Chapter 12: Battle Trial 1

Dull.

That's Kyoka Jiro's description of her second day at UA, as she goes to her seat, trying to rest her full stomach after lunch.

'Or at least, the morning classes was like that...' As she thought about her afternoon schedule, even she feels excited, though only for a little bit. 'Hero lessons by All Might!'

Even her usually bustling classmates are now rather quiet, eagerly awaiting for the Symbol of Peace. After what feels longer than it's supposed to be, a booming voice rangs out, much to class's excitement.

"I HAVE... COME THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE NORMAL!!"

'All Might!' her small heart jumped. 'Now, this feels like UA!'

"All Might!" "That's his Silver Age costume!" "So cool!" "He's really going to teach us, incredible!"

Paying no heed to the class chatters, All Might begins his class with an introduction.

"Hero basic training! The class that'll mould you into heroes through special training!" All Might said, along with various dramatic poses.

"No time to dally! Today basic training is this!" Flashing a card with 'Battle' written on it, All Might exclaimed, "BATTLE TRAINING!!" Seeing that everyone is listening, All Might presses a button on a small gadget in his hand. "And for that, you need... these."

A contraption popped out from the class wall, holdings metal cases with numbers on them. "In accordance with the "Quirk Registry" and the special request forms you've filled before being admitted..."

"COSTUMES!!!" Cheers that didn't lose compared to seeing All Might cut off his explanation.

After passing the cases holding costumes to the class, All Might continues in high spirit, "After you change out, come out in ranking order to Ground Beta!!"

Getting the green light, Jiro rushed to the changing room and tries her new costume.

Her costume is more like a band musician's outfit, with leather jackets and all. The only hero-ish stuff is her boots, equipped with loudspeaker to amplify and direct her quirk.

'But still... Wearing a costume feels so cool.' After a moment of admiring her new looks, she follows the other students to the... field?

It's another city.

'A city in school... I didn't realize during the exam, but UA is not number one for nothing, huh?' A thought passed through Jiro's mind.

"Shall we begin, my wards?! It's time for Battle Training!!" All Might voice echoes out. Seeing everyone has arrived, All Might just about to continue when a boy raised a question.

'Iida, if I remember correctly,' Jiro thought.

"Will we be doing the same thing as the exam? Fighting villains in a city?"

"Nope! You'll be moving on to step two!" A brief pause, before All Might announces in his loud voice, "INDOOR ANTI-PERSONNEL BATTLE TRAINING!!"

Now that everyone's listening, All Might starts to explain the importance of the subject. "Villain battles are usually seen outdoors, but... statistically, the most heinous villains are likely to appear indoors!"

While a few students seems blank, majority nodded.

Jiro agreed. Rather than destruction, villains that seek profits are more common. What All Might said next proves her idea.

"Between confinement, house arrest, and black market deals, in this hero-filled society of ours, the cleverest villains... lurk indoors," All Might said with a hint of seriousness. "Now, you'll be split into Villain and Hero teams, and face off in two-on-two indoor battles!!"

"What determines victory?" "Can I just blast everyone away?" "Will you threaten to expel someone, like Aizawa-sensei?" "How do we proceed to divide ourselves into teams?" "How fabulous is my cape?"

"ONE AT A TIME!! MY QUIRK ISN'T SUPER HEARING!" All Might shouts in desperation, silencing the class's chatters.

Seeing his classmates act like kindergarten children, Jiro feels a little bit of her excitement sapped away. 'Students are the same everywhere, huh...'

After a while, All Might finally managed to finish his explanation. The key point is, there's limited time; victory conditions is either to capture enemies or secure objective, the nuclear weapon; teams are decided through drawing lots.

'And it took almost 10 minutes...' Jiro thought, a bit annoyed.

Checking her lot, she is team H with... Kyoya? Thinking about how abruptly she cut off their conversation yesterday, she can feels her face burning in embarrassment.

'Please don't mention it...' Jiro prays in her heart.

"Jiro-san, we meet again," the boy greets, with his usual gentle smile. "Let's do our best, ok?"

"Uh-huh. Let's do our best, Kyoya," Jiro replied with a bit of relief.

"Moving on! First up are..." His hand taking out two balls from inside different boxes, All Might shows them to the class, " ...These!!"

Seeing it's team A against team D, Jiro let out a sigh of relief. 'At least we won't be going first...' Jiro thought.

"Fate?" Jiro heard Kyoya mumbles in a low voice, though she's unsure what is that supposed to mean. Not that she's going to ask, though. They've only known each other for two days.

As they move towards the designated viewing area, she notices that Kyoya seems deep in thought when she's thinking of starting a conversation.

Probably her stare is too obvious, Kyoya is roused from his pondering. "Is there anything on my face" he asked, already touching his cheek.

Shaking her head, she replies with her usual tone. "I just thought if we can discuss a basic strategy for us."

"Ah, true," the boy exclaims. "But it's better if we discuss it later, considering that we'll have to change it depending on which team we are against." Scratching his cheek, he continues with a shy smile. "Besides, I really want to watch the other classmates' battles."

'Cute...' Jiro thought, a bit dazzled. Instead of a reply, she just nodded.

After their brief interaction, they both turned towards the monitors that was just turned on. She can't hear their voices, which is a shame.

'It's a bad matchup for Midoriya's team, though,' she assessed based on their quirks they showed yesterday.

She sneak a peek at her teammate, Kyoya, but he seems... way too serious. 'Weird. Guess top students take this kind of training seriously?' Jiro thought. Now she feels a little bit of pressure. 'I want to say that this is just training, but he seems too serious, it's scary...'

*****

(Kyoya's POV)

The ongoing fight between Izuku's team and Katsuki's team goes exactly the same as in the manga. Izuku's small victory, Katsuki's mega blast, and now, the fight is reaching it's climax.

'Is it true that all outcomes related to the protagonist can't be changed?' is a question I've been pondering. Especially when only Izuku's and Katsuki's team is unchanged, when most other teams are shuffled.

'Example is Jiro here. She's supposed to pair up with Kaminari...' Kyoya thought.

'A movie, a novel, a manga, and all forms of story. All of those is another world where the protagonist holds everything together.'

A quote he remembers, though he forgot the source. Basically, MC is the world's way of ensuring everything goes according to the Creator's (author) will. As a result, he is now a bit curious of what'll happens if he kills Izuku.

Not that he is really planning to kill Izuku, of course. A murder without justice will get him the wrong type of attention, and he has learned his lesson the hard way.

'A genius will learn from experience, after all.'

As he looks back to the screen, the battle is now ending. A pyrrhic victory for Izuku and Ochaco.

'Just like the manga, huh?'

*****

(Jiro's POV)

'Wow. That's a real banger,' I thought, seeing them wrecking the building like that. I can hear everyone is excitedly discussing the battle just now. Thinking that this is a good topic to start a conversation, I turned towards Kyoya... only to see his usual, unconcerned smile.

"That was awesome, right?" He's the first one to start the conversation.

'Just awesome, huh? Even though you look so serious earlier...' I pouted a little. "Yes, I guess..." I answered, my excitement died down a notch.

Midoriya's taken to the nurse office, while the rest of us gather for the battle's post-analysis.

Ensuring that all the participants are gathered (except Izuku), All Might begins with a statement. "Well, I'd say... THE MVP IN THIS BATTLE WAS IIDA!!"

Hearing a few 'Eh!?' and "What?!" from some students, All Might grins. "I wonder why? DOES ANYONE KNOW?!"

I have a guess but Momo Yaoyorozu's hand immediately shots up with a firm "I do, All Might sensei."

Seeing All Might sensei nods, I too pay attention to her.

"It's because Iida is the most adaptable to the scenario." Seeing that All Might lets her continue, she clear her throat. "From what I saw, Bakugo's actions were motivated by an obvious personal grudge. And using destructive attacks indoor is indeed foolish."

"... Midoriya's performance suffered from the same faults. Uraraka lost focus halfway through, and her final attack was too haphazard. Such an attack would be unthinkable if the nuclear weapon was real."

"...But Iida formed an actual counter-strategy. And he envisioned what the actual struggle would be like. He was only too late in reacting at the very end. The Hero team only won because this was a training exercise with exploitable constraints."

Silence.

'W-wow,' is the only thing on my mind. Probably everyone too, seeing how quiet the class are. 'So that's a top student...' Briefly scanning around, everyone is stunned as well.

Except for Shoto, that cold boy with red-and-white hair, who seems scary for some reason. And... Kyoya with his usual face, complete with his smile.

'Kyoya, Momo, and Shoto, the top three in the test yesterday. Ugh, scary.'

After that, All Might draws for the next battle. And its team G against team H. My team against Shoto, with our team being the villain.

'Ah... Speaks of the devil? But it's not like there's no chance,' I thought, peeking a glance at the boy besides me who keeps his usual smile. I got a feeling that not even Aizawa sensei can erase his smile. Pumping myself up, I prepare for the battle. My battle.