4. The First Step

Eclipse's POV

Our confined and forced isolated weekend ended with: me, Toga and Dabi watching films that we hadn't heard of before, play fighting and brushing my tail, before we all crashed together on the large sofa in the communal area of our building. We each have our own bedrooms and share the living and cooking areas, but we've just always been more comfortable and felt safer sleeping together. I can't help but wonder if it's a wolf thing, or just a damaged teen thing sometimes.

Too soon for any of us, Monday morning rolled around, the first day of proper hero and rehabilitation classes, as well as mixing with all those other students again. It took a while, with lots of fighting amongst us and with our guards at the time before we actually got ready and put our uniforms on. By then we were escorted swiftly across campus to where our classes were being held. Our first morning in class started much how Friday did. Everyone avoided me and gave sidelong glances whilst just keeping their distance from Dabi. Strangely Toga was the only one of us being sociable, she was making people talk to her. It seemed to be going ok so far though. Good for her.

"2-A, for our morning classes we are heading over to the training fields to assess the newcomers and continue with what you all worked on at the end of last week. Change into your gym clothes, you have five minutes."

The rest of the class glanced at us cautiously before scurrying off to get their stuff and go to change in the changing rooms. Our trio looked at each other and shrugged, so we decided to just change in the classroom where we were instead; we just couldn't be bothered with the drama, and this way we'd be finished quicker. I stood guard while the other two got changed into the gym clothes we were provided with. Once it was my turn, we swapped roles, but I noticed Dabi couldn't resist taking sneaked glances at me while I got dressed. Whilst changing I noticed how damned uncomfortable these outfits were. They were tight and fit strange in all the wrong places; I was obviously given a size based on my height but they didn't take my figure into account at all. I had to leave the front zipped down slightly as my bust was too full for the chest area given. The tight size also made the bottoms hang low on my hips rather than my waist and my top rise slightly. Surprisingly though it made me look 'fitness sexy'. Haha I'll take it.

Once we were done, we headed out together, I trusted my nose to find our destination and instead of waiting for the other students, so I just let it guide me. The other two already knew how reliable my nose had become over the years and knew to trust it and so followed along. Once we reached the field that our teacher was waiting for us on, we noticed that we were one of the first ones out, and that there was another teacher stood off to the side that we hadn't met before. Before long, more students started to file outside and make their way to the field. As the group started to increase in size, I noticed angry blonde spikey hair walk past me to head towards his friends, but not before he roughly knocked into my shoulder and skulked off. I assumed he did it deliberately for some reason but couldn't be 100% sure. So, I growled at him lowly and then glared at his back for good measure, before standing off to the side with Dabi, whilst Toga went to pester the girls she was talking to earlier. The unknown teacher made his way over to us to introduce himself whilst Eraser head set up for class. "Hello young villains, I am All Might and I am one of your teachers."

"You don't look like All Might. Mmmm or maybe a shrivelled version of him I guess." Dabi stated in disbelief.

"Ok rude, I am not shrivelled. HAHA. But I can assure you I am All Might." Dabi glanced at me questioningly, so I stepped forward and took a subtle sniff of his scent to discern the truth. Once the scent registered, I stiffened up and nodded at Dabi as I stepped back. He then also proceeded to stiffen up in caution over the identity confirmation. All Might looked confused at first but them seemed to brush it off and replaced it with a smile of relief over the understanding and successful introduction made with them.

Hobo-scarf teacher addressed the class and delivered the instructions for the aim of the class, while All Might made his way back over to the front to stand with the other teacher and our trio met back up. During his speech I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, I looked around my surroundings and readied myself for some sort of enemy encounter, but instead what I saw pleasantly surprised me. The green haired boy from before was watching me intently, but quickly blushed and looked away when he saw I caught him staring. How cute! I'll make sure I try and talk to him later. "All Might will not be teaching in this class today, but we asked him along for extra security. Now we will have the new students carry out their assessed tasks while the rest of you split into your sparring teams. Himiko Toga, you're up first."

The rest of the class watched our analysing assessment before getting on with their own tasks, as they must have been curious and worried over what we were capable of. Fairly for us, during this assessment we were given permission to use our quirks and so our collars were temporarily deactivated by Eraser head. At the end of our gruelling morning and physically tasking activities, we were only a little tired and sweaty but not totally exhausted, as we're used to far more brutal training. The results at the end of our assessments showed that Toga placed just below average in ranking, as her quirk wasn't suited at all for any of the assessed tasks, but physically she is well trained and able to hold her own and that brought her marks up. Dabi was next and placed above average in our class rankings, mostly because he has a very powerful quirk, but he couldn't get anything higher as he had not been motivated at all to try in any of the other tasks. Lastly, my results placed me around the average mark, I achieved this with no quirk as it wasn't suitable at all for this, much like Toga, and I used very little of my other abilities so as not to risk exposure and shifting, but enough in order to perform above average physically.

Once our assessments were completed, we were then left to ourselves whilst the other students carried on with their class. We couldn't leave and had to stay where we could be seen so we just sat together on the grass where we could overlook the field and watch the heroes in training. Toga was her usual excitable self, the assessments not having tired her out much, and watching her other classmates sparring was stirring up her bloodlust. I on the other hand was mentally and physically drained, keeping myself restrained and controlling aspects of my ability so finitely had been taxing. So instead of watching the others spar, I laid out on Dabi's lap whilst he gently ran his fingers through my hair and I dosed off lightly.

Bakugo's POV

These sparring classes always get me fired up. But today it's hard to concentrate. All I can think about is what it would be like to spar with Eclipse, and how strong of an opponent she'd be. I slyly watched her assessment with the others in class, without showing that I was interested at all. But it was totally underwhelming. Something just didn't add up. I don't understand how someone, like the most infamous assassin Eclipse, could score so averagely on a high school assessment.

"Oi Bakubro, you there?!"

"Yeah yeah shut up shitty hair and give me a decent match would ya?!" I really need to stop thinking about her, it's distracting and messing with my image. As we change our positions with our sparring partners, I manage to get a clear view of her and her posse of misfits. Wait, is she laying in patchwork's lap?! What is his hand doing?! They're all over each other! Grrr!

"What are they doing now?! They're in public for f***sake!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Kirishima asks as he starts looking around the field excited for some gossip. "Oh well they're not really doing anything major, but at least they're not causing trouble right?!"

I only managed to answer him with a glare towards the lovebirds at the edge of the field.

"Why are you bothered? It's not like you to care about what other people are doing."

"Tch. Shup up s*** for brains! I don't care! Come at me! Let's spar properly, I'll kill you! Give me a decent fight!"

Izuku's POV

Phew! That was tough. I have definitely improved from before, but I still have a long way to go before I'm ready to make One for All truly my own. It's so hard trying to manage this power, to keep it controlled so that I only let a certain amount out at a time and not the full power at 100% all at once. Mmmm which reminds me, something was very off with those assessments of the villains. Eclipse especially. Very curious. Oh, I need to stop before I start mumbling again. But I must know more, I must understand them, especially Eclipse.

Well after their assessments they seem less scary and more approachable. I could be nice and just say hi, right?! No harm in that. And they look relaxed, their guards seem to be down at the moment so there's little risk...

Eclipse's POV

Before long a new scent tickled my noise as I swam in and out of consciousness, while dosing in Dabi's lap. But I was awoken further with the soft steps and rapid heartbeat making its way towards us. I stayed laying in Dabi's lap but turned my head to the side to watch the intriguing green haired boy walk to where we had gotten ourselves comfortable. He stood awkwardly and fidgetily in front of us for a moment before opening his mouth, "D..d..do you mind if I sit with you?"

I didn't answer as my groggy mind was still assessing the boy that stood in front of us. The most prey-like of the students, too kind for his own good, but the first hero training student in our class to approach us willingly.

"Sure, whatever." Dabi thankfully answered for me, he must be feeling pretty calm and generous to be ok with this, but he must've seen and felt similarly to me towards this boy.

"So erm my name is I..izuku M..midoriya."

"Mmm." Was the only response I could muster from myself, but Dabi seemed to want to try and push some buttons instead.

"Yeah we know, we had files on some UA students, those the League wanted in particular, hero in training Deku." He finished it off with his signature self-assured cocky smirk. I growled quietly to him and nipped his skin on the arm closest to me quickly but gently with my teeth in reprimand. But he got the hint.

"Whatever." But he cleared the smirk off his face and looked out over the field of students instead.

"Mmm o.o.ohh well yeah I remember. Well I wanted to tell you all that I th..thought that you did well on your assessments. Not nearly as scary as the rest of the class feared."

"Is that so?!" I responded with a knowing smile but kept my eyes closed, this information was nothing new but it was still amusing.

"Mmm. But err...Eclipse was it? Well I couldn't help but notice something, when I was watching your assessment with the rest of the class. You seemed to be struggling with your control, it looked like you were trying really hard to hold something very strong back and only using a fraction of what you could on purpose."

This got my attention and woke me up fully, this boy even impressed me a little with his analysis. I opened my eyes and slowly sat up to look at this 'Izuku Midoriya' properly. "Is that right?"

"Yes. But what I can't figure out is why?"

"Well the answer is pretty simple really." I slowly moved towards him so that we were face to face with only a small space separating us. I saw him swallow and start to look nervous before I carried on, "because I wanted to. I have stayed elusive and unknown for many years, so I am not just going to show a class full of future heroes all my secrets, am I?!" I smile coyly at him while leaning away from him to give him space to breath calmly again.

"Ha yeah I guess you're right. Well I hope we can become friends though, and at some point, you'll be able to trust us enough to let us help." He smiled at me so openly and brightly, it was a little unsettling and would take some getting used to. For a moment I was stunned by his honest and kind words. For that moment, I had almost forgotten that we were villains.

"Mmm well thank you Izuku, I appreciate that. Oh, and because you impressed me, you can call me Rory." He blushed and turned his head away bashfully with my use of his first name. That only lasted until what I said sunk in and then he looked at me startled, realising I gave him my real name, well close to my real name at least. "And who's that angry friend of yours that seems to be irritated by me more so than the others?" He turns to look across the field to where I'm indicating, the angry porcupine in question getting frustrated and rougher with his sparring partner.

"Who, Kacchan? Oh, erm I mean that's Katsuki Bakugo. We used to be childhood friends, he's a bit of a hot head but he's strong and will be a great hero one day."

Bakugo's POV

What the hell are they talking about over there?!

Why the f*** is Deku smiling like an idiot?! Is he blushing?

What is going on? Wait why do I even care?!

Grr why are they looking at me?!

Well great, he's leaving them now. Stupid Deku! I'll just have to question him later and beat it out of him if I have to!

Eraser head's POV

Why do these kids have to be so troublesome? I am so not in the mood for dealing with them right now.

The villain kids' assessments were unexpectantly disappointing. But something isn't adding up here. There is something else at play, for that I am sure. But that Eclipse looks very familiar at certain angles and gives me heartache every time I look at her. I don't understand why. And 'Rory', that name sounds so familiar, it's going to drive me mad. There's got to be more to that name. I really need to investigate these villain kids further. I need to stop; I need a break and a nap. I am probably just feeling more sensitive at the moment because it was my family's anniversary of death the other day.