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Chapter 24: Thrown to the Wolves
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 16:50:41 +0000 UTC“Text” – Normal speech
‘Text’ – Thought
“Text” – Quirk Spirit speaking in the human world
“Text” - Attacks
“Text” – Radio/Communication lines
“Text” – None Japanese speech
(text) – Subtext/meaning behind a spoken word
Chapter 24: Thrown to the Wolves
Mercifully, the talk about quirklessness didn't last. The group switched to discussing heroics, who was their favorite, the kind of hero they were hoping to be, and possible team-ups when they went pro. Midoriya remained largely silent through it, tending to Faunalution, who cooed away on his lap, comforting him as he was reminded that, yes, they were good people, they wanted to do good, but in their eyes, the quirkless were relics, weaklings to be protected and pitied.
Tokoyami picked on his lack of engagement, and so did Honenuki, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Yanagi. The former if only because it felt strange, while for the rest, they shared elective classes with him and knew such topics should have been in bread and butter. Still, they merely assumed that he had his mind elsewhere, or in the case of Todoroki, he didn't think it was important enough for him to bother.
Soon, they arrived at their destination, the other bus arriving just before they did. Looking out the windows as the bus came to a stop, they were left stunned by what they saw. Over the tree line, they could see a massive dorm, a man-made hill of gleaming blues and white that matched the sunny blue sky above, and the hordes of trees around it. Jiro uttered that it was as big as the Tokyo dome, but Tokage replied, just in as much awe, that it was bigger-so much bigger.
Such a structure couldn't be called a stadium any more than a mansion could be called a dwelling; the place looked large enough to house an entire town, which had the students thinking, not for the first time, just how massive U.A.'s campus was for such a giant structure to be something they had never seen before. When they piled out of the bus and looked up towards the frankly, ridiculously massive doors, they could look to either side of the road and not see the end. Even the stairs just leading up to the entrance seemed intimidating.
Thirteen seemed to be at home as she happily marched out from where she had been standing with one-half the class to address them. "I hope you're as excited as I am for your first rescue class.”
"This place is insane!" Ashido yelled, too absorbed in the place to notice Aizawa glaring at her for her outburst.
Thirteen didn't seem to mind; in fact, she seemed almost pleased with it. She laughed as she turned on her heel and marched towards the entrance. "Save your opinions for the inside; follow me."
Following her, her warning was proven accurate as when they saw the place's interior, not even the most reserved of them, like Yanagi or Todoroki, could keep their jaws from falling open. The place felt even bigger inside, with the main entrance leading down a much longer flight of stairs to the park-like central area. From there, they could see several unique and massive areas in their own right. One seemed to be an artificial lake, but for some reason, it also had a boat and a water slide connected to a hill?
Another was a mock-up of a rocky mountainous, the third looked like U.A. had built one of their mock cities like the one from the entrance exam and then buried it in a landslide with what looked like entire office buildings trashed and partially sticking out from the rubble and dirt. Another looked to U.A. had done the same thing. Still, instead of burying the place in a landslide, they must have allowed a previous hero class to run rampant through it for an hour or 2 because the place looked like a warzone, nothing being spared.
There were two others, but they were encased in smaller yet massive domes by themselves. One had flame patterns, so there wasn't much speculation on that, but the sixth and final was covered in blue, with no patterns or other hints as to what was inside.
“What in the hell? How much money does U.A. have?” Shigeru popped out to see the place for himself.
“You could get lost in this place…" Hinata followed suit, walking towards the top of the stairs and looking down at the scale of the place. Was land alone needed for this? Was this what a hero course required?
“It’s like the world’s best theme park!" Hiroyuki clapped his little frost-covered paws, which made Midoriya snort to cover him with a laugh.
"Holy balls, this place is huge! What? Did you design it off Disney Land?" Kaminari asked as Thirteen giggled while Vlad, who had been waiting inside for them, rolled his eyes at the question and the fact that none of them had even noticed him yet.
"Whoever they got must have been on that good stuff, as this takes being big to the extreme!" Hagakure added, several others nodding with him as Thirteen retook control of things. Otherwise, the students would spend the entire class just gawking.
"Shipwrecks, landslides, thunderstorms, and infernos. These are part of a facility I designed to train students like yourselves to become the best rescue heroes you can be. To be able to handle any disaster that life can throw at you. I named it the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short!" Thirteen announced, leaving them surprised as the name sounded too close to another place with the abbreviation of USJ.
"I'm surprised they didn't sue," Tokage commented.
“They tried, we won!” Thirteen seemed a little too happy about that fact, some wondering if she was anything like their dean, as the rumors painted the walking plushie as a real unpredictable menace that seemed to revel in causing chaos.
Aizawa walked over to where Vlad was to address him. “Vlad, where’s All Might? He was supposed to be here with you.” He kept his voice down, though the larger man could pick up that his fellow educator was less than pleased.
“He won’t be coming. He got sidetracked doing hero work on the way to campus. He’s speaking with the dean.” Vlad replied with a grunt, holding up 3 fingers so that both Thirteen and Aizawa could understand the hidden meaning, both nodding even if the underground pro wanted to smack All Might for that foolish choice.
"That man, so illogical as he wastes time doing other people's work instead of his own," Aizawa replied. Now, they would need to figure out how just 3 people would manage a class of 40 people.
"Believe me, you're not the only one who has a bone to pick with him, but it's short notice, as he only called minutes before you arrived. Not enough time for someone else to show up and cover for him and still leave us with enough time to run what we want." As Aizawa hummed in agreement, Vlad told him that they had planned to take the students in groups of 10 through four of the zones, introductions mainly before they could return another time for full classes set in each of them.
“Excuse me,” Jiro asked. “But did I hear something about All Might?” Both teachers looked towards her, Aizawa recalling that she had superhuman hearing, and thanked the fact that they didn't say anything concrete.
"You did, but due to some complications, All Might was called to speak with the dean and won't be here," Vlad explained to the students, whose excitement about having All Might for the second time that day fell away.
"Oh man, that sucks," Kaminari whined.
"I wonder what happened. There didn't seem to be any issues during first period," Yaoyorozu asked, as All Might seemed a little off. Everyone had those days, but he was able to get through their class without issues, so it couldn't be that.
"Probably something with the press. They haven't been as ravenous, but they're still eager for that interview. Maybe they're planning how they'll handle that." Kendo assumed that even with the press barred from hounding the main gate, the way into campus had plenty of them hanging out in the restaurants or cafes closest to U.A.
"Regardless, we must get started, as we'll be down a teacher." Thirteen clapped her hands to get things back on track. I wanted to say a couple of things…maybe 3, or was it 5?" She started to mumble as the number only went up, leading the class to wonder if she had planned this before suddenly coming back from whatever rabbit hole she had fallen into.
Snapping back into things, she continued. “Everyone, as I’m sure you're aware, my quirk is called Black Hole, but can any of you explain what that means."
Uraraka happily raised her hand. "Your quirk allows you to suck in anything you want. You always use it to clear away debris and wreckage in disasters.
"Indeed, she's one of the best at disaster clean up." Shishida scratched his chin.
"I've seen the reports on many people she's helped by giving emergency responders paths to those in need." Iida chopped his head, as Thirteen had even worked with his brother a couple of times, and Tensei had nothing but good things to say about the space-themed hero.
“Truly God’s work.” Shiozaki bowed her head and clasped her hands together.
Thirteen let out an embarrassed chuckle as even as someone who's been doing this for years, she still wasn't used to being praised. "That's right, but my quirk can also suck in anything, including animals and people. Nothing can resist the pull of a black hole after all, and once they're sucked it, they're turned to dust so fine that even an electro-microscope could hope to see the remains."
Her words, spoken with the same tone as she would have told them about how fun rescue was or what she was looking forward to eating, ran against what she said as a shiver went through all of them. Sure, they knew she could do that, but they had never considered that she would; why would she? Heroes were meant to protect people-all people. None could even remember a case where a hero had to use lethal force, always capturing villains.
"I can see it in your eyes, quite the turn, right? But that's the reality of things. Some of you have quirks that can easily hurt others, kill them if used irresponsibly." Thirteen continued, marching back and forth before them. "No, that's incorrect; most of you have powers that could seriously maim, if not kill, those around you."
Maybe they took objection to this, wanting to say as much as possible, but even with her helmet on, Thirteen's gaze made them keep their piece. The woman saw that her words were having the intended effect, making them think about something that they probably never did.
"It's not your fault. This doesn't come up in polite conversation or most discussions when your goal is to become a hero, someone who exists to prevent harm and fight crime. However, it's still something that we understand on some level. For example, Todoroki," The two-toned haired boy blinked at being called out. “During your first hero class, you went for a restraining action rather, but you could have just buried Shoda in ice, correct?” He frowned, almost insulted.
“Yes, but-”
“But that puts him at risk of hypothermia, especially if you can’t get him out in time. I know, but tell me, did you consider that?” Thirteen cut him off, but he found she was right in that assessment. "That's my point. It's something that we instinctively do, the same way we learn to control our limbs; otherwise, we couldn't even hold eggs without crushing them in our hands."
Thirteen who had been moving back and forth, stopped, turning to look out over the USJ, her masterpiece and place of safety, despite what it was designed to be.
Her voice lost some volume, being closer to whispers, but it still carried the same weight, hitting them all like hammers to the face. "But as heroes, we can't forget that we must always consider the inherent risk that comes with us using our quirks. This is one of the most dangerous jobs there is, certainly up there in terms of the pressure you can feel out of the blue, where seconds can be the difference between life and earth. Most might forget those risks in the heat of the moment, but we can't."
Some got a little more uncomfortable about it, as that sounded like something Aizawa would say, but he and Vlad remained silent and on the sides. Others thought they heard something in her voice, a regret maybe. They wondered if she had been in a spot like that and made a mistake with her quirk, and it hurt someone. Tokoyami asked if he could look himself in the mirror if he was responsible for someone getting hurt like that. Todoroki reached for his burn but stopped short of touching it while Ashido kicked at the ground, as she didn't like to think what her acid could do.
“If we forget that, you end up with situations like what happened with Bakugo a few days ago.” Thirteen continued, Midoriya and Uraraka frowning as they recalled that disaster. "But you all learned something from that, didn't you?"
"Aizawa putting you through his practicals was where you learned the possibilities of your quirks and brainstormed ways to use them to assist in such tasks. Then your combat class was where you took those ideals and implemented them against living opponents like you would on the job.” She listed things off to them.
"In both, you saw firsthand what your quirks could do and how they could be destructive." She started. "But here, you'll learn how to apply that capability not to fight villains but to save people. Please understand that I didn't say anything to discourage you. Still, I wanted to understand just what you've signed up for so that you can become better heroes in the future." Thirteen turned back to them before she bowed.
“Thank you for listening.” She finished with the students, finding themselves applauding her words. It didn't start where they expected it would, and it went to some pretty dark places; she had stuck that landing in managing to bring them back out. They now had a greater appreciation for their abilities and the harsh and demanding training they'd receive to use it to do what they wanted, especially Uraraka, who looked towards Thirteen with stars in her eyes.
"So, for this, you'll be split into groups." Vlad's statement was interrupted when the light started to flicker before they started to die, one by one. The massive floodlights installed near the apex of the dome were disabled, leaving only the natural life from the semi-transparent dome's upper portions to get through. Around them, the street lights that dotted the path and the central plaza also started to flicker before dying.
“What the?” Kaibara asked.
“That doesn’t seem like a normal electrical fault, or am I seeing things?" Kendo asked, but she wasn't the only one feeling bad. The three teachers with them were already on alert, scanning the area for trouble while Vlad tended to the students.
Scanning the area for any issue, Aizawa's gut was rumbling, and he had come to trust his instincts, which had been honed over years of training and practical experience. Vlad was the same as he reached for his phone to contact the school and report the issue as, hopefully, it was just an exceptionally rare electrical fault. However, he didn't believe it could happen when he learned how Power Loader installed numerous redundancies in everything he could, including the electrical system.
Both men's sixth sense went off as they turned towards the central plaza. In front of the fountain, the air started to shift and flicker before a massive dark cloud of mist forced itself into beating. And from it, he saw someone walking out. Even from this distance, he could see the malice in those eyes, hidden behind a severed hand grasping their face.
“Thirteen!” Aizawa yelled, turning to face the threat fully as more people came through, dozens of them with the pro tracking each and trying to get a good idea of their quirks.
“As those people down there?” Kirishima asked, squinting to see better.
"I thought this was just rescue training. Are they here to help?" Shishida's brow creased.
"I doubt it." Kendo got into a combative stance, others following her lead. Midoriya and Aoyama both reached for their blades. Izuku could feel Hinata's and the rest's agitation. All of them had seen people with looks like that, all linked to how they had met their ends as humans.
"Hold on, what the heck are you guys doing?" Kaminari asked as it looked like Kendo and a few were about to jump into a fight.
“Don’t move!” Vlad agreed with Kaminari on that second apart and wouldn't allow his students to get involved. Still, he also needed them all to understand. "Those aren't workers for the school but villains."
Line Break
Stepping through the warp, the grey-haired villain, covered in even paler, severed hands, took in the sight of U.A.'s famous USJ and had to admit, it lived up to the hype. God knew where they found the cash for half of it, but he wasn't there to judge value but to break something. His attention went from the scenery to the top of the stairs, where he could make around 40 people, mainly annoying freshmen. Most seemed as scared as children at their arrival, but he could spot a few that looked like they would fight.
Those would be the fun ways to kill, after all, what was the point in an enemy mob if the damn thing kept running?
But there seems to be an issue as he could only spot 3 heroes, and none were the target. "Thirteen…Vlad King…and some hobo, no, that' Eraserhead. But no All Might." The grey-haired man spoke, his voice rough and ragged as if his vocal cords had been given a sandpaper massage.
The warp behind himself shifted into a humanoid form, though one that still seemed to be made from black clouds as yellow wispy eyes formed and also looked at the site of the teachers and students. "That is quite strange. According to the teacher's schedule, we received the other day, All Might was meant to be present."
Their conversation wasn't subtle, with Jiro and Shoji relying on what they heard back to their teachers, not needing anymore confirmation of why these intruders were there. "At least we know who wrecked the gate the other day," Vlad stated, looking over the villains. Plans of attack, counters, and backups were forming in his head in case something went wrong.
"But how did they get in? The security didn't spot any intruders, but the press entered, and they were all vetted." Aizawa frowned as he reached for his goggles, pulling them down to cover his eyes.
“We can worry about that later. You two know what to do.” Thirteen told the two other pros as she stood back to protect the students while they stepped forward to act as the vanguard.
As they readied for a fight, the pale-haired villain was annoyed with the fact All Might was upset. “What the hell? You go through the trouble of building a massive party to raid the dungeon, and the damn boss doesn't even spawn when he's supposed to. I even went out of my way to equip a special item." He complained, gesturing to the hulking beast that stood behind him with a dead-eye look; just looking at it made Midoriya and Aoyama feel sick to their stomachs, so to their quirks though none could figure out why, only that whatever was the deal with that…thing, it was wrong.
For the two listeners, hearing the villain treat the entire thing like a game rubbed Jiro and Shoji the wrong way. He seemed arrogant, but a part of them also thought it was because he had experience with crime.
The villain scratched in thought before a wicked smile gave to his face. "Even if I can't clear the main objective, I can always clear the side-quests. Those are always more fun. Kurogiri."
Line Break
As soon as Vald gave the word, the students started to worry even as Shogi and Jiro passed along what they heard to the teachers so they could make a plan.
"Wait, those are villains? But how did they get in?" Komori asked, starting to shake at the sheer number of them. It had to be well over 70 down there.
“That’s insane, how they even get in? U.A’s got the best security in the world.” Fukidashi asked, trying to make sense of all this even as Kendo and Yaoyorozu worked to keep everyone from acting out, a select few watched on silently, much like their teachers, waiting for a response or sign to act.
"Yeah, that's right. The alarm should be going off. Why isn't it going off right now?" Hagakure asked, praying that it was like the ones banks always had in the movies and that it was silent. Thirteen knew that the place had an alarm, 3 kinds, all hooked up to separate but equally sophisticated and comprehensive systems. For all of them to be down, that shouldn't be possible; even if the electrical fault had knocked out the power, each ran on continually charging batteries for just a situation.
"The light earlier, either they have someone that hacked into the system and shut those and the security down, or they have someone with a quirk jamming it." Tokage frowned, not helping to keep things calm as she frowned.
"But that leaves another question: Is this a school-wide black-out, or is it just here? Seeing how they waited for us to arrive, I would assume that whatever they do is keeping the outside world from detecting anything wrong." Todoroki guessed; the teachers were mildly impressed that he kept cool with things when the others were closer to a panic.
"Did anyone bring their phones with them? Maybe we can try to call," Midoriya asked, as he had left his phone. Most shook their heads as he ticked his tongue, but Kaminari raised his hand.
"My headsets can act like a radio set,t but…I can't through, even when I switch to other frequencies." Kaminari seemed to have given them some hope, but then he couldn't deliver. Jiro, who did have her phone, pulled it out and checked, seeing the icon for no signal as she cursed and confirmed it.
"Isolated from any help, unable to call for help, and villains that seemed to know All Might was here, something that we didn't till now. They're organized, and this was planned.” Midoriya's mind started to move as he tried to figure out a means out of this. They were out-numbers at least 2 to one, and even if most weren't that capable compared to them, there had to be some heavy hitters among them. He was still getting that wrong feeling just from looking at that jacked-up bird-faced villain that hadn't so much as moved since it arrived; he didn't even think it blinked.
"By why? Who in their right mind would pick a fight somewhere they know All Might would be?" Aoyama asked him, only the teachers and Uraraka suspecting that the villains knew something that the rest didn't, but Uraraka especially couldn't believe it. There was no way; few people knew to begin with, and none could ever reveal that.
"Then we just need to get out of here, and we'll be safe. The door's right there-!" Sero pointed towards the door as if they had run. They could make it back to it in 20 seconds, easy or shorter if they were speedy about it.
As he said, Jiro and Shoji heard the villain talk about side-quests and order his henchmen to do something, but he didn't say what. Neither had time to rely on the teachers before the villain vanished. Jiro got a bad feeling and turned to yell, but before she could, the floor beneath her opened up into a black warp, where she didn't know and didn't want to find out.
“What the hell?” She yelled.”
"Jiro!" Vlad yelled at her, moving to save his student from whatever that warp was. Aizawa was doing the same as he had already thrown his capture scarf towards her, but then more portals opened up beneath them. "Shit!" Vlad cursed as he started to fall through. He tried to reach for the floor close to hold on, but the portal was too broad.
"Everyone grabbed the person closest to you!" Kendo yelled as she reached for Tokoyami and managed to grab him, but both of them were already halfway through. Midoriya and Tetsutetsu were already doing that, lunging towards the closest person—for Izuku, that was Asui. For Tetsutetsu, that was Yaoyorozu—but all of them had nothing to grip, nothing to stand on as the portals beneath them fused into one.
"Quick, hold onto me!" Midoriya looked up as Tokage sent a hand towards them, the girl having split into several pieces that floated safe from harm. It wasn't just her hand, but she had sent other pieces to try and save people. Yanagi had grabbed Uraraka, the white-haired girl straining her quirk just to keep herself levitating; Uraraka quickly tapped herself to eliminate gravity.
Yaoyorozu saw that Tokage had already sent her other hand and a foot to save Tsuburaba and Sato. Tsunotori held onto one horn while she fired another 2 toward Kamakiri and Kodai, but it wasn’t enough. The heiress could see that many were already chest-deep in the portal, and she couldn't feel the bottom beneath her feet.
Aizawa moved quickly to try to find the villain, but then another portal opened up right in front of him, and a villain came flying out, sledgehammer ready.
With Eraser distracted, if only for a few seconds, Kurogiri pulled as many students through as he could as Midoriya reached for Tokage's hand. Even if she wasn't strong enough to pull all of them, she could perhaps slow them down, give them more time, even only a second.
But that never came as they screamed and yelled as they fell through the portals, each one shutting once the body went through.
Tokage dropped to the ground, gathering herself as she slammed a fist into it and repeatedly yelled that she was so close to saving more. Yanagi placed Uraraka down, and to their horror, besides the two and Tokage, only six of their classmates and one teacher remained on. Vlad King, Eraserhead, and everyone else was gone.
"We are the League of Villains. We hope that you all struggle as hard as you can, fighting with all you have. It will make it all the more tragic when All Might finds you all dead by our hand." The villain spoke up, appearing to the side like a shadowy monster, gleeful in his statement before he vanished again.
Line Break
It's been a slow burn for a while now. Still, we're getting some action as we're here, the USJ, which, like many other things, had to be changed to keep engagement. Also, that threat level: if one class made it out without just one injury(self-inflicted; Izuku really messes up the stats), then if I just wrote the same thing but with double the students, well, the League gets washed even harder.
LIne Break
And we're done! It's not as long as usual, but it sets things up nicely. And yes, Kurogiri just teleporting them and then introducing them is what Muzan had Nakime do in Demon Slayer with the DSCs; I have to give the villains higher intelligence points to account for the fact they got double the ops to handle. This wasn't the only change, though, as I swapped things around on who ended up where and even what some places were to make this a real challenge for the students.
