41

The faint sounds of footsteps on soft grass cut through the still silence hanging over the cemetery. Three hooded figures carrying shovels and a tarp trudged through the network of headstones blanketing the property on a mission to locate one in particular. It held a very sordid tale buried underneath, one that would soon see the light of day if all went to plan.

It didn't take long for the trio to find their target. When they did, two of them removed their hoods, revealing the vulpine features of Kitsune and Mirage sharing solemn expressions at the headstone.

"This it?" Kitsune inquired.

"Minori Gokiburi… this is her," Mirage muttered in confirmation.

Minori Gokiburi, a teenaged girl with a cockroach mutation who had drowned when she fell off a pier. The official story was that she had committed suicide given her inability to swim, though all evidence pointed to the contrary. There were reportedly marks and bruises on her waterlogged corpse that would indicate a possible struggle, as well as the elephant in the room in the form of the boric acid powder remaining on her. There was clearly foul play, but no one was going to dig very thoroughly into the death of a mutant girl, at least not in the deeply quirkist hellhole that was their hometown, and the story wasn't likely to make it out of the bounds of their community anyway.

"You feeling anything?" Kitsune asked his sister.

Mirage shrugged. "I was a grade above her. Didn't really know her well beyond heteromorphs all sorta looking out for each other."

She scowled and minutely shuddered. "Being back in this hellhole makes me physically sick."

"What ever happened to the culprits?" the third person gruffly spoke up, not removing his hood that didn't do much to hide his grey snout.

"What do you think?" Mirage responded with a derisive snort. "No one was ever charged, but there were four more disappearances in rapid succession after her death was ruled a suicide. One of them was apparently friends with Gokiburi, or at least that's what people said."

The third person remained silent, then he slowly removed his hood, exposing his canine mutation to the world. His bright, crimson red eyes were solemn as he bowed his head to the grave in front of them.

"She didn't deserve such a fate," he muttered. He wasn't all that surprised, but it didn't make the circumstances any less despicable.

Kitsune sighed. "No, she didn't… but her story isn't unique, unfortunately. Let's do what we came here for."

With that, Kitsune stabbed his shovel into the ground and began digging up the dead girl's grave, his two companions quickly following suit. It was a silent affair, each of them acknowledging the grimness of grave robbing an almost certain murder victim that never received any justice. However, as morbid and distasteful as it was, it was necessary for their goals. Their mutant renaissance waited for no one, not even the dead.

It didn't make it any less awkward, though.

"I wonder what dear old big sis would think about us right now," Kitsune couldn't help but sardonically muse in an attempt to break the tension, but he only exacerbated it.

"She doesn't think about us at all," Mirage spat, her blue eyes becoming icy enough to send chills down her brother's spine.

Kitsune sighed again, pausing in his digging and resting his arms on the handle of his shovel. "You don't know that."

"She left us!" Mirage shouted, stabbing her shovel into the ground and glaring at her brother.

"Wouldn't you?" Kitsune rebutted. "You got the fuck outta here the first chance you got."

"I was following you!" she countered, pointing at Kitsune. "I wanted to be with you, the only family I could rely on! The only family that cared!"

Yet another sigh escaped Kitsune's maw. This wasn't the first time they'd had this argument, and it likely wouldn't be the last. "We all had our reasons for leaving. All three of us. I know you don't think that I abandoned you when I finally skipped town."

"Because you didn't have a choice!" she bit back, her voice minutely wavering.

"Neither did she," Kitsune calmly replied. "She's literally three meters tall. She was a bigger target than either of us ever were. Hell, she probably still is. She's not like us, sis. She still has her humanity in spite of it all."

Kitsune rested his shovel on the ground and stepped around the growing hole to place a hand on his sister's shoulder, all the while their third was continuing on as if nothing was happening.

"This is why we're doing all this, isn't it?" he asked. "She doesn't deserve to live in a world that would rather see someone as kindhearted as her dead or simply invisible just because of the way she looks. None of us deserve that."

Mirage had no reply to that. Kitsune placed his free hand on her other shoulder and leaned his forehead onto hers.

"I know you don't wanna be back here anymore than I do," he said reassuringly.

"We could just burn this fucking shithole to the ground," she lowly groused.

Kitsune chuckled. "And we will, but we have work to do first. Let's finish digging up Gokiburi."

"Already done."

The two foxes snapped their gazes to their third comrade to see he had, in fact, completely dug up the grave in the time they were having their heart to heart and was standing over a casket. Noticing their incredulous stares, he shrugged. "I spent a lot of time as a ditch digger."

"I learn something new about you every day, Hellhound," Kitsune commented with a grin. "Let's get her into the tarp."

Hellhound unfolded a long, blue tarp while the two siblings opened the casket and pried the girl out of her final resting place. When she was rolled up in the tarp and deposited onto solid ground, Mirage shuddered.

"I could really go for an Uncle Touchy cheesecake after this ordeal," she declared.

"…You know that guy's a diddler, right?"

The first thing Yaoyorozu saw when she returned to the viewing platform after getting a checkup from Recovery Girl (and an emergency five-course meal from Lunch Rush) was Shoto sending her a congratulatory thumbs-up. She couldn't place if it was the blankness of his face that almost hid the slight tug of his lips or the clear awkwardness in his posture at giving someone else blatant praise that warmed her heart the most, but the entire scene was several kinds of adorable in her opinion.

"You put on a stellar performance, Yaoyorozu," Shoto remarked.

"Thank you!" she beamed. "I wasn't sure if I'd be in a position to use the trebuchet, but we were fortunate enough to have our preparations not go to waste."

She was really happy that not only did the plan she had developed work out, but also that she was successful in improvising when things got a little hairy. She was certain that she'd, in the words of Uraraka, kick her sports festival self's ass.

She also pointedly ignored the shit-eating grin Mina was sending her and Shoto. That girl was having way too much fun today.

"Now, the third match!" Vlad King began. "Team 1 consisting of Ibara Shiozaki, Kinoko Komori, Ochako Uraraka, and Shoto Todoroki will take on Team 2 consisting of Yosetsu Awase, Manga Fukidashi, Rikido Sato, and Koji Koda!"

"Good luck!" Yaoyorozu said to her not-boyfriend as he departed, sending her a thankful nod in return.

Unseen, the eyes of Awase narrowed at the sight before he went off to join his team in a huff.

Elsewhere, Mirko was trying her best to fight off the boredom that was threatening to swallow her whole as she waited for her tagalong's fight to start. Why couldn't he have been the first one to go? What stupid narrative convention dictated that he had to be the final match for the purpose of building tension and excitement for the inevitable showdown between two hugely overpowered teenagers? It was all really unnecessary in her esteemed opinion.

Still, there were two more matches to sit through, and she did promise Ryukyu to keep an eye out for any potential prospects, so she'd just have to grin and bear it until the main event started. Looking around at the assembled students, she had only seen one so far that had actually caught her eye, which was mildly disappointing. Maybe she'd notice someone else in this coming match, but she wouldn't hold her breath.

That was when her eyes landed on someone in particular.

It wasn't a student. She was among the teachers that had shown up to evaluate their performances. What instantly stood out was the very familiar shade of green in her hair framing an all too familiar face. Then, inexplicably, the woman's piercing green gaze locked onto Mirko's as if she could sense the observation.

Yep, there was no mistaking it. Mirko knew exactly who this was, and it was time to introduce herself.

Meanwhile, Izuku felt a shiver crawl up his spine. His instincts were screaming at him that danger was imminent and that he needed to drop everything and head for the hills, but he had no earthly idea why. He took a quick look around to make sure Mirko wasn't preparing to leg drop him from atop a building or something, but what he did find was substantially worse.

"Oh no…" Izuku whispered.

"Hm?" Yui questioned, noticing him becoming deathly pale.

She followed his gaze to see Mirko quickly approaching a green-haired teacher that she was pretty sure was his mother, and she turned back to him with a quirked eyebrow. She didn't quite understand his panic, but she rubbed circles in his back to comfort him, nonetheless.

Awase kicked a can down the empty alley, heatedly grumbling about "wasted effort" and "kickass tag team in the forest." When the three listened closely to their sour teammate's quiet rant, they picked up, "…we took on a freakin' chainsaw Nomu, and that still wasn't enough to make me memorable!"

"Uh, you all good over there, Awase?" Fukidashi bit the bullet and hesitantly probed.

"What does she see in him?!" Awase shouted his frustration.

That was not at all what the three boys were expecting to hear. Fukidashi was especially taken aback; he never would have pegged someone as terse, introverted, and selfless as Awase to be the jealous type… or concerned at all about romance, for that matter. It would be genuinely hilarious in any other situation.

"…Pardon?" Fukidashi questioned, already sort of knowing where this was headed but wanting to hear it from Awase's own mouth.

"Todoroki!" Awase irritably clarified. "What does he have that I don't?!"

His three teammates shared a glance before turning deadpan expressions back at him.

"An excess of money," Fukidashi answered.

"A wildly overpowered quirk," Sato added.

"He can be really funny when he's not trying to be," Koda supplied as kindly as possible to not hurt Awase's feelings even more than they already were.

"Hey! I can be funny!" Awase indignantly protested, rendering Koda's efforts in vain.

"Ehhh," Fukidashi uttered with a so-so motion of his hand.

"He's also taller than you," Sato mused with a hand on his chin as if he was actually thinking very hard about the topic. "Granted, so is Yaoyorozu."

Awase completely deflated. "I hate you guys…"

"It'll be okay," Koda attempted to comfort the sulking Awase with a pat to his shoulder. "Todoroki has the benefit of being in the same class as Yaoyorozu, so he already had a head start over you."

"That apparently didn't stop Midoriya," Sato couldn't help himself but joke.

"Sato!" Koda hissed, but the damage was done, and Awase sank to the ground in defeat.

"Let's just beat them and get this over with," Awase muttered against the concrete.

A sudden rumbling was all the warning they received before the area froze over, enveloping the four in ice from the waist down. Fortunately for them, the ice was shot in a way to not obscure Todoroki's line of sight, meaning the four boys weren't nearly as stuck as they could have been.

"KABLAM!" Fukidashi shouted, summoning a massive onomatopoeia that smashed through the ice, freeing his team from their frosty imprisonment.

As if on cue, the area was swarmed by vines attempting to snake around the four and ensnare them. Fukidashi was quick once again, putting up wall after wall of POW, BOINK, and BAM while hitting the vines that snaked through the walls with SLASH after SLASH to hinder the advance. He could only do so much against Shiozaki's seemingly infinite onslaught, though, and they soon became overwhelmed by the dastardly flora.

"We can't keep boxing ourselves in!" Awase shouted, batting away several vines with two BONK sticks he welded together to form a staff.

"We won't need to!" Sato declared, pulling out two containers from his utility belt and snapping the caps open.

Inside the containers was a sickening concoction of granulated sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and cane sugar blended in a specific ratio to maximize his power output while minimizing the crash… as much as he could, at any rate. Without a second thought, he downed both containers of sugar, and the results were instantaneous. Sato bulked up like Bane on venom to the point that his yellow costume made him look like someone stuffed rocks into a banana.

"Sugar Ruuuush!" he bellowed as he charged through the onomatopoeia barriers like a hot knife through butter and began smashing his way through the ice on the other side on his way toward the other team.

"Holy shit, did you know he could do that?!" Awase asked Koda in shock, but he merely shook his head in denial.

"Incoming!" Fukidashi called out to his team as the vines reared to come down on them like a wave. "BOING!"

Fukidashi conjured a large, elastic onomatopoeia that the three wasted no time jumping on to trampoline them out of the danger zone, sending them over a few buildings and on a collision course with the concrete below.

"BOING!" he shouted again, creating a smaller trampoline to break their fall and safely deposit them to the ground.

"My avian comrades, lend me your aid!" Koda shouted to the sky.

"What was that?" Fukidashi asked.

"Calling for birds," Koda answered. "They'll get here, but it'll take some time."

"Let's make some time, then!" Awase declared with a face set in determination. "They've only kept at range so far, and we can use that to our advantage by-"

He paused when a mushroom sprouted on his nose, immediately causing him to pale. "Ah shit."

Mushrooms began sprouting on the three boys, but Fukidashi was faster. A simple BANG was sufficient to blast his two comrades away from impending doom, but he couldn't save himself from a blanket of mushrooms growing all over his body. Before he could scream anything else, he suddenly felt his throat grow painfully full, bringing him to his knees.

"I knew my Splitgill Lung Strike would do wonders against your quirk, Comicman!" Komori gleefully announced as she approached… a little too gleefully. "Now, I'm not actually sure how I can grow my cute little mushrooms inside your throat and lungs when you don't actually have a mouth. I'm also not sure how you eat, breathe, and talk, but I guess that's a Coprinus for another time."

"Oh my god," Fukidashi choked out. "Your mushroom puns are awful."

Komori giggled before kneeling to Fukidashi's level and patting him on the back, accelerating the mushroom growth in his lungs and shooting even more pain through his body. Her smile was still in place, somehow growing even bubblier with the tip of her tongue jutting out. However, the gleam in her brown eyes was anything but warm.

"Don't make this any worse for yourself," she said in a dangerous tone that juxtaposed her playful smile. "It can take a while to asphyxiate, you know."

If one was to ask any of the teachers watching the battle, the gleam in Komori's eyes was almost as unnerving as the one in Verdant's gaze that was firmly glued to the screen.

"I want her," she declared, leaving no room whatsoever for discussion. "She's mine."

No one was going to argue with her about that. They were already far too unsettled by her and Mirko getting on like a house on fire and devolving into maniacal cackling while she regaled embarrassing stories about her son.

Rikido Sato was a one-man wrecking crew, causing destruction and mayhem that even the Juggernaut would be proud of. Vines continued their pursuit of overwhelming and restraining him, but Sato literally shrugged off every single attempt, tearing through the vines just as easily as he was blasting through the remaining ice and even the buildings like a man possessed. His ultimate goal was clear: he was bulldozing a path straight for Shiozaki to eliminate her vines from the equation.

This, of course, deeply concerned Shiozaki from her perch away from the rest of her team. Absolutely nothing she was doing was working in subduing her berserker of an opponent. She idly hoped that whatever ailed him was not the work of sin, but she kept those thoughts in the back of her mind for the moment. The vines were only serving the purpose of drawing him toward her and away from Todoroki, someone who would be better equipped to combat him.

As the sounds of crashing and smashing drew ever nearer, she scoured her brain for any and every possible solution to her predicament. All Might was right that she wouldn't always be able to subdue her opponents by merely restraining them, so she had sought out to improve her quirk's offensive efficacy. There was one thing that she could try, loathe she was to admit it…

'Let it carry you.'

'Let it protect you.'

'Let it…'

"Crush," Shiozaki said aloud, her eyes narrowing in concentration as her mess of vines began retreating toward her body and coalescing around her in a protective ball.

As she did so, Sato emerged from a wall with a frightening smash, but she would not be deterred. Concentrating even further, her vines expanded out from the ball into two thick legs raising her from the ground and two thick arms looming dangerously over Sato. It wasn't a perfect creation by any means, but it was the best she could do given the circumstances. She could have sworn that she also heard dual shouts of, "PLANT MECH!" far off in the distance, but she pushed that aside, as well.

Sucrose juggernaut met chlorophyll crusader in an intense standoff that only lasted a moment before Sato charged with a hearty battlecry. Shiozaki met his charge with equal fervor, only momentarily surprised by the loud stomps of her newest creation before the two titans finally locked horns. They clashed in a test of strength, Sato briefly overpowering the tower of vines by pushing it back, allowing gravity to weaponize the sheer weight of the plant mech by tumbling it backward. Shiozaki would not be put down so easily, though, as several vines shot out from the front to anchor her to the ground while many more shot out from behind to push the mech back to its feet. She carried that momentum into a vicious punch to Sato when she righted herself, sending him careening into a nearby tower. If the tower wasn't damaged enough by a mountain of sugar-induced muscle crashing into it, it was swiftly annihilated and sent tumbling over when Shiozaki slammed the plant mech into it for good measure.

As the tower fell, Shiozaki felt her deus vult armor being lifted off the ground, and she looked down to see Sato was doing just that. He was visibly straining while heaving the weight of the vines over his head, but he tossed them and her across the way and into another building, nonetheless. He was growing more and more sluggish with every second, though, so it was clear that his berserker mode was wearing off and the backlash of his quirk was kicking in.

Meanwhile, that tower's tumble was unsuccessfully challenged by an adjacent tower, only serving to damage the second tower and send it tumbling, as well. This created a domino effect that saw tower after tower collapsing all around them, all but leveling the battlefield and nearly burying them in steely rubble. Had it not been for quick thinking by Shiozaki who launched her vines at Sato to snag him out of the path of destruction, 1-A may have potentially been down three classmates instead of just two.

Fortunately, that was not to be, as Shiozaki climbed atop the wreckage with an exhausted Sato in the plant mech's grasp. He tried fighting out of its grasp as best as he could with the little energy he had, but he was far too lethargic to put up a decent effort.

"Please concede," Shiozaki requested, doing her absolute best to hide her own exhaustion from maintaining this powerful yet unwieldy creation for so long. "You have fought valiantly, but it is over."

Before Sato could even moan a response, Todoroki came sliding on a track of ice toward them with a shivering Awase tucked under his right arm.

"Are you two okay?" he asked in concern, speeding over as soon as he heard the commotion originating from where Shiozaki was initially stationed.

"Yes, thank you," she assured with a sigh, and he nodded.

"Let's drop these two off and then rendezvous with Komori and Uraraka."

Koda wasn't sure how things had gone awry so quickly. He had no idea where Awase was after Fukidashi had blasted them away from Komori's surprise attack, and Sato was off doing who knows what at who knows where (then again, if the sounds of buildings toppling was any indication, he could probably guess where Sato was at the moment). He knew that no plan ever survived first contact, but for things to spiral so thoroughly only spoke to a lack of proper preparedness on their end. Perhaps they were completely outmatched from the start and just didn't know it, or maybe they could have spent less time counseling Awase through his unrequited affection and more time planning out how to deal with three people who could canvass an entire battlefield in seconds and one who could do so within a minute. In any event, there was no use crying over spilled milk, at least not until the birds arrived.

Speaking of that one person who could rain hell upon an entire battlefield in less than a minute, Uraraka had been the one person from the opposing team that had yet to show herself in any capacity, and it was making him really nervous. He had a bad feeling that he was about to fall victim to another sneak attack, and he needed to do something. Kneeling down to the ground, he spoke softly to the awaiting creatures.

"My tiny friends," Koda said to the bugs on and within the ground, "please besiege these dastardly attackers!"

Bugs responded well when he spoke really formally to them for some reason.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, and Koda briefly thought that he was lucky enough to be alone for the time being. Then, a high-pitched yelp reached his ears, shattering his hopes like glass. Out from around a corner bounced Uraraka frantically brushing bugs off of her costume.

"Guess you found me," she chuckled with a hint of embarrassment that was quickly swapped out with a challenging smile. "I know you're a lot stronger than you look, and you look pretty strong to begin with, but I only need a single touch to end this. Think you can keep me away long enough?"

Koda knew he couldn't do that for very long. Not even Midoriya could do that at the sports festival. He knew he was strong, but he wasn't nearly nimble enough to play an extended game of keep away like those two did.

Luckily, he didn't have to.

The approaching sounds of honking and squawking from above were like music to his ears. A large flock of geese was descending on their location, and they were locked on to their target.

"Huh," Uraraka uttered, staring curiously up at the army of birds diving straight toward her. "Well, I wasn't expecting any less, I guess. Good thing I prepared for something like this."

Koda watched the first wave of geese attack as Uraraka connected her fingertips before dodging and weaving through them as best as she could manage. He knew she wouldn't last long, though; geese were notoriously aggressive when protecting their kin, and an entire flock of them was serious business that would be hard to defend against.

Provided they weren't being pelted by large chunks of ice and concrete falling from the sky, naturally.

Oh, that was happening now. Go figure.

Koda could only watch in muted horror as the geese that had heeded his call to aid him were ruthlessly knocked out of the sky by a torrent of the discarded ice and barriers that Fukidashi put up. The last comment he heard Ochako say was now beginning to make sense; she had already prepared for him in the event that he called upon a flock of birds. Was he really this predictable, or was a hailstorm of discarded rubble on the battlefield just extremely versatile? Maybe a bit of both?

It didn't matter. The geese were being taken out of the battle, so he had to act. Koda rushed forward as a swarm of bugs shot out ahead of him while another tried to pincer her from behind. Unfortunately, Uraraka was undeterred and sidestepped the attack, then she swept his leg and sent him back-first into the concrete, knocking the wind out of him. With his concentration broken and his body momentarily impaired, he was defenseless against Uraraka fighting through the swarm and rendering him completely weightless.

His calls to the animals cancelled, he could do nothing but watch as a cable shot out of one of her cuffs and latched itself to his costume, allowing her to joyfully escort him to their team's jail like she was flying a kite.

There were worse ways to lose, he supposed.

Once the four boys were deposited in the cell and locked away, the alarm blared, signaling the end of the bout. Vlad King turned an incredulous eye to his fellow homeroom teacher.

"…That ended in five minutes," he voiced his astonishment. "That could barely even be described as a fight!"

"It was an unfortunate matchup from the outset," Aizawa sighed. "Everyone on Team 1 was either a hard counter for Team 2 or simply had abilities that no one on Team 2 could properly combat. Their best option would have been to retreat entirely and wait for backup."

It was Vlad King's turn to sigh, but he could not disagree with the rationale. "And they didn't exactly have that luxury. I guess we can't really hold that against them. They did the best they could under the circumstances."

"Debatable, but they at least put up a fight," Aizawa commented, groaning irritably at the state of the training ground after the match. "How long until Komori's mushrooms clear up?"

"About two hours, give or take," Vlad King answered.

"Then, I suppose it can't be helped," Aizawa grumbled. "We'll have to move locations… after reminding them about excessive destruction, that is."

"Considering the two matches set to follow this one, I'm not sure how easily that message will get through," Vlad King chuckled, and Aizawa's eye twitched.

The next match involved Bakugo and Monoma, so incredible damage to the training ground was going to be a given. Then, the final match…

Aizawa flashed back to his student creating a mini sun, plowing it through the ceiling, and then blowing it up far above campus with an explosion that sent tremors across the area for kilometers.

He'd need to bum some ibuprofen from Recovery Girl after this.

Nezu didn't understand why Inko kept leaving Eri in his care during the day. She knew he was going to corrupt her like he did her son, so unless she was truly past the point of caring if her children would one day aid in his seizing of power over the eastern world, there was no reason to indulge that possibility by allowing him to handle her schooling for however long her stay at UA would be. At the very least, he assumed that she would wait until Eri became an official student of UA when she came of age, which was a guarantee rather than a possibility regardless of what path she chose to go down for her career.

Speaking of schooling, Nezu found that Eri was much sharper than any seven-year-old girl should have been. She was very quick on the uptake, her memory was phenomenal, and aside from a few words that she couldn't quite pronounce, she could read far above a seven-year-old's average reading level. Nezu wasn't entirely certain why that was, but it was a pleasant surprise, nonetheless.

What wasn't pleasant were the other things he was able to notice. As a victim of captivity and experimentation himself, Nezu knew a thousand-yard stare when he saw one. He also knew a dead-eyed gaze that only spoke of unleashing untold unpleasantness upon those that dared harm them and those they cared for very intimately. He had one himself, only his was permanent.

Eri's, on the other hand, came and went at odd intervals, and he couldn't determine if that was more or less worrisome.

She also did not possess the innocence and naïveté typical of children her age, which was to be expected given her former circumstances, but the fact that he knew her memory was excellent and that she had reasoning ability that even rivaled some of the… "less developed" students at UA opened the door for dark implications about what she remembered and was constantly faced with in her dreams. That she always seemed to be paying attention to everything in any given room only poured gasoline on the fire.

He really did wish that there was a body for Izuku to resurrect so that they could kill Overhaul again as a collective. Such a shame.

Shifting away from such dark thoughts, Nezu smiled down at the girl sitting at a tiny desk and working through some problem-solving activities he had given her to gauge how far along she was in proper education before deciding on whether or not to give a similar curriculum to her as he had given her older brother. They could revisit time travel at a later date if the day's results were satisfactory enough.

Suddenly, she paused mid-sentence and placed her pencil down, staring up at him with red eyes filled with curiosity.

"Mr. Nezu?" she asked.

"Yes, Eri?"

"You're a hero, right?"

"In an official capacity, yes."

She paused again at that answer, seemingly catching and digesting what went unsaid in his response, much to his surprise. Then, she placed a hand on her chin in a manner that was clearly inspired by Izuku before looking up at him again.

"How can you save people when you're so small?" she asked, and Nezu couldn't help but chuckle.

"My brain is 40% of my body weight," he answered. "It allows me to manufacture whatever scenario I need for any situation based on the factors and variables present. In layman's terms, I save people from behind the front lines."

"Woah…" Eri muttered with sparkling eyes. Then, her eyes slightly dulled as she thought over her next question. "Can I be a hero, too?"

Now, Nezu wasn't surprised that she had asked him that question; it was only a matter of time. What surprised him was that she was asking him so soon.

"You want to become a hero?"

The nod she gave him was emphatic. "I want to save people like Izuku and Mama saved me. I want to help people who are just like me."

Well, this was turning out to be a very fortuitous day, indeed. A glimpse of sharp teeth crept out of Nezu's smile, but Eri either hadn't noticed or wasn't bothered by it.

"Allow me to answer your question with another question," Nezu finally responded. "How would you go about thwarting a villain attack without any assistance?"

Eri's face screwed into one of concentration as she thought the scenario over. It was exceptionally amusing to Nezu to watch the gears turn in her brain.

"I'm pretty small, so I don't think I can fight like Izuku or Mama can, and if I'm not careful, I make people disappear," she eventually reasoned with a downcast expression.

Nezu hummed. "Indeed, that is true. However, all quirks have the potential to kill if weaponized in that way. That's the reason you've been practicing, isn't it? To get a better handle on it so that you don't make people disappear unless you specifically want them to?"

Had anyone else heard Nezu use that exact language with her, they'd be aghast that he wasn't specifically dissuading her from using her quirk against people with the intent to kill. However, if there was one thing he could thank Overhaul for, it was that Eri had no illusions about the permanence of death and what exactly her quirk was capable of. As a result, she was already predisposed to being cautious, so she simply needed practice with her control.

On the flip side, he certainly wasn't going to rule out the potential to un-birth Madame President.

Eri nodded her understanding, then she took on a thinking expression once again. "I've been practicing with my powers, so maybe instead of making them disappear, I can give them baby hands?"

"Splendid!" Nezu chirped with far more excitement than was comforting, and Eri smiled in return.

"I also have another trick up my sleeve that very few know about," Nezu said, drawing Eri's full attention at the possibility of being let in on another big secret. "I learned it from a good friend of mine named Wash who isn't quite as human as he lets on."

Eri gasped. "Is he an alien, too?"

"Too?" Nezu questioned, redirecting the subject back to her.

"Um, i-it's not important," Eri floundered, nearly panicking over almost blowing Mina's cover. "What's the trick?"

Nezu smiled, gladly moving past both secrets without any further elaboration while placing his paws together. "It's called Domain Expansion."

"Oh, how I've waited for this matchup," Monoma began in a silky intonation. "To wipe that smug smirk off of the firecracker of Class A and prove Class B's superiority would be absolutely magnificent!"

His volume grew until he was cackling madly, meanwhile Jiro and Iida could only watch on in unnerved confusion. "The Golden Child of Class A would have been preferable, but this will certainly suffice!"

"Bakugo's mine."

Monoma's cackling abruptly stopped, and his head snapped in the direction of Kamakiri. "What?"

"I'm taking Bakugo," Kamakiri asserted again. "He owes me a rematch."

Monoma deflated and sighed with a hint of dejection. "Fine. A victory is a victory, nonetheless."

"Are you sure you want to go after him directly, Kamakiri?" Jiro asked in concern. "Bakugo is not going to be easy to take down."

In response, Kamakiri grinned. "He'd better not be."

"…Right," Jiro muttered before turning to the one person on her team whose stability of mind she was sure of. "We'll need a plan, then. Their team is crazy balanced, but so is ours."

"Indeed," Iida nodded. "The other team is no doubt going to attack head-on. Bakugo would not have it any other way."

"Neither would Tokage," Monoma mused. "She'll want to strike first and strike hard. That said, I strongly doubt she and Bakugo won't butt heads."

"The hell's your problem, underling?!" Bakugo barked at a grinning Tokage.

"Underling? That's adorable," she cooed, her grin only growing more confident in the face of Bakugo's twitching scowl.

"You got a problem with the plan?" he growled.

Tokage snorted. "Oh no, your plan is solid. I just don't like your face. Keep scowling like that, and you'll only get wrinkles."

"I've been trying to tell him that since junior high!" Mina piped up.

"Shove it, Kirby!" Bakugo shouted back at her.

"Are you calling me fat?!"

"Ai ya…" muttered the final member of the team, Hiryu Rin. "Can we please focus?"

"Ah, don't worry your little head, Rin," Tokage assured him with a detached thumbs-up. "We've got this in the bag."

She turned back to Bakugo. "I'm gonna make an addendum to the plan, though. I know exactly how to take Jiro out of the fight, but it'll keep me in pieces for a little bit."

"Tch, as long as you're pulling your weight, I don't care," Bakugo grumbled, then he tossed something to each of his teammates. "Here. Take these."

"What are they for?" Rin asked, inspecting what he assumed to be a grenade.

"They don't pack a huge punch, but they're good to have in a pinch," Bakugo said. "One more thing: we all watch each other's backs out there."

"Match four, begin!" Vlad King announced through the intercom, and the two teams sprang into action.

Izuku watched the screens intently. Tokage split herself into dozens of pieces while Bakugo blasted on ahead. On the other side, Kamakiri and Iida led the charge with Jiro and Monoma taking up the rear, though for different reasons.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Yui's soft voice broke him out of his intent staring.

"Which topic?" Izuku asked, mirth edging into his tone. "The match, or my mother and my mentor conspiring behind us?"

A soft chuckle escaped her, followed by a small smile. "Your choice."

Izuku hummed, turning his gaze back to the screen. "I honestly can't determine which way this match will go. Betting against a team-up of Bakugo and Tokage would be stupid, and Ashido is no slouch either. On the other hand, from what I remember, Kamakiri might be the one person that's just as tenacious and battle-hungry as Bakugo-"

"Aside from Mirko?" Yui cut in.

"Obviously," Izuku nodded. "Jiro will be tough to put down, and Iida will be even tougher, especially if they can't catch him. And then there's Monoma, who can copy all of their abilities."

"Not all," Yui spoke up.

"Hm?" Izuku queried.

"Not to the extent that you're thinking," she clarified. "He can only use one at a time, but he knows that better than anyone. He knows how to work around it."

Monoma had never experienced such pain in his life. Copying mutation quirks was always a gamble, not because they could turn out to be duds, but because the process of mutations growing in could end up being extremely painful, such as the fucking engines that now existed in his calves and the exhaust pipes that protruded from them. At least growing Jiro's earlobes was relatively painless.

The fun thing about Copy was that it copied the quirk as well as the mutations that allowed them to safely use their quirk. For example, if he copied Bakugo's Explosion, he'd also get the mutations that protected Bakugo's arms from the recoil. What that meant was that Copy had no trouble with copying mutations like it did with quirks that had a stockpile function, so it could copy mutation quirks (at least at their base form) with 100% usability.

That was until he needed to switch quirks. Then, they simply became inert, purely cosmetic additions to his body until it was time to use them again or his new ten-minute time limit ran out. That was why he was currently running behind his team having to carry heavy ass engines in his legs and two long earlobes swinging freely in the wind. It wasn't easy being the side character that inevitably stole the show.

"Gotcha!" Kamakiri abruptly shouted before slashing at a small, purple ball floating in the air, chopping it in half. Under closer inspection, he saw it was merely a chunk of Tokage that was likely sent to get his attention. "They should be around here somewhere. Find them!"

Jiro and Monoma wasted no time plugging their jacks into the ground to search for the opposing team, but they couldn't pinpoint anything. All they got were vibrations happening all around them, creating an ocean of echo location that neither of them could make heads or tails of, at least until Monoma's eyes widened.

"It's Tokage!" he shouted. "She's crafting a smokescreen!"

"Good catch."

Monoma turned to see Tokage's floating mouth give him a sharp grin before retreating in a fit of laughter. Monoma barely had enough time to retract his jacks and switch quirks before Bakugo appeared above him and Jiro ready to blow them to hell. Fortunately, Kamakiri got there just as quickly in a battle lust-fueled burst of speed to intercept him. At the same time, Monoma threw out his arm and grazed Bakugo with the tips of his fingers as the two rocketed away.

Meanwhile, Rin emerged from atop one of the towers and pointed his Scale Gauntlets down at the remaining three, firing his scales at them like two reptilian gatling guns. The reactions were swift; Jiro plugged her jacks into the amps on her boots and blasted a Counter-Balance to halt the momentum of the scales, whereas Monoma's palms glowed orange and ignited, blasting him out of the path of the scales and bounding away like a thief in the night.

'A Phantom Thief, one might even say.'

Before Monoma could pat himself on the back for that pun, he was yoinked from behind and placed into a full nelson by the upper body of Tokage.

"Hello again, dear classmate of mine," Tokage snickered, lifting Monoma into the air and flying toward her team's jail with a little bit of difficulty. "You're heavier than usual."

Monoma returned her smile with one of his own. "You noticed? It's this fabulous new quirk I recently came into contact with. Speaking of…"

Monoma's head and arms detached from his body, allowing him to slip out of her grasp and face her using her own quirk.

"Did you forget that I can copy quirks with a mere touch, Lizardy?" he asked with a haughty smile while their detached body parts engaged in an aerial game of keep away. "I'd expect far more from the Ace of Class B."

"You and your fuckin' nicknames," she chortled before sending him a knowing look as they continued. "And not at all. I also didn't forget that you can only use one at a time. Unless you're confident in your ability to fight with my quirk better than I can, your only option is to keep evading me if you want to stay like this. Otherwise, you'll have to reconstitute in order to use any other quirks you have, and you know that I'll be on you the second that you do."

Monoma's smile had momentarily faltered in the face of Tokage's challenging grin as the reality of the situation became abundantly clear. He fell right into her trap.

"So, what's it gonna be?" she prodded. "You gonna stick to playing keep away until your timer runs out while the rest of my team takes care of yours and leaves you outnumbered, or are you gonna take your chances and fight?"

By now, Monoma's parts had mostly returned to him, and he pieced himself back together atop a nearby tower with Tokage's upper body looming over him, her lower body still presumably split up and causing a cacophony of noise to disorient Jiro. He glanced down at his palms, then at the exhaust pipes poking out of his calves. He briefly considered using Engine to blitz Tokage in one fell swoop, but he knew that the method of doing so he gleamed from Iida would stall them and render them useless after one use. He'd have to make the shot count, and he'd have to make sure that Tokage wouldn't be able to dodge it. He'd have to wear her down to make that happen.

His palms began crackling as his decision was made. "I guess we'll see if I'm better at this than Explosion Boy."

"Recipro Burst!" Iida shouted before dashing through the maze of pipes and towers en route to circling back and pincering Rin with Jiro. He zoomed around tight corners with practiced ease, almost gliding over the ground beneath his feet as he approached the home stretch.

Then, the ground was no longer beneath his feet; the sky was.

Iida had stepped onto an unusually slick stretch of concrete, and at his speed, slipping, crashing, and burning was the only thing on the menu for him. His goofily flailing body slammed into a mess of pipes like they were bowling pins, and only when he was shaking the stars out of his vision did he notice the strangled laughter coming from further away.

"Sorry, Iida!" Mina (whose skin was noticeably redder than usual) managed through her chortling. "Can't have you zipping around!"

Iida then noticed that the ground was slick with her quirk all the way through. "You all lured me into this trap? Fiendish villains! Such dastardly behavior!"

Mina couldn't fight it anymore and burst into a fit of laughter. Iida used that opportunity to attempt to clear the pipes off of him and recover to his feet, but Mina sprayed a spot beside him with a jet of acid, melting the pipes and concrete it touched in moments.

"Not so fast, McQueen!" Mina warned. "I can melt right through your suit if you move a muscle, and your skin underneath isn't nearly as tough."

"Of course, I'd expect nothing more than diabolical machinations from you, wicked evildoer!" Iida dramatically replied, eliciting yet another giggle fit from Mina. He was such a gem to their class in her opinion.

"Besides, it's not like you could risk it all and try to rush me before I could spray you," she offhandedly remarked after regaining herself. "Recipro Burst has a time limit, right?"

"…Not exactly," Iida lowly admitted.

Mina blinked. "Come again?"

"I've been working on improving both my speed and time constraints," Iida said, the sounds of his engines revving up again filling the area. "I even pulled out my exhaust pipes so they could grow back even stronger on my brother's suggestion. I did not wish to be left in the dust by Midoriya, as I'm sure you can understand."

Now, the sounds of his engines engaging were far too loud to ignore, and Mina sprayed a strong jet of acid at him to nip his charge in the bud, but it did not deter him.

"Recipro Turbo!" he shouted as he blasted off, tanking the acid spray head on and charging right through it.

Mina was just barely able to dodge by a hair's width thanks to the slickness of the ground affecting them both, but she was awestruck at just how fast he zoomed past and around her, even wall-running like it was child's play.

"For ten minutes, no one can stop me!" Iida declared.

"Crap!" Mina grunted, sliding backward down the path as fast as she could to create some kind of distance, as futile as it might have been.

Iida exemplified just how futile it was when he flickered past her in the blink of an eye and grabbed her by the waist, zooming through the training ground on his way to his team's jail. Mina would not go down so easily, though, and she concentrated on coating herself with her quirk as quickly as possible to slip out of Iida's grasp entirely, which is exactly what happened. She slid through his hold like a wet bar of soap and slid on the ground behind him as he turned back to face her.

"Would you believe that I can actually raise the pH of my acid above 7?" she excitedly informed, her skin now even redder than it was previously.

"That…" Iida muttered in confusion. "That's not even acid at that point."

"I know, right?! It's so cool! It's how I made the ground so slick earlier, bases being super slippery and all. Burns the hell out of my skin, though, so I don't do it much."

'So, that's why her skin is red as opposed to pink,' Iida mused. 'It's resistant to powerful acids but not powerful bases. I don't think she can make much more of this. She's hiding it well, but her eye is twitching, and her movements are somewhat jittery. The pain must be excruciating. You truly are an inspiration, Ashido.'

"Then I guess I'll have to subdue you first before taking you anywhere," Iida remarked, revving his engines and taking off once again.

He moved far too quickly for her to keep up with, especially in her already pained state, so a gut punch was sufficient to eject the wind out of her and put her down for the count, at least for the moment.

Blasting off toward the jail again, he made it there in no time at all, depositing her within the cell just as she was regaining herself.

"Man, you really hit hard, Iida," she groaned with a faint laugh.

"Apologies, but I couldn't afford to drag it out," he replied. "You're a very formidable opponent."

"Thanks," she weakly replied, finally letting the pain show.

"By the way, I've chosen my hero name," Iida informed, earning a curious look from his classmate. "I am the youngest scion of the Iida family and the eventual successor to Ingenium! I am The Engine Hero: Recipro!"

Mina remained silent. The seconds ticked on with neither saying a word, and Iida progressively floundered under her gaze. Then, he cleared his throat to fill the awkward silence.

"…Is that too on the nose?" he asked with a hint of dejection.

Mina simply shrugged. "Eh, it could be about 20% cooler. It's better than what I would've gone with had Midori not suggested Venus, I guess."

Iida nodded, deciding to workshop it a little bit more as he left, not noticing the grenade Mina left attached to the back of his suit.

A beaten, bruised, and burned Kamakiri lunged at Bakugo, swiping at him with the myriad of blades that were sticking out of his arm like a giant Swiss Army knife but only catching air and another point-blank explosion in return. To his credit, Kamakiri had been able to land some considerable offense against him, peppering Bakugo with cuts any and everywhere to hopefully wear him down via death by 1000 cuts.

The issue was that Bakugo had the tenacity of a rabid wolverine on crystal meth. Beating him in a battle of attrition was a losing effort, which Kamakiri was steadily learning as Bakugo grabbed him and spun the two in the air via explosions with his free hand, gathering enough momentum with repeated explosions until they were practically a mini tornado. Then, with a shout of, "X-Catapult!", he threw Kamakiri away like trash, sending him hurtling for who knows how long until he slammed back first into the concrete of a tower.

Kamakiri gritted his teeth and struggled to pry himself from the indentation his body left in the tower, but Bakugo would not give him the chance, appearing before him with a ball of light between his palms like the specter of Amaterasu. The ball exploded, unleashing a Point-Blank Stun Grenade onto Kamakiri, ending the battle entirely.

With him down for the count, Bakugo grabbed him and blasted away toward their jail to ensure he didn't come to and get in the way later.

Jiro was tired and annoyed. She and Rin had been at a stalemate since he arrived, and neither were making any ground to change that. He was an excellent shot, and his scales were as fast as bullets, so dodging was out of the question, meaning every time he fired his scales at her, she'd fire a sound wave right back to keep them at bay. Even when he wasn't firing at her, she could never get a good shot at him because he had the high ground and never stayed still. She could slam her Amplifier Jack into the side of the tower and blast her heartbeat to shake its structural integrity to flush him out, but on the off chance that she went a little overboard, she'd rather not have a repeat of Sato and Shiozaki's stunt. That she was also having to tune out the constant banging of Tokage all around her (that bit was at least toning down over time) definitely wasn't helping matters.

Then, there was the last explosion she had heard a little ways away, causing her to worry about Kamakiri's status and Bakugo's impending arrival. Things were not looking too great for her, and she was about to throw a Hail Mary by annihilating the ground with her Amplifier Jack to create some cover for her to retreat when the unmistakable revving of Iida's engines hit her ears, bringing a wave of relief to the punk rocker.

The only warning Rin received was a slight slicing of the wind before he threw his right arm up to block the kick that warped into periphery. Iida's leg smashed into his scale gauntlet, shattering it into pieces and sending Rin tumbling away and off of the roof.

However, Rin spotted something on his way down. Hooked to Iida's back was one of the grenades that Bakugo handed them before the match, and it didn't appear that Iida had noticed it yet. Covering himself in scales to cushion the fall, Rin kipped back up in time to cross his arms to shield himself from a devastating Heartbeat Surround attack from Jiro. Or, more accurately, he made an attempt to shield himself from the attack, but he quickly realized that his scales were not built for this as they, and him, were quickly blown away and sent crashing into a far wall.

With their opponent seemingly down, Iida leaped to the ground beside Jiro from the roof and sent her a thumbs-up.

"Excellent work, Earphone Jack," he praised with his back ever so slightly turned to their downed opponent. "Let's collect him and-"

At that moment, a single scale launched from the still conscious (for now) Rin hit the grenade on his back and detonated it, blasting Iida in the most point-blank manner possible and sending Jiro tumbling painfully away, as well. Rin wasn't done yet, though. In a Hail Mary of his own, he covered himself in his scales and retrieved the grenade he still had, then he chucked it at them with every ounce of energy he had remaining.

Meanwhile, Jiro was trying to clear the cobwebs from her head. She looked to Iida who was groaning on the ground, then she looked back at Rin across the way to see him standing on wobbly legs, and finally, she noticed the second pin-less grenade sailing through the air toward them. A burst of adrenaline pumped through her veins and yanked her to her feet, threw her into a sprint and made her use Iida as a trampoline to leap into the air in the path of the grenade. Faster than she had ever whipped her earlobes out before, she spiked the grenade with one of her Amplifier Jack, rocketing it back in Rin's direction.

"Ah shi-" Rin lamented before the grenade detonated, knocking him unconscious completely.

A long, weary exhale escaped Jiro's lips as she slumped. She turned back toward Iida, and she tried to stumble over to him, but her equilibrium wasn't exactly the best after two explosions in rapid succession, so she ended up tumbling backward. Fortunately, she was caught by a much taller, sturdy presence.

Unfortunately, that presence was Bakugo staring blankly down at her, and she did the same. For a deathly long moment, she did not speak, and neither did he. Bakugo looked at her, then he looked at Iida struggling back to his feet as his Recipro Turbo was coming to an end, and then he looked back at Jiro. She could tell that all of the fun was taken out of this for him.

"Dude, if you unleash another explosion right in my ear, I'll probably go deaf," Jiro deadpanned.

Bakugo stared down at her for another moment before he chopped her in the back of the neck.

"Thanks, man…" she mumbled on her way to blissful unconsciousness.

Tokage and Monoma wouldn't be able to tell you who was in worse shape. Tokage was beyond exhausted; half of the parts she still had were scattered around the training ground after going limp, while the other half had returned to her to leave her with two thirds of her body. Monoma, on the other hand, was finally feeling the strain of having engines in his calves for nearly 10 whole minutes while jumping around and fighting a floating girl who didn't know the definition of stillness.

"Your time limit's just about up, isn't it?" Tokage mockingly called out from above.

He did not rise to the bait, instead shooting his trademarked haughty smile back at her. "I'd worry more about yourself if I were you. You look about ready to keel over."

"Pft, I can do this all day." She couldn't, and they both knew that, but damn it if she wouldn't try.

Monoma blasted off and reached for Tokage once more, and she predictably strafed out of his path. Undeterred, he switched directions just as quickly and blasted back toward her wherever she went, having gotten a very solid hang of aerial combat via Explosion over the course of the fight. Tokage, being so exhausted, couldn't expend much more energy fighting back than simply throwing punches at him (quite literally), so keeping out of reach until he was out of time was the game plan.

Monoma knew that, too, and he refused to let that happen. He looked down at his calves, and he frowned. He had been holding out on using them for the duration of the fight, but with his time quickly expiring, he needed to use it before he lost it. With Tokage finally slowing down enough to be able to catch her off guard, he could at least afford to try. It was now or never.

Disengaging from the fight and retreating back to the roof, Monoma kneeled down placed his palms on the ground. Tokage took notice of what appeared to be a runner's stance, and she paled. The sound of the engines in his calves revving up was all the confirmation she needed, and she sent her left hand to retrieve the grenade she stashed behind the tower.

His exhaust pipes blasted, and Monoma shot off the roof straight for Tokage with a wicked grin. "Phantom Burst!"

He was way too fast to dodge in her present state, and she likely wouldn't tag him with the grenade in time, so she threw as hard of a punch as she could and shot her fist at him to carry the momentum. Monoma, in the process of twisting his body to extend his leg out for a devastating kick, just barely dodged the fist rocketing toward his chin. He closed the gap between them, and his foot slammed into Tokage's face like a battering ram, knocking her out of the air entirely. Before he could breathe easy, though, he spotted the grenade in Tokage's other detached hand making a beeline for him, and he twisted his body once again to kick the explosive away before it exploded.

Meanwhile, Tokage did not have the energy to regain herself. She was barely able to retain consciousness as it was after that hit, so all she could do was try to brace her fall before she impacted the concrete. The impact never came, though, as she was snatched out of her descent by another flash of green in her periphery, then more explosions filled the area as she was carried back up to the top of the tower. It took a second longer to register that Bakugo had caught her and was carrying her in one arm while heading toward Monoma with the other.

When the two locked eyes, the relief in Monoma's exhausted gaze filled with irritation and derision. Bakugo's eyes, meanwhile, were nothing but focused.

"I'm shocked that the megalomaniacal delinquent of Class A would come to the defense of a teammate," Monoma sneered, and his palms crackled with Bakugo's own quirk. "No matter. Now, I can finally put Class A in its place!"

Bakugo sneered back. "You think you can use my quirk better than me?"

Monoma laughed. "I don't need to be better at it than you, I simply need to be superior for a single moment!"

"No chance in hell!"

Monoma launched himself at Bakugo, forgetting his exhaustion in lieu of establishing his class's superiority. He probably shouldn't have been trying to beat Bakugo at his own game, but his pride and the fact that Bakugo was hindered by Tokage in his grasp drove him full steam ahead, launching explosion after explosion at him from all angles. He mimicked Bakugo's movements as best as he could in the little time he had remaining to both get under his skin and take advantage of his opponent only having access to one half of his body.

However, it didn't take very long to see that Monoma was in way over his head. Not only was he not moving nearly as fast as he would have liked to have been, but it also soon became clear that even with one free arm and carrying a comrade in the other, Bakugo was running circles around Monoma. He was faster and entirely capable of attacking and evading with just a single arm, as Bakugo knew how to utilize his entire body in combat. Let it never be said that Bakugo ever half-assed his training in any capacity.

Monoma was becoming fed up with it all. He could land any decent offense on him; in fact, it barely felt like Bakugo was even trying. He wouldn't go down like this. He refused to be outdone in such embarrassing fashion. He'd wipe the smirk-

Suddenly, Monoma felt the telltale emptiness that signified his quirk wearing off, and he fell to his butt back atop the tower. The engines vanished, his earlobes returned to normal, and his sweat was no longer explosive. He was simply Neito Monoma once again…

…right in front of a smirking Bakugo whose glowing palm was pointed directly at his face.

If his smirk wasn't infuriating enough, Tokage was sending him a mocking peace sign from within Bakugo's grasp.

"Goddamnit-" he managed to get out before he was blown away, tumbling down the side of the tower and the many networks of pipes slinking through training ground. He was caught in Bakugo's free arm before he could hit the ground, though, but he was already unconscious by then.

"Thanks for the save," Tokage finally spoke up. "I'm surprised you showed up, though."

Bakugo grunted. "I said we'd have each other's backs out there, didn't I?"

I genuinely did not intend for this chapter to end up being this long. I ain't apologizing for it, though.

I was rewatching the Forest Training Camp attack, and apparently Awase had a thing for Yaoyorozu afterward? Or during? It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme. I figured it'd be a neat thing to poke fun at.

Played around with the mechanics of some of their quirks a bit. Don't worry about it, it's fine. I also can't exactly determine if this version of Nezu I've crafted is closer to chaotic good or chaotic neutral.

Izuku and Melissa finally duke it out next chapter.