Let's Play a Game
32. Let's Play a Game
Izuku found himself looking at the clock every two minutes.
“Are you waiting for something Izuku, kero?” asked Tsu, noticing.
Blushing, he said, “Not really! Just can’t wait to get to training this afternoon!”
“Me too! We get our test results back today!” sang Ochaco, stretching her arms above her head, seemingly unaware of the tension in the Omega next to her.
“I think I’ll be a Beta with more Alpha tendencies,” said Hanta.
Mina giggled, “You would think that.”
He winked at her, making the girl’s cheeks turn even pinker.
“What about you Izuku?” asked Shouto.
“I don’t really know…”
“I bet you’ll have a lot of Alpha indicators. You’re really strong and good at organizing and executing strategies in battle,” said Ochaco thoughtfully.
Izuku just shrugged and went back to taking notes. He did need to pass to graduate.
After Science class Izuku was heading to Gym Gamma. They were doing evasive exercises. He changed in the locker room and met the rest of the class out on the mats.
Mr. Aizawa swept in moments later.
“Asui Tsuyu and Kaminari Denki to the nurse, the rest of you pair off. One of you will be practicing your offensive attacks, the other is to evade. Be sure to count any moves that strike. When I blow my whistle, switch!” he raised a yellow whistle to his lips and blew.
At least it wouldn’t be much longer now, thought the green haired UA student as he squared up against Kacchan, the explosive blond grinning at him.
Forty Five minutes later Izuku and Mina were finally making their way to the nurses office. They were the last pair, Mr. Aizawa was trailing behind them. Evidently he needed to speak with Recovery Girl about something? Yeah, Izuku wasn’t buying that either.
“So Mido,” said the bubbly pink young woman, “You seem kinda stressed.”
Guess that was obvious. He didn’t want his friends to really know why though but he didn’t want to lie either. Half truth?
“Just worried about the bloodwork.”
“What for? We all have to get it, and you can’t change what it says.”
That was true, thinks Izuku. Still…
“They tested Tomura’s too.”
“Oooh yeah, as a former villain he probably never got his done. That’s a good thing isn’t it? The test can help explain certain behaviors and it could help his therapy be more successful, right?” she said.
He just nodded in agreement as they walked into the school’s medical office.
—
Tomura looked up again from the desk he’s been working at when he heard the door open. He’d gotten to the medical wing early and the old beta woman had been kind enough to offer him space to set up his laptop and work. She'd seemed to have warmed up to him a bit. Something about seeing Midoriya in her office less often.
The Alpha watched Mina and Izuku enter, followed minutes later by a nearly silent Eraserhead.
The reformee was just finishing up grading the last paper for Mic’s class. He also had several lectures to begin working on for the next school year. A few instructors wanted him to cover topics from a villain’s point of view and Tomura had agreed.
He was relieved to see his Omega, the younger man had been getting more and more anxious over the last hour and Tomura could sense it through their connection. The rest of his classmates had already made an appearance. Most had been quickly in and out, a few stayed and asked some questions. Izuku was still stressed though, Tomura wished he knew why. It’s not like you can study for a blood test.
“Ah, Miss. Ashido I have your test results right here. Also included is a packet explaining how to interpret them, a glossary of definitions, and a list of reputable resources you can read if you want more information. And as always, I am here to answer any of your questions fully under doctor patient privilege.”
Mina took the envelope, bowed and said thank you, and then she was gone. Now it was just the two of them… and Eraserhead.
“Promise you won’t freak out ok?” asked Izuku as he stood next to Tomura.
“Why would I freak out?”
“You’ll see.”
Well that was cryptic, thinks the Alpha.
Recovery Girl came up to them holding two sealed envelopes, “Midoriya, Shigaraki. Not even I know what’s in these.”
Her eyes flicked over to Izuku’s teacher as she passed the paperwork to the young men.
“I’m not happy to be here either,” grumbled Shouta.
Izuku thought his Sensei looked… uncomfortable?
“Don’t give me that!” she snapped, wacking at his shins with her cane, “If you really didn’t care to know, you’d have told that darn Principal of ours to shove a hot cup of tea up his damn nose!”
Tomura did his best to suppress his laughter by faking a cough. Judging by the glare from the adults in the room he hadn’t succeeded. They didn’t mention it though.
“I’m sorry?” said Izuku, “Why are you arguing?”
Shouta rubbed his forehead, “Principal Nedzu has a request for both of you. He would like for you to share your test results with myself, and I in turn will inform him of the same. He also asked that I assure you this information will go no further. I am sure you know why, Midoriya.”
The young man nodded and Tomura felt so out of the loop.
Unless someone was willing to tell him what these test results meant Tomura would have no idea what he was even looking at. Remember, big bad supervillain old guy, did not even give little Tomura the birds and the bees talk. The best he knew is a cable could go in any port, if you connected the right cable to the right port at the right time you could end up pro-creating.
Anyway…
“You are not required to share your results with anyone,” the older woman stressed.
“What do you want to do Freckles?”
“It’s your decision too, but I trust that Principal Nedzu would never do something to try to hurt us. And I trust Aizawa Sensei with our lives.”
“You mean your life.”
“I mean ours.”
Izuku could feel the prickle of his Mate’s doubt, but…
“We understand,” said Tomura, “And agree to share this information.”
Recovery Girl frowned, so Izuku added, “I don’t believe Principal Nedzu would have asked if it wasn’t important.”
Then they ripped open the envelopes.
—
The top half of the paper read like any other blood work Izuku had seen before, the bottom half covered their Alphan and Omegan trait charts. Skimming past that, Izuku briefly noted he trended towards ‘Alpha’ under a key few. He could analyze that later, for now Izuku was only searching for the Special Categories section.
His breath caught when he saw it.
The Omega’s hunch had been correct. Izuku’s brain immediately kicked into overdrive working through what happened to them in conjunction with what he now knew…
Tomura had plenty of blood drawn when he was at Dr. Ujiko’s lab. He’d never seen any results or discussed them, however. He knew what blood type was, but after that, the rest of the paper may as well have been written in Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Leaning over Tomura saw Izuku’s results were similar to his own. They even both had positive results for ‘Prime Factor’, whatever that was. The younger man was already mumbling a mile a minute next to him. Tomura caught the word Prime more than once, so he thought he’d just ask,
“What the fuck does ‘Prime’ mean?”
Shouta and Chiyo looked up at the Alpha.
The green haired UA Student slapped a hand to his face and groaned. Of course his Mate had no idea what that meant. He wanted to kick OFA in the knees.
Tomura passed his paperwork to Izuku when he held out his arm and made grabby motions. Barely holding back a laugh he instead focused on his Omega’s face as he read the paper.
Izuku skimmed through the usual stuff, pausing when he saw the Alpha had come up high on the Omegan trait for nurturing. Huh. That actually tracked given how Tomura handled the League Pack and his work as a TA. He continued down the page and sure enough there it was.
Prime Factor: Positive.
“Izuku, please confirm,” asked Mr. Aizawa.
The younger Omega passed the papers to his Sensei, no reason he couldn’t see for himself after everything that had already been said out loud.
“We’re both Primes,” said Izuku a little numbly. He sat down next to his Mate and looked at the more Adult, Adults in the room, “How is that even possible? I mean, what are the odds?”
Chiyo tapped her cane and explained, “It’s pretty typical, actually. Primes are far stronger, more influential. Other Alphas and Omegas simply do not compare. Therefore, they seek another Prime as their partner.”
This makes sense to Tomura. Why pick someone too weak to keep up with you? Izuku had proven time and time again he was powered by an unyielding will.
“What does this mean?” the reformee tentatively asked. Would they want to study them? Keep him and Izuku in a cell, run experiments, or worse? His scent became sour and bitter. Suddenly it was taking everything Tomura had not to start trembling. Fuck. What was going to happen to them now?
“Midoriya!” uttered Chiyo urgently, but the Omega had already moved. Pulling Tomura’s head down into his left shoulder, blocking the other’s view of his face with his own while letting them scent using their neck glands. He whispered soft affirmations, “Tomura, I’m here, it’s ok. We are safe. I promise. You know I never break a promise.”
The Alpha hadn’t realized he was starting to spiral into a panic attack until he was pressed nose first into his Mate’s neck gland. Breathing in the calming pheromones of his partner. His beautiful, kind, caring Omega, Tomura was able to stop his reaction before things got any worse.
A few minutes later Izuku felt his Alpha let out a long shuddering breath, then held up his hand between them, a fist with the pinky extended, “Pinky swear?”
Izuku couldn’t help it, he snorted and just a tiny little giggle slipped out, and then… then Tomura was giggling too as he felt a pinky wrap around his own.
“Ah HEM.”
The two young men jerked apart, face muscles fighting to stop their laughter.
“They are a funny pair aren’t they!” said Recovery Girl with a smirk.
“Hilarious,” said the Erasure hero painfully rolling his eyes, “Thank you for trusting Nedzu and myself with this. Take these and keep them out of sight.”
Shouta passed the papers back to his troublesome young adults. He was already getting a headache.
“I’d advise you to avoid telling anyone else about your status,” says the older Omega.
No shit, thinks Tomura.
They packed their paperwork away and headed to Heights Alliance. It was board game night.
—
Dabi still wasn’t used to just walking around in broad daylight (but he got to sleep in a warm cozy nest with his Mate.) He didn’t like having his quirk restricted (but he hadn’t burned himself in weeks now). He hated the work study program, so far nothing seemed to fit (but he had a dirty rotten sneaking suspicion why…) He hated how he needed to use a support suit and to pass a ‘test’ in order to train with the Hero Course students (and, I mean, it was so uncool to work alongside your younger brother and all his friends) And he did not like how Present Mic drove. (That man was going to kill someone!)
Today was worse than all of those.
Today the Alpha was accompanying his Mate to the Doctor’s office.
After a serious discussion with Keigo and another with the Doctor, Dabi had decided to get the BC Implant. It wasn’t as if he was saying they’d never have another pup, he just wanted it to be a conscious decision between the two of them.
If there was a next time.
The Doctor had made it very clear that Keigo would want to copulate with his Mate soon after giving birth and would immediately be fertile. If they wanted to avoid another baby so soon, it would be best for Dabi to get the implant now. Only one partner needed to have the implant to be effective. Most teenagers got it after they presented, but any adult could choose to get the device or get a new one if they wanted to.
Dabi hadn’t been to an actual Doctor in over a decade.
Even when he’d been badly injured during ‘work’ or missions for the League he refused to see the old man that worked with AFO. That ‘Doctor’ gave him the fucking creeps. Tomura told him once the man had some kind of longevity quirk. He was older than dirt and like AFO he didn’t even have a secondary gender. It unnerved his Alpha.
Yamada waited for them in the lobby while he and Keigo were led to an exam room.
Keigo felt nervous, but he always did at these appointments. He was going in every two weeks and so far the Doctor had assured him everything was moving along right on schedule. The Avian was eating a more raw diet, mostly chicken including the bones, some frogs and fish (Which Dabi hated but put up with for them both.), as well as fresh fruit and grains.
Despite now being very pregnant, Keigo had never felt better.
Atsuhiro had been the one to gently point out one evening after dinner that Keigo had been eating too much like a human and not enough to satisfy the Avian part of his quirk which included a metabolism that needed enough energy to support both feather growth and flight. In other words, the HPSC had deliberately been keeping him under -nourished as another means of control.
Keigo’s checkup went fine and then Dabi took a seat on the bench.
“Since you are already very familiar with piercings I imagine this will likely not be a big deal for you at all. It is basically a subdermal,” said the tortoise-like Doctor as they loaded up the injector and swabbed an area on his arm with an alcohol wipe.
Keigo was watching the whole thing with rapt fascination. He’d never seen a device like this before. Even better, he wasn’t the one getting poked at for once! Hah!
Dabi just huffed and leaned back, he closed his eyes and waited for the procedure to be over.
The Doctor loaded up the device and pressed the gun to the back of Dabi’s forearm. Pulling the trigger it was set in place in an instant, a small drop of blood the only proof anything had happened. Turning the gun around the Doctor held it to Dabi’s skin where it scanned and confirmed the location of the medical device, then proceeded to make a clicking noise as it tattooed a small blue date and serial number into Dabi’s skin.
Then the Doctor cleaned the area, and stuck a bright blue bandaid with little goldfish over the area.
The whole procedure had taken less than five minutes.
—
*click click click clickety click… clickety click click click*
Tomura sat at the dining room table typing away.
He was finishing up some grading in the living room of the League’s Pack housing. They had made it several weeks and everyone seemed to be settling into some kind of routine. That was good. You can’t focus on yourself if you always need to be looking over your shoulder running from one rat hole to the next.
Lythe fingers danced across the keyboard.
*PING!*
With the sound a notification popped up in the corner of the screen letting Tomura know he had an email from Principal Nedzu. He’d been waiting for the furry cryptid’s reply.
Tomura finished typing and submitted the final graded paper with his comments. (B+, not bad, but the kid needed better sources. Problem was they just weren’t out there yet, the subject too new. He advised the student to spend a little more time researching how much reputable information was available before choosing to submit his topic.)
Next he opened the email from the near omnipotent rodent. Crimson eyes read the few lines of text. And then re-read them.
Closing the laptop he leaned back on the couch streaching his spine as he considered the simple content of the message.
Dabi was having the most difficulty ‘adjusting’.
Tomura crossed his long arms behind his head.
The former Lord of Decay knew the fire user’s lack of progress wasn’t really for lack of trying. Despite whatever Dabi told himself.
To be fair, his friend was under a lot of pressure.
First, he’d surrendered the wellbeing of the Pack to UA. Yes it was agreed between him and Tomura, but giving up control isn’t easy for an Alpha.
Next, everyone save himself was constantly wearing the quirk suppressing shackles. (Izuku took Tomura’s own off often in the League’s home. Something about earning his trust, hah. Can you believe that?)
Dabi and Keigo are preparing for the arrival of their egg.
On top of that was therapy, where old deeply protected scars get picked apart, the useless debris scraped away, allowing the rawness beneath to heal over better. All that while trying to figure out the right combination of meds. Medications which take time to become fully effective and some have serious side effects. He and Izuku were months ahead of the rest of their Pack on that front alone.
All of this has left the older Alpha somewhat adrift, unsure of what to do now that he’s not running headlong to self destruction anymore. Dabi came from a larger family and had a bunch of siblings. So Tomura had wondered…
The front door slammed and Tomura looked over only to see the very same person on his mind walk in.
Dabi loudly kicked off his boots and skulked over to the couch in front of Tomura and fell into it with a huff. The League leader didn’t have to wait long to find out why.
“Sooo, my therapist says I need to ‘find a new purpose’,” he said, making air quotes, “Like I have any fucking idea how the hell I’m supposed to do that after spending years thinking I was going to go down while killing my old man.”
“You’ve told them what jobs you’ve tried?”
“Tsk. Of course I have!” Dabi gets up to grab a soda from the fridge, grumbling as he passes by, “I’m fucking trying!”
“I know,” reassured Tomura.
“I said I was keeping busy, but they said I need something more than that. Something fulfilling, whatever the fuck that means,” Dabi plops back on the couch and leans back, “Any suggestions?”
Tomura’s crimson eyes flicked back to his computer, the corner of his mouth quirked up, “Maybe.”
Dabi tilted his head down and waited for the LOV leader to continue, but the other man didn’t. Instead he'd grabbed his laptop and was typing.
The fire user grunted and gave the former criminal serious side eye. Duster was up to something.
—
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
FROM: [email protected]
DATE: 5/7/2XXX, 2:05 PM
TO: [email protected]; [email protected]
CC: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
SUBJECT: RE: Training Request
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
I think that is a splendid idea. We certainly wouldn’t want to perpetuate any discouragement.
Aizawa, I am putting you in charge of organizing.
If there is anything you need, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Principal Nedzu
UA High School
663-2 Nakabata, Musutafu, Shizuoka 412-0003, Japan
“Go Beyond! Plus Ultra!”
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
FROM: [email protected]
DATE: 5/7/2XXX, 12:41 PM
TO: [email protected]; [email protected]
SUBJECT: Training Request
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Would it be possible for Dabi and I to have an opportunity to train with the younger hero students?
He’s had difficulty finding his footing. And while Dabi continues to try, I don’t want to risk him becoming discouraged. I believe with his history as an Older Brother something like teaching is within his wheelhouse and may be a better fit for him than other jobs he’s tried?
Please let me know what you think and any questions or concerns you may have.
Respectfully,
Shigaraki Tomura
Teaching Assistant
UA High School
663-2 Nakabata, Musutafu, Shizuoka 412-0003, Japan
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
—
“Why did I agree to do this?” said the raven haired fire wielder. Dabi stretched his arms behind his head as he and Duster followed the heroes in front of them.
The pale Alpha rolled his carmine eyes, he could appreciate the irony in the fact they were following behind Eraserhead and Ectoplasm on their way to the USJ. In fact, he was pretty certain the underground hero had arranged that little detail on purpose.
Both reformees were in their hero support suits ( Support . Suits.)
“There isn’t really a good reason not to? I mean, it’s just like training with your brother and his friends,” said the younger Alpha in step beside him.
Dabi scoffed, “Sho and his friends are way better company than a bunch of immature brats.”
Tomura grunted as a vague form of agreement. He wasn't going to point out that the fire user’s brother and friends used to hold the moniker of ‘immature brats’.
How things had changed.
“You actually enjoy this don’t you?” the former arsonist stated accusingly with a raised eyebrow, as if seeing his friend for the first time.
The younger Alpha hummed, then said, “I like teaching.”
This time it was Dabi who rolled his eyes.
“Look. AFO conditioned my brain with all that messed up rhetoric and shit for so long. I’ve done a lot of damage,” the League leader shrugged, “Maybe I want to nullify some of it.”
Dabi pressed his lips into a thin line and turned away. He hadn’t really considered how Duster felt after AFO was captured and they couldn't reach the Doctor. Making a near total social 180… Dabi should really give him some credit.
Before he had the chance to say so the older Alpha found they were standing in front of the class along with the Erasure and Clone Hero.
“Good afternoon Class A First Years,” says Ectoplasm as he glides forward, “Today we have a couple of special guest participants. Shigaraki Tomura and Dabi of the League Pack.”
—
Izuku and Keigo were up on the observation deck. Both were excited to see how this went. The new students in the hero course were about to face off against real former villains. He'd gotten permission to observe for one of his assignments.
“This is gonna be interesting.”
The green haired heroling jumped, he hadn’t heard Keigo get so close.
“Oops sorry,” said the Avian, “Bad habit.”
Izuku turned to watch as the hero's eyes focused on the movement below naturally, no goggles needed. Then he blinked with his nictitating membrane.
So cool, thought Izuku as he flipped to a blank page and started writing.
“Sneaking up on people is a bad habit?” asked the Omega.
“The Commissioner once told me,” Keigo explained, hands up by his head making air quotes, “ Sneaking is not very heroic .”
They were quiet, watching the class below.
A harsh laughter emanates from Keigo, “They tried like hell to train that outta of me.”
“I'm sorry that happened, but,” says Izuku seriously, “If they tried to suppress the behavior, why do you still do it?”
Though Keigo shivered at the language the heroling used, his answer was simple, “Being able to sneak up on enemies saved my ass more times than I can count.”
The Avian has a lot more animalistic instincts than the general public knows about, thinks Izuku. Including hunting prey.
When the feathers on the back of Keigo's neck began to rise he nearly squawked out loud when his head spun to the side.
Izuku met Keigo's gaze.
The hero was suddenly sure that if he ever fucked up in a way that had Izuku come for him, no amount of stealth would save him.
“I appreciate the apology, but you shouldn't feel guilty for something that's in your nature,” said the Omega. Then he simply went back to tapping through different live camera feeds to view them on the large display screen.
As the sensation of total unexplainable inadequacy faded, Keigo was left wondering, what the fuck was that?
—
A murmur of discontent rumbled through the group of students.
“How is this fair?” complained one of them loudly to his friend. A redhead with an elastic qurik.
A young girl wearing baggy pants covered in pockets was biting her nails and looking very nervous.
“Did you have something to share with the class?” asked Ectoplasm sternly, stopping in front of the two boys.
The student next to the redhead was a young Alpha named Yuta. The way he was glaring at Dabi made him think it was definitely probably personal. As in, he probably killed someone the kid knew.
“Yeah I do,” said Yuta, “They are villains! What if they decide to kill us?”
Several other students spoke up and soon there were too many talking at once.
Eraserhead leaned over, speaking low enough so no one else would hear he says,
“Teach them a lesson.”
Turquoise eyes widened, “Are you giving us permission to whoop their asses?”
“Within reason. No fatalities or serious injury.”
The two young men grinned perniciously.
—
Keigo bumped into Izuku’s arm, making him look up from where he’d been taking notes, “Hum?”
“Penny for your thoughts?” asked the avian hero.
When Tomura had talked to him about Dabi and his idea of bringing the other Alpha into training students Izuku couldn’t really imagine it. It took his Mate explaining his reasoning, that it was a lot like being a big brother. This was something that was very much a part of Dabi, even when he joined the League. It's why Tomura chose him as his second, because could depend on the Alpha to keep their Pack well cared for.
Once a big brother, always a big brother.
Even he had woken up in the hideout having fallen asleep on the couch, with a blanket tucked around him so he wouldn't get cold. After hearing about this, the Omega agreed.
Izuku was excited to observe the class, “I think it’s important for them to learn that there’s more to heroics than just jumping right into a fight.”
“Figures you would argue brains over brawn,” said Keigo with a lazy grin.
“More like, I’ve had plenty of practical experience versus the well rehearsed kind,” said Izuku, tapping his chin with the back of his pencil.
The blond next to him hums in agreement.
—
Below Eraserhead made a loud ‘Ah Hem’ noise and the talking simmered down.
The older omega waited until the class was silent, “As you are all already aware, the League Pack is participating in a reform program. Today’s exercise will allow them to show progress as well as give all of you a realistic experience in villain apprehension techniques.”
The students shared doubtful looks.
“You will each choose a ball from this bag to determine your teams, and you have fifteen minutes to strategize!” said the clone hero.
They had two teams with six students each, and two teams with four students and one reformee.
The goal was simple: Capture as many of your opposing team members as possible, lock them in your team ‘jail’ and keep the other team from ‘breaking out’ or capturing your own teammates.
The winners would be determined by the number of team members still ‘free’ and ‘captured’ from the opposing team. They would be using the dilapidated city scape for this exercise.
The students on the former villain’s teams grumbled over having one less person, until Dabi spoke up.
“You know,” the fire user drawled from where he was leaning up against a brick wall, “Depending on the situation, it can be worse having too many people on your team. The more people, the more difficult it is to get everyone to work together, the more opportunity for mistakes, the more likely to get caught.”
“Sooo?” came a high pitched meek voice.
This had been said by a terribly short young woman with one large bright pink eye. Kitagawa Kaze, Hero Name: Emotric, Quirk: Gaze - With her single large bright pink eye she can project feelings onto people in her line of sight. At this time her range is limited to roughly ten yards, and she can only influence about a dozen people at once. If a person is strong-willed enough or she tires, they can break free of her influence.
“In real life that can be fatal,” says Dabi bluntly, leveling his cerulean gaze across the students.
The group fell silent after that, as if they just remembered who they were speaking with.
The next student who speaks up is Sakamoto Ryota, Hero Name: Elastareach, Quirk: Elasticity - can stretch like stretch arm strong, arms, legs, neck, fingers, etc. to incredible lengths. (Sigh…yes, that part too.)
The younger Alpha crosses his arms and says, “What’s your brilliant idea then?”
—
Dabi was sure if scent patches weren’t mandatory when training he’d smell ‘Challenge’ rolling off the student. Want to be treated like a big boy? He thinks. Ok then.
“First off, be sure what you can do with your quirk. No ‘I might be able to do this’ or ‘maybe I can do that’. You need to be confident of your abilities before committing to them in a plan with others. Lying only gets people hurt, or worse.”
Ryota blinks at the villain. That was… surprisingly good advice for heroes and villains, he thinks.
Dabi turns to the next student.
Koizumi Tsuyoshi, Hero Name: Zipplopod, Quirk: Shrink - He can become very, very very small. Inanimate objects he’s holding shrink with him and re-enlarge with him. He can’t do this with living material (yet), so no people, plants or animals. The young man has no hair and his skin is oddly semi-translucent.
He kind of reminds Dabi of an octopus or squid. The fire user didn’t care, what mattered was would the student be ok working with him.
The last student was Hoshino Saburo, Hero Name: Reflecturn, Quirk: Mirror- he can travel in, out and through any reflective surfaces like his own personal superhighway. He can’t take more than one person with him at a time though he hopes to change that as he works to improve his quirk control.
The students on their opposing team were:
- 1 - Akiyama Yuta - ♂ - α - Hero Name: SpinBuckler
Quirk - Disc - Able to form sturdy disks of various size, can use them as shields and make them with bladed edges to throw. Particularly fond of making chakrams.
- 2 - Nakamura Aoki - ♂ - Β - Hero Name: X-Change
Quirk - Swap - Can swap body parts with others, even their heads. The parts retain the others quirk ability. Can even swap parts he doesn’t have, like horns, wings, tails. Time limit at this point is about ten minutes, then the parts automatically safely swap back.
- 3 - Nagasawa Yushiro- ♀ - Β - Hero Name: FoliFlex
Quirk - Wire Hair - Can be super fine like human hair or weaponize it like razor wire. Uses it like whips, rope, and grappling hooks to swing from place to place.
- 4 - Moriyama Kaito - ♂ - Β - Hero Name: Chitter
Quirk - Swarm - Can command insects, like, a lot of them. Has antennae, eyes and mandibles like a Praying Mantis.
- 5 - Yonamine Takao - ♂ - Β - Hero Name: IseeU
Quirk - X-Ray - Can see through most material, except magnetic metals, even slightly magnetic, like nickel, steel, cobalt, silver, aluminum, etc.
- 6 - Takeuchi Mitsuya - ♂ - Β - Hero Name: Gleam
Quirk - Luminary - Can capture and manipulate light sources
—
Tomura takes in the appearance of the students as he walks over. About fifty percent of the time you can guess things about a person’s quirk just from looking at them, their proto-hero costumes help, but it’s still just guessing. Tomura needs them to talk to him.
So he briefly introduces himself and freely gives a rundown of his own quirk. Some of them look surprised by what he tells them, which leads Tomura to his next action. He gives them each one minute to tell him everything they could about their quirk. What it can do, and can’t do.
One student was a young man trying but failing miserably to crouch behind the others as if he’d rather not attract any attention to himself.
Unfortunately for Yoshioka Inei, he had a quirk that made him stand out a bit more than others...
He was nearly as tall as Tomura and was six years younger than him. A pair of large dark leathery wings grew from his back. He stood on fawn-like legs that ended in cloven feet. Antlers grew from his head while a long cloven prehensile tail swished behind him. He could lengthen and sharpen his claws at will. His face was vaguely goat like, with bright green eyes and horizontal pupils.
Inei explained in a soft voice that he could fly, was ‘stronger than an average person’ and his scream could break glass and disorient his opponents. If he pushes hard enough, he can do serious damage. Like, make every orifice in your face bleed. He’d been training to be more precise with Present Mic. His hero name was, fittingly, Leeds.
“Is that a double entendre or something?” asked Tomura, curious.
The younger Alpha rubbed his wrist, a nervous tick that let him cross his arms in front of himself defensively. He shook his head, “Someone showed me a site about Cryptids. I look like the one from America, called the Jersey Devil? The family the creature was supposedly born to were the Leeds.”
Tomura nodded and moved on for now. Something about this kid though, was setting off red flags in his head.
Next was Kusomoto Takahiro, Hero Name: Omni-Nom, Quirk: Iron Gut - The boy could eat anything. And he meant anything . Knives, broken glass, nails. Also poisons, acids, other corrosive materials and even explosives. He was working on being able to eat projectiles, that was tricky though. He’d been practicing with rubber pellets but hasn’t mastered it yet. That just left…
“What’s it like being a villain?” chimed in two voices at nearly the same time.
The Yoshida twins. An Alpha and an Omega.
Akira, Hero Name: Brisk, Quirk: Fast Forward - She can speed up moving objects. Her Omegan sister, Akiko, Hero Name: Lag, Quirk: Slow Down - She can slow down moving objects.
They were an interesting pair for sure, and had this way of speaking as if they were one person.
“To answer your question. It’s like playing a video game on hard mode,” said Tomura, the girls looked confused. He held up a pointer finger and added, “Only one life.”
That made them pale.
Good.