing her final trump card. “In the video that surfaced last year, the Hero Killer Stain named you - specifically - as someone he considered ‘worthy’. Why is that, and how do you expect anyone to seriously consider the words of someone - a teenager, no less - who has the explicit endorsement of a serial killer who slaughtered and maimed dozens of pro heroes?”

Midoriya pauses as he is turning away, still for a handful of heartbeats, before turning back to the interviewer. He looks earnestly at the camera, a sort of weaponized innocence etched across his face. It’s a nearly perfect mask; only discernible as such when taken in context of how each of his expressions during the interview had been equally precise, crafted exactly to elicit the right reaction in viewers.

Midoriya : “I don’t have any control over what Stain thinks of me. As for how my philosophy differs from his; again, I think I’ve made myself abundantly clear. I don’t care if anyone believes in me, as long as my words inspire them to consider the world around them. To not take for granted the structure of our society, to not -” Midoriya cuts off, glancing to his right toward the gates of UA. He turns back to the camera with a grin and winks. “ Time’s up.”

The camera turns to show - for a brief instant - a tall smudge of a figure walking toward the group, more oil slick than man in the rain. There are two piercing points of red light, and the video stream abruptly ends.

 The woman in the chair leans back as she closes the laptop, brushes dark hair over her shoulder. “what are you thinking?"

The man straightens, his lips pursed. He stares into the distance, organizing his thoughts, altering strategies. Accounting for Midoriya Izuku. It’s a daunting task, even for him. “He's certainly on the campaign trail. The Sports Festival was his opening move, and this was the second piece to set the stage." He leans back against another table, hands spread behind him as he considers. His green eyes glow luminescent as his lips twist into an honest, genuine smile; he's the sort of man who's real, unguarded smiles look distinctly predatory. "This isn't just some project the mouse set him up to; he genuinely wants to change our society. I can get behind that. I don’t think it will cause any problems for us in the short term, but it might be worth it to keep an eye on him.”A pause, and his smile grows smug. His glowing eyes flash from green to gold. “Now there’s a thought. Oh, that all comes together very nicely.” He turns to the woman, who is waiting expectantly. “God I’m clever, Alameda.” 

“So you’ve said, sir.”

“It’s because it’s true. I’ve just merged three mediocre ideas into one perfect one.”

Alameda sighs. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“Oh, that’s part of the beauty of it, I’ve already laid all the groundwork. Or rather, I had Kinoshita-kun lay the groundwork. I knew it would be useful somehow.” His eyes are glowing brighter and brighter gold, casting wild shadows around the room whenever he moves his head. “Midoriya Izuku wants to change the world? Let’s see if we can’t lend him a helping hand.” As the man speaks, sparks drift from his mouth every time his lips part, while tiny flames dance on his tongue. “Oh, I can’t wait to see it.” 

Chapter Text

Though of course one cannot be one entirely certain, especially given the tendency toward subtlety of many of the more powerful first generation quirks, it is widely accepted as historical fact that July 21, 1989 marked the first observed instance of what we have come to call Quirks. On that day in Quing Quing City, China, the Luminescent Baby - or "Glowing Boy" - was born. The curiosity sparked worldwide fascination, but it was a novelty, and little else, even among the scientific community of the time. That changed when, within the month, infants and toddlers across the globe began to manifest powers of their own: An infant born with gills and webbed fingers in Thailand, a four year old from Rwanda that began to take on a physical resemblance to any person he made skin to skin contact with, a three year old girl from Sweden on holiday in the Caribbean who suddenly gained the ability to transmute gold into lead. The number of quirked children quickly outstripped the capacity for even strict governmental measures to track or quantify. By the year 2000, 14 percent of the world's population possessed some uncanny ability or superpower. 

In the eleven years between the birth of the Luminescent Baby and the beginning of the Modern Dark Age, a number of international agencies lobbied for communicative, cooperative research into the phenomenon of Quirks, but governments across the globe were increasingly tight-lipped and even tighter-gripped on any data they uncovered. 

International tensions rose as more powerful quirks began to appear, coming to a head on January 2nd, 2000, with the formal reveal of acting president of Russia Vladimir Putin's National Defense Assurance Group, consisting of the Magnificent Three, a trio of nine year old quirk users. Putin demonstrated the capabilities of the Three by launching a live air-to-ground missile at the Kremlin, which was promptly teleported away by one of the Three, reappearing and detonating in the Black Sea, less than a kilometer off the coast of Turkey's Cape Kerempe. At the same time, a United States intelligence satellite was shot out of orbit over Russia by what was confirmed to be the cooperative efforts of the other two members of the Three.

Details of world events following the reveal of the Magnificent Three are unclear, with many surviving accounts that directly contradict each other. This sudden reversion toward Cold War -esque displays of force acted as a spark that rocketed international tension from a low simmer into a full boil. What is known, is that within a year the world at large had fallen into what is widely referred to as the Modern Dark Age.

…

By 2122, society at large had mostly recovered from the chaos of the Dark Age, grasping a stable footing thanks to the emergence of heroes as a dominating force in the popular consciousness. Heroes like Bright Laurel, Kingswind, and Mostly Cloudy led the charge against villains and monsters like Allfather and The Devoted, ushering in the Golden Age of Heroics. Though this new era was marked by two decades of desperate conflict and despicable villains to match the cruelest warlords of the Dark Age, its lasting message is one of hope for a better future. This is illustrated in the words of the Aurora Hero: Yesternight, in her seminal work A Place of Peace ; “Though we suffer, though we falter, still, like light, we rise.”

Excerpts from A Brief History of Quirks , by Antoine Bell, 2155

Hero Team "Triumph" Beats Back The Beast

Written by Aester Mardunn

Published by Present Worldwide, August 27, 2127

Answering an international call for aide just forty minutes after it was sent, the up and coming team of heroes arrived on the scene to find Indonesia's capital city under the shadow of looming devastation. Team leader Visionary reports that Triumph arrived in Jakarta in the early stage of an unanticipated attack by the Salamander, just after the 150 foot leviathan had emerged from the sea. (This marks the fourth time the Salamander has attacked Indonesia, surfacing there more often than anywhere else besides Australia's unpopulated northern coast.) The team traveled via experimental inertial regulator technology created by team member Tinker Tom, notorious for his quirk: "Only Works Once." Triumph engaged the Salamander immediately upon arrival, coordinating with local forces to attempt to divert the beast away from still-populated areas of the city that had yet to be evacuated. 

In the midst of these efforts, the hero Citadel struck a blow to the Salamander that near single handedly drove it back into the ocean. No pictures have yet surfaced, but reports from the scene claim that the Salamander was seriously injured along the jaw and lower shoulder, to the point that blood samples have apparently been collected in the aftermath of the fight. If true, this would be the first time the mutated reptile has ever been known to take serious damage in the thirteen months since its emergence. 

Citadel is widely famed for possessing an Absolute quirk: Immovable Object. it can be assumed that the Salamander was likely baited into attacking Citadel while his quirk was active, turning its own strength against it as it struck at an object entirely inviolable and immovable in space.

Thanks to the efforts of Triumph, Jakarta suffered a record low of destruction and loss of life from the attack, and it is predicted to suffer little - if any - long term tectonic effects from the leviathan's macro-geokinesis. The team itself lost two members in the battle: Dovetail and Burnish Ray. Three more members, including Citadel, are currently receiving medical care for severe injuries.

Play Video Segment: Visionary's Address, 9/2

Image: Visionary, wearing his signature helm and V-visor, the rest of his armor piecemeal and in disrepair. The logo of his visor on the chest plate is marred by a split in the metal running from collarbone to waist. He stands at a podium surrounded by reporters. The only bit of his face that is visible - from just below his cheekbones to his stubbled jaw - is clenched tight, as if he is literally biting out each word.

Video Transcript:

Visionary: "No, I don't believe my comrades' sacrifices are in vain. On the contrary, this was the most successful defense ever mounted against the Salamander, with possibly thousands of lives saved. And perhaps more importantly, thanks to Citadel we now know that this thing can bleed." 

-inaudible-

Visionary: "Yes, I am. If it bleeds, we can kill it, and killing it saves far more lives than any individual defensive action. Once we've recovered, we're going to devote all our resources to tracking, predicting, and finding ways to fight this monster." 

Visionary: "The Salamander is going to die."

-multiple voices, inaudible-

Transcript Ends

Edit : As of September 2nd, it has been confirmed by Triumph that Anthony Brock - codename Citadel - has passed away due to severe radiation poisoning from exposure to the Salamander’s breath. The remaining members of Triumph - sans Visionary - will be attending a ceremony held in Jakarta to memorialize the members that perished in and after the battle.

From the desk of Detetive Tsukauchi Naomasa, personal archives.

Hard copy of transcript from an interview between Tsukauchi Naomasa, All Might, and hero Legendary. Original digital copy lost to personal hard drive corruption in 2186. Interview occurred on May 23, 2178 in Cairo, Egypt, during the 23rd annual International Heroics Conference Expo. Interview was held in English. 

Timestamp: 13:15 start, 13:42 end

(TN): Thank you for taking the time to meet with us, Legendary, I know you’re a very busy hero. My name is Tsukauchi Naomasa, you of course know All Might

(L): Of course. It is an honor, All Might, sir.

(AM): For me as well, my friend. Your work around the Mediterranean is very admirable.

(TN): In the interest of transparency, Legendary, I’d like to inform you of my quirk, Human Lie Detector, and ask for your consent to record this conversation, for my own convenience to refer to later. No one else will hear it.

(TN): I appreciate it, thank you. Yes, you may record. Your messages weren’t entirely clear on the reason you wanted to meet with me?

(chair scraping)

(AM): It is a bit awkward, admittedly. We haven’t quite worked out how to broach the subject in a way that does not sound accusatory.

(pause) (subject appeared apprehensive or nervous)

(L): Is it an accusation?

(TN): No. This is in no way an interrogation, and you’re well within your right to leave should you wish to. But we humbly ask for your help in this.

(L): Is that true, All Might? (Legendary seeks confirmation from an established authority he already knows, if impersonally: wary of strangers, or wary of mentalists?) (Wary of mentalists, clearly. Unusual attitude in Africa, but understandable considering his quirk (see below))

(AM): It is.

(L): Very well. Proceed, then, and I will attempt to keep an open mind. [lie] (subject’s laugh is blatantly uncomfortable) 

(AM): Thank you. I think it would be best if I started with some context. Now, I would greatly appreciate it if the information I’m about to share did not leave this room?

(L) Of course, you have my word. [true] (‘True’ reading signaled to AM)

(AM): Thank you, my friend, I know this is all something of a hassle, but I promise it is important. I have spent much of my career in secret conflict with a certain villain. A man who can forcibly take quirks from others and keep them for himself. Or he can give them to those he chooses.

(long pause) (Subject appears thoughtful and curious; much less nervous, although still slightly so)

(L): I see. You worry, then, that I am an agent of this villain?

(TN): Again, this is not an accusation. We’ve spoken with a number of heroes over the years who made deals with or accepted powers from this villain, either unknowing of his true nature or accepting the personal cost in the future in order to receive greater power and save more people in the present. Unfortunately, they almost invariably come to bad ends, turned into unwilling weapons against the people around them.

(L): And you believe I am one of them, that I will somehow be turned against the people I protect.

(TN): We believed it was at least possible. It seemed best to at least have the conversation.

(L): It is somewhat difficult to miss the inherent threat of bringing All Might to such a conversation. I do not mean any offense, of course, [true] but it is hard to forget just how powerful you are when sitting across the table from you. You are one of the few truly good men in this world, but even a kind god is still a god. And i am still only mortal. [true] (Obviously)

(AM): I assure you, Legendary, that was not my intent in coming here, I - (overlap)

(L): (overlap) - understand. It is alright. If you would give me a moment to gather my thoughts? You need not leave the room, but I need some time to think. [lie] (decision already made? Wasn’t taking time to construct a lie, but maybe time to find a way to word things so as to leave out certain information.)

(TN): Of course.

(AM): Take all the time you need, certainly.

(silence for approximately three minutes)

(L): I keep my quirk a secret for good reason. It is called Believe In Me. I suspect that I do not fully understand it, even now, but my power comes from the belief of others. [true] If someone believes I can do something, then I can do it. [technical untruth, intent understood] (He believes it to be true, but there are limits he doesn’t want to admit to himself perhaps?) The more people who believe, the stronger the power becomes, and so people observe me using the power, reinforcing their belief. [true]

(AM): That… is quite extraordinary. 

(TN): You believe that if people knew how your quirk functions, they would stop believing.

(L): Or that their belief would ring hollow by the quirk's standards. I do not know, and have no desire to find out. [true] May I ask you something?

(AM): Of course.

(L): You defeated the villain Apocalyptica several years ago.

(AM): Ah, yes, I did.

(L): I was approached by the Australian Aboriginal Nations to assist in fighting her should you require backup, and as such I was given a quick briefing on her theorized capabilities. [half truth] Was she given her powers by this villain?

(AM): Probably, yes. That incident was her first appearance; apparently no one had heard of her before that. Like she came from nowhere. That is difficult to do for someone who stands nearly eleven stories tall.

(L): (laughs) I suppose it would be. 

(AM): She possessed quite the array of powers, I can't imagine that even half of them could have come from a single quirk

(L): That is a mystery that has bothered me for some time. At least I have an answer now, even if it only brings more questions.

(AM): (laughs) Yes, I've found that's usually how these things go.

(TN): Thank you, Legendary. It means a lot to me that you were able to set our fears to rest.

(L): Of course. I'm glad to be of help, even if just by narrowing down possibilities. I wish you both luck in dealing with this villain. I'll admit, All Might, I've always envied you, but I don't envy the task of dealing with such an enemy. [half truth]

(chairs scraping)

(AM): I appreciate it.

(L): And - (pause) - I know it may be arrogant to even offer, but if there’s anything I can ever do for you, please, don’t hesitate to ask.

(AM): Thank you, Legendary. Genuinely. Cooperation between heroes is sorely undervalued these days. Now! I believe we both have panels to attend in a few minutes! We wouldn’t want to be late! (Way too loud for an enclosed space. Reminder to send medical bills to AM if I ever need hearing aids)

Chapter Text

The day after the sports festival, Kate woke up with a headache that felt like someone was running their nails down the chalkboard inside her brain. Not the sort of thing that was overwhelmingly painful, but still annoying to the point of being downright intolerable. With a groan, she hauled herself out of bed and into her morning routine, opting to run on muscle memory and the faint pink light of the neon lamp that remains always on over her bed rather than irritate her headache any further with the dorm’s harsh fluorescents. She abandoned her braid as a lost cause after ten minutes of mounting frustration, letting her hair fall loose on the left side of her head. It didn’t conceal the patch of smooth scalp left from Recovery Girl’s healing nearly as much as she would have liked, but there wasn’t much else she could do about it. Sweatpants and a tank top got pulled from the ‘mostly clean’ pile, and Kate made her way foggily to the elevator.

Downstairs, she had eyes only for the coffeemaker; finding a fresh pot already waiting for her nearly brought her to tears. It wasn’t until she’d sat at the closest table with her mug that she bothered to pay any attention to her surroundings. She looked across the table in surprise to find lavender eyes staring back from behind their own mug; three-quarters lidded, as opposed to their usual half. Next to Shinsou and draped halfway across his shoulders sat Hatsume, of all people, looking as blissed out as ever, if significantly less hyperactive. The irony that sedentary Shinsou was apparently the caffeinated one and not the perma-stimulated Hatsume wasn’t lost on her.

Shinsou’s eyes slid away from hers as soon as their gazes met, leaving him staring down at the tabletop. She didn’t think much of it, still focused mainly on the coffee calling her name. She took a long drink, reveling in the anticipation of caffeine hitting her system.

“ Pphhllbb, ” she gagged as soon as the drink hit her tongue, managing to keep from spraying a mouthful onto the table in horror. She struggled through swallowing the sludge-thick coffee. “Oh my fuck. Oh my god.” She looked in horror at Shinsou. “Did you make this?” He met her eyes again, taking a long, loud slurp from his own cup by way of answer. “You’re a monster. This is fucking mud!”

He shrugged, causing Hatsume to grumble discontentedly on his shoulder. She might have still been asleep. “It’s coffee, it’s supposed to be strong.”

“It’s supposed to be drinkable .”

He rolled his eyes. “Then make it your way.” 

Hatsume’s hand, shrouded in a sleeve far too long for her arm, came up to smack softly against Shinsou’s face, effectively silencing him. “Sshhhsssshhh,” the pink haired girl hissed, burrowing further into his shoulder at the same time.

“Dude, what did you do to her?” Kate took in Hatsume huddled against Shinsou: swimming in a shirt far too large for her, practically curled up in his lap, uncharacteristically calm and sleepy. “Wait… Did you guys…” 

Shinsou raised one eyebrow at her. Either he wanted to make her say it, or he genuinely didn’t know what she was asking. After a second, he exhaled through his nose; not quite a snort, not quite a laugh. “Nah. She fell asleep on the couch last night.”

“Gotcha.” Kate considered the chance to needle Shinsou, and a smirk grew on her face. “I guess that makes sense, since you like-”

“What was that?” he interrupted her, the question practically dripping with intent. She could feel his quirk pressing against her brain, daring her to finish her sentence. The sensation was strangely soothing to her headache. She considered for a moment before curiosity and perverse glee pushed her on.

“Mid-” She cut off as the noose pulled tight on her mind.

The first time she’d come under the influence of Brainwashing, Kate had been entirely off guard. She hadn’t been aware even of time passing, experiencing the instant before it took hold and the instant after it was released as a single contiguous line. This time, aware of what was happening and willingly accepting it, the experience was entirely different. 

The scraping inside her head faded away almost completely, a cool cloth laid across her sensitive nerve endings. She gazed out through the newly-made windows that were her eyes: a spirit inside a living statue. She was surprised to find that there wasn’t any real feeling of being trapped. Instead, her mind began to move slower and calmer, like honey slowly caramelizing. As she pulled her sluggish thoughts together, she felt her body begin to move. A hand picked up her coffee cup, bringing it up to her lips. Through her blurry, unfocused eyes she could make out Shinsou mirroring her movements with his own cup. It occurred to her that it would probably be more accurate to say that she was mirroring his . Belatedly, she realized what was happening as the terrifyingly strong brew hit her tongue. Without even subconscious motor control, she was forced to suffer with absolute passivity as her body drained the cup in one long swallow. 

Both cups touched the table again, and Kate flinched as control returned to her muscles. Her mouth immediately wrinkled at the aftertaste of strong coffee still on her tongue, and she glared daggers at the boy across from her. Shinsou didn’t even try to hide his sadistic smile in response. 

“That’s what you get.”

“You are the fucking worst.

He started to shift in his seat before remembering that Hatsume was still using him as a body pillow. “I could be worse, if you wanted.”

“I’ll pass, thanks.” Kate moved back to the kitchen, wanting to wash out the taste from her mouth. “Hey,” she called as she opened the fridge. “No one told me there was cake.”

“That’s from last night, we wanted to celebrate Mei making history. First Support student to win the Sports Festival ever.”

“Huh, cool.” Kate closed the fridge, settling for a bowl of rice. She leaned against the counter as she set it to steaming. “Where’s everyone else?” She looked at the time, surprised to find it was only six fifteen, rather than around eight or nine like she’d assumed.

“Early riser’s are already gone - most of them are working out I think. Last one I saw was Ojiro.”

“Guess everybody else is smart enough to sleep in.”

Shinsou snorted. “Wish that were me.” He glanced down at Hatsume. “ She’s dead to the world even when she’s awake. I don’t think she actually knows the difference between sleeping in a bed or on her feet.”

Kate contemplated for a moment. “I’m surprised Aizawa let her sleep here instead of kicking her back to her dorm.”

Shinsou shrugged with his free arm. “Honestly, I don’t think the teacher’s care. Midnight gave everyone the safe sex talk last year, no one’s really said anything about sharing dorms or whatever since. Way I figure, they know half of us are probably gonna be dead before we turn twenty. Might as well let us have our fun while we’re still here.”

“Damn, dude.” Kate scooped rice into a bowl, returning to sit across from Shinsou. “You’re messed up.”

He made a sour face. “Probably.” Maybe he’d heard those words before.

“Sorry, that came out wrong, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine. I’ve heard worse.” There was a long, awkward silence, almost five minutes broken only by Hatsume snuffling something about ‘babies’ into Shinsou’s shoulder. Finally, he spoke again. “You know what they used to call me, in middle school?”

Kate thought about his quirk, the easy, cruel comparisons to draw. “I think I can guess.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not okay, you know? Comparing a kid to… Him. Just because of their quirk. That’s so fucked up.”

“Yeah, well, guess no one told them that.”

Kate winced. “The teachers?” She knew the answer before she asked, from her own experience as a kid. She knew you could get away with anything as long as you picked the right victim.

There was a pause as Shinsou looked at the tabletop. His face was set in a mask of neutrality, sleepy eyes giving away nothing. “There were definitely some Amalgam jokes when they thought I couldn’t hear. Or when they knew I could, sometimes.”

Kate was shocked into silence. That was even more than she’d expected. She’d assumed that the teachers would let the taunting and harassment happen, that’s how it had been for her; there was a boy in her fifth grade class whose quirk made him smell like rotten eggs constantly, and she’d led a pretty merciless teasing campaign against him. No one had done much to stop her. But for a kid’s authority figures to outright compare him to Amalgam: The Hive King, the greatest villain alive, was…

“It was dumb,” Shinsou went on. He met her eye with a rueful smile, but she could see the tension behind it. “I’ve got a ridiculously weaker version of half his quirk. But all anyone ever hears is mind control and suddenly it’s,” Shinsou raised the pitch of his voice, imitating a snotty accent. “ Oh my god, you’re just like that one villain, are you gonna take over a country too? ” He stopped, looking down in surprise at where his hand was clenched white knuckled on the edge of the table. Slowly, he released his grip, glancing back up at Kate. “Sorry. It’s just… a dumb comparison.”

"Yeah." Kate couldn't think of anything else to say. "Sorry."

They sat quietly together for a few more minutes, until Hatsume began to stir. She peeled herself off of Shinsou reluctantly, the whole time a sound like a creaky hinge coming from her mouth. Her eyes blinked open, focusing slowly on Kate in front of her. Kate could practically see her booting up like a computer. It only took about thirty seconds for her to achieve full, eyebugging intensity.

"Hey, hey!"

Kate leaned back, unsure if Hatsume was actually addressing her. "Y-yes?"

The crosses of Hatsume's eyes spun wildly, her voice rising to a manic singsong "What do you think of Crosshair?! I need all your feedback on my baby so I can make sure he's absolutely perfect." She leaned uncomfortably far across the table. "He's still just a prototype, so I need all the data I can get to make sure we’re ready to hit shelves! Onboard AIs are gonna be big, I can smell it! Especially if I can get a bunch of UA students using it, I'll practically be making a market boom by myself, and Hatsume Industries will be perfectly positioned to capitalize!"

"I, uh," Kate interjected before the rambling could go any further, "haven't really had time to test it."

Hatsume ground to a halt, her head cocking to the side, blankly uncomprehending. "Eh?"

"I, uhm, I can't read the kanji," Kate admitted reluctantly.

Hatsume blinked once, then twice. "Huh." She sat back, stymied for a moment. "Well. Hm. I guess it's got a network uplink, so theoretically it should be able to translate to English if you ask it to."

"Right, but like, I can't read the menus to get to the settings."

Hatsume looked exasperated. "Just talk to it, you big dummy! It'll automatically enable voice commands."

"Well nobody told me that!"

"Because it's obvious!"

Shinsou sighed. "I'm gonna kick you both out if you start yelling."

Hatsume shot up suddenly. "Out! I can go to my workshop again!" She immediately hurtled for the door, leaving Shinsou staring after her, vaguely alarmed.

"Well…" he scraped his chair back, smiling ruefully. "I should probably take her her stuff."

"Is… Is she gonna go all that way barefoot?"

“She'll probably only make it as far as the workshop doors. She's weirdly strict about proper safety equipment. That… probably, includes shoes." He frowned, before abruptly turning and heading to the living room.

Kate watched him go before finishing what was left of her rice and, eventually, making her way back up to her own room. She spent a few lazy hours on her phone, replying to messages from her friends still in Los Angeles. She'd never had many, and she wasn’t especially close to the ones she did have, but at least close enough that they were excited they could text someone who’d been in UA’s Sports Festival. Emelline Calvers, Dante Breer, Jamie Something-Or-Other, a couple more. It was a big event every year, so she could almost imagine them all coming together to watch at Emelline’s house like she’d done with them the past two years, since her family had the biggest screen to watch on. It had been fun, four or five of them packed onto one couch, shouting and devouring snacks by the handful as they speculated on who would win and who would become the best heroes. Not that they’d ever followed up to see if any of the third years made it big, but being right was never really the point. 

She replied to their excited texts with an enthusiasm she didn’t feel. They didn’t want to hear about her real state of mind, they just wanted the novelty and excitement of it all. However, both Jamie and Emelline chastised her for not getting in contact with them sooner, which left her bemused. What was there to say? She could understand them wanting to talk now that she was mildly famous - at least until the Sports Festival buzz died down - but it wasn’t like they were best friends. Jamie, especially, she’d have expected to move on and forget her quickly; she and the genderqueer teen had a rocky history. They’d gone to school together almost their whole lives, and Jamie had seen her and stood up to her when she was at her worst, pushing around other kids and throwing violent tantrums and generally being an unpleasant bully. Those habits hadn’t completely gone away, even after she and they became part of the same friend group, and there had been more than a few shouting matches whenever Jamie caught her doing something they didn’t approve of. Despite that, they’d been fairly friendly and gone out of their way to include her most of the time, although she’d often caught them watching her intently when the group were all hanging out together, like they were waiting for her to slip up or lash out or something. 

Kate still wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say, but she gave assurances that ‘yes, she’d absolutely keep in touch’ and, ‘oh man, sorry, she sure was busy and just hadn’t had the time until now.’ She ignored most of the rest of the messages - from former classmates that didn’t really know her and definitely just wanted the bragging rights or something. 

Eventually Kate flopped down on her bed, all the messages dealt with. Even as she was doing it, she winced in preparation for the sharp pain of her headache to get worse with the motion. But to her surprise, the pain wasn’t there. Now that she thought about it, her head had been basically free of any discomfort for a while now.

“Oh my god.” She stared in wonder at the ceiling. “Did Brainwashing cure my headache?!” She took as long as she could stand marveling at that miracle before finally dragging herself up and going to do what she’d been putting off. She snapped open her costume case where it sat on top of her dresser. Apparently letting the students keep their support gear close at hand was a new policy this year, so as long as they made sure to keep it maintained with the Support department, they were free to keep it in their rooms and wear it for independent training if they wanted.

It took a while, but eventually she found and undid the concealed fastenings that connected the cowl to the body of the suit. They were streamlined, slimmed down and nested within seams so that the whole suit seemed to be one piece. She moved to sit back down and slipped it on, prepared this time for the barrage of information that appeared as she pressed the switch under her jaw. The interface came to digital life in front of her, immediately scanning and highlighting objects in the environment in various colors as Japanese flowed around the periphery of her vision. Now, to see if she could make it work for her.

“Okay, uhm, Crosshair… change to English.”

Nothing happened.

“Switch settings to English… Change language to English.” Finally, something in the UI changed. A cross-in-a-circle icon appeared in the center of her vision, shrinking and growing as it spun. Thirty seconds pass, Kate impatiently staring around the room. She jumped as her vision went dark, resisting the urge to tear off the cowl. Vision immediately returned, and the display reappeared, with text appearing - in English - at the top left of her vision.

Welcome, User

“Oh, shit.”

Command Not Recognized

Enable Interactive Motion Command System?

Kate rolled her eyes, dots following her pupils crazily across the display. “Yes.”

I M Commands Enabled

A few icons appeared at the top of her vision. Kate reached up, tapping at where the gear icon seemed to float in space. A menu appeared, options presented in English. 

> User Settings

        > User Settings

                > Create New User

                > Change User (No User Selected)

                > User Customization (No User Selected)

                > ***

        > Quirk Settings

                > Quirk Presets

                > Custom Presets

                > ***

        > UI Settings

        > Motion Calibration

        > User Guide

                > Functions

                        > Demo

                        > ReadMe

                        > ***

                > ***

        > Advanced Settings

        > ***

“Okay, well, a demo would have been nice.” Kate selected the option to create a new user profile. A few minutes and a quick scramble for her hero license later, it was done.

Welcome User: Impulse

[ Movement: Dash ] And [ Projectile: Physical/Ballistic ] Quirk Presets Applied

License Number (Provisional) Confirmed For Hero: Impulse 

HeroNet Access (Provisional) Synchronized

HeroNet Status: Off Duty (Provisional)

The final line remained visible at the top of her vision with the other status icons as the interface cleared. Kate stared at it, emotion unexpectedly washing over her; it hadn’t really sunk in until just this moment that she was here , this was real. She could open that menu right now and switch the selection and she would, effectively, be an on duty hero. Eventually, she pulled off the cowl and held it in her lap, staring down at it.

“You’re going to help me, Crosshair,” she said aloud. “I’m going to make up for…” It was so hard to say it. Even now, talking to a computer that couldn’t hear her and wouldn’t be capable of judging her, it was so hard to just say it out loud. She screwed her eyes shut, forcing the words to come. “I’m going to make up for killing them. I’m going to do enough good in the world that it balances out the bad.” She looked up at the ceiling, toward the sky above. “I promise.”

---

At eleven, Aizawa called all the class together in the living room. 

“I could have told you this yesterday but it would have been a hassle for me.”

There was an audible silence as they collectively processed that statement.

“The new rules, based on the recent Nomu incident, ban any of you from leaving campus without a school approved guardian, under any circumstances.” Mutters of discontent rippled through the group at the reminder. “That said, considering many of you have parents in town for the Sports Festival, we’re suspending that ban until classes start again.” Noise erupted, equal parts whoops of celebration and mutters of concern. 

“Mister Aizawa,” Iida exclaimed. “Are you certain that’s safe? The rules were enacted for a reason, after all!”

Aizawa held up a hand to fend off the myriad of comments and questions. “Nezu is moving forward with this strictly on pre-cog advisement.” Another shock of murmurs cropped up, quickly silenced. “I can’t say much, but the whereabouts of the League of Villains are known to us at this time. Given that, we’ve confirmed with a certain source that the chance of any student being attacked by the League or their associates are less than one percent. If it were up to me, I’d still keep the rule in place, but Nezu has decided to allow you all some freedom.” 

More celebration broke out, with the concerned parties either mollified or now focused on other things. Almost before the man was done speaking, Midoriya appeared at Aizawa’s side, practically vibrating with contained excitement. Kate couldn’t hear much of his half-whispered questions, but the look on Aizawa’s face hovered somewhere between consternation and exhaustion. That probably was a good indicator of Midoriya’s line of thinking. 

To be fair, it was kind of a big deal. Pre-cognitive quirks easily topped the list as among the rarest and most coveted of powers, and were usually kept as closely guarded secrets. Having access to one was incredibly rare, even for an institution with as much clout as UA. 

Aizawa raised his voice. "I expect you all to use judgement befitting Hero Course students; don't repeat this information to anyone. We'll ensure your parents are informed, and that's as far as it should go." There was a chorus of ‘yes sensei’s’ and he seemed satisfied. “Good. You still need to sign out if you’re leaving campus, and state who you’ll be with and where you’ll be going. Keep your phones on you and be careful.” Apparently having said all he had to say, Aizawa turned to Midoriya who was still next to him. He seemed apprehensive, but he nodded at one of the boy’s questions, and when he turned to leave Midoroya went with him after dashing over to Uraraka and Iida to whisper something to them first.

Kate stood, watching the others with her arms crossed hugged tight around herself, wondering what to do now with everyone else filtering away. 

“Hey.”

She didn’t quite flinch at the light touch on her shoulder as Shouji spoke behind her. She turned to him, consciously shifting into a more relaxed pose. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to see if you’d be alright with changing our date tomorrow to the evening instead of the afternoon,” he said.

She frowned slightly to herself. “How come?” 

“I got a better idea than I had before.” Kate couldn’t help but notice an eye on one of his lower arms glancing toward a small knot of their classmates who were loitering near the kitchen. “Well, okay, I got help coming up with a better idea than before.” He glanced away sheepishly, rubbing his neck. “So, is that okay? We can still do the original time, if you want.”

“No, that’s fine. What time?” 

“Seven, if that works.”

“Yeah, that works,” Kate said. She couldn’t hide the smile that crept across her face. “That works.”

There was a moment of silence as each of them expected the other to say something. Eventually, Shouji quirked an endearing little smile on both middle arms. “Great.”

“Great,” Kate agreed. She hesitated. Should she ask if he’d eaten yet? It would be weird to deliberately eat lunch together the day before the official date, right? It would be like getting a head start on the date. Or would that be a good thing, maybe? She hesitated long enough that Shouji must have assumed she was waiting for him to leave.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he murmured, just soft enough to feel like it was meant just for her, a little thrill of intimacy surrounded by the chaos of eighteen other teenagers. She nodded, and he turned away and disappeared into the kitchen, emerging again a second later with an apple and a bag of some other food. He glanced her way and winked - with the eye on his actual face - as he headed for the stairs.

“Your heart is fluttering.” Kate did jump this time, if only a little. She spun around to glare at Tokoyami as he stood passively just behind her. “It’s disturbing.”

“It is not ,” Kate shot back, her face immediately heating up with embarrassment. “Fluttering, I mean.”

The boy seemed wholly unimpressed. “I can see into your very soul. You’re both sickeningly infatuated.”

“Y-” Kate practically tripped over her own tongue interrupting herself. “-Both?”

Tokoyami widened one eye: his version of a raised eyebrow, she’d learned quickly. “Did you think he asked you out because he dis liked you?”

“N- Shut up.” Kate looked away, trying to look mad and mostly failing. “What makes you say that?”

Tokoyami brushed past her, heading toward the smell of ramen coming from the kitchen where Ashido was loudly proclaiming her specialty at preparing the noodles. It sounded like several people were disagreeing. “Like I said. I see what your soul reveals. I see everything.” His eyes took on a comically haunted look for a moment. “ Everything. ”

Kate shook her head, moving to catch up with him. “You’re such a fucking weirdo.”

Chapter Text

An Inertial Frame of Reference – Accelerating in the Direction of Travel – Linear Acceleration – Linear Velocity – Rate of Change – A Function of Time – Equation of Motion

Character Pool:

The Protagonist: Kate DeLaine-Hotz: 

• birthday March 19 2176 (turned 17 before term began). 5’4” Light brown hair shaved short on sides, top pulled into braid that reaches to lower back. Light, tan skin. Born in Los Angeles. Wears a leather jacket and boots whenever possible. 
• Hero Costume: Black combat boots, gray cargo pants, gray and purple reinforced bodysuit, leather jacket, utility knife in right boot. Hero Name: Impulse. 
• Quirk: Velocity. Charges herself or an object with potential energy, then converts that to kinetic energy. Allows her to move at extremely high speed along a straight vector. Provides some general protection against blunt force trauma, and when she charges – “warps” – herself her body can negate the negative effects of the acceleration and impact, up to a point. Applying too much acceleration to herself beyond what her body can account for, while difficult to do, can cause serious internal damage. 
• Mother: Angela Hotz. Daughter of Swiss immigrants. Rescue Hero Dove. High-speed flight Quirk. Father: Mateo DeLaine, ¾ Mexican. Pro Villain. Vector Telekinesis Quirk. Deceased. 
• Kate’s friends from LA: Emelline Calvers, Dante Breer, Jamie Somasone. Kate describes herself as “not very close” with them, but this is due to her warped perceptions of herself and others, unconsciously distancing herself from people. If asked, they would say that Kate was their close friend. Jamie is genderqueer, harbors a massive crush on Kate. 
• Motivation after joining Dragon: I haven’t given up on being a hero. I’m just changing the definition a little. A hero shouldn’t be just someone who fights whoever society has labeled as the enemy. A hero should be someone who makes a better world. A world that doesn’t need heroes. Or at least, not as many. A world where people aren’t desperate, where they support each other instead of being isolated. I don’t know how to get there, but I know what I’m doing is making a difference in the meantime. I’m still fighting against people who hurt other people, I’m just doing it from a different angle. And it’ll be a cold day in hell when I feel bad for stealing from some multi-billion dollar company, the same kind of company that got my dad killed doing that exact same thing to a different company. 

The Antagonist: Akatani/Midoriya Hisashi. Tall, long messy black hair, light freckles, bright green eyes. Japanese. Smile like Izuku’s. Criminal mastermind. Dresses well. Sometimes uses a katana. Speaks in slightly complex or formal language out of habit. 173 years old. Codename: The Dragon. Quirk: Dragonheart. Extended lifespan, enhanced cunning and intelligence. Just enough mutation to keep him in peak condition, with slightly enhanced senses. Can breathe fire and affect changes to his eyes, making them glow and/or turning them into yellow dragon’s eyes.

The Number 2: Alameda. Quirkless. Dark skinned Peruvian woman, early thirties. Part of Hisashi’s inner circle, working mostly in management and coordination. Wears simple, functional clothes, carries a small pistol. The Boisterous: Armamentarium. Quirk: Weapon Bond, can summon iconic weapons from myth and legend such as Thor's hammer, the spear of Cuchulainn, the thunderbolt of Zeus, Captain America’s shield, Excalibur, etc. Real name Element Drake, an American man of White Australian refugee descent, member of Hisashi’s organization. Affable, friendly.  

The Enabler: Dragon’s technopath, codename Switchboard. Specializes in signal emission and reception, allowing untraceable and nearly undetectable communications, among other things. Dragon found him cheating at online poker and gave him a purpose.

The Baleful Circus: Madcap and Carousel, small town Japanese villains who have known each other since childhood. Madcap has a grudge against heroes specifically and society in general, and acts on that by causing chaos and committing crimes, although she doesn't harm civilians. Often sullen and prickly, she doesn't respond well to anyone poking into her personal life. Her quirk is Bouncer, which let's her transform into an altered state in which impacts cause her to rebound with more force than she struck/was struck with, quickly turning her into a human bouncy ball that flies all around the area ricocheting off surfaces at high speeds. She doesn’t have any special ability to control the angle she rebounds at, so must plan ahead or be able to think on her feet. When in the altered state, she appears as a comet or orb with a spiraling trail of energy and debris trailing behind her. Carousel is a laconic, sarcastic, exaggeratedly laid back villain who acts like he only cares for his own amusement. In reality, he is wholly devoted to Madcap, and would do anything for her. His quirk is Orbit, which lets him "anchor" two objects or people to each other, such that the relative distance between them will remain unchanged, and then forcefully spin one around the other. A trickster type combatant, he uses his quirk to create chaos on the battlefield, moving himself and others around as needed, and relies on slingshotting Madcap around to actually finish the job. Their relationship straddles the line between platonic and romantic, living in the grey area they’ve carved out for themselves. They’ve left their small town behind, having thoroughly trounced their one local hero team, and are looking for opportunities to break into the bigger leagues. They don’t have a killcount, but Madcap is deliberately responsible for the brutal injury and forced retirement of one specific hero that she apparently had a personal vendetta against. Outside of that instance, they operate on a more cops-and-robbers, “innocent” mentality, treating villainy like a game where they’re just playing their role and no one ever goes too far.

The Big Pool Small Fish: Coil. Quirk: Electrode. Fires bolts of combined electricity and concussive force that tend to pierce through defenses - armor or toughness doesn’t help very much. A street level gang boss in Tokyo, not powerful or organized enough to be considered organized crime or a serious villain, but still dangerous. Sees himself as a rival to Dragon, and constantly tries to muscle in on Dragon’s territory, notably selling drugs where Dragon has forbidden it. Hasty and arrogant, could easily be goaded into open conflict. Lieutenants include Side Eye and Scourge.

Accelerant

Ambush Predator, Part 1

Train from Shinjuku Station to Tatooin Station, 11:09 pm

The vanishingly faint rumble of the train was a comforting hum, lulling Kate’s eyes ever closer to fully closed as she leaned into Shouji’s side. If she listened for it, she could barely feel his heartbeat against her back and side, the steady rhythm just one more thing lulling her toward sleep. His arm slung over the back of her seat made the perfect space for her to slot into and rest her head, and it was comfortable enough that she was seriously considering just letting sleep happen, at least until they reached their stop.

One thing nagged at her enough that she resisted the siren call, though. She picked up her phone from where it lay face down on her leg, and let out a sigh as the screen displayed no new messages. She slid open the lock screen, and it opened onto the last thing she’d been looking at: the text thread between her and Setsuna, with her last message from half an hour ago still unanswered.

You: Hey

You: So, you know, during the SF

Dino-Gal: oh no is this a feelings conversation 0_0

Dino-Gal: i dont do feelings conversations -.-

You: What, you just want to make out and never talk about it? lol

Dino-Gal: i mean... ideally

You: Oh

You: Okay.

You: Not anything else?

“Still no answer?" Shouji asked. Kate tilted the screen so he could see it in response to the question. “Hm.”

“I guess she was serious about not wanting to talk about it,” Kate said.

“Maybe she fell asleep. This might be the kind of conversation you should have in person, anyway.”

“I guess,” Kate muttered, unable to quite keep the dejection out of her voice. Over the last couple of days she’d built up an idea of how she wanted this to go, between the three of them, that may have been more daydream-fantasy than realistic. The reality wasn’t quite meshing with the fantasy, and she was having a hard time not conflating a disruption of the daydream with outright rejection, even if she knew that wasn’t necessarily what was happening. She’d never taken rejection well, but she was trying to not let it spoil the moment; she wriggled in place, burrowing deeper into Shouji’s side. “Tonight was really fun,” she murmured. 

“I’m glad.” He shifted in his seat, one arm reaching down to pick up the envelope tucked between them. Opening it, he pulled out some of the printed out pictures they’d taken together. “Any favorites out of these?”

Kate took some of the pictures, shuffling through until she found the one. “This one.” The photo showed Shouji’s face in profile, looking at something above eye level, against the background of downtown Tokyo in the evening. He was bathed in multicolored light, a tiny kaleidoscope reflected in his eye, and a tentacle was visible in the background, the eye on the end of it similarly enraptured by whatever had his attention.

[pageline]

Earlier That Day…

“So, what’s in… what is it, Shinjuku?” 

Kate and Shouji were just a minute or so from leaving UA campus. Kate had on a fitted leather jacket and black denim shorts, forgoing boots for a pair of well-worn walking shoes, on Shouji’s recommendation. Shouji himself wore a sleeveless knitted cardigan jacket with a voluminous hood against the light sprinkle that had been falling on and off all day, and loose pants with his own walking shoes.

“Lots of things,” he smirked in reply. “It’s a major tourist destination, after all.”

Kate gasped in mock offense. “I am not a tourist.” She liked this, volleying conversation back and forth like a casually competitive game of table tennis.

“Not any more than me, anyway,” he said, and chuckled a bit. “ I’ve never been.”

“Well then how do you know where we’re going,” she shot back, like spiking the ball off his side of the table.

Shouji morphed one tentacle into an eyeball, waggling it in her face. “I always know where I’m going. I see everything .” 

That’s on her, for trying to score a point on a guy with six arms.  Kate rolled her eyes. “You’re as bad as Tokoyami, he said that exact same thing yesterday.”

“I-” They were about to pass through the main gate when Shouji came to an abrupt stop, his sentence dropping off. Kate looked at him in confusion, then followed his gaze upward. She nearly jumped out of her skin upon coming face to face with the dark gargoyle crouched on top of the UA Barrier.

Above them, Aizawa languidly uncurled from his perch, dropping easily to the ground in front of them, but his gaze wasn’t nearly as lazy as his movements. “Where do you two think you’re going?”

“We made sure to fill out a leave form,” Shouji skipped over the rhetorical question to answer what would presumably be the next one.

“I noticed. I also noticed you failed to fill in what guardians you’d be going with. I seem to recall your mother being unable to make it this year, Shouji.” He glanced at Kate for a second before returning his attention to Shouji. Her mom’s absence was a given.

“I…” Shouji hesitated for a second, picking his words carefully. “Was under the impression we weren’t required to have an escort during the break.”

“The intention was to allow you to accompany your parents off campus should they visit. It would be completely illogical to let two of my students wander around Tokyo with no supervision.”

Kate and Shouji were quiet, at a loss for something to say that might sway Aizawa, when Kate noticed her teacher narrow his eyes at something behind her. As she was turning to look she was hit by the scent of pomegranates, strong enough she could almost taste the mixed sweet and bitter flavor of the fruit.

“Shouta, are you bullying your students again,” Midnight called as she strutted down the steps of the main school building. She was dressed in a bright red rain coat, despite the lack of any serious rainfall, and had a bag slung over one shoulder. 

Aizawa scoffed. “Between the two of us, you’re the one that likes to bully people.”

Midnight ignored his comment, coming to a stop next to Kate as she faced down the taller teacher. “I only ask,” she said sweetly, “because Principle Nezu asked me to tell you that he approved their leave forms himself. I assume because he knew you’d be harassing them over it.”

Aizawa rubber the bridge of his nose, now visibly annoyed. “He takes such joy in making my life difficult.” After a moment, he glared at Kate and Shouji again. “Fine, you can leave. Do not make me regret letting you go.”

“Yes, sensei,” they hastily chorused together. Shouji did a quick bow, and Kate scrambled to follow suit, and they hurried out the gate together before he could change his mind. Kate glanced back once before they rounded the corner, and Midnight gave her a wink over Aizawa’s shoulder as she chattered at the poor man.

They walked briskly for almost a minute before Kate broke out into a fit of manic giggles. Almost immediately, Shouji joined in, until the two of them were doubled over in helpless, heaving stress-laughter.

"Oh my god," Kate managed as she tried to dab at the faint tears in her eyes without messing up her eyeliner. "Why was that so tense ?!"

"Aizawa-sensei-" Shouji cut off in a new fit of laughter before recovering himself, "-is just very tense ."

" Tense ," Kate echoed again with a wheeze. “How long was he waiting there?”

“Who knows,” Shouji said, finally getting most of a hold of himself. He offered a hand to Kate to help her up, and she took it gratefully. Once she was upright, she glanced at their clasped hands, then up at Shouji. A small smile crossed her face, and she dropped their hands to hang between them without letting go, and the two of them continued on their way to the train station.

[pageline]

“Hm.” Kate restrained herself from laughing at the look on Shouji’s face as he held up a different photo, one of him making what could only be described as heart eyes at a takoyaki vendor. The next picture in the stack showed him eating takoyaki with four different mouths at once, looking very self-satisfied. “In retrospect, that’s a little embarrassing.”

“Hey, I’ll admit, that was good octopus,” Kate said while pulling one leg up under herself on the seat. As she was reshuffling, there was a lurch in the train’s movement, and the interior lights blacked out. Kate, already off balance, found herself thrown forward, slamming face first into the seat in front of her. Her hands came up in a panic, scrambling against hard plastic to keep her from slipping down beneath the seats. Shouts and screams came from the other passengers in the car, undercut by an alarming grinding sound from beneath the train’s carriage.

Emergency lights flickered on, painting the train in red and orange. Shouji’s hand landed on Kate’s shoulder, steadying her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good.” Kate pushed herself back into her seat just long enough to get her feet under her and stand. “What happened?”

Shouji stood with her, stepping into the aisle. The train was empty enough, this late at night, that no one had been standing when the bump happened. Fortunate, because they’d probably have left a good bit of skin behind on the floor from sliding on their face all the way across the car, if they had been. Kate herself had gotten off lucky, she acknowledged: Velocity turned what could have easily been a broken nose into something that wouldn’t even bruise. Others hadn’t been so lucky, evidenced by a middle aged woman holding her hand to a gash across her forehead as a man fretted over her, although she looked more annoyed than hurt.

“We’re still moving,” Shouji considered aloud. “But something’s wrong. It’s not as smooth as it should be.”

“Something’s grinding,” Kate agreed.

“Yeah.” Ears sprouted across all his arms, but he was already shaking his head. “I can’t tell anything else. I think we should head forward, see if there’s anything we can help with.”

Kate nodded, and they began to make their way to the front of the car, careful to keep handholds as they went, in case the train lurched again. She stopped to check on the woman who was bleeding, but it was pretty obvious it was barely an injury, by the woman’s demeanor. “Oh, thank you dear, but I’m fine,” she waved Kate off with a rueful laugh. “Don’t worry, my husband’s a nurse, though you wouldn’t think it the way he panics at the first sight of blood!” She elbowed the man next to her good naturedly and he laughed, clearly a little embarrassed. 

They left the couple, moving on to the next car forward. The other cars were mostly the same, with alarmed and disrupted civilians, though no one seemed to be injured beyond the occasional bruise or scrape. Shouji gave assurances as they went, promising to make sure everything was okay. Several people recognized him, and one even recognized Kate, but Shouji gave off enough of an aura of confidence and authority that even the most alarmed passengers who had no idea who the two of them were were left much calmer than they had been before he spoke with them.

The door into the final, forward-most car finally slid open. They stepped through to find the passengers of the car - six or seven - almost right in front of them with their backs toward the pair. The passengers were standing well back from but gawking curiously at the two figures that were at the front of the car. Kate slipped through the small crowd, leaving Shouji to have to negotiate a way through on his own. 

At the front of the train car, a young man in casual clothes with a p was standing over a twisted, rusty heap of metal - what might have been armor, if the person who put it together was some post apocalyptic scavenger. Lying unconscious under all the metal was a short man with a welding mask over his face. He looked like a marionette who’d had his strings cut and collapsed under his own weight, with the way his body and limbs were twisted around. The young man was holding a taser in one hand and rubbing the back of his neck with the other; the look on his face said that he wasn’t quite sure what to do next. Kate approached him carefully, hands low but muscles tensed. “Hey, you alright, buddy?”

The man glanced up, blinking in surprise before he seemed to pull himself together. He had symmetrical splotches of darker brown skin like inverted vitiligo on the backs of his hands, and more peeking out from under his collar. “Ah, right, sorry.” He fished in his back pocket, producing a police badge. “Officer Takahashi, Musutafu. Please stay calm, I’ll take care of this.”

Shouji caught up with Kate, looking slightly harried. “Good to see you, officer. Can we help with anything?”

Officer Takahashi looked at Shouji for a moment before recognition crossed his face. “One of the UA students. Tentacole, right?” Shouji nodded, looking pleased to be recognized, and Takahashi sighed in relief. “Good to see you too, I saw you in the Sports Festival.” He looked down at the man at his feet. “I actually would appreciate your help in watching this guy. He broke up through the floor with some kind of drill quirk, but I don’t think he was actually expecting any resistance.”

“Of course,” Shouji said. Kate nudged the downed villain with a foot, but if he was awake then he was a very good actor.

“Ah, miss,” the officer started, before hesitating. He glanced to Shouji for a second as if looking for confirmation before shifting his attention back to Kate. “Are you..?”

“She’s a provisional hero as well,” Shouji supplied. He turned to Kate expectantly.

“Impulse,” She tumbled out. It was the first time she’d said it out loud, the first time she’d told anyone the name she’d chosen, besides filing it with UA and the Commission. “I’m Impulse. Uh, my license is back with my stuff.” She glanced back toward the other cars.

“It’s fine,” Takahashi waved her off. “I trust Tentacole to vouch for you.”

They were interrupted by a banging at the very front of the car, accompanied by another lurch in the train’s momentum, although not as bad as the first. The twisted metal around the hole in the floor was wedged firmly against the door to the engineer’s room at the front of the train, keeping it from budging an inch. Not for lack of trying, judging by the sounds coming from the other side. 

“I’ve got it,” Shouji headed off the officer’s look of concern-bordering-on-panic and stepped around to the side of the hole. “I’ll clear the door, don’t open it yet, please,” he called through, and then kneeled down by the bottom of the door. He set several hands in place, and with one smooth movement bent all the interfering metal down and out of the way. “Go ahead,” he said through the door, and it swung open easily. His hand was there to catch the engineer as she pushed through, holding her back from stepping right through the floor.

“Oh my god!” She stared at the scene in front of her. “I guess… that explains it.” She looked at the three of them, her uniform rumpled and dirty with grease at the sleeves, with an expression of mounting panic. Her next words immediately sent a spike of adrenaline through Kate’s spine. “I’ve lost all power to the controls. We have no brakes.”

[pageline]

“Photography.” Kate examined the disposable camera the booth attendant had given her. It was the same as the dozen or so others hanging on a display at the back of the stall, which jutted rather obtrusively onto the crowded sidewalk just outside Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku Photography Tours was printed across the sign in English. Misleading, since they didn’t offer actual tours, just the camera rentals and photo printing. The cameras were cheap plastic made to resemble old antique film cameras, although they were purely digital, with specially formatted memory access so you could only get the pictures when you returned the camera, and only as physical prints. "What are we going to be taking pictures of?"

"You'll see," Shouji answered with a smirk Kate groaned dramatically, but she found she was enjoying the back-and-forth-teasing and anticipation as Shouji constantly dangled details just out of reach

It wasn’t a long wait, anyway; it took all of a two and a half minute walk before their destination became obvious. Stretched out in front of and above them was a steel and concrete canyon draped in neon. Flashing, flickering lights and letters danced and changed moment to moment. Skyscrapers held up display screens multiple stories tall, while signs and neon tubing and wiring stretched between buildings to create a canopy web of advertisements, information alerts, news, entertainment - all of it joining together in a tapestry of perfect chaos. There was color everywhere, an assault on the eyes that left her unable to look away.

Kate was enraptured.

“What-” Her voice came out embarrassingly squeaky. She licked her lips, swallowed, and tried again. “I didn’t know-” She’d seen pictures like this, whole wonderlands of light, materialist utopias. Her phone’s image library had an entire folder dedicated to pictures like that.  “-this was a real place.” Shinjuku was a living, breathing beast, made of metal and glass and light. An ecosystem of data and patterns that nourished the unending flow of people on its streets.

Shouji stood next to her, several eyes focused on her even as he also took in the sight before them. “So, did I pick a good venue?”

Kate tore herself away from the lights to look up at him, a genuine smile gracing her face. “Yeah.” She leaned over to bump her shoulder against his arm. “Yeah, you did good.”

[pageline]

“We have no brakes.”

Kate, Shouji, and officer Takahashi shared a look between the three of them.

“Well, shit.” The drill villain groaned and began to stir, so Takahashi tased him again. “We’ll get to you in a second, mister,” he muttered under his breath.

 “Is there anything we can do?” Shouji asked the engineer. She was wringing her hands nervously as she looked over the hole in the floor, but she didn’t seem so bad off that she’d be breaking down in panic any time soon.

“I ran through emergency mechanical procedures,” she said, more like thinking out loud than informing them of the facts. “Authorities are notified,  but there’s no way to know if a hero will be able to intercept the train in time, or if they’ll be able to even do anything to help.”

Everyone was silent for a second, expressions showing different mixes of worried and thoughtful. Shouji glanced down through the hole in the floor where the train rail rushed under them, eye squinting for a second. “You said the mechanism to engage the brakes from the control cabin was damaged?” The engineer nodded shakily. “What if we engage them from here?” There was a moment where every gaze dropped to the hole in the floor, searching the damaged mechanisms around the edges of the rent metal.

The engineer crouched next to the hole, bracing against a nearby seat as she considered. “Maybe…” she pointed into the damaged area; whatever she meant to indicate, it was beyond Kate to figure out what it was, although Shouji seemed able to follow along. “That’s part of the hydraulic braking system. Normally those two struts would be compressed together on each side when the manual brakes are enabled, but you can see where they’re damaged there.” Shouji murmured his understanding, while Kate shared a look of mutual mystification with Officer Takahashi. The engineer swept an appraising look over Shouji. “I’m guessing you're pretty strong, but it’s going to take a lot of force to pull this off. Besides, this is spectacularly dangerous.” She shook her head. “I can’t let you. You’ll almost certainly be injured, you could lose your whole arm at the shoulder, And that’s an optimistic scenario.”

Shouji shrugged. His arms split, leaving him with a dozen hands flexing in preparation. “I’ve got extras. Do we have an option?” 

The engineer squinted at him, then turned and spoke into a radio attached to her shoulder for a minute. The answering squawk was less than reassuring; it didn’t sound like help would be coming in time. She sighed. “I guess we don’t.”

Shouji turned to Kate. “I’ll need your help.”

She blanched. “Me? I make things go faster , not slower.” Shouji graced her with a long, slow blink. “Right, fuck,” Kate smacked herself in the forehead as it hit her. “unequal force applied along opposing vectors equals negative acceleration.” She shooed off his smirk with a flush. “I would have got there.” She paused. “Uh, I’m not sure I can do this without tearing the train apart, though.”

She could tell when he smiled under the mask. “You don’t have to stop it yourself. Just bleed off the speed as much as you can, little bit at a time.”

Kate thought for a second. “Huh. That’s what Midnight meant, the other day. ‘Sometimes a gentle hand is stronger.’” She paused. "Would you believe I don't have a lot of practice in using Velocity that way?"

Shouji gave her a Look. "Yes."

• Display Shinjuku
• Shouji and Kate use their quirks to save the train, shouji using strength to manually pull brakes and Kate applies brief bursts of Velocity to slow the train’s momentum
• Close (at the dorm~)

2.2 Hisashi

The Dragon Hisashi

“Excuse me, miss?” Kate looked up from the book she had been examining. She needed more practice with written Japanese, and novels seemed like an easy way to get it. Fortunately, there was a corner store near UA that carried a decent selection.

“Could I speak with you for a moment?” The man next to her was tall, to the point that he was bending slightly to address her. His curly dark hair was loosely pulled back into what could generously be called a bun, and slight wrinkles around his sparkling green eyes made him seem as if he were constantly laughing.

“Oh, uhm, sure?” He smiled and turned without another word, clearly expecting her to follow. “Uh, couldn’t we talk here?” He turned, a toothy grin creeping across his face, and Kate’s instincts began to rise. The clothes that she had at first taken to be business casual suddenly looked a little too… Not casual. His black dress shirt and slacks were pressed smooth, his shoes polished until they shone. His bright red tie was the only spot of color besides his eyes. Her gaze darted around, looking for anyone else in the store, but aside from the bored looking clerk, they were alone.

“We’re just going next door.” That was the café where Toga had surprised her and Midoriya not that long ago. “I think you’ll want to take your time listening to what I have to say. Besides, I’m buying.” His smile was both sincere and threatening, equal parts danger and friendliness. She nodded and warily followed him outside, eyes roving for anything out of the ordinary. They moved next door, and each ordered a drink, he a spiced coffee, her a lemonade. The entire time, she was tense, keeping a close eye on his hands and twitching at any sudden moves he made. He seemed perfectly at ease, making a light joke with their server before leading her to a table slightly away from the others. The same one she and Midoriya had sat at when Toga paid them a visit. If he was trying to get her to relax, this was not the way to do it.

“Alright, who are you?”

He took a sip of his coffee, heedless of the steam coming off it and seemed to ponder the taste, holding it in his mouth thoughtfully for a moment before he swallowed and made a disappointed face. She realized he had light freckles dusted across his cheeks. “Not the best coffee I’ve had.” Turning to her, he smiled that near-blinding smile again, laced with a drop of venom. “I’ll tell you who I am, but first, I think it only fair that I warn you of some things.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “I want you to know that I have no particular desire to hurt you or your mother.” Her back went rigid, and she moved to stand. “But I will if I have to. Please, don’t do anything rash.” She hovered half out of her chair, grip on the edge of the table white knuckled, practically vibrating with tension and the buildup of her quirk. “I will point out that at the moment, I am in much more danger than you. You’re a powerful young lady, and I have no doubt that you could put me down in an instant, if you had a mind to. Which is why I had to come to the table, so to speak, with a bargaining chip that’s out of your reach. But make no mistake, your mother is well within my reach.”

“What do you want from us?”

“From, your mother? Nothing. She’s, by all accounts, a lovely woman. You, however? I would like your help.”

She slowly lowered herself back into her chair. “Tell me who you are. Do you have something to do with my mom or dad in America? Or are you with the League of Villains, here?”

“You’re a very cynical girl, do you know that? After all, I’m just a concerned party, trying to keep an eye out for the safety of those you care about.”

“Really, because it sounds an awful lot like you’re threatening her.”

He raised one eyebrow. “I was speaking of your classmates, actually.”

“So you are with the League.”

He leaned back, giving a small laugh. “Not at all my dear. In fact, the so called ‘League of Villains’ has been, well, less of a thorn in my side and more of a bramble thicket blocking my way, for a very long time. But with their, ah, paterfamilias , taking a leave of absence at the moment, they’ve fallen a few notches from their position as the premier organization in Japan’s underworld. Which currently makes me the oldest and meanest monster under this particular bed. You want to know who I am, Kate?” He spread his arms wide theatrically, and she saw small flames dance across his tongue. “I’m The Dragon.”

Chap br

She stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out if she should recognize the name, or if there was more coming. “That’s… maybe a bit dramatic, huh?” She hadn’t loosened her grip on the table, but she had at least taken a few sips of her drink.

“Ah, forgive me.” He straightened his tie with a chuckle. “I tend to get caught up in the moment sometimes. You pick up a few bad habits after a century or so.”

She almost choked on her drink, spitting out the straw. “I’m sorry, did you just say you’re a hundred years old ?” He didn’t look like he could be older than his late thirties.

“One hundred and thirty-three, actually. But let’s get down to business.” His face became more serious, although the laughter around his eyes never completely went away. “I want you to work for me, in a way. I’d even extend to you – and your mother – the benefits of being connected to my organization. Which, by the way, has ties across most of Asia and the Americas.”

“You’re kidding. You want me to drop out of UA to become some sort of mobster?”

“Again, my dear, quite the opposite. I very much want you to remain where you are. It may seem difficult to believe, but I approve of you young heroes, and I’m excited to see how you all turn out. Which is why I want you to keep me apprised of the goings-on at UA. From villain incidents to class gossip. Anything that might aide me in watching out for you students where your school cannot or will not, as well as things that could help me advance my own business interests. Even a little foreknowledge of who’s about to have a team of heroes come down on their heads would be no small leg up on my competition. Timing is everything, after all. So, what do you think?” His eyes were practically sparkling now; he seemed like an excitable kid as he talked about his plans for her to feed information about the top hero school in the country to, apparently , one of the biggest criminal organizations in the world.

“I have a couple questions.”

“Be my guest.” He folded his hands in front of him on the table, his face still shining with pleased expectation.

She held up one finger, marking more off as she went. “Why are you coming to me for this, what makes you think I would agree, even if I did agree how would I know I could trust you, and lastly, just a general what the fuck ?”

He took another long drink of coffee, seemingly resigned to its unsatisfactory taste. “Well, no offense, miss DeLaine-Hotz. But I came to you because you are the proverbial weakest link.”

She struggled to keep her voice even, reminding herself that she had much larger problems right now than whatever damage her ego might take from the words of a self-professed criminal. “That’s… rude.”

“It’s only the truth. You’re a stranger in a strange land. You’re new and desperate to prove yourself. No local connections, no support system outside the school. You’re isolated. And your public performances have so far been… less than stellar, at least when it comes to preserving your own health. From what I’ve seen, only Midoriya Izuku injures himself more.” There was a flash of something across his face as he said that. Furrowed brows, the beginnings of a frown. Disapproval? It was gone too quickly to tell, replaced by his megawatt smile. “So, you see, you’re the ideal candidate. I know that’s all a little harsh, and, as you say, rather impolite. I would hope that threatening your mother would be unnecessary, and you would see that helping me helps you and your friends, without the need for coercion.”

Kate crossed her arms, muttering as she looked away from him. “My mom’s a hero. She can take care of herself.”

He leaned an elbow on the table, letting his smile drop for a moment; not threatening, more concerned parent. “Kate, you and I both know that your mother has never been a warrior. Not like you. Besides which, she isn’t exactly in her prime at the moment. Your father’s death hit her hard.”

“Okay, I get it, jesus . You don’t have to twist the fucking knife. I’d ask how you know this shit, but I think the answer might be worse than whatever I imagine on my own.”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s a painful subject. But you are a teenager, after all. Historically, a group given to hasty and dangerous action. Considering that you could likely cause me severe physical harm right now as easily as not, I thought it necessary to have something to stay your hand.” He sighed, taking another drink and letting her sit in silence for a moment. “I’m phrasing all of this as a proposal, rather than a demand, because I want us to have a good working relationship.”

She stared at the table for a long minute, thoughts racing for a solution. She couldn’t find a way out of this, at least, not one that didn’t involve her temporary cooperation. “Fine. I don’t really have a choice.”

He gave a small, apologetic smile. “No, you don’t.” He perked up. “But! This is going to be very productive, for both of us. I think you’ll enjoy working with me, once you get settled in. May I see your phone for a moment?”

She hesitated, then slid her phone across the table to him. He didn’t pick it up, simply taking out his own and tapping one corner to her screen. “You’ll find a new app on there with everything you need.” She took her phone back, unlocking it and searching through for… A green icon, with a single Kanji. [永] She squinted at it, trying to puzzle out the meaning. “L-long? Is that long? Or…”

He chuckled. “Hisashi. My name.”

She looked up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Yeah, I bet it is.”

“Just don’t go repeating it, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. So… what do I have to… What do I… do … exactly?”

“There’s a packet of information and instructions in the app. Any communications sent through it should be entirely undetectable. No one will even know it’s there if they don’t see it on your screen. It will require your phone’s passcode in reverse to unlock, and if you enter your normal passcode it will show a different app that you can show to others, if they ask about it.”

“What’s the fake app?”

Hisashi seemed like he was struggling to hold back a laugh. “Menstrual tracker.”

She groaned. “Cute.”

He stood, taking his coffee cup with him. “I have a busy day, so I’ll let you go over the rest on your own. Send a message if you need clarification on anything, I’ll usually answer by the end of the day. And remember, Kate, if you tell anyone, I will find out.” His light tone somehow made the threat sound more intimidating. He sipped his coffee as he walked off, throwing a wave and a thumbs up to the girl at the register.

Kate stared at the table, leaning her elbows on it as she massaged her temples. “ Fuuuck .”

Kate sat on her bed, sequestered in her room and wrapped in several blankets as she went through the app’s store of instructions and information.

Dear Miss DeLaine-Hotz,

I am thrilled that you’ve agreed to work with me on this matter, and I look forward to a productive and fulfilling partnership. Below, I’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of what I will be expecting from you, as well as sections of advice and the advantages you gain by association with me. This is simply a general overview and reference sheet, you can find more detailed information on each subject in the corresponding files, marked under “Info-Packs” in the directory.

In no particular order:

•       Reports on the general mental, social, and academic health of the students of class 2-A (including your own)
•       Any information you happen to acquire on the plans and routines of pro heroes, i.e. patrol routes, investigations, leaves of absence, etc.
•       Notable strengths and weaknesses of pros, students, and villains you are aware of (this is largely for your own edification, though I’m sure I’ll find a use for the information. Knowing your allies is equally as important as knowing your enemies)
•       Significant unplanned events or disruptions such as attacks on the school, accidents, injuries, and general bad news
•       Significant planned events such as field trips, extended training activities, and general good news
•       The juiciest gossip (I’m serious)
•       Any concerns you may have as to the well-being of yourself, your peers, or your teachers
•       Anything you think I should know
•       Anything you think I shouldn’t know

As for general advice: Ideally, none of your habits, mannerisms, or interests should change. I’m not asking you to become a spy, simply an informant. I realize the difference may seem trivial, but I want to cause as little disruption as possible. Between you and my other sources of information at UA, even partial information can easily be compiled into a bigger picture. Particularly in regard to data on the activities of pro heroes, do not draw undue attention or suspicion seeking out information, simply report what you happen to find during your day-to-day activities. Getting caught because of overzealous snooping would be counter-productive, to say the least. It would be helpful if you sent a report daily, using the built-in function in this app, but every two or three days will be satisfactory. Obviously, please don’t bring up our arrangement with anyone , including asking about “hypothetical” situations “for a friend.” I hate to force you to keep things from those around you, as it will certainly be somewhat isolating, but operational security is paramount. This is especially true for your relationship with Shouji Mezou. While he is a bright and decent young man and a promising hero, be aware of the danger intimacy poses. Do not let something slip simply because you are comfortable around him and trust him.

Since we’ll be working together, I’ve taken the liberty of extending to you the benefits of association with me. In your case, that includes having an associate of mine keep an eye on your mother. I’m aware of how that sounds, but I assure you that the majority of their task is to ensure that life goes as smoothly as possible for her. Rest assured that neither you or she will want for funds, and she should experience far fewer unnecessary inconveniences in her daily life. Things like taking care of some of the unfair litigations that inevitably plague even the best heroes, as well as simply keeping an eye out for her general well-being. Should you find yourself in a crisis, I can also provide you with resources like technology, shelter, transportation, or whatever else you may need. Obviously, the need for discretion in these cases goes without saying, but I promise that if you need help of any sort, I will bend my not-insignificant resources to your aid. You’re a valuable resource yourself, not to mention a minor, I’d feel terrible if you got hurt.

Don’t be afraid to message me with any questions or concerns, I will do my best to reply promptly.

Sincerely, your new friend and associate.

Kate read through the introductory file twice, cursing softly the whole time.

What a smug bastard

She closed that file and looked through the directory. There were nearly thirty files in the Info-Packs tab, and after a cursory glance she realized with consternation that many of them were a hundred pages or more of intricately detailed instructions or information. She closed the app, tossing her phone to the other side of the bed.

Does he seriously want me to read all that

After a moment of thought, she retrieved the phone and opened the app’s messenger.

Dear Mister The Dragon,

I know you said communication through here would be untraceable, but you do know about Principle Nezu, right? Do you really think you can get around whatever tech safeguards he’s got set up? It took me a week just to figure out the wifi.

Sincerely, Your Unwilling Pawn

Aaaand send

She had wanted to sign the message with something more along the lines of “Sincerely, Fuck You,” but she figured there was only so much disrespect a crime boss would tolerate, even one who seemed as laid back as Hisashi. Hopefully Nezu would intercept the message right off the bat and they’d get busted. She might get in trouble, but hopefully if it was his tech’s fault then Hisashi’d leave her mom alone.

She curled her legs into her chest, wrapping her arms around them and staring at nothing. Eventually she’d have to let herself feel something about what was happening. Up to this point she’d been desperately distancing herself from her emotions, maybe not very effectively, but at least trying to keep her fear at bay to deal with the immediate situation. Now that there was nothing to occupy her immediate attention, it was baring down on her. She felt something hot running down her cheek.

Real fuckin’ crybaby lately, huh

She didn’t fight it. Slumped against the wall, she let the dread overcome her for a little while. Fear for her mom, fear for her future if is she was found out. Fear what would happen if she wasn’t caught. She didn’t know how long she sat there, sobbing quietly into her knees.

Eventually there was a knock at her door.

“Who is it?”

“Mezou.”

She didn’t answer for almost a minute, not sure if she could keep her voice even remotely even.

“There’s food downstairs if you want some. Ashido made ramen.”

“I’m fine, she finally answered. “Thanks though.”

“Are you feeling alright? You love ramen.”

She laughed, suppressing a sniffle. “I love all food equally. I’m fine. I think I’m just going to go to bed early.” She didn’t have the energy to come up with any more elaborate excuse. There was a long silence.

“Alright. Text me if you want me to bring up some food or something. Have a good night.”

“Yeah.” She barely got the word out without it turning into a sob. She waited for the sound of his footsteps to leave, always surprisingly light for his size. Once he was gone, she let her face fall back into her arms, muffling a pathetic little whimper that she was immediately angry with herself for.

Weak. Weak and stupid, as always. Maybe if you were smarter you wouldn’t be in this stupid fucking mess. Maybe if you were tougher mom wouldn’t have sent you an ocean away and you wouldn’t be such a fucking burden

Her mind was quickly digging a hole she wouldn’t easily be able to climb out of. It wouldn’t be the first time. She picked up her phone, trying to distract herself. Avoidance was a tried and true strategy. She scrolled through social media, catching up on blog posts and checking news sites until she was vacantly refreshing empty screens, waiting for anything new to appear. It was a slow news day, for the rest of the world. Boredom and frustration eventually forced her to screw up her courage and return to the app Hisashi had given her. Only once she opened it did any notification appear, a small red dot showing on the messages tab. She opened it quickly.

Dear Teenage Smartass,

Watch it with the sarcasm. The boss may not care, but I do. Don’t worry about the mouse, we’re very thorough. Just do your job, we’ll take care of the rest.

Sincerely, A Responsible Adult

That was… not what she had been expecting, honestly. She had assumed it would be the Dragon himself answering her messages, for some reason. Silly mistake to make. Crime lords didn’t get to be crime lords by answering all of their own mail. He probably had several people for that. Still, no point in letting them walk all over her if she could help it.

Dear Responsible Adult,

Figures I’d get a passive-aggressive babysitter.

The response was almost immediate this time.

Dear Still A Smartass,

What did I just say about sarcasm. If it were up to me the boss wouldn’t be wasting his valuable time sorting through your amateur intel, but he wants to be personally involved, so I’ll just be around when he’s too busy. Behave. And don’t message unless you’ve actually got something to say.

She probably shouldn’t be offended by a criminal’s devaluation of her competence, but she felt like she was entitled to a little petty resentment at this point. She didn’t bother answering. Might as well do what she’d said and go bed early. She peeled off her shirt and changed into some sweatpants. Flopping back down onto her bed, she didn’t bother climbing under the blankets, electing to lay on top and stare at the ceiling. Her thoughts were jumbled, chaotic, and moving far too fast to let her sleep.

Intern with hero on hisashi’s payroll – Pit Viper, Venom Coat: paralytic poison quirk

Dragon's Model

Doublespeak

Everything he does should be progressing multiple agendas at once

Always seems to know more than he says he does

creepy

What does he want - must be both somewhat benevolent and vaguely sinister - change society - does good things for bad reasons, bad things for good reasons

What’s coming

Age of peace is over. The new era dawns. Where will you stand?

You: Are you really not gonna talk to me?

Dino-Gal: ughhhh do i have too, can’t we just keep it loose, just do whatever we want withhout having to think about it

Dino-Girl: i think too much about the hero and school stuff already. i just want someone i can turn my brain off with

You: Well, there is one conversation we kind of have to have, at least

You: I probably should have told you about it before i actually did it, but I’m kind of actually on a date with Shouji right now 

Dino-Gal: oh

Dino-Gal: i probably should have seen that coming

Dino-Gal: good for you guys, though. srsly

“This is getting really old.” Kate glared up at Pit Viper from where his quirk had left her crumpled on the floor. He sauntered over and took a seat next to her, wiping the opalescent venom off his knife with an old, stained rag.

“There’s no motivator quite like frustration.”

“Trust me, I know.” Kate tried to wiggle her fingers, annoyed at finding only a pinky finger twitching. “So, are we going to do anything besides kick my ass across the gym for a week?”

Viper laughed. “Yeah, tomorrow we’re going to go on an errand I need to run, then we’ll go on patrol.”

“Cool. Where’re we going?” The pins’n’needles feeling was starting to come back in her toes, and she was desperately trying to distract herself from the sensation.

“We’re gonna go visit a mutual friend, I’ve got something to drop off.” Viper winked at her, and Kate’s blood ran cold for a moment. It was easy to forget the likeable hero freelanced for a criminal mastermind on the side.

“Right.” Kate’s eyes drifted away from him, about as much as she could do to express her displeasure at that moment.

“Hey now, buck up. You act like he shot your dog.” She could hear the man’s mocking smile without having to look at him.

“Nah, just threatened to shoot my mom , is all,” Kate bit out.

Viper sighed. “He’s cautious. Don’t take it personal. Hell, he actually did threaten to shoot my dog one time. I’m still not sure if he’d actually do it.”

Kate gave him a skeptical glance. “Try not to take it personal when he threatens me and my mom? Seriously ?”

Viper put his knife away, readjusting so that he was look down at her straight on instead of from the side. “Look, this is how it works. A relationship with Hisashi starts in one of two ways. If you’re beat down, weak, disadvantaged; he comes to you with an offer to be a part of something, to make a difference. If you’re in a position to be a threat to him, he still comes with an open hand and a smile, but he covers his ass, too. He’s optimistic, not stupid.”

“So, I’m a threat.”

“You’re an asset. You just happen to also be a threat. If you were just a threat, he would have just left you alone.”

“Hm.” Kate thought for a minute. “Which were you?” Viper raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Were you weak, or a threat?”

“Ah.” Viper stared at the far wall for a moment before he answered, as the tingling sensation made its way up Kate’s legs and her toes began to regain movement. “I think I was both. Sort of a wounded animal, at that time in my life.”

“Were you already a hero?”

Viper snorted. “Technically. Not a very good one, though.”

“So, what? He made you a better hero? Why would he do that?”

“You’re still thinking of him as a villain. But no, he didn’t make me a better hero. He just put me in a position to put my life back together. It was up to me what I did with it after that.”

“Why wouldn’t I think of him as a villain? He walks around calling himself The Dragon and runs a criminal empire. That’s pretty classic comic book villain shit.”

Viper smirked, shoving her shoulder gently. “You’re secretly a huge hero nerd, aren’t you?”

Kate could feel her cheeks warming. “There’s nothing wrong with liking heroes.”

“No, I suppose there isn’t. Just don’t think that means you can always trust them.” Viper’s face had dropped into something serious, although he wasn’t looking at her anymore.

Kate rolled her eyes, although Pit Viper didn’t see it. “I’m American. I know not to trust people just because they’re in charge.”

Viper looked back to her with an expression of mild surprise. “Huh.” He looked contemplaitive for a long moment. “Maybe I should get out of Japan for a while. See what the rest of the world’s up to.”

Kate scoffed. “Don’t bother. It’s all shit.”

Viper frowned. “You’re too young to be this cynical.”

“But not too young to be a forced double agent?” She managed to make her chin jut out slightly in challenge, staring Viper down.

He let out a sharp breath, halfway to a laugh but a little too grim. “Got me there.”

Kate finally managed to roll over, pushing herself up onto her knees. “Whatever. I’m ready to go again.”

Viper dragged his eyes off the invisible horizon. “No, we’re done for the day.” He levered himself up, still looking a little like he wasn’t all there. “I need to go take care of something, feel free to raid the fridge or something if you’re staying here. Don’t touch the alcohol.” He gave her an exaggerated finger waggle of warning, but he was obviously distracted.

“Is this another ‘errand’?”

He didn’t look back as he reached the door, the light of sunset spilling in as he pulled it open. “No. This one’s just for me.”

Kate looked after him from her spot on the mat for a time after the door closed behind him. “That’s fuckin’ ominous, but okay.”

 They rushed around the corner, onto an awful scene. The bodies of four Noumu lay scattered across the alley; their condition ranging from “dismembered” to “extremely dismembered.” Setsuna rushed to a crumpled form huddled against the wall, a painful sound dragging from her throat that Kate preferred not to examine. Blocking out the other girl’s worried mumbling, Kate approached the back of the alley, and the final scene of the tableau. 

Arabella finished for her. “You’re seventy years old.” There was a long silence. “Why do you look like you’re thirty, Angela?” The emotion in her voice was hard to identify; half sympathy, half trepidation.

A sigh. “Is there any chance we could have this conversation another time?”

“I want to know, mom. Is it some quirk,” Kate begged

Angela took a long, calming breath. “Alright. I want you to know, first, that I’m not sick, and I’m not in any danger.” Her upheld hand forestalled any new questions. “I have an extremely rare autoimmune disease that targets cell multiplication. It essentially causes rapid aging in patients, and has no cure; by the time I graduated med school I looked and felt twice my age. Those four years between then and the beginning of my hero career was spent searching for a cure.”

“And you found it.”

“No. Not at all, sadly. I confess, I was getting desperate, and stooped to some… mad science. I infected myself with a bioengineered disease that affects an equal and opposite result to the original disorder, stimulating cell division similar to a cancer.”

“So,” Kate said after a long moment, “it balances. You’re the same age forever.”

Angela hummed noncommittally. “Not forever , I imagine. But for the foreseeable future, yes.” 

“What the fuck , mom!” Her mother didn’t bother to reprimand her. “Any other secrets you’ve got for me?”

DEEP TALKS

“Catch!”

Without looking up from his textbook, Shouji held out a set of arms, catching his girlfriend as she propelled herself six feet into the air and fell back down. She laughed as she landed in the crook of three elbows, reaching behind her to pull herself up and sit on his uppermost bicep. After a moment, he looked up from his book.

“I can’t hold you there forever, you know.”

She swung her legs back and forth, giving her best innocent expression

“Sure you can, mister ‘540 kilos grip strength’.”

Shouji shook his head and went back to his book.

“I don’t know why Fumikage told you that, but I’m certain it wasn’t so you could use it against me. Besides, do you even know how much a kilo is?”

She aimed a dramatic injured look at him, which he studiously ignored.

“It’s like two pounds, thank you. Which means you’re squeezing at well over half a ton. You could crush a skull, dude!”

She knew him well enough by now to realize she’d said something wrong. He was frowning under the mask, and the eye he had been looking at her with disappeared, replaced with a flat duplication node.

“I’m well aware.”

Her face fell. Dropping off of his shoulder she sat on the couch next to him.

“Hey.”

She reached over and took one of his hands, holding it in both of hers.

“Do you want to talk about it? I- I know what it’s like. Being… Dangerous.”

He leaned back from his book. Not looking at her, just staring into the middle distance.

“I don’t want to hurt people, Kate. I don’t want to hurt anyone, ever. I’ll fight if I have to, but that’s not why I want to be a hero. But, it’s hard, sometimes. I could be very good at hurting people if I chose to, even if it was just villains. Especially when they hurt my friends. And, well. We’ve all seen villains hurt our friends, over the past year and a half. I don’t think there’s a single one of us who hasn’t been seriously injured at least once, in attacks that are specifically targeted at us . It’s not just random villains, just a part of the job. It’s personal. They’ve been out for our blood from day one, and they’ve spilled plenty of it.”

Kate rubbed at her scarred shoulder, feeling the lumps of tissue where the Nomu had torn into her. Shouji made a fist out of one hand, looking at it for a moment, then unclenched it, setting it in his lap.

“Sometimes when I see them, I just. I get so angry . I feel like Dark Shadow; out of control. So I try to stay away from them, when they come. I help my friends. I carry the injured. So far that’s been enough. We’re all still alive. But. I know I could do more. I could keep injuries from happening, instead of tending to them when they do. Just one hand on Toga, or Spinner, or almost any of them, and I could stop them. Maybe for good.”

Kate rubbed his hand comfortingly, saving her questions. There was time for that later, let him talk now. This was almost more than he’d ever said at once before.

But he knew what she did and didn’t know. He knew she hadn’t met the League of Villains, not truly. Not like the rest of the class had. She didn’t understand yet, these people who would be coming for her.

“Toga Himiko. She’s a member of the League of Villains now, but before that she was a serial killer. She still is, I suppose, but she’s been…” He looked like he’d swallowed something bitter. “Well behaved, lately. Regardless, do you know how many people she’s killed?” He looked at Kate now, eye to eye, more intense than she’d ever seen him. “Forty-four. That’s how many victims are attributed to her. I looked it up. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It could be more. It will be more, in all likelihood. And the rest are no better: Dabi, Shigaraki. I couldn’t find details on them. I worry that means they’re worse . Maybe if I tried harder, if I got over myself, I could help stop them. Midoriya, Todoroki, even Bakugou, they throw themselves into the fight. They give a hundred and ten percent to save even one person. How can I call myself a hero when I’m not doing the same?”

“First, I should probably tell you; I convinced Aizawa to let me look through recordings of you guys from last year. To get a sense of what the class has gone through and stuff. And holy shit. I mean, you guys told me, but… I didn’t really get it until I saw some of the tapes. I know that’s nothing compared to being there, but I was legitimately afraid even though I knew the outcome. You guys have been through some horrible shit. But there was something I noticed. Well, I noticed a lot of things. But I listened in on some audio recordings of Bakugou. And all I really heard was myself.” She held up a hand at the look on Shouji’s face. “Not me now, but who I was up until a few years ago. I heard him ranting, and I heard Midoriya’s defending him, and I pieced together a pretty accurate picture of who he’s been throughout his life, I think. He claimed he wanted to be a hero. And Midoriya thought that proved he was a good person inside. It didn’t. Because Midoriya heard ‘hero’ and thought of someone who saves people. I don’t think that’s what Bakugou was envisioning at all. When Bakugou said he wanted to be a hero, he meant he wanted to rage and shout and fight people. When he said he wanted to be the best he meant he wanted to lord his superiority over the world, and hurt people while doing it. Which I know sounds harsh. But I heard it very clearly, because that’s who I was too. I was a petty, angry, uncontrolled child. I hurt people on accident, but I hurt people on purpose, too. I was violent, and I still am. It’s in my nature, just like it is in Bakugou’s. When I was very young, I couldn’t control my quirk well. Which was… catastrophic, really, for a number of people. One of my teachers had to have her arm amputated because she put her hand on my shoulder for too long while she talked to my mom. I didn’t want her hand there, and the desire to remove it was enough for my quirk to activate. I was only thinking about her hand, so that’s what was given velocity.” She paused, looking down at her own hands. “Every physical object has a rate of acceleration after which it can’t maintain structural integrity. Her hand, and most of her arm, were basically turned to jelly. The parts that were still attached, anway. It’s a miracle I never killed anyone. I don’t know how my mom kept me out of some sort of kid-prison. I was a schoolyard bully, sending other kids toys hurtling over fences or breaking them. Petty. Cruel. I loved showing off my power, how far above them I was. Only around five years ago did I realize I was just a mean piece of shit. That’s why I want to be a hero. To balance the scale and tip it the other way. After all the petty hurt I inflicted, maybe I can help some people too. Save them, or just make their day better, I don’t know. But the old me, the small, pathetic, cruel me? That’s what I saw in those recordings of Bakugou. But. That isn’t the Bakugou I’ve seen since I came here. He’s abrasive, but he’s not… There isn’t cruelty or malevolence behind it. Not usually. I can only assume somewhere between last year and this year, Bakugou came to the same conclusion I did. That he was a piece of shit. I think Kirishima may have more than a little to do with it, honestly, but I’m sure he and Midoriya punched out their feelings at some point, too. That seems to be how things go down with this class, if the recording of the sports festival is anything to go by. He’s trying to be better, I think. Trying hard, because it’s clear he doesn’t half-ass anything he bothers to do. He’s always going to be loud, and maybe always a little violent. So am I. I take a lot of pleasure in violence, whether it’s coming or going. I’ve got a handle on it, I’m not… Well. I’m going to be a hero. A real hero, who helps people, not just a thug who happens to beat up the right assholes. And I think Bakugou is headed that way, too. I think he actually sees other people as human beings, now. I think he’s going to be alright.

“I told you I know what it’s like to be dangerous. My quirk is exceedingly, disastrously lethal. If I send something flying a little too fast, that’s someone without a head anymore on the other end. If I send myself a little too far, that’s a fist through someone’s chest and out the other side. I can’t mess up even once, or someone dies. I know we’re all deadly. Sero could suffocate someone without even realizing it. Koda could accidentally summon some incredibly venomous insect. Jiro could melt someone’s brain. Uraraka’s power terrifies me on a deep, fundamental level. I don’t ever want her floating me, and I can control where I move in relative space. I can’t imagine how scary that would be if I couldn’t. I think Tsuyu is the least likely to accidentally kill someone. Anything she could do is basically what anyone else could do to murder someone, even if she would be better at it. She could strangle someone with her tongue or drag them underwater and drown them, but that would be hard to do on accident. I just have to touch someone for a handful of seconds and they’ll be a stain on the wall. And that’s the long way; I could tear their heart out in an instant, with one hand, if I hit them at anything like full speed. I don’t want to do that. I want to help people. I want to be a hero.” She laughed, a little self-consciously. “I still have some, uh, moral quandaries to work out. Some of the same ones I think you do. About what justice and heroism are. Whether it’s right to kill to prevent more deaths. But we don’t have to figure that out right away, right? We can still do good without doing harm, in the meantime. I have to believe that.”

Dark Shadow Interlude

“Dark Shadow is unique.”

“Yeah, he’s a pretty crazy quirk.”

“No. Well, yes. But that is not what I mean. I mean that Dark Shadow is unique… among his kind.”

Kate and Shouji stared at Tokoyami for a long minute, surprise evident on their faces. He looked back at them, something like discomfort on his face.

“He is unique, in that he can manifest a physical form in our world, and in that he is, to some degree, a separate entity from me.”

Dark Shadow’s yellow eyes peaked over Tokoyami’s shoulder from behind him, hesitant and subdued for once.

“Fumikage, what are you saying?”

“That you each possess your own dark shadows, after a fashion. Every soul casts a shadow, and I can see them all; as can my father, and my father’s father. It is the combination of that quirk with my mother’s that allows my own Dark Shadow to manifest himself.”

The shadow in question seemed to wrap around Tokoyami protectively in the dim light, resting its head on his shoulder. He reached up a hand and stroked its beak absentmindedly as he spoke.

“A soul-shadow is the purest expression of a person’s prevailing feelings and mindset. They shift moment to moment to express the moods and thoughts of their bearers, and are often impossible to read. But they are often painfully transparent, as well.” He looked to Kate. “Your frustration and anger are unmistakable, as are your joy and satisfaction. The first paint your shadow black as hate and red as sin, while the latter make it shudder and sing your delight. You exist between two extremes of passion, always.” He turned to Shouji. “You are harder to read, Mezo, if only because you give fewer outward hints of what you are feeling to match your soul’s reactions with. But I have learned to watch for when it spreads its wings in quiet joy, or for the soft blue tone it takes on when you are deep in thought.” He smirked at them. “And you both have a very specific tell when you are thinking about each other.”

NIGHT TALKS

“Hey, babe.”

“Hm?” Shouji propped himself up to look at her as she stared at the ceiling, dimly lit by the light coming under the door from the hall and the soft neon strip hanging above her bed.

“Why do we have to be heroes?”

Shouji considered for a minute. “Do you mean us specifically, or as a society?”

“Society. Or both, maybe.” She turned her head to look up at him. “Why do there have to be, like, villains. Why do people have to hurt each other so much? Like, I get that there are always going to be bad people, but like… Why are there so many of them?”

He lay back down, scooting a set of arms under her to pull her close. “I don’t know. I assume the world was less dangerous before quirks, but were there less bad people? Or just fewer that could hurt anyone.”

“I read that villain activity has been steadily increasing over the last fifty years, worldwide. It’s been low in Japan because of All Might, and American statistics are usually pretty much made up, but I guess everywhere else is kind of going downhill.” She tangled her fingers with Shouji’s, staring at their intertwined hands as she pressed her back close to his chest. “Is it something we’re doing wrong, as a society? Or is it just the nature of humanity.”

“It could be both.” He tucked her head under his chin, pressing a kiss to her forehead with one of his tentacles. “The nature of man feeds the ills of society, which brings out the bad in people in return. Fumikage would call it a dark cycle of decay.”

“Ha, he would, wouldn’t he.” They lay in silence for a few minutes, content in each other’s company. Shouji lay a hand on her stomach, idly picking at the hem of her sweatpants.

“Hey, here’s a less heavy question. Have you ever had, like, a real conversation with Dark Shadow? Like, it’s sentient, right?”

Shouji rumbled something noncommittal in his chest, making a pleasant vibration against her back. “Somewhat. Fumikage doesn’t particularly like letting Dark Shadow hang around when it isn’t necessary. Their relationship has always been… complicated, to say the least. I suspect his childhood was difficult.”

“If Dark Shadow was always as strong as it is now, that would definitely make for a shitty childhood. Kids aren’t exactly great at controlling their emotions.”

“Indeed. There are likely people who have been hurt that he feels responsible for.”

“That’s not a fun place to be. Maybe I’ll ask him about it. You know, as a fellow former danger to society.” She paused. “I guess this is just as dark, huh?”

“Sometimes you have to face the dark.”

“Now you sound like him.”

“Hmm. I’m alright with that. He’s no fool.”

“Wise and dramatic. Double threats, the both of you.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

She laughed softly, swatting him lightly on the chest. “Accept the compliment, jackass. I swear, the only person in this class with an ounce of self-confidence is fucking Bakugou . And Aoyama, I guess. I can’t really figure him out.”

“I’ve chosen to just take him at face value. If that’s the face he wants to show, then it’s the one I’ll accept.”

“That’s… I should do that. I guess I should stop trying to second-guess people. You’re so smart.”

“I’ll accept your compliment, for fear of getting hit again.”

She groaned, rolling over onto him so that she lay facedown on top of his chest. “You’re impossible.”

He wrapped her in all six arms, covering her almost completely and pressing her tight to his chest. “You like me anyway.”

“Obviously.” Her voice was muffled as she snuggled further down under the blanket. “Also I love your muscles. I’d put up with a lot for those. Look at these fucking abs.” She planted a kiss on his stomach and rested her head on said muscles, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“You only want me for my amazing shoulders, is that it?”

“I mean, they’re impressive shoulders.”

He laughed silently. “I guess I’m all yours, then.”

“ Awesome .”

It wasn’t long before her breath was soft and even, ghosting lightly over his stomach. He smiled down at her, leaving another kiss on her head. The hall light winked out, leaving him with just the purple neon above his head. He closed his eyes, letting himself drift off to his own peaceful sleep.

CRIMSON

“Watch out!”

Kate dodged grasping fingers, crackling with red energy, as the villain flew past. Shouji’s backhand swing went wide as the villain dashed past him, as well. The group of three criminals regrouped at the end of the hallway. On the left stood a shirtless mountain of a man sporting bull’s horns and enough muscle to throw a car, as he had demonstrated earlier. On the right was a nondescript, civilian-looking woman who had been stopping their attacks midair with a wave of her hand throughout the fight, bringing up pink energy shields to deflect their hits. In the center crouched the leering red haired and red handed woman the others had called Crimson, who had torn her way through the front façade of the bank they had been passing on their way to the mall. Kate, Shouji, and Tokoyami had given chase, and the thieves had led them into an office building, the redhead tearing apart whatever walls and furniture she could lay hands on. The exact nature of her quirk was hard to identify, but the important parts were crystal clear. Don’t get grabbed if you still want that body part. The three students were breathing heavily after chasing the villains a block and a half and fighting their way up three floors of offices. They were in a long hallway now, lined with office doors either side, leading to the T-intersection where the villains now stood, their backs to a wall of windows. As the students warily advanced, Tokoyami took out the lights above him as they went, leaving the hallway behind them shrouded in shadows.

“That’s far enough, kiddies.” Crimson, clearly the leader, gave them a manic grin as she flexed her hands warningly.

Tokoyami spoke from behind the other two. “Then put down the backpacks full of money and surrender. If you give up now your charges will likely be greatly reduced.”

The leader of the villains cackled. “Who the fuck do you kids think you are? You can’t touch us.” She gestured to the plain looking woman beside her. “Kita’s barriers nullify kinetic energy. Maybe if you had a decent energy quirk between the three of you, you might pose some sort of threat. But all you’ve got is physical attacks.” She pointed at Kate with a sneer. “And don’t think I didn’t see you, little girl. You’re fast, but Kita’s faster – you found that out the hard way, earlier, huh? With her defense and Minos’ and me’s offense, I bet we could have even taken down All Might , if he hadn’t fallen apart on his own!”

Shouji scoffed quietly behind his mask, arms spread wide to ward off any sudden charge. “Then why are you pulling two-bit bank heists?”

The bull man’s face contorted in rage at that, and he thundered down the hall towards Shouji. “I’ll show you two bits when I tear you in half!”

“Minos no! We’ve been over this, wait for the setup!” The woman called Kita shouted after him, a look of frustration on her face, before she turned her attention to Kate and Shouji, Tokoyami still lurking in the dark behind them. Shouji met the charge full on, catching both horns and fists in his hands and backpedaling a few steps with the impact to soften it, completely unfazed by the man’s furious roars.

Crimson shook her head, toothy grin and crazed light in her eye unwavering. “It’s fine. These kids want to play at being heroes? We’ll show them what happens to heroes.” She dashed forward, the red aura around her hands leaving light trails through the air behind her. Kate sped forward to meet her but was met, once again, by a hard impact to the face before she reached her target as a shimmering pink barrier appeared between them. “Kita’s quirk goes two ways, yeah?” The red woman stalked close to Kate as they glared at each other through the barrier. “You can’t get to me, I can’t get to you. Except-” As she spoke, she threw an arm forward. It slowed a little when it met the force field, but it passed through, the red energy visibly eroding a hole through the shield. Kate almost managed to throw her torso to the side fast enough, but the strike clipped her ribs and took a chunk out of her jacket and shirt. “- I can pass right through it.” Kate skipped back, holding a hand tight to her ribs at the burning sensation that flared up. She could feel blood seeping through her fingers but didn’t feel any serious damage. Although, the pain was steadily growing worse.

“That fuckin’ stings , bitch!”

“That’s the idea, you mouthy little brat.”

“Kate, kneecap, behind.” Tokoyami’s curt call from behind her brought a grin of her own to Kate’s face. She skipped a few more steps back as she turned to see where she needed to go. As Kate looked away, she saw Crimson’s eyes go wide as she realized she was now cut off from her ally, leaving him to fight three on one. Behind where Kate had been facing off, Shouji had allowed Minos to slowly propel him backward, always defending against any serious hits. Tokoyami had decided they were now far enough into the shadows and called on Kate for a two-pronged counterattack. Focused on Shouji, the bull man didn’t see Dark Shadow shoot low to the ground or Kate activate her quirk behind him. Kita managed to throw up a shield that blocked Kate’s kick toward the back of his knee, but Minos took Dark Shadow’s full attack to the gut. The darkness-empowered hit knocked his balance backward as he let out a tremendous rush of air, and Shouji took full advantage to land a haymaker to his face before flowing into an arm hold. In the space of a moment, he had the man bent forward at the waist as he twisted his arm, and Dark Shadow crowed in victory as he brought both fists down on the back of the man’s head. Minos hit the floor without even a whimper.

Kate had expected her kick to be intercepted, so when she heard the crackling of energy quickly growing louder behind her, she was already using her quirk to throw herself backward again, past Crimson to land between her and Kita. She saw the woman’s attention follow her backward, but the redhead only faltered for a second, letting her dash carry her forward toward Shouji’s exposed back.

“ Mezou !”

Time seemed to slow as both Kate and Tokoyami called out in panicked warning. An eye on one of Shouji’s lower arms swiveled toward the oncoming threat, even as he was already ducking into a spinning roll that put him a few feet away and crouched low, facing where he had just been. All eyes followed the redheaded woman as she jumped, planting a foot against the wall and pushing off, following parallel to Shouji’s movement, even as she high-flipped over Dark Shadow as it moved to strike her in the air. She landed behind Shouji, placing a glowing red hand firmly on the back of his neck.

“Arms forward, squid boy, or I pop you like a pimple.”

Silence reigned for all of six long seconds as no one dared to move. Dark Shadow’s form grew the slightest bit blurry, its edges beginning to bleed darkness from Tokoyami’s agitation.

“Now, you little shits, you’re going to do exactly as I say. Otherwise, your little buddy here is gonna need some ‘corrective therapy’ to replace his missing everything .” The manic smile was gone now, replaced by furiously clenched teeth. “You’re all pretty quick, especially you , girlie, but don’t think for a second Kita and I aren’t both fast enough to stop anything you try to pull and put this boy six feet under at the same time. Get up.” She yanked Shouji to his feet, having to hold her hand above her head to keep a grip on his neck. She spun him around so that their backs were toward Kita and facing Tokoyami, and walked them slowly backward toward the end of the hallway, trying to keep on eye on both Kate and Tokoyami. She would have to pass Kate in the wide hall to get to Kita, who stood tense and prepared by the windows at the end.

“Himura, we need to get out of here. Just hurt him bad enough that they have to stay to help him and let’s go.” Kita’s voice shook slightly, the tension in the air nearly palpable and clearly affecting her. Crimson grinned again, now that she felt back in control.

“No rush, Kita. We’ll be just fine.” She met eyes with Kate, a cruel pulse of red ringing her brown irises. “It’s a shame about Minos, even if he was just dumb muscle. Still, it’s a loss. You took out my bruiser, how about I take yours?” Clearly, she read murderous intent in Kate’s expression because the red energy around her hands grew brighter and Shouji’s expression became pained. “Ah, ah, careful.”

“Kate, be calm,” Tokoyami said evenly. “Don’t do anything rash.”

Shouji locked eyes with her. “Just let it go Kate. I’ll be fine.”

Himura laughed, hard and cruel. “You just might, if everyone behaves. In fact, if you’re all really good, once I’m done with him, I might even drop him off with enough life left in him that you’ll get to say goodbye. Isn’t that sweet?” She twitched at the look of fury that Kate couldn’t hold back, and although Kate still didn’t move beyond clenching her fists at her sides, she was practically vibrating in place with anger and distress. “You know you’re not fast enough, little girl. Use your quirk and Kita will have you bouncing off like a bird off a window. Her reaction time’s too good for you.” Her smile grew wider as she gloated, until something inside Kate snapped. She had been gathering energy within herself as Crimson talked, and now she was going to let it loose.

All of it.

“I’m not fast enough?” Her voice ground out between clenched teeth.

No one present could track what happened next. There was a deafening crack, and all the windows behind Kita exploded outward. A shockwave threw both Himura and Shouji flat, and buffeted Kita and Tokoyami, forcing them to shield their faces from the burst of wind. Kita’s pink barrier materialized to block Kate’s attack just like it had before. And Kate stood over Crimson, unhindered, holding the severed and pulverized lower half of Crimson’s forearm as the woman lay on the floor, staring at the ruined and bloody stump of where her left hand had been.

“You have no idea how fast I am.”

Kita stared for a second in horror before turning and sprinting for the windows, jumping through the opening left by the shattered glass. No one chased her. A small laugh rose in Crimson’s throat, growing until she was cackling, eyes like dinner plates fixed on the blood spurting from what had once been her wrist. Kate stared down at her, not moving even to breath. Crimson looked up to meet her eyes, containing herself to the occasional giggle. “Aren’t you just a hand and a half, girlie! Hey, birdbrain, I thought you said you were heroes in training? This the kind of thing they teach you at that fancy school?” She broke down into hysterical laughter, eventually petering out as she lost consciousness.

Kate dropped the severed limb, swaying slightly before taking a step to catch herself. Tokoyami didn’t move, frozen in place. Shouji scrambled up, reaching forward, hesitantly at first, and then decisively, moving to wrap his arms around Kate. She pulled away, not looking at him. She staggered toward the wall and was overtaken by a coughing fit that left blood dripping down her chin. She wrapped one arm tight around her chest, doubling over in pain as she caught herself against the wall with her right hand. She left a bloody handprint smeared down the white paint as she slowly sunk to the floor, coughing and retching. “Kate!” Shouji and Tokoyami both rushed forward, Shouji catching her as she tipped sideways. The whites of her eyes were tinted red in spots where blood vessels had burst, and bruising was beginning to form in splotches all across her skin. Her vision was swiftly going dark.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, “Go too fast… start to tear stuff up inside.”

She was wracked with another fit of wet coughing that sprayed Shouji with foamy drops of blood. Her breathing felt… bubbly. Shouji pulled her close as he knelt down, cradling her head in his lap. “You’re going to be fine. Help will be here soon. Fumikage?”

“I’m on it.” He was opening the official Hero Coordination app on his phone to ping their exact location to first responders as Dark Shadow disdainfully tore up strips of cloth to make a tourniquet for Crimson’s arm.

Kate’s eyes fluttered shut, and she remembered no more.

She woke again, briefly, sometime later. The rhythmic sounds of monitoring equipment prodded insistently at her ears. She couldn’t open her eyes, since something was tightly wrapped around her face. Something else was intruding uncomfortably in her throat, and it caused an extremely unpleasant sensation when she tried to turn her head. She didn’t bother trying to move anything else. Her brain registered that she was experiencing pain, but she didn’t really feel it. After a few minutes she slipped back into unconsciousness.

When she finally woke again, she was less ensconced in layers of medical equipment, but it was replaced by the second worst headache she’d ever experienced. Her groans brought several people into the room, and she desperately tried to shut out the sudden chatter of voices. When she tried to talk her voice was an inaudible whisper, her throat raw and grating. Eventually, she opened her eyes to watch a nurse fiddling with equipment by her head.

“Ah, there you are.” His blue hair stuck out in all directions, like some sort of mad scientist.

Was I somewhere else?

“Once you wake up a little more, we’ll bring some people in to see you.” She tried to ask him how long she had been unconscious, but her voice simply wouldn’t come. He saw her moving her mouth though and smiled kindly. “You probably won’t have much of a voice for a few more hours. You had a lot of tubes and stuff down your throat to keep you going, for a while.

Lovely

He hummed softly and left, returning only to set a pad and pen on the table by her bed. She eventually found the buttons to raise herself into more of a sitting position and switched on the television hanging in the corner of the room. She couldn’t quite manage to follow what was being said, but the steady drone of voices was nice, and the flickering screen was pleasantly distracting. Eventually she made out the day’s date as the news scrolled by. Four days.

Better than last time

After a few hours, the nurse returned with Aizawa. Her teacher stood next to her bed, staring down at her. He looked tired. Or, more tired, anyway. She stared back, not having anything better to do and still not entirely awake.

“Why does every student in this class have be like this?”

After a few moments she gestured stiffly to the notepad. Once he handed it to her, she managed to write out her question. It hurt a little just moving her hands, and her penmanship was wobbly, but she managed it.

Like what?

His gesture took in her, the bed and equipment, and seemingly the rest of the hospital. “Like this. Always snapping yourselves in half. I’ve just broken Midoriya of the habit, and now you start. I am not dealing with two problem children. Not that the rest are any better, really. You’re all going to kill me.” She managed a shrug.

Better than last time

He glared at her. “ Last time , you had puncture wounds all over your shoulder, but at least it was something Recovery Girl could fix. This almost killed you.”

She shook her head.

Last time unconscious 1.5 weeks

Overclocked quirk, found limits hard way

Necessary now

He blinked at her slowly, before pinching the bridge of his noise between his fingers. “Of course. How could I be so foolish as to think this was the first time you’d done this to yourself.” She wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not. “The worst part is, from the report Shouji and Tokoyami gave, it very well might have been necessary.” He sat down in one of the chairs in the room, slumping into it with a sigh. She tapped her wrist questioningly. “Six thirty. I need to get you learning sign language.” She nodded emphatically and winced when it felt like her brain was wobbling around like gelatin inside her skull. “Your classmates want to see you when you’re ready for them. It would save me a lot of time and energy of you didn’t want them here, though.” She thought for a moment.

If quiet

“Trust me, that was already going to happen, for my sake.”

He left. After a few minutes a crowd of teenagers rushed in, with Aizawa following much slower. She was bombarded with questions – quietly – and explanations of who was and wasn’t there and why. Shouji simply moved to sit on the other side of the bed and took her hand in his. She managed a squeeze, giving him a weak smile.  All the girls were there, minus Mina, who apparently had to stay to make up a failed quiz along with Kaminari and Kirishima. Bakugou, of course, hadn’t come, “because he’s an asshole.” (“Don’t be mean, Jirou, he’s doing his best.”) She assumed some were here only because they’d been dragged along, although even Todoroki was relatively engaged. Which just meant he was standing with the group and paying attention, rather than leaning against the far wall or outside.

She managed to respond to most questions with simple gestures or short written answers, although a couple required longer explanations that she begged off of until later. Tokoyami and Shouji had apparently been less than forthcoming about the exact events that lead to her injury, which she was intensely grateful for and tried to show it by squeezing Shouji’s hand again. After an hour, Aizawa stood up. “Alright, that’s enough. She won’t get better with you lot jabbering at her. Let’s go. Shouji, we leave in ten minutes.”

“Thank you, sir.” He waited as the rest said their goodbyes and filed out, Tokoyami last. He gave them both a nod as he left.

Eraser being surprisingly accommodating

“Yes. I think he was worried about you.”

Touching

“Kate.” She waited. “You know I’m mad at you for hurting yourself to save me.” She frowned at him, wishing vehemently for her voice back. “But I’m also extremely grateful.” He pulled his mask down and bent to kiss her hand. She tried to hide her flinch. “What’s wrong?” She shook her head dismissively. “Kate.” The look in his eyes brooked no argument. She mimed throwing her hands up in frustration.

Shouldn’t kiss hands as bloody as mine

He looked at her words for a long time, before reaching over and roughly tearing the page off the notepad. He crumpled it up and threw it in the waste bin. “We are going to talk about this later.” She looked away, petulant. “And,” he reached over to turn her face back to him. “You are going into some counseling sessions.” He forestalled her silent complaints with an upraised hand. “That’s not me, it’s the school. The rest of us have been doing them since last year with Midnight and Hound Dog.” She glared at the blankets pooled in her lap. “It’s a good thing, I promise.” He reached over and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” She gave his hand one more weak squeeze and let him go. She was beyond exhausted. Sleep hit her like a truck a few minutes later.

Aizawa returned at noon the next day.

“Kate. This is Detective Tsukauchi and officer Tamakawa. They’re here to take your statement of the incident, once you’re ready.” He slumped down into his chair again, seeming to fall asleep immediately.

The two policemen greeted her politely. “Miss DeLaine.” Tsukauchi offered his hand for her to shake. “I’ve already taken your friend’s accounts of the event. Do you think you’re prepared to give yours today?”

Kate nodded, rubbing her throat ruefully. “Yes, but I might have to write some of it. My throat’s still kind of raw. It’s DeLaine-Hotz, by the way. The full thing’s important.”

“My apologies, Miss DeLaine-Hotz. That won’t be a problem. Would you start from the beginning for me?” He pulled up a chair to sit next to her, while the officer remained by the door.

“Uhm, alright. Mezou an- uh, Shouji and Tokoyami and I were going to the mall. This was Sunday, not that you don’t know that…” She trailed off awkwardly.

“It’s perfectly fine. Detail is important, even things that seem obvious.”

“Right. So, we’re heading to the mall and we were passing a bank, I think. I don’t remember what street or where, exactly. The front of the bank sort of… melted? Like, this bitch had glowing hands that kind of just, broke stuff down? Like, her quirk was just ‘I grab it and it breaks.’”

“Yes, her quirk is called Entropy. It works… well, pretty much like that. It breaks things.”

“Yeah. So, she kind of just tears a hole in the concrete on the front of the building and her and two others come running out with backpacks, money flying all around everywhere. Like a movie.”

“Can you give a description of each of them?”

“Yeah. They called the leader Crimson. Medium height, lean build, shoulder length red hair. Brown eyes with a ring of red around them. Acrobatic. I never saw her hands not glowing red, so that may be a permanent part of her quirk. Or, less permanent, now, I guess.” She winced, looking at her own hands as she clenched and released her fingers.

“It’s alright. That would be Himura Akane, recently known as Crimson. Petty criminal up until about a year ago, when she took the name and added a few murders to her sheet. Take your time, just go in order of what happened.”

“Okay. There was the big muscly shirtless guy. He had horns. I think they said his name, but I don’t remember. He was strong enough to throw a car, but he didn’t really seem to know what he was doing in a fight. Kind of a meat head.”

“Minos. Small time thug, no serious criminal past beyond bar fights or public disruption. Not a known associate of Crimson. She probably picked him up as an extra pair of hands for this robbery.”

“And the other was this normal looking woman. Ki- something. Kita? She made forcefields. Crimson said that they nullified kinetic energy, which was kind of a hard counter to all three of us. Even Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow couldn’t get through them. She implied that energy attacks like fire or a laser would pass through, I think. Crimson was able to put her hand through the shield because her energy melted through it.”

“Kita Chou. Quirk theorized as Reflex Barrier. She and Himura have worked together for a number of years, and with a level of coordination that let them punch well above their weight class, so to speak.”

“Yeah. If the dude had worked with them the way they worked with each other,  me super speed, basically, and she was putting up the forcefields in my face and bouncing me all around. But once she had one up, she was kind of slow to take it down and put up another. And they were always pretty big, so there was some precision stuff that she couldn’t pull off, like blocking an attack against her teammate while letting their own attack land. It was always just a big wall between us. Still annoying.”

Tsukauchi nodded. “Shouji and Tokoyami theorized her shields were on a very specific timer of when they could be put up and taken down, and that she could only make one at a time. Once they came out of the bank, what happened?”

“The three of us kind of all just looked at each other and just started chasing them. Tokoyami yelled at them to stop and said we were heroes in training and stuff, and tripped the guy, and he tossed a trash can at us. When I attacked with my quirk Kita was able to wall me off. I think that scared the bull guy, cause then he started throwing cars at us. It was too bright for Tokoyami to work at full effectiveness and Shouji’s… not the fastest ever.” She glared at Aizawa as he snorted, looking like he was still asleep. “He’s big , it’s not his fault!” Tsukauchi covered his smile behind his notebook, stifling a laugh, but the cat-headed officer made no such pretense. “ Anyway .” Her throat was starting to feel raspy again. “I kept throwing myself at them, just to keep them paying attention. Crimson had them turn into an office building and left the door hanging sideways behind her to slow us down. It was around lunch so there wasn’t a lot of people there, thank fuck .” She covered her mouth. “Sorry.” Tsukauchi laughed.

“I’m familiar with your classmate Bakugou, as well as All Might. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before, English or Japanese.”

“Ha, no kidding. So, they go tearing through these cubicles and up the stairs, and we have to follow them through this whole mess, pulling office workers out from under broken desks and stuff. We chased them up to the… third or fourth floor? One of those.”

“Third is where you ended up by the end.”

“Third. We caught up with them in this empty hallway where the other end was all windows. Crimson kind of ambushed us, she had ducked into one of the doorways and jumped out at us when we ran past. Tokoyami got a good hit on her before she could grab us, but she got out of the middle of us. She was, like, really flippy.” Kate rubbed her throat again; it was hurting to talk now. “Can I write some of this?”

“Of course.” Tsukauchi waved easily toward the notepad she had sitting on the bed next to her.

“Thanks.”

Gathered together at end of hall in front of windows

Tokoyami broke lights to help his quirk

They said something stupid and Shouji made fun of them

Big guy charges, Shouji catches him

I charge Crimson, Kita stops me, Crimson hits me through the forcefield, hurt my side, not bad

Tsukauchi stopped her there. “Actually, you should know that that injury was very severe. As we’ve seen in the past, wounds caused by Entropy tend to worsen over time, and yours grew to the point that it almost caused permanent injury to your ribs, spleen, and lung. Which was compounded by the injuries you received later.”

“Really? Well… damn. Okay, uhm.” She went back to the notepad, looking a little shaken.

Shouji let Minos push him back so he was past me, in darker part of hallway

Tokoyami called me to attack from behind

Aizawa been working us on teamwork/coordinated attacks, only reason we did so good well

Tsukauchi got a small smile at that. “He is an excellent teacher, from what I’ve seen.”

Aizawa spoke without opening his eyes. “You’d better not be talking about me.” Kate snorted.

Tokoyami and I attack together while Shouji keeps him occupied

Kita can’t block both, chose me

Assumed she would block me, to cut off from other two and cause they saw I can hit hard before

Tokoyami and Shouji took out Minos

Crimson came after me, I dodge back, she-

Kate paused for a moment, then put the pen down, staring at her lap. She took a few minutes to regulate her breathing, working through exercises that had been drilled into her as a kid. The detective waited patiently. She stared a little blankly at the far wall as she continued.

“Crimson went after Shouji, since I wasn’t in front of her. He dodged, but she got behind him and grabbed his neck. She threatened to kill him if we didn’t cooperate. Then she said she was going to kill him anyway, since we had taken out the bull guy. Kita had been stopping me from landing hits or getting where I was trying to go during the whole fight, so I knew she could stop me if I went after Crimson at that same speed. I had to go faster, which I can do at the cost of serious injury to myself. I did what I perceived to be the quickest and least dangerous way to resolve the situation. I overcharged my quirk, moved forward, and removed the hand from Shouji’s neck, which caused serious injury to Crimson. I don’t know what happened after that.”

Tsukauchi closed his notebook. “The doctors tell me you would have been rendered largely blind by the damage to the blood vessels in your eyes, and that you likely lost consciousness immediately from the physical trauma. However, Shouji said that after you collapsed you gave him a short explanation of why you were injured, before becoming unresponsive. Which is fortunate, as it gave first responders the necessary information to give more effective first aid.” He stood up. “Thank you, Kate. I’ll let you rest.” He turned and he and officer Tamakawa left, saying something quietly to Aizawa. Her teacher slowly levered himself up and walked over to her.

“I’m not going to tell you that you did the right thing.” She looked away, clenching a fist in frustration. “But. I don’t think you did the wrong thing, either. You badly injured yourself. But your assessment in the moment sounds accurate. I don’t see a better solution, either. I might have, if I’d been there, but I wasn’t. You used your judgement, and you likely saved Shouji’s life. I’m not going to criticize you.” She was staring up at him now, like he’d hung the moon. She shouldn’t. He was just being logical. “You’re going to be having some counseling sessions with Midnight, and, if you want, some quirk counseling with Thirteen. Her quirk is volatile, she understands the need for control better than anyone. She may be able to give some advice or reassurance. Midnight is going to talk to you about the whole incident and possible emotional fallout.”

“Yeah, Mezou told me. The rest of the class has been doing it for a while, right?”

“Yes. They’ve been through traumatizing experiences, stop trying to catch up with them on that front.” Before he left, he placed a hand on her shoulder. It was brief, and from anyone else might have been confusing. But it was the gentlest comfort Aizawa was likely to offer, and she knew it.

She fell into a coughing fit that burned her throat.

Shouldn’t have talked so much

When Kate returned to campus, it was dark. Aizawa walked with her silently as they headed toward the dorm. As they approached, she slowed, letting her steps falter until she stood still a few feet from the door. Aizawa didn’t stop, passing through the door and disappearing down the hall. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the door.

Immediately, she was enveloped in a crushing hug, her face pressed tight to a massive, muscled chest. “Glad you’re back.”

“I won’t be for long if you keep squeezing.” The tight grip relented, and she gasped in relief. “I wasn’t gone that long, anyway.” Shouji pulled back to look at her, hands holding onto her shoulders.

“It’s been five days. That’s a long time.”

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before she remembered the four days she’d been unconscious. “Oh. Yeah.” She slammed back into him, arms wrapping around and hugging him as tight as she could. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so glad you’re okay, I didn’t know what else to do, I just-” Tears were rolling down her face now. “I was so scared.”

He wrapped his arms around her again, careful of her still-bandaged torso. “Hey, hey, you’re the one that got hurt, not me. I’m the one who gets to be scared.” She laughed into his chest.

“I guess that’s fair. But I was scared for you when it happened.”

“Shouji, stop hogging her!”

Kate pulled her head away from his chest to look over where the voice came from. The entire class was sitting at the tables, food mostly ignored as they all watched the two of them.

“Ah!” She stepped away, brushing the tears off her reddening face. “I didn’t, uh… Didn’t know you guys were there.”

Shouji chuckled, making her blush even more. “I did. Have you eaten yet?”

“No, I’m fucking starved.” He took her hand and they walked over to sit by Tokoyami, Ojirou, and Hagakure. “Oh my god, is this Yakitori? How did you even cook this?” She looked around to find Yaoyorozu and Todoroki raising their hands. “You guys! I love Yakitori!”

Yaoyorozu covered her smile behind one hand. “We are aware of that, yes.”

Iida spoke up from another table. “It’s become something of a tradition that we prepare some of a person’s favorite food whenever they spend more than twenty four hours in the hospital.”

“We’ve made a lot of Katsudon,” Uraraka said sardonically, Midoriya hiding in his hands next to her.

“Aw, thank you so much, you guys are too nice. Ojirou, can you hand me that plate of crispy ones?” She very quickly was too busy to say any more as she devoured several skewers of grilled chicken.

COUNSELING

“Crimson went for Mezou. He dodged, but she somehow followed him by jumping off the wall and doing some crazy flipping shit. She landed right behind him and grabbed him by the neck. I…” She rubbed a hand over her face, trying to keep herself put together. “Mezou and I are dating, you know. I was so scared. I thought she had killed him right there just by grabbing him.” She leaned her head back, looking at the ceiling and willing herself not to cry. “She didn’t, obviously, but… I almost lost it right there. But I was too scared to do anything, and she kept sneering at me about how Kita was faster, and she was right. I wasn’t fast enough. I couldn’t do anything. Except she wasn’t completely right, because I can go faster.” She gestured at her head and torso, indicating the injuries she’d sustained. “It’s super hard on my body, if you couldn’t guess. The first time I did it I was twelve. My mom had me in a class to help me develop my quirk. I’d gone through a lot of therapy and safety courses since it appeared, since it’s so dangerous if it’s not carefully controlled, but she wanted me to be able to safely do more than just not use it. I was testing to see how fast I could go. The process of charging my body with potential energy and converting it to kinetic is almost entirely, like, subconscious. I charge it to a point and hold it there. But if I concentrate and really try, I can add more energy onto that. Normally, my body can negate the forces that it’s put under when I warp, but some of those forces are the kind that are more often measured on an astronomic scale, rather than a terrestrial one. ‘Every object has a rate of acceleration after which it can no longer maintain structural integrity.’ I’ve had that phrase drilled into me since I was tiny. That point is absurdly high for my body, but it’s there. The first time I was in the hospital for a week and a half, and that’s with one of the more famous Quirk Physicians in America working on me. Although I was smaller then, so I guess my body can handle it better now. From what I remember, it bursts blood vessels and tears apart a lot of soft tissue. Organ failure is the biggest danger. I’ve had headaches ever since then. They’re probably going to get worse now.” She groaned, rubbing her temple preemptively. “That’s going to suck. Headaches are the worst.” She fell silent, looking at the pad in her lap.

“Take as long as you need. If you want to wait until tomorrow we can have another session then.”

“There’s no point in putting it off. Crimson was pulling Shouji toward Kita, using him as a hostage so we couldn’t do anything. As she was passing me, she said… She said that if we cooperated, she would leave him alive enough that we would get to say goodbye instead of just finding him... She was going to kill him. Even if we let them go, she was going to kill him. I was… compromised, I guess. I wasn’t in control, after that. She was hurting Mezou and the only thing I wanted to do - was going to do – was hurt her back. I’ve thought about it, sitting in the hospital. I can’t really think of another way we could have resolved that situation that would result in nobody being just as hurt. At the speed I had to go to get past Kita, anyone I touched was going to basically be made of putty. What I did to her was the least deadly thing I can think of that would one hundred percent be assured to save Shouji. To the best of my knowledge, I did the right thing.”

“You don’t seem comforted by that.”

“I didn’t do it because it was the right thing. I wasn’t saving Shouji, I was exerting my power over another person to punish them for daring to stand against me. In that instant that I walked over to Crimson and tore her hand off, I was every petty, angry, tyrannical little man that history books talk about. I used my quirk like a villain. Like a bully . And I loved it. I thought I was over that.”

“Do you want to explain that? What do you mean by ‘over that?’”

“I was a bully as a kid. A raging little asshole. I was angry for no reason and proud of my power, and I wanted everyone else to be proud of it too. I hurt people; sometimes on accident, but not always. And even the accidents were still somewhat my fault. I didn’t control my temper, or I wasn’t careful enough, or whatever. I was awful.”

“Interesting.” Midnight was writing on her notepad. “I think we aught to go into that, but not today. I want to keep talking about the incident, for now. Essentially, you think you did the right thing for the wrong reason, correct?”

Suspicion

Kate woke, ever so slowly, to the rhythmic beep of a heart monitor. She ached everywhere, and her eyes were slow to open. When they did, she found herself in a dim hospital room, lit only by the hallway lights outside. In a chair between her bed and the half open door slouched a figure, hidden in their own silhouette; messy hair, one foot propped on the rail of her bed with an air of casual disrespect. Their eyes glowed a distant emerald. He was looking at her.

“What are you doing here,” she rasped with an effort. “Where am I?”

He leaned slightly forward, and the creak of the plastic chair sent a discordant, grating shiver down her back, but he remained silent.

“Why are you here,” she repeated, beginning to grow distressed. The heart monitor began to pick up above her. This was dangerous. What was he trying to do? Still, he was silent. “ Dragon ,” she hissed. He pulled his foot back and shifted to stand. Short. He was so…

Midoriya.

Midoriya stood over her, not Dragon.

The realization landed at the same moment as a crushing, nearly physical weight crashed down on her. Paralyzed, every inch of her held under an invisible vise. It was almost unbearable, reminiscent of Dragon’s fear aura but so much heavier. Where dragon inspired panic, this shot right past and straight on to frozen, existential dread. The weight of power pressed in on all sides, constricting her throat, not that she could have uttered a sound anyway.

Midoriya rested his hands on the rail of his bed, leaning over her. His eyes lost some of their luminescence as he shifted; they had only been reflecting the light from the window by random, dreadful coincidence. “Dragon.” His voice dripped with the same sort of hypnotic intention it had during the Sports Festival. Kate wondered if it was possible to feel more fear, more dread, than she already was. Apparently so. Her chest burned, and she realized she couldn’t breath. “Who is that, I wonder.” He straightened up, still staring down at her. Only the faintest green marked his eyes, now. “I don’t like the idea of not being sure of who my friends are, Kate-san. Please don’t put me in an uncomfortable position.” He turned, and left the room. The weight lifted from Kate, sending her into a coughing fit as she gasped desperately for air.

Fallout

“Got your shit,” Kate announced as she threw open the door to the room Dragon had claimed as his temporary office. She shrugged the backpack containing the laptop into her hand and placed it - maybe less gently than she should - on the fold out table in the center of the room. She produced the bank chip from her pocket and held it up for inspection. “Madcap and Carousel are saying they want a bigger cut ‘cause they took so much of the risk this time, you think I sho-”

“Please, do yourself a favor, my dear,” Dragon cut her off drily, “and be quiet ” He didn’t open his eyes from where he had his chair leaned back on two legs against the wall, his hands folded over his stomach, but there was a distinct vein visible on his forehead. “My sanity has already been tested by humanity today, you wouldn’t want me to lose the rest of it on you here over your bitching.”

Kate snapped her mouth shut, going over what he’d just said, certain she must have heard wrong. She could feel instant, white hot rage immediately come to a boil in her gut; that pressure she was always trying to bleed off instead of letting it blow up. She didn’t really feel like bleeding today. She took that pressure and let it out on the closest target.

A crack sounded as the bank chip shattered against the wall next to Dragon’s head. He twitched as a thin cut appeared on his cheek, his eyes shooting open. “Did you just-”

“Shut the fuck up !” Kate slammed her hands down on the table, leaning across it at him. “You don’t get to talk to me like that, you fucking lizard.”

Dragon curled to his feet, cinders on his tongue. “You-”

“I’m doing what you wanted, I’m managing my fucking team, working independant, and then you pull us in to do your crap job for your crap payout and I have to explain to four violent, volatile teenagers that no, actually, this isn’t the big payday I’ve been promising them for like a month now, and I come to you for a little fucking advice, and you talk to me like I’m…” She trailed off, lost for whatever words she wanted to come next, before settling for an inarticulate scream of frustration.

Dragon looked down at her. His eyes were hard, and his lip curled scornfully. “Are you done?” 

“You’re really trying to get yourself killed, aren’t you old man.” The table was vibrating with built up energy under Kate’s hands. With a conscious effort, she let her quirk fade from the table, although she still let it build inside herself. Standing straight, she met Dragon’s glowing eyes. Finding she didn’t have anything else to say, she spun on her heel and stalked out. She could feel Dragon’s anger on the back of her neck like a furnace, her ears straining for any sound of movement that might betray an attack.

For This Night To Be Over

Shouji ran fingers through her hair. It had grown in the last two months; now several inches long and untameable, still damp from the rain outside. She pressed her face into his chest, not wanting to think about anything for a few moments, just breathe in the scent of him. There was that sawdust scent again, who knows what he'd been doing to have picked that up, but underneath it was just him . 

"You're thin."

She hummed into his shirt. Not a response, just acknowledgement. He ran a hand down her back, and she flinched when he reached the spot just below her ribs where Coil had hit her a few days before. He tensed for a second before deliberately forcing himself to relax. "Are you hurt?"

She shifted her head so she could speak, still pressed against him. "Just a bruise." 

"You aren't taking care of yourself." There was an accusation in the words.

Kate sighed, pushing herself away from his chest enough to look up at him. "I started a war. I have to deal with it."

"You are not a weapon." Shouji cupped her cheek and held her there. "You can't let him use you as one."

She wrapped a hand around his wrist and pulled his hand down enough that she wasn't forced to look him in the eye. She didn't have an answer to that. Not one she wanted to say out loud.

“I’m good at it.”

“What?”

“At making war. I’m a natural, and I’m getting better every day. He told someone - yesterday, when he thought I couldn’t hear - he compared me to the old European Warlords. Said I might have taken a place at that table in a different life.”

“A very different life.”

“How many different lives could I possibly live? My only talent is violence.”

“Did he tell you that?”

Silence. It’s own answer.

Ito Akihiro – Metal Chord

“Where do you want it?”

Kate finally dragged her head up from where it hung, pulling her eyes slowly from the concrete floor under her knees and blinking under the constant, harsh glare of the construction light. Ito Akihiro crouched a few feet away, ever-present smirk dancing across his face matched by the glowing-hot braided steel chord that swayed in parallel next to his head, held suspended by his quirk.

“Fuck you.” Her voice cracked halfway through the invective. Ito chuckled at her acidicly and gestured with his hand toward her. The glowing red chord jumped forward. She jerked her head backward, cracking it against the wall, just barely avoiding the hot metal that stopped short of her eye. Ito chuckled again as it pulled away. A groan dragged itself from her throat as the other chords, the ones wrapped through and around her arms and shoulders, tightened agonizingly, pulling her flat to the wall. The movement cracked open the crust of blood around where the chords pierced her flesh, and new rivulets of blood began to drip sluggishly over older, dried tracts down her skin.

“Dealer’s choice, then.” Ito moved forward and poked at where a chord threaded through the meat of her left arm, smearing a bit of blood across her skin thoughtfully. “Looking a little dehydrated there. Don’t worry. I’ll get you a drink after we’re done here.” He patted her cheek roughly and gestured with one hand. The hot chord behind him moved forward, the cool back end slithering forward across the ground as the front raised up like a cobra. Its glow was dimmed a little now, but Kate could still feel the heat radiating off it. Ito ran his eyes over her exposed chest, narrowing them at the shiny, taut scars of the injury Crimson had left over her ribs on her left side. “Guess I’m not the first to get to you, am I?”

She just stared at him from behind the strands of hair that had fallen in her face, not really able to muster up any sort of response at this point, waiting for what was coming in empty silence.

He tutted reproachfully. “Best not mess with that.” He tapped her on the nose with one finger. “Don’t know what’s holding you together there that I might tear open on accident, and you are supposed to survive this, after all. Right side it is.” He gave her a conspiratorial wink and made another motion with his hand. The chord swooped over his shoulder to his other side, drawing close to her unprotected ribs.

Kate tensed against the metal chords that held her, teeth gritted in anticipation. The sound of searing skin came just before the shock of pain did, ripping a short scream through her teeth as the nerves under her skin screamed in tandem.

Kate’s head swam with exhaustion; the agony of her body almost an afterthought in the back of her mind after so long without relief or decline in intensity. The trauma of the braided metal chords sewn through her arms had only just begun to be bearable when Ito had set to work painting stripes of burnt anguish down her side like so many strips of bacon. One night without sleep would hardly have caused her so much distress normally, but paired with the burning in her side and blood loss, her brain was running at maybe a quarter of its normal speed, choked in a fog. So foggy that she nearly didn’t notice the growing scent of ozone that was slowly filling the room. Nearly.

Ito seemed to notice it too, glancing up from where he was washing her blood off of his hands in the shop sink in one corner. He frowned, looking around for the source of the scent, and just began to walk toward the construction floor lamp shining in Kate’s face when there was a sound at the door, too quick to make out. Ito spun towards it, chords rising up like snakes all over the room, but he didn’t get more than one cautious step before the wall to his and Kate’s right practically exploded in a shower of concrete dust.

Through the cloud of rubble flew a spear, its head dripping blood and aimed for Ito’s heart. Metal serpents rose up to meet it, wrapping around the shaft and holding it in place. But from every gap where the metal did not hold, barbs grew from the shaft, each long again as the spear itself and tracking through the air toward Ito like things possessed. The tip of the furthest forward stopped less than a foot from Ito’s ashen face. Two figures stepped into the packing bay, shrouded in the smoke of their entrance. At the same time, the door across the room splintered and fell, revealing a hulking figure muscling its way through the small frame.

Kate, nearly delirious, managed to make out what could only be Shouji –

Impossible, why would he come for you

- as he darted through the doorway, a black mask covering everything but his eyes and a black hooded sweatshirt covering most of his torso and head, a dozen arms already formed and prepared as he dashed forward. Closer to her, the spear melted away to smoke as the two figures who had broken through the wall stepped forward, waving away the obscuring dust. Eli and Hisashi glanced around, taking in the stunned villain and the young hero bearing down on him. Hisashi pointed to Ito, saying something that Kate might have heard if she wasn’t so far gone inside her own head. Eli called forth the classic round shield and lunged toward Ito as Hisashi turned and jogged toward Kate.

Shouji made it to the villain first, but he didn’t even pause as he passed, his gaze fixed on Kate. An escrima stick dismissively batted away the one hesitant metal chord that was sent his way, and two hands picked up Ito and threw him without difficulty straight into Eli, who only barely kept from being bowled over by slamming the ragdolled villain away with the red-white-and-blue shield.

Kate would later remember only confusion as the two tall men strode quickly toward her, one glancing toward the other with undisguised hostility in the set of his shoulders. Hisashi’s face, in turn, Kate couldn’t make out. There was something covering it, and her vision had gone dark around the edges, and fuzzy enough that she only knew either of them by their body shape and posture.

Shouji knelt in front of her, half a dozen hands and several eyes still facing Hisashi, the clenched fists making it apparent that Shouji would have no qualms with beating the other man bloody without even facing him as he looked Kate over.

“I’m here, Katy, it’s going to be okay. I promise.”

She managed to raise her head to look him in the eye, but couldn’t quite figure out how to work her mouth to answer him. At least, she didn’t think she could, but there was definitely a sound between them that wasn’t coming from Mezo. It took a few seconds to realize it was the sound of her sobbing, interspersed with choked gasps. She couldn’t tell if it was from pain or relief, although she was still having trouble processing what was happening around her.

“Kate, listen to me, we have to get these things in your arms free of the wall. We can’t stay here.” There was a glance over his shoulder –

Oh yeah, Hisashi

“I need you to – hey, come on, Kate, don’t black out. Kate!”

Her eyelids fluttered, her eyes losing focus for a second. When she managed to drag them back Mezo was snarling at Hiashi to get back , the older man looking for all the world like he wanted to drop the sheathed sword in his hand and help. Hisashi stepped back, though, holding up a hand in a pacifying gesture. She still couldn’t make out his face. It looked strange, planes and lines where they normally shouldn’t be. She thought he might be saying something by the way Shouji tensed and hunched forward over her protectively, but her brain wasn’t up to processing such complex information as sound waves at the moment. She drifted back out of awareness, yanked back again at a feeling of raw, unbearable agony in one arm that had her screaming into whatever her face was pressed into at the moment. It might have been Shouji’s hoodie. After she’d be grateful that she’d been too far gone to feel the sensation of metal chords being dragged out of her flesh beyond simply pain : blinding, deafening pain. By the time the last one was out she was unconscious.

She woke again briefly in Shouji’s arms, a dozen points of horrible ache along her arms. She opened an eye to see a dozen hands gripped firmly around her arms, blood slowly seeping between the fingers. There was shouting over her head, but she faded away again before she could decipher any of it.

Alternate: Doc Tsubasa kidnapping(Daruma Ujiko)

Kate was sluggishly dragged back to consciousness, slowly but relentlessly pulled toward waking by the persistent agony in her arms. As her eyes opened onto glaring lights, her body spasmed. Where the pain had been diffuse, spread loosely through her arms, it now sharpened into two brilliantly intense points, where she could feel heavy, solid objects pierced through her forearms. Her scream dwindled into ragged gasping as she lifted her head, desperate to see what was happening.

“Ah, ah, there we are.” A short man wearing strange goggles came into view standing over her, and she realized she was lying on a table, the light above her throwing her other surroundings into shadow. The man was bald, with a bushy moustache. Kate instinctively reacted, her body jerking forward and yanking her arms and again sparking waves of agony as metal scraped against bone inside her limbs. “Now don’t do that ,” the man muttered disapprovingly. “Then you’ll really damage something.” 

Kate’s brain was a haze, kept scrambled by the constant pain and disorientation. From the chaos she managed to pull a question. It wasn’t a particularly good question, she was distantly aware, but it was the only one she managed to latch onto long enough to form into a complete thought. “Who-” Her voice rasped, making her aware of another point of pain. Her throat was raw, it felt like it would bleed if she raised her voice. Had she been screaming even before she was awake? “Who a-are you?”

The man fiddled with something she couldn’t see to his side, producing a metallic clinking and scraping sound as he spoke. “Well, normally I wouldn’t tell you, but normally I don’t work with subjects for whom it would matter.” He paused expectantly, seeming to find this observation innately hilarious. When Kate didn’t laugh, he pursed his lips slightly. “Hmph. I suppose it wouldn’t make sense to do someone a favor and then hide the fact that you did it, though. Very well. You may call me Doctor Daruma. Yes, I believe that’s the name your mother would recognise.”

Despite the sensation of red-hot metal coursing through her veins, Kate’s blood ran cold. “M-mom,” she rasped out. She couldn’t even manage to make it sound like a question. 

Doctor Daruma leaned down close to her, and the wrinkles around his eyes made her think he was squinting. “You are Doctor Angela Hotz’ daughter, yes?”

“Yes,” was Kate’s shaky reply. From his tone, she got the disturbing feeling she should be grateful that was the case, lest she find herself quickly discarded, and not in a way she would walk away from.

The doctor straightened up again, his moustache twitching once. “Of course you are, I wouldn’t get something like that wrong.”

Kate took the moment to try to better understand her position. She looked down at herself, to find that she had been stripped of her shirt. And shoes. Thankfully, those seemed to be the only articles of clothing she was missing: her pants were untouched, and her sports bra remained, but it still made her want to curl into a ball. Or it would, except any sense of being violated via exposure was heavily outweighed and overshadowed by the sense of being violated by being impaled through the arms. She moved her head to the side, bracing herself to look at her arms. They were spread out to either side of her, pinned to the table by what looked like flat metal bands. The band looped once around her wrist and down through the table, then back up again on the other side. From there it pierced down through her arm and presumably through the table again. Blood was dried and crusted all around where it entered her flesh and pooled on the wrinkled plastic cover that lay between her and the steel surface of the operating table. There were fresh tracks where she’d wrenched her arm free of whatever delicate coagulation it had managed while she was asleep, and the pool on the table was beginning to grow again.

“Normally I would employ less - messy - methods of restraint,” Doctor Daruma said, catching her eye. “But, well, I’m a bit lacking in resources, at the moment. It’s a light bit of annoyance; I can’t use regular restraints, as I suspect your quirk would manage to tear free of those - I can’t use quirk blockers, as that would interfere with my work and defeat the purpose of this whole enterprise!” He gestured with dramatic resignation. “So, I was careful to have Scylla thread her tendrils between your ulna and radius, and carefully between muscle groups to cause as little damage as possible. I’m quite confident you won’t be able to do any damage, between the tendrils’ natural strength and the little bit of slack she can give so that any energy you build up in them is countered.” Kate caught a hint of movement above her head. Looking straight up, she realized there was another person looming over her. The completely impassive face of what looked like a young girl, her dark hair hanging limply down, so still that Kate hadn’t even noticed her at first. Kate glanced at her arm again. The segmented metal of her bonds adjusted itself slightly, tightening and loosening, readjusting like a living thing. Scylla. Was the metal part of her body? Kate couldn’t see anything besides the girl’s head and shoulders.

Kate’s fingers tried to clench, sending more pain through her as muscles moved in her arm. “Why?”

Daruma glanced up from where he’d been working with something she couldn’t see. “Hm? I told you, this is a favor for your mother.” His tone was dismissive, like the answer should be obvious.

“Favor?” Kate ground out. “Wh-hat are you doing?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” Daruma looked like he’d been dying to share, and she’d finally given him the excuse. “You see, I lost my main resource for the Nomu project. Wonderful results, there, but there’s not much for it now, with All For One out of the picture.” All For One. The villain from All Might’s final battle? “Scylla here was one of the first successes from that project, in fact! Admittedly, not the result I’d been expecting or attempting, but a useful result nonetheless.” The girl didn’t react, besides the faintest flicker of attention at hearing her name. “Anyway, so I’ve gone back to some projects I’d been leaving on the back burner for, oh, decades now. I’ve made wonderful progress, it’s amazing what a fresh set of eyes can bring to an old project. Literally!” He tapped his goggles, indicating… something. Probably something awful. “And just when I’ve reached the perfect juncture, there you are on television, so obviously Doctor Hotz’ daughter, and I think to myself, Ujiko, you wouldn’t be halfway to where you are today without Doctor Hotz’ help. Wouldn’t it be nice to acknowledge her with the result of the research she helped to inspire?” Kate was only halfway listening, her mind caught in a whirlpool that all swirled down to a single person. Her mother. Her mother had a hand in this. This man had worked with the villain that almost defeated All Might. Her mother had worked with this man. Her mother had worked with All Might. Her mother had worked with All For One? She couldn’t parse the implications, her mind too rattled and distracted to put together the giant-sized puzzle pieces.

“Now, don’t worry.” Kate was yanked back to reality - or what was passing for it, in the haze of pain and confusion - by a new, awful, sensation. Frigid metal slid between her ribs, almost more painful than her arms. She looked down to find the doctor injecting her with fluid from a terrifyingly large syringe. The liquid was gray and cloudy, and she could feel the pressure of it filling inside her chest. That was worse than any of the pain, second only to the horrible sensation of metal sliding against her rib and against the bones in her arms. Kate didn’t want to think about whatever other drugs were already in her system; she was certain, in a detached sort of way, that the way she was perceiving sensations felt altered, like she couldn’t ignore any individual feeling of plastic crinkling against skin or pressure around one arm tightening. She was feeling - vividly - everything there was to feel in this moment, and she couldn’t escape from it. “If everything goes right,” Daruma continued as he removed the needle, “the pain will be temporary.” Kate could feel the pressure of the pocket of fluid in her chest cavity lessening. That wasn’t comforting. It was dispersing throughout her body. “The power , however.” Daruma leaned in close to Kate’s face, and despite the maelstrom of sensations, she managed to pick up the scent of onion on his breath. She might have laughed, if she weren’t so thoroughly incapable of it, at the absurd straw that was going to break her back, the final little insult on top of injury. The scent of onions followed her down, spiralling into unconsciousness. 

“The power is forever.”

The Two Mentors

The two stared each other down, their faces just inches apart. A strange mirror: two tall, dark men, their long hair pulled back in a bun, a hand resting tensely on their chosen weapon. One hero, one criminal; both practically unknown to the masses, but greatly respected by the chosen few.

“Eraserhead.” Cinders float in the air between them as Hisahsi speaks the name, a smug grin quirking the corner of his mouth.

“Dragon.” Kate had never seen Aizawa look so angry without using his quirk. “If you leave now, I’ll give you the courtesy of a head start while I expel my student.”

Hisashi’s smile vanished. “Don’t be stubborn, Eraser. You need me, right now. And Kate doesn’t deserve expulsion just for being blackmailed.”

“Your word doesn’t carry weight here, Dragon .” Aizawa’s voice was practically dripping with malice. “You telling me not to expel her is all the more reason to do so.”

Hisashi narrowed his eyes. “This world needs heroes like her. People like you and I can’t hold it together with wishes and willpower forever. The next generation needs to be strong, and passionate. She’s both.”

At that Aizawa did activate his quirk. His eyes glowing red with fury, he pulled his capture weapon loose to levitate around him. “Don’t you dare pretend you’re a good man. We both know what you are, snake .”

Hisashi took a step back, his shoulders slumping in something like disappointment. “I respect you, Aizawa. I believe you’re a good man, and a real hero. But clearly, you’re not ready to be reasonable.” He looked away from Aizawa’s sneer to Kate. “I’m sorry. You won’t hear from me again.” He glanced back toward Aizawa. “The issue will be dealt with. Lives could be saved if you’d help me, but it will get done, regardless.”

Overall

Establishing arc

Meet hisashi

Work reluctantly with hisashi

Become more comfortable with hisashi

Come to rely on hisashi

Peak

Downfall

Reovery

Stronger than ever

“Forward. Always moving forward.”