Chapter 10: Bitter Relations
The battle for the first combat trial was over. The villain team was victorious and all the students were either marvelling at the efforts of both teams, or eagerly waiting for their own match to take place…
…Except for two hero students.
"Do you remember?!"Yaoyorozu asks and in response Ben just looks at her.
He saw her desire for an answer. "Do I remember?" he repeats inside his head. Yeah, of course he did. How could he forget?
Those were Kevin 11's lines. One of his most formidable villains from back in the day…
A kid around his age with a powerful absorption ability, who tried to tarnish his reputation by using it for money and revenge… only to get turned into a monster.
His personality was so shitty and egotistical that it's hard not to compare him to Bakugo…
He was selfish, despicable and had his head completely in his ass… but even then, despite all the things that had happened between them, Ben had still dreamed of a world where Kevin could have been his ally… Where the two could fight side by side and benefit a lot from having each other around.
But that was all it was… a childish dream.
It's impossible... for a guy like that to change.
But, I guess the dream was sort of right, he taught him the importance of responsibility behind having power.
When he last saw him… It took everything that the Omnitrix had at the time to hold his own against him and his new ally, Vilgax.
In the mere minutes that he was stuck in the Null Void with them, he remembered this feeling of being almost animalistic, losing himself in the rush of adrenaline as he switched from one alien to the other...
Then the crash of relief upon seeing Gwen…
And the terror upon feeling Kevin grab her right out of his arms…
He held the brand-new Omnitrix in his arms to calm his nerves. "Do I remember?" Ben asks himself again.
After that rush from the past, he could barely keep himself from laughing without reserve.
But, this wasn't the proper time or place…
He turns back to the creation hero, tells her that no, it does not ring any bells and resumes walking away to the control room.
As their evaluation takes place and even when the other students start their own match, Ben's head was still busy, pondering the choices that he made.
"I'm doing this for the good of everyone. Please don't make it any more difficult than it already is..."
He kept saying that inside his head… So, the matter should have been closed, but even after their evaluation and during the other battles, the answer to that question continued to pull him back in… Or rather what else he could have said.
"Was that right?" Ben asks, considering his previous decision.
He was technically a hero during that time... Saving lives, fighting villains, the usual besides not having a hero license.
The only big difference was that… The villains he faced were usually above Earth's pay grade.
"Then, does that make it okay to tell her?"
What if she tried to dig in deeper? Why was he doing this, who were Vilgax and Kevin, what happened that made him stop for 3 years…
It was risky but wasn't it right?
These questions and just the decision itself ate away at him, making him feel more vexed by the second.
Right now, he really didn't need this, especially in class. So, Ben takes a deep breath. "I will put this thought away for now..."
He then takes a look at Yaoyorozu, who was staring at the big screen but lacked concentration. "But I promise… to address it later."
Ben then turns to the screen and lifts up his head. "Who was fighting in this round anyway?"
He then sees Midoriya in his fighting stance and, presumably, yelling at Bakugo with half of his mask already blown off. "Oh yeah… They were an unfortunate pair."
"Wow… the bundle of nerves actually put down Bakugo?" says Jiro. "Who expected that in the first lesson?"
"Manly move there, Midoriya!" Kirishima yells, palming his hand. "Very nice counter to a surprise attack!"
"A surprise attack is a strategy too." All Might says. "They are in the middle of a real battle right now."
Ben nods rather subtly and turns his gaze back at the screen.
"Huh..." he says to himself. There was something off about Midoriya's stance.
"That's not what he used during our training." he thinks. "Is he really planning to take Bakugo head on?"
Granted, they had made some progress with Midoriya's quirk. But a fist fight against number 2 of the entrance exam? It was his funeral and he was showing it.
The greenette was shaking in place and with his frown, he did seem courageous to Ben…
...But also equally desperate.
"There goes Bakugo!" Kaminari says and just like that the battle was really getting underway.
The explosive hero tried to kick and swung back at him again but Midoriya negated the first blow with his capture tape and the second by dodging.
"Pretty good there Midoriya..." Ben thinks but he was unaware of what would come next.
The greenette, instead of waiting, went on the offense instead and ran straight towards the ash-blonde!
"What is he doing?!"
Bakugo tried to trick him by coming at him with his left instead but Midoriya saw right through it.
With his hand pointed right at the explosive teen, Midoriya let out a powerful flick, sending his opponent towards the wall!
"Midori really used it again!" Ashido excitedly yells out.
"That guy's amazing..." Sato then adds on. "Boldly using his quirk like that."
Ben lifts his eyebrows. "Yeah, bold indeed..."
Even though he wasn't completely ready, Midoriya was still giving his best regardless of his situation. Ben, even though the reason hadn't hit him yet, felt just a bit small.
In the meantime, All Might also had his own share about the battle. "He was always good at reacting quickly in a crisis. While also spending years writing his notes and internalizing them..."
There was also their latest training at the beach.
"And with his recent training with Tennyson, not only has he been getting a better grasp on One for All, but his instincts were also unconsciously being sharpened."
He puts down the pencil and stares at the screen.
"That fanboy knowledge is working in tandem with his latest efforts... and propelling him forward!"
Bakugo manages to stop himself with explosions right before he hits the wall, but by the time he manages to look back, Midoriya is already long gone.
"Come back here, Deku! You won't defeat me with one fucking flick!" Bakugo yells out… or at least that's what Ben assumes from behind the scenes.
To him, and everyone else in that room, you could do without knowing the kind of insult Bakugo used, instead of trying to read lips.
He turns his head to another view point, where it shows Midoriya planning and recuperating after that blow.
The glove was destroyed, but in terms of real damage, only one of his fingers was broken.
"He really is doing the best he can..." Ben thinks.
The topic of the greenette's past with Bakugo had come up during their training sessions and he could tell that it was a tough spot for Midoriya to discuss… Didn't he relate to that feeling?
"He seems really angry. It's scary!" Kaminari thinks out loud.
And unfortunately for the hero team, Bakugo just was not done. After managing to find Midoriya, he unleashed the largest attack that the class had ever seen!
They could even feel the shockwave!
"Bakugo! What the hell are you thinking?!" Ben yells inside his head. He could understand the mentality of bullies but this was much more than that.
"This is supposed to be a class!" Kirishima says. "He's actually going to kill him."
"I agree, this is too much. We should stop this, teacher." Ben also joins in and backs up Kirishima.
Getting closer to All Might and lowering his voice, Ben says: "I knew there was bad blood between the two, but this should not be how they deal with it."
And the number 1 was not disagreeing with it.
"I should stop this..." he thinks. "But..."
Midoriya tries his best to dodge and land another flick but Bakugo does not give him a chance! He continues to land explosion after explosion and despite that, the greenette was continuing to get up.
"This is lynching!" Ashido also yells out. "He can capture him by just wrapping the tape around him!"
Some were trying to at least observe Bakugo's pitch perfect precision, but Ben was having none of it either.
"I could care less about the technique!" he says. "We need to get him out of there..."
Ben just couldn't tolerate it. He wanted to go hero and stop this right now.
And he would have done so…
...if he hadn't heard All Might accidentally letting his thoughts slip.
With his hand that held the mic shaking, under his breath, he said:
"I don't want to stop them, for his sake."
Number 1 hadn't noticed that he had said this out loud and even if you had asked him at that moment, he wouldn't have been able to give an answer...
Most of the class had missed that que, but the familiar shapeshifting hero, since he was sticking by his side out of concern for Midoriya, managed to pick up on it.
"What?" Ben thought and looked back onto the screen. "Why- What kind of good would come from any of this?!"
Midoriya had his back to the window and Bakugo was walking up on him, presumably for another beating. The greenette had his mouth moving, yelling and probably spewing whatever was on his mind.
"What good would come from it, Midoriya?" Ben continued to ask. "You don't have to explain yourself to him!"
Ben could see Midoriya yelling, with everything he had got despite the tears forming in his eyes.
"What's even the point…" he continues to ask.
In that moment, as Midoriya followed Bakugo on dashing against his opponent with his fist held up high, it clicked.
Midoriya's bravery… It wasn't just from facing a scary opponent… It was also facing his troubled past with Bakugo.
All Might was shaking his place and Kirishima was not letting up. "I said, this looks bad! Sir!"
Ben however, shakes his head. "No, this… is the best way, isn't it?"
He relaxed his fist and removed his hand from the rims of the Omnitrix.
Tears vanished from Midoriya's eyes as he faced down his long-time bully, and then... Ben didn't need to be able to read any lips to know what he said next.
"Smash!"
With an ingenious yet equally desperate move, the greenette aimed his fits towards the sky and with some quick thinking from Uraraka, their team secured the weapon, pulling the victory right under the ash-blonde!
Also with the shaking gone from his voice, All Might announced: "HERO TEAM… WINS!"
The shapeshifter took a sigh of relief. Granted, Midoriya was injured, but it could have been far worse.
He looked at the screen again. Both of the heroes were down in one form or the other, Iida was trying to tend to Uraraka and Bakugo… was frozen in place.
He wanted to feel good for Midoriya managing to make the ash-blonde like that. He honestly wanted to quip and have the rest of the class laugh, but his mind couldn't help wandering off to somewhere else.
"Would she feel like that as well?" he asked in his head.
Trembling, shocked, almost hyperventilating… If a simple punch from reality made the big bully Bakugo feel like that, then maybe there was a second take away from the greenette's lesson…
"I can't be rash like him..." Ben thinks. "Everything has a time and place..."
"Maybe after she gets her own license and faces a couple of villains-"
He shakes his head. Wouldn't that be too far away?
From what little they interacted, Ben learned that she was a smart and likable person. So, was he really going to let that weird tension exist between them for that long?
Ben takes a deep breath. "I'll talk about this with grandpa tomorrow..."
Now, he needed a break.
The matches from the rest of the class played out as per usual and now that they had changed back to their school uniforms, everyone was heading back to their classroom one by one.
"Yaoyorozu?." someone asks, waving his hand robotically in front of Momo's face. "Yaoyorozu?.."
"Oh." Momo shakes his head. "Hello Iida, how may I help?"
"Nothing, it's just that you have been silent since your match. We were wondering whether everything was okay."
She then sees Uraraka that was hanging around Iida. "Asui was asking that question a lot as well."
"I suppose…the battle against Tennyson took a lot out of me." she replies.
"That's understandable." Uraraka joins in. "All three of the beginning fights had that intense aura...It was getting really scary after one point."
"First three?" Iida asks.
"Well, Todoroki's fight wasn't exactly relaxed either. He must have been really fired up after seeing our fights as well."
Uraraka realizes what she just said.
"I mean, not literally of course, he he." she says sheepishly with a hand behind her neck.
Iida smiles at the joke and then asks: "So, what does Tennyson call his sixth form? We saw the two of you battle but only All Might was able to hear what was said."
"What was said…" she thought and immediately Ben's final answer popped into her mind. "No Yaoyorozu, I don't."
She couldn't believe tha. Not in the way of astonishment… but of trust.
"I would have usually dismissed the issue with this answer, especially since I don't want to intrude on the personal life of my friends, but..."
Tennyson's body language had spoken to her. He clearly knew something about those events five years ago but was hesitant to tell what it was.
"Now that I know it is there…" She says inside her head."My next question should be… What is he struggling so much to hide?"
She would love to continue pondering about this, but for that to happen, she needed to get away from the audience.
"He calls it Brainstorm..." she brushes the question aside and puts her hand on the bridge of her nose. "I apologize but may I go on ahead?"
Iida looks on concernedly. "Sure..."
The creation hero accelerates her steps.
"What do you think is going on with her?" Uraraka asks.
"I don't know..." he says. "Whatever it is... I'm sure she'll tell us eventually."
After getting back to the class, Yaoyorozu sits back down to her seat and takes out the notepad.
Tapping the pencil to the side of her table, she dives back to her thoughts.
"I went over the footage from my camera over and over again..."
On the pages, there were various still images from that moment. The flaming figure being grabbed by the two monsters, a kid suddenly appearing in the midst of a red flash, the scared reactions of the elderly man and the girl…
"The likely scenario is that he is the hero that fought off those villains and saved my life but..."
There were just some things that didn't add up.
"The first flash of color being red instead of green, the dial being white&black instead of green&black and the kid not touching the watch on his wrist to transform… These are all inconsistent from what I know."
Could something have happened after the fall he took... and the fight that followed it?
"Perhaps he was injured..." She gasps. "Could that be it?!"
She flips over a new page.
That could be the reason for him using the watch on his wrist… Since he's now unable to do it on his own.
It COULD also explain why he didn't want to talk about what happened that day…
She was writing up a storm in her notepad… but the fact continued to stand in front of her.
She sighs and puts the pencil aside.
"It can be possible but it is still all just speculation."
Yaoyorozu looks down at her notes again.
"I need more information." she murmurs.
Without further intel, all she could do was speculate, create theories and hit more and more dead-ends.
Also, unlike her theories with Jiro and the others about Tennyson's quirk at the yard, this time she couldn't get intel from the source.
And other sources were scarce and untrustworthy…
"What do I do..." the creation girl asks herself, gathering her hands.
All of this was too important to her to let go. She had to know if he was the diamond hero. She had to know if… that warrior was still around and thank him for everything.
"I can't do this alone." she admits and with a glance falling on her notepad, she murmurs: "I need someone who would know about this… about heroes."
"It's late afternoon...?" Midoriya opens his eyes. The light from the fluorescent light initially dazzles his eyes but he slowly gets used to it.
"Are you awake?" Recovery Girl asks.
"Yeah, how long was I out?" he says as he lifts his head from the pillow.
"A couple of hours…" Recovery Girl answers in a nonchalant manner. "You missed all the afternoon classes."
Midoriya bows his head. "Is that so..."
"Well, that's all for today's treatment. Come back again tomorrow, okay?" she says.
Midoriya raises his eyebrows. "But… my arm still hasn't fully recovered?"
"I did the best I could but since you're completely exhausted, we can't do anything but wait."
"I see," he says. "Thank you."
"Thank me by not coming here so often." she waves her hand. "Jeez, one thing that I don't need is a recurring patient."
Midoriya nods and gets off to the corridor.
He had missed his classes and had to settle it by breaking his arm again…
"Mr. Aizawa's gonna wrap me in those bindings..." he nervously thinks.
Not only that but since his arm was broken, he would have to take a small break from training as well. "This really isn't my day, is it?"
At least he got to see another one of Tennyson's forms… and pull a win under Kacchan.
"A year ago, I couldn't even dream of doing that..." He thought as he looked down at his broken arm. "Because of you All Might… Because of the people that supported me..."
His mom… Tennyson…
With their help in all of this, he could move forward and he could already feel how his world was changing because of it.
In the meantime though, he couldn't help but be empathetic. "I wonder how Kacchan is feeling about it…"
He remembered his words, how he accused him of lying, and how he actually had a flashy quirk this entire time!
"No, that's not the truth!" he yelled inside his head. "I… got lucky."
He needed to fix this. He needed… to set it right.
Just when he was about to slide open the door of class 1-A, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned and raised an eyebrow. "Yaoyorozu?"
"Midoriya, may I have a word?" The creation girl asked with a serious tone.
"Sure?.." he nodded. Midoriya had seen Yaomomo be serious, but it was usually towards being focused on the tasks ahead. This one felt like… it had weight.
"May I take your notebook for the night? Your hero notebook?"
Midoriya's eyes light up, alleviating the situation just a bit. "Is there a hero you would like to know more about Yaoyorozu?"
"You could say that..." she says, refusing to waver in front of Midoriya's optimism. "I assume a lot of Japan's heroes are written in there?"
"Yeah, but the one that I have right now is number 13..." he says with a hand on his neck.
And this one was not complete, it wasn't even halfway filled.
"The other 12 are back home and they have a lot more. If you want, I can bring the needed one-"
"So what about American heroes?"
Midoriya, in response, tilted his head. "I might have one or two but why-"
Yaoyorozu, with a heavy heart, then shows him her notepad.
On the page, there was a giant hourglass inside an equally giant circle "And how many of them have this symbol on them?"
Midoriya is stunned. "That's Tennyson's symbol, isn-"
Yaoyorozu closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and when she opens them again, she interrupts and says: "We need to talk."
The greenette was shocked, but his glance still shifted over to his classroom door. "Can it wait? Just a minute?"
Yaoyorozu nods and Midoriya dashes into the classroom, only to then get out and run towards the gate of the school.
She thinks: "We have a lot to do..."
Hours rushed on by and before anyone had realized it, the next day had arrived and with it, came a brand new school day.
The next day
"Hey, you!" a news reporter calls out to Midoriya as many of the cameramen and other reporters surround the greenette. "How are All Might's classes? Do you think he should have become a teacher? Or was he suited to crime fighting more? Can we get an opinion from you?"
"Uh, excuse me, I need to go to the nurse's office!"
Midoriya managed to retreat into the school but if there was anything that should be known about mass media… It was the fact that they are relentless.
Before he could even blink, the media saw Uraraka, Kirishima and Iida heading for the gate.
"Will you tell us about what the Symbol of Peace is like as a teacher?" the reporter immediately asks.
"Wh-What he's like?" Uraraka replies, equally caught off guard by the question as Midoriya. ""Um… He's very muscular!"
"Yeah!" Kirishima joins in. "And very manly!"
The reporters deadpan. "No, we want to know-"
"Well, I think I can answer that." Iida says seriously. "He made me recognise anew that I attend an educational institution..."
While Iida was replying to their question, Ben sneaked a peak from the corner. "That's… a lot of reporters."
From the side, he then hears someone respond. "You're telling me..."
"Ah!"
He turns around and sees Pony waiting with her bag. "Hey Ben! Did I scare you?"
"Yeah, a bit." he scratches the back of his neck. "I thought you were one of those reporters."
She laughs and looks over as well. "Yeah, they really have a great many of them huh?"
Right now, from where they stood, it really looked like they were going to hold up everyone, be it teacher or student, trying to get to their classes and desperately ask for their answers.
Ben smiles and rolls back his sleeve. "Well, they're going to need all of them if they want to hold me back. I got the access pass right here."
Pony claps and says: "Same here!"
Two horns fly off from her head and take position right under her foot. "I've been practicing skating with my horns-Whoa?!"
Suddenly though, the horn slips right under her right foot and just when she is about to fall, Ben grabs her shoulder, preventing her from falling. "You were saying?"
She pouts. "I was saying that I was practicing."
Pony gets back on. "Let's just do this."
Ben nods but he could feel that something was wrong. "Wait a minute..."
It was quiet… too quiet.
He sneaks a peak again. "Nevermind, my classmate took care of it..."
"What do you mean?" she gets off from the horns and looks as well.
Turns out Iida's interview made all the reporters fall asleep.
"That works too… I guess." she says.
The two Americans dash right at the gate and as soon as they get in the clear, Ben could faintly hear a reporter trying to approach him. "Hey! Just a little time is fine!"
Suddenly the lights above the gate turned on and with an ear deafening alarm, turned red. "Wh-What the…?!"
Walls of impervious steel rose up from the ground and quickly strengthened the walls and the security system was completely in effect. The only opening was from the top and the reporters doubted that anything that flew in there wouldn't be fighting for his life.
Pony turns around. "Wow… This is the world famous U.A. security barrier? It's so cool."
Ben looks at it as well. It didn't seem anything too special to him but that was mostly because he had seen Mount Rushmore getting back into shape after several years of absence.
"Now that I think about it, I wonder how the crew is doing back there..."
Maybe he should schedule a trip back during the summer break.
"For now though..." he shrugs and waves back at the reporters. "Bye bye mass media. Good luck getting past that!"
"Wanna get going?" Ben asks.
"Yeah."
The two walk towards the main door.
"So…" Pony says. "How have you been doing Tennyson? How is class 1-A?"
"It's pretty good." Ben points back at the door. "I mean, you kinda just had a sneak peak."
She smiles. "Yeah, they look like they could be fun to hang around with."
"Is class 1-B like that too?" Ben asks.
"Of course, they're great!" she enthusiastically says. "They are all super nice and our teamwork was great in the rescue training!"
"Rescue training?" Ben asks.
"Yeah, in the USJ? You guys didn't have that yet?"
"Nah..." says Ben. "We had battle training..."
Speaking of which, the doors of their classes were right up ahead. "Well, see you later."
"Sure!" says Pony. "Take care Tennyson."
The two wave at each other and go into their respective classrooms.
"Good work on yesterday's combat training." says Aizawa. "I saw the video and the results. And I have notes to give to some of you."
He then turns to class.
"Bakugo, you're talented, so don't act like a kid."
Bakugo knits his eyebrows and grits his teeth in response. "I know..."
Aizawa then turns his gaze. "Midoriya, you can't keep saying you can't help it because you can't control your quirk."
The greenette looks down.
"But, from what I've seen, if you can solve the control issue, there will be a lot you will be able to do."
Midoriya lifts his head. "Yes, sir!"
"And Tennyson..."
Ben straightens up.
"Your strategy was well structured, however the element of surprise was a notable reason as to why it worked this time. Make sure to not rely on it in the future..."
Ben nodded. That was fair. To be honest, he wanted to be smart in the exercise but there was also a part of him that wanted to show off, just to show off. "Understood."
"Now… Sorry about the late notice but today, I'll have you..."
"Take another special test?" Ben thinks.
"...decide on a class representative."
"Oh… That was anticlimactic." He then leans back on his desk. "Well, I'll let the class sort out this one. I'm sure there will be that one per-"
"I want to be class rep! Pick me!" Kirishima throws his hands into the air.
"Me too!" Kaminari raises his hand.
"I want to do it too." Jiro says.
"It's a job made for m-" Aoyama starts but gets cut off by Ashido as per usual.
"I'll be the leader!"
Ben then looks around and sees many of his other classmates raising their hands, wanting to be the class rep.
"What's up Tennyson? You don't want in on this?" Kirishima nudges him.
Ben waves his hand. "Nah, I'm not that interested. You can have it."
He then leans back again. In hindsight, he liked the idea of being a hero and working alongside others. Fighting against the same evil and towards the same goal was enough for him and you could do that by being a teammate.
Back home, in America, he already had his grandpa who could be a leader and Gwen, even though they joke about it, had the qualifications to replace him.
Himself though… Ben just didn't see it. Unless he was his own team and went at it solo.
"Silence, please!" Iida shouts. "It is an important job about leading others. It is not a job for anyone who wants it!"
"It is a calling that requires the trust of those around you. Therefore it must be decided with democracy and by votes that symbolize the faith of others!"
Everyone was left staring at the sudden commanding presence of Iida… almost everyone.
Ben asks from his seat. "So, long story short, we're holding an election?"
"Yes." replies Iida.
"Good good, I have another question."
"Which is?"
"Why would you suggest this… while you have your hand the highest?"
"Yeah, Iida. Sorry to burst your bubble but we only spent 2 days together." Jiro also adds. "This is just going to be a case of everyone voting for themselves."
Iida, lowering his hand, says: "That's why it will be a great opportunity."
Slamming his fist onto his hand, he continues: "Don't you think that is precisely why whoever receives multiple votes here can be truly considered as the most suitable leader?"
He then turns to the teacher but finds him getting into his yellow sleeping bag. "I, personally, don't care how you decide. Just make sure to decide before the homeroom is over."
"Thank you very much!"
Upon hearing that, Ben starts to look around. "Now… who do I give my vote?"
Someone that had good judgement and could keep up with him…
Iida had already started writing the names on the board.
"Yeah, I got it. Let's get this over with..."
And after a bit of time… when it came time to look at the results, something had not gone as expected.
"I got 2 votes?!" Ben raised his voice. "I just said I didn't want it so why-"
"Calm down Tennyson." said Jiro. "It's not like you're the only one."
On the board, apparently there was a three-way tie of 2 votes.
One was Tennyson…
Another was Yaoyorozu…
And the last one…
"Me too?!" Midoriya also shook in place.
"THAT IS IT!" Bakugo slammed his hand on the desk and stood up. "Who the fuck gave these votes?!"
"Language!" Iida warned.
"Shut it nerd! You don't even have a vote!" Bakugo said, completely ignoring the fact that his 1 vote came from himself.
Iida clenched his hands in sorrow and turned to the board. "0 votes..."
"Yeesh, low blow much Bakugo?" Jiro thought and then asked: "So, we're holding another vote among these three?"
"How much time do we have left, teacher?!" Iida asks Aizawa that was turning inside his sleeping bag.
"Enough, if you're quick." he replies.
"Alright class 1-A! Let's get this over with! Another vote between the three of them!" Iida yelled again.
"Don't vote for me this time!" Ben added in the last second before the voting actually began.
In the meantime, right outside of U.A., trouble started to brew.
"Is that it?" asked a blue haired figure from an alleyway. "Is that the school he attends?"
His outfit was incredibly plain with a long-sleeved black shirt, black pants and red boots except for one aspect… The white severed hand that was placed right above his face.
"Yes, Shigaraki." said a purple, misty man that was dressed like a bartender. "That is U.A. High that just employed All Might as a teacher."
Without warning, Shigaraki started to laugh.
"Shigaraki?" asked the purple figure.
"Ha ha ha ha ha, the school is just like him!"
Looking at the reporters, he says: "Look at them, flocking the gates like a bunch of headless chickens… just to get one word from him, the big man.
Changing his gaze to the school. "Center of attention and just as shallow..."
His hand goes to his neck to itch.
"Master." the purple figure says, grabbing his hand midway. "We should keep our focus on the matter at hand."
He shakes his hand free. "You don't need to tell me Kurogiri."
"Right now, I am thinking of nothing besides giving a scare to these noobs...". He takes a deep breath and takes off the hand on his face. "And showing them just how underleveled they are."
"Yep, I'm sure you are, pretty boy!"
As he was about to head out, the pair heard a third voice coming behind them. It was Rojo, with all of her red hair, armor, and glory, carrying a dark grey box in her hand.
Kurogiri immediately enveloped his body in mist, however Shigaraki refused to flinch.
Without turning around and focusing all of his bloodlust at the same time, he coldly asked: "Who are you supposed to be?.."
Rojo taps on her chin and laughs. "I'm just a fan. A fan of what you got going on here."
She takes another look at his face. "I guess you wouldn't get a lot of those with those crusty lips...
The facial expressions of the two don't even flinch from the joke.
"Don't insult my master." Kurogiri says, while Shigaraki turns to look at her.
"Oh come on! You're not thinking that I'm some sort of do-gooder, are you?" She points to the skull painted on her chest. "Does this really look like a flag of hope for you?"
He starts to walk up to her out of annoyance but Kurogiri manages to grab the shoulder of his master. "We should proceed, Shigaraki."
He takes a look at his yellow misty eyes.
"If she is not a hero, she is meaningless." Kurogiri justifies his intention. "We should get a move on before those news reporters do."
Shigaraki put his hands in his pocket. "I guess you're right..."
He turns around, facing the school.
Looking at Rojo from over his shoulder, he waves his hand. "You heard him."
"Now go on… scram."
As he was about to come out of the alleyway, he could feel something in the air.
A smirk, a cheeky smirk continuing to stare him down from behind.
Rojo's voice rose again. "I like the attitude, pretty boy. But that's not how this woman operates."
With her hands on her hips, she says: "If you know I'm not here to stop you, then you must have a pretty good idea of why I'm here."
Kurogiri looks back at her and with that reaction out of them, Rojo continues.
"Let's just say that my boss gave me my own shopping list and is being a real stick in the mud about it."
Kurogiri says: "If you want something from there, do it yourself."
"Oh come on… " She put her hands together in a cynical manner. "I really expected that gentlemen like you two would surely help a damsel in distress, like me."
"What is in it for us?" asks Kurogiri but Shigaraki scoffs at the idea.
"Don't bother Kurogiri. We don't deal with side quests."
In response, Rojo's smirk becomes a full blown smile. "Is that so?"
She walks next to Shigaraki.
"Then you wouldn't mind me coming along, would you?"
The two made eye contact but Rojo was continuing the smile.
"You would most definitely get caught." Kurogiri said.
"Oh I would but I'm resourceful enough to not get arrested." she responds.
"As for your agenda though…" She leans down to Shigaraki's eye level. "I hope you deal well with time trials."
Shigaraki, with anger on his face, makes a move towards Rojo with his hand and in response, she aims her arm cannon right at him.
This was a stand-off. But she kept up her attitude.
"What will it be, pretty boy? A side quest? Or a 'protect the payload' restriction?"
"Then, the class rep is Midoriya, and the deputy class rep will be Yaoyorozu." concludes Aizawa.
Midoriya was practically trembling in place by the new responsibility, while Yaoyorozu was standing as still as a boulder.
"S-Seriously? Me as t-the class r-rep?" he could utter before receiving a nudge from Yaoyorozu.
"A leader must show confidence in front of others. You shouldn't look like you're going to fall over."
Midoriya tried to straighten up. "R-Right!"
She then took her sight off him and sighed. "How vexing."
"That might not be too bad..." said Asui.
"After all's said and done, Midoriya can be fired up, anyway." Kirishima joins in.
Sero added: "And Yaoyorozu was cool during her battle with Tennyson's Brainstorm!"
In the meantime, Ben continues to lean back on his desk. "Yep, this works."
But there was one small thing nagging at him: the scoreboard.
After everything was said and done, in the second election, he still got 2 votes.
Ben raised an eyebrow. "Some people must really believe in me..."
Despite all of this happening in the homeroom, the discussions continued all the way up until lunch time.
Midoriya sighs as he takes his seat. "I don't know about it guys. Even though I have been chosen as the class rep, I don't know if I'm qualified for it."
At lunch, he was accompanied by Ben, Uraraka and Iida.
"It's fine Midoriya. Don't sell yourself short." says Ben. "After all, you thought you couldn't beat Bakugo in training and then you completely floored him."
"Well, that was because of technicalities… " Midoriya added. "If that was a real fight, it wouldn't be so simple."
"I doubt it." Iida cuts in. "Your courage and judgement at critical moments make you worth following."
"That is why I voted for you."
"One of those votes was you?" Midoriya asks again.
"Yes." He confirms. "But more importantly..."
Iida changes his sights to Ben who was eating his food in peace. "What I'm wondering about is why you were so against being the class representative, Tennyson."
Everyone turns towards Ben as Iida continues. "With your quirk, you have experience in handling many types of abilities. Wouldn't that make you better at coordinating teams of other pro-heroes?"
Tennyson puts his bowl down and scratches the back of his neck. "You're right Iida but I don't know…"
"I wanted to become a hero because I felt like it was in my destiny to be so, but becoming a leader?.."
"I guess… I just don't want it."
He already had enough responsibility as the wearer of the omnitrix.
"But…" He picks the bowl back up and recalls the 2 votes. "Two of my classmates believed in me. So, I guess, maybe I could give it a shot... "
After all, could he really handle everything on his own? He didn't think so.
As he was about to then finish his food, something caught Ben's eye and had him look at Midoriya.
He could swear that he saw the greenette just flinch with his peripheral vision.
"But, didn't you want to be class rep too, Iida?" Uraraka changes the subject. "I mean, you've got the glasses and everything."
Ben deadpans. "Uraraka really just talks without thinking..."
Taking the straw out of his mouth, Iida answers: "Wanting to do it and being suitable for it are different issues. I merely did what I judged to be correct."
"Merely?" asks Uraraka.
"You don't usually use that word..." Midoriya follows up.
Ben, on the other hand, asks the obvious: "Why? What's wrong with it?"
Iida sweatdrops.
"It's a fancier word..." Uraraka says. "I've been thinking as well..."
She excitedly asks: "Are you a rich boy, Iida?"
Ben could swear that he saw stars around Uraraka because of that enthusiasm.
"Rich..." he sighs. "I tried to change the way I talk because I didn't want to be called that."
"I mean, I think you did a good job with it." Ben says as he leans back with the empty bowl in front of him. "I met some rich people as well and you're nothing like them."
A quote pops in his head, making him smile. 'Buy them off, now that's the GrandSmith way.'
"Ha!" he thinks. "Is that really so Eddie?"
Once he was back to reality, he saw both Midoriya and Uraraka staring at them.
"My grandpa has a friend." he says, waving his part of the subject aside and joining in to peer pressure Iida.
And unfortunately, it doesn't take long for Iida to crack and tell them of his family and his elder brother, the Turbo Hero: Ingenium.
"I set my sights on being a hero because I want to be like my brother. However, I think it is a bit too soon for me to lead others and Midoriya has had admirable results for every endeavor he has faced so far."
"Therefore, I think he's more suitable for the job." he answers Uraraka with a smile on his face.
"Well said." Ben says. "I think we're in good hands as well."
Just when he utters that though, an alarm goes off, enveloping the mess hall!
A robotic voice then gave the following announcement.
"There has been a Level 3 security breach. All students please evacuate outdoors promptly."
Like a bomb had gone off, everyone jumped out of their seats and started to run towards the exit.
"What's 'Level 3 security'?" Iida asks an upperclassman.
"Let me guess..." Ben gets up from his seat. "A stranger is on the school grounds?"
The upperclassman nods and Ben grabs the dial of the watch. "Great… Good thing I went to school today..." he thinks rhetorically.
"You guys get to the exits." Ben says as he twists the dial. "I'll go see what's going on."
He slams the dial and transforms into Jetray right in front of them. A few people turn heads but they don't pay much attention as the crowd piling on the exit grows larger.
"Tennyson, we should proceed with the-" Iida says but Ben was having none of it.
"To the exits, Iida!" he points towards the door. "Now go! I'll catch up."
He spreads his arms and dashes through the corridor all the while leaving a yellow streak behind him. "Now… let me see if I can put a handle on this before it gets out of hand..."
A brief assist from Brainstorm would be nice to predict where the trespassers were going but, good old natural instinct had to do for now.
Midoriya was left staring after him, absolutely amazed.
He then looks elsewhere and makes eye contact with the deputy class representative, Yaoyorozu.
Her gaze was just as amazed as Midoriya's but there was a hint of worry that overshadowed most of it and in response, all Midoriya could do… was nod before following his friends to the exit.
Little that they knew… there was a third gaze that could quite literally make you freeze.
Meanwhile, the corridors were absolutely filled up by students, reducing the space that Jetray could pass through.
"Wow, does this school have a lot of people?.." he thought as he looked down. You would think that as restricted as the open slots are for this school, there wouldn't be much of a crowd but boy, would you be wrong.
There were 3 different grades, 11 classes per grade and if it was 20 people per class, there were 660 students in here!
Jetray then narrowly dodged between some of the taller students. "That was close."
Thankfully this was the moment where not holding back on the budget to make excessively large corridors at U.A. paid off. Even with a full crowd of upperclassmen, Jetray could slip right past them. "112 km should be enough to catch the culprit."
It wasn't long now, before he could reach the room he was looking for.
He knitted his eyebrows. "If they are in danger because of me alone, I can at least take care of it on my own as well."
Just then, Jetray reached the room he was looking for, the teachers' lounge!
"If I was the real aim, then they would have jumped the cafeteria… This is the only other place that makes sense."
He slid open the door and flew inside. However, turns out it wasn't empty.
"Woah!" Snipe got up from his couch, throwing down his book aside and grabbed the six shooter on his belt. "You have 3 seconds to explain what you're doing here before I take you apart."
Ben held up his hands. "Whoops!… Sorry Mr. Snipe, I'm Tennyson from class 1-A."
He raised his eyebrow through his mask. "Tennyson huh?.. The one with the transformation quirk?"
"The very same!" he answered.
"Then why are you here and not at the exits?"
"Well..." Ben started. "I thought this would be where the infiltrating villains are?"
"Villains?"
Ben gestured to the alarm.
"Oh, that." he takes his hands off the gun and tells him to come close.
Ben obliged and together they looked out of the windows… to where the news reporters and cameramen were.
"Oh..." he says and with a green flash, Ben goes back to normal.
"Yeah..." Snipe says and pats him on the back. "Nice reflexes kid, but Midnight just went to report the mistake on the speakers while Cementoss went to turn off the alarm."
Ben turns to face him. "Do these types of things happen a lot around here?
"You know, with me being an American and this being a hero school, I don't know much about this stuff."
"No. This really is very unusual." Snipe says confidently as he sits back down to read his book. "We will do a check-up on the security system later today, to find the glitch and make sure that it's not going faulty on us."
"I understand." says Ben and also looks at the students who had actually made it outside. "By the way, just to make sure, I'm not in trouble, am I?"
He technically disobeyed the protocol of this situation, even though it was a mistake by the system.
"I don't see a reason to reprimand you. After all, you acted like how a hero should." Snipe lifts his head and gestures to the door. "But I can't speak for my colleagues that are probably on their way."
Ben reads the room and thanks Snipe for the kind gesture before heading out for his class.
Honestly though, he didn't know about this. Coincidences like a glitch being in the security system and ONLY workers of the mass media managing to find it was a big red flag for him after fighting all those aliens.
But... he couldn't exactly be sure about it. After all, he was in a different place, a different land with a drastically different culture and coincidentally, people.
He reminded himself that he couldn't act like this was his cross-country road trip. This was the most elite hero school in Japan where THE number 1 hero went to teach. Who would be stupid enough to attack here?
A purple smoky portal opens up in a far away alleyway.
"Did you get it, Kurogiri?" says Shigaraki with an anxious yet equally cold tone.
"Inde-." says the purple wormhole before being cut off by the armored lady beside him.
"Awww! You do care!" she says teasingly. "I'm touched."
The two start walking away but Rojo doesn't let up with the teasing. "What did you guys get from U.A.?"
"It's classified." replies Kurogiri.
On the other hand, Shigaraki refuses to even bat an eye. "Let's head home Kurogiri. I don't want to spend another second next to this overgrown brat."
"Yes, young master." he says as a wormhole forms beside them.
As they were about to head inside, Rojo, with her own variety of annoyance, responded: "Oh, that little bar? Prepare a drink for me next time will ya?"
The two figures immediately freeze in their tracks.
Shigaraki turned around. "So, you know about our home base?"
But Rojo was prepared.
She crossed her arms. "That's it? Think deeper than that pretty boy. How do you think I knew about your little ambush today?"
From behind the hand, she could see Shigaraki's eye slightly widen and she was loving it. "You see, remember how I talked about my bosses and how they needed information and stuff like that? Well, we-"
"I don't care." he replies, cutting her off. "Get to your point..."
"We both want similar things. Besides… Wouldn't your little break-in be more fun with something like this?"
She puts her dark grey plastic box on the ground and opens it's lid.
Inside… there was nothing but yellow slime. However, their eyes caught a glimpse of something swimming inside.
Shigraki asks: "What kind of item is it?"
"I'll give you one pro tip." says Rojo with a sadistic smile. "You don't want to get it near your face."
And that's the cut off point. What did you think?
Originally I was going to do an assessment scene where Ben would make it clear that he was holding back a bit during the fight, so that Asui and Yaoyorozu could learn rather than giving them the taser treatment frame 1. But I couldn't really make that fit in the way that I wanted to and so I cut it. He will make that clear in the next chapter.
As for a response to the latest reviews about shipping, my answer is that since I didn't put in that much thought into it during the planning phase, I will just go with the flow.
When I'm writing, if a ship makes sense while the story moves along, I will most likely do it. If it doesn't and just gets in the way of it, I won't.
Lastly, I'm once again sorry that the schedule became 3 weeks per chapter, but if it's any consolation, the next chapter will officially be the USJ so get excited for that. It will probably be out on the 30th.
Until then, have a great day and I'll see you on the next one!