Fourteen
“It’s really him!” A few excited whispers reached All Might’s ears as he entered the room, sliding the door shut behind him.
“Good evening everyone!” He greeted the class, looking around the room at everyone. His eyes met vermilion and for a moment he thought that Bakugou Katsuki was in this class. But then he remembered that the explosive boy had a sister.
“Good evening.” The class replied on instinct.
“Today’s heroics class is going to be about this,” All Might held up a card that said Combat. “Combat training!” Akko smirked. She was right.
“Grab your hero costumes and meet me at Training Ground Beta!” All Might held a remote up to the far wall and pushed a button. This caused the wall to be pushed out to reveal cases with numbers.
All Might left the room and everyone grabbed their cases and made their way to the changing rooms. Once inside, Akko placed her case down on the bench and popped it open.
Inside was a sleeveless black bodysuit with orange details and two different pouches that were attached to the waistband of the suit. Underneath the clothing was a pair of black gloves that went to her elbows as well as black combat boots with a slight heel.
Under those was what she was mainly excited for. There were pebbles, metal balls filled with gunpowder, and metal containers the size of a small mason jar filled with gunpowder as well.
Akko looked around, and scowled. There weren’t any stalls she could go into to change. So, with a sigh, Akko began to undress. As soon as she had taken off her button down and undershirt, she heard a gasp from behind her.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Pony looking at her back. Her gasp caught the attention of the others as well and they all looked over to see what she was looking at.
It couldn’t have been Akko’s tattoo, as before she went to school she placed KT tape over it on her back and around her shoulder to her collarbone to hide them. Then Akko remembered. The stab wound.
“What happened?” Kendo asked as Akko changed into her suit.
“I’ve had it since I was born,” It wasn’t a lie. “It’s somewhat of a birthmark, I guess.” She shrugged as she finished placing the pebbles and balls into the pouches and clipped one of the metal containers to her waistband. The group exited the changing room and headed for the training grounds.
“Does anyone have a hair tie?” Akko asked as they walked.
“Here.” A quiet voice spoke up as a hand entered Akko’s peripheral, hair tie dangling from a finger.
“Thanks Yanagi-san.” Akko smiled at the shy girl before taking the hair tie and tying her hair back in a high ponytail. Once they entered the training grounds, the boy's eyes moved to them.
“You look good!” Yosetsu said as Akko and Kendo approached him, Monoma and Kaibara.
“Thanks, you too.” Akko replied with a smile, Kendo nodding in agreement. Akko looked at Monoma’s outfit.
“You know, a suit like that is probably impractical for fighting,” Akko pointed out, feeling the fabric. “It’s not a bad design, though you might want to switch the material to something harder to tear and flexible,” She said as her friends looked at her in surprise. “What?”
“It’s just surprising, that’s all.” Kendo shrugged.
“What’s surprising? It’s just common sense to make a hero costume that won’t rip and provide flexibility.” Akko scowled as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“It’s not that,” Kaibara piped up. “It’s surprising that you can tell that just by looking at his costume and feeling it.” He explained.
“All material has a certain look and feel to it. Take my costume for example,” She held out her arm to them to show off the glove. “My costume is made out of a flexible material that doesn’t rip or burn easily.” Akko let them feel it.
“It feels almost like spandex, but it also feels like cotton.” Kendo pointed out.
“Well then I’ll keep that in mind.” Monoma said, giving Akko a grin. Their attention was soon captured by All Might once everyone had settled.
“Now that you're ready, it's time for combat training. I'm going to move
you two steps ahead. Most of the villain fights you see on the news take place outside. However, statistically speaking, run‐ins with the most dastardly evildoers take place indoors.” All Might explained.
Thinking about it logically, he’s correct. Back then Toman did a lot indoors. Akko thought. Mikey’s fight with Valhalla was inside a warehouse.
“Think about it. Backroom deals, home invasions, secret underground lairs. Truly intelligent criminals stay hidden in the shadows,” Akko nodded along. “For this training exercise, you'll be split into teams of good guys and bad guys and fight two‐on‐two indoor battles.” All Might announced.
“Yes!” Kinoko clapped her hands together lightly. Kuroiro, who stood beside the mushroom obsessed individual, nodded.
“How will we be choosing teams?” Kendo asked, raising her hand.
“We’ll be drawing lots,” All Might answered. “But first, the situation is this,” He pulled out a book. A script? Akko thought, raising an eyebrow.
“The villains have hidden a nuclear missile somewhere in their hideout. The heroes must try to foil their plans. To do that, the good guys either have to catch the evildoers or recover the weapon. Likewise, the bad guys succeed if they protect their payload or capture the heroes.” All Might explained.
“This sounds fun.” Kaibara said, receiving multiple nods in reply.
“This exercise plays to the strengths of emitter quirks like Komori-san’s.” Shishida Jurota pointed out. Said mushroom girl turned to look at him with a slight frown.
“I told you to call me Kinoko!”
“Improvise, adapt, and overcome.” Akko patted Shishida’s shoulder as she passed him to draw a letter from the box All Might provided. Letter C. She glanced around for her partner.
“I guess we’re together.” A voice spoke up from Akko’s left. She turned to see the Chinese transfer student Rin Hiryu approaching her with a ball labelled C in his hand.
“Guess so.” Akko gave him a slight smile.
“Okay!” All Might said, grabbing everyone’s attention. “First up are…” he reached into the box and pulled out two balls. “Teams I and A! You four take these,” he handed each of them an ear piece and a roll of clear tape. “And stand in front of that building there. Everyone else, follow me.”
The two teams made up of Kendo and Kodai, and Kuroiro and Shishida waited in front of a red building as All Might led the rest of them into a secluded room with tv screens.
“Team A are the villains. You may enter the building and start preparing. You have three minutes.” All Might said into a microphone. Kendo and Kodai entered the building while the rest of the class watched on the screens.
Akko stood with her partner off to the side and they both watched in comfortable silence. Kendo moved the fake bomb up to the highest level of the building using her quirk while Kodai moved some things around, and made objects large enough to block some doorways.
Once the three minutes were up Kuroiro and Shishida entered the building. It wasn’t boring to watch, but at the same time it wasn’t very eventful as Kuroiro managed to incapacitate Kodai with ease after merging with the shadows and wrapping the capture tape around her.
Shishida found Kendo by sniffing her out and the two threw some punches, but the beast-man got the upperhand and managed to land a hand on the bomb with ended the fight.
Once they entered the observation room, the winning team was congratulated before All Might called the next two teams. Team D, villains, Team J, heroes.
Team D consisted of Kinoko and Tokage while Team J was Kaibara and Yosetsu. As Team J waited, Kaibara made small talk with Yosetsu, although no one could hear but All Might.
“Hey Awase-kun, how did you do it?” Kaibara asked.
“How did I do what?” Yosetsu was confused.
“Get Akko-chan to call you by your first name,” Kaibara sighed. “Every time I get close to asking she’s called away by someone else.” He huffed.
“I just told her to, after the break in earlier,” Yosetsu shrugged. “I’m sure if you just asked, she’d be more than willing.” All Might then called them into the building.
While everyone else watched in silence, Akko couldn’t help but think about what the two were talking about. She had learned to read lips when she was younger, after an incident at the playground that caused her to go deaf momentarily. Why is it such a big deal to him? Lost in her thoughts, Akko hadn’t realised how much time had passed.
Soon she was called.
“Team C, villains, and Team H, heroes!” Akko took the capture tape and earpiece from All Might before exiting the observation room with Rin.
“Rin-san, why don’t you move the bomb to the lower levels of the building? The heroes will most likely go up, before they think of going down.” Akko said once they entered the red building, her familiar roots as a gang coordinator took hold.
Rin nodded and did as asked as Akko walked around the building, dropping pebbles as she walked. Finally she got to a room in the middle of the building and placed down a few metal balls filled with gunpowder. She then met up with Rin once again.
“The heroes may now enter.” All Might said through the earpiece.
“That’s our cue,” Akko nodded to Rin. “I’ll remain here, you go split them up. Try to send Monoma-san my way.” Rin nodded, but before he left, he stopped.
“Call me Hiryu.” He said before leaving. Akko nodded to herself. Okay then. She waited.
“South hall, third floor.” Hiryu said to Akko. She set off the bombs that littered that hallway.
In the observation room, everyone watched as Akko systematically blew up the pebbles in each hallway and room that Hiryu told her to.
He had managed to separate Monoma from Tsuburaba and was leading the latter farther away from the bomb. Just as Akko had planned, the two hadn’t thought of entering the basement.
Eventually, Monoma found Akko.
“Well well well, if it isn’t a little hero, come to save the day.” Akko’s voice sent shivers down Monoma’s spine. She was a good actress, he’d give her that.
“Tell me where the bomb is and I wouldn’t kick your ass.” Monoma stated.
“Really?” Akko tilted her head to the side. “Your ass is the one about to be kicked.” At her words she set off one of the metal balls near Monoma’s feet, which sent him flying back out the door and into a wall.
Everyone in the observation room winced. She was brutal.
Monoma picked himself back up and before she could throw anything at her, he used Tsuburaba’s quirk to create a shield around himself.
“You underestimate me.” He breathed out. Akko chuckled darkly. The blonde’s eyes widened as he looked down at the floor. But he was too slow as three pebbles exploded under him. They didn’t send him flying, but they broke the shield and put up a smoke screen which allowed Akko to get close to him.
“Times up.” She hissed before throwing a punch towards Monoma’s sternum, which knocked all the wind from his lungs as well as bringing him to his knees. Akko wrapped the capture tape around him.
“Villain team wins!” All Might announced.