When Akane was ten years old, she told her father that she wanted to be a Hero. He said that she was already his hero, much to Nabiki’s disgust, and the way her sister’s face scrunched up like a wrinkled plum helped the scene stick in her memory through the next five years. Once Akane clarified what she meant -that she wanted to be a Pro Hero- her father had agreed to train her to become one, but he had a single condition first.
He asked her why she wanted to be a Hero.
Her immediate answer, that she wanted to save people, earned her only a comedicaly overstated expression of stern fatherly disapproval and an instruction to think about it more. So Akane thought about it during dinner, and during school the next day, and over the next several days until she finally realized what her answer was. Coming to an answer in that direct, too-honest way children have, she pointed at the television. Both news anchors on screen leaned forward with honest joy in their eyes, ranting and raving as the screen behind them showed All Might’s latest act of heroism.
“I want people to look at me that way.” She said.
Soun Tendo placed his big hand on her shoulders and chuckled. “At least you’re being honest about it. Just remember to always have a goal in mind, and work toward that goal. As long as you’re moving toward a goal, you’re not ...backsliding.”
“What does backsliding mean?”
“It means that you’ve got to leave your friends and most of your family behind, and run off into the wilderness to avoid getting in trouble.”
Even now, five years later, Akane knew that her father’s advice was still good. Professor Aizawa had mirrored it, if not word-for-word then in general meaning. Perhaps that was what caused her tendency to run headfirst into any challenge in her way, no matter how dark or difficult, and trust that things would work out so long as she faced it squarely and put her all into the effort.
...But it was probably just that she was an aggressive tomboy.
-----
Two things were immediate apparent as Akane charged headlong through the front of the concrete simulation building, with Momo close behind her. First, the inside of the training structure was completely bare. The walls, stairs, and ceiling were all smooth grey cement. It would be hard for their opponents to hide with the rooms so empty.
“Watch for blind corners. They’re probably waiting to ambush us once we get closer to the objective, and the avenues we can approach by are limited.” Momo said from close behind her.
“Right!”
They hit the stairs and Momo slowed, but Akane still didn’t feel anyone else nearby, so she leaped them two at a time…
And when she stepped on a patch of slippery white good on the second flight, all her weight came down on that one foot, which slid out from under the overconfident girl and sent her tumbling face-first into the concrete stairs! Akane barely got her arms up in time to keep her face from breaking her fall, and the harsh angles of the stone steps bit into her skin above her gloves, where the fabric was thinner.
She tore her uniform top’s sleeves off and dabbed the acid away from her boot before it ate complete through it. She froze for an instant, when she remembered that there was a big T.V. screen in the observation room where her classmates were watching, but she still had most of her top on. It was basically just a tank top now, right?
“I thought you said that Mina and Kyoka weren’t going to bother guarding the first floor?!”
Momo’s response was immediate and firm. “They aren’t guarding the first floor. Mina will be with Kyoka. If she comes out to ambush either of us, then that negates the advantage of Kyoka’s information-gathering. This is just meant to slow us down. I… should have warned you. I’m sorry.”
“Well it’s working.” Akane snapped, but then flushed red with embarrassment. “...No. I get it. It’s my own stupid fault for being sloppy.”
The other girl’s face lit up, the shame vanishing as Akane accepted the blame. “Let’s just get through this. It looks like that’s four or five steps covered in acid. I could make a sponge, but trying to pick up acid with a sponge sounds like it would take a while. Perhaps a base? But making enough to walk up the stairs would reduce my ability to make anything else, and if the next two stairs are also trapped in the same way, then my Quirk would be almost used up by the time we reached the top floor.”
“I could try jumping it, with a running start, but I don’t know if you could make that distance.” Akane said.
Momo narrowed her eyes, and glanced at the girl in blue and white. She was athletic, but not the lean kind. Akane was built powerfully, for a girl. “You’re onto something. Just let me… Yes! Akane, if you clasp your hands together on the ground and face away from the stairs?”
Akane recognized what she wanted to do. “Oh yeah!”
Momo took as many steps back as she could in the staircase, breathed in, and then ran forward with two long strides. The third landed squarely on Akane’s laced-together fingers, and when she heaved up with her whole body she sent Momo soaring up over the entire flight of stairs to land safely on the next floor.
“Good job!”
Akane grinned as her partner gave her a thumbs up, and then she backed up for her own running leap. She kicked off the wall halfway up, and landed heavily beside Momo. If it were Ranma here then he’d have taken the whole staircase in two bounds, but she wasn’t him. She just had to keep getting better. “Let’s go.”
The second floor was the same as the first, full of large rooms that they ran through quickly, divided by doorways that Momo checked with a little mirror on an extendable pole. The stairs were coated in Mina’s acid again, but they knew how to circumvent that trap, so they barged into the upper floor with almost a minute and a half left on the timer.
The top floor of the building was a long hall with big square pillars running down both sides, ideal for sneaking around and hiding in, and sure enough as soon as the Heroes crossed through the door they saw that Kyoka was the only other person present.
The faux-Villain saw them. “Now!” She yelled, and ran to close in.
A flash of excitement warned Akane that Mina had hidden behind a pillar and was now behind them. “I’ve got your back.”
“Then I’ll take the front!” Momo grasped at the bare skin showing at her side, and when a handle grew from her skin she grasped it. By the time the distance between she and Kyoka was closed, she held a wooden practice sword in both hands.
“Ha!” She struck down at Mina’s head with a smooth, powerful blow, and the other girl backpedaled, only to lunge back in close and stick her Quirk-altered earlobe into Momo’s upper arm. The arm vibrated with a two-strike beat, spasming and making her drop her sword.
Kyoka kicked the weapon away and fouled Momo’s legs, dumping her on the ground. “What you felt was my heart beating. I can do more than hear with my earphone jacks; I can broadcast and amplify the rhythms my heart makes whenever I jab them into something.”
Momo looked back over her shoulder as she scrambled away from her opponent, and saw Mina hastily sweep her arms left and right, flinging acidic slime in wide arcs to keep Akane back. Already the martial artist’s costume was damaged, several blotchy lines eaten into it that showed reddened skin beneath. If she got any closer, where the splashes were thicker and less spread out, then a bit of irritated skin and damaged cloth would be the least of her worries.
She didn’t have enough time to create anything large or complex, so-
Kyoka close in again, and used her heavy boots to kick the other girl in the side, interrupting her train of thought with sharp pain. “Oof!”
Grappling would be bad. Kyoka has four grabbing limbs, and if she got one of her earphone jacks in front of her eyes then that was a kill-shot. Momo’d be ruled disqualified from the match without accomplishing anything. That couldn’t happen. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. She had to do something!
In desperation, she reached for the pattern most familiar to her Quirk -Matryoshka dolls. The little Russian nesting dolls rattled onto the ground her, and with one smooth motion Momo slid several over to Akane. “Throw them!” She yelled, then leapt to her feet and followed her own advice.
Kyoka ducked and the doll missed, cracking against the pillar behind her, but when the doll hit it didn’t pop open to reveal a second doll. Fine white powder fell across her back, released when the doll broke. “What’s…”
“It’s alkaline powder, to neutralize the pH of the acid.” Momo revealed, her confidence now returned.
Akane stomped on one of the dolls, sending a puff of dust into the air around her. She noticed that the acid stopped hissing and eating into the floor wherever the contents of the doll settled.
Mina gritted her teeth and prepared to throw more acid, but Akane pegged another doll right into her chest like it was a softball. She squeezed her eyes closed until the cloud cleared, but Akane dove straight in and hit her in the side of the head, ringing her head like a bell and sending the acid-spraying Hero down for the count.
The only member of the Villain team still standing squared off against the two Heroes. “You still have to get through me to get to the bomb.” She said.
-----
“Hero team: victory by combat!” All Might boomed over the P.A. system moments later.
After a short check-in with Recovery Girl, a shriveled-up old Hero who could heal wounds with a kiss, and a longer lecture on how to perform emergency first aid for blunt trauma to the head, the dangers of inhaling alkaline dust, and proper treatment for small puncture wounds, the four girls rejoined the class in the observation room -Akane after changing back into her school uniform due to costume damage.
“I hope our fight didn’t engender any hard feelings.” Momo said to the Villain team members.
Mina laughed, a loud and bubbly sound. “No way. That move with the Russian dolls was slick.”
“...That was actually an accident. I needed a container, and was going to make something more like a flash-bang, but I started making wooden dolls by mistake and couldn’t change partway through.” Momo admitted sheepishly.
“I thought it was kind of cool, like a visual flare.” Kyoka said.
“You’re a little too green to be worrying about finishing moves, but keep that trick in mind, Yaoyorozu. Sometimes unpredictability is a Hero’s greatest asset in a fight. Being able to hide the true nature of an attack drastically increases- well you don’t need to worry about that yet either, but I suppose it’s no surprise that the best in this match was Momo Yaoyorozu!”
Momo blushed, but stared straight ahead and accepted the praise without downplaying it.
“Miss Tendo, your can-do attitude and willingness to charge in are excellent traits for a Hero to have, but it was only Yaoyorozu’s planning and ability to react to unexpected circumstances that let you achieve your objective when confronted with a Quirk you couldn’t punch through. As I am well aware, there are some Villains you can’t take down by running up and socking them in the chin. If you can’t make your individual strengths work, then you need a way to change the situation to let you apply those strengths.
“Kyoka Jiro? Excellent use of your Quirk to identify the situation from afar. Sensory Quirks are extremely valued for a reason, but it looks like you need to work on your grappling, so that you can really clinch it -HA! Mina Ashido, you recognized which opponent you were suited to counteracting and did so with a well-timed ambush, but you relied too heavily on your Quirk. There are many situations where the use of acid is unacceptable to a Hero, but fortunately U.A. is here to help you all shore up those weak spots and shine up your good ones!”
All Might thrust his hands against his hips and his sheer joy almost beamed out of him in visible waves. Akane did see them. “Our next match is… Shoto Todoroki and Eijiro Kirishima versus Katsuki Bakugo and Izuku Midiyora! Todoroki and Kirishima shall be the Villains, and Bakugo and Midiyora the Heroes. Villains, please proceed to the next room, where there is an undamaged simulation building prepared for you.”
The timid-looking boy with green hair squeaked, and Katsuki almost choked on his own tongue.
-----
The current match was displayed on the screens, one dedicated to each each student participating in the round, but since the two teams hadn’t split up the effect was more of there being two camera angles on each team.
“They don’t seem to like each other much.” Kyoka said.
“That seems to be an understatement. This could prove an issue for their effectiveness. I’d go so far as to say that if they don’t start cooperating more, they’ll lose no matter how powerful they are individually.” Momo hummed and tapped her chin as, on screen, Katsuki leveled a grenade-shaped gauntlet at the outer wall of the building and blew a hole to enter through. He rounded on Izuku, grabbed him by the collar of his costume, and pinned him against the wall as he leaned in close.
Akane shrugged. “Nah. This is just a guy thing.”
Momo pursed her lips and leaned forward in concentration. “This doesn’t seem like a boy thing. Admittedly I don’t know many boys, but doesn’t seem normal.”
“It’s something I see a lot in Nerima. Two guys who actually like each other and never actually get along, but who just click when things get hard. It’s shonen.”
Kyoka frowned as, onscreen, Izuku stepped into Katsuki’s personal space and almost screamed something at him. “I…”
“Non shonen-ai!” Akane hissed. Then, after a pause to let her brain recognize what she just said and look back at the screen, she flushed beet red. “...Well. Maybe shonen-ai does fit.”
“P-perhaps we should ask them?” Momo whispered.
“I couldn't.” Akane whispered back.
“I bet I can get Denki to do it.” Kyoka lowered her voice to match, and glanced over at the blond boy across the room, who saw and shot her a pair of finger guns.
The other two nodded, and the pact was sealed.
-----
A week later, the black bruise around Denki Kaminari’s left eye had turned an interesting shade of yellow, but he hadn’t held a grudge over what he thought was a ‘sick prank’ for very long. He’d managed to get the seat across the aisle from Mina on the bus, and was happily gossiping with her about the special rescue training they were about to get at an offsite location.
Akane sat quietly and looked out the window, worried about how she’d handle the training. Of course she’d do her best, but she hadn’t put much thought toward that aspect of heroism before. Was there anything she could do better than a normal first responder?
As Katsuki turned around in his seat to shout at the froglike girl and Denki took a turn at prodding the volatile boy, a girl with an honest face and decal-like blush marks high on her cheeks laughed at the show. Her name was Ochaco, probably, but Akane hadn’t really gotten to know her yet.
The simulation area itself, they saw once they got there, was inside a vast geodesic dome. From the entrance plaza, Akane saw zones that harbored many artificially created disaster scenes, from mudslides to sinking ships and toppled office buildings.
Izuku and Ochaco both cheered at the arrival of a Hero wearing something like a space suit, except for the skinny ankles and comfortable hiking shoes sticking out of the cut-short pants. “It’s the space Hero, No. 13!”
“Wow! I’ve always liked No. 13!”
He approached after a short conference with Aizawa, who was the teacher accompanying class 1A on the field trip. “Before we begin, I have just one thing to mention. Or two. Or three. Or four. I’m certain you’re all aware, but my Quirk is called “Black Hole”. No matter what material gets sucked in, it’s all disintegrated.”
Izuku, who Akane was starting to suspect might be a little obsessed with Pro Heroes, said “It’s a perfect Quirk for getting rid of wreckage and saving people injured by disasters!”
No. 13 clumsily nodded in his bulky suit. “Yes… However, it is also a power that could easily maim or kill if misused. In that way it is the same as all of your Quirks, and the Quirks of many other people. This is why society requires the public use of Quirks to be regulated, and those regulations enforced. So please, don’t forget that all of you hold the power to do great harm intrinsically within. During last week’s trial of battle with All Might, you learned firsthand just how dangerous your Quirks are.”
Some students shifted guiltily, and avoided looking at those they’d injured. Akane considered the mechanics of her Quirk in particular, and shivered.
But then the bulky Hero raised his arms and boomed in a much more jovial voice. “But let’s treat today as a fresh start, a day to learn how to use your Quirks to save human lives instead of harm them!”
But there was an unexpected observer.
A speck of black, ragged at the edges, came into being further within the plaza. It grew, slowly at first to just the size of a human head, at which point Aizawa noticed and turned to look at it.
A face stared back at him.
The thing that stood out about the face the most was the hand spread across it. It was a human hand, and though everything past the wrist was missing it still clung there like a spider, or a gas mask. Lank grey-blue hair spilled around the fingers, between which two beady red eyes met Aizawa’s alarm with a kind of understated amusement ...and anticipation.
The blackness, now visibly a kind of inky fog, fluttered out at an astonishing rate, wide enough to let a wide assortment of horrifying figures come through at a casual pace. The man with a hand on his face was quickly overtaken by others -a man with antelope horns, a woman with feathery hair, and many many more that seemed more like villains in a weekly adventure show than real people. One was a barely-humanoid hulk of muscle with no skull around his brain, and a mouth like a shark’s, that even the others gave a wide berth. They dressed in homemade costumes whose every detail showed a kind of grisly obsession with accentuating how distinct they were from the unconscious understanding of a ‘normal’ person, and they flowed around the first man like he was a boulder sunk into a shallow stream.
Aizawa shouted, “Huddle together and don’t move!”
Akane was slow to recognize what was happening. She was so used to taking her cues from the emotional states of those around her, and there were so many good emotions around that her teacher’s sudden spike of sickly fear didn’t register immediately. Nothing was wrong because everyone was happy, or looking forward to something with positive anticipation, or at least was just neutral and confused.
But then the mood of those near her started to shift.
“No. 13, protect the students!” Aizawa ordered, and snapped open a pair of goggles that he slotted over his eyes.
“None of you move!” He repeated, and he was afraid -so afraid- and angry. “Those are villains!”
Within the dark fog there was a shape of even darker fog, lit by pale light that outlined his body. “...Eraserhead and No. 13. According to the curriculum we procured yesterday, All Might was supposed to be here, and yet…”
“Where is he?” The man with the hand on his face asked in a low, scratchy voice. “We went through all this trouble and rustled up so many of us to bring along. I didn’t arrange all of this just for All Might, the Symbol of Peace, not to be here.”
Aizawa loosened his scarf and prepared to fight as the Villains’ ringleader kept talking.
“This is such a let-down. I even found a guest fighter with a personal grudge against one of the kids.” He paused a moment. “Kurogiri, where is he?”
“One moment.” The outlined figure vanished, and reappeared a moment later. “Here he is.”
One last person walked out of the fog.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, but not so much so that it was the result of a Quirk, with black hair and tanned skin. He was well-built, but only avoided being stocky by virtue of his height. He wore a dark yellow shirt, black pants, a spotted yellow bandana across his forehead, and carried a large red umbrella in one hand.
He boy drove his umbrella point-first into the ground and chipped the stone floor, and glared balefully at the assembled class 1A. “Ranma Saotome! I’m here to get justice for everything you’ve done to ruin my life -so prepare to die!”