Len was pleased by his costume. The material for the shirt was almost rubber: tough, but light and stretchy, meaning it'd be easy to teleport with him and not risk going naked by accident. It was also skin-tight, showing off his broad shoulders and modest muscles. The pants were baggy and made of polyester and nylon. Then there were some combat boots. The shirt stopped just past his elbows, showing a bit of forearm, and was mostly gold save for two grey stripes going down the sides of his chest from shoulder to hip, and the dark grey inkblot design in the center. He was happy with how the inkblot had turned out. The pants and the boots were also dark grey.
There were five more things in the uniform box, which were all black and slightly glossy. Len knocked against them with his fist and heard a clink. They were metal, and closer inspection revealed two elbow-pads, two-shoulder pads, and the mask for his eyes and nose that he'd requested. A bit of light armour to top me off. He put on the pads quickly, but the mask came with instructions. He looked closer and read.
You will find a button on the left side of the mask. Press it twice in quick succession. Len did so, and watched the mask impossibly compress and fold in on itself. Is this some kind of magic metal substance, just for me? He realised that the mask had folded into the shape of an earpiece. He tentatively picked it up and placed it over his left ear. It fit perfectly.
Gulping, Len pressed the button twice more, and the mask folded out over his face, narrowing his vision and closing his nose off. Instantly he switched to breathing through his mouth, which felt less natural. I'll have to get used to that. But the narrowed vision already made him feel more focused and less likely to get sick or turn super hyper or delirious out of nowhere. He couldn't see to the sides as well, but that was okay for now. It was like his sister had said: costumes could always be updated. If those disadvantages from the mask became too much, they could always fine-tune it, or he could train himself to deal with the nausea and need no mask at all. Future thoughts for future times, however. Now he needed to focus on the present.
Len pressed the button again to make the mask retreat off of his face before heading out the tunnel and into Ground Beta. The rest of the class was walking with him. Up ahead, All Might stood with a clipboard and a box, a look of pride slowly growing on his face. Behind him was a derelict building.
"Oh, look at you all!" he boomed. "Looking the part is one of the most important aspects of heroism, and you've already got that down!"
Len glanced at his surrounding classmates and gasped. Everyone looked so impressive!
Iida was wearing some insane-looking white sci-fi armour. The boy Tokoyami wore a dark cloak. Bakugo and Kirishima were showing some skin, but their spare-ish adornments gave them the appearance of caged animals ready to strike. Uraraka was wearing a skin-tight bodysuit that reminded Len of his own, except the pattern on it was pink and black where his was black and orange. Also, she had bigger boobs than him. That was another thing.
Speaking of which, what the hell, Yaoyorozu?
"Kagamine-kun!" Toru's voice cried. Len looked wildly around in a circle, before zeroing in on some floating gloves and a pair of boots on the ground.
His eye twitched. "Are you… are you naked?"
"Is that a problem?" Mina's voice, behind him.
"GAH!" Len jumped in surprise. "What're you…" he turned to look at Mina, and briefly lost his words.
She was wearing a skin-tight suit like Uraraka's, only it showed more cleavage. The colouring was purple/teal in a camouflage pattern, and she wore brown boots on her feet. Matching those boots was a brown waistcoat, unbuttoned, with white fur lining the top. And she wore a simple white mask over her eyes, made of fabric instead of metal like his.
Mina seemed to catch his eyes looking up and down, and spun in a seductive circle. "Like what you see?" she asked.
"Ha! It will take more than that to fluster me! You just surprised me by suddenly talking to my ear from behind, that's all. Yes." Indeed, Len wasn't easily flustered, but this combined with Toru being naked combined with how much skin Yaoyorozu was showing combined with Uraraka's similarly skin-tight outfit… it was kinda overwhelming! Just from a normal red blooded male standpoint. I am no pervert.
Meanwhile, Kaminari was wide-eyed and dazzled, blood leaking slowly from one nostril. "Hero school is the best," he said vacantly. Jiro punched his arm.
Tsuyu and Shoji appeared. The former had a green bodysuit on with large white gloves and a pair of goggles strapped to her head. "You look cute, Tsu-chan!" Mina declared, and Toru hummed in agreement.
"Thank you, ribbit."
Shoji's costume was simple. The one noteworthy thing was the extremely wide arm holes, for obvious reasons.
Midoriya emerged from the tunnel last, wearing a greenish outfit with a mask that covered his face, along with some weird bunny ear attachment things. Len noticed him walking over to Uraraka before returning to his own conversation.
"Hagakure-san, are you… immodest, right now?" Shoji was asking uncomfortably.
"Haha, yep! Gonna set all the villains on edge with the power of stealth!" her gloves closed into fists and she appeared to punch the air repeatedly.
"Lenny, I like your costume, ribbit. What does the design on the front mean?"
"Hmm?" Len looked down at the inkblot. "It doesn't mean anything, and that's the point. It's an inkblot design from psychology. You see what you THINK you see, and that reflects on your mental state."
"I see." Tsuyu put a finger to her chin. "It certainly could become a recognisable symbol, ribbit."
"That's the idea."
"Is everyone ready?" All Might called. "It's time to start Battle Training!" His eyes suddenly widened, and he turned to the side, whispering something under his breath. Len looked around, confused. What did he just see?
Iida raised an armoured hand. "Sensei! What will we be doing? Why are we here in the cityscape?"
"This will be an indoor battle trial! Imprisonment, home invasion, black market deals… the smartest and most dangerous villains operate indoors from the shadows in a society filled with heroes. So, for this exercise, you will be separated into teams of two—Heroes and Villains!"
The class erupted. "Are we fighting each other?" asked Tsuyu.
"Am I allowed to kill?" Bakugo demanded.
"Will we be expelled if we lose?" squeaked Uraraka, timidly.
"How will the teams be divided?!" Iida shrieked.
"Doesn't my cape look fabulous?" asked Aoyama.
"I CAN'T ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS AT ONCE!" All Might shouted, his smile becoming more strained. Then… he pulled out a piece of paper, and began reading from it.
Some of the class was taken aback with shock; others snickered. All Might was having to recite the assignment from a piece of paper. Is he entirely qualified to be teaching classes? Len wondered.
"This exercise will consist of a battle inside a building!" All Might recited. "The Villain team of two will guard a nuke that they intend on launching! The Hero team must stop them before it's too late! If the heroes capture the villains or touch the nuke before time runs out, they win! If the villains keep them from the nuke or capture the heroes before time runs out, THEY win!"
"How very American," commented Yaoyorozu.
"The teams will be decided at random!" All Might announced.
"Are you sure that's the best way to do it?" asked Iida.
"Of course! In an emergency situation, you may not always have the best options for allies in your immediate area! You will have to make do with whatever heroes are nearby, leading to some impromptu teamups! This will simulate such a situation!"
Len was sure that if he could see Iida's face, his eyes would be glistening. "Right! I apologize for my ignorance!" the boy bowed deeply.
The teams were drawn as follows:
Team A: Uraraka Ochaco and Midoriya Izuku
Team B: Kaminari Denki and Shoji Mezo
Team C: Tokoyami Fumikage and Hagakure Toru
Team D: Iida Tenya and Bakugou Katsuki
Team E: Todoroki Shoto and Aoyama Yuga
Team F: Kirishima Eijiro and Asui Tsuyu
Team G: Ojiro Mashirao and Ashido Mina
Team H: Sato Rikido and Jiro Kyoka
Team I: Sero Hanta and Kagamine Len
Team J: Yaoyorozu Momo and Koda Koji
Len looked around, searching for Sero Hanta. His eyes zeroed in on the boy, with his easy smile and lanky build. The tape user's costume was pretty cool, all white and black and yellow with shoulder pads and a cool helmet. Sero grinned back at him, and they approached each other, as the other pairs of students did the same around the same, chatting with their partners. "Glad you're my partner, to be honest," said Sero, scratching the back of his neck. "Our Quirks are both pretty compatible for this exercise."
"Are they?" Len raised an eyebrow. Shit, I don't have the brain for this at all! We need to come up with a plan, tactics… but I'm drawing a blank! Outwardly, he only returned Sero's easy smile and said, "I guess so, huh? Let's do our best, then." They both nodded and then stood there awkwardly for a moment. Oh no. He's way too laid-back, and we've never talked before! I don't know what to say! Ohhhh, couldn't I have just gotten Mina or Hagakure or something? Len was starting to mildly panic.
"Okay, for the first exercise, Team A will be the heroes, and Team D will be the villains!"
Now, Len wasn't the only one panicking. After All Might's announcement, Midoriya had suddenly gone very pale. "We're up first, Deku-kun!" said Uraraka happily. "Huh? Are you okay?"
"Heroes and Villains, get into your positions!" All Might was saying. "The rest of us will head back to the video room to watch."
Bakugo stormed through the front of the throng, heading for the building. As he passed Midoriya, the green haired boy tried to stammer out, "L-l-let's d-d-do our best, K-Kaccha—"
Bakugo only broke past him, Iida on his heels. "Bakugo-san! We must come up with a plan!"
All Might seemed nervous. "Anyway, let the rest of us get going to the video room!"
Len frowned in Midoriya's direction. Uraraka was worrying over him, but the boy barely seemed to notice.
"What's all that about? What's with the weird nicknames?" asked Sero as they followed the others.
Len shrugged. "All I know is that they went to the same middle school."
"I noticed Bakugo call Midoriya Quirkless yesterday. I mean, that's clearly, blatantly wrong, right? Midoriya's Quirk is so powerful that it breaks him."
"Maybe he's saying that because it breaks him like that then it's as bad as being Quirkless? Or perhaps Midoriya really did it hide it for years or something. That seems like a strat." Partially because I kinda did the same thing.
"Speaking of strats," said Sero, "I'm glad we aren't going first. We'll be able to get a good idea of what to do from watching other matches, and what not to do as well."
"Yeah… listen, are you more of a tactics guy? As of right now, my strengths include thinking on the fly and being extremely irritating to my peers. I'm not cut out for coming up with elaborate plans, especially if we're in the Villain position and have to defend."
Sero laughed. "No worries. I'm sure we'll come up with something. Besides, your Quirk is really versatile."
"Yeah, and a side effect of it is that I'm incredibly scatterbrained. If I accidentally throw up on you during our match, I apologise in advance."
"Think of it like this," said Sero in a supportive tone. "Your Quirk is tailor-made for getting places. All we have to do if we're the heroes is to touch the bomb, which just means getting you into the room where it is, right?"
"I usually have to see where I'm warping, so yes."
"And if we're the villains, my Tape is perfect for capturing from behind while you do crowd control. No matter who it is, if you pester them long enough I can come in and…" he lifted his elbows and made a shooting sound with his mouth. "So for now let's just not worry, and watch the matches, yeah?"
Len sighed, feeling the lavender relax deep in his system. "Alright. I wish I could be as unphased as you about all this. We're about to have knockout dragout fights with other students and be graded on our performance. All Might himself just read us our assignment from a damn clipboard. I'm just a little disassociated, if you get me. Like I'm in multiple places at once."
Sero raised his eyebrows. "Isn't that kinda fitting for you?"
"Huh… I suppose it is. Oh well, you're right. Let's just relax and watch this first fight." They gathered around the video screens with the others.
***
"Welp," said Sero, "that was a disaster."
Midoriya had broken an entire arm and was now being sent to the infirmary. Most of the building had been destroyed by Bakugo's explosions and Midoriya's massive smash. The class was chattering.
"Alright," said All Might, returning to the room, having just spoken to the two of them. "Can anyone tell me who the MVP of that match was?"
Yaoyorozu raised her hand. "Sensei? It was Iida."
A few noises of confusion and "Hmms" echoed through the room. "But the heroes won?" said Kaminari.
"Indeed, but they benefitted from the parameters of the exercise. All heroes had to do to win was touch the bomb within an allotted time limit. In a real situation with a real explosive, there would have been more steps to victory. Besides, their efforts aided in the destruction of the building, along with Bakugo, who seemed to let his anger get the best of him. Iida, on the other hand, genuinely tried to work with Bakugo and come up with a plan, and he played the part when Uraraka showed up, managing to delay her for a good while. It was a shame that he did not have a better partner, or else the villains might have emerged victorious."
The class all made impressed sounds. "Well put, young Yaoyorozu!" All Might praised. "I couldn't have put it better myself! Literally, I don't think I could have." He said the last part through a closed smile, somewhat as an aside.
"She's so advanced…" Jiro muttered, wide-eyed.
"As expected of a student who got in through recommendations, ribbit."
"Okay!" All Might inhaled, as if he was re-energising. "Next match! Team G will be the heroes! Team E will be the villains!"
"Oop! I'm next!" Mina gave a two-fingered salute to Len and Tsuyu standing nearby, winking. "Wish me luck!"
"Consider the luck wished," Len told her.
"Who is your partner, ribbit?"
"The tail guy. I guess I should go talk to him." She skipped over to where Ojiro was standing, making an exaggerated greeting. The blonde boy seemed to sweatdrop, put off by her demeanour. I get it, man. I get it.
Meanwhile, Todoroki, who made up one half of Team E, was already heading out the door. His teammate Aoyama was following him, chatting up a storm, but the boy with the scarred face said nothing. Len briefly caught a look at his eyes, and saw only cold darkness. He shuddered. Good luck, Mina. You're up against a shark with this one.