Peace Sign (Season 2 Start)

Sunday passed without incident, and Monday arrived with the usual early alarms to prepare for school. As he ate breakfast with Ayako, Kai checked for any outstanding news. So far, the League of Villains was quiet. Of course, the USJ incident must have taken quite a lot of planning, so there should be some time before he heard from them next.

The thought of the next incident worried Kai. The League itself should be no problem, but if they started making waves in the underworld about what happened at USJ, Kai's presence might grow faster than his original plan.

Who told these villains they could just mess things up like this?

Still, he wouldn't change a thing he did.

Eh, scratch that.

Actually, he could have kept a better eye on Yaoyorozu and co. to be sure there wasn't a hidden villain, but things turned out okay anyways.

At UA, the day started with seeing Aizawa-sensei out of the hospital. They couldn't even see his face for the bandages that covered it. The same treatment went for both of his arms, which were suspended in slings. However, the class' concern for him was waved off (without any actual waving, of course) as he began with an announcement.

"Don't concern yourselves over me. After all, the battle hasn't really ended for you yet." The class' rising confusion and fear was met with an irritated sigh. "UA's Sports Festival is approaching, boys and girls!"

The last line was said with an air of "get with the program, guys!"

Right. This is a Japanese school. They do that.

It was no small matter for UA, either. With the advent of Quirks, many sports had undergone a transformation, while others had almost completely died out. Human standards were no longer universal, what with some people having motorized legs like Iida, or able to jump like Asui. In Aizawa's words, Japan had replaced the Olympics with UA's sports festival.

There were many reasons for the class to be excited, but while they were excited to show off what they were made of to make an impression on current heroes, Kai was the opposite. He didn't want to show off, he already had a little too much exposure. He just wanted to watch and see what everyone could do.

The thing that he was most excited for was seeing Endeavor. The jackass deserved many, many slaps to the face, and this was going to be the best opportunity for Kai to deliver.

Class 1-A managed to keep themselves contained for class, but once lunch break arrived and Cementoss left the room, the room was abuzz with excitement. They couldn't wait to take this giant leap towards becoming great heroes.

A surprising person took that excitement to the next level.

"Let's crush the sports festival!" Uraraka declared with an intensity that had never been seen from her. Her face had the determination of someone about to carry out a one-man slaughter. "I'm gonna go for it!"

"That's good to hear!" Kai replied with a laugh. Before anyone could leave the room for lunch, he ran and blocked the door. "On that note, I have a little announcement. Remember my little after school battle juku? That's now mandatory! See you on the athletic field- dress appropriately!"

Kai turned to open the door but was stopped by Iida grabbing his wrist.

"Are you authorized to do that?"

"Why? We have other things we need to do!" complained Kaminari.

Kai turned around to face Iida. Without a word, he flared his Quirk to get his eyes glowing. Iida got the message and let go, but still insisted on his question.

"My authority is of myself, of course," Kai answered with a moment of thought. "If you all want to take the Sports Festival by storm, you have some serious work to do. Besides, after USJ, I see that not only does everyone need a powerup, but that we are going to have a very rough first year. That League of Villains is going to come back, mark my words. All Might is going to retire very, very soon, and we can't count on him being around all the time for us anyways."

"What? All Might's going to retire? Where did you hear something crazy like that?" Ojiro asked. That kind of news would have made huge waves, but nobody was saying that.

"You guys don't think when it comes to that big idiot. Just the kind of celebrity he is. But let me put it this way- with how All Might is, do you think that he would become a teacher and take time out of his 'save the day' schedule for something he has absolutely no idea how to do without something pushing him out of it?"

The protests about All Might's retirement fell silent. As uncomfortable as it was, it was quite reasonable to assume. And thinking about it, even though he was energetic, All Might had been working as a hero since before they were born. He wasn't exactly young anymore.

Even if it wasn't going to be this week or even this year, he was going to have to retire someday.

"Lastly, in the end, the weak point in UA is going to be us, the students. We aren't as strong as the teachers, and the teachers will be weaker for protecting us over themselves. Even if the villains just want to kill All Might, it will be easier to get him with you all as hostages over fighting him directly. That's almost what happened on Friday.

"So, rather than letting you all be in danger, I'd rather beat some common and combat sense into you all.

"Of course, I being your age and not a paid teacher with an official title, you are all free to try to ignore me. What I say probably doesn't have the same weight. However," Kai held up a finger, "I will say that ditching will be psychologically enforced."

"Do I want to know what that means? Are you going to put us all through the same thing you put me through before?" Deku asked. He didn't think that everyone should go through the same thing he did before. Especially Uraraka. That "obstacle course" was rough on many levels.

"Just randomized spot checks on danger awareness, nothing too major," Kai said somewhat dismissively.

Having changelings randomly ambush them could be terrifying, but not damaging. Probably not traumatizing. Of course, just the vague threat should be enough for today.

"And no. Ayako and I will be working on tailoring your training to your current skills, mentality, and Quirks."

"She's going to be there? That's good!" Ashido said, relieved. Ayako had met with Class 1-A several times since the first day, and she made a great impression.

"Not for you! She will know exactly how much stress you can take before breaking because of her Quirk, so she will push you closer to that point than I would." Kai had a smile that showed he was enjoying breaking that sliver of hope.

"Now, time for lunch, everyone! We have a big day ahead of us!" Kai turned and exited the room with a peace sign held up as he said goodbye.

"Hey, Jiro, still got that remote?" Kaminari asked before joining everyone in going to get lunch.