Chapter 189 - 20-23

Chapter 20: Wait, There's A Second Season?

Once we went over to her house, Pony and I went up to her room. I sat down on a pillow and looked over at her. She was on her bed, curled up to look me in the eyes. Even with her elevated position, I was still a bit taller than her, but this made it easier for her to meet my eyes.

I sighed, rubbing my hands together, my scales rubbing against each other with a soft and soothing rasping sound. "I'm going to be upfront, Pony. I can't tell you everything."

"Because you don't trust me?" Pony's voice was soft, her eyes swimming.

I scoffed. "I trust you more than I trust myself. Pony, just because I keep some secrets doesn't mean someone is untrustworthy. There are some things people keep close to their chest, like your crush on-"

"Ah!" a pillow smacked into my face, falling to land on my face. Pony had gone beet-red. "I-I don't have a crush on anyone!"

"And I don't have a poster of Mirko on my wall," I said with a chuckle. I forced myself to become serious again. "Pony, what I'm going to tell you is everything you ever need to know about me. Things I might never tell anyone else, even my wife. Because you matter. Being honest about these things is hard for me. But like I said, I won't tell you every last thing about me. Just know, it's for a good reason."

The embarrassed look on her face faded the more I talked. By the time I finished, she had calmed down as well. "I guess that makes sense."

I sighed. "Then I'll start with the big one. I knew the attack on USJ was coming."

She stared at me. "You knew!? Why didn't you-"

"No one would believe me if I told them," I said, heading her off. "I'm a kid in high school. I came out of nowhere? How could I explain that I'd gained knowledge about an imminent attack on the school specifically set up to kill All Might?"

"How did you find out?" Pony rose up a bit, staring at me.

"On the internet," when she scowled I realized how that sounded. "I'm not making a sarcastic joke, I'm being serious. I suspected something was going on while I was doing research into online forums in support of villains."

"They have those?" she said, sounding more than a bit disgusted.

"For as long as evil exists, there will always be those who decide to remove their brains and decide that evil is worth following," I said with a sigh. "And I don't mean the folks who think evil is sexy, I mean the type that thinks serial killers are tragic figures fighting against the man."

Pony swallowed, looking disgusted. I moved on.

"Point on that is, there are people who hate heroes for being popular. Some of them have actual grievances, like heroes that use their fame to take media jobs that others might want, or who use their fame to get away with crimes for years," after all, being hero, in some places, was less a day to day battle and more an all-you-can-eat buffet. Half-cop, half-celebrity, with all the problems tied to both.

Pony wasn't speaking, though she looked uncomfortable. "Yeah… mom talks about that sometimes. About heroes who don't deserve their… their jobs."

"Well, some people complain about that. Some people also have really stupid greviances. But where those people congregate is the internet. Forums, blogs, all that sort of thing, all on a few different websites. I ended up on those websites, and I decided to take a listen to them when they started getting into attacking USJ."

I raised a finger. "Keep in mind. I haven't mentioned why I started looking into things. That's part of that larger secret I'm keeping. Just know that the instant I suspected someone was doing more than talking, I started preparing just in case. I kept it to myself."

"You didn't even tell me and mom," Pony mumbled.

"Because I could have been wrong," I chuckled. "Pony, imagine. If I'd somehow managed to get a big enough response ahead of time, then I was wrong? I would have wasted everyone's time! Worse, what if there was an attack planned, and someone got word I knew about it? They would have backed off, or worse, come with a larger group, attacked a different day. I had to keep it to myself."

"No, you didn't," Pony said sternly. "You could have told me and mom, explained why you were worried that you were wrong. We would have kept it secret if we had to, and mom could have let the teachers know about it when it happened."

"...That did not occur to me as an option," I admitted a little bit weakly.

"I noticed," she said with uncharacteristic sarcasm.

"Look, I had a lot on my mind," I sighed, rubbing my face. Damnit. That would have worked. Cow Lady could have even helped during the battle. She may not have been All Might, but she was fast, powerful, and experienced, as worthy a hero as any.

"You said you had a lot on your mind," Pony asked. She sounded like she was coming to a realization. "I noticed you've been stressed a lot recently. This is why. You were planning how to stop the attack."

"I was planning how to circumnavigate it," I quickly broke down my plan with the burner phone, the VPN's, how I'd spent as much time as possible forcing my plan to be simple so that it wasn't doomed to fail when one cog in the machine went wrong. "So in the end, all I had was a way to broadcast the warning to everyone right as it was happening, and do my best to protect everyone until then."

Pony hit me with a pillow. "There was so much that could have gone wrong with that plan!"

"Actually, not much," I argued. "I knew what the possibilities were, but I made sure to cover what I could. The text messages and emails were something I tested in advance, the phone was placed in an area with both service and little to no interaction from the public or any homeless folk who might find it, during a time period where garbagemen wouldn't find it by some random chance."

She still looked annoyed. "Just, talk to me from now on, okay! Let me know about these things! I was so worried about you! Bowser, you almost died!"

Looking away from the tearful look on her face, I tried to hold in a bit of a wince. Thinking back on my fight with the Nomu, all I could remember was the pain. His fists had been like… god, how do you describe something like that? Unless you really had been beaten by a superhuman, it's hard to imagine the pain of it.

"I was the only one who had a chance against that thing," I mumbled.

"And it still almost killed you," Pony pointed out. "You said we don't choose the ballroom, but you did."

"And I danced," I said with a small smile. "I had to."

"...Bowser, you won't keep this kind of thing from me anymore, will you?" she asked unsteadily. Her fingers wrapped into her blanket on her bed, shifting the cloth around, her big blue eyes never leaving my face as her mouth twitched.

I scratched my chin, claws 'skriching' against scales. "No way. From here on, I'm letting you know anything and everything I learn. I want you in my corner, Pony," I reached out and rubbed her head in between her horns. "Need my little sis to have my back next time I fight a giant monster, right?"

While she did blush, she also scowled and pushed my large hand away. "I'm being serious, Bowser."

"Same here," I lowered my hand. "This shit was hard. It was stressful. I kept picturing all the thousand ways things could go wrong. I'll be so happy to have someone I trust to help me with the next event."

Pony looked me over, but shook her head a bit rather than speaking. Then she seemed to realize something. "Next event?"

"All Might is still alive."

No need to explain further. Pony understood.

"I guess you still have an account on those sites?" she asked immediately.

"I do."

"T-Then lets get ready!" Pony clenched a determined fist. "We can stop them next time, right? If we prepare. We can protect everyone!"

There is no explaining the relief that filled me as I saw her shine with hope, with sheer willpower.

Finally. I no longer had to lie.

—---

The next morning, I ate in the kitchen with Pony and Tauren as we watched the news, where a report on the attack was being displayed. School was closed for the day after the attack, so we were taking the time to relax and hang out together.

"72 villains were arrested, though the ringleaders managed to escape. Police are still investigating into-"

"I don't know how I feel about this," Tauren mumbled. "On the one hand, I was worried about you guys. On the other, Seventy-Two grown adults attacked a class of teenagers and ended up in jail with not a single kid dead."

"Not for lack of trying," I mumbled.

The Cowgirl Hero winced. "Well, yeah, but I'm lookin at this like a hero. I'm trying to understand what the point was of attacking with such a large group of people who had little to no ability to attack."

Pony and I shared a glance. "What are you thinking, mom?"

She looked between us, all of us ignoring the plates of eggs in front of us. Tauren rested her elbows on the table. It was like she was readjusting her thought process, shifting from mother to hero. When she was done, she spoke.

"All Might was the target, as we all know. But I think he was only a secondary target."

"Secondary?" I was genuinely surprised. "They brought in a superweapon guy to kill him!"

"One. They brought in one superweapon," Tauren said slowly, her voice serious and soft. "You said that one villain, Mr. Hands? He was the ringleader. But it sounds like he was young, inexperienced, treating things more like a game. The villains weren't coordinated or trained, making me feel like they were meant to be cannonfodder from the start."

She leaned back, continuing to brainstorm. "The rest of the attack was really professional though. Jamming communications, portaling into the school with that one guy, checking to make sure All Might would be one of the teachers there by infiltrating while using the media as a distraction. So. Professional in making the USJ Attack happen. But the actual attack was a mess beyond that."

I frowned. "Now that you mention it, sending me into a fire zone and Tsuyu into a water zone is sort of the worst idea. They just shuffled us anywhere they could."

"So they did research into where All Might would be, but didn't account for the students," Tauren agreed. "Which is a mistake only rookies make. I think this whole thing was, a test, or lesson maybe? Someone was trying to find out more about something."

"About All Might?" Pony asked.

"Or the school," I suggested.

"Or the villains themselves," Tauren pointed out with a raised finger. "Think about it, kids. Inexperienced leader, new experimental weapon. Makes me think that part of this was just a big test for both of them."

"They attacked a school for a test?" Pony asked incredulously. Then she frowned, likely coming to the same conclusion as me. "It's like something out of an anime…"

Attacking the greatest hero on Earth just as a test. I could sort of see the reasoning though. Forcing All Might to fight in order to discover just how weakened he was, seeing how viable Nomu was as a weapon, teaching that brat of a decay kid a bit of humility. If they'd killed us, that'd have been a win, but the bad guys still got most of what they wanted.

It was like the Light in Young Justice, smugly laughing about how all their losses still got them a win in some way. Smug assholes…

"In truth, I shouldn't really be talking about this with ya," Tauren said with a wince. "But I'd rather you guys take this as a learning experience. Villains are closer to the stuff in shows and such than I'd like. We get bank robbers and such, but a villain that manages to learn from their mistakes is something you see a couple of times. It's why the hero course has lessons on investigative work available."

She smacked the table, making us jump in surprise. "But enough of that! Chow down, all right?"

I shared a look with Pony, then we got to eating quickly.

—---

After breakfast, Pony created an account on a couple of the websites I used to monitor those who followed villain activities, so that she could keep an eye with me on the shit that might pop up soon.

While she was doing that and I was about to talk about more ways for us to coordinate things, Ranma, my social worker, showed up at the door. We sat down in the living room, just Ranma and I.

"Bowser-kun, you've made the last day the most stressful I've ever had," he said with a truly pained look on his face.

I blinked slowly. "Um… sorry?"

"No, no, let me start over," he rubbed his eyes, sighing. "When the attack happened, I had to find out from the school that you were safe. That was fine. But then some reporter found out that you were one of the kids who directly fought the Nomu thing, and suddenly I had to fight off two different reporters asking questions about you. I imagine a few of the other students have parents dealing with the same thing."

"Sorry, again," I said a little helplessly.

"I was mostly worried about you," Ranma said with a sigh. "The school said you were okay, but had to go to the nurses office. I didn't even know something could get through that shell of yours."

The memory of a violet fist cracking across my shell, a sensation like my heart was being squeezed in a vice, filled my mind before I pushed it back.

"Well, I am a hero trainee," I said with a small sigh. "I knew all along that someone could eventually step in and break this thing," I smacked my shell, thankful that it was unmarred. Likely my own healing combined with Recovery Girl's power. I assumed, at least, that Bowser was capable of healing without anything like compound fractures being a thing. Hopefully.

"Bowser, that isn't right," Ranma scowled. "I've worked as a social worker for years. I've never had a student get injured because a villain attacked their school! Once or twice, out on the street. But never at a school, let alone UA. Do you want me to try and talk to the school-"

I held up a hand and shook my head. Still, I couldn't help a smile. "It's fine, Ranma. But thank you, honestly. Having you worry about me is gratifying."

He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. I noticed that he'd grown his hair out since he met me, all the way until he had a neat little pigtail at the base of his neck. "Changing up your style?"

At my question, Ranma blushed. "Ah. Yes. My partner and I are doing a joint cosplay soon."

That made me grin. Guess the world around me moves on without my input, huh?

"Anyways, Bowser-kun," Ranma lowered his hand. "My fashion aside. Please. Call me when something like this happens from now on. This may be a job, but I am truly invested in your wellbeing. I want to make sure you're safe, okay?"

Damnit, I wanted to give the guy a hug. I held back the urge. "Okay… I'll do my best. But I don't think you have to worry. Can't think of any big events coming up that will-"

—---

The next day, UA

"The sports festival!" the class said as a whole, cheering together.

I held in a groan. Goddamn it, I knew I forgot something.

Chapter 21: Put The Time In

The day after meeting Ranma, Pony and I headed to school together. In class, I sat down next to Sato and Shoji, the other biggest students in class greeting me.

"How are you?" Shoji asked, his eyes poking out over his mask. "I heard you were immensely injured after the battle."

"I was a bit banged up, sure, but I think we all were," I shrugged, throwing off the memory of purple fists. "It was a superhero fight, what else can you expect?"

"You weren't freaked out?" Sato asked, rubbing his nose just a bit. "Those villains came out of nowhere! My mom didn't want me to come to school for a while."

"Nah, I kinda expected it," I said.

"Expected it?" Shoji asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, all the comic books show superhero school kids getting attacked in their first few weeks, so it was about time for us too."

Sato and Shoji blinked. Sato was the one who decided to comment. "Bowser-kun, reality isn't like that."

"And yet, it still happened."

I don't think they knew how to take that little explanation.

"Besides, I'm mostly happy we all came out alive and safe. Thank god the teachers came in to kick some ass."

"Right?" Mineta walked over to join us, Jiro coming up as well. "I got so scared we were going to have to fight like that for hours! My head still hurts…"

I patted him on the shoulder. "I heard you gave a good accounting of yourself man. Nice work."

"Those villains really didn't know what they were doing though," Jiro noted, leaning against a desk while swinging one of her earphone lobes around casually. "A couple of them were smarter, but really they were all newbies, right?"

"Some of them," Shoji agreed. "Except for the purple one."

"That guy was trained," I grunted, scratching at my chin. "Or sounded like it, at least. He was confident. Not arrogant."

"Is there a difference?" Sato asked.

"A large one," Shoji said. "After all, while they can be confused, confidence tends to be tied to capability, rather than foolishness."

"You think we'll have to fight like that again anytime soon?" Mineta asked, sounding worried. He also glanced at Jiro's skirt but quickly looked away with a blush. He's learning. Kind of.

"Not at the school, I think. The teachers aren't idiots. They'd pull out all the stops to make sure this doesn't happen again," I pointed out. "Plus, there is no way that Decay guy and Teleport dude will be able to do anything but run. The Quirk Registration Records would have their quirks listed."

Hell, even my quirk was listed. Dragon-Turtle, put in almost a week after I'd shown up.

More students walked in.

"So, how many do you guys think you took out?" I asked them cheekily.

"We were supposed to count?" Sato asked, smiling just a bit.

"And do we get points for assists?" Mineta added.

A girl's school uniform walking by itself joined us, Toru sounding excited. "Hey, did you watch the news last night!?"

"Oh right," I replied, remembering. "I didn't, but my friend Pony told me about it."

"We showed up on-screen for a second!" she told us as she sat down in her seat. Though I couldn't see it, I could imagine the wide smile going with her excited voice. Followed by a bit of sadness. "I didn't stand out at all."

"Toru…," I said hesitantly. What am I supposed to say? The girl is LITERALLY invisible!

"Man, weird that we all showed up on the news like that," Sato mumbled.

"Nah, that's normal," Jiro said. "A hero course getting attacked like that-"

She was cut off when my phone alarm rang. Jiro quirked an eyebrow at me as I got up. She gave a teasing smile. "Got a hot date to head to?"

"Not today, but let me know if you're free this weekend," I grinned at the blush that flashed across her face. Sorry Jiro, I may not be a Casanova, but you're years too early to embarrass me. "But no, I have to act like the class president."

I strode to the front of the class, bumping into Izuku as I walked past. "Ah, sorry. I was about to… huh."

Everyone was already sitting in their seats. 19 high schoolers, sat calmly at the beginning of class? Yeesh, hero kids really were built differently.

"Awww, come on guys. I just became class president. Can't any of you be unruly enough to give me a reason for this job?"

"You want us to be unruly?" Ida asked, sounding like I'd offended something deep in his soul.

"Yeah, how about it, Ida? Maybe head to the bathroom without permission?"

"I would never!"

"Ah, Bowser-kun!" Mina leaned forward. "Do you know who is going to be teaching us today?"

"No idea," I shrugged. "The administration didn't feel like telling me, and I haven't had time to ask. Maybe All Might-sensei or Midnight- Kamanari, wipe that hopeful grin off your face, she'll never give you a chance."

"Oy!" Kamanari said, Mineta and Jiro chuckling at him.

Before I could joke around more, the door slid open. We all looked over at…

"Morning," said a familiar figure wrapped up in an entire hospital's worth of medical supplies.

"Aizawa-sensei!?" Mina shouted in surprise.

"Excuse me, Mr. Mummy, have you seen our sensei?" I asked the bundle of bandages shuffling in.

"Cute," Aizawa said, taking his spot at the head of the class while I walked back to my seat.

"That's a pro for you, I guess," Sato hesitantly said.

"Seriously, you all right?" I asked while taking my own seat.

"No, but it doesn't matter," Aizawa said.

"Does it really not?" Momo mumbled, looking horrified at the state of him.

"No. Because our fight isn't over yet."

"...Well that's freaking ominous," I mumbled.

"Right!?" Ochaco said, her eyes shaking.

Aizawa lowered his gaze, eyes glaring through his bandages. The class held their breath. "...The U.A. Sports Festival is drawing near."

It felt like the tension snapped apart in an instant. "THAT'S A SUPER NORMAL SCHOOL EVENT! The sports festival!" the class said as a whole, cheering together.

"Man, I forgot this was an actual school!" Sato said loudly.

As for me, I held in a groan. Goddamn it, I knew I forgot something. "We're having a tournament arc already!?"

"You need to stop comparing real life to manga and anime Bowser-kun. People might think you are chuunibyou, ribbit," Tsuyu warned.

Tokoyami scoffed out of his beak, while I shrugged.

"I'll stop when real life stops."

"AHHHH, I'm so excite-" Kirishima roared, only for a hand to push into his face.

"Hold on, hold on!" Kamanari said, the lightning kid looking worried as he shut up Kirishima. "Is it okay to have a school festival right now? I mean, we did just get attacked by a small army of villains."

"Yeah, what if they attack again," Jiro added.

"The most televised event in all of Japan?" I asked. "Don't we have tighter security than most government buildings when that goes down?"

"An exaggeration, but not too much of one," Momo agreed. "And I assume public perception is part of why it's continuing?"

"You got it in one," Aizawa said. "Since we're going ahead with it, it'll show that the school is confident that our crisis control is airtight this time. We're also going to have five times the police and hero presence we've had before. Don't worry about the security from here on out. Instead, focus on the chance ahead of you."

"The chance ahead of us?" I mumbled.

"Bowser-kun, you don't know?" Izuku said, turning to look back at where I was sitting. "Have you never seen the UA Sports Festival?"

"Only some clips on the internet," I said. "I know everyone calls it the 'Olympics Killer'."

"That's a fair name," Aizawa continued. "Our sports festival is one of the largest events in Japan, long since replacing the Olympics for our country."

"It's also a chance to get noticed!" Toru cheered, invisible hands waving.

"The top heroes in Japan watch the event," Momo said. "Scouting us!"

"What, we're all gonna put on a show to try and impress someone enough they'll make us a sidekick?" I asked. What the hell, how hadn't I heard about this?

"Yeah, but some people end up becoming sidekicks forever after high school. Especially if they're dumb," Jiro noted.

"...why are you pointing at me!?" Kamanari yelled when he noticed Jiro's mocking finger.

Aizawa shuffled, bringing the attention back to him. "Naturally, interning under a popular pro hero is a good way to get noticed. That means higher status, more experience, and a brighter future."

I frowned. Damn. He wasn't wrong. I mean, even without powers that logic applied to most careers.

And it looked like the others felt the same way. The same tension I felt. Momo and Ochaco had determined looks on their faces. Ida looked more stern than usual. Bakugo was smirking wide enough that I could see it from the back of the class.

"This is a chance you'll only get once a year. Three chances. If you want to be a hero," Aizawa intoned deeply. "This is an event you can't overlook!"

"...You hide it, but you have a real sense for drama," I said to Aizawa.

"Blame Present Mic."

During lunch, I ended up joining Toru and Tokoyami, standing next to their desks.

"Ahhh, you two are so lucky! You both have quirks that allow you to stand out so easily!" Toru whined as she waved her arms in the air. "I don't know how I'm going to show off during the Sports Festival at all!"

"Well, breathing fire helps," I chuckled. "Of course, unlike you, sneaking around is pretty much impossible for me, even Tokoyami can at least hide behind something effectively if he ever needed to. I need to own being big and loud to get anywhere in life. More than a few heroes appreciate a stealthy type."

"I don't want to just be stealthy though!"

The stealthiest person in class was also one of the most stand-out and outgoing ones. Oh, the irony. Then again, Izuku, the quiet kid, was also the one with the second most explosive quirk. At least Bakugo lived up to his powers…

"She is not wrong," Tokoyami opened up a bowl of ramen and sighed at the scent that came from it. I chugged a protein shake while watching him stir the noodles within. Wait, when had he gotten that? We hadn't gone to the lunchroom yet… Had he gotten it for drama's sake? Just to have the steam curling around him? "Despite my wishes, the festival watchers tend to pride a good show over good results. This is the darkness at the heart of heroism."

"Ohhh, Tokoyami is being cool again!" Toru cheered. He sipped at his noodles without a hint that he'd heard that.

"I hate to say it, but you're right," I scratched at my cheek, my claws rubbing at the scales with a little 'shf-shf' sound. "I guess our training is going to end up going over showing off what you can really do… Toru, how are you with baseball bats? Or, how MUCH of you is invisible? Could someone take your hardened feces and turn them into-"

"BOWSER-KUN, WHAT ARE YOU SUGGESTING!?" Toru screamed in horror.

"I mean, it doesn't have to be that, it could be your hair or something, it's just easier to shape that into a weapon-"

"That is so gross!" she said while waving her arms, her voice positively terrified.

Was I the weird one here? Maybe my old days on internet forums full of inventive weebs was catching up to me. Oh, couldn't hair be used as garrote wire? Like in Hitman, or Goblin Slayer? Or was that too dark?

"I'm nervous enough without you putting that into my head," Toru grumbled, distracting me from my thoughts on the merits of teaching assassination techniques to minors. "I need to stand out!"

"Not much point in standing out if we don't also show our usefulness after-"

A shout at the back drew my attention. "EVERYONE! I'M GONNA DO MY BEST!"

I looked behind me to see… what the hell?

"Ochaco-chan?" I mumbled. The cute gravity girl had a fist in the air, looking more like a boxer after winning a match than an adorable school girl.

"Y-Yeeeeah!" Mina, Izuku, and Ida hesitantly raised a hand in solidarity, while Mineta said something that made Tsuyu reprimand him.

Then she spun to face our direction, and I swear her eyes were alight with fire. "I'm gonna do my best!!!"

"...Dope."

Wonder what that was about. Ah well. In the meantime, I'd come back to Toru about my theories on her body later. No idea if she could make weapons from her hair, but that might be an option.

In the lunchroom, Pony and I sat down alone.

"I completely forgot about the Sports Festival," Pony admitted, her food already half-done. "Are you still going to have the training after school?"

"As long as people are willing to do them."

"You might be training your competition," she teased just a bit.

I shrugged. "Honestly, if someone benefits from the training sessions enough that they end up beating me, I'm not going to be mad. I'm gonna give the best showing I can to make sure some heroes notice me, but winning isn't the goal. Just doing well."

"Not everyone sees it that way," Pony mumbled.

"Monoma?"

"Monoma-kun," Pony said with a sigh. "He's been pretty excited since he found out. He really wants to win."

"We gotta a guy like that in our class too. Still, I can't blame them. A lot of us have to depend on a good showing to make sure a hero agency notices us. How about you, you gonna sidekick with your mom?"

"No," Pony shook her head, long blonde hair flopping around. "I don't want to do that. It feels like cheating? Plus, we already train with her. If I sidekick with someone, it should be someone I can learn new things from."

Way more logical than I expected. But then, that was Pony.

"Are you really not worried about the festival?" Pony asked.

"Not really?" I said with a shrug. "I just need to show off what I am good at and get a decent agency willing to intern me for a bit. Don't need to win it all to get what I want. Sure, the higher you place the more likely the top agencies will request ya, but there is plenty to learn in any hero agency if you work hard enough," I then give her a savage looking smile. "Doesn't mean I won't try my hardest though and make sure that anyone that overcomes me earns every inch."

I kind of had to. When I watched My Hero back in my world, it struck me as one of those Dragon Ball or Naruto types. Something that was going to be around for a WHILE, maybe with a few sequels too. Deku and the rest of the school was probably going to end up in one mess or another over and over again. I had to stay on top of my game if I wanted to survive.

…and I really didn't want to become Piccolo, Tenshinhan or heaven help me Yamacha because I didn't work to keep up.

"Well I am," Pony said hesitantly. "There are going to be cameras! All of Japan is going to watch us!"

"Then it's practice for when we become pro heroes since baring underground types like our homeroom teacher they tend to be in front of the camera a lot," I toned back my casualness a bit. "It'll be okay, Pony. We'll train like crazy. Come up with nutso moves that draw the eye."

Pony still looked nervous, but clenched a fist in determination. "Right! We'll kick their butts!"

"Well, don't know about that," I said with a chuckle. "We might be competing with the other kids, but we're all in the same boat. Any logical person would know we stand a better chance working together, showing all our merits, instead of trying to leave everyone else in the dust."

Later on, looking out at a sea of students with angry looks on their faces outside our classroom, I sighed.

"Oh right… people aren't logical."

Looking out at the sea of General Education first year students while looking over Ochaco's head, I barely noticed Mineta hopping onto my shoulder to get a better look. The grape kid stared out at everyone in shock.

"Wh-What are you all doing here!?" Mineta shouted.

"Scouting us out," I said.

"Idiots," Bakugo grumbled as he passed me by. "We made it out of the villain attack, so they wanna check us out before the Sports Festival."

"Can you blame them?" I asked the weirdly calm hothead. "We're probably the only first years to fight villains right now."

"Of course I can blame them," he walked up to the batch of students. "It's pointless to waste time on shit like this. So why don't you extras," he looked over them all, his rage clear under a sea of calm. "Get out of my way."

As Ida shouted out in shock at the rudeness, Mineta looked over at me. "Shouldn't you stop him from pissing everyone off?"

"..." Goddamn it.

I walked up to join him. And as I did, the other students noticed me. They began to back away as eight-feet of scales, muscle, and shell moved to stand behind Bakugo. I looked around, before noticing one student standing in the crowd hesitantly. He didn't speak, but he looked thoughtful.

"Hey Shinso. Ready for club?"

The brainwashing violet-haired kid looked surprised to be pointed out, but nodded as attention was drawn to him. "Yes, I am."

"Good. It's good that we can all go out and work hard together. Improving our powers and such. Because those of us who want to be heroes can't be wasting time on bullshit like complaining things are 'tough' or 'unfair'. Heroes don't complain when a building falls on them. They just hold that shit up."

Shinso kind of sighed. "Can you blame us? We can't all hold up a building."

"Neither could our ancestors. So they made cranes. They found a way," I pointed out, looking at a small sea of students. "I know you all want to be heroes. No one who comes to UA wants anything less, except maybe the Support and Management Courses, but if you want it, know that those of us in the Hero Course have 25 hours in this school where we actually learn about hero work."

Bakugo's eyes narrowed up at me, but he didn't speak, letting me continue. "The rest of the time, we train constantly. Every day. Shinso here has spent three hours after most school days training with us, same with some of the others. We actually opened a club, open to all students, just to try and train further. So if you're here to try and scout us out, know that you're only wasting your time and ours."

"He's not wrong you know," the sea of students parted for Monoma. The blonde copycat had a smug grin on his face as he walked through, continuing on his way, with Keito and the other Class-B kids following. "If you really want to show up Class 1-A you need to work hard to make it happen or else you'll make those of us actually going to do it look bad."

"You have a problem with us?" Tetsutetsu, the kid of steel, and I am pretty sure Kirishima's brother from another mother, boomed out just behind Monoma. "What the fuck are you doing here wasting time when you could be training to prove you deserve to be heroes more than us?!"

"Ahhh, that's my line!" Kirishima roared.

"So if you all came to try and steal a spot?" I continued. "Then feel free. I'll even respect you for it. But you better be ready to work your fucking asses off for it."

"Heh!" Bakugo smirked, grinning just a bit. "Steal a spot? No way. I'm gonna sweep all these extras away. And you along with them."

"Bring it."

Bakugo and I shared a wide grin, then turned and started walking. Shinso followed, along with the other hero students.

"Hey!" one pink-haired girl with cat ears and tail asked as I walked by. I looked over at her. "Is the club really open to anyone?"

"Get a damn gym uniform and come along. UA Sentai is open for business."

Mineta was shaking on my shoulder as I walked along. "Ahhhh. I'm never going to stand on you when something like that happens again!"

I laughed, continuing on.

Chapter 22: Lecture Hour

"That Bakugo guy," Shinso said to me later once we had entered the Battle Ground Gamma facility together. He was clutching the metal club I'd made him, tape wrapped around one end of it. "He's kind of…"

"Abrasive?" Deku asked. "I know he comes across that way at first, but he really is a good guy and I know no one else that wants to be a hero as much as he does."

"Deku, you break your arms with your powers and you still want to be a hero," I said dryly.

"I don't break them as much now!"

Shinso blinked. "That's not really a good thing…"

"Progress is progress," I said wisely, heading into one of the buildings. Deku and Shinso followed. Inside, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were waiting, the two bash boys clutching manly fists together when we joined them. "Hey boys. How's kicks?"

"Fantastic!" Kirishima extended a hardened fist out, which made a loud clinking sound when my scaled knuckles met it. "Can't wait to get this started!"

"Hell yeah!" Tetsutetsu smashed his fist together with a clang. "Let's do this!"

"Should I be worried?" Shinso asked, looking warily at the two hot-blooded young men.

"Only as much as normal," I said with a shrug. "Okay boys," I clapped my hands. "The plan is simple! Shinso, you fight Tetsutetsu. Tetsutetsu, you need to work on deflecting blows more, so try to parry as much as you possibly can. Also he's going to have the problem of staying quiet while fighting you, since apparently, he talks too much in a fight when he should be focusing."

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!?" he roared loudly.

"Shinso, you're gonna swing that club into the immune wall that is Tetsutetsu, while talking a lot of shit to try and goad him into talking back to you. This way, he learns how to deflect blows and keep his head focused on what the bad guy is doing over what they are saying. And you in turn level up your heckling ability so that no matter what villain you face in the future you know how to push the right buttons to get them to go off on you, and thus under your control."

Then I took his metal club and handed him a rubber covered one. "Also, not a good idea to hit metal on metal over and over, you can save it for Kirishima later. Enjoy your workout. Deku, Kirishima?"

"Wait, is that-OH SHIT!"

"YAAAH!"

As the three of us left the sounds of beatings behind, I sighed. "I gotta be honest guys, I thought we might end up doing some more philosophical stuff. You know, go over things like moral particularism. Instead we're probably going to be doing a lot of fighting. Toru better be playing those games I recommended later…"

"Games?" Kirishima asked, confused. "Would that help?"

"Kirishima, being a hero is as much about your mindset with your powers as your actual strength with them," I lectured just a bit. "It took me a sec, but I thought of the perfect places she could take inspiration from. Namely, 'secret agents'."

"Like James Bond?" Izuku asked as we entered the next room.

"More like Agent 47, Solid Snake, and Sam Fisher," I told him. "I know it makes me seem like an old man, but I really think you can get a lot of inspiration for powers from the past, whether from reality or fiction."

"But um," Kirishima pointed upwards thoughtfully. "Isn't Toru kind of girly? I don't think she'd like those games."

"It's cool, I threw in Secret Agent Barbie to help her out. Anyways. Deku, you need to learn to channel your power better so you don't break yourself by accident as much. Kirishima, you need to learn how to take bigger blows as well as how to parry them when they're too huge to take directly. So, it's basically the same stuff Tetsutetsu and Shinso are doing, with one big addendum. You're both going to learn how to DODGE!"

Both of them jumped when I yelled the last word. I coughed, embarrassed. "Sorry, force of habit. But yeah, Deku, you dodge Kirishima in between hits. Make him follow you, move around. It's fine to be a slow-moving wall, but you gotta learn to anticipate things and both of you need to build stamina."

"Ahhhhh," Kirishima clenched a fist. "Got it! I'll do my best!"

"M-Me too!" Deku shouted, pumping a fist.

"Dope. Then play that song I told you to download and I'll see you guys later."

"Song?" Kirishima asked as I walked away.

"This one?" Deku pulled out his phone. Soon, the sounds of Heet Mob's 'The Wall' began to play in the distance. Hey, can't say I don't know how to motivate folks.

In another part of the Battle Ground, I met with someone I hadn't had much chance to interact with before. Chikuchi Togeike, a UA General Studies student. Also one of the girls I'd caught Mineta perving on when I first met him. She hadn't exactly warmed up to him since.

She'd asked me to meet her friends, so there I was.

She was with Ida and two new students when I met up with her.

Also, goddamn, Ida really was jacked. Granted, most of the hero students were, but Ida's workout suit showed it off. Good on him.

A large guy with the most Chad chin I'd ever seen, all massive and blocky, and an Elvis-style pompadour looked at me warily as I joined. The other person was much smaller, the pink-haired catgirl that had been waiting outside the classroom and asked me about the classes.

"Yo, Chukuchi," I greeted as I joined her. "Ida, these the newbies?"

"Yep," Chukuchi said just as casually. "This is my friend Tsutsutaka Agoyamato," she pointed to the massive chinned kid.

"Good afternoon," the big dude said with little to no enthusiasm, though he stepped back nervously as I approached.

"And this is Usagi Takeuchi," she said, looking over at the catgirl hiding behind Tsutsutaka the human chin.

"H-H-H-H-" she stuttered for a long while as we all stared at her. Finally she gave up and just hid entirely.

"...Huh," I mumbled.

"Well, it is nice to meet you both," Ida said calmly. "Kendo-san is currently helping some of the others, but I'm sure she would be very happy to meet you."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Tsutsutaka said with a grunt. "Chukuchi-"

"They're cool, Tsutsu," the brunette sighed.

"You said one of them tried to peep on you," the chin boy said, the catgirl behind him squeaking in surprise.

"He's getting better, and if it helps he got the shit beaten out of him afterwards," by Shoji for unrelated reasons, but might as well mention it. "Besides, we are cool."

"Extremely cool!" Ida agreed, doing his robotic hand thing.

"That's not how cool people act, Ida," I mumbled to him, getting a startled shout from him.

"We'll see," Tsutsutaka grumbled. "I heard you guys helped Chukuchi?"

"Ah, not us, but she was working with others, right Chukuchi-san?" Ida asked her politely.

"I was. We made some progress," the brunette said with a shrug, though she still looked pleased.

"We can work together then," I said. "I'm still waiting on something I ordered for my training. Ida, you mind if I help?"

"Actually, I need you to take over," Ida sighed sadly, adjusting his glasses. "I'm going over old festival footage. Hopefully, with enough research, I can aid all of the students I can in doing well!"

He pumped his fist. "Do not worry! With my help, we will all rise to greatness! OHHHHH!"

With a twist and an explosion from his leg boosters, he rocketed off. We all watched him rush into the maze of buildings and pipes.

"Is he always like that?" Chukuchi asked wryly.

"Yes, but he's actually training," I pointed at him as he ran. He hopped, slid, and bounced from a wall, heading in a mostly straight line, but also parkouring his heart out. "See. Raising his agility while keeping up his acceleration."

"You take this pretty seriously," Chukuchi scoffed.

I sat down heavily, looking them over. "Yes. Now, tell me what we're working with. Chukuchi? I think I heard you had paper manipulation, right? That's pretty damn useful."

"Not really," she sighed, moving to sit in front of me, Tsutsutaka and Usagi joining after a long moment. "I can't control a lot of it yet. Whenever I try to do too many pieces I start to get a headache."

She picked out a small paper crane from her pocket. As we watched, the crane began to move, flying about. Usagi let out a pleased sound, clapping her hands at the sight.

"Just one piece is fine. But two is hard. And then the more I try… It's like… trying to dance, play a video game, and do math, all at the same time. I have to focus on every piece."

I nodded slowly. "And I'm guessing robots don't mind getting hit with singular pieces of paper? I can see why you had trouble with the entrance exam."

"Well don't rub it in!" Tsutsutaka began to complain. "That test was unfair to a lot of us! Just because you passed it doesn't make you any bette-"

"Okay, let me explain something," I raised a hand, stopping him. "When we're training, or talking about each other's powers, we will be discussing each other's limitations, like my lack of speed and agility. That's not me trying to make fun of or insult people. We are getting better. That's the point, kid."

"We're the same age…"

I ignored that. "A few times today, I'm going to say certain things like, 'that's not a good idea', or, 'that's weaker than it could be'. That is part of training. You understand your limits. Then you find a way to overcome or work around them. Got it, Tsutsutaka? Chukuchi has a VERY cool power, with a lot of potential. Me noting current limitations isn't the same as insulting her."

My hand lowered. "And for the record, the test was unfair. We spoke to the administration about it. It's under review and the teachers are working on it."

He glanced around for a moment. Seeing that he wasn't getting any more support, he huffed out of his nose.

Looking back at Chukuchi, I continued. "So what did the group you talked with recommend?"

"That I stress my power," Chukuchi scowled. "I need to try controlling as many pieces as I can, then keep it up for as long as I can. But that's so painful!"

"I can imagine," I frowned. "How big a piece of paper can you control?"

"Um… maybe, two feet across?" she waved her hands to show it off.

"Well, may I make a suggestion?" Chukuchi nodded. "Try controlling the largest paper you can while folding it and running around this place."

Her face paled. "What?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds hard," I said with a small chuckle. "But quirks get stronger the more you use and stress them, like any muscle. And forcing yourself to run will increase your stamina and strength, as well as forcing you to split your attention. It's a simple combination of exercises that will have an effect over time. Besides, every single one of the sports festivals have had contests that deal with mobility in some way, so all of us will be jogging every day."

Chukuchi sighed. "Fine. Then I'll get started, I guess?"

"Ask Momo to make you a sheet of paper. But do it nicely, please. That girl works too damn hard…"

She gave me an odd look at that, but still nodded and rose to her feet, rushing off.

As she went, I looked over at the others. "So. What are your quirks?"

The big chinned guy sighed, before finally nodding with an odd expression on his face. "My quirk is kinetic redirection and nullification."

"...Really? How the hell did you not end up kicking butt during the entrance exam?"

"Because I can't move while it's active," he scowled. "And I can only take the hits on my… Well, on my chin."

I glanced at the aforementioned body part. "Wait, your power is kinetic redirection and nullification… and it has to hit your chin. So your quirk is-"

"I can only take it on the chin, yes," he sighed, shaking his head. "But I need to have myself set in pose."

He stood and demonstrated. Back straight, chest out, arms at his sides. The classic 'bring it on' pose college frat boys did. Or those guys who did face slapping contests in Russia. Or I guess in this case the stereotypical Japanese street tough.

"Hit me," he said with a bit of trepidation.

…Huh. "Well, I never need an excuse to hit someone."

"Um, maybe we shouldn't," the cat girl said as I got up and raised my fists. "That might-"

My fist flew forward. I aimed for his arm, going for just a bit of a hi-

His chin took the hit. I blinked, then did the same thing, going harder. Again, despite aiming for his arm, I hit his chin, and he didn't even move. He grit his teeth. Over and over. His chin started to turn just a bit red, but like he was blushing rather than getting hurt.

Deciding to go for broke, I unleashed the strongest punch I could towards his stomach. I could crack concrete, bend steel, turn the whole-

My fist crashed into his chin with a sound like a bell getting rung. He scowled, staggering back, then falling to his knees. "Ahhh!"

"You okay?" I moved to help him, only for him to grunt, raising a hand to stop me as the other rubbed his now red chin.

"Yes… I can't take too many hits before I need to rest, or I'll just freeze up entirely.."

"So you can't move while using your quirk, and if you take too much damage too quickly you snap out of it… I can see the problem then," I mumbled.

"I couldn't break any of the robots," he sounded angry about it. "My power doesn't let me move so I can't fight with it. So I just stood there and took hits without being able to dish any out because… I became the decoy while everyone else took them out! There are guys in the Hero course who got their points cause of me!"

"...Who?"

He blinked, calming from his enraged stance and switching to confusion. "What?"

"Who? Which of the guys or girls in the course was farming you for points?"

"Well… that Bakugo guy broke a couple."

"Bakugo breaks buildings for a living." Tsutsutaka didn't look appeased, so I continued, trying to think. "Look, I can understand your frustration. The fight was a free-for-all and every student was looking to get as many points as possible in the shortest amount of time, sometimes even kill stealing, but you can't blame them for taking advantage when you yourself said you couldn't capitalize on it at the time."

"It wasn't fair goddamn it."

"Yeah, it wasn't, but it happened. Question is now is if you've got the drive to get better and earn your way into the Hero Course the long way. It's just a matter of time, training, and creative thinking to get the most use out of it."

"Why, so you assholes can just steal my points again?" he grumbled. The catgirl, Usagi, squeaked in surprise.

"You want to talk about the point system? Fine. Let's discuss that. Did you know there was a secret way to get points in the entrance exam?"

He froze, staring at me. "What?"

"A secret way. See, you were focused on villain points. In fact, I bet you yelled at a few kids for stealing your points."

"Can you blame me?"

A smirk flashed on my face. "No, but that likely kept you from getting a different set of points. The hero points," Tsutsutaka sat down, staring at me. I continued. "Well, really they were called rescue points, but I think hero points is a better name. Because the point of those is to help others. Not just rescue, but help selflessly.

The point you need to consider is, who is the greatest hero in the world."

"All Might," Tsutsutaka and Usagi said together.

"Easy answer. Now, is that because he defeats villains or helps civilians?"

It was like I'd dropped a bomb on the kid's head. I smiled sadly. "A hero can do well by just defeating bad guys, but this school has to test ALL aspects of heroism. When you were in the test, Tsutsutaka," god, this kid needed a nickname stat. "And you took on those robots, only to see them be beaten by others, was your thought that it was good you'd helped out, or that you were mad they kill-stole?"

He stumbled, eyes widening. "I mean… they told us that villain points were-"

"Helping people because you know it'll give you points isn't really helping," I pointed out. As he continued to gape, I sighed. "Look, you likely got some points anyways. But the fact you weren't really helping out of the goodness of your heart, combined with a lack of villain points…"

"..." the big chinned young man clenched his eyes. "I was selfish."

"It's a very human thing to be," I patted him on the shoulder. "But that's fine. It's why we're here. To work together to get better. Besides, I think that's only part of where you went wrong. The real bad one is that you were so focused on going solo that you neglected what your power is really good for."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a tank, brother," I smacked my own shell. "Kind of like me, but next level. I can tank hits, but I can't one hundred percent choose where they hit and just stop them in an instant. You think you don't have a quirk that can fight back, but you need to rethink your quirk. I'm gonna apologize for this, but let me lecture for a bit. A tank's job is to keep everyone else safe. They distract, draw in, and protect everyone else."

"Tank's have cannons though," Tsutsutaka pointed out.

"...Do you think I'm talking about actual tanks?"

"Are you not?"

We stared at each other for a moment. I finally spoke. "Have you… never played a-" I cut myself and shook my head clear. "Okay, well, simple enough concept. The terms came from video games, but they're pretty constant now. DPS, damage per second, take out as many bad guys as they can as fast as they can. So dudes with laser blasts or explosions. Support helps everyone with everything from healing them, like Recovery Girl, to constructing items to help, like Momo. Then there's you and me. Tanks. Now, you can't throw a car. That's fine. You can still keep it from hitting others. And you have another advantage, your redirection. Do you know how many martial artists wish they had the power to know where an attack was coming? How much that can set you up to counterattack?"

"I can't hit while I'm using my quirk though."

"What about before and after?"

He seemed thoughtful at that. "Um… maybe?"

"That'll be your training then. Learn to activate and deactivate your quirk in seconds. You don't need to take every blow, just know where they're coming from and how to counter them. We can look into some support items too, but for now, this will work. Sound good?"

,

Tsutsutaka scoffed but nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, all right. Just don't screw me over, okay?"

Fair enough.

I turned to the last person. "Now. Usagi. Your turn."

She hesitated, pink ears fluttering. When she looked over at Tsutsutaka, he waved hesitantly for her to continue. She began to speak, her voice soft. "Well… my quirk is that I can project cat paws."

Usagi clenched her fist. After a moment, eight pink large paws, about the size of a tiger's, appeared in the air around her. She waved her hands and two of the hands moved forward.

"Eight of them?" I asked, poking at the ethereal-looking paws floating around us. They were kinda cute. Not dangerous looking, despite the size and claws. Felt solid too.

"Hmmu, hmmu," she mumbled, nodding. "And they can lift as much as me."

I was beginning to see a trend. Then again, nearly everyone I knew had useful quirks, even non-heroes like Ranma. The things keeping them from being powerful tended not to be their actual quirk, but their own mindsets and willingness to use them. Everyone had muscles after all, but not everyone used them to the fullest.

"So, the entrance exam-"

"Oh, I didn't take the practical section of it," she said nervously. "I-I-I don't like fighting."

Uh oh.

"Most parts of the Sports Festival call for some kind of combat ability. I mean, mobility is important, but-"

"I know," she sighed, looking saddened. "I came to try and learn, but I'm not good with fighting! I just get so scared! I want to be a hero, even if it's not what I'm good at."

Ah, we were approaching the meat of the matter.

"Okay then. Talk to me, Usagi. What are you hoping for?"

She nodded, speaking in that near whisper voice of hers. "Yes. I-I don't want to hurt anyone, it's always so scary. I get so nervous when people are loud and angry," she pressed her fingers together nervously. "I just want to help though. And my dad told me I could become a sidekick in a Hero agency and do what I love! And even help people!"

I leaned forward. "What would that be?"

It was quiet for a second. I noticed Tsutsutaka nervously stepping back.

"Paperwork," the words were said with a damn near psychotic level of reverence. Her head snapped up and I almost recoiled. What the hell? One of her eyes was twitching, while the other had widened to an uncomfortable degree, and the smile on her face was manic. She looked like someone had activated the yandere psycho chick switch on her! She looked like Tanya the Evil mid-murder, psycho Harley Quinn, pick a loony blonde.

"I'm sorry?" was all I could say, leaning back as she leaned in.

"Paperwork! It's so exciting!" she blushed just a bit, which was easy to lose in the crazy eyes. "Putting together reports, quarterly assessments, seeing how all the pieces come together, even forensic accounting! I want to do that for the rest of my life! File the right paperwork and you can force the world to your whims! Governments will fall at your knees to do your bidding! The smell of fresh ink, new binders, how can you not find it all invigorating!?"

…Wow. What a crazy nerd. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you love laminating things."

"DO I!?" I think that was when she realized how close she'd gotten. Her face lost the crazy, and she quickly backed away, coughing a single time. "S-Sorry. I just really like doing paperwork. It makes me feel like… I have the power to do something without having to hurt anyone."

"I can tell," I cocked my head to the side. "So why a hero then?"

"...the first hero I ever saw was Sir Nighteye," she said. I wasn't familiar with that one, but let her continue. "He was taking care of a scene. Collecting evidence. Talking to people. I watched him writing things down, making sure he had everything he needed. And a week later, on the news, they showed that he'd shut down a smuggling ring. He didn't fight anyone. He just collected evidence. Brought it together. Spoke to the right people. Everyone else thought it was boring. But I thought that was so cool."

"Sir Nighteye… I'll have to look him up," I said with as gentle a smile as I could make. I think it worked, because the pink catgirl smiled back. "So. You want to be a hero like him. But you need to get better at handling fighting and violence?"

"Yes," she said sadly. "Even Sir Nighteye needed to learn how to fight. So I have to too."

"Fair enough," I got up. "Then your lesson plan is easy enough."

I looked between the two with a flash of my fangs. "Very easy."

An hour later, I slammed down next to her. Usagi screamed, backing away. I clawed at her, missing on purpose and slashing through the concrete behind her instead. A few cat's paw's smashed into me with little result, while the rest appeared under her feet, lifting her away. "AHHHHH!"

"Stay focused!" Pony shouted nearby, watching the catgirl run. As the person with powers most similar to Usagi, she was perfect to bring in on training. "You don't need to beat him, just keep running and keep him back! You got it!"

I panted as I chased after her, hopping over pipes. My knees complained at the movement, unused to stretching that much, but I soldiered on. "Come Usagi, you can do it!"

"Stop screaming at me!" she shouted, running past the loud sound of Shoto releasing a burst of ice that Tokoyami countered with Dark Shadow smashing through it.

"Gah!" Tsutsutaka shouted in surprise when his guard was broken again. He fell to a knee.

"You okay?" Shoji, the multi-armed quirk user asked, approaching and helping him up.

"Y-Yeah," he replied, taking Shoji's hand. "Damn, you hit hard!"

"Thank you," Shoji said politely. "Shall we continue?"

Tsutsutaka nodded with a sigh, moving back into his pose.

Shoji threw a punch. Tsutsutaka's chin pulled it in. At the last second, Tsutsutaka left his pose and tried to dodge, barely getting scrapped. When he tried to strike back, one of Shoji's other hands pushed him back. But he was slowly getting the timing down.

I focused on my own training, forcing myself to run forward.

We all had a shit-ton of work to do. Tsuyu was leaping overhead. The sounds of Deku and Kirishima shouting came from the distance. Sero and Ochaco sparred in a lot with tape and rocks floating everywhere as Usagi continued to run from me.

We didn't have much time, so might as well push as hard as we could. If I had it my way, we'd DESTROY that school festival.

Chapter 23: Prep Work

The day before the Sports Festival I met with the Principal. The small man-like mouse sat behind his desk with a steaming cup of tea next to him, smiling.

"Good morning, Bowser-kun. I'm glad you could meet with me. How are you?"

"Sore, mostly," I said with a small flash of a smile. "I've been trying to increase my mobility and flexibility. It's been tough."

"I can imagine," he chuckled. "That's actually why I wished to speak to you. How are the UA Sentai students doing?"

"Fantastic!" I couldn't help the pride in my voice, though a thought struck me. "Although, shouldn't you ask Kendo and Ida about that? They are in charge."

"I'd rather speak to you for now," he said gently. "Kendo and Ida have spoken to me at length already, and I like to get different perspectives. So, how are they doing? What sort of training are they up to?"

"Ah… well, all sorts of stuff," I began to describe every training method each kid was doing.

Shoto sat in the center of a pool of ice, clutching himself tightly as he shivered. Every once in a while his shivering would calm, then it would start up again. Frozen right to the edge, then warming right back up again. Over and over, building his tolerance to his own cold.

As he continued to freeze himself, Ida went speeding by, his engines blasting. A pair of eyes sat in his shadow, a set of white teeth underneath them as they followed the speedster desperately within it. Ida, increasing the power of his engines, while Shihai Kuroiro used his quirk, Black.

Shihai's quirk gave him the ability to sink into any sort of darkness, whether things that were painted black, covered in shadow, or all of the above. So his training was simple, follow Ida. Desperately follow a super speedster's shadow shifting constantly in his wake.

As Ida and his passenger sped past, they passed Momo and Sato. Both kids had a table in front of them full of food, devouring the bounty in front of them at sickening speeds. Then someone slapped the ground before them with a hand the size of the table.

"Quick!" Kendo shouted. "A kid is holding a bomb in front of you, and any jostling will set it off!"

Sato panicked, his mind dulled by the effects of his quirk. Momo, on the other hand, began to eject a small box from her arm, presumably full of things useful for defusing a bomb.

"The child turns into a monster!" Kendo barked.

Momo stalled briefly, the box stopping midway out of her body. Sato mimed a punch. Momo tried to eject a simple shield.

"Time's up! Go back to it!" Kendo watched them disheartedly go back to eating, then went back to her own task, punching into a box of sand. Well, more of a giant tank of it. Her massive fists smashed down into it over and over, hardening her skin in a more oversized version of ancient Kung Fu techniques dedicated to strengthening hands. In her pocket her phone rested, ready to notify her when it was time to test Momo and Sato again.

Ida continued his circling, passing a section of the false city he was running through that was by far the loudest, the sounds of metal and stone clashing over and over within it. Cementoss-Sensei was watching from a nearby rooftop as Kirishima and Tetsutetsu traded blows with Izuku and Shinso. The two pairs of very similar young men were dueling fiercely, trading partners at random.

Izuku suddenly shouted. "Um! Tetsutetsu-san! Y-You aren't very smart!"

The steel boy rolled his eyes. "You need to try harder than that."

"He needs to do more than tell the truth, metalhead?"

"Why you-!?" Tetsutetsu slackened in place, going still.

Kirishima stopped just before he would have punched Izuku, the greenette and redhead looking over at Tetsutetsu's now insensate form. Kirishima groaned, straightening and rubbing his face. "Damnit metalhead! Really?"

Shinso released his control, leaving Tetsutetsu to shake off the effects of his quirk and groan almost exactly the way Kirishima did. "Agh, sorry."

"You aren't any better, rockhead."

Kirishima opened his mouth to respond, only to glare at Shinso, who smiled sheepishly. The purple haired boy shrugged. "I had to try, right? Besides, you and Tetsu have to spar now."

"Already?" Kirishima pulled out his phone and glanced at the time, then nodded. "All right. Let's do this!"

"Yeah, come on!" Tetsutetsu smashed his metal fists together.

The two durable teens faced off and smashed into each other with a clanging sound like a truck smashing into a boulder. They wrestled against each other, the sound of metal grating on stone filling the air, grabbing and pulling while trying to gain advantage. If one had looked closely, they would have seen elements of jiu jitsu, judo, and other grappling forms in their movements.

Izuku and Shinso watched for a moment before Shinso turned away. "I'm going back to my 'research'," the usually gloomy boy said with a wave.

"Oh, what are you watching today?" Izuku asked curiously.

"George Carlin apparently," Shinso said with a shrug. "Should be fun. How about you?"

"I did my research already," studying human anatomy and trying to apply his power to specific muscles rather than doing so on entire limbs. "I'll go for a run instead. Later!"

"Later," Shinso turned to watch as Izuku leaped upwards into a maze of pipes, chuckling to himself at the sight of him swinging on a pipe.

Izuku rushed through the false city, hopping over and around pipes, buildings, and structures, pushing himself. He didn't use his powers, as that tended to end in torn muscles and broken bones even when he focused it, but he still felt faster and stronger than he had when he first began the exercises.

He didn't notice the small brush that went against his sweatpants as he ran. The brush, held by an invisible hand, giggled at the sight of green paint against his leg. Toru moved on with her mischief making, holding back the urge to make noise.

Later, she'd crow and show off how many of her fellow students she'd marked. For now, she was enjoying the fun of sneaking up on them.

Much like Izuku, she went running through the pipes, though she had more trouble. She needed to go slower after all. Run quietly as possible, avoid kicking up dust or leaving footprints. Soon she found her next target. She hesitated, watching him. This one was… vindictive. And came at the worst time.

She had three tasks to do in order when she encountered a target. So once she did one task, her next target would get a different task. The first was to steal a small token off of her targets. Easiest on a stationary target, but sucked when she had to do it to Ida. Then she had to mark a target, which was worse in some ways. The last was the worst. She had to hit someone, then not get hit back.

Toru slowly sneaked around, looking at all the exits around her, just like Hitman. Make sure you had an easy way to get out after you did your attack. She just needed to stay calm.

Her target was Mineta. He was pulling those balls off his head and tossing them at targets across from him. His scalp was bleeding, but he bit his lip and continued, making large structures out of his grape balls.

Toru raised a small blue foam ball and aimed carefully. She waited patiently for the right moment. Mineta raised his arm to throw. After he threw would be best, so she could escape before he could wind up again. He launched. And so did she.

She heard the ball smack into the side of his head as she spun around.

"Wha-TORU!" the tiny purple pervert screamed. She ignored him. As long as she made it to the maze again, she was home free-

"Raaaaaagh!" Mineta went off, ripping balls off his head and tossing them with abandon in all directions. Toru kept herself from yelping, ducking one of them. Then one hit her in the leg. Mineta's eyes lit up and he focused on that single ball hanging on moving air, unleashing hell. Toru slid around a pole, went under a large pipe, and disappeared, leaving a trail of purple behind her with a sigh of disappointment.

Well, better than last time. She'd been covered that time. He really was a vindictive shorty…

Toru moved on, heading to her next target. Bowser-san and Tokage-san.

The two were in the center of what the kids had ended up calling the 'arena'. It was a wide-open space about fifty feet wide all around, with a building on each side and a series of pipes along the top, leaving the place in shadow except for some rays of sunlight that pierced through. That was the spot that Bowser and Tokage had chosen for their latest battle.

Toru took a moment to watch them fight.

Bowser was in the center of the area, his claws out, a savage grin on his face. Tokage's head and torso floated across from him, the exact same fanged grin on her own face.

The rest of her body was all over the arena. The pieces of herself floated and sped about, rushing at Bowser with all the speed they could. He would snap out his claws, smashing aside the small sections of the girl.

Lizard Tail Splitter. A quirk that let her split her body into dozens of smaller pieces of herself, turning her body into floating weapons if she wanted to.

Those same pieces flew at Bowser from all sides. A section of thumb and finger, a little bit of thigh, a small piece of her ankle. All rushing at the massive target in the center and trying to hit him over and over.

Bowser had been well suited for training with Tokage. He had experience with similar exercises thanks to Pony. His claws moved at high speed, smashing, ripping, and catching each piece. He missed a few, getting hit on his head, shell, and thighs, but it certainly wasn't easy.

Then, for a moment, Bowser caught a section of Tokage's left breast as it went to smash into his eye. His other hand was forced to catch her hip when it aimed for his chest.

"Gotcha!" Tokage suddenly crowed.

The dozens of pieces of Tokage surrounded him while he was still off balance from catching those pieces. They moved in, ready to pummel him.

He pulled into his shell and spun at high-speed, forcing the pieces back. Tokage's smile widened rather than fell. Her pieces moved with his spin, smashing into him over and over. Then the flames erupted forth.

Bowser became a tornado of flame, forcing Tokage to back away. Still, she was grinning.

The dragon-turtle stopped spinning, rising to his feet and letting go of her breast and hip with a sigh. Tokage pulled her body parts back to herself, landing on the ground.

"Damn. Thought I'd get more hits this time," the girl said with a sigh.

"You still forced me to shell up, so I'll call that your win," Bowser returned. He stretched, wincing. "Goddamn. I feel like I'm faster, but it's still hard as hell to stop you from getting hits in."

"You do better than Sato does," Tokage said. "Besides, it's not like it hurts you."

"Actually it's starting to," Bowser grumbled. "You're starting to hit hard."

"What, you complaining?" Tokage then chuckled. "At least you don't freak out when you catch pieces of me. I swear, Ida almost had a heart attack when he first caught my tit."

"Well, the way I always figured it, if I was gonna worry about that in training I'd worry about it in a fight to the death. Better to just focus on the fight. Long as you don't take it personally or call me a perv."

"Just keep it to training, big guy," Tokage slapped his arm with a chuckle. Then her eyes lit up. "Oh… she's here."

Toru blinked in surprise. Then she realized Tokage's right eye still hadn't returned to her body.

She spun around to see that eye winking behind her.

Then Bowser and Tokage were rushing in her direction, Toru squealing in terror as she ran for it.

Bowser Koopa

"Our training is intense, Nezu-sensei," I explained to the chuckling mouse-man. "I thought it was pretty tough when it was just Pony, Tauren, and I. But having a whole two classes and change of kids made it even more insane."

"I can tell," Nezu said with a smile. "What about the others?"

"Well, the General Studies students are mostly focusing on getting up to speed physically," I thought of the image of Chikuchi and Tsutsutaka panting while doing push ups. Turns out that despite appearances, the big pompadour kid was only more fit than Mineta and Nirengeki, and barely at that. "We figured getting them able to run and fight off the bat would be more helpful than just pure quirk work. Not that we're ignoring that of course!"

Usagi Takeuchi and Chikuchi used their cat paw and paper control quirks with Tokage, Pony, and Reiko supervising them, while Tsutsutaka was practicing grappling with Kirishima, Tetsutestu, Sato, and I.

"And some of us, like Koda, mostly focused on the intellectual and psychological aspects of our training. He's got a fear of insects, so he's been working with silk moths."

"Oh, is it the antheraea yamamai?" Nezu asked curiously.

"...I think so?" I said hesitantly. "I just know they're cute. He's been trying to spend time with them but, uh…"

The animal-talking kid seemed to spend those moments with a few dozen silk moths fluttering around him like he was having a Vietnam War flashback. Just sat there, sweating and screaming silently, eyes wide as he shivered. We kinda took turns going over to comfort him.

"It's a work in progress. He does better with the workouts and research on different animals in regions he might end up working in."

"I'm proud of the young man for attempting to overcome his fear," Nezu said kindly. "I did want to ask… I've been told much of your 'research' has been students watching movies and playing video games? Reading comic books at times?"

"Older stuff a lot of the time."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Some of the parents worry their children are simply using the UA Sentai club as a hangout, rather than serious training."

"If you want, you can invite them over to watch us," I shrugged. "We only spend brief bits of time on that. Mostly to rest between our workouts. Besides, it helps. Tokage watches One Piece clips of Buggy the Pirate because his powers are similar to hers. I watch Gamera for the same reasons. Quirks are awesome, but the human imagination has been coming up with things similar to it for decades. If we want to stay on top of our game, looking at what's been done before is a good way to not only to mimic the best, but make our own dope shit."

He quirked an eyebrow again.

"Uh… sorry for cursing, sir."

Nezu hummed. "I'll consider inviting the parents to watch your sessions. I'm very glad to see that you children have been working so hard. It brightens my soul to see the heroes of the future be so dutiful!"

He chuckled, reaching out to take a hold of a cup of tea on his desk. After a sip, he sighed. "Now… Bowser-kun. I wish I could say I only invited you here to ask you about the training you children have been doing. However, there have been questions I had about you. About the way you acted during the attack on the USJ."

"..."

"I see you have some idea of those questions," he leaned forward. "Do not worry. I haven't reached out to anyone about my suspicions. I simply want to ask-"

"I'm not a villain."

"Many do not believe they are."

"It goes beyond that. I don't see any logical or pragmatic reason to become someone like those idiots. I see it online all the time."

"On websites a young man shouldn't be frequenting?"

"I can neither confirm or deny," I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. "Nezu-sensei, I want to be a hero. Like All Might. Better than him in some ways if I can."

"A lofty ideal," his scar danced briefly as he smiled. "I have no doubt of your good intentions. But from now on, if you wish to reach out about knowledge you have obtained, whatever the source, come directly to me. We were lucky no one was killed," he gave me a sad look. "I can understand your fear, but this school is meant to aid students."

I stared at him for a moment. "...I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about?"

He smiled. "That's a fair response. After all, I only suspected you due to the lack of knowledge we had on your origins, as well as the fact your lack of a true guardian affords more freedom to do the sort of actions that must have taken place to set up such things."

"Again. What things?"

"Ah. Well then. I suppose the camera footage I compiled of you frequenting certain areas of the city where a burner phone was discovered was a coincidence. And your appearance near the section of the beach where All Might and young Izuku trained together was similar. The same for the sighting of a large dragon-turtle buying things in a convenience store that may have included products such as burner phones."

He chuckled. "You do have rather distinct features, but I suppose I may have been mistaken. I did need to look at every student and teacher that may have been able to send the messages that led to our quick response. Even young Aoyoma was suspected of being the one behind it. We will do better in the future either way. For one, there was the interesting forum activity we really should have been monitoring more closely. Did you know that while you try to hide it, you have a rather distinct style of speech in your typing?"

He knew I was the one behind the text messages and the emails, including the one about All Might's secret. Nezu didn't react to my denial beyond continuing to meet my eyes.

"Very well, Bowser-kun. Know that I am here if you ever want to talk. And if need be, I'm sure you know my phone number or email address."

Well. There it was. He suspected that I knew more than I should. But he was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Nezu would keep an eye on me, I was sure. The USJ attack I could have known from the sites he guessed that I frequented.

The All Might thing though was impossible for me to know. I had to guess that Nezu had a hypothesis or two on how I knew that. I'd need to be more careful in the future about using that tidbit to force a response.

"And I would also like to suggest something," Nezu continued. "As a fellow non-human, I can understand the fight to control our instincts. You must keep that in mind. Fighting as you did in USJ, separating the Nomu for a personal battle-"

"I didn't lose myself to my instincts," I said, blinking. "That was on purpose."

"Then it was foolish," Nezu sighed. "I understand you wanting to get the creature away from everyone else, but All Might had to try and find you when he arrived. Even with the flames and noise you created, it still took him time. It would have been better to simply contain him in the open near the entrance so the teachers could aid you immediately."

I decided to leave it at that. Nezu didn't know how the fight went in the other version. If I hadn't taken away the Nomu, Aizawa would have been even more injured. The guy was still hurt, but at least his bandages were slowly coming off. He'd likely be somewhat okay by the day of the festival. If I hadn't ripped into the thing as much as I had, All Might likely would have been injured during the fight with him.

Nezu was smarter than me, but in this case he was wrong. Best not to tell him though. Let it go.

"Consider my words, Bowser-kun," Nezu said. "In the meantime, I suppose we'll call it here. Best of luck in the Sports Festival young man!"

"Thank you, sir," I rose up and headed out the door with just a bit more haste than necessary. From the chuckle I heard behind me, he noticed.

Well, I would have eyes on me. Guess it was a good thing I'd only watched season 1 of the show. All knowledge I'd gain from here on out would be based on pure detective work.

I headed off to the club. Better keep training…

Later on, Izuku and I were sitting together on a fancy leather couch, watching TV in the large room set aside for the Sentai Club for the current activity. We were watching footage from one of the old Sports Festivals, focusing on footage of a very specific hero.

"Wow, Endeavor was a powerhouse even back then," Izuku mumbled as we watched a teenage version of Todoroki's dad wreak havoc.

"And a goddamn terror," I mumbled. "Are we sure he's not Bakugo's dad instead?"

"I wish," Todoroki walked up behind Izuku, glaring at the screen. "Can you change the video, please?"

"Not yet, we're studying the fight," I said. In my defense, the footage switched to a different teen after a moment, some girl with snakes for hair. The event was a variation on Rugby, but with a bunch of teams. It was interesting seeing how each kid adjusted, with the bigger tanks acting as walls only to get slid around by kids with mobility quirks or ways to trip up/distract opponents.

Todoroki scoffed but sat down. Despite his words, he seemed to nail his eyes onto his dad's form. "Why are you watching this?"

"We want to get an idea of what sort of events we may need to do, as well as what current Pro Heroes may have done to get different agencies' attention," Izuku had a notebook open on his lap as he furiously took notes. I think it was the ninth one at this point? He was filling them up quickly and the rest of us kept borrowing them. He took good notes.

"You should really start digitizing those," I said to him, nodding towards the book.

"I like writing better," he said with a chuckle.

Fair. Good way to memorize things too. "Anything to note for now?"

"Nothing yet. But if I find out anything that will get people's attention, I'll let you know!"

I blinked. Then I shrugged. "I'm not too worried about that personally."

"...What do you mean?" Izuku asked me, looking just a bit more interested than I expected.

"I mean… I really just want to do what I can, you know? Hopefully, I get some attention and some hero decides to take my gigantic ass on, but I think I'll be fine even if it doesn't go down that way."

Todoroki let out a small humming noise. I glanced at him. He looked over at me. "That's naive of you."

"Oh?" I didn't say anything else. I just waited for him to elaborate.

"Being a pro hero… you shouldn't depend on maybes. On 'thinking things will be fine'," he crossed his arms. "Do you want to settle for mediocrity, Bowser?"

My claws scratched at my chin, the sound of it like metal grating. Then I looked at Izuku. He nodded slowly, thoughtful. "I had the same thought, Bowser-kun. But… even if things will be fine, that's no reason for us to stop trying our best. Heroes aren't just people who settle."

He clenched his fist in front of him, looking down at it. "Ida-kun. Ochaco-chan. Shinso-kun. Even Kaa-chan. They're all going to try their best. To become the top heroes. We need to put in our all to stand out. All Might told me something the other day..."

Todoroki snapped his eyes to stare at Izuku. The kid didn't notice, still staring at his fist. Sparks of green flashed across his arm. "'The slight difference between those who always aim for the top and those who don't comes to matter in a big way when you emerge in society.'"

"...Think he meant anything in particular there?" I said, thinking on those words. Seemed obvious, but still…

"Yeah. I think he was saying that if we don't work hard now, if we don't push ourselves to be the very best, why will we want to when we become real heroes? I want to start on that path now. I want to do everything I can to show the people who believe in me that I'm worth believing in. To put in as much effort as everyone else!"

I thought about Pony. Tauren. Ranma. The people who in one way or another had had my back from the very beginning. If they found out that I hadn't put in my full effort because I decided to just settle for less… I think they would have been okay with it. Just, they would have been disappointed.

And honestly. So would I. I'd been doing all this training, all this work. The sports festival wasn't just a pageantry. It was a way to show the world just what I could do.

"...I bet he said it was a way of going 'I am here!' at some point, right?" I asked Izuku with a smile.

He nodded bashfully. "You know All Might."

"That I do… all righty. Just don't cry about it when I send you flying to the moon."

The greenette grinned with just a bit more confidence than he used to show. "You have to catch me first, Bowser-kun."

"Ohhhh, getting cheeky, Deku?"

He only chuckled.

Then I noticed Todoroki was quiet. I nudged his shoulder. "Hey, Captain Cold, you good?"

"...Just thinking about something," the screen changed over to the image of his dad flying through the air on jets of fire. "On the meaning of doing our best."

He didn't explain what he meant by that.

The Day Before the Sports Festival

"Okay everyone, gather around!" Kendo shouted to the group of students before her. She clapped her hands to get their attention, though she kept them to normal size to keep from doing those Hulk thunderclaps she'd been practicing. She had a grin on her face as she stood next to Ida in front of a long table with a tarp over it.

We were all in the center of Ground Gamma. Both Class 1-A and B, the quintet of General Studies Students in the form of Chikuchi, Tsutsutaka, Usagi, and Shinso, the single lunatic Support girl I had yet to really talk to (Mei Hatsume scared the fuck out of me since I was certain if she wasn't going to UA she'd be a mad scientist), and the single Management kid I had yet to catch the name of, an overweight kid with beehive styled hair.

I was standing with Chikuchi, Pony, and Sato, with Mineta on my shoulder. For some reason, he'd gotten used to sitting there. I didn't mind to be honest. Kendo waited until we were gathered to her satisfaction, then clapped again.

"Alrighty everyone! We know you all worked super hard for the festival tomorrow! So to reward you, we gathered money and got a restaurant to cater for us!" Ida dramatically pulled the tarp off the table, revealing a bevy of snacks and foods across the spectrum of world cultures. Ramen, pizza, fried chicken, ice cream in packages, and more.

"Eat up, and good luck to all of us tomorrow!"

"All right!" Kamanari, Tetsutetsu, and Kirishima all shouted in unison, joined by a few of the others with a bit less volume, all the kids rushing forward.

"Is it really okay to just eat and relax today?" Chikuchi asked me nervously. She had a piece of paper in her right palm that she kept folding into different origami patterns. "The festival is tomorrow, we should-"

"Relax our minds and bodies," I told her.

"Agreed," Momo said with a gentle smile. "It does none of us any good being tired and stressed today. We need to be well-rested and energized for the trials ahead."

"That said, don't overeat," I said as gently as I could. We all grabbed plates and got some food. When I started stacking food high, Pony giggled while Chikuchi stared.

"I thought you said not to overeat?"

"Yep. This is just a light snack," I said as I grabbed a fifth slice of pizza.

"Yeah, my family is no doubt gonna be serving an actual feast later tonight," Sato idly said as he also grabbed a huge stack of food.

Chikuchi rolled her eyes. "Boys. Right, Momo…chan?"

Momo blinked at her, with nearly as much food on her plate as me and Sato. "I'm sorry, what were you saying Chiku-chan?"

"Um… nothing," she eyed Momo's form for a moment, then sighed.

I rolled my eyes. "Chikuchi, all of us have bodies that depend on more food than usual. Eat enough to make you happy, don't worry about how much we eat. Have FUN."

"I know!" she said it in an annoyed tone, but still seemed more relaxed after seeing Ochaco and Izuku grab more reasonably sized meals.

"You got a big speech ready for tomorrow?" Mineta asked me as he scarfed down on a dumpling.

"No point. We've trained our asses off. Tomorrow, we'll kick ass," I said grinning at everyone. "If we end up fighting, I'm fully confident I'm gonna get beat to hell, whether I win or lose."

"Why do you look excited about it?" Pony asked me, pinching my cheek. "You better not get beat up tomorrow for fun!"

"What is that implying anyways?" Mineta asked no one.

"That I'm a battle maniac honestly."

I accepted that. There was just something about a damn good fight. Even the Nomu had been fun, with the benefit of time and distance. Scary as hell, but fun.

"Still, I'm excited, I'm with my friends, and I've got good food. Tomorrow is gonna be fun boys and girls."

I wish I could say things got exciting somehow. But honestly, it was just a bunch of fun with the kids. We hung out, ate, joked, reassured each other, built up each others confidence, and had some fun.

Todoroki left early without saying anything, but I think we all expected that. Mineta, Mina, Momo, Ibara, Pony, and Reiko had a quick game of target practice. I arm wrestled the other guys, only losing to Sato after he popped a big candy bar. Ochaco sent a few of us flying and I had fun going Gamera in mid-air, zooming around with Sero taping people to me.

In the end, we all left early. We headed to our separate homes. Even me. I kinda wanted the night to myself, and Pony got it. Tomorrow, we'd be in front of a crowd of people, ready to compete against each other and our classmates. Until then, it was time to sleep.