56. Planning and Subterfuge.

Come next morn, Himiko bid us goodbye as she sneaked out of the house at the crack of dawn, unnoticed by the neighbours, while I prepped Eri's lunch and dinner before leaving for school myself.

Ideally, I would head for the training ground first thing in the morning, but today, the summer vacation had officially begun and that meant I had little time left to prep for the summer camp in a few weeks.

And so, pulling out a bento from my bag and made my way to the support course workshops.

Even before I opened the door, I could hear a bang coming from within, as a whiff of smoke burst from the half closed windows.

"Another failure?" A voice asked dejectedly from within.

"Nah. Every failure is a stepping stone to success!" A girl shouted enthusiastically.

"Not when you're wasting department resources on useless, impractical inventions!" A man, wearing a tractor bodysuit yelled.

"How dare you?! My babies are masterpieces! Masterpieces!" The cotton candy haired girl screamed as she started throwing tools at the man.

"Haah!" The man groaned, as he shook his head and left the room disappointed.

"What an ass!" I commented softly, kissing her soot covered cheeks, "You okay sugar plum?" I asked, handing her the bento.

"Breakfast!" She chirped, "And it's egg rolls. My favourite!"

"Only the best for you Mei." I said, wiping her face, as I took a seat opposite her.

"Uh hun?" She said, raising an eyebrow, "You know, I might have believed that if you weren't a two timing douchepickle."

"Hey! I have a lot of loving to go around. Don't tell me you're getting jealous now?"

"Maybe....a little." She flirted, "But it's not like you'll leave your girlfriend for me and become my private teddy bear. Not that I'd trust a guy that just jumped from girl to girl without a second thought."

"Damn right. I don't like living in closets. A bit of phobia, or some such." I smiled, popping an egg roll into my mouth, "But back to business. Are they ready?"

"Yup. In that box over there." She said, "The trigger is already in there. Soon as you get me detrodotoxin we can get on with the finishing touches."

"And the glasses?" I asked.

"No luck there. Maybe if we had some of that I-island nanotech. But as it stands, it won't work with the stuff I have on hand."

"No need to worry about the tech. If it's I-island stuff you want, I'll get it lickety split." I assured.

"Oho~ And are you also going to pluck the moon and stars from the sky for me, my dear prince?" She teased, unbelieving.

"Only if you want, m'lady." I said, leaning over, planting a kiss on her lips.

"Hohoho." She giggled oddly, "Then godspeed, my prince. Your princess awaits!" She announced. Handing me the empty bento box.

"As you wish~" I said, with a flourish, bowing nobly to another bout of seal giggles from her.

"See you tomorrow." I said, walking to the door, "And take care to have lunch. And a bath. You stink like a pig."

"Asshole!" She pouted, "That's not how you talk to a girl!"

"Ah, you were a girl, were you?" I teased, "Almost couldn't see it beneath the grime."

"Get out, you~" she laughed, throwing her gloves at my face, as I closed the door behind me.

Arriving at the training grounds, I checked my phone.

7.05.

I am late.

"You're late!" Midnight scolded, almost as if on cue.

"Yeah, sorry. I had to check up on some support equipment in the workshop." I replied, skipping out of my hoodie and into gym clothes.

All the while, Midnight stood by watching, ogling almost until I had to butt in.

"Sensei, don't you think this isn't right?" I suggested.

"Ara? What is?" She asked, playing innocent.

"Watching a student change?" I added.

"No~" She said nonchalant, licking her lips.

Damn, if she wasn't smoking hot it'd be extremely creepy.

"If you continue to be like this, I might just get the wrong idea, Midnight-sensei." I said, zipping up the uniform.

"And what would that be?" She asked.

"That .... Actually nevermind that." I said, realising the futility of dialogue with her.

I shook my head and walked out to the other students waiting for me.

"Good morning everyone." I greeted, "Today, we'll be designating you your roles in the fight against AFO, and describing exactly what each of you will do. We have about a month and change till the provisional license exam. Which means that aside from growing your abilities qualitatively and quantitatively, you'll also master the few set moves you'll use in the raid, suited to your purpose on this team."

"Set moves?" Iida asked, "Aren't we going to storm his base and take him by surprise, then wear him down slowly?"

"No. AFO has a teleportation quirk. The moment he realises that he has lost the upper hand in the fight, that he's in danger, he'll abandon base and hide deep underground.

We have to take him out before he knows what hit him. And to that end, I've devised a plan with a high likelihood of success." I said, pulling out a dart bullet.

"This here is a tranquilizer dart. We'll fill it with detrodotoxin, and shoot him down, paralyzing him before he can escape.

But there's a slight problem. He has a whole slew of defensive quirks, even some mutant ones that Aizawa sensei can't negate. Quirks which will stop the dart before it even hits him. Quirks that grant him steel skin and subdermal armour.

That's where you guys come in." I said, pointing at Reiko and Kuroiro.

"The two of you will work together to target his weak spots - throat, eyes, ears, wrists, joints, etc. Kuroiro." I called out, gesturing at a small fanny pack wrapped in duct tape.

"That's a bag full of living material, worms to be specific. You'll train using that to slowly increase the amount of living material you can carry with you into the shadows, until you can carry a whole person with you, while Reiko will practice shooting the tranquilizer dart with her power. Once she can penetrate 12mm armour plating, you two will hide in the sole of Iida's shoes. He will be responsible for the delivery of the payload.

Which is why," I turned to Iida, "You, Iida, will train solely to maintain recipro burst at full power for as long as possible. It will be your responsibility to lead the two of them to his back and blindside him."

"Is that even possible. From the way you describe him, he can go toe to toe with All Might and win. How am I supposed to run fast enough to overcome All Might sensei?" Iida asked.

"You won't have to." I answered, "Mineta and Shinso will stall him in place with their quirks while Shoto and Tokoyami will help All Might sensei distract him. Aizawa sensei will then use his quirk on AFO, before Iida's group ambushes him.

In order, here's how we'll proceed.

First All Might sensei will distract him and weaken him. Then Shoto will destabilize his footing by freezing the field. This will force him to use a flight quirk. While he is getting his bearings, Tokoyami will engage him in the air alongside Endeavour and Mt. Lady.

Once he is high enough, Aizawa sensei will erase his flight quirk, and he'll plummet to the ground, where Pixie Bob and Best Jeanist will capture him in a prison of steel wire and rock. In that moment as he tries to break free, Iida will rush in and ambush him with Reiko-san and Kuroiro-kun. This way, no one gets hurt and we end this operation, hopefully without any casualties." I explained.

"Wait, you didn't mention us? What are we supposed to do?" Deku interjected.

"Rescue operations. The fight will undoubtedly have a ton of fallout, debris, broken buildings and the like.

You, Momo, Uraraka and Kirishima will tend to the wounded and rescue those who get buried under the rubble."

"Can't I join All Moght sensei in fighting AFO?" Kirishima asked, unsatisfied.

"Can you fly, Kirishima?" I asked.

"No, but.."

"Then can you withstand a napalm bomb?" I pushed.

"Not yet but in the future, I .."

"Look, Kirishima, I get it. You want to be on the front lines, fighting the good fight. But you will save more lives as support." I said, acknowledging his point of view.

"Yeah.." he finally replied, dejected, "You're right. It's probably for the better. But promise me you'll let me sock him after, just one punch?"

"Promise." I said, patting him on the shoudler.

"There's just one thing you forgot to mention. What will you do during the fight?" Shinso asked, from the side.

"That depends. If I can get to the desired level of power before the raid, I'll join All Might sensei on the battlefield. If not, I'll play support."

"So you'll chicken out if you're not strong enough? And you call yourself All Might's successor!" Shinso scoffed.

"AFO can steal quirks with a touch. And OFA is one of the strongest quirks in the world. If he gets his hands on it, he'll be unstoppable.

So I don't care if you call me a coward or whatever else. I will not risk letting him get OFA even on the off chance that we fail and he goes free. Or worse, my quirk. If he gets my quirk, no one will be safe from his grasp anymore." I rebuked him, acting miffed.

"That...I didn't consider. I'm sorry." Shinso relented, apologizing.

"No. I shouldn't have gotten angry. I'm sorry too." I mirrored him, before scanning the group.

"What are you waiting for then?" I clapped, "Let's start training!"

Though I say that, I fully expect the mission to fail. I set it up that way after all. And when their fight ends up in flames, I will rise anew from the ashes like a phoenix, reborn a god!