Villains.

Izuku wasn't sure how many there were. More than a dozen? A lot more than a dozen, even if his mind didn't want to give him the real, full number. These people, all of them, had chosen a path of doing harm to others for their own gain. And they had come here, to a school facility, on a day a class was being taught. They had come here ready and willing to attack the students. He was facing people like this with real malicious intent for the first time–

You're a real hero to me, kid!

… No. It wasn't the first time. It was so long ago, but that sludge villain taught him a real lesson that would serve him in situations like this. Villains. To people like them, you were a target, an opportunity. Whether it was for quick cash or some more complex objective, you were nothing more than a way to advance their goals. For such people, there was only one response available.

Don't let yourself be a target.

A moment to analyse the situation. Yaoyorozu was on her own but already holding her own, keeping her few attackers at bay. It seemed the villains had seen her quick recovery and actions and decided she was the main threat. Because of that, only a few were taking her on, pinning her down while the others seemed intent on taking himself and Jirou out of the fight quickly. It made sense. Without distractions, their sheer numbers would overwhelm the class representative, no matter how skilled she may be.

In a snap and not even bothering to stand, Izuku was off like a shot with a single kick, launching himself into the crowd of villains in an effort to regroup with Jirou. An arm swung out as he moved, clotheslining a boar-headed villain with the movement.

"Whoa, a speed quirk?!"

"He's fast–"

A kick off the ground. A moment to observe, find the best path, the least aware villains. Another kick, a few steps closer to his classmate. Another moment–

His view was suddenly obscured by a translucent bubble of some kind.

"I got him!" a villain crowed, his hand placed flat against the bubble surrounding the UA student.

Izuku paused for half a moment as he examined the bubble. Then, he punched it. No quirk behind it, just a regular punch. He didn't know how strong the field was, after all. It didn't break. Not even a scratch. But it did buckle.

"Sorry, kid! Can't burst my bubble that easy–"

It buckled. That meant force travelled through it.

The green-haired boy's gaze locked on the villain's hand, still on the bubble.

"What are you–"

Izuku didn't even try to hide what he was about to do, cocking his fist back and pouring some real power into it this time, he aimed a punch squarely into the palm of the villain's hand.

The punch landed. The force passed into the bubble, through it, into the villain's hand.

"Gahahhhhhhhhh!"

The bubble broke. As did the villain's wrist.

It was all the opening Izuku was looking for as he got back to making his way through the crowd. They had closed in on him thinking they had him dead to rights, but a swift kick to a villain's jaw opened a path.

"Jirou, are you okay?!"

Kyoka Jirou only turned to look at him after blasting a villain that was getting too close with her soundwaves. On a glance, the punk-outfitted girl's eyes were as bored as ever, but keen eyes could see the flickers of fearful adrenaline at the situation, and their slight relief at receiving backup. "How's it going, Midoriya? Keeping–" she paused to blast another villain "–busy?!"

"Uhh, I guess?" Izuku answered, launching into another villain and punching her out, before backing up into Jirou in a low fighting stance, the two would-be heroes fighting back to back.

"Ugh, you need to work on your fight banter," the girl said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh. OH!" Izuku exclaimed on getting what she was going for. "I mean, yeah! Super busy, uhh... kicking butt for goodness!"

Jirou just... stared at him, over her shoulder.

"... Yeah, I'll work on it."

"I dunno, I've heard worse," said a snake-haired villain.

"You don't get an opinion!" Jirou shouted, blasting him with sound. "Maybe we should link up with Momo? She's probably–" she said more calmly... Before noticing something strange as she tried to move in that direction. "... Midoriya?"

Izuku had felt the tugging on his back, so knew where this was probably going. "Yeah?"

"Why can't I move?"

"... Okay, some things have happened but it's not a big deal–"

"I'm stuck to your back!"

"It's fine! We can just pull apart–"

"You think the villains will give us time to– woah woah woah woah!" In the middle of berating her classmate, Kyoka Jirou felt herself abruptly lifted off the ground, frantically kicking at the air as she was carried behind Midoriya as he decked a villain with steel skin who was trying to capitalise on the moment.

"Okay, you got me there."

It was at this point Izuku realised because of his posture when he backed into Jirou, his upper back was stuck to her lower back. That and her being a little shorter than him meant standing at his full height, his female classmate's feet couldn't touch the ground.

"Midoriya, you get me off right now or I swear– Wah!"

The boy had lunged forward to bust the head of another villain but only passed through them. Their quirk apparently being to turn into water. The villain cackled to themselves, voice like ripples in a pond. "Gyahahaha! Looks like you just found someone you can't just punch through, boy–" The villain's monologue interrupted by a blast of sound that caused them to lose cohesion.

"Shut the hell up, I'm having a crisis, here!" yelled Jirou.

"... Would it be weird to say this is actually kind of working?"

"Yes!"

-(-)-

Denki Kaminari was finding being attacked by villains to not be that bad of an experience so far. Maybe that had something to do with his extraordinarily lucky break for how it happened.

Sure, it had started out pretty bad, suddenly finding himself dunked in what he later learned was the shipwreck scenario, sinking underwater. Bad turned to worse as he found himself being attacked by villains with heteromorphic fish quirks. You might think having an electric quirk underwater would make for an easy win but he had long learned of the drawback of his quirk. He wasn't entirely immune to his own power and using it underwater? That was just asking to fry his own brain and drown like an idiot.

Another lucky break. He wasn't the only one sent to the shipwreck. Tsuyu Asui, the frog girl had arrived to rescue him and drop both himself and the short one that kind of sucks at everything on the deck of the model ship.

They had taken a moment to take stock of their situation and it took almost no time at all to realise how badly the villains had messed up to putt himself and Asui on the shipwreck. Denki Kaminari decided this was his moment to be awesome.

"Alright you bozos, listen up!" he yelled as he stepped onto the railing of the ship. "You guys must think you're hot shit attacking a school for heroes like this but I got some bad news for ya! Your bosses screwed you! You wanna know what my quirk is?" he asked rhetorically, lightning sparking between his fingers.

"Ah, shit," whined one of the villains.

"That's right! 'Ah, shit' is absolutely right! Now, are you villains gonna swim away quietly with your dorsal fins between your legs? Or do we have to play a little game of toaster in the tub? Huh?! Choose!"

Kaminari couldn't help the surge of pride he felt as he watched the villains slink away, not willing to take lightning to the face. Even if... You know... Technically he couldn't do that without getting in the water. Which meant he couldn't do that at all.

Bluffing like a master! It felt good!

"You know, for the fin joke? You were probably looking for the adipose fin, not the dorsal."

"I'll keep it in mind in future, Asui."

"Call me Tsuyu."

-(-)-

"Alright kiddies, here's how this little thing is going to work."

Things had been going so well.

You know. Relatively speaking. They were still barely trained teenagers in the middle of a villain ambush and vastly outnumbered, but they were holding their own! A number of the villains had sustained injuries severe enough they couldn't keep fighting, meanwhile the students were panting a little (and in... a somewhat awkward circumstance that Izuku was vocally insistent was no one's fault) but entirely capable of fighting their way out.

And then, the leader of this particular group decided to join the fray.

Though, to say he joined the fray would be somewhat inaccurate. From what Izuku knew, the guy had suddenly appeared as if from nowhere and grabbed Momo from her blind spot, making sure to restrain her limbs that her creations had emerged from.

Internally, Izuku was kicking himself for not realising someone was directing the other villains. Their strategy wasn't exactly complicated but it had enough thought put into it that there had to be someone wrangling the otherwise unruly mob of villains into sticking to it.

"Now, first things first, let's set some ground rules, yeah? No sudden movements from the devil kid or his little backpack girlfriend or the swimsuit model gets sent home in a bodybag, got it?"

"Did that asshole just call me a freaking backpack?! Midoriya! Turn around so I can blast this guy!" Jirou yelled as she tried to throw her weight in a way that would turn them around.

"What did I say, brat! You want your friend's brain turned to jelly?!"

"Jirou..." Izuku pleaded quietly.

"Tch!" she tutted but calmed down, if reluctantly.

"That's better," the villain commended, his hands still sparking threateningly. "So what you're gonna do next is get on your knees and let my compatriots beat that tar out of you."

"What the hell?! Why would we ever do that?!" shouted Jirou once again.

"Brain. Jelly. Damn, hero kids these days, so slow on the uptake."

"Why are you even doing this?" Izuku asked, partially wanting to know, partially to stall for time and think of a plan. "This is a secure facility and you're attacking kids! Do you even have an escape plan? Once the other pros get here–"

"Oh, kid, you just don't see the big picture! The pros being here is the point! Were you not listening before? The Symbol of Peace dies today and we are gonna make that happen! The League of Villains are gonna change the world and there's no way in hell I was gonna turn that down!"

"Wow, you really are a worthless bum of a villain aren't you?" Jirou sniped in a lazy tone. "Tough guy with an electric quirk. Winning the quirk lottery like that and you're still a two-bit thug for some delusional freakshow? Way to fail, bro."

Izuku winced at how thick Jirou was laying it on. "Look, there's no way this ends well for you if you do this! Just let us go and–"

"Shut it! You two are done talking! Last warning, get on your knees or– Guhhhh!" The villain suddenly gasped and doubled over. In the moment of weakness, Momo pulledo ut of his grip, spun around and grabbed the sledgehammer she had just sprouted from her back to slam into the villain's solar plexus. With the momentum of a full rotation she slammed the hammer into the villain's jaw, knocking him clean out as she gasped for air.

With Momo freed and the ringleader out, the three teens cleared up the last few villains willing to fight. Not many, all told. As the numbers advantage slipped away moment by moment, more than a few decided discretion was the better part of villainy and made themselves scarce. Before long, it was just the three students on a faux mountain covered in unconscious villains. Jirou took the opportunity to forcibly peel herself off of Midoriya. "Well, that was an experience," she drawled. "Don't ever do that again."

"Why? I mean it w-uhhhhhhhh..." Izuku began before his brain abruptly shut down at what he was seeing.

"Well! That was exhilarating! And terrifying. But we won!" Momo proclaimed with hand on her hips.

"Uhh, Momo," Jirou started.

"They may not have been the most capable of villains but we stood against them and came out victorious! We should be proud of how far we've come in so short a time!"

"Momo!"

"Yes?"

"Your suit!"

"Huh?"

Looking down, Momo realised what the problem was. When she had created the sledgehammer she had done so from her back to surprise the villain. That had ripped the back of her outfit so thoroughly that it had an open back to match the plunging neckline. The outcome was her suit looking more like a sling bikini. And with the outfit not really meant to be a sling bikini it had led to... wardrobe malfunction. The shoulders were halfway down her biceps, leaving her chest on full display.

"Oh, darn it! I'll make a new one, hold on," she moaned before turning around...

And removing it completely.

"!" The sound that escaped Izuku's throat resembled something like a strangled chicken. Jirou had abandoned her earlier demand and willingly jumped onto the boy's back to cover his eyes with her hands, completely uncaring that not only were her hands now stuck to his face, her body was now also stuck wrapped around him.

And even then, it didn't matter. He had seen everything.

Did he really have to become a great hero? Some part of him felt like he could die happy right then and there.

"There we go! All fixed!"

With a sigh, Jirou peeled her hands away from Izuku's face, the boy both disappointed and glad that Momo's statement was true. "We should get back to the plaza," Izuku suggested.

"We should regroup with the others as soon as possible," Momo nodded. "Do you think we were the only ones split off?"

"Didn't that mist guy say he was going to scatter us?" asked Jirou. "That doesn't sound like just splitting a couple of us up."

That thought gave Momo pause. "It worries me that our classmates might be struggling as we were. They might not have been so lucky."

"Even so, we have no idea where they are," Izuku thought aloud with a hand on his chin, not even cognizant of Jirou unknowingly resting her head on his shoulder. "Without knowing that, I feel like we'd cause more problems for Thirteen and Mister Aizawa by running around at random."

"Treat it like a rescue operation," Jirou suggested. "We shouldn't get full of ourselves, we're still the ones most at risk here. We should get back and let Mister Aizawa know we're okay."

Momo wrapped her arms around her middle, chewing on her lip in frustration. She knew the technical right thing to do was return to the teachers. Still...

"Momo, they've got this," Izuku insisted soothingly. "We're not even the real targets. The best thing we can do is make sure the pros have one less thing to worry about."

With a sigh out through her nose, the class representative nodded. "Okay. We'll go with your idea. Let's get to the plaza quickly."

As the three started running, or rather two ran while one was getting a piggyback ride, Jirou found herself wondering something now that the adrenaline was leaving that hadn't occurred to her before. As she pulled her chin up from Izuku's shoulder she whispered to herself, "So... Does this mean...?"

"Did you say something, Jirou?"

With a blush unseen by the one carrying her she stammered, "No, no, it's... it's nothing."

"Also... You can call me Kyoka."

-(-)-

Kaminari felt more out of his depth than when he had been unceremoniously dumped in the lake.

As he had that thought, as the connection formed between the current events and his recent experiences and his brain tried to make a joke about it, he realised how far gone he really was. As he watched his teacher being systematically brutalised, the hand villain causing bits of him to crumble away as that giant muscular duck thing slammed his face into the pavement, his brain had decided to spend time making clever plays on words. His mind had seemed to look at his current situation and just said 'nope' and tried to distract, distance itself from it.

Was this what hysteria felt like? He didn't know. Well, he didn't really know what hysteria was. Just that it meant you'd gone a bit crazy. Maybe it was another kind of crazy?

… It was doing it again.

He needed to do something. They needed to do something! They couldn't just sit there hiding in the water and wait for the bad men to go away while their teacher was being killed right in front of them! They were supposed to be heroes!

… Even so, what could they do against that?

Asui was a frog girl. Not a good matchup against a two ton platypus, not to mention the guy that could cripple her with a touch. Mineta was Mineta and needed no further comment. And himself? The hand guy could cripple with a touch but so could he. But the platypus would crush him like a bug. His Indiscriminate Shock... Well, not only was he not sure that would work on the platypus, it would hit Mister Aizawa and in the teacher's current state... Not an option.

Was this why his mind was looking to escape? Because the alternative... All they could do was sit. And watch. And feel the crushing helplessness.

And then the mist villain appeared. "Tomura Shigaraki."

"Kurogiri? Did you manage to kill Thirteen?"

"The rescue hero is out of commission but one of the students managed to escape the facility."

The hand villain grew deathly still and quiet on receiving the news. Slowly, his hands, his real hands, inched upwards before frantically clawing at his neck. "Kurogiri you fool! If you weren't our way out I swear I would tear apart every atom of your body!" As suddenly as the erratic episode appeared, it was gone. And the hand villain Shigaraki was calm again. "If dozens of heroes show up to stop us there's no way we can win. It's game over. Back to the title screen!" He sighed. "And I was looking forward to finishing this today. Dammit. Let's go home."

… What?

… They were... They were leaving?

They were leaving!

Kaminari didn't care that his eyes were leaking. The sudden relief that this nightmare was ending crushed any need for bravado he had.

"Oh, before we leave–"

Oh no.

"Let's make sure the Symbol of Peace is broken!"

Shigaraki looked right at the students.

He knew we were here the whole time!

"Let's wreck his pride!"

In the blink of an eye, with movements that vaguely reminded Kaminari of how he saw Midoriya move just in pure speed and suddenness, Shigaraki was on them and reaching for Asui's head.

Kaminari's arm moved.

He didn't remember telling it to. It just did.

Maybe he had spent so long just frozen. Just waiting for something he could do to stop this. Maybe when staying frozen stopped being a safe option, the next response kicked in, the one he had longed for but knew was impossible.

He grabbed hold of a reaching arm. His hand lit up with sparks.

"Direct shock. 300,000 volts!" Kaminari yelled as he poured lightning into the hand-faced bastard.

But he was still in the water.

He had known that part. As all of it was happening, some part of his increasingly scattered mind had catalogued that fact and found it unimportant. So as the powerful electric shock ran through the villain, it also ran through Kaminari. They shared their fate as electricity ravaged their bodies. It quickly grew too much for the student and he released his quirk's power.

The hand villain broke out of the boy's grip, twitching and furious as he bounded away. "Alright, ch-change of p-p-lans. Nomu. Kill that one."

Kaminari was no longer aware enough to feel the fear as those words sealed his fate. He was paralysed, trapped in his own body, senses confused and jumbled. He didn't hear the stomping footsteps of the giant, Nomu. He didn't feel Asui try to pick him up with her tongue to get him away. He didn't hear Mineta's cries as he pelted it with sticky balls, peppering the path with them only for Nomu to step on them and rip up the pavement under them to keep on walking.

And he didn't hear the almighty slam as the front entrance to the USJ opened, All Might standing there looking not like a hero, but like a buff but ordinary teacher. Shirt and slacks. No costume.

No smile.

-(-)-

"We're finally out of the mountain zone," sighed Momo.

"There's the main stairs!" Jirou called out as the huge structure came into view.

As well as a better view of the main plaza.

"Woah, look at all those villains! Did Eraserhead do all of this?" Izuku marvelled as he saw every villain in the plaza had been knocked unconscious.

"Midoriya! Jirou!" Momo shouted, pointing towards the water.

"All Might?!" Jirou squeaked, though would deny to her dying breath it sounded that way. "We're saved!"

In a flash, the Symbol of Peace himself appeared before them with multiple people in tow. Asui, Mineta, an insensate Kaminari, and a brutalised Aizawa.

"Oh, no!" the class representative gasped on seeing the state of their homeroom teacher.

"Class representatives, I need you to get your teacher and young Kaminari back to the entrance, they're both gravely injured. I need to deal with our uninvited guests."

"Sir!" Momo acknowledged, creating two stretchers, putting Aizawa on one and carrying one end, Mineta taking the other end.

"Wait, All Might!" Izuku shouted, "You need to know! They're not here for us, they're here for you! They want to kill you and they seem pretty confident–"

All Might simply raised a hand to silence his successor, before flashing him a thumbs up. "Young Iida told me everything. Please take care of the injured, young Midoriya. I got this!"

"... Yes sir!" Izuku nodded firmly, putting Kaminari on the other stretcher and carrying him with Asui.

As the group moved, all of them trying to focus on their goal but heavily distracted by the incredible battle about to take place, Asui had a thought. "Hey, Kyoka, why are you on Izuku's back?"

"Ah..." Jirou mumbled, trying to fight down her blush. "Some stuff happened and... I got stuck. It was easier to just stick with it... No pun intended."

"It actually works out pretty well," Midoriya said with a smile. "I'm great at short range, she's great at long range. We make a good team!"

Amazing fight or not, Jirou buried her face in his shoulder to hide her megawatt blush.

"Ugh, these stairs suck!" Mineta whined. "Yaoyorozu, I'll go first or Mister Aizawa will just go sliding off of the stretcher!"

"Now that you mention it, it is funny that they put such a hazardous structure as the entrance to a rescue training facility," Momo smiled as they started the ascent.

Step by step, the students climbed back to the entrance carrying their injured. Partway up, Sato and Shoji moved down to help them. One taking the place of Mineta and the other Midoriya who was already weighed down (Jirou not appreciating the implication there).

It was then that the fight they had been watching with half an eye took a dangerous turn. All Might, the Symbol of Peace was trapped, grappled partway through the mist villain's gate with Nomu gouging out his stomach.

Midoriya was already running. Then kicking, forcing himself to descend the stairs faster.

"Midoriya what the hell are you doing?!" Jirou yelled in his ear.

He wasn't even thinking as he answered her out loud. "This was their plan! I can't let him die! Not like this! Not yet! I have so much more to learn from him!"

"We can't do anything against that!"

"The mist villain isn't deaf!"

"... What?!"

"He's not deaf! If he can hear then sound can hurt him! Maybe I can't do anything about this on my own but together I think we can save All Might!"

"You're crazy!"

"I don't care! I won't watch him die!"

Jirou was only slightly mollified by her ride's not being entirely a courageous idiot and actually having a plan. "This better work or I'm going to haunt you!"

He didn't acknowledge her words as they were already too close to the action. It was do or die. "Get away from him!" he yelled as he charged in with a punch–

"How foolish." Kurogiri appeared in front of the grappling titans, blocking their path and opening a warp gate.

"Now, Jirou!"

"Heartbeat Stereo!"

"Nnnnnngh!" the mist villain groaned, the incomplete gate collapsing at his lack of focus. Midoriya's punch continued through and instead of hitting the gate, gave a metallic clang as it struck the lowest point of what looked like a metal neck brace.

A gravelly voiced roar was somehow audible over the continuing thuds of Jirou's attack. "Out of the way, Deku!" From above, Bakugou's gauntleted fist slammed into the metal plate of the mist villain with literal explosive force.

From another direction, ice flowed across the ground and enveloped the form of Nomu, only spreading so far to avoid catching All Might in it.

"Gotcha that time, didn't I you creepy mist bastard!"

"The Symbol of Peace will not fall to delinquents like you."

… Also, Kirishima was there. Apparently.

As Bakugou continued taunting the villain Kurogiri about his defeat and threatening him with small explosions, the apparent leader seemed entirely too calm about the situation. "Nomu."

With that single word, the monstrous creature, still half frozen, sank back through the warp gate, shattering the frozen sections of its body without care. As it made to stand on only one leg, the remaining ice covering its right side shattered, revealing rapidly regrowing tissue. A new arm and leg regrown in seconds.

"I thought you said his power was shock absorption?"

"I didn't say that was his only power. Now, let's free our method of escape." Looking at Bakugou and Kirishima guarding Kurogiri, the hand-covered villain merely pointed. "Get 'em, Nomu."

Too fast to see. That was the thought that crossed Bakugou's mind as the giant abomination bore down on him. It didn't even feel like time passed between Nomu being at a distance and then so close the beast dominated his entire vision. And then... He wasn't there anymore. He was instead grouped together with the other students at Izuku's position.

"Oh, man! Kacchan, did you dodge that?!" Izuku asked, impressed even beyond his high expectations of Bakugou.

"Of course I didn't you damn nerd."

"These are children and you didn't hold back?!" All Might demanded as the smoke cleared, revealing he had taken the hit for Bakugou to move to boy out of the way.

"Should I have shown restraint against someone holding my companion hostage?" Shigaraki shrugged. "I thought that was what you heroes were all about! Violence is okay as long as it's in the service of others, isn't that right? Or is that only if you have the label of 'hero'? That's so arbitrary it pisses me off! You think you're the Symbol of Peace? You're just a government sponsored instrument of violence. And of course! Violence breeds more violence. I'll make sure the world understands that once you're dead."

"Hmph. Villains always try to make their actions sound noble. But admit it, you're just doing this because you enjoy it!"

The eyes were all they needed to see to understand the glee in Shigaraki's expression.

"We have them outnumbered," Todoroki stated with determination.

"Six to three is pretty good odds, especially now that we know the mist guy's weakness," Izuku agreed.

"You and backpack girl only count as one, Deku," Bakugou sneered.

"Would people stop calling me a backpack!"

"Come on, with All Might's help, we can take 'em!"

"NO." All Might bellowed. "Get out of here. I thank you for your assistance but this time it's different! Just sit back and watch a pro at work!"

"But All Might, your injuries! And your ti–" Izuku started to say before stopping himself.

All Might's only response was a thumbs up before focusing entirely on the villains in front of him.

"Allow me to give you a lesson. On what it means to be a true hero!"

-(-)-

A/N: This is another one of those moments where a scene is going to go so identically to the canon material that I may as well just skip it. Let me know if you really want me to write it but seriously, it's just going to be yet another novelisation of that scene you probably watched a dozen times on youtube. It would feel like padding to me but I bow to the will of the people.

Okay.. Let's see, things to talk about. The backpack thing. It seemed like a fun idea so I ran with it and it became such shipping fuel I can't really believe it myself and I wrote it.

Kaminari. Yeah. His shit got dark. Figuratively and literally. He's probably gonna be pooping charcoal briquettes after zapping himself that hard. Midoriya already went through a scene like that in canon but Kaminari hadn't. So... Now he has.

That's about it though. Thankfully after this chapter we get some downtime and I get to do some harem romcom shenanigans for a bit before the sports festival.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.