"ATTENTION, STUDENTS!" All Might raised his voice to attract the focus of the class. Since foundational heroics takes the most time in their curriculum, he let them have a few minutes to show off their costumes. It reminded him of when he first put on his costume when he was still a student and he couldn't help but smile at the nostalgia. It was only now that he had to continue on with the lesson. "NOW THEN, A QUESTION! HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE WITNESSED A VILLAIN INCIDENT?"
Plenty of students raised their hands.
"THEN TELL ME, HOW MANY OF THOSE INCIDENTS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE OPEN? HOW ABOUT INDOORS?" Some students answered, some yelled theirs, some just shared their insights to the people next to them. "SETTLE DOWN! I ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PAIR OF EARS! AHEM... YOU SEE, VILLAIN CLEAN-UP IS USUALLY SEEN OUT IN THE OPEN. HOWEVER, STATICALLY, THE BETTER PART OF IT IS AN INDOOR JOB. MOST ACTS OF VILLAINY ARE COMMITTED WITHIN THE CONFINES OF WALLS."
The smile of All Might's widened as he captured the full attention of his class. They were listening aptly. "IMPRISONMENT, HOUSE ARRESTS, THE BLACK MARKET... IN THIS HERO-SATURATED SOCIETY, WHY, ANY VILLAIN WITH INTELLIGENCE IS LURKING IN THE SHADOWS!!"
All mIght placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest in a strong pose, discreetly moving his hands behind his back. "AND FOR TODAY'S BATTLE TRIAL, YOU'LL ALL BE SEPARATED INTO 'VILLAIN' AND 'HERO' GROUPS IN A TWO-ON-TWO TEAM BATTLE! AND YOUR PARTNERS WILL BE DECIDED USING THIS!" He held out his hands, now holding a box.
"A lottery?" Someone said, baffled.
All Might, remembering the explanation of his student from the previous class, replied; "WHY, YES! AFTER ALL, YOU CAN NEVER KNOW WHO YOU'D END UP PARTNERING WITH OUT ON THE FIELD. THAT'S WHY ADAPTABILITY IS AN IMPORTANT TRAIT TO ACQUIRE FOR ANY PRO!"
That seemed to satisfy them enough to draw their lots. All Might couldn't help but smile as he sees Tetsutetsu walk up to Kizuki and striking a conversation, much to the boredom of the boy.
In a way, he can understand why. The redhead already has experience in this sort of thing, not to mention that he's plenty stronger the all of his peers already. No matter what anyone else says, the fact that Academy City was willing to put children fresh out of elementary school out to patrol their streets is no different than training child soldiers in his eyes. He knew for a fact that the HPSC decided to copy their actions and have pressured the hero schools all over the country to have their students take on internships earlier and earlier.
For what reason, he isn't blind. The world might seem peaceful, but everyone is afraid of war.
The third world war was fought with quirks in tandem with weapons of mass destruction, and the results were devastating. There are some nations that are still reeling from the aftereffects of imploding due to conflict, like how China never fused back after being split into five nations. It was only with the help of quirks, as well as the rapid advancement of environmental sciences that the planet was still habitable. It was also the reason why technology nowadays seems so skewed in certain areas whereas other fields seemed not much different than their predecessors.
He held back a sigh as he addressed the class once more.
"HERE IS THE SCENARIO: THE HERO TEAM WILL ENTER THE BUILDING TO EITHER LOCATE AND CAPTURE THE OPPOSING TEAM OR REACH THE NUCLEAR BOMB SET UP BY THE VILLAINS. THE HERO TEAM WINS EITHER BY TOUCHING SAID BOMB BEFORE FIFTEEN MINUTES HAVE ELAPSED OR BY SECURING THE VILLAINS BY USING THE CAPTURE TAPE THAT WILL BE PROVIDED TO YOU. AND AS FOR THE VILLAINS, THEY WILL WIN BE EITHER CAPTURING THE HEROES OR KEEPING THEM AWAY FROM THE BOMB FOR THE ENTIRE DURATION OF THE EXERCISE. ONCE YOU HAVE BEEN CAPTURED, YOU ARE OUT AND CANNOT REJOIN UNLESS YOUR TEAMMATE REMOVES THE TAPE. ANY QUESTIONS? ONE AT A TIME PLEASE."
With the experience brought to him by teaching class 1A, he was now able to smoothly answer the questions brought up by this class. He didn't even have to bring out the note cards this time!
Eventually, he had to draw the first lot.
The first two pairs were chosen and both of them had ten minutes to prepare. The villains having to decide where to place the bomb, and the heroes trying their best to commit the building's layout to memory.
The rest of the class was set in the surveillance room located in the basement of the same building. In there, everyone saw the anticlimactic result of the first match.
After Monoma had located the bomb via scent courtesy of tapping Shishida's quirk before the match, Honenuki simply had to soften the ground and trap poor Tsuburaba inside the floor as the lipless teen touched the bomb. Much to the irritation of Kamakiri, who was held back by Monoma using Tsuburaba's quirk.
The second round was a close match, with Awase persistently welding any pieces of Tokage that he could find on literally any surface. The girl could have cut the pieces into smaller forms but she has already hit the softlock on the sort of thing about nine minutes in. Manga managed to free her from the capture tape, but it was still a struggle as most of Tokage was still welded on the area. And then, with only about twenty seconds left on the timer, the spores from Kinoko's quirk made Manga's throat give out faster than he wanted. The bubble-headed teen kept coughing and wheezing that All Might took Kizuki's advice to send him to Recovery girl in case of allergies, much to the repeated apologies from the mushroom-loving girl.
The third match has shown great synergy between the girls, as Kodai used her quirk to enlarge Pony's horns and have them shoot off. Kaibara literally had to dig himself out by drilling through the horns and the walls before he was knocked out. The match only ended in a draw because the two girls have underestimated just how strong Shishida can become, having been able to stop and tank through them, only losing because time ran out. Kaibara was promptly healed by Kizuki as soon as the timer ran out.
Due to the destruction caused by the previous showing, All Might had to move the class to another identical building close by.
It was this match that he, much like the rest of class 1B he was guessing, was greatly anticipating.
~~~~~
Looking over the floor plans they had been given, Tetsutetsu felt that the place had too many rooms to search through. "The others made memorising this look so easy... Do we have to check all of them?"
"No." Kizuki took the piece of paper from his hands without so much as a glance. "Leave the scouting to me. You go make a scene on the ground while I go from the top."
"We're splitting up already?" Tetsutetsu asked. He had just seen his other classmates fail horribly after separating from each other and didn't want to repeat the outcome himself. "Wouldn't it be safer to go together?"
He looked at him directly this time. "I don't know about Rin, but Kuroiro seemed like the type to sneak off. It doesn't help that his quirk is perfect for that role."
If it was anyone else from the class, they might have floundered under their perceived glare from Kizuki. But not Tetsutetsu, he remained dauntless under his gaze. He trusts Tokage's word about him. "So what, you want me to play the bait?" His temper beginning to rise.
"... Ideally, yes." Kizuki explained, just now realising how that sounded to an teenager who hasn't been on a real field yet. "You have more durability than me. And my head's are more suited to espionage rather than indoor battles." A half-truth. Kizuki just didn't want to accidentally disintegrate Kuroiro by hitting the shadow he was hiding in. "And besides, I figured you would prefer a head-on battle instead of sneaking around."
Tetsutetsu's indigence settle down, it was instead replaced by the excitement of the prospect for a 'manly' showdown. "If you put it that way, I'm in." He grinned, showing his sharp teeth. "By the way, we already know Kuroiro's quirk but do you what Rin's quirk is? I don't think I saw him use it at the assessment test."
"I HOPE YOU'RE READY, BECAUSE THE TIME HAS STARTED!" All Might informed them through their earpieces.
Kizuki turned to Tetsutetsu and spoke quickly. "I don't know but Itsuka mentioned they went to a martial arts tournament together so there's that. Alright, good luck." And he immediately flew away.
Not wasting anymore time, Tetsutetsu ran straight ahead through the front door.
On the outside, Kizuki's mind went back to the fact that this isn't the real world with real impacts and no lives were actually at stake.
Taking note of this, he decides to limit himself for the sake of his peers, like a top-tier actor purposefully lowering their skill to match that of their fellow actors so he wouldn't seem like standout gloryhog.
After all, this is a school, a place to learn. How would his peers learn if he ended each exercise as swiftly as possible simply because he can.
It was in light of this that Kizuki opted to use only six heads, and not the few couple dozen he normally uses when scouting ahead in enemy territory. He even decided against expanding his senses because there wasn't even any legitimate dangers present.
Kizuki waited for the sounds of steel or grunts faintly in the background before he made two of his heads go through the window. Once done, he flew to the opposite end of the same floor and sent in another two heads before flying over to another floor and doing the same thing there, sending in two other heads.
While this was happening, Tetsutetsu has been ambushed by Kuroiro from the shadows at the next corner. If he didn't manage to catch the hand appearing from the shadows at the corner of his eyes, he would have been captured. Instead, he tried to latch on to the dark arm while moving his feet away from the capture tape.
Kuroiro dived back into the shadows to avoid Tetsutetsu. Meanwhile, the steel teen clicked his tongue for being to slow and tried to run to look for a brighter area.
Just as he was about to go to another floor, he felt the memories of one head flow into his mind. Then, another head. Kizuki reached up to his earpiece and connected to Tetsutetsu.
"Rin's on the fourth, going down. Keep your eyes peeled."
"Gotcha! Which way is he going?" The memories of a other head flew in.
"East stairs. He's at the third floor now. I'll get back to looking for the bomb."
"Gotcha. Thanks!"
Leaving the metallic to his battle, Kizuki finally entered the building with his body.
The first head that dissipated was on the fourth floor. Assuming that Rin and Kuroiro separated as soon as the exercise started, and assuming that the black-skinned boy moves faster in the shadows, then there's a good chance that the bomb was located there.
Kizuki made another two heads and began to investigate floor room by room.
A few floors below, Rin was running down the stairs. His partner had just informed about the failed ambush and wanted to switch, by quoting a character from a book he doesn't know.
Just as he was bout to turn a corner on the second floor, a shiny fist obscured his vision. By pure reflex, he avoided that hit by bending backwards. He lifted up a kick using the momentum to strike back at the attacker and winced as he felt like he hit a brick wall.
His balance was off but he managed to jump and roll to gain distance. He stood back up as he exchanged a look with Tetsutetsu, who was grinning with excitement as he cracked his knuckles, the shine of his quirk seen throughout his body.
In response to this, Rin enveloped himself head to toe in scales.
Upstairs, Kizuki was eying the shadow on the wall. He hasn't expanded his senses, but he didn't have to. Mugi-chan gave him more than enough experience with her peeping to feel a gaze from the shadows.
He debated on whether or not to make a move and he figured that Kuroiro would learn from the experience that his shadow diving isn't infallible.
So, wordlessly, he fired one of the weakest lasers he can muster. Not enough to burn, not enough to punch through walls, but definitely strong enough to sting.
And it was definitely bright enough to chase away the darkness.
There was a startled yelp as a boy was ejected from the wall. Kizuki, not giving him any time to recollect himself, immediately decked him across the face.
Now disoriented, Kuroiro didn't notice that two heads spun around his person, tying him up in the process.
"YOUNG KUROIRO HAS BEEN CAPTURED!" All Might's voices boomed through the earpiece. Rin flinched at the notice that he missed one of Tetsutetsu's punches which landed on his face.
Kuroiro sighed in defeat as he sat on the ground. He looked up to Kizuki who was looming over him, about to leave. "Pray tell, how did you notice me?" He asked.
"...Have a friend that liked to peep on everyone." He replied. "Had to learn to feel the gaze."
Kuroiro snorts. "What a mad banquet of darkness..." He muttered to himself, but Kizuki already walked away.
The exercise continued on.
More than once, Rin tried to run from Tetsutetsu to release his partner. But the steel teen's durability proved to be a more difficult endeavour as he lost count of how many scales he lost and regrew. Running circles around the boy was effective, as he speed left him able to pepper him with shots. Running away outright opened him a brief window as the other teen deactivated his quirk to catch up, but he turned it back on as soon as they were in arms reach of each other.
Neither teen wanted to be the first to pull out their capture tape. Doing so would leave one arm occupied and one side defenseless than the other giving an opportunity to the person who didn't take the initiative.
Therefore, the two were locked in stalemate of running and fighting as Kuroiro sat still on the ground, awaiting his fate.
Meanwhile, one of Kizuki's heads located the bomb and dispelled itself to send the memories over. Not even a moment after, Kizuki went inside the room and leisurely placed one of his hands on the bomb, ending the match.
"THE HERO TEAM WINS!"