9

~VREEEEEEE VREEEEEE VREEEEE VREEEEEE~

"Attention: there has been a Level 3 security breach. All students, please evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion. Attention: there has been a Level 3 security breach. All students, please evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion."

"Level 3!?" An upperclassman shouted before running towards the exit. "That means somebody's infiltrated the building!"

"What?!" Another student cried, "Let's get out of here!"

"It's a villain!"

"Everybody run!"

Midoriya closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long, low, groaning sigh while the student body proceeded to break out into a frenzied panic, completely ignoring the soothing feminine voice reading out the pre-recorded instructions over the loudspeaker. He had begun to walk over to the window to see if could survey the situation when he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"Midoriya, what are you doing?" Iida shouted over the racket, "Didn't you hear the announcement just now? We need to get out of here!"

"I heard." Midoriya scribbled onto his sketchpad. He pointed to the huge press of bodies trying to shove their way through the double doors of the cafeteria. "We can't get out through there right now. I'm going to see if I can assess the situation from here. In the meantime, I need you to go find Yaoyorozu and assist her in making sure the rest of the class is together and keeping their cool. Can you do that?"

A gleam appeared in Iida's eye as he nodded. "Yes of course! You can count on me!"

Midoriya nodded in gratitude and headed over to the window, where he saw Present Mic and Aizawa trying to drive away the press corps he had encountered that morning. They had somehow gotten through the physical UA Barrier, but their lack of identification still set off the sensors, leading to the current situation.

'Are you kidding me?' He thought. He glanced over his shoulder at the panicked mob behind him. 'All this for a freaking news story?' He shook his head and frowned. 'I need to put a stop to this before somebody gets seriously hurt. First things first…'

 Midoriya climbed up onto a table to get a better view of the crowd and searched for Yaoyorozu. After a few seconds of this, his eyes lit up at the sight of a spiky black ponytail sticking out of the mess of people. 'I'm fortunate that she's so tall. If she was Asui's height I might have never been able to find her.'

Midoriya scribbled something into his sketchbook and hopped down from the table. He shoved his way through the crowd until he was able to lay a hand on his fellow representative's shoulder and held up his sketch book for her to read the large, hastily scrawled words. "It's just the press. I need your help to calm everybody down. Can you make me a megaphone?"

Yaoyorozu's face lit up with understanding and she materialized a pen out of her hand. "Not right here." She wrote, "I'd need some space to pull it out, and I'd need to open my shirt to have enough surface area to make it. Doing that in this situation is…"

Midoriya nodded and gestured for her to give him the pen. The way her quirk worked meant that she had to be prepared to bare some skin, but opening her shirt in the middle of a crowd packer tighter than a train at rush hour was another thing entirely.

"Understood." He wrote, "Grab onto my collar and follow me. I'll get us out of here." Yaoyorozu nodded.

'One for All: 4% Parallel Flow!'

Holding onto the back of Midoriya's blazer, Yaoyorozu's eyes widened when he ignited his quirk and bulldozed through the panicking mass of people pushing them forward. In the face of his oppressive aura and his sheer strength, it didn't take long before the people in his path simply began to make way, flowing around him like a stream diverted by a rock.

"Hurry." He wrote in the notebook once they were free. "If this keeps up, someone will get hurt. I'll stand in front of you to block their view, do what you have to do."

Yaoyorozu nodded and wasted no time in unbuttoning her shirt to pull the requested megaphone out of her stomach. Without waiting to button herself back up, she handed it to Midoriya.

With a blush on his face from the eyeful he'd just received, Midoriya turned on the megaphone. "Attention everyone!" Midoriya stated, his amplified voice drowning out the racket of the alarm and the shouts of the student body. "It's only the press! There's no reason to panic. If you look out the window on your right, you'll see that it's only the press! Please calm yourselves before somebody gets hurt!"

This news, delivered in a calm, authoritative manner, was like a bucket of ice water on the panic-stricken mob.

"Hey, he's right!" Somebody shouted, "Look, it's just a bunch of reporters!"

"For real?" Another voice complained. "I thought we were under attack by villains or something."

"Way to go, megaphone kid!"

"Yeah, awesome work! I totally thought I was gonna get crushed!"

Midoriya shook his head. "…These are supposed to be the next leaders of the hero industry?" He muttered. "An alarm goes off and they panic immediately. Is this how the students of the best hero school in the nation respond to a crisis? This is just embarrassing."

"That's not entirely fair." Yaoyorozu replied with an amused undertone. Her undone top had been restored to its former state. "Only a quarter of the students at Yuuei are actually in the hero course, you know."

Midoriya flushed. "Shoot, I didn't mean to say that out loud…can you pretend you didn't hear that?"

Yaoyorozu had to cover her mouth with her hand to suppress her laughter. "You're an interesting person, Midoriya Izuku. I'm not quite sure what to make of you."

Midoriya snorted softly and flashed a good-natured smile at Yaoyorozu. "That's got to be one of the nicest ways somebody's ever called me weird."

Yaoyorozu let out a chuckle. "I didn't say that. But…I can't deny that I find you to be a walking contradiction in many ways."

"Is that so?" Midoriya replied evenly. "That's not the first time I've been told that, but it's interesting that you'd say that with a little interaction as we've had. I'd like to get your take on it."

"Well…" Yaoyorozu frowned thoughtfully. "You're usually so quiet, aloof even, and yet you're a confident and compelling speaker. You can produce that intimidating aura and claim that you're going to be the next All Might, but at the same time, you're soft-spoken and humble."

"I don't know about that." Midoriya smiled. "Making a claim like that requires a certain level of arrogance. I appreciate the compliment though."

"Midoriya! Yaoyorozu!" Iida called out as he approached them. "All of Class 1-A has been accounted for! We are now waiting on you to proceed with evacuation!"

"Good work, Iida." Midoriya clapped Iida on the shoulder. "I knew I could count on you." He paused. "I realize that this is selfish, but I have another favor I'd like to ask of you if you are willing."

Iida nodded. "Of course! It would be my pleasure to assist you in any way that I can!"

"I'd like you to join us on the student council." He glanced over at Yaoyorozu. "Unless you have any objections of course, I don't intend on deciding on the officer positions unilaterally."

Yaoyorozu shook her head. "I would have suggested him if you didn't." She smiled. "But I appreciate the consideration."

Iida beamed. "I'm happy to be of service!"

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

"For today's hero training," Aizawa droned, "we will be performing rescue training. Specifically, we are going to cover disaster relief—things like fires, floods, and earthquakes. This time, All Might, myself, and another teacher will be supervising you."

"Man," Kaminari smiled woefully, "sounds like another tough day, huh?"

"Come on!" Kirishima slapped Kaminari on the shoulder, "This is what being a hero is all about! I'm totally pumped!"

"I'd be right at home in a flood." Asui croaked.

"I'm not done." Aizawa rebuked them with a scathing look. He withdrew a remote from the folds of his scarf and brought out the panels containing their costumes with a click of a button. "I'll leave it up to you to decide whether to wear your costumes or not, since some of them are ill-suited to this sort of activity. The training site is pretty remote, so we'll be going by bus this time."

'Rescue training, huh?'

"Hahaha! It's all right now!" All Might's booming voice sounded off in Midoriya's mind.

'This is it.' Midoriya pulled the aluminum case containing his costume out of its slat as scenes from the video of All Might's legendary debut played through his head. He had seen it so many times that every second of the grainy footage was seared into his mind.

"Why?" A fearless smile shone through the darkness, a beacon of hope to all who lay eyes upon its brilliance. "Because I am here!"

His eyes gleamed and he tightened his grip on the case to control his excited trembling. As informative as the battle trial was, combat was perhaps the least interesting aspect of heroics to Midoriya. 'It's just training now, but this is the reason I wanted to become a hero.'

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

Uraraka did a double take when she filed past Midoriya as she made her way onto the bus and saw the massive grin poking out from beneath his hood. She smiled and nudged his side when he plopped down next to her near the front of the vehicle. "You sure look pumped, Deku! I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that!"

"Oh?" Nearly giddy with anticipation at this point, Midoriya had to resist the urge to break out into giggles. "How do I usually smile?"

Uraraka furrowed her brow. "It's kinda hard to describe…it's more like, um, peaceful…I guess?"

"It looks like what you'd see on one of those old Buddhist statues." Asui croaked to his left, cracking up everybody within earshot with how completely spot-on that description was. "I always feel like you're going to start chanting mantras at me."

"Oh my gosh," Ashido snorted, "that's totally what it looks like!" She closed her eyes and performed a rough approximation of a Buddhist meditation gesture. "Master, please show me the path towards enlightenment."

"I can provide you with the tools." Midoriya replied in his typical measured tone. "But the path to enlightenment is ultimately a personal journey. Also, you're doing the Abhaya Mudra backwards."

Ashido broke out into laughter. "He actually knows what it is!"

"Anyways," Uraraka cut back in—by now, the girls had realized that getting back on topic when Ashido was involved in a conversation was not unlike finding a missing person: if it didn't happen quickly, it likely wouldn't happen at all. "Right now, you look really excited and happy!" She pressed her fingers together and smiled widely at him. "It's nice!"

'Too cute!'

"O-oh, r-really?" Feeling his heart constrict, Midoriya averted his eyes from Uraraka and ducked his head, eminently grateful for the way his hood helped to hide the blush slowly creeping up the back of his neck and onto his cheeks. "Thanks, I guess I'm really excited for the training."

'There's literally nothing to be embarrassed about.' Midoriya reminded himself. He took a deep, calming breath. 'Why am I reacting like this? Oh…right.' He realized. 'Puberty freaking sucks.'

"Oh ho…" Ashido eyed Midoriya's reaction with a mischievous gleam in her eye. 'I just saw something that promises to be entertaining!'

"Hey Midoriya." Asui said.

Trying to ignore the random shiver that had just run down his spine, Midoriya glanced her way. "Yes, Asui?"

"You can me Tsuyu." Asui informed him. "And I've got a question for you."

"Ask away." Midoriya replied.

"What did you mean when you said that you want to be the next All Might?" She raised a finger to her lip. "I can't help but think that you had something different in mind than when Bakugo said he wanted to be the number one hero." She paused, "He's angry and rude all the time, though, so I can't see him ever getting that popular."

"The fuck did you just say, Frog Face!?" Bakugo shouted, "I'll kick your ass!"

Asui pointed at him. "See what I mean?" Midoriya waited patiently and watched with detached amusement as several students took turns needling the ill-tempered teen.

"I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you." Midoriya reprimanded the naysayers with a smile and shook his head. "Kacchan's temperament aside, he's my most formidable rival for the number one position." He paused. "That I know of, anyway."

 "Truly?" Iida exclaimed, only one of several people who reacted with surprise to that statement. "You think he has a better chance than Todoroki?"

"Yeah!" Kaminari added, "Don't get me wrong, Bakugo's a crazy tough customer, but Todoroki's got two ultra-strong quirks, and he's not a total asshole!"

"Fuck you too, you Piss-headed moron!"

"If I compare Kacchan's attitude to his?" Midoriya saw Todoroki look in his direction and unflinchingly matched the elite student's piercing glare. "Easily."

After a second, Todoroki scoffed and returned to looking out the window.

"Don't fucking praise me, Deku!" Bakugo yelled, "It's goddamn gross, you shitty nerd!"

"Anyways," Midoriya returned his gaze to Asui, "All Might is the number one hero, but you're right, I meant something different when I said what I did."

"Oi! Don't ignore me shithead!"

Midoriya smiled. "To be perfectly honest, I don't particularly care about the title of number one as far as the rankings go. The whole popularity contest aspect of the hero business seems like a meaningless waste of time to me."

At the very front of the bus, Aizawa let out an approving grunt. 'Got that right.'

Midoriya shook his head. "All Might has been doing this for a long time. Sooner or later, he'll need someone to take up his mantle, and I don't mean his spot in the hero ranking." He clenched his fists in his lap and his eyes gleamed with determination. "It's his other title that interests me."

"His other title?" Uraraka scratched her head. "He has another title?"

Iida stared at Midoriya with wide eyes. "You wish to become the next 'Symbol of Peace?'"

Midoriya nodded.

"WONDERFUL!" Iida shouted and jumped to his feet, making the rest of the passengers startle at the unexpected outburst. He had tears in his eyes as he burst into spontaneous applause. "What a wonderful ambition, Midoriya! Truly, you were the correct choice to lead this class!"

"Uh…thanks." Midoriya's eyes darted around the bus to confirm if everyone else was as weirded out by Iida's over-the-top display as he was. 'Iida's a nice enough guy and all, but he seriously needs to take it down like…five notches. This is a little embarrassing.'

"Hey Shitty Four-Eyes!" Bakugo jeered, "Suck his dick a little harder, why don't you?"

Iida's eyes bugged out. "W-What!? How crude!"

"Sit down and shut up!" Aizawa barked. "We're almost there!"

"I'm terribly sorry sensei!" Iida turned and bowed, "Please accept my apologies for my outburst!"

Aizawa's eye twitched. "Stop apologizing and just do what I said."

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

Midoriya stared around at the many features of the massive domed facility with stars in his eyes. 'Fires, floods, landslides, earthquakes, typhoons…simulations for every kind of disaster I can imagine at my fingertips.' He pulled out his notebook and bit the inside of his cheeks to keep from muttering. 'Just thinking about the amount of data I'm going to be able to collect here is…!'

"This is so cool!" Someone remarked. "It's just like Universal Studios Japan!"

"It makes me happy to see everyone so excited by my facility." An amused voice belonging to a man in a space suit remarked. "I designed and built this Ultimate Space for Jams myself you know."

"Huh." Kaminari said, "So, it really is USJ then."

"Oh my gosh!" Uraraka elbowed Midoriya to snap him out of his notetaking frenzy. "Look, Deku! It's Thirteen! He's my absolute favorite!"

"So it is." Midoriya agreed. "You said you even based your costume off of his, right?"

Uraraka furrowed her brow. "Did I say that? I mean, I did do the design with that in mind, but I don't remember talking about that with you."

'Shit. Damage control, fast.' Midoriya nodded, "Yeah, you did…I think." He shrugged, "I also might have overheard you saying that you liked him and I jumped to conclusions. After all, my costume is based off of All Might's, so I figured with the space theme you've got going on…"

"That makes sense." Uraraka agreed. "That's a good guess though. I wanted my outfit to be puffier like his, but the design department came back with this skintight jumpsuit. I'm more used to it now, but it's still a little embarrassing."

"I think it looks good on you." Midoriya calmly reassured her. "Plus, it's probably for the best that it's more form-fitting—unlike Thirteen, your quirk is contact-based, so mobility is more of a requirement."

"You…think it looks good?" Uraraka shyly repeated with a blush. "That's…um…"

Though he'd had no ulterior motives, Midoriya flushed once he realized how she'd taken his compliment. 'Idiot! The outfit is skin-tight, that was basically me outright saying I like her body!'

"Uh…yeah, I'd say that your outfit has the best design out of the girls, aesthetically speaking…" He cleared his throat and tried to remember his original compliment that went over well. "it's eye-catching and memorable, but the dual color-scheme and simple pattern keep it from being over-designed…that's just my opinion, anyways."

"Oh…Oh!" Uraraka beamed, still blushing but looking far more pleased. "Thanks! I think that's probably one of the best compliments I've ever gotten from a boy!"

"Don't mention it." This time, Midoriya decided to keep his opinions regarding her footwear to himself.

Meanwhile, Aizawa walked up to the other hero. "Hey, Thirteen…where's All Might? He was supposed to meet us here." Aizawa looked around suspiciously. "He isn't hiding so he can do one of his stupid entrances, is he?"

Thirteen shook his head. "No," he answered in a low voice, "he's waiting in the break room. Apparently, he just about hit his limit during his morning commute."

"Seriously?" Aizawa glowered. "That man is the height of irrationality." He sighed. "So be it, let's get started."

"Before that…" Thirteen said, "I just want to cover one point…or maybe two…three, no, four…"

"Just get to the point before the number gets any higher." Aizawa cut in.

"Right." Thirteen agreed. He cleared his throat and got the attention of the class. "As I'm sure many of you are aware, my quirk is called Black Hole. It can suck in and tear apart anything."

Midoriya nodded. "You've used it to save people in all sorts of disasters." Uraraka nodded enthusiastically.

"That's correct." Thirteen continued, "But it can also easily be used to kill." The space-themed hero paused to let his point sink in. "I'm sure many of you have powers that are similar. Though our society's heavy regulation of quirk use seems stable, we must never forget that it only takes one wrong move with a dangerous quirk for somebody to die."

Midoriya clenched his fists. 'Some of us more than others.'

"During Aizawa's fitness test, you discovered some of your hidden potential. During All Might's combat training, you learned how dangerous your quirks can be to others. But to day will be a lesson with a very different perspective. You will learn to use your quirks in order to save lives."

'It's all right now.' Midoriya's mouth twisted into a grin. 'Why? Because I am here.'

"Your powers are not meant to inflict harm. I hope that you leave here today with the understanding that you are meant to help people."

Midoriya cut his gaze over towards Todoroki. 'I hope he's listening to this.'

As the class applauded Thirteen's speech, a small dark spot appeared in the middle of the plaza below them and began to grow into a gaping maw of swirling black mist.

When a figure emerged from the mist, Aizawa's eyes widened. "HUDDLE TOGETHER AND DON'T MOVE!" He roared, making the students jump in surprise. "Thirteen! Protect the students!"

"Sensei?" Kirishima asked, "What's going on?" He began to walk toward the edge of the stairs. "Is this that pattern from the entrance exam?"

"I told you not to move!" Aizawa barked as he pulled a pair of yellow goggles our from the folds of his scarf, "Those are villains!"

A deep voice emerged from a pair of glowing yellow eyes within the dark mist. "Eraserhead and Thirteen," it said, "according to the teacher's curriculum we stole yesterday, All Might was supposed to be here…and yet…"

"Yesterday…" Aizawa muttered, "I knew it, so the break-in yesterday was you!"

"Where is he?" A pale, white-haired man covered in hands whined petulantly, "We went through all of this trouble, and rustled up so many friends to clear this level…you can't tell me that All Might, the 'Symbol of Peace' isn't here?" His voice got lower and angrier, "I know…maybe he'll show up if we kill all of these kids."

"V-villains?" Kirishima exclaimed incredulously, "Get out of here! What kind of idiot would think that they could just walk right into the heroes' home base?"

"Sensei?" Momo asked Thirteen, "Don't we have alarms here? They went off yesterday when the press got in."

"Of course we have them here," Thirteen answered, "but they aren't working right now…" He let out a frustrated growl. "And I can't get a hold of the main campus either."

"They must have one among their number with a quirk who can do that," Todoroki coolly surmised, "that means that this wasn't a random attack, this was carefully planned out with an objective of some kind."

"Thirteen!" Aizawa shouted, "Start the evacuation procedures! Kaminari, try contacting the school with your quirk, if they have an electrowave-type interfering, then you might be able to get around it! Midoriya! Use your broad-spectrum distress signal as well!"

'Impressive.' Midoriya noted as he pulled out the tough battery powered device from one of his pouches and activated it. 'He must know what exactly what equipment everyone has registered. He's thorough…I'm going to have to watch myself around him.'

"R-right!" Kaminari stammered and began to fiddle with his earpiece.

"Sensei?" Midoriya eyed the tension in his teacher's frame and realized what the man intended to do. "Are you seriously going to try and fight them alone?" He asked, keeping his voice as even as possible. "You need to let us help you or you will die. Your style of combat is one-on-one ambush tactics."

"Everything's going to be alright Midoriya," Aizawa reassured him, "a pro doesn't last as long as I have without having a few tricks up their sleeve. Thirteen, I'm counting on you." Without another word he leapt down the stairs into the crowd of villains and immediately began beating them senseless.

"I see…" Midoriya muttered as he watched Aizawa tear through villain after villain like wet paper. "With his goggles on, the enemy has no way of knowing whose quirk is being erased, preventing them from properly coordinating their attacks." 

"This is no time for analysis, Midoriya!" Iida cried, "We need to evacuate!"

Midoriya nodded. "You're right." He said calmly. "Let's get everyone to the door. Everything is going to be alright."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that." Any attempt to make an escape was brought to an immediate halt when the dark mist from earlier materialized in front of them.

"Stay back!" Thirteen shouted, "Don't—"

"Get out of the way! / Die!" Bakugo and Kirishima shouted together, ignoring Thirteen's warning and attacking the mist with all of their might.

'No!' Thirteen cursed. 'I can't suck him up with those two in the way!'

"Greetings," the mist said politely as it easily swirled away from the two simultaneous attacks. "My name is Kurogiri, and we are the League of Villains. Forgive the presumption, but we came here today in order to engage with All Might, so that we might extinguish the Symbol of Peace."

'Kill All Might?' Midoriya's eyes went wide, 'Is this guy serious?'

"He was supposed to be here today, was he not?" Kurogiri sighed. "Ah, well, setting that aside," the ground beneath the students turned black, and they began to sink into the swirling maelstrom of dark mist, "this is my role."

"A portal quirk!?" Midoriya exclaimed, struggling in a futile attempt to escape the dark mire. 'Shit,' He thought, now chest-deep in the portal, 'this is bad, I need to warn them!' "Everyone," He shouted, "Get away from the dark spots! It's a portal! Don't let him suck you in!"

Just before his head completely slipped through the portal, the last thing he heard was a chillingly polite declaration from Kurogiri. "It is regrettable, but to achieve our goals, you will all be scattered...tortured...and slain."

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

When Midoriya exited the portal, he quickly realized that he was nearly fifteen meters in the air. As he plummeted towards the deep waters of the flood zone, he only had time for two thoughts to run through his mind. The first was that he was glad that he was above the flood zone. The second was a desperate hope that nobody else was teleported this high into the air above hard ground.

~SPLASH~

'Ow.'

After hitting the water with a great deal of force, Midoriya was in pain, disoriented, and being pulled downwards by his heavy costume. Thinking quickly, Midoriya let out a short pulse of air from his nose to figure out which way was up before vigorously kicking in the opposite direction. Despite the stinging of the salt water, Midoriya forced his eyes to open and immediately let out a huge volume of air with a yelp.

"Sorry kid, it's nothing personal!" The distorted voice of a fish-like man rang out underwater. The villain opened his enormous mouth and displayed rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth. "But you're chum!"

Midoriya's gaze hardened and he chambered his fist, channeling One for All into his body. 'If this guy thinks I'm going to sit back and become his victim, he's got another thing coming. One for All: 4% Sma—'

Before the fish-like villain could close the distance, a pair of feet slammed into the man's head, knocking him unconscious. Midoriya blinked as a powerful tongue wrapped around him and dumped him onto the boat that was floating in the middle of the man-made cove.

"You okay there Midoriya?" Asui croaked.

After a few seconds of coughing up the water in his lungs, Midoriya nodded. "Thanks Asu…Tsuyu. Yeah, I'm fine…was anybody else dropped with us?"

"Wow, I'm actually surprised that I didn't have to correct you on that." Asui said. "And no, I think it's just us."

Midoriya gave the girl a curious look. "You're certainly taking this well. Aren't you scared?"

"I am." She replied. "But it's not like panicking will make the situation any better."

Midoriya raised his eyebrows in respect. "No," he agreed, "no it won't."

'She's got a really good head on her shoulders…I'll talk to Yaoyorozu about adding her to the council after this.'

"They knew our schedule." Midoriya removed his helmet and shook out his hair. "The simplest explanation is that they caused that mess with the press yesterday to get their info. It's like Todoroki said, they've been waiting for this chance and prepared well."

"What about you?" Asui asked. "They seem to think they've got a plan to kill All Might, but you don't seem scared at all either."

"I'm not." Midoriya replied, digging through his waterlogged medicine pouch. "Because I've got a surefire way out of this."

"You've got a plan?" Asui asked.

"Yeah." Midoriya unwrapped the waterproof packaging containing his cyanide tablet. "I'm going to use my quirk."

Asui eyed the tablet. "What's that? Some kind of medicine for your quirk?"

Midoriya smiled. "Something like that. Sorry in advance." He took the pill.

And the world went black.

XXX

HEROES NEVER DIE

XXX

"It is regrettable," A deep menacing voice reverberated within the darkness, "but to achieve our goals, you will all be scattered...tortured...and slain."

Midoriya opened his eyes and paled when he realized that he was plummeting towards a body of water. 'No.' He thought.

~SPLASH~

'No no no no no…it can't be.' He forced his eyes open, ignoring the stinging from the salt water. 'It can't start here!'

"Sorry kid!" The distorted voice of a fish-like man rang out underwater. The villain opened his enormous mouth and displayed rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth. "But you're chum!"

Just as before, Asui's feet slammed into the villain's head, knocking them out. Then, Midoriya was unceremoniously deposited onto the deck of the boat by Asui's powerful tongue.

"You okay there Midoriya?" She croaked. "…Midoriya?"

Coughing the water out of his lungs, Midoriya ignored Asui and staggered to the railing of the boat and began to count the villains waiting for them. 'One...two…seven…ten.' His stomach dropped. 'There are ten villains out there waiting for us. They likely all have water related quirks. Can I beat them with what we have available?' He tightened his grip on the railing, squeezing the metal bar until his knuckles popped.

"Midoriya?" Asui's concerned voice rang out behind him. "Are you okay?"

Midoriya took a deep breath. 'Okay Izuku, calm down. The loops have never put you in an inescapable situation. There is a way out. I can do this. I have to do this.'

"Yes." He replied. He turned and faced Asui with a determined smile. "Everything is going to be just fine."

'Because I am here.'

AN: Muhahahaha, and so it begins. Don't worry about too long of a wait, I've been working out the details of the next chapter as well and I'm EXTREMELY excited to put it out. For those of you who were happy about Grape Juice getting the boot, know that your joy will cause our boy quite a bit of pain. Anyways, until next time, PLUS ULTRA.