Chapter 92: The Big Three

And like this, three days passed, and like any other day, classes went on as usual.

Shido walked into the classroom together with Aizawa and realized that the green-haired boy was back.

"Midoriya! Your lockdown period is over!" Shido had totally forgotten about him as he was too busy. Busying over what? It's a secret.

"Y-Yeah!" Midoriya stuttered in shyness at being called out but quickly quietened down.

"Alright, now that Midoriya is back...let's talk about work studies for real." Aizawa shushed the class before starting to talk.

"Come on in." He faced towards the door and spoke before turning back to the students, "Here to tell you how work studies differ from internships are some people who've gone out there and experienced it all.

They're taking time out of their busy schedules to be here, so give them your full attention. Out of all the students at UA, these are the top three reigning third-years...we call them...The Big Three."

As Aizawa introduced The Big Three, three (duh) people walked inside.

The first one who walked in was a confident-looking boy. He was a tall young man with a very muscular build who possesses several noticeable scars around his lower arms. His looks were very...unique due to his blue oval-shaped eyes with no visible sclera. His nose was also prominently rounder than most others. He has blond hair, the top part of which is arranged in a cowlick, while the bottom section is worn swept backward. And like any other student in UA, he donned the school uniform minus the blazer. He wears a belt with a large, rectangular golden buckle in the shape of a carnivorous mouth.

The second one who walked in was a bubbly-looking girl whose eyes were always roaming around the classroom, seemingly in search of something or someone. She was a fair-skinned girl of average height with wide, curious eyes. Her upper eyelashes were long and thick, and her irises were a royal blue. Her hair was periwinkle, and it reaches all the way down to her knees, twisting around itself at her waist and curving inwards around her legs. She had side-swept bangs, tucked behind her ears on the right, and hung just over her eyes on the left. She also has two short clumps of hair on either side of her face, curved towards her face on the right and behind it, under her ear, on the left. Currently, she was wearing a waistcoat in place of the standard UA blazer with her school uniform.

The last person to walk in was a gloomy-looking guy. He was a tall young man with rather pale skin. His ears were longer than most, their tips pointy and somewhat elf-like. He has messy, indigo hair, which stuck out behind his head, and thin, tired-looking eyes, partially covered by his bangs, although they were split as to not impair his vision. His shoulders were hunched, and he avoided making eye-contact with any of the students present. He wore his school uniform in a slovenly way. His tie wasn't tightened all the way, and his shirt wasn't wholly tucked in.

Those three were each unique in their own way and left a very impressionable impression.

As the three of them stood in silence in front of the class, the class started discussing the trio.

"Let's get right to it. How about some introductions? Starting with you, Amajiko."

Tamaki Amajiko lifted up his head and revealed a remarkably intense glare at the class. Not prepared for it, the class was caught off guard as their heartbeat involuntarily quickened.

"It's not good, Mirio...Hado...I was going for potatoes, but...they all still look like people from neck down. What do I do? Having trouble...speaking." Tamaki's body violently trembled as he muttered towards his friends, "My mind's going blank. It hurts...!"

Suddenly, he turned around and slammed his head on the blackboard and yelled with his hands still in his pockets, "I wanna go now!"

The class was speechless, and Ojiro asked unsurely, "But you're...the hero course's best of the best...right...?"

"Isn't it funny that people call that having the heart of a flea?" Nejire Hado asked as she looked at her friend. She turned towards class 1-A and commented, "So weird!"

"He's Tamaki Amajiki, the flea, and I'm Nejire Hado. We came here today to talk to you about work studies." Without a single pause between her sentences, she continued talking. Turning towards Mezo, she asked curiously, "But hey, hey, hey. What's with that mask? Do you have a cold? Or is it just for fashion?"

"A long time ago, I..."

Before Mezo even started explaining, Nejire turned towards a familiar half white, half red-haired guy and spoke, "Ohh, is that Todoroki I see back there?! Hey!! How'd you get that burn, anyway?!

"...?! Well, I..."

Once again, he was interrupted by Nejire. She pointed towards each one of the students and started talking, "Hey, Ashido. If you broke those horns, would they grow back? Can they move?! Tell me! And, Mineta, those balls of yours...is it hair?! How d'you get a haircut?! Are you like a tree frog, Asui? Or more of a toad? So many curious things abu=out all of you! Downright curious."

While the rest of the class had different reactions to her curiosity, she suddenly spotted the person she was looking for.

"Shido!!" She ran towards him and tried to grab him into a hug. However, Shido would, of course, not get himself stuffed and made himself intangible, causing Nejire to go dash right through him.

"Nejire...how many times must I tell you, call me Itsuka-sensei when we're in school..." Shido sighed exasperatedly.

"Why, though?" Nejire didn't give up and tried grabbing Shido, "You're not my teacher anymore, and you're younger than me. So can't I call you Shido?"

"Nope. You don't call Aizawa-sensei Shota, right?"

"Yeah, but that's because he's older than me."

"Urgh..." Shido groaned. He was never good at dealing with this hyperactive and curious girl even two years ago when she was in her first year.

Meanwhile, Mirio was interacting with the class while Aizawa just looked at Shido with a smug look. The class didn't respond to Mirio's question and remained silent, but Mirio didn't take it to heart and just laughed loudly.

"Please, Shido, can I hug you? You're so soft and comfy." Nejire asked as she didn't give up on trying to grab him.

Shido was about to reply when Mirio suddenly announced, "How about...you all take me on?!"

Mirio ignored all the shocked expressions on the students and turned towards Shido and Aizawa, "Seems rational to have them feel the full weight of our experiences firsthand!! Don't you think so, Eraserhead? Phantom?"

Shido was not very surprised by the sudden decision as he was always the type to fight to get his intention across to the other party. Aizawa knew that as well and replied indifferently, "Do as you like."

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After the class got changed into their gym uniforms, they gathered at Gymnasium Gamma, where they found their teachers and the Big Three waiting for them.

While Sero questioned whether Mirio would fight them for real, Mirio started stretching his body to warm up.

"Yep, sure is!"

However, the other two of the Big Three tried to discourage him.

"Mirio...don't do this. It'd be enough to just follow the manual and go, 'we experienced this and that, and it was all super meaningful.' It's not like all of them are raring to aim for the top." Tamaki softly grumbled as he planted his face in the world, facing his back towards the rest of the class, "We wouldn't want any to be broken beyond fixing."

The other students looked towards him as they wondered what he was talking about.

"What he meant was that someone who tried to fight against Mirio became so depressed that he gave up on becoming a hero." Shido explained as Nejire wrapped her arms around him and cuddled him. Shido gave up on reasoning with this energetic girl and just let her do whatever she wanted.

With one hand wrapped around Shido like a stuffed toy, her other hand was playing with Mina's horns as she looked in amazement when the horns moved.

They looked at Mirio, who currently has his smile present with seriousness. Very similar to Shido, they couldn't afford to look down on him even with his stupid expression.

"Just wait a minute...we've fought against pros before, albeit with handicaps." Tokoyami mentioned as he recalled their mid-year exams.

"And we've got experience battling real villains! Do you think we're such wimps...that you gotta worry for our safety or whatever...?" Kirishima looked undaunted.

"Whenever you're ready, then. Come at me. Who's gonna be first?!" Mirio wasn't fazed and asked calmly.

Kirishima was about to volunteer himself when Izuku stepped forward and said, "I'll go first!"

"The problem child!! Right, of course, you'd step up. You've got spirit!" Mirio didn't seem surprised and just stood still, waiting for Izuku to initiate the fight.

Shido and the others remained at the corner while watching the fight.

"This is a great opportunity, everyone, so get that lesson beaten into you." Aizawa yelled from the side, "Because Mirio Togata, as far as I know...is the closest to being the top hero...even including us pros!"

And sure enough, Mirio was worthy of his name as one of the Big Three. In precisely five seconds and fifty-two milliseconds, Mirio destroyed half of all the students, leaving all the ranged fighters lying on the ground, unable to find the energy to even move.

"This dude's invincible!"

"Cut us some slack!"

The students complained as they took their stance.

Hearing their words, Shido snickered, "There is no such thing as invincible. Mirio's quirk is anything but invincible. If anything, his quirk is just plain mediocre."

Shido watched Mirio dived into the ground and appearing behind Izuku. He grinned and wanted to land a punch on his back, but he was startled at the almost instantaneous reaction from Izuku.

Izuku's foot was raised, and he aimed for a backward kick.

Mirio's brows deepened, but his smile remained.

"Have a taste of my special move!!" Blinder touch eyeball crush!!"

"What a...direct name for a move..." Shido heard Mirio shout out his unique move and sweatdropped.

Izuku instinctively closed his eyes when he heard the name, but his left hand didn't stop and tried to punch Mirio mid-air.

However, Mirio seemed to have predicted that already and punched at Izuku's stomach. Izuku was in the air, so he couldn't find the momentum to hit correctly. On the contrary, Mirio just came up from the ground and, using the force behind his legs, waist, and arms, his punch was much more potent than Izuku's.

"Most of my opponents come up with a scheme to counter it, like that one. So naturally, I've trained myself to counter those counters!!"

Izuku's eyes blanked out as he was hit straight into his solar plexus. As Tenya was worried about Izuku, he became distracted for a moment.

However, that moment was all Mirio needed to take him out.

"Get a look at Togata. He's really gotten stronger, huh?" Still carrying Shido, Nejire turned towards Tamaki and asked.

Tamaki was still facing the wall and replied that way, "Mirio's been strong ever since he was a kid...basically...he needs to learn how to hold back.

Mirio didn't need more than one punch to take down each student. Moving and warping around everywhere like a ghost, he punched each student in the solar plexus before moving towards the next student.

As an advocate of gender equality, he didn't differentiate the punch intensity and punched each student with the same strength, not caring whether they're girls or boys.

However, Mirio didn't stop there. It was a rare opportunity that Shido was present when he had a spar, so he quickly warped behind Nejire and punched her.

Shido noticed this and immediately created a barrier around her, negating the punch.

Mirio didn't stop that and permeated through the barrier, but it left enough time for Shido to move Nejire away to safety as he started to fight with Mirio now.

Both of them were turning intangible and warping everywhere in the gym.

Shido didn't know what to say when Mirio suddenly attacked Nejire, or rather, him.

"Can we stop this pointless fight now?"

"Nope! Let's fight to our hearts' content. Sir often praise you, but we haven't gotten the chance to meet yet. I just have to say that the problem child has a very high potential. His instincts, or rather, his prediction is truly frightening."

It wasn't that Mirio just wanted to fight Shido for fun. One reason was to test himself against the rank 0 hero, someone who Nighteye had praised often. As someone aiming to be a top hero, he couldn't help but want to have a spar.

Of course, that was only one of the reasons. This spar's main point was to show the students how the top heroes fight and how big the chasm between them was.

"You, on the other hand, are truly powerful. Worthy of your status as Phantom, the hero who has a one hundred percent completion rate of saving people."

While they were talking, their fists didn't stop. Shido lifted his left leg to block an incoming punch, but as expected, Mirio's fist phased through his leg and was heading towards his solar plexus.

"Sigh..." Shido heaved a sigh and turned himself intangible as well, causing both of them to phase through each other, appearing on opposite sides.

"You truly are a monster." Shido shook his head and said, "I'm only strong because my angels, or quirks, are strong. You, on the other hand, completely removed your quirk's weakness and trained to where you are today."

While he was talking, Mirio didn't stop and phased through the ground. He reappeared behind Shido as he did to Izuku but found himself in a ring of flames.

In Shido's hand, a flaming red halberd was present, giving off intense heat.

"A compliment from the number zero hero? I'm truly honored. But I'm not going to give up here." Mirio smiled. After all, who didn't like it when they are being praised for their efforts?

"Well, then I'm going to force you to give up." Shido floated up in the air before channeling a giant lava ball.

"Cannon Mode: Megiddo."

Shido aimed it at the floor and launched it.

Mirio was startled at the ball of flames flying towards him and instantly phased away. Aizawa was also looking at him with a glare as he pulled all the fallen students out of harm's way.

"OI! SHIDO! STOP IT!!" Aizawa yelled.

Of course, Shido couldn't stop it after it was launched, so he did the next best thing he could. He froze the entire ball of flames before it landed on the ground with a dull 'thud' sound.

"Phew..." Aizawa sighed in relief that the entire area wasn't destroyed while Mirio wore his pants.

"Sigh, I won't be able to defend through that since it would have a wide area of effect." Mirio sighed in defeat before turning back to his usual happy look, "But don't worry, I'll train myself so that I would be able to warp further and even phase through flames and air now. Thank you for giving me a direction to train in!"

Shido just sighed once more. Even though this was only supposed to be a showcase, Mirio managed to find a new direction to train in.

"Sure."

Afterward, Mirio and the students had a little discussion about Mirio's fights while Aizawa lectured Shido about safety.

Shido being Shido, just took the words in one ear and let them escape through the other.

Seeing that Shido wasn't listening, Aizawa just groaned and left him alone before dismissing the class.

All in all, this was a typical day for Shido.

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