Chapter 254 - 37-

Chapter 37: Return to Oa

"Thank you, Green Lantern, thank you!" exclaimed Mayor Horm as the people that Flicker had abducted disembarked from the cargo module in his city. The mayor had already scrambled a team of medical professionals, who were giving the rescued citizens a quick checkup before releasing them. "Thousands of M'bari families will not have to suffer the pain of losing a loved one today, thanks to your heroic actions!"

Izuku was getting better at holding himself together, or so he liked to think, but he still felt himself tearing up at having someone literally describe his deeds as heroic.

"I'm happy to have been able to help, Mayor," he said, sniffling and wiping at his eyes.

Thankfully, if Horm thought there was anything odd about his behavior, he didn't remark on it. "I know you Green Lanterns don't like to accept tokens of gratitude, but should you ever need anything from me or the people of M'bari, don't hesitate to ask!"

"Thank you," Izuku replied. Asking for favors in return for his activities as a Green Lantern would fall squarely under the prohibition against using the ring for personal gain, which meant he could never take the alien leader up on that, but there was no reason to be rude about it.

"By the way, as you may have guessed, this isn't our world's first encounter with the Green Lantern Corps," Horm said. "Abin Sur helped our people with many a crisis. How is he? Are you his apprentice?"

Izuku's face fell. "Uh, no, unfortunately he fell in the line of duty," he explained awkwardly. "I'm his replacement."

The mayor went quiet at that. "I see," he said softly. "It's an unfortunate reality that Green Lanterns burn bright but often burn out quickly. I hope you'll be able to serve the worlds of this sector for many cycles to come, Green Lantern."

"Me too," Izuku nodded.

Then he turned to look at where the people were still disembarking from the Headhunter's cargo hold. Dozens of joyful reunions were happening everywhere, as people embraced family members they'd feared they'd lost forever.

"But even if I don't, it'll all still have been worth it," he added with a small smile.

Just about anywhere in the universe, a single person descending from outer space with a disabled spaceship in tow would've caused quite a stir. On Oa, it barely warranted a second glance from the Green Lanterns who happened to be zipping around the desert world's main city.

"Well done, Lantern Midoriya," Salakk congratulated Izuku as he passed Flicker and his crew off to the Green Lanterns who ran the Sciencells, where criminals captured by the Corps were detained. "We've been trying to capture this bunch for quite some time."

"It wasn't difficult. I think they just got too bold," he replied modestly.

Neither of them felt the need to point out that the slaver had likely been able to get so aggressive because most of the Green Lantern Corps was so preoccupied with the other Corps.

"Do you need me to take the ship off the planet now?" Izuku asked instead.

"That won't be necessary. It'll be an excellent exercise for the cadets," Salakk said crisply. "You're dismissed, Lantern Midoriya. Keep up the good work."

"Thank you, Lantern Salakk," Izuku said.

Not having any further business on Oa at the moment, Izuku normally would've headed home, but the experiences of the day had left him strangely melancholy and not eager to return to Earth. Instead he found himself wandering around the city, switching from walking to flying to walking again without paying any of it much notice.

He didn't realize that he was heading for the training grounds until he was already there.

"Izuku, hi! What are you doing here?" a familiar voice called to him, tone cheerful.

Blinking, he looked up to see Arisa approaching him. The cadets' lessons must've just finished for the day, judging by the absence of anyone else around. He never could get any sense of time on Oa, thanks to the way the multiple suns ensured there was never a night on the planet.

"Hi, Arisa," he replied. "I just came back from an assignment."

She frowned. "You okay, Izuku?" Arisa asked. "You seem…off somehow. Did something go wrong on your mission?" she added, clearly fearing an innocent may have died.

"It went really well, actually," Izuku was quick to reassure her. "It's just…never mind, I'll talk to Mogo about it, next time I see him." He shook his head.

"Hey, you can talk to me, too," Arisa said gently. "I was your trainer, after all. The big guy's awesome, but there's some stuff he has trouble relating to, being a living planet and all."

Izuku hesitated, not wanting to burden her.

"Why don't we go for a flight?" she suggested. "Just like your first day here."

Izuku agreed, and soon the trainer and her former pupil were soaring through the air, trails of green light flowing behind them like the tails of emerald comets.

"So, what's on your mind, kid?" the elfin blonde asked. "Most Lanterns don't look so glum after successful missions."

He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "You know how the Guardians' edict that states Green Lanterns should obey local laws and local authorities isn't absolute? How do you know when it's right to disregard them?"

"What brought this on?" Arisa asked.

"It's just…when I'm away from my world, it feels like I can do anything, save anyone, help everyone," he said. "But when I'm on Earth…"

"You feel like your world's laws keep you hamstrung all the time?" she asked knowingly.

"Something like that," he answered, thinking of all the situations he'd wanted to intervene in, as Green Lantern.

Not just random villain attacks, either, though he'd certainly yearned to jump into several of those. The feeling that he should've done something when it was clear that Kacchan was going to get away without any punishment after firing his gauntlet at Yaoyorozu had gnawed at him.

The situation with Todoroki was another big one. Izuku was quite sure that Endeavor had abused his classmate in some way, judging by how terrified the other young man had been when Izuku had created that construct of the flame hero in the training exercise, not to mention the obvious hostility between the two of them at the Sports Festival. Todoroki had staunchly refused to discuss it even time Izuku had carefully tried to broach the subject since then, and if anything he'd somehow grown even colder and more standoffish than he'd been at the start of the school year. Even if Todoroki had opened up, though it seemed unlikely that a pro hero of Endeavor's fame, wealth, and influence would ever face consequences for his actions, at least not from any terrestrial authorities.

Ensuring that justice was done when local authorities wouldn't act seemed like exactly the sort of thing a Green Lantern should be for.

"It's not an easy question," Arisa admitted, jarring him back to his thoughts. "I think most of the Corps would agree that a Green Lantern who's never willing to go against local authority would be derelict in his duties, but a Lantern who goes too far in the other direction could become the next Sinestro."

"Sinestro?" Izuku frowned. He'd heard that name before. "Isn't that…?"

Arisa nodded grimly. "The yellow Lanterns are known as the Sinestro Corps. The great egomaniac named it after himself," she said. "But he wasn't always regarded as an enemy around here. Once he was known as the greatest of the Green Lanterns."

"What?" he gasped.

The veteran Lanterns didn't openly discuss the war around the cadets and the junior Lanterns too much, but it was impossible to keep everything from them, and Izuku had heard the name Sinestro plenty of times. He'd never even had a clue that Sinestro used to be a Green Lantern, though.

"His sector was once the most orderly in the universe, and for that the Guardians hailed him as an example of what all Green Lanterns should strive to be," Arisa explained. "But then the people of his home world Korugar revolted against him, and it came out that he'd achieved all that peace and order by turning into a tyrant and ruling with an emerald fist. The Guardians stripped him of his ring and his position and exiled him, but he was able to convince the Weaponeers of Qward to make him a yellow power ring. Eventually, he took the idea large scale, creating his own twisted version of the Green Lantern Corps. He still believes to this day that what he did was right, and now he seeks to replace us and impose order through fear on the entire universe."

Izuku shivered. "I can see why totally ignoring local laws is a really bad idea. But you just said that going to the other end of the spectrum isn't right, either," he pointed out. "So, how do you decide when you need to hold back and when you need to act?"

"You just have to take in on a case-by-case basis. And I know, that's much easier said than done," she added, forestalling his objection. "It's incredibly hard, and sometimes even in retrospect you won't be sure if you did the right thing or not, but making those judgement calls is a big part of the job of being a Green Lantern. It's why the rings don't do very much without a sentient mind to guide their powers, aside from choosing a replacement Lantern. If the Guardians didn't want people to make those calls, they'd still be using the Manhunters to dispense justice."

"The Manhunters?"

"Story for another time, kiddo," Arisa asked. "So, feel better?"

He chuckled tiredly. "I mean, I guess it's comforting to know that this isn't supposed to be easy."

She gave him a wry grin. "Just remember that not even a Green Lantern can always save everyone," she told him. "And so long as you're a junior Lantern and don't have that hero license thing, nobody here will think poorly of you for erring on the side of respecting the local authorities. You do need to live there, after all."

"Thanks, Arisa."

"Any time, Izuku," she said. "And I mean that. I sent you to Mogo because I thought he could help you better than I could, not because I viewed you as a problem I wanted to dump on him."

"I…thank you, I'll try to remember that," Izuku said.

She smiled. "Now, you should probably head back home. Sector 2814 needs its Green Lantern, after all."

"Yeah, you're right," Izuku agreed, smiling back. "I should get back. After all, it is a school night."

Meanwhile, light years away, in a hidden underground compound on Earth, a man whose face was largely one great mass of scar tissue was regarding a computer monitor, the bluish light it cast off one of the few sources of illumination in the gloomy room.

"It appears that Tomura's plan worked brilliantly, if the internet chatter is any indication," he remarked. "I have to hand it to the boy. He's certainly got a keen understanding of online culture."

"Indeed. I didn't expect much from this plan of his, but it does seem as though he's managed to acquire quite a following," Garaki admitted.

The man with no face smirked at the doctor's clear reluctance to give the boy credit. He was still miffed at the loss of a nomu in Hosu.

"Now it's his job to capitalize on that success and unify those sympathetic to the cause!" All for One said.

"You really believe that child can do it, master?" Garaki asked. "I still believe things would proceed more smoothly if you emerged from the shadows and allowed the criminal underworld to know you're back."

"Let Tomura continue to do the heavy lifting for now. All the better to prepare him to become the next me," All for One smirked. "He can have the glory and infamy for now. In the end, as always, the spoils will be all mine." 

Izuku touched down on the roof of his apartment building, his Green Lantern uniform disappearing as his feet met solid ground, leaving him in the shorts and gag T-shirt he'd been wearing before he'd gone off on his latest mission for the Corps.

I should probably find a different way to come back,he mused as he entered the building. If someone sees me repeatedly entering from the roof, they might get suspicious. Maybe the alley?

He put the thought away for the moment, deciding he wouldn't worry about it until at least one of the neighbors actually saw him using the roof access entrance.

"I'm home," he announced as he entered his home.

"Brother!" Eri exclaimed, rushing at him like a little white cannonball.

"Ooph!" Izuku exaggerated the effect of her colliding with him before scooping her up into his arms. The little girl was clad in Mirko-themed pajamas. "What are you still doing up?" he asked.

"She wanted to wait up until her big brother got back from his after school job," Inko said with a smile as she walked over. Mother and son had decided to explain Izuku's sporadic absences that way to the little girl, at least until she was a little older. "Though she really does need to get into bed soon."

Izuku smiled, surreptitiously eyeing the little girl's horn. It was still small, but it was definitely getting bigger; Izuku helped her practice her Quirk as much as he could, and regularly using Rewind was definitely slowing its growth. However, the low intensity usage of her Quirk that their practice sessions consisted of couldn't stop its growth entirely.

His mother was fully aware of the dangers of Eri's Quirk and the government had made sure she was equipped to stop an uncontrolled activation of Rewind if one occurred while Izuku wasn't around, but he hoped very much that the girl would have greater control of it before her Quirk's stockpiled energy increased to the point that that became an issue again.

Fortunately, it was still a problem for the future.

"Well, if Mom says that you need to get to bed, then you need to get to bed," Izuku told Eri. "Growing girls need their sleep."

"Okay," Eri agreed, looking only slightly crestfallen at the prospect of bedtime. "But before then, could you…um…?" she stammered and looked away.

Izuku supposed he should make her say it; they wanted the notion that she could state her needs and wants without being punished for it to really sink in for Eri. However, he couldn't quite bring himself to do it when she looked so shy and adorable.

A halo of green light surrounded Eri, and she slowly floated out of his arms and into the air. The little girl gasped with delight.

If it was the middle of the day, he would've sent Eri zooming around the living room, but as it was, he guided his foster sister toward her bedroom at a sedate pace.

"After a long day of saving innocents, the brave hero Eri returns home for a well-deserved rest," Izuku narrated.

Eri chuckled. "You're silly. I'm no hero."

"It's okay to pretend," he said. "And it's okay to be silly sometimes, too."

The covers rose off her bed of their own accord, wreathed in emerald light, and Eri was slowly lowered into it, the blanket settling atop her before the green light winked out.

"Good night, Eri," he said as he tucked her in, kissing her forehead.

"Good night, brother."

He left the room, softly closing the door behind himself. His mother was waiting for him in the living room, smiling warmly.

"You're a good big brother, Izuku," Inko said, eyes glistening. "I'm so proud of you."

He blushed and looked downwards. "Thanks, Mom," he said. "It's amazing having Eri live with us. I'm so glad you decided to take her in."

"Well, I need someone to take care of, now that my baby boy is growing up," Inko wiped her eyes dry. "So, you have plans for the weekend, right?"

Izuku nodded. "I'm planning to do more work for the Corps on Saturday after school," he said. Sector 2814 was reasonably peaceful, but it was also huge, so it never too hard to find something he could be doing, and it always felt like he should be doing more. The Corps didn't issue specific quotas or anything, but Izuku was very conscious of how much time he spent on Earth compared to how much he spent off planet. "And on Sunday most of both our class and 1-B are going to Yaomo—Yaoyorozu's place to train and study for final exams."

It was an idea that he, Yaoyorozu, Kendo, and Shoda had come up with after their respective homeroom teachers had announced upcoming finals, as well as the plans for a summer training camp. The hope was that working together to prepare would turn down the intensity of the rivalry between the two hero classes.

Interestingly, the discussions had also let two 1-A reps discover that while Mr. Aizawa had claimed any student who failed their exams would be excluded from the camp and left behind to endure remedial classes, Vlad King had told 1-B that anyone who failed would still get to go to camp and would take remedial classes there, only missing some of the more lighthearted activities rather than the whole thing.

Izuku and Yaoyorozu fully planned to tell the other members of 1-A that another "logical ruse" was almost certainly afoot—or, to put it more bluntly, that their homeroom teacher was probably lying to them all again.

"It seems like you're going to her place all the time," Inko remarked, "but she hasn't been here once."

Izuku immediately didn't like where this was going. "Oh, um, well her place is bigger. Much bigger. And she has a lot of special equipment and stuff there. It's why we're all going there on Sunday."

"I suppose it would need to be big, if almost 40 students can use it," Inko nodded. "But it's still impolite to be always accepting her hospitality without reciprocating, and in any case, I'd like to meet this young lady you're always talking about. You should invite her over for dinner sometime."

He blushed deeply at the idea…but he didn't reject it outright. "I'll, um, see if she's interested," he muttered. "When I get a chance."

Inko smiled, a twinkle in her eyes.

"Shota, what are you doing working at this hour?" Nemuri asked as she and Hizashi entered the teacher's lounge, both of them nearly ready to leave for the day.

"Leave grading some homework until the last minute again, bud?" Hizashi asked, knowing that there were no major tests in the run up to the exams. "I know you have hero work to do at night, but that's not setting a good example for the students."

"Knock it off. I didn't leave grading homework to the last minute," he grunted, not bothering to mention that for something as trivial as homework assignments, he just put off returning them to the students when he needed to. They never complained. "Since a certain rat decided that pitting the students against robots like usual for their exams wasn't going to work, I'm working out which teams and teacher opponents will work best."

Nemuri frowned. "Isn't that technically All Might's job? He is the heroics class teacher for 1-A, after all," she pointed out. "I get not wanting to leave him to do the whole thing without at least looking over his shoulder, but that doesn't mean you need to do it all."

"Also, didn't Nezu put the deadline for getting these finalized at a week from now?" Hizashi asked.

Aizawa just grunted in response.

"Wait a minute," Nemuri said, eyes narrowing. "Are you trying to do the entire thing and submit it to Nezu before All Might has a chance to chime in?"

"I don't trust the big oaf not to simply draw lots again," Aizawa harrumphed.

"Oh c'mon, Shota, that's not fair," Hizashi chided. "He was trying to simulate a spontaneous team-up in the field. Whatever else he might've done wrong with the battle trials during his first class, that part was fine."

Aizawa just grunted, clearly unconvinced.

Nemuri shook her head, sending her black locks bouncing. She leaned in to see the list of student pairs and opponents he was proposing.

"That's an interesting choice of students to go up against you," she remarked.

"They're too reliant on their Quirks," the underground pro grunted. He began to pack up his things. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find somewhere that I can finish this without interruptions."

The two other pro heroes didn't bother pursuing him, trading a look after he'd shut the door to the teacher's lounge after himself.

"…he's going to get his butt kicked, isn't he?" Hizashi asked.

"Oh yes," Nemuri chuckled.

"Should we try to stop him?"

She smirked. "Oh no."

Chapter 38: Extracurricular Activity

"Yaomomo, could I talk to you for a minute?" Midoriya asked, glancing around to make sure Ashido and Tooru weren't observing them. "Um, in private?"

Momo's heart seemed to do a flipflop inside her chest, something she had noted was happening around Midoriya with much greater frequency since Hosu, not to mention the whole incident between the locker rooms.

Was he about to ask her on a date? He had waited until just after the school day to talk to her and just said he wanted privacy, so perhaps…

No, surely not, she thought, getting herself under control. With final exams so close, she couldn't imagine him wanting to make such a huge change to their relationship. Not when they were both so preoccupied with studying and trying to get themselves and the rest of 1-A prepared for the trial before them.

But what if he did? Should she refuse for now, saying they should wait until summer break? That would be the responsible thing, but what if he took it as a blanket rejection?

"Yaomomo?" he asked, blinking.

She realized she'd been silent for too long. "Of course I can talk," she said, feeling her face heat slightly.

The notion of embarking on a romantic relationship with Midoriya had long had a certain appeal to Momo, an appeal which had been gradually growing, but her feelings had definitely intensified since he'd swooped in and saved her from what had seemed like certain doom at the hands of the Nomu.

She wasn't entirely sure she liked having a crush like this, considering how much more difficult it made it to maintain her composure.

Not that she had a choice about it, though.

She followed him to an isolated corner. "I'm going to another planet to do some disaster relief work," he said quietly. "Do you want to join me? Your help would really make a difference."

Momo felt a mixture of relief and disappointment upon realizing he wasn't asking her out, but it was quickly swept away as what he'd actually offered sank in. "Yes!"

"Great!" Midoriya said. "How soon can you be ready to go?"

"Give me ten minutes to change into my hero costume," she answered.

"Sounds good," Izuku said. "Meet me outside Gym Gamma."

Momo nodded, quickly making her way to the girls' locker room, which was currently empty. After taking a moment to text her driver to let him know she'd be arriving late, she quickly swapped her school uniform for her costume.

Had one of the teachers encountered her, they no doubt would've asked why she was in her hero attire after school, and Momo could only imagine how Ashido and Hagakure would react if they found out she was embarking on an afterschool rendezvous with Midoriya that she couldn't tell them the details about, but luck was with her and the halls were empty.

She quickly located Midoriya in a corner that none of the surveillance cameras had sight on, already in his Green Lantern uniform and haloed by emerald light.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes," she nodded.

A sphere of green light surrounded her and rose slowly off the ground as he too began to ascend. The sensation of being lifted into the air was initially frightening, but she got used to it quickly.

He gave her a questioning look, and she nodded.

The two of them shot upwards like they'd been fired from a cannon, rocketing toward the heavens so quickly that no human or recording device could've possibly spotted them as they streaked across the sky.

Momo realized suddenly that she was laughing, and she covered her mouth, embarrassed. Midoriya gave her a smile that had her heart doing cartwheels again.

Robin's egg blue gave way to ebony black as they exited the atmosphere and entered space, the two of them finally coming to a stop.

The sphere of light around her shrank and pulled in until she had a halo of light around her similar to his, the viridian glow's embrace surprisingly warm and pleasant.

"Amazing," Momo breathed as she took in the sight of the Earth beneath them, so much more beautiful than in satellite photos.

"Hyperspace jump ready," Midoriya's ring announced.

She looked at him.

"You, um, may want to hold on," he said, holding out his hand, cheeks red.

Momo felt some heat in her own cheeks, but she reached out and took his hand.

"Let's go, ring," Midoriya said.

The universe seemed to turn itself inside out before them.

Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi was not having a good day.

Which, by itself, was hardly remarkable. He'd been investigating the League of Villains since the USJ attack, and that had been a frustrating, largely fruitless slog consisting mainly of false leads and disappointments.

The pressure to produce results had increased dramatically since the Hosu attack, but so had the number of potential leads.

As was often the case with detective work, time was of the essence; Tsukauchi was determined to pursue as many potential sources of information before the trail started to go cold, and his days since Hosu had been a hazy, caffeine-fueled marathon of work.

All of which was to say that he really didn't appreciate being abruptly informed by the chief of police that he was being assigned new orders and told to report to the station immediately for details.

"Okay, I'm here, Tsuragamae," he said as he closed the door to the police chief's office behind himself. "You want to explain to me what this is all about? Don't tell me you're reassigning me now."

It also meant he was a bit more blunt and short-tempered than he usually would've been.

The canine-headed police chief let out a chuffing laugh. "I didn't realize you were treating this case as if you were a dog with a bone."

Tsukauchi ran a hand over his face, rubbing at his tired eyes. He was not in the mood for the man's usual puns. "Chief…"

"Very well, woof," Tsuragamae relented. "The truth is, I am reassigning you. There's another case that needs your unique skills more."

By which he of course meant Tsukauchi's lie detector Quirk, of course. So long as he had witnesses and suspects to talk to and knew enough about the situation to be able to ask the right questions, it ensured he could get to the truth faster than almost anyone, even if what his Quirk revealed wasn't directly submissible in court.

"Please tell me it's not to the Yotsubashi murder," Tsukauchi pleaded, even though he couldn't think of another case that the chief could potentially be reassigning him to.

As much as the notion of justice being blind was the ideal, it was still very much the case that when someone wealthy and well connected was the victim of a violent crime, the police were often pressured by various forces to give the investigation outsized attention and resources.

Tsukauchi knew it was just one of the realities of the job, and in other circumstances, he would've tolerated it. With him currently on the trail of a criminal group that had attacked students and then besieged a city in the name of a fallen serial killer, however, it would be a very bitter pill to swallow indeed.

"Yes, but not for the reasons you're thinking of, woof," Tsuragamae said, seemingly reading his mind. "There's a very legitimate need to pursue this as quickly as possible."

The detective blinked. "What could be that important about this case?"

From what he'd heard, Yotsubashi had been found dead in his own driveway with his chest ripped open and his heart missing. It was unmistakably the same modus operandi of whoever had killed Stain, and fact that the murderer had gone from targeting a serial killer to attacking a respected CEO was intensely strange.

Still, none of that added up to a compelling reason to prioritize this murder over pursuing the League.

Tsuragamae grunted, the sound coming out more like a canine growl, and sat down at his desk, gesturing for the detective to take the chair across from it.

"What I'm about to tell you needs to remain strictly confidential," the chief said. "Absolutely no one who doesn't need to know can know."

Tsukauchi's eyebrows rose. This was definitely serious. "I understand."

Tsuragamae nodded. "Early on in the investigation, the lead officer reported that those associated with Yotsubashi's estate were behaving strangely regarding the whole thing," he said. "Rather than demanding the killer be found as soon as possible or the like, they mostly seemed focused on preventing us from looking too deeply in Yotsubashi's home and life in general."

"They might've had a hand in the killing themselves," the detective speculated.

"That did seem to be the most likely reason for behaving that way, initially," the chief agreed. "However, it was quite a number of people and most of them had nothing to gain from Yotsubashi's death. So the lead officer took advantage of the fact that the victim's home is still classified as a crime scene and poked around. He found a copy of Destro's manifesto, along with some Destrist writings of several other people from that era and afterwards."

"I don't see how the fact that the victim believed some morally repugnant things is relevant, or even all that surprising, for that matter," Tsukauchi said. "These masters of the universe types always seem to think they should be radically reorganizing civilization in some way."

"Indeed, but it compelled the team to dig further," Tsuragamae said. "They found evidence of an extensive, very well-funded and well-organized Destrist organization, of which Yotsubashi may have been the leader. We have reason to believe this group has infiltrated at least one of the country's political parties, major companies aside from Detnerat, and even counts some heroes among its members."

The detective leaned back into his chair. "You're saying that these people were planning a revolution, and a seemingly random killing of their boss clued us into it?"

"That's exactly what appears to be the case, woof," the chief said. "Needless to say, once they're aware that we're onto them, the agents of this conspiracy will go to ground, so it's vital we uncover as much as possible with the opportunity we've been given. If we play our cards right, we'll be able to defang this so-called meta liberation army long before they can reorganize and pose a threat."

Tsukauchi was reluctant to admit it, but that was a very good reason for pulling him off the League of Villains case. "Where do I start?"

Of all the things Momo had been expecting when journeying with Midoriya to an alien planet, a world populated by strikingly human-looking individuals with a society that looked like it was something out of a European fairy tale certainly wasn't it.

Yet that was exactly what Athmoora was.

The crown city of one the planet's many medieval kingdoms had also just suffered a serious earthquake that had collapsed dozens and dozens of structures, along with a section of what had probably been a very picturesque castle until quite recently.

Momo initially feared that the locals would be hostile to the strangers from the sky, but either Midoriya had been here previously or one of his predecessors had, because they recognized him immediately as a Green Lantern and were immensely grateful for his offer of assistance. That she'd accompanied him was more than enough for them to welcome her help as well.

The two of them had immediately gotten to work, focusing on getting people out of partially or completely collapsed buildings that the local authorities either didn't dare to enter or couldn't hope to excavate in time.

As the afternoon wore on and the number of damaged buildings to search through shrank, Momo started to focus on treating the survivors in a makeshift field hospital the city guard had managed to throw together.

"Thankfully, the wound isn't as bad as it initially looked," she told a young woman named Alandra as she created a clean bandage using her Quirk, along with some antibiotic cream, which she used to wrap up the gash in her patient's thigh. "Make sure to keep that as clean as possible until it heals. If you need to wash that area beforehand, boil the water first. It's important to prevent infection for it to heal properly."

"As you say," Alandra said, quickly putting her skirt back into place once Momo was finished, bowing her head. "A thousand thanks."

Momo smiled. "Just doing my duty."

She followed Alandra out of the curtained off area where she'd been treating her, looking about for another patient to assist, but to her surprise it looked like the local healers were already at work on the remaining injured people.

Venturing outside the boundary of the field hospital, she soon saw a now familiar green dot in the sky approaching. As it drew nearer, she saw that, for the first time that day, Midoriya wasn't bringing more people in need of medical attention with him.

"Hello, Midoriya," she greeted him. "Were you unable to find any other victims?"

"Pretty much," he said. "The city guard and the local knights are already searching through the last few areas, though my ring didn't detect anyone still alive there."

"It's good that everyone who needs attention has been seen to, though I'm surprised there's no more," she remarked.

He shrugged. "This city's not that big, especially not compared to a place like Tokyo," he said. "Anyway, it's starting to get late back home. Now that the locals have everything under control, we should probably head home."

She nodded in agreement. Momo didn't want to abandon people in need, but she had been checking her watch and knew that she'd be missed if she didn't get home soon. Now that the locals had the situation in hand, it was a good time to take their leave. "Do you need to let anyone here know we're departing?" she asked.

"I already told the king we'd probably be going soon on my way back," he said.

"Then let's go."

He nodded, and green light enveloped her form once again.

Since they didn't need to worry about being seen here, Midoriya took them upwards at a much more sedate pace than he had when they'd departed from Earth, which Momo wasn't about to complain about.

"Thank you," she said, once they were up in the sky, too far away for any of the Athmoorans to possibly hear them.

He chuckled. "I should be the one thanking you," Midoriya said. "You were a huge help, and I'm sure it couldn't have been easy to give up an afternoon so close to finals."

"Easier than you might think," she said.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, I suppose I needed this, after Hosu," Momo admitted. "To be able to do something that would let me feel like a hero, instead of someone who needs one."

"I never thought less of you for needing help there," he said at once, voice soft. "Even pro heroes need assistance sometimes, and we're still students."

"I know," she said. "Knowing that didn't make me feel better about it, though. This did. So you have my gratitude."

"You're welcome," he said. "Though I still think I owe you more."

Momo knew how futile having that debate with him would be. "I must say, it was very liberating to be able to use my Quirk to help people without having to worry about the legal ramifications of my actions," she remarked instead.

"I know what you mean," he nodded.

"I also have to say, I'm also pleasantly surprised how smoothly this went," Momo said. "I spent half the time there expecting someone to take offense to my hero costume." 

All the women on Athmoora had been covered from neck to toe, with several of them having some kind of head covering as well. Compared to that, she had felt sure her red leotard would be seen as quite scandalous, yet not a one of them had said a thing that she knew about.

"Oh, well, they wouldn't expect you to follow the same norms and stuff that they do," Midoriya said. "They think you're a goddess."

"What?!" she exclaimed.

Momo was as taken aback by the utterly casual tone he'd used to convey that information as she was by the information itself; the way he'd said it made it seem like it was perfectly natural and completely unsurprising for people to mistake her for a literal deity.

"Well, yeah," he said. "I mean, we did kind of descend from the heavens, and you've been not only helping me pull people from destroyed buildings, but you've been using your Quirk to create medical supplies for people, which would look like magic to the Athmoorans. Plus some of the stuff you've been making is well beyond their current technology. To them, antibiotic cream is literally a miracle. I mean, you probably saved a lot of people from having to have a limb amputated today."

That explanation was entirely sensible, but it did next to nothing to help her get over his complete nonchalance at the notion of people viewing her as a goddess. "Do they think you're a god?" she asked, feeling her face heat.

"No," Midoriya answered. "Abin Sur, the Green Lantern of this sector before me, came here a couple of times, and they gave him some title. I can't remember the exact word for it, and it doesn't have a direct translation in any human language. Closest thing to it is basically an angel, though. So, that's what they think I am."

"Is having the natives of planets view you as some kind of…mythological being common?" she asked.

"This is the only time I've ever experienced it, but from what I hear it happens from time to time when a Green Lantern goes to help a primitive world in some way, especially if they end up sticking around for a while," Midoriya said. "Though of course the rules of the Corps forbid using that for personal benefit."

She nodded. "I could see how it would be a problem, otherwise."

They lapsed into silence after that, and Momo observed that this time, the transition between blue sky and diamond-studded blackness was far more gradual. Under other circumstances, she would've wondered if that was merely because they were going more slowly or because Athmoora's atmosphere was different from Earth's in some way.

"Ready for the hyperspace jump, Yaomomo?" Midoriya asked, holding out his hand.

"Momo," she said, more on impulse than from an actual conscious decision.

"What?"

"You can call me by my given name, rather than that nickname, if you like," she said, trying to ignore the rising heat in her cheeks.

He blinked, going crimson as he processed what she'd said. "I…are you sure?"

"Quite sure," Momo said, even though she was sure she was nearly as red as he was. "You've shared your most important secret with me, you've saved my life, we've fought side by side against villains, we work together as class reps, and we help each other become better future heroes. Or at least, so I'd like to think. I know you've helped me. I'd say we're more than close enough for you to call me by my given name."

"Okay, Yao…okay, Momo," Midoriya corrected himself. "Then please, call me Izuku."

"Thank you, Izuku," she said, finally taking his hand in hers.

He swallowed. "Ring, engage hyperspace jump."

Chapter 39: Preparation

The day following Izuku and Momo's trip to Athmoora saw a scene that was far more mundane, but, to the young Green Lantern at least, no less extraordinary for it.

Nearly the entirety of both UA first year hero classes were currently congregated on the grounds of the Yaoyorozu estate, practicing for the practical portion of the upcoming final exams after a long study session inside the mansion's great hall.

Only Todoroki and Kacchan had refused to attend; Kendo had somehow managed to drag Monoma to the large test prep session and even was keeping his boasting about 1-B's perfect attendance to a minimum.

As someone who'd been shunned since his Quirkless diagnosis, just being invited to such a gathering would've practically bowled him over by itself.

However, once they'd called the studying quits for the day (to the intense relief of Ashido and Kaminari) and headed outside, it had quickly become clear that Izuku wasn't going to be just another participant.

"So, have you read Western comic books much or just stuck to Japanese manga?" he asked Manga Fukidashi, a 1-B student whose head was constantly shifting between various text bubbles and symbols that one might find in any variety of graphic novel.

"Mostly Japanese manga," Fukidashi answered. "There's so much out there, it hasn't exactly been like I've been hurting for new sources of material. Besides, it's literally my namesake, after all." He added with a chuckle.

"That's true, but I think it would be worth it to read some comic books and see if using onomatopoeia from those, in English, produces different effects at all," Izuku said. "It could potentially allow you to increase your arsenal much faster than you can by reading more manga!"

"Hmm, I see your point," Fukidashi said, his head shifting from a speech bubble to a thought bubble as he pondered it. "And I suppose it's worth the time to experiment, anyway."

"I have some pre-Quirk superhero comics from the US," Izuku said. "I'd be happy to let you borrow them."

"Thank you, Midoriya, I may take you up on that," Fukidashi said. "Not right now, though. Days before final exams isn't a good time to go changing up my fighting style."

"Agreed," Izuku said.

Pretty much the moment things had started, other students had started coming to himself and Momo for advice on how to better practice with and utilize their Quirks, potential support gear, and strategy.

He supposed it was detracting from their own practice time, but Izuku was so flattered that he couldn't bring himself to care. Momo also was eager to assist the others, and if she was happy to give her time to assist their fellow students, then as her vice rep, he could hardly do any less, right?

It certainly wasn't because he had a massive crush on Momo (and it still felt strange to him to be able to address her so intimately, not that he was about to complain) and didn't want to do anything she'd disapprove of, of course.

"Oh, geeze, Midoriya, can you at least pretend it's hard for you to focus on Quirk analysis while you do this?" Kendo asked from nearby, voice strained.

The rep of class 1-B was currently engaged in a super-sized game of mercy, her currently enlarged hands interlocked with an equally large, green pair coming from Izuku's ring.

"His mind is clearly a multifaceted thing, containing many dark chambers!" Tokoyami agreed, while Dark Shadow sparred with its jade double.

"Oh, this is really way harder than it looks!" Izuku was quick to reassure them. "I've been trying to teach myself how to multitask without losing focus for a while now, so this is great training! I hope you feel like it's helping you too!"

"Fighting my own Quirk's luminous doppelganger is a worthy challenge indeed!" Tokoyami proclaimed in what Izuku was pretty sure was approval.

"What he said!" Kendo grunted out.

Izuku resisted the urge to shake his head. Part of him still couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea of being viewed as a good sparring partner and a source of advice from UA hero students, even if he was one of them himself.

It was an amazing feeling, to be actually be valued by his peers.

Meanwhile, Momo was just as in the thick of the action, engaged in an intense spar with several members of both classes.

Currently, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Jurota Shishida, and Monoma were facing off against her, Yui Kodai, Uraraka, and Setsuna Tokage.

Monoma had copied Tetsutetsu's Quirk early on, and the quartet of brawlers had initially been confident of their ability to steamroll their opponents in the open plane of the estate's grounds.

They had quickly been disabused of that notion.

Kirshima was currently caught in a bizarre sort of boxing match against a single hand bigger than he was, Kodai having used her Quirk on it after Tokage had detached it from the rest of her body.

"Why thank you, Thing!" Tokage's floating head laughed as her hand managed to land a solid blow.

Monoma groaned. "How long have you been saving that one?"

"And how many people do even expect to get that reference?" Uraraka asked. "That show's ancient!"

"Hey, apparently you got it!" the recommended student retorted, grinning.

Meanwhile, Shishida was already down, having collapsed almost immediately after Momo had fired…something at him. Tetsutetsu and Monoma were back to back, both of them fully metallic from head to toe, desperately trying to fend off attacks from Uraraka and Tokage's other hand, which was also giant.

If the two of them noticed that Momo and Kodai were working on something, neither of them could do anything about it.

"There," Momo said, handing a small object she'd made to the other raven-haired girl.

"Mm," Kodai grunted, taking the item, then placing it on the ground and activating her Quirk.

The tiny electromagnet was suddenly a very large electromagnet.

Monoma released a squawk of surprise and dismay and immediately tried to deactivate Tetsutetsu's Quirk, but he didn't come close to succeeding before Momo threw the switch.

There was a pair of screams, following by a loud KLANG! sound as the two were suddenly plastered to the side of the magnet.

"Don't worry, guys!" Kirishima said. "I'm coming!"

"No," Kodai said simply as she activated her Quirk again.

Pebbles that had been floating in the air above his head for a few minutes now, so small he hadn't noticed him, were suddenly boulders.

"Release!" Uraraka shouted, Tokage's hand retreating from Kirishima with surprising speed.

"Urgh!" Kirishima yelped as he was suddenly buried under a miniature avalanche.

"I think we can call that a match," Momo said. "Kodai, if you would?"

The soft spoken girl nodded and released her Quirk, freeing Kirishima, Monoma, and Tetsutetsu all at once.

"An electromagnet?" Monoma groaned as his skin lost its metallic sheen and returned to its regular color. "Really?"

"I admit that I wanted to see if it would work," Momo confessed.

"Uh, Yaomomo, is he going to be okay?" Uraraka asked as she helped Shishida to his feet. "What did you hit him with, anyway?"

"I created a tranquilizer dart loaded with a paralytic substance. It was much more difficult to aim than I'd expected, but he was close enough to me that it hardly made a difference," Momo explained, helping Uraraka get Shishida onto a nearby stone bench. "He should recover fully in a few minutes."

Izuku was impressed anew at her continuing expansion of her arsenal. He wondered why aiming the dart was tricky for her was so difficult, mind already filling with possible ways to work around that issue. Perhaps if she was able to create a gun barrel of some kind without expelling it from her body right away, like how she had done with the blades she'd made during the festival…

"Hey, lover boy!"

Izuku was jolted from his thoughts, finding Class 1-B's Yosetsu Awase standing in front of him. "You back with us?" he asked dryly.

"Uh, yes, sorry, my mind must've been wandering!" Izuku said. "What can I help you with?" he added quickly.

The less said about how he'd been caught staring at Momo, the better.

"I think you mentioned you had some ideas for how I can more effectively use my Quirk?" Awase asked.

"Right!" Izuku agreed, a little more loudly than necessary. "So, um, Weld allows you to bond two objects at the molecular level or as far down as the subatomic level, right?"

"Yeah."

"Can you use it to create alloys or other composite materials that way?" Izuku asked. "For instance, if you used your Quirk on iron and carbon, could you make steel?"

"Well…"

Sitting at his formerly neat desk and observing the stacks of paperwork that now cluttered it, Centipeder could only wonder for what felt like the thousandth time why Sir needed to be out of the country now of all times.

Rubbing his eyes, the sidekick brought his mug of coffee to his mouth, grimacing as he discovered the beverage had gone cold.

There was a tap at his door.

"Enter," he grunted.

The door slid open, and Bubble Girl stepped inside. Despite his weariness, Centipeder was glad to see her; the more junior sidekick had proven invaluable recently and was a much needed source of positivity around the agency for him.

"Afternoon, Moashi," she greeted him. "Hope you're doing okay."

"Thank you, Awata," he replied. "I take it you have news?"

She nodded. "One of our informants inside the Shie Hassaikai just reported in."

"And?"

"The organization's not taking the news that Chisaki's being denied bail and will be held in Tartarus well," she said. "A couple of members of the group known as the Eight Bullets have apparently left, though Kendo Rappa is the only one we know for certain is gone. The remaining Bullets are trying to hold things together, but apparently a lot of the rest of the organization want to return to operating the way they did before Chisaki took control. There's a power struggle happening, though no confirmed violence as of yet. Seems like it's probably just a matter of time, though."

Centipeder grunted and took a sip of his cold coffee. It was good news—it was always good news when organized crime groups started to become less organized—but there were things he didn't understand about it, and that unsettled him.

"Some degree of chaos was only to be expected after Chisaki's abrupt arrest, given his lack of a strong second-in-command and the previous yakuza boss being too ill to even make an attempt at reasserting control," he mused aloud. "But this rapid degradation is still surprising."

"The informant did provide one possible explanation for that," Bubble Girl said. "Though he made it clear in his report that it's just a rumor, not something confirmed."

That was hardly surprising. As much as they would've loved to have a mole inside the upper echelons of the resurgent yakuza group, they were lucky to have one among the grunts.

"And that was?" Centipeder asked.

"That Eri was integral in some way to Chisaki's plans," the blue-skinned sidekick answered.

Centipeder's eyes widened as several things suddenly made sense. If that was really true, then the remaining members of the Eight Bullets and others loyal to Chisaki couldn't simply carry on the original plan in his stead. They'd have no path forward they could offer the yakuza group as a whole unless they could come up with and agree upon a completely new alternative, which would surely make it harder for them to placate the more old school gangsters in the Shie Hassaikai who'd never fully approved of Chisaki to begin with.

He couldn't for the life of him see how that young child could possibly be the lynchpin of whatever scheme Chisaki had concocted, and he'd certainly see if they could find information on that as soon as possible.

For now, however, that was a secondary concern. "The child was taken in by that hero student's family, correct?" he asked, getting a nod from Bubble Girl. "Is there a guard on her and the household?"

Bubble Girl nodded again. "Yes, the Majestic agency has heroes keeping an eye on them, covertly," she added.

That was good. If the Shie Hassaikai didn't know where Eri was, the last thing they wanted was for a crowd of heroes in full costume to draw their attention.

"Call the Majestic agency and tell them we want to double it," he said. "We'll provide the additional personnel needed. I'll let Sir know about these developments as soon as possible."

"You got it," she gave a playful salute and headed out.

Centipeder allowed himself to lean back in his chair. If they were very, very lucky, the current status quo would hold until the Shie Hassaikai imploded, and they could swoop in to take the most dangerous members of the yakuza group to jail.

It was late afternoon at the Yaoyorozu estate, and most of both classes had departed, with only Izuku, Uraraka, Iida, Jirou, and of course Momo still present in one of the mansion's relatively modest sitting rooms. Steaming cups of high quality tea sat in front of them all.

"I think that went quite well," Momo remarked, taking a sip.

"Indeed!" Iida agreed. "The study session was very productive, and the training afterwards was excellent preparation for the practical portion of the exam!"

"Hopefully it also helped to turn down the heat on Class 1-B's sense of rivalry with us," Momo added.

"I'm impressed that Kendo was able to get Monoma to show up," Uraraka said. "And he actually got along pretty well with the rest of us."

"Yeah, and towards the end it might not have been entirely because he knew Kendo would give him a giant karate chop if he started making trouble, even," Jirou snarked.

Momo raised a hand over her mouth to hide a giggle. She decided to refrain from sharing how Kendo had mentioned that Monoma had had multiple conniption fits when he'd discovered that two of his classmates had shared their unique Quirk substances with her.

"I'm not sure he'll ever stop taking…everything so seriously when it comes to us," Izuku said. "But he's just one student in Class 1-B. Even if he never lets it go, it's not a huge deal so long as the rest of his class does."

"Quite right," Momo agreed.

A few moments passed in companionable silence as they drank their tea, all of them tired from the marathon study and training session but feeling the satisfaction that came with knowing they'd worked hard and gotten things done.

"Hey," Jirou said, putting down her teacup and looking at Momo and Izuku. "I'm usually not one for big, mushy declarations, but I just wanted to say that you two are awesome class reps. Seriously, most of the time it feels like you're helping us and teaching us more about how to be pro heroes than the actual teachers."

"Yeah, it feels like whenever All Might or Aizawa drops the ball on something, one of you is right there for the rest of us," Uraraka agreed. "I know I never would've looked into modifications to my gear if you hadn't suggested it."

"I don't wish to speak ill of our teachers," Iida said, "but I must agree that the two of you are exemplary class reps who go far above and beyond what the position requires. Truly our class chose well when we elected you."

Momo could feel heat in her face that she knew meant she was blushing, but she forced herself not to look away. "Thank you, it's flattering that you all think so," she said. "I'm very happy that we've been able to help the class."

"It's really all Mo…Yaomomo who does all that," Izuku said quietly.

"Nonsense," Momo said at once, wondering if he'd reverted to using that nickname because he wanted to avoid having Uraraka and Jirou tease them. "Your ability to help our fellow students come up with more inventive ways to use their Quirks is invaluable, and something I could never do as well as you can. You've also helped me enormously."

She suppressed a shiver as she thought of how she wouldn't have been able to host today's study and training session without him having come to her aid in the past, because the Nomu would've almost certainly gotten her.

"We make a good team," she added. "I…okay," he relented, his already incandescent blush darkening.

Studiously ignoring Jirou's smirk and Uraraka's grinning, Momo addressed everyone present. "I think we've all prepared for final exams as much as we possibly can," she said. "We should all make sure to rest up tonight."

"Right," Iida agreed. "I agree on your judgement that Mr. Aizawa's threat to keep anyone who fails the final exam from going to the summer camp is another of his 'logical ruses' but it would be best if we performed as though we believed it."

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the group.

"Good luck tomorrow, everyone!" Uraraka said, raising her teacup. "Here's to seeing you all at the camp after we pass this thing!"

They clinked cups together, as ready as they would ever be.

Chapter 40: Final Exams, Part 1

The final exams for their "regular" classes, and the written portion of the final for their heroics class, were nothing short of grueling. The class's slackers, Ashido and Kaminari, struggled the most, but even the likes of Momo and Iida found the ordeal exhausting.

In a way, it was almost a blessing in disguise. At the start of finals, the practical portion of their heroic's class exam had loomed ahead of them like a fearsome monster at the end of the path. By the time they were done with everything else, the notion of a test where they could move around and use their bodies rather than being trapped at a desk writing essays and filling in bubble sheets for hours was almost a relief.

Which was why the twenty students of class 1-A weren't as nervous as they might've otherwise been as they rode a bus heading toward the various on-campus training grounds, all of them clad in their hero costumes.

"Welcome, all of you," Aizawa muttered as everyone filed off the bus once it had reached their destination, the underground pro sounding even more in need of a nap than usual. "Let's begin your practical exam. If you want to attend the training camp, don't mess this up." He added menacingly.

Several students' eyes narrowed; thanks to comparing notes with 1-B, they knew their homeroom teacher was probably lying to them. The "logical ruses" were a lot more irritating when they knew they were coming and weren't too shocked by them to be upset.

Still, none of them spoke up, knowing there was little point to it.

"Odd how so many of the teachers are here," Jirou remarked softly, noting that more than half the staff was present.

"Knowing you all, you probably asked around regarding the test, and you probably think you have an idea what it'll be about," Aizawa added.

"We heard it's normally a robot rumble," Kaminari said.

"But we also figured it would be different this year," Ashido added.

"And by 'we' you mean Midoriya and Yaoyorozu," Sero added under his breath, getting a dirty look from the horned girl.

"Very good!" Nezu said, bursting out from Aizawa's scarf. "That we aren't taking you entirely by surprise speaks well of you and your deductive and observational skills!"

The assembled students blinked at the sight of the small, mouse-like creature as it fully crawled out of Aizawa's scarf, the underground hero not reacting to or even acknowledging the principal in the slightest.

"Given recent events, I've decided that we need to focus on ensuring that our lessons simulate practical experience as much as possible!" Nezu said, as he climbed down Aizawa and got to the ground. "Therefore, instead of robots, you students will be pairing up and facing one of the teachers you see here!"

"We need to fight a teacher?" Uraraka whispered.

"Your pairings and assigned teachers have already been decided," Nezu proclaimed. "Your battle moves, your grades, your friendships, your experiences in the year so far…we've taken them all into account for this!"

"That said, in addition to allowing you to face us in two-on-one matches, we're giving you another handicap," Ectoplasm added. "We've had the support department create some ultra-dense weights, so each of us will be fighting while hauling around fifty percent of our respective body weights."

"Feel like you need to bring yourselves down to our level?" Bakugo growled. "Don't insult us."

"Dude, shut up!" Mineta hissed. "Not all of us want to do this on hard mode!"

Bakugo ignored him entirely.

"The rules of this practical exam are simple. Each team of two will be sent to one of the training grounds. A passing grade can be achieved by using these to capture your opponent," Nezu held out a high tech pair of handcuffs, "or if at least one member of your team escapes the stage!"

"We can win by running away?" Kirishima asked, surprised and perhaps vaguely offended by the notion.

"Yes," Aizawa nodded. "Sometimes in the field, the smartest and most logical thing a hero can do is to withdraw from a battle he can't win and return with reinforcements later. It's a valid move, so you'll pass just the same if you successfully run as you will if you fight and win."

"Only cowards run away from bitch ass villains," Bakugo scoffed softly.

No doubts about what he'd be trying to do once the exercise started.

"Of course, it is possible to fail this," Aizawa added. "If you're unable to achieve either of the objectives within thirty minutes, or you're both incapacitated by your opponent, you lose."

"So what are the teams, and which teachers will we be facing off against?" Momo asked.

"We were just getting to that!" Nezu said, clapping his paws together. Thanks to the pads on them, the gesture didn't actually make any audible sound. "Kaminari, Ashido! The two of you will be facing off against me!"

The two students faced each other, not quite sure how to feel about this.

"Uraraka and Aoyama, you'll be with me," Thirteen said calmly.

The gravity girl took a deep breath, nodding and clenching a fist, a determined gleam in her eye. Somehow, Aoyama turned up his usual level of sparkle.

"Koda, Jirou, we're gonna have ourselves one sweet battle of the bands!" Present Mic proclaimed.

"Oh man," the punk rocker groaned, obviously well aware of how her super hearing would stack up against the teacher's super voice.

"Asui and Tokoyami, you'll need to come at me with everything you've got if you want to pass this trial," Ectoplasm said.

"Sero, Mineta, I hope you have the stamina to keep up with me," Midnight licked her lips.

The two students swallowed audibly.

"Hagakure, Shoji, I'm callin' the two of you out," Snipe said.

"Let's do this, Shoji!" the invisible girl said, one gloved hand clenching into a fist, while the masked boy just nodded stoically.

"Sato and Kirishima, you must overcome me to pass this," Cementoss announced in his deep, gravelly voice.

"Let's do this, bro!" the hardening hero student said, bumping fists with his teammate.

"Iida, Ojiro, I hope you're ready to bring all your determination and ingenuity to bear against me, because I won't make it easy for you!" Power Loader said.

The martial artist and the speedster just traded nods.

Tsuyu frowned. "That leaves four students but there's only one more teacher here…" she said, bringing a finger to her chin.

"Not quite, young Asui! For I am here!" All Might exclaimed as he came flying out of the air and landed near the other teachers. "To take on…young Bakugo and young Todoroki!"

A feral grin stretched out Bakugo's face. "Fine with me!"

"And me," Todoroki grunted.

"Just don't get in my way, Icy Hot!" Bakugo snapped.

"Same to you," Todoroki replied, tone frosty.

Bakugo growled, glaring daggers at his teammate.

"Wait a minute," Sero said, frowning. "If Bakugo and Todoroki are against All Might, then that just leaves…"

"Indeed," Aizawa grinned the same way he had after announcing his first logical ruse to the class. "Yaoyorozu and Midoriya will be up against me."

"What?! Why do those two get to be a team?" Kaminari exclaimed. "They're basically unstoppable together!"

"They beat the League's anti-All Might Nomu! Twice!"Ashido agreed.

"Seriously! If you're going to pair them up, at leastpit them against All Might!" Mineta added. "Otherwise you might as well give them a perfect score now and let them just leave for the—hrk!"

The diminutive boy's protests were cut off as Aizawa's capture weapon shot out and wrapped itself tightly around him, the other end ensnaring Ashido and Kaminari together. The underground hero glared at the trio with a red-eyed gaze, his hair floating.

"That's quite enough."

"We're sorry!" the three students chorused.

Aizawa released them and stopped using his Quirk.

"Your faith in your class representatives is good, but don't underestimate the UA staff," Nezu chided them. "Rest assured, these matchups were carefully picked by your teachers for this. I don't expect any of you to have an easy time of this."

Kaminari, Ashido, and Mineta still looked extremely dubious. So did most of the rest of the class for that matter, but at this point, nobody was about to say anything about it.

"Any further questions?" Nezu asked.

No one spoke.

"Very good!" the principal said. "Let's get you all to your individual testing grounds so we can get this underway!"

The ten pairs of students each boarded one of UA's self-driving buses with the teacher they needed to face in the practical, and soon they were on their way to the training ground where they'd be doing the actual test.

"Spend the time talking strategy if you like," Aizawa told Momo and Izuku as he practically collapsed into one of the seats near the front. "I'm taking a nap until we get there."

With that, he closed his eyes and seemed to pass out almost instantly.

The two students traded a look, then wordlessly made their way to seats near the back of the otherwise empty vehicle.

Momo could tell Izuku was unsettled by something without him saying a word; he had gone silent ever since the matchups had been announced, a thoughtful expression on his face but no muttering escaping him.

She knew him well enough by this point to know that combination meant something was troubling him.

"Everything all right?" she whispered to him, not entirely trusting that their homeroom teacher was actually asleep. "I'm quite confident we can pass this."

She wasn't as supremely certain of their victory as Ashido, Kaminari, and Mineta had seemed to be; those three seemed to be under the impression that she and Izuku were so powerful together that even All Might's odds against them were barely even, and that sort of arrogance practically begged for a swift comeuppance, in her opinion.

Still, it was impossible not to feel confident when she knew she'd have Izuku by her side; they had yet to face a foe who could defeat the two of them together, and that included some extremely dangerous villains. Also, Momo respected Eraserhead's skills, but he seemed a surprisingly poor choice of opponent for her, considering she'd have the chance to create whatever objects she wished before they actually confronted him, and that was even without taking Izuku's power into consideration!

"I'm not worried about passing," he said softly. "Mr. Aizawa's Quirk won't work on my ring. If he tries to use Erasure on me and I don't notice…"

"He'll realize there's something strange about your 'Quirk,'" Momo finished, realizing why he looked so unsettled.

"Yeah," he nodded.

Momo pursed her lips, eyes sliding shut as her mind raced.

How can we prevent Mr. Aizawa from doing exactly what he'd be inclined to do here, when he only needs to look at Izuku to do it? She wondered.

Her eyes opened.

"I have a plan."

All Might knew his trademark smile was probably looking a little more plastic and forced than usual, but even a seasoned pro hero like him couldn't be expected to completely ignore the stifling atmosphere in the bus.

"Why don't we play a word game while we wait to get there?" he suggested, turning to the two students with him.

Bakugo threw a surly look his way. Todoroki ignored him entirely.

The number one hero sighed and turned his gaze back toward the window. "Fine, then."

"Stay the hell out of my way, Icy Hot," Bakugo growled softly.

"Only if you stay out of mine," Todoroki responded.

All Might shook his head ever so slightly. These two had been paired up and pitted against him because they were both so accustomed to having the most powerful Quirk of anyone in the room and not needing to work with others to overpower their opponents as a result.

Goodness knew it wasn't an uncommon attitude for the types of young people who managed to get into UA's vaunted hero course; All Might have known more than a few students who showed up to UA like that in his time as a student.

For most of them, though, it didn't take long before they realized that they'd been big fish in a small pond, and that they were now in the vast ocean, which usually tempered their attitudes.

That hadn't happened with these two, despite their lackluster placements in the Sports Festival. Todoroki was constantly cold with his classmates, refusing to work with others unless it was absolutely required of him, and the less said about young Bakugo's attitude, the better.

The hope was that facing an opponent with overwhelming power would force the two of them to swallow their pride and work together, but observing the hostility rolling over the two students in waves, the number one hero privately felt that was a very unlikely thing indeed.

One by one, the buses pulled up to their respective destinations, the teachers and their student pairs exiting the vehicles and making their way into the various training grounds.

Aizawa escorted Midoriya and Yaoyorozu to the far end of the area, furthest from the escape gate, informed them that the sound of an air horn would signal the official start of the test, then departed with absolutely no fanfare.

Nezu had assigned him to Ground Epsilon for this, which was modeled after a typical suburb. It wasn't the sort of environment he favored; the underground pro preferred industrial parks or areas with towering skyscrapers at night, with lots of dark places to hide in, rather than a residential area in the middle of the day. Still, he'd make do. No pro hero worthy of the title would be rendered helpless by a change of scenery.

He made his way to the area near the entrance, leaning against a utility pole and allowing his eyes to slide shut as he waited for the practical to start.

After a couple of minutes, an airhorn sounded in the distance.

Dark eyes opened, and Eraserhead slid into the shadows with practiced ease. Using quick, purposeful movements, the veteran pro darted from cover to cover, traversing side streets, back alleys, and rooftops with equal ease as he hunted his prey, sometimes traveling along the ground and sometimes using his capture weapon to swing from one point to another.

There was no doubt that Class 1-A's reps had been doing well, but they were also far too dependent upon their powerful Quirks, Midoriya especially. The boy had a firm grasp on his Quirk, Eraserhead would give him that, but he wielded that power like an emerald sledgehammer.

He'd probably have no idea what to do with himself if he was suddenly deprived of it; having tremendous power at his fingertips for most of his life had clearly made the boy much too accustomed to it.

True heroes needed to be able to operate without leaning on the familiar abilities they'd long grown used to relying on. It was time to see if Midoriya and Yaoyorozu could do that or not.

They'd exceed his expectations if they could. If they couldn't, well, those two could do with being knocked down a peg.

Eraserhead went on high alert as he drew closer to the area where he expected to encounter them. The underground hero would've bet a month's salary that they'd try to fight him rather than flee; they, and the rest of the class, clearly had an inflated view of their combat prowess. He was expecting an ambush of some kind.

It was why he noticed the buzzing sound in the distance immediately, his whole body tensing as he registered the sound. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it didn't belong here.

Eraserhead didn't have too long to search for the source of the noise before a blast of emerald light shot out of the sky, and the underground hero had to scramble to dodge the blast.

He did note that the attack didn't do more than scorch the concrete he'd been standing on, so points for avoiding excessive property damage, at least so far.

His gaze snapped toward the source of the attack, seeing the unmistakable, luminous form of Midoriya flying overhead.

Stupid, he thought, activating his Quirk, already planning how to both prevent the foolhardy student from smashing against the ground and restrain him in one motion.

Nothing happened.

Nothing except another blast of green energy shooting down at him, forcing him to dodge out of the way again, anyway.

He broke into a sprint as more bolts of viridian light rained from the sky, all aimed squarely at him.

What the hell is going on? He wondered. Erasure had never failed him in the past; even people with mutation Quirks were impeded by it, finding themselves losing the use of any extra appendages or other additions they had while his Quirk was turned on them. He hadn't doubted for a moment that it would work on an emitter type like Midoriya's Green Light.

Then he looked back at his opponent and the light hit him just right. Eraserhead bit back a curse as realization struck him like a hammer.

That wasn't actually Midoriya. The boy had created a construct of himself and sent it out to attack.

Erasure didn't work if he was only looking at the effects of Quirks, he needed to be looking at the actual user for it to function.

No doubt there was an energy tendril connecting the construct to the real Midoriya, but it must've been extremely thin, similar to what he'd done at the USJ when he'd created that All Might construct. In the middle of a sunny day, it was effectively invisible.

His mind raced, trying to figure out how he could counter this unexpectedly clever ploy.

So I can't see him, but how can he see me? He's never been able to use his constructs for remote viewing! He thought.

Then it clicked. Eraserhead looked up, spotting the source of that buzzing sound from earlier. A quadcopter drone, very similar to the one the school had used in that rescue practice exercise after the first years had returned from their work studies, was hovering about six meters in the air.

Yaoyorozu must've made the thing with her Quirk, and now it was serving as Midoriya's eyes, allowing him to attack with impunity.

Deciding he needed to fix that, Eraserhead abruptly changed course, making a rush at the little flying device.

Only to have a particularly intense barrage of emerald arrows and spears force him to alter his path yet again, abandoning his attempt at taking out the drone for now.

Damn. The kid was smart enough to have realized that his foe had identified the drone and was determined to defend it. Not good.

Still, he was an experienced pro against a pair of students. If they thought they had this locked up, they had another thing coming.

"Look, I don't really give much of a shit exactly what you do here so long as you don't run like a coward and end the test before I beat All Might," Bakugo growled as he and the other hero student tromped through the empty cityscape of Ground Beta. "I'll kill you if you do that."

Todoroki gave him an unimpressed look. "I'm not going to run," he said. "You're not the only one who wants to surpass All Might."

"I'm going to be the one to beat him!" Bakugo snapped, though he sounded petulant even to himself.

Todoroki just kept giving him that flat look.

"Fuck off," the blond teen huffed, deliberately turning away from his teammate.

The explosive student wouldn't have told Icy Hot even if he could've found the right words to convey it, but he needed this goddamn victory. Freaking Deku had been racking up one win after another ever since they'd started at UA: the Nomu at the USJ, the Sports Festival, the training exercises in class…hell, he'd even taken out a crime boss and beaten the Nomu again during his work study, while Bakugo had been stuck following around some no-name pro who probably never faced anyone more dangerous than a common mugger. To top it all off, most of the class was so filled with so much simpering admiration for Deku and Ponytail that it made him want to puke.

It was just so completely contrary to everything Bakugo knew about how the world worked, how it had operated before coming to UA, when everyone saw Deku for the Quirkless loser he really was. It was so goddamned wrong, it made him feel like the foundations of his universe were giving way.

Also, he just knew the nerd was looking down on him and laughing at him behind his back the whole time.

And sure, Bakugo knew that Deku was totally faking having a Quirk, and he was still confident that eventually he'd expose the sham and everyone would realize what a useless, lying shit he really was, but that didn't help him now.

What would help him now was a victory today, showing everyone that he was the main character and even freaking All Might couldn't stand in his way.

Everyone had felt so sure that Deku and Ponytail would at least have a shot against All Might, and they'd been shocked they weren't pitted against the number one hero. Well, Bakugo was going to show them all that he was better than the worthless nerd and the prissy princess put together by kicking All Might's ass, regardless of what Icy Hot had to say about it!

His thoughts were interrupted by the massive shockwave that shook the fake city block.

Todoroki's eyes widened ever so slightly. "Was that…?"

THOOM!

Another shockwave, much closer, erupted from down the street. The two students cried out and raised their arms to shield their faces as hurricane force winds bore down upon them, the windows of nearby buildings shattering and pieces of plaster and masonry were peeled off walls and sent flying.

"Welcome to your practical exam!" All Might exclaimed as the number one hero landed before them, his trademark smile looking more menacing than usual. "I hope you're ready to have a bad time!"

Bakugo's hands clenched into fists. He might not be as nerdy and creepy about it as Deku, but he was a huge fan of All Might himself, and he knew that the number one hero didn't normally throw around so much power like this. No, the man was trying to intimidate him.

It pissed him off.

"I see you understand," All Might said, piercing gaze fixed upon them. "For the purpose of this test, I'm the villain. I don't need to care about property damage or anything like that!"

"Shut the hell up!" Bakugo barked, firing his Quirk and letting it propel him forward. "I won't let anyone stop or scare me! Not even you! Stun grenade!"

All Might raised a hand to shield his eyes from the sudden eruption of light, and Bakugo moved to press the offensive, throwing himself at the massive man.

Only to have the pro hero's huge hand clamp down on his face like a vice.

Fell right into my trap, fucker! He thought with savage triumph as he began firing his Quirk off as powerfully and quickly as he could with both hands, aiming for the hero's face and body.

Not even All Might could stand in his way for long. Bakugo was going to be the number one hero soon, just as everyone had always known. He was going to overcome any obstacle in his way, defeat anyopponent!

Just like a true hero.

Then All Might slammed him into the ground, hard enough to drive the wind from his lungs. "A weak little barrage like that hurts, but only a bit!" the pro hero proclaimed. "Now then…"

He got no further before looking up and seeing a wave of ice rushing toward him, Todoroki standing at the point where it began.

The number one hero flicked a finger, and the icy assault shattered, the air sparkling with the broken ice crystals as they whirled about in the unnatural gust the pro had created.

"Is that really the best you can do, young Todoroki?" All Might demanded, even as the boy with the two-toned hair began to skate forwards on a rapidly expanding sheet of ice.

"Damn it, Icy Hot, I don't need your help!" Bakugo screamed as he lunged at All Might, propelling himself with his Quirk.

Only for the number one hero to casually grab him and hurl him at Todoroki. The other student tried to dodge, but Bakugo was moving too quickly, and there was too little distance between them. The pair collided hard, then went tumbling across the ice that Todoroki had generated, a mad jumble of arms and legs.

"You two are in for a rough ordeal if you keep fighting like this," All Might said once they came to a stop. "In case you two haven't realized it, you're the underdogs here. It's time to start fighting like it."

Even as Eraserhead's body moved frantically to dodge emerald energy blasts, the experienced pro's mind calmly assessed the situation and what he had to do in order to turn it to his favor.

He needed to escape the drone's gaze, and by extension Midoriya's attack, long enough to double back and take the thing out. Not only that, but he needed to do it before Yaoyorozu, who was probably heading for the escape gate, made her exit and ended the exam for the two of them. It wasn't going to be easy.

Fortunately, he was playing a villain for the sake of this practice, which meant he didn't have to care about such minor things as breaking and entering. If he could smash his way into an even moderately sized building, he'd break the drone's line of sight, then he could sneak out of a back exit or window.

He was making a mad dash down an alleyway toward a likely structure for this when he heard Yaoyorozu.

"Mr. Aizawa!" she shouted, standing on the roof of a building in front of him.

Two realizations immediately hit the underground hero. First, the heiress had not opted to make for the escape gate, which was a supremely foolish move on her part.

Second, she was wearing ear protection, dark goggles, and was creating a cluster of matryoshka dolls, which she was tossing his way.

He closed his eyes a split second before the flashbangs inside those dolls went off.

Unfortunately, there was no way for him to cover his ears in that amount of time.

The sound was deafening, leaving his ears ringing and head pounding. Not being able to hear anything while also having his eyes closed added up to a level of sensory deprivation that was, frankly, terrifying.

Still, he kept his eyes closed for as long as he dared. Yaoyorozu might be an arrogant rich girl, but she wasn't stupid. Creating a flashbang with a longer timer wouldn't be beyond her capacity at all.

He was actually disappointed in her, if rather relieved, when another deafening explosion of sound wasn't forthcoming. The underground pro opened his eyes, activating his Quirk as he did so.

Eraserhead immediately spotted a lone matryoshka that was still arcing through the air between himself and Yaoyorozu, then saw the simple detonator she had clutched in her left hand.

The instant that followed was like many he'd experienced over the course of his career, but that didn't make it any easier to endure. Comprehension raced ahead of his mind's ability to figure out how to react and his body's ability to move.

He thought his goggles might save him; if she couldn't tell when he opened his eyes, she wouldn't know when to blow that final flashbang.

Then he realized she'd been using her Quirk to create more of those stacking dolls from her other hand, and he'd stopped her with Erasure. She'd known exactly when he'd opened his eyes.

Yaoyorozu pressed the button on her detonator.

Eraserhead succumbed to a yelp of pain as a blinding flare of white light consumed his world.

A moment later, someone was on him. He couldn't tell if it was Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, or one of Midoriya's constructs, but he fought back fiercely all the same.

With him totally blind and his ears still ringing, it wasn't nearly enough. He felt himself crash to the ground, then cool metal encircled his wrists despite his struggles.

The sound of a distant airhorn was just able to penetrate the ringing in his ears, confirming what he already knew. This practical exam was over.

"Don't you talk down to me!" Bakugo snarled, flying at All Might yet again.

"If you want to ignore my advice, that's your right, young Bakugo!" All Might boomed. "But you do so at your peril!"

The man's massive fist slammed into Bakugo's gut on the last word, causing the explosive blonde to crash to the ground, Quirk falling silent. He collapsed to his hands and knees and hurled his guts up.

God…fucking…damn it! He thought.

Then a tsunami of ice washed over hero and student, imprisoning them both inside a small glacier.

For just a moment, the battlefield was silent.

Then a loud creaking sound could be heard as a deep crack formed on the huge chunk of ice.

CRASH!

The glacier exploded into countless tiny pieces, reduced to pieces so fine it was like snow. "A sneak attack," All Might observed, one big fist held high. "I'd give you points for that, young Todoroki, if you hadn't trapped your teammate as well!"

"God…damn it…Icy Hot!" Bakugo growled, still feeling like he could puke again at any moment and now shivering violently on top of that. "I can't use my…Quirk as well…in this cold!"

"It's not like it was doing us so much good before," Todoroki said bluntly.

"Fuck you!" Bakugo snapped, then clamped a hand over his mouth as his stomach heaved again.

The boy with the two-toned hair ignored him, sending another wave of ice at All Might. The massive pro hero released a shockwave that shattered it into tiny crystals with an almost contemptuous wave of his hand.

"Why aren't you using your fire, young Todoroki?" All Might asked as he slowly advanced toward the hero student. "Do you intend to win this without working with your teammate and only half your Quirk?"

"I don't need my fire," Todoroki retorted, sending another blast of ice at All Might, which the pro hero neutralized just as easily.

"I beg to differ," All Might said.

Then the number one hero moved with such speed that he nearly seemed to teleport over the distance between himself and Todoroki. Before he could react, All Might had grabbed his head, palming his skull in his massive hand like it was a baseball, and then hurled the young man through the air.

Todoroki reacted quickly, generating a cushion of snow and providing himself a soft landing.

"Good reflexes!" All Might boomed. "But that alone won't save you from me, hero! You're already running out of time!"

Todoroki scowled, fists clenching.

Unnoticed by both the pro and the boy with the bicolored hair, Bakugo hadn't just been laying on the ground writhing in agony. The explosive blonde had managed to get up to a kneeling position, pointing his gauntlet at the number one hero.

"Don't forget about me!" he snarled as he pulled the pin.

White hot explosive force erupted from his gauntlet at the same time that Todoroki threw a freaking glacier at All Might, completely encasing the huge pro in it.

Fire met ice before either student could fully comprehend what had just happened. The glacier shielded All Might from immediately taking the explosive attack right to the face, while Bakugo's attack punched a big chunk in the glacier, leaving it with cracks throughout. A second later, All Might exploded out of the glacier, chunks of ice flying everywhere as he leaped to the roof of a nearby building.

"I hope that wasn't an attempt at a combo move, heroes!" All Might said, planting his fists on his hips.

"Fuck! Icy Hot, you messed up my shot!" Bakugo screamed. "I would've gotten him!"

"So would I. And how was I to know?" Todoroki asked. Half his body was covered by a thin layer of ice, and when he spoke, his breath steamed in the afternoon air.

"How would you know?! Of course I would've gotten him!" Bakugo roared.

If there was anything about UA that he found absolutely goddamn infuriating, it was everybody refusing to acknowledge that he was the main character and the future number one. 

Bakugo never thought he would've missed anything about shitty little Aldera Middle School, but at least the people there were able to see the obvious when it came to him and Deku!

Todoroki gave him a flat look, then he turned to face All Might without another word.

And Bakugo just… 

Snapped.

"Don't you dare ignore me!" he screamed.

With a titanic effort, he managed to fire off a series of explosions powerful enough to propel himself forward, despite the cold dampening his sweat production.

He slammed into Todoroki, tackling the other student and bashing his head with one of his gauntlets. The two crashed to the ground together.

However, they didn't stay there for long. A column of ice jutted out of the ground at an angle, crashing into Bakugo and knocking him off his alleged teammate.

Todoroki got to his feet, moving quickly even as he rubbed the back of his head where Bakugo had hit him. There were no angry exclamations, no demands for Bakugo to explain himself, he just glared at the explosive unit student with his mismatched eyes.

"If you're not going to be helpful, then freeze," he said, voice soft and dangerous as he sent a wave of ice out at his teammate.

"Fuck you!" Bakugo barked as he went surging forward, narrowly avoiding the frigid initial attack.

They were about to collide against when All Might seemed to just freaking appear next to them. Before either student could react, he grabbed each one by the head, then sent their skulls crashing into each other.

Both teens blacked out immediately from the blow, collapsing limply to the ground.

All Might sighed, shaking his head even as he picked the two of them up and slung them over his shoulder. There was technically still time on the clock, but this test was very much over.

Recovery Girl wouldn't be pleased about him over this, but he could hardly bring himself to care at the moment.

"You both have so much potential," he said softly. "You've got so much room to grow. I wish I was better able to help you do that. I'll try my best, but I fear it won't amount to anything if you don't meet me halfway."