"You see," All Might continued, his index finger straight, pointing at the sky. "Villain cleanup is usually seen out in the open but statistically, the better part of it is an inside job. Most acts of villainy are committed indoors. Imprisonment. House arrest. The black market. In this hero saturated society, why any villain with intelligence is lurking in the shadows! For this test you'll separate into hero and villain groups. For a two on two team battle!"
"What about the foundational training?" Tsuyu asked, her signature ribbit oddly missing.
"This IS the foundational training! Only this time there won't be any robots it'd be okay to just destroy!"
Questions started flying from all directions.
"So how do we determine who wins or loses?"
"Is it okay if we just blow them away?"
"How are the teams going to be decided?"
"Is there a threat of expulsion like Aizawa-sensei's class?"
I stayed quiet, but I found myself wondering about the same things. Particularly the team assignments, I'd worked alone for so long that the idea of coordinating with a partner felt both exciting and nerve-wracking.
"Hmm, I can't hear if you're all speaking over each other!" All Might replied, his massive hand then finding a pocket in his suit out of which he brought out a small piece of paper.
He cleared his throat dramatically before beginning to read from it. "For this training, we'll have the villains guard a nuclear weapon they intend on deploying. The heroes must stop them and their nefarious scheme before it's too late! If the heroes capture the villains or reach the nuclear weapon before the time runs out, they win. If the villains are able to keep the core weapon the whole time or capture the heroes, they win."
He said it all in a single breath, finally looking up from the paper back to us with that characteristic bright smile.
I thought back to what I had told Nezu when I first met All Might, and while it was a slightly rude thought, I couldn't help but think it again.
This guy cannot teach.
Don't get me wrong, All Might was incredible. He was my childhood hero, the Symbol of Peace, someone I'd looked up to when I was young and still saw as someone to strive towards.
But watching him struggle with basic classroom management and rely so heavily on that piece of paper... it was clear he was still learning how to be an educator.
I heard Midoriya's voice cut through the chatter of other students.
"Well, pros are often forced to make impromptu team-ups with other heroes they might not know, so this test is probably testing that coordination as well as our individual abilities..."
All Might interrupted him, the arm that was holding his cheat sheet surging dramatically toward the sky. "I see! Always with our eyes on the future, are we... I apologize!" He stopped himself, probably from going on one of his rants. "Anyway, let's start this. Let me announce the teams!"
"Team A: Izuku Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka!"
I glanced over at the green-haired boy.
Each team got announced until finally...
"Team I: Arthur Pendragon and Toru Hagakure! Wait Arthur?"
His eyes landed on me.
"Oh Young Arthur, it is great to see you have given up your vigilante ways and come to the road of becoming a hero!"
Didn't we literally tell him this in the meeting with Nezu, and if not, hadn't he seen the news.
I decided to forgo it, maybe he forgot.
"Thank you All Might-sensei."
"Either way, let's get on with the exam!"
Two large boxes rolled up on small robots to All Might's sides, each with a single word emblazoned on the front in bold letters.
HERO.
VILLAIN.
His hands fidgeted inside as he brought out two balls.
"Team A will be heroes! Team D will be villains!"
I watched as Midoriya and Uraraka stepped forward, along with Bakugo and Iida.
We moved as a group toward a large concrete building that looked like it could have been an office complex or apartment building. All Might's voice boomed across the training ground as he explained the rules in more detail.
"The villains will enter first to prepare themselves and set up their defenses! After five minutes, the heroes will enter the building! The test will last a total of 15 minutes! I will be monitoring the test from our command center and will intervene if things get out of hand!"
Wait, intervene.
Could I intervene?
My hand unconsciously moved toward Excalibur's hilt.
But I forced myself to stay still. All Might had this under control. This was his exercise, his classroom. I couldn't intervene.
Restraint, I told myself.
Most of us moved into the building's basement, where a sophisticated monitoring system had been set up. Multiple screens showed different floors and corridors of the test building, giving us a view of what would unfold.
I felt a gentle tug on the sleeve of my left arm. Toru.
"So we're gonna be on a team together," she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice even though I couldn't actually see her face, more like feel it.
"Yeah, we are," I replied, trying to keep my own voice steady.
"You probably have a lot of experience with this kind of thing because of your vigilante work, huh? Please take care of me."
The words struck me.
Take care of me.
A memory surfaced, but I tried not to think of it.
I gripped Excalibur's hilt tighter.
"Yeah... experience," I said, my voice trailing off.
"You okay, Arthur?" Toru's voice was concerned now, and I realized I'd been quiet for too long.
"Oh," I snapped back to the present. "Yes, fine. Thank you, Toru."
"No problem! We are teammates after all, we gotta take care of each other."
There it was again.
"Yeah... take care," I repeated quietly.
Then the first battle trial began, and I forced myself to focus on the screens.
I watched as Bakugo immediately went on the offensive, launching himself downward through the building to intercept Midoriya as quickly as possible.
There was no sound through the surveillance, so it wasn't as if we could hear what they were yelling at each other, well they couldn't. I glanced towards All Might, maybe he could hear the same as me.
Their first encounter actually went Midoriya's way. Despite not using his quirk, he managed to throw Bakugo over his shoulder using what looked like basic judo techniques, creating an opening for Uraraka to advance toward the upper floors where the nuclear weapon was located.
The fight continued to escalate.
Midoriya's refusal to use his quirk was putting him at a serious disadvantage against Bakugo's explosive power. Meanwhile, Uraraka had made it to the upper floors and was engaging Iida.
Then Bakugo did something that made my blood run cold. He pulled one of his grenade-like gauntlets forward, the massive piece of support equipment that I'd assumed was just for show.
I saw All Might tense beside me, his massive frame coiling like a spring ready to leap into action.
And god, did I want to move as well.
Every instinct I'd developed over six years of vigilante work was screaming at me to intervene, to get between Bakugo and Midoriya before someone got seriously hurt.
My entire body was rigid with the effort of staying still. My grip on Excalibur's hilt was so tight my knuckles had gone white.
But I didn't move. I stayed rooted to the spot and watched, even as the explosion tore through the building's structure, even as smoke and debris filled the corridor where Midoriya had been standing.
The battle reached its climax when Midoriya finally activated his quirk, as he punched upward with everything he had. The shockwave tore through every floor of the building, sending rubble raining down and creating the opening Uraraka needed to secure the nuclear weapon.
But the cost was immediately apparent. Midoriya's arm was a mangled mess, hanging uselessly at his side as he collapsed from the pain and exertion.
They were in pain. Real pain. And I was just standing here, watching.
I wanted to move so badly it felt like my bones were vibrating. My sword arm was shaking uncontrollably now.
I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder, Toru's gloved fingers.
"Are you anxious?" she asked quietly, her voice barely audible over the excited chatter of our classmates.
"Yeah, me too," Toru continued. "But don't worry, everything's gonna be fine."
Her words were meant to be comforting, but they only made the shaking worse.
All Might had disappeared from beside us, appearing on the monitors in the building as he went to collect Bakugo. I could hear his booming voice even through the cameras.
"Let's go, Bakugo, my boy. It's time for your critique."
The miniature medical robots loaded Midoriya onto a stretcher and began wheeling him toward Recovery Girl's office. Only then did my sword arm slowly begin to still, the trembling subsiding slowly.
I had made it. My heart was hammering in my chest, but I had done it.
I had restrained myself.
Bakugo, Uraraka, and Iida all returned to the basement along with All Might, where they received fairly detailed critiques of their performance. Yaoyorozu gave an impressively thorough analysis of where each participant went wrong and what they could have done better. Her tactical mind was clearly as sharp as her quirk was versatile.
Then All Might reached into the hero and villain boxes again, drawing out two more balls.
"Team B will be our heroes, Shoto Todoroki and Mezo Shoji!"
I looked over at Todoroki, he had always had the left side of his body encased in ice.Shoji was actually a pretty good guy.
"And our villains will be Team I!"
All Might's finger pointed directly at us, and I felt my stomach drop slightly. I looked toward Toru, whose body language had shifted from nervous excitement to something closer to panic as she took in Todoroki's intimidating presence.
"Guess it's our turn, hahaha," she said, but I could hear the forced cheer in her voice.
It was indeed our turn. And somehow, I couldn't believe we were going to be playing the villains.
We soon found ourselves in another building, the previous one was too structurally compromised from Midoriya's final attack to be safely used again. This building was similar in layout as the one before.
We made our way to the top floor where the fake nuclear weapon had been placed, a large cylindrical device that looked almost cartoonish.
"Come on, Arthur, laugh with villainy like me! HAHAHAHAHA!" Toru threw herself into the role with admirable enthusiasm, her earlier nervousness apparently forgotten in the face of the acting challenge.
"Hahaha," I attempted, but even I could hear how halfhearted it sounded.
"No, come on! Villainous! Make your voice deeper, like HAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAhaha," I tried again, putting more effort into it this time.
"Oh, that one was already there!" she said approvingly.
She looked like she was going to launch into another coaching session on proper villainous laughter when I heard it something was quickly crawling the floors. Then I felt it, the cold.
It was ice.
"Toru, I recommend you jump right now," I said urgently, my hand already moving toward Excalibur's hilt.
"Jump?" she asked, confused by the sudden shift in my tone.
"If you don't want to be encased in ice, then yeah."
She didn't hesitate, trusting me even without a full explanation. She jumped just as our entire floor became covered in a thick layer of ice, the temperature dropping so rapidly I could see my breath in the air.
My feet were completely immobilized, frozen to the floor by ice that was already several inches thick and still growing. Toru landed back on the now-icy surface, but thankfully her specially designed boots provided enough grip to keep her from slipping.
I unsheathed Excalibur in one smooth motion, her sacred light immediately bathing the room in a warm, golden glow.
"Wow," I heard Toru breathe beside me, and I could hear the awe in her voice. "She's beautiful."
"Indeed, she is," I replied, raising the blade above my head before driving it point-first into the icy floor.
The effect was immediate and dramatic.
The moment Excalibur's tip made contact with the ice, cracks began spreading outward in perfect ripples, the sacred power contained within the blade proving more than a match for Todoroki's freezing quirk.
The ice shattered, fracturing into countless white shards all around us.
"She's strong too."
A/N: Yeah this powerstone thing may have been a bad idea, I did not plan to give this to you already, but I have to get the top 3 bonus chap from last week out now or it's going to pile on me lol, cause I already have to give you two bonus chaps from this week's ranking.
Also I went past the damn 3 lines of the Bakugo and Midoriya thing, so sorry about that, but I mainly wrote about Arthur himself, actual stuff about Bakugo and Midoriya is like five lines, everything else is Arthur and his inner turmoil, which I think I conveyed well.
Excalibur is and will always be the most fun thing to write about in this fic, as a wise man once said. UNLIMITED POWER!!
Either way this is all for today. One bonus chapter down, only two more to go. Thx for reading. Author out.