Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A vast majority of Class 1-A was still marveling at the fact they were not only having class outside, but on the water. Well, they were still on the pier, but they’d soon be on the water. But that wasn’t what Izuku Midoriya was focused on. Currently he was scrolling through one of the many forums he’d frequented since he was young, reading a set of theories about a low-impact and thus low-priority villain currently at large. Normally such villains wouldn’t catch his interest unless their quirk was particularly unique, but this one’s usual targets demanded his attention.

“Oi, Midoriya!” Denki Kaminari called over to him, snapping him back to the moment. The green-headed boy jumped once at the sudden call-out and again upon realizing he was the only one still loitering by the bus and jogged to join his classmates around their immensely muscular teacher.

“Now, my dear students,” All-Might’s voice boomed over the class, “you will find yourselves in situations you are neither expecting or prepared for throughout your careers. Today’s exercise is to test you in just such a circumstance.”

“Ohhhh, so that’s why you didn’t tell us before now!” Toru Hagakure worked out. She was given her typically generous amount of personal space among the group while in her hero outfit due to its minimal coverage.

“Quite right, Hagakure-shonen!” The pro affirmed with a supportive thumbs up. “I am confident that none of you are overly familiar with how to operate a boat or maritime navigation in general. So today, to assess your problem solving and critical thinking, you will be commandeering some boats and try to navigate to a yet-to-be-disclosed location down the coast.” He moved his immense frame to reveal a trio of cabin cruisers, one red, one blue, and one yellow, moored along the pier. “These humble boats were donated to the hero course a couple years ago, but they are in mint condition!” He continued as he led the kids down the stairs to the wooden platforms. “As I said, real life may put you in a position where you are not the best equipped, best prepared, or most knowledgeable, but you are the only ones available to respond to an emergency. With this in mind, you won’t be evaluated on how quickly you get to your destination, but on how you think through such a difficult situation.”

“Now, our time is limited so for the sake of efficiency and fairness, teams of three will operate each vessel. If things go well, some of you might even be able to go out twice!” That announcement caused an excited murmur to ripple across the class. “Now for our first teams! Team Yellow will be Iida-shonen, Todoroki-shonen, and Kaminari-shonen!”

“Yes!” Kaminari cheered with a fist-pump. “Even got my color!”

“Excuse me, All-Might-sensei!” Tenya Iida piped up as Shoto Todoroki silently followed Kaminari onto their boat. “Will our destination be easy to spot from the water?”

“Excellent question, my boy!” All-Might applauded before adding with a cheeky finger wag. “But that’s for you to discover!” The class might’ve commented on Iida’s signature U.A. praise if they hadn’t been busy excitedly chatting amongst themselves.

“Next, on Team Blue; Kirishima-shonen, Midoriya-shonen, and Jirou-shonen!”

“Nice!” Eijirou Kirishima celebrated with a clap before bounding onto the craft, followed by Midoriya and Kyoka Jirou whose excitement was much more restrained. 

“And finally, on Team Red; Yaoyorozu-shonen, Uraraka-shonen, and Ashido-shonen!” With each name All-Might rattled off, one of Team Blue’s heads perked up and turned to find one of the girls hopping onto the red cruiser. Upon crossing the threshold for staring, Team Blue quickly turned back to whatever they could/should be doing on their own boat.

After giving the teams their respective ignition switches, All-Might bid them a troublingly instruction-free farewell and hurried back onto the bus with the rest of 1-A in tow. Luckily, each team had at least one brainiac that was able to get their engines started, radios tuned, and ready to depart.

“You go first, Momo-san!” Izuku called to Red Team’s apparent leader. “We’ll follow you out and be in touch!”

“Will do, good luck, Midoriya-san!” Momo Yaoyorozu waved to the other crews before stepping up to the helm.

“Eat our dust, boys!” Mina Ashido playfully taunted and Ochaco Uraraka giggled behind her as their red-accented cruiser pulled out of the dock.

“This is Golden Playboy hailing Broccoli Boi, come in Broccoli Boi, over.” Kaminari’s exaggerated military voice crackled over the radio as Midoriya stepped up to the wheel. Before he could reach the CB radio’s mic, Kirishima picked it up and responded in his own militaristic caricature.

“Golden Playboy, this is Rocky Red, Broccoli Boi is manning the helm. I’ll be Blue-Actual’s communications officer for this mission, over.”

“Copy that Rocky Red, we’ll adjust our- Wait, shouldn’t Jirou be the comms officer?”

“Negative copy, you need to say over, over.”

As the resident goofballs continued their back-and-forth, Midoriya and Iida gave each other a nod before Midoriya pulled them out of the dock and onto open waters.

It was fifteen minutes before the three teams were sailing in a loose formation, searching the coastline and nearby waters for any clues as to where to dock.

“Copy that, Jamming-yay,” Jirou said into the radio, playing along with the codenames and lingo, but not doing a voice, “maintaining our current bearing. Over.” She lowered the volume to silence Kaminari’s protests about her codename for him. “Hey, Midoriya, tell me something.” She looked over to him as he was scanning the shore with binoculars. “Usually you’re hanging on every word All-Might says. What had you so distracted that Kaminari had to pull you back to earth?”

“Huh? Oh, just some updates on hero and criminal activity forums…” He trailed off, hoping in vain that that would be the end of it.

“You’re always looking at that stuff though.” Kirishima noted from the helm. “What’s up, Midoriya?”

“It…” He sighed in resignation and pulled out his phone. He stopped when he realized he was still holding the binoculars in his other hand and looked between the two before Jirou came over and relieved him of scouting duty. “It’s a new criminal. Probably.”

“Probably?”

“Well, it’s a series of matching events that would be considered criminal if there was a person behind it. Which there probably is because of… Uh… a few things…”

“Keep going, Midoriya,” Jirou casually urged him on, “we’re listening.”

“Right, well, uh… Those events; high school students, almost exclusively girls, become… addled. They become romantically obsessed with another student and pursue them with the goal of… of… um…” He looked up to find his teammates looking at him with eyes ready to burst out of their sockets. “Oh! Nonono! Not that, it’s just…” He frantically tapped through the articles to find a good picture. “This!” He showed the picture to Kirishima then to Jirou; a photo of a dazed and disheveled high school student laid out on the floor of a school hallway. His glazed-over eyes and lifeless demeanor made him look not entirely unlike a corpse. The dozens of red lip-marks across his face and neck only added to the faux-violence of the image.

“Oh, damn, ok.” Kirishima sighed in partial relief. “But you're sure that nothing… y'know…”

“Positive.” Midoriya assured them. “Everyone affected and every witness confirms that nothing… like that happened. The only potential criminal in these cases is the one who addled the attackers and there's no clue pointing to who they are or how they did it.”

“Seriously? Nothing?” Jirou asked incredulously. “How many times has this happened?”

“About a dozen matching incidents.”

“A dozen?!” Kirishima blurted, his looks to the water ahead of them becoming shorter as the conversation went on. “Doesn't that many incidents make this a serial… uh…”

“That's the thing,” Midoriya carried on, his earlier embarrassment replaced by analytical focus, “with so little information on the perpetrator, and the fact that the affected didn't commit a definitive crime, there's nothing of substance to build a case from.”

“Huh… Ok, so someone's making high schoolers make out with other high schoolers… Not really the case I was expecting from you, Midoriya.” Jirou noted with a chuckle.

“Yeah, this really strikes me as a Mineta kind of story.” Kirishima smirked.

“What do you me-? Oh! Oh, yeah I think I know what you mean.” Izuku laughed off the jest. On a normal day, that in itself would have been the highlight of his day. “But it’s really all the unknowns, y’know? We know the M.O., but really nothing else! The perpetrator’s identity, their motive, how they choose their targets, and their procedures are all unknown. We can assume a quirk is behind this, probably an emitter type, but that just raises more questions! Do they need to make physical contact? Does it only work on certain people? There’s just so much to consider!”

“Ok, now it sounds like a Midoriya thing.” Jirou said, sharing a smirk and a chuckle with Kirishima before all three laughed about it. Midoriya had quickly earned the respect of his class and even his more off putting tendencies like mumbling and rambling had become occasionally endearing over time. That fact was a true saving grace when it came to Izuku’s social struggles.

“Hey, Jirou-san,” Midoriya pointed at something on their port… aft? On their 7 o’clock approximately. “...is that Red Team?” At his prompting, Jirou turned to examine the blip in the distance through the binoculars. She saw that Midoriya was spot-on; Team Red’s boat was heading straight for them.

“Yeah, it’s Red Team. But what are they doing? Why break formation?”

“Let me ask.” Midoriya turned to the radio and picked up the mic. “Come in Red Team, this is Blue Team. We see you approaching us, is there a problem?” The response was so quiet it was effectively unintelligible. Izuku’s first instinct was to adjust the volume knob, which instantly fixed the issue.

“There you are Blue Team!” Mina’s voice came through the receiver. “We missed you! How’ve ya been?”

“Ah, Ashido-san. Sorry about that, our volume was turned down.”

“My bad! I was messing with Kaminari!”

“Yeah, that. What’s your situation? We can see you’re breaking forma-”

“Deku-kuuuun!!” Uraraka’s voice quickly followed a smacking sound from the other end of the radio. “How are you doing, Deku-chan?”

“Oh, Uraraka-san, is everything alright? We’ve been-” He stopped in his tracks when he registered the honorific. “Ch-Ch-Chan?” The look of shocked panic on his face was joined by the mischievous smirks of his crewmates who had come over to better observe the spectacle.

“I know I usually call you -kun,” Uraraka explained as though nothing were amiss, “but then I realized how nice your face is and nothing but -chan seems right anymore!” Izuku tried to respond, but the only sound coming from his tomato-red face was a barely-audible mortified screech.

“Damn, Uraraka,” Jirou chimed in, unable to hide her devious grin, “that was awesome! I didn’t know you had it in you.” Another smack preceded another voice from the radio.

“Jirou-san! Oh I thought I heard you, but I wasn’t sure.” Momo said with adoring urgency. “I was worried you wouldn’t be there when we arrived, maybe something had happened to you.”

“I- uh, no I’m fine,” Jirou stammered, Momo’s breathy voice scrambled her brain and strained her insides, “why? Why are you guys coming over to us?”

“Well, you see,” Momo hesitated while Jirou peaked over her shoulder to observe the gradually growing red shape approaching, “I realized what a romantic scene the open ocean sets and I realized there’s only one person I’d like to be here with.”

It was Jirou’s turn to redden. The red marks on her face blended in perfectly with the blush that bloomed on the girl’s stunned face.

“Wow you two,” Kirishima joined the conversation, more surprised than amused by the girls’ forwardness, “I gotta say, I’m proud of you for manning up and saying this, but what brought this on?” The rule of threes was enforced with another smack and the return of Mina Ashido to the chat.

“Hey! I’m not leaving you out, Kiri-chan!” Mina’s pet name immediately made the color of Kirishima’s face match his hair. “I’m gonna come over there and turn you from Red Riot to Pink Riot!”

“Y-I-Wh-What does that even mean?!” Kirishima yelled in a flustered panic as the girls’ giggles came through the speaker. Midoriya was the first to come to his senses, more-or-less.

“L-Listen, Red Team, I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re on a mission right now. Can’t… whatever this is wait until we… wait…” Midoriya trailed off when he realized he was raising his voice to compete with the sound of the second engine that approached. When he got up to greet the incoming ship, alarm bells began going off in his head. Behind him, Kirishima turned the throttle down to let the girls’ boat pull up next to them. A thousand thoughts fired in Midoriya’s mind as several dramatic connections formed and made a pit open up in his stomach. When the red boat pulled right up next to theirs and a brief look at Mina’s face as she prepared to hop on board Team Blue’s vessel confirmed his fears.

Izuku turned to the boat’s aft, held onto the ship’s edge, extended the other arm out, and readied his middle finger against his thumb before yelling, “Blue Team! Hold on to something!”

Jirou and Kirishima managed to take his advice at the last possible second before the immense power of Deku’s Delaware Smash propelled their boat forward at breakneck speed. When the boat slowed enough to let the crew back on their feet safely, Izuku went straight for the helm and set the engine to full throttle.

“Midoriya! What the hell are you doing?!” Kirishima yelled, a small amount of annoyance shone through his concern.

“Red Team is compromised.”

“Huh?”

“They’re under the influence of the mystery villain I was telling you about!”

“How in the hell-?!” Jirou stopped herself as her mind fully processed things. “Wait, so you think Red Team is acting like that because…”

“Yes, the villain somehow got to them.” Midoriya confirmed grimly. “Jirou-san, get on the radio and tell Yellow Team to come to us. We might need their help.”

“R-Right.” Jirou nodded as she turned her attention to the radio, tuning off Red Team’s channel where Mina was insisting they were ‘playing hard to get,’ and went to Yellow Team’s frequency. “Mayday mayday mayday! This is Blue Team. Come in Yellow Team!”

“Jirou! What the hell’s going on over there?!” Kaminari yelled across the transmission. “Why the hell’d you hit the nitro?!”

“Shut up and listen!” She yelled in frustration. “Red Team’s been affected by a villain and now they’re after us! Get over to us as fast as you can!”

“Wh-Huh?!” Kaminari sputtered. “A villain? What do you mean? They’re chasing you? Like, they’re trying to kill you?!”

“W-Well no,” Jirou stuttered, thinking back to the picture Midoriya had shown her, “but they’re being controlled by a villain. Doesn’t matter what they’re trying to do, it’s bad! Just get over here now! ”

“Wait, this doesn’t make any sense!” Kirishima mused. “How the hell would a villain have brainwashed them? We’re on the water! And we came here on a bus! When did they get the chance to do this?!”

“We have no idea how this villain’s quirk works. They may only need to see their targets to affect them. Or maybe there’s a telepathic quality to it, I don’t know.” Midoriya ended his impromptu theorizing to turn back to Kirishima. “Right now we should try to get back to the class. Kirishima-kun, keep your eyes on the shoreline. Call out the nearest port you see, doesn’t matter if it’s where the class is waiting, we just need to get to… to…” Izuku’s words faded into nothing as his eyes landed on something in the distance. Kirishima turned to follow his gaze and found an unnaturally large wake trailing… something. Kirishima raised the binoculars to his eyes to get a better look and he felt his blood run cold.

Through the viewfinders, Kirishima saw Red Team’s boat, but with a radical new modification. On either side of the cabin was what appeared to be a jet engine, propelling the humble craft across the water like a shooting star.

“Incomiiiiing!” Kirishima yelled with no small amount of terror.

“Kirishima-kun, take the wheel!” Midoriya directed his crewmate as he began to gather energy for another Smash. Not willing to risk his friends’ safety, he aimed the blast at the water in the path of the pursuing boat. He unleashed another massive flick that hit the water and caused a massive wave to grow between them and their pursuers, as well as gave their own ship another boost, though a smaller one than last time. Content with the breathing room he’d bought them, Midoriya turned back to the helm.

“Jirou-san, any idea how far away Yellow Team-”

Before he could finish, a massive smack drew his attention back to the water where Red Team’s boat smashed through the mountain of water and arced through the air. None of Blue Team was allowed a moment to think before a grappling hook caught on the edge of their ship. They followed the rope with their eyes to its origin; a red blip on Red Team’s boat as it sailed ahead of them, literally and figuratively. The rope pulled taut and jerked their boat awkwardly sideways, forcing its occupants off their feet. Jirou crawled up to the radio and yelled into the mic.

“Yellow Team, where are you?! Red Team is way more intense than we thought! We need you here now! ”

As if summoned by her desperation, a sharp wall of ice rose from the water and snapped the rope, as well as separating Red Team from Blue.

“Gold-Actual to the rescue!” Kaminari declared over the radio. “Get out of here guys, we’ll keep Red Team from being some villain’s puppets!”

“Hell yeah!” Kirishima punched the air in glee.

“About time, Kaminari! Try to keep anyone from getting hurt, we’ll be back once we find the others.” Jirou instructed as Kirishima drove to put some distance from the impending fray.

“Solid copy! We’ll call again when we’ve secured Red Team.”

Jirou went to the rear of the boat to watch the action while Midoriya kept an eye on the shore, searching single-mindedly for any of the class’s colorful silhouettes.

The activity from the apparent battle was more eventful than they had hoped. Jirou had assumed Todoroki would simply freeze the water around Red Team’s boat and freeze them to the deck of their ship. The amount of shattering ice and bashing was concerning, to say the least.

“Hey Midoriya.” Jirou continued, coolly assuming she had gotten his attention. “What do you think that’s all about?” Midoriya’s concern and curiosity won out over his diligence and he turned his attention to the wall of ice.

“Well, Yellow Team is very capable, but in this setting only Todoroki-kun is going to be able to use his quirk effectively.” Midoriya mused aloud. “Iida-kun needs space and solid ground. Without either of those, he’s effectively quirkless. Though he’s very athletic, which is a silver lining. Kaminari-kun on the other hand…”

“Water makes him too dangerous, right?” Jirou finished for him.

“Exactly. Water is a natural electrical conductor, making any use of his quirk out here a potentially lethal hazard. And he isn’t quite as fit as Iida-kun either, so he’s… uh…”

“Useless?”

“I was going to say ‘best suited to drive the boat’…”

“Eh, tomato-potato.”

“In any case, that’s not what really bothers me.” He continued, drawing a puzzled look from Jirou. “Todoroki-kun is at a distinct advantage with all this water, yet it sounds like Red Team is holding its own.”

“Is that surprising?” Jirou asked. “Uraraka is as tough as they come, Mina has acid and acrobatics, and Yaomomo is… well, she’s Yaomomo! She’s like a supercomputer that can make anything. Plus she’s pretty fit herself…”

“You’re right.” Midoriya admitted, completely missing the awe in Jirou’s voice. “But Todoroki-kun’s quirk works incredibly quickly. Their athletic and intellectual aptitude can’t be of much use if they get frozen before they can move.”

“I guess I see your point… But if that’s the case, why are we hearing anything from them?” Jirou offered, concern growing in her voice. “Why hasn’t Todoroki just locked them down?”

“That’s… wait…” Midoriya trailed off as a look of near-panic crept onto his face. “Could it be that…?”

“C’mon Midoriya, just spit it out.” Jirou pleaded, legitimate exasperation in her voice. “Today’s been intense enough already.”

“Well, this is just a theory, but some mind-altering emitter-types have been known to do more than just alter their target’s minds, but also change their physical capabilities.” He explained. “For instance, there was a quirk that made the target dance uncontrollably, but also gave them the ability to move more nimbly and for much longer than they should have been able to. What if this villain’s quirk has done something like that to Red Team?”

“Then it’s possible that Team Yellow might be in danger.” A solemn grunt from Midoriya was a clear enough answer. Jirou rubbed her face to steel herself for what she was about to say. “So, ok, I know this might sound crazy, but what if we just… uh… let Yellow Team go ahead of us?” Midoriya looked at her quizzically.

“But then Red Team would be chasing us again.”

“Right, yeah, I get that, but like… They don’t actually want to hurt us, right? They just want to… Y’know…” Jirou played with her earlobes and avoided eye contact with her bamboozled friend.

“J-Jirou-san!” He admonished her in a scandalized voice, his face wearing a blush to match hers.

“Y’know I was actually thinking the same thing!” Kirishima called over his shoulder.

“Kirishima-kun!!” Izuku yelled at him, whining disappointment in his tone.

“Well, it makes sense, right?” Kirishima continued. “Letting them catch us wouldn’t be the… worst thing, right? Besides, if Yellow Team is in danger, wouldn’t it be the manly thing to do to just… take one for the team?” Midoriya, who was blushing along with his shipmates, looked between them in surprise, looking desperately for a sign that they were joking. When it was clear that they were serious, he took a deep breath to steady himself.

“Ok, listen, I can agree that letting Red Team catch us has its… appeal.” He admitted with closed eyes. “But they’re not in their right mind! We’d be taking advantage of them for our own selfish desires! It would be a disgraceful betrayal of their trust.” The relative silence that followed was heavy.

“Damn it!” Kirishima pounded the console in anger. “You’re completely right, Midoriya! I can’t believe I let myself consider something so selfish!”

“Yeah, same here.” Jirou followed up, dejected. “Can’t believe I even thought of something so gross. They deserve better. You’re right Midoriya, let’s get back to shore and-”

Before Jirou could rally the crew, a massive crack drew their attention back to the ice. Or rather, the crumbling ice. All the frozen structures cracked and began to crumble as a yellow dot rocketed above the water in a low arc. With the binoculars, Izuku was able to see Yellow Team’s boat with one of the jet engines from earlier haphazardly slapped onto the hull. The imbalanced propulsion caused the boat to awkwardly twist and turn on a meandering, generally land-facing route.

While they were busy watching their wayward allies, a steel harpoon stabbed into the rear hull of Blue Team’s boat. Before the shock could fade, another harpoon shot through their engine and pulled it away into the sea.

“Holy crap!!” Jirou’s exclamation perfectly summarized the mindset of Team Blue in that moment.

“Kirishima-kun! Come here and cut the wire!”

“Wha-Why not just pull out the harpoon?!” Kirishima asked as he ran up.

“It’s too close to the waterline! If we tear it out, we’ll sink!”

“Ah hell!” Kirishima relented and tried frantically to saw through the metallic wire.

“There they are!” Jirou pointed at Red Team’s boat as it floated out of the icy mist. Even without binoculars, they could see Momo, Mina, and Uraraka sitting at the front of their cruiser. Usually these kind, cheery girls would be a welcome sight, but circumstances turned that sentiment on its head. “Midoriya, why don’t you do another flick! Get us out of here!”

“It wouldn’t help, they’d come right along with us. Kirishima-kun?”

“Gah! It’s no use!” The spiky-haired boy despaired. “This stuff is too strong!”

“Uhh…! Midoriya, what’s the plan?” Jirou asked as Blue Team began to slowly back up from the girls’ approaching vessel.

“Talk about dreamboats!” Mina squealed as the hunters came upon their prey.

“You were just as cool as you’ve always been!” Uraraka praised Blue Team, but with her eyes locked on Izuku.

“Well girls,” Momo addressed her crewmates, glowing pink hearts in their eyes, “I’d say it’s time to claim our treasure.” With that, Red Team hopped the small distance from their boat to Blue Team’s. They’d seen these girls countless times since starting U.A., but they had never once instilled this overwhelming feeling of dread. Maybe it was the look in their eyes (not just the cartoonish hearts) and how they seemed hungry. Maybe it was the vibrant palette-appropriate colors staining their lips that drew their gazes like magnets. Whatever it was, it made their brains cease coherent thought.

“W-W-Wait!” Izuku managed to croak out through the haze in his mind. “Listen, please! Y-You three aren’t in your right minds! I-It-There’s-!”

“We know!” Mina cut him off.

“We can’t stop thinking about you three!” Momo squealed with her hands on her cheeks.

“We’ve gone crazy in love!” Uraraka announced dramatically.

“Now pucker up, you hunks!” Red Team commanded in unison.

With the last of their senses thoroughly fried by the adoring sentiments they had just been bombarded with, Blue Team was helpless when their admirers pounced. Mina and Uraraka leapt onto Kirishima and Midoriya, respectively, and the boys’ already wobbly legs gave out, letting the girls fall on top of them. Momo strode up to Jirou, easily scooping the smaller girl up and seating her on the helm’s console. All three girls went about enthusiastically using their lips to lay claim to their target’s face. Mina’s hands pressed against Kirishima’s beefy pecs as she painted his strong jawline with her orchid-pink kisses. Ochaco had her arms wrapped around Izuku’s neck as she happily pressed her lips to his over and over again, making his mouth match the cherry blossom tone of her own. Momo started with Jirou’s lips, but found her way down to her neck, chuckling at how her slender little rockstar yelped slightly with each ruby stamp of her lips she left on her throat.

Under the sound of the waves, under the sound of the crumbling ice, there was the sound of smacking lips and girlish giggles from a blue cabin cruiser off the coast of Japan. In the minds of the three students drowning in the soft lips of their beautiful classmates, there was an incomprehensible cocktail of shame and pleasure, disgrace and euphoria, remorse and satisfaction. They had failed.

“No, no wounds, but they are unconscious.” All-Might confirmed.

“I see, and no sign of the other two teams?” Principal Nezu asked almost rhetorically.

“No, nothing yet. I have Shoji-shonen and Tsu-chan on lookout duty, but so far no sign of them.”

“I see. Well, the Coast Guard has scrambled and has the boats’ descriptions. I know you must be worried for the students, but you should get the ones that are accounted for back to the campus.”

“I know, I’ve tried.” All-Might admitted, looking back at the spacious pier where 1-A was gathered. “But they’re adamant on staying. This has been a tight-knit group since day one. Even if I could get them back to campus, they’d only come back here when we let them go.”

“I see. Nothing much to be done then. Keep me updated.”

With a grunt of affirmation, All-Might hung up and heaved an anxious sigh as he looked across the white pier where his students produced a low hum of activity. His gaze came to rest on the inert, supine forms of the only three students to return from the sea. Momo, Mina, and Uraraka returned about an hour ago on their boat which, while fully operational, clearly had seen some action. A loose smattering of scorch marks and dents had everyone on shore fearing the worst, but when Red Team’s ship arrived the girls were completely unharmed. Some sweat had a couple locks of hair matted to their skin, but aside from that they were exactly as they were when they’d departed. The on-duty Coast Guard had stopped by to confirm it as well. Since then, Shoji and Asui, the class’s respective recon and aquatic specialists, were at the dock’s edge to try and spot either of the missing teams. Koda and Hagakure were sitting as sentries beside their sleeping classmates and the rest of the students were either chatting amongst themselves or were in contact with various coastal businesses to try and track down their missing fellows.

A blip of purple and yellow by Red Team drew All-Might’s attention. Minoru Mineta, a young man with a… lascivious reputation was chatting with the girls’ sentinels. One would expect he would be chased away for so much as wandering too close to three unconscious girls. All-Might had made all the calls he could at that point, so this seemed like as good a focus as anything.

“What’s going on here, my pupils?” The massive man asked the trio as he walked up.

“Oh, All-Might-sensei!” Hagakure asked, her tone implied a bright-eyed expression, but nobody could really know. “Maybe you remember, were they wearing that lipstick when they left?”

“Hm? Lipstick?” He looked and sure enough, the girls were wearing vibrant shades of lipstick. Momo wore a red that effectively matched her costume. Uraraka wore a pink that matched the darker shades on her own costume. Mina wore a pink that was just different enough from her skin to stand out. “Ah, I see. Superb synergy with the rest of their outfits, but I assume that’s not what you mean?”

“Right, well,” Mineta began uncertainly, “it’s weird, right? Like, whatever happened out there beat up their boat, and also they put on lipstick? I was thinking it might be a clue, but… ”

“Ah, I see. I must commend your initiative, Mineta-shonen.” All-Might continued cautiously. “I have to admit when I first saw you over here, I was thinking you might be… ah…”

“That’s what we thought, too!” Hagakure gestured to Koda. “But Mineta did… what was it again?”

“Me and Kaminari used period cramp simulators for an online challenge and uh…” He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “It changed our perspectives.”

“I think I heard him talking about the wage gap on the bus ride here.” Hagakure whispered to her teacher who knelt down to listen.

“I see… Hm…”

“Blue boat headed this way!” Shoji’s voice rang out over the pier. “I think it’s them!” The conscious students all turned to observe the water, some even ran to the edge of the dock to receive the oddly slow-moving vessel. Seemingly stirred by the activity, Uraraka moaned and rubbed her eyes as she sat up, causing an excited squeal from Hagakure that attracted most of the students not already at the pier’s edge.

“Uraraka-kun!” Hagakure squeed. “We were so worried! Are you alright?”

“Huh…? Hagakure-kun?” She mumbled sleepily. “What happened?”

“We were hoping you could tell us.” Tokoyami said as the other two girls also groggily sat up. “We feared you lost to the void of the sea for all eternity.”

“Luckily, Blue Team’s ship has just arrived.” Aoyama added, gesturing to the aforementioned boat, still approaching at an unusually slow speed.

“Blue… Team?” Mina parrotted in a daze.

“Wasn’t it… something with the radio?” Momo offered, her voice slightly raspy.

“Yeah, uh, I think Blue Team stopped talking on the radio so we went to check on them, and then…” Uraraka trailed off. She wiped some drool from the corner of her mouth. She idly looked down at her gauntlets and saw a smear of pink. As soon as she ruled out strawberry yogurt, her brain connected the dots and filled in the fuzzy spot in her memory. The panic hit her and she whipped her head over to her crewmates. The sight of Uraraka’s panicked expression, as well as each other’s painted lips evidently unlocked the same memories. With burning cheeks, the girls looked to the dock where Sero was pulling in Team Blue’s boat with his tape. With no way to stop the incoming humiliation, the girls extended their arms to the dock, hoping the gods might take pity and change the course of history. Alas, they could only watch in horror as Ojiro hopped onto the vessel.

“They’re he-!” Ojiro’s voice died suddenly.

“What’s going o- Oh…” Sero also lost his voice upon seeing Blue Team. As the boat floated close enough for the rest of the students to see the state of the boat’s crew, the reactions were various shades of surprise. “Hey, Sato, uh… wanna c’mere and give us a- uh, a hand?”

Midoriya was the first to leave the vessel. While using Sero as a crutch, Midoriya wobbled off the boat with glazed eyes. Though most noticeable were the dozens of pale pink stamps across his face, neck, and respirator. Aside from the general smear across his mouth, the rest of the marks were plainly in the shape of lips. Next came Jirou, whose limp form was cradled in Sato’s arms. Like Midoriya, her expression was vacant, and her face and neck was smattered in kiss marks, though hers were a luxurious shade of red and her earlobes had noticeable splotches of red as well. The last to be helped off the boat was Kirishima, with an arm around Ojiro’s shoulder for support. Just like his crewmates, he sported a thousand-yard stare and lip prints dotted across him. His marks were a more vibrant shade of pink and wandered lower than the others’, with a few dotting his bare chest.

“That’s… not what I was expecting. Kero.” Tsuyu said, following the procession that escorted Blue Team toward land.

“I do not mean to insult their looks,” Aoyama mused, so unnerved that he didn’t bother to pose, “but I doubt they have admirers fanatical enough to do this.” The dazed crew was seated in an empty area of the dock and was quickly surrounded by their classmates.

“Oy! Deku!” Bakugo yelled, the ridiculousness of the situation eating through his patience quickly (which isn’t saying much.) “What the hell happened out there? What, did you dumbasses find a sorority party or some shit?!”

“Were you accosted by sirens?” Tokoyami asked, genuine confusion leaking through his chuuni mask. “Was their mesmerizing call too much to resist?”

“Did you see what happened to Yellow Team?” Ojiro asked, bringing the situation back down to earth, more or less. Despite the more coherent question, the only response the class got from Blue Team was Midoriya falling on his back with a sigh.

As the rest of the class chatted amongst themselves, All-Might, Hagakure, Koda, and Mineta stood slightly separated and anxious from seemingly forbidden knowledge. “So, uh,” Mineta began cautiously, “I’m not the only one who finds those colors familiar, right?” As one, the four heroes turned to look back at Red Team, whose beet-red faces were in the process of climbing under a blanket (presumably procured from Momo) to hide from the mortifying situation that was sure to find its way back to them sooner than later.

“Maybe let me talk to them?” Hagakure offered. “I think they’ll be most comfortable talking to me about this.”

“Agreed.”

“Makes sense.”

“ Nod ”

The invisible girl jogged over to the lumpy blanket while the class was still occupied and with a gentle, “Mind if I come in?” She wiggled her way into the girls’ sanctum of shame. Concurrently, All-Might’s phone went off. He swiftly answered and the news he received was as exciting as it was troubling.

Denki Kaminari laid face-up on the hard concrete outside the small fishery, thinking back on the last couple hours to distract himself from the aches flaring up all over his body. His crewmates were seated by him, presumably doing the same as they waited for the EMS people to show up. The scene was dreadfully quiet since Yellow Team didn’t know the full consequences of their defeat at the hands of Red Team yet. What they did know was that something was very wrong with those girls.

“So, do you guys remember if Ashido was always able to lift over fifty kilograms with one hand?”

“No, I’m almost certain she wasn’t.” Iida confirmed, inspecting his broken glasses in one hand and nursing what he feared was a broken jaw with the other. “She rarely goes to the gym for strength training. Though I find Uraraka-kun’s martial arts knowledge significantly improved since she interned with Gunhead. Troublingly so, in fact.”

“Yeah.” Todoroki concurred, accepting an ice pack from one of the fishermen to nurse his black eye. “And I’m pretty sure Yaoyorozu used that medieval flail better than she should have.”

“Damn,” Kaminari grumbled from concern as well as the pain flaring from his bruised ribs, “I really hope Blue Team got away. Though Jirou did say they weren’t trying to kill them, so maybe they’re ok?”

“I doubt it.” Todoroki said grimly. “This whole thing worked too well. Whoever is behind this chose their targets and their opportunity perfectly. Whatever they want with Blue Team can’t be good.”

“That’s…” Iida’s attempt to argue died immediately. “Well, even so, Jirou-kun said they weren’t going to kill them. Even if they were caught, they can be saved!”

“Hell yeah! Eugh!” Kaminari cheered, which caused him to irritate an injury in his shoulder.

“Hey! Little heroes!” The grizzled old fisherman that had found them called. “I got your teacher on the line!”

“All-Might?!” Iida exclaimed, unable to get up before the fisherman reached him. He took the phone and nearly smacked himself in the face in the rush to speak. “All-Might-sensei! This is Iida, I’m with Yellow Team. We’re injured, but nothing requiring urgent attention. We… Yes, sensei… We were rescued by workers of Sen’in Fishing Company and are resting at their facility… That’s good, but please, tell me the other teams are ok! … Oh!” He heaved a sigh of relief and put a hand to his chest. “Oh thank goodness. And what of Blue Team? … Sensei? Sensei, did something happen to Blue Team?!” His outburst caused Kaminari and Todoroki to tense up. “They… They are? Well, that’s good. But what happened to them? Are they injured? … They had…? Different colors of…? And you think they came from…? They weren’t…? Well… Yes, I suppose that does line up with what we heard from Blue Team, but… No, I’m as surprised as you are. W-What did Blue Team say? …I-I see. And Red Team…? Hm… Right… Yes, the ambulances should arrive any moment now… Yes, I will try and compile a rough report with Kaminari-kun and Todoroki-kun… Really, sensei, it’s no problem, we’ve all been through worse… Understood… You as well.” Iida hung up the phone and handed it back to the fisherman. He stared blankly at the ground, looking lost in thought.

“C’mon, Iida!” Kaminari yelled. “You can’t just leave us hanging like this!”

“Oh! Y-Yes, well. The good news is both Blue and Red Teams are accounted for and unharmed.” He paused for a moment while his crewmates sighed in relief. “Their boats were damaged, but nothing structurally compromising.”

“That’s great!” Kaminari cheered, once again irritating his shoulder. “So everything’s good then?” Iida’s silence was deafening. “Iida?”

“You’re not going to believe this…”

Chapter Text

“Now, I’ll summarize your statements on today’s events.” Shota Aizawa said in his characteristic monotone as Present Mic handed him some notes. “After getting acquainted with the boat, you three followed the other teams onto the open water. After an estimated fifteen minutes of uneventful sailing, you noticed Blue Team had stopped responding on the radio. Correct?”

Denki Kaminari and Shoto Todoroki gave a simple grunt and nod while Tenya Iida gave a firm “Yes!” All three boys were taped up to varying degrees and, with the exception of Iida, were a bit more crestfallen than usual.

“Right.” Aizawa continued. “Now, after making visual contact with Blue Team’s boat and seeing nothing was wrong, you contacted Red Team on the radio and they volunteered to check on them. After around five minutes of radio silence, Kyoka Jirou contacted you. She told you that Red Team had been affected by a villain’s quirk and were pursuing Blue Team. She suggested they were not chasing them with lethal intent, but their pursuit required your intervention regardless. Still sound right?”

Again, all three boys answered in the affirmative, though only one articulated it.

“After a few minutes of travel, Todoroki engaged Red Team with his quirk and combat ensued. After another few minutes of combat, during which Red Team showed unnaturally high speed, strength, and quirk-aptitude, they successfully incapacitated you and propelled your boat, with the three of you on it, into the coast, where you were found and assisted by some fishermen. Does that about sum it up?”

Yet again, three nods, one yes.

“Good.” Aizawa handed the notes back to the unusually stoic Present Mic before folding his hands together and looking at the boys across the pushed-together tables. “Now, in case nobody else told you, none of you are in trouble for the damage to the boats, nor for failing to stop Red Team from reaching Blue Team in their influenced state. Also, due to the unorthodox nature of this event, your grades for this exercise will count for a much lower portion of your overall grade. Finally, because no definitive crime was committed by any known party, this incident will be investigated by the school and not the authorities. Any questions?”

“Will Red Team be punished for their actions?” Iida asked with a raised hand and a tone implying concern for the mentioned girls.

“Nah,” Present Mic jumped in, “Midoriya made a good argument about that weird villain, plus this sort of thing is way out of character for those girls, so we’re treating them as victims, too.”

“And you really have no leads as to who did this?” Todoroki asked.

“Not yet.” Aizawa clarified. “It’s only been a few hours and there’s a lot of ground to cover, so this isn’t a cold case yet.” After a moment of silence to let the boys ask any questions they might have, Aizawa continued. “Now I know today wasn’t easy, but now that they’ve hit U.A., whoever’s behind this will have a much tougher job hiding.”

“You boys are free to go, but give us a yell if you have anything new to report, y’hear?” Present Mic was met with another trio of nods before the boys got up from their seats and left the room.

“Damn!” Kaminari lamented as soon as he was confident they were out of earshot. “I figured they would’ve caught this creep already, but now we have to watch out for this crap?”

“I agree.” Iida concurred. “I had hoped the League of Villains would be the only ones complicating our school lives, but it seems I was mistaken.”

“Do you think this could be the League, too?” Kaminari pondered aloud. “Like some plot to undermine our teamwork or something?”

“What do you mean?” Todoroki asked.

“Well, what if they were trying to cause drama to try and… I dunno, knock us off our game?”

“I see, but why go after those six? They seem like a random group to do something like this to.” Todoroki’s statement caused the other boys to stop walking and look at him in confusion. “What?”

“Seriously man?” Kaminari said, too shocked to yell. “You haven’t seen the signs?”

“What signs?”

“ What signs? Like when Kirishima-kun called a pink rose a ‘Mina flower’ because he couldn’t remember what it was actually called?”

“We all have brain farts from time-to-time.”

“Surely you’ve seen how Midoriya-kun has over twice as many pages dedicated to Uraraka-kun in his notebooks than anyone else in class?”

“Well, they’re close friends and gravity is a complex topic.”

“What about that one time Jirou accidentally called Yaomomo ‘mommy’ when she wore her hair differently?”

“Well Yaoyorozu does have plenty of motherly qualities.”

“There was the incident where Ashido-kun failed an exercise for her team because she was staring at Kirishima-kun’s abdominal muscles.”

“Anybody can appreciate a well-defined six-pack.”

“How about the time Yaomomo gave Jirou a fancy new guitar on Valentine's Day? ”

“Jirou loves music and there are only so many occasions that are appropriate to give your friends gifts.”

“I’m fairly certain Uraraka-kun looks at Midoriya-kun whenever he enters the room!”

“With how often he gets hurt, I’m surprised everyone isn’t doing that.”

The following silence was deafening as Iida and Kaminari said a silent prayer for everybody who ever had or ever would flirt with the impenetrable Shoto Todoroki.

“Well, this is all conjecture anyway.” Iida admitted. “I just hope Midoriya-kun isn’t so shaken he will lose his analytical edge. I’m sure he’ll be essential for any future investigation.”

“...and once Red Team finished with their… objective, you three have no memory of events between then and being awoken on the docks, correct?” All-Might looked up from the notes Cementoss had handed to him to look at the still-bleary-eyed trio across the table. None of them raised their gazes from the table as they nodded. “Right… Well, uh… Thanks to the evidence Midoriya-shonen provided, we have decided that all nine of you involved with this incident are blameless, and aside from the obvious investigation and security adjustments that will be carried out, we will be proceeding business-as-usual for the time being. Unless you three have any objections, that is.”

When silence answered him, All-Might dismissed the trio with as much cheer as he thought was appropriate. It was a little much, but nobody was going to tell him that. The trio that would be known as Blue Team for longer than any of them would have preferred walked across U.A.’s campus in silence for the entirety of their journey back to the dorms. They were silent as they walked outside in the early night, they were silent as they power-walked across the dorm’s common room, and they were silent as they gathered in Kirishima’s room. Only five more agonizing minutes were spent in silence before it was mercifully broken.

“Well it’s good that nobody got hurt… That bad…” Kirishima offered optimistically.

“I can never talk to her again.” Jirou told the floor with a haunted look in her eyes.

“What am I supposed to say to her?” Midoriya asked the ceiling, panic settling into his voice. “What am I supposed to say to anyone? I have no frame of reference for how to behave in this situation.”

“Uh…”

“Whatever the next thing she says to me is the worst possible thing. She knows I squeak now. How is she supposed to look me in the eye knowing how to make me squeak?”

“That was my first kiss. My first sixty-four kisses. Oh god, it’s weird that I remember how many times she kissed me on the lips, isn’t it? It has to be.”

“Guys…?”

“She picked me up, too. Like I was a goddamn teddy bear. I’m never not going to think about how easily she can scoop me. SCOOP me.”

“I’ve been trying to make eye contact when I talk to people more, but I’m afraid I’ll just be staring at her lips from now on.”

“Oh god, you’re right.” Jirou looked up from the ground to Midoriya, his epiphany hitting her as well. “She’s gonna know. I thought getting caught staring at her chest was bad, but that would be…”

“What are we gonna do?” Midoriya looked down from the ceiling to match the frenzied look in her eyes. They both whipped around to look at Kirishima with those eyes that glowed with mania. “What are we gonna do?!”

Kirishima looked between them in silence, searching for the right thing to say. He tried to convince himself he didn’t sympathize with most, if not all, of their sentiments. In the end, he landed on; “We’re so unbelievably doomed, aren’t we?”

They all groaned and flopped back on whatever they had been seated on, be it a bed or the floor. The rest of the evening was spent staring at the ceiling or floor in despair, trying in vain to strategize how to keep the next class from being excruciatingly awkward, and general lamentation.

“...and when you woke up on the pier, you were back to your usual selves and were able to remember what happened when you were afflicted. Is that the story?” Midnight asked the three girls sitting across from her, wearing Momo-provided oversized hoodies and with their faces planted on the tabletop. They raised their thumbs as they didn’t have the will to speak since they finished telling their side of the humiliating story. “Well girls,” she continued, putting down the notes she had taken while Ectoplasm checked a phone notification beside her, “I sincerely hope the other briefings turn up something to explain your behavior today, because as much as I’d like to believe you, this was a-”

“Speaking of,” Ectoplasm interrupted, offering her his phone, “look at this, Midnight.” She accepted it and spent a few silent moments reading its contents and occasionally tapping something.

“I see.” She mused, breaking the tense silence before handing the phone back to Ectoplasm. “Well girls, I have good news.” She was really hoping that would get them to look up. “It seems Midoriya-kun has provided some information that has effectively exonerated you.” She smiled when she finally got to see Red Team raise their heads, a sparkle of hope in their eyes. “Midoriya-kun has informed us of a recent string of incidents matching today’s events far too well to be considered coincidence. We already talked to the various police departments that investigated these events and have decided you are completely innocent.”

“R-Really?!” Uraraka asked, her voice a little raspy from being on the verge of tears for an extended period of time.

“Yes. The only reasonable conclusion to come to is that you girls were under the influence of an unidentified villain’s quirk.” The girls let out a synchronized sigh of relief at the news.

“Oh thank goodness.” Momo said with a hand to her chest.

“Let’s go Midoriya! Coming in clutch!” Mina cheered.

“I’m so happy, I could just ki-!” Uraraka stopped short, punching herself in the face to resolve the sudden rush of self-loathing. “That’s really good news!”

“R-Right,” Midnight stuttered, not wanting to push any of these girls any more than necessary, “well since we’re now working under the assumption that this incident was ultimately a villain’s doing, I’d like to ask you girls some questions to try and find a lead to identifying our villain.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Momo said as Uraraka and Mina saluted beside her.

“Great. Now, have any of you interacted with anyone odd and unfamiliar in the last week or so?”

“Well, I thought somebody was impersonating the owner of my favorite dessert shop,” Uraraka offered, “but it turned out she just wasn’t wearing makeup that day.”

“I see. Have any of you felt inexplicable dizziness recently?”

“There was that one instance during the exercise the other day,” Momo thought aloud, “but it was probably just because I didn’t eat enough the night before and I overused my quirk.”

“Hmm… That takes care of my question about quirk glitches…” Midnight took a moment longer than usual to write on her notepad. “Have any of you been thinking about ‘Blue Team’ more than you usually would recently?”

Whatever relief the girls had felt at hearing about their innocence was swept away by that question. Their faces reheated like leftover pizza as they took a moment to figure a way out of answering completely truthfully.

“Well Midnight-sensei,” Momo began, avoiding eye contact with her teacher, “I think I speak for all of us when I say that today’s events have made it difficult to think about them in any… other… way…”

From the way they avoided looking at them and how their faces reddened from that particular question, Midnight had the information she needed. “I understand.” She said as she set her notepad on the table. “Well girls, I can tell today’s events put a strain on you all, but rest assured we will do everything we can to make the one responsible answer for what they did. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to come to any of us with any questions, concerns or new information. Have a good night.”

“You as well, sensei.” The girls said before they shuffled out the door, their voices as sullen as when they’d arrived. Their trek from U.A.’s main building to Heights Alliance was largely similar to Blue Team’s in terms of speed and shoe-gazing. As did their trek across the common room. As did their trek to Mina’s room. Though the silence didn’t last nearly as long, since Mina tossed both of her guests a pillow and the three had a long, hard scream into the appropriately pink and/or heart-shaped cushions.

“I can’t believe something so ludicrous happened to me!” Momo wailed, being the first to articulate the internal agony they all shared.

“I swear, when I find out who did this, I’m gonna beat em to a pulp!” Uraraka growled with less ferocity than usual.

“Seriously!” Mina roared, flinging her pillow at the wall. “What the heck kind of villain does this?! Why couldn’t they do normal villain things? Robbing banks, taking hostages, stealing cars! Normal villain things!”

“I’m not sure if that’s preferable to…” Momo paused. “Ugh, I shouldn’t have to think this hard about whether I’d rather go through this again or let a hostage situation happen…”

“Right, it’s a hero’s job to take one for the team…” Mina admitted reluctantly. “Well, to be fair, I guess Yellow Team really got the worst of it.”

“Oh yeah, we really laid into them.” Uraraka agreed with a bit of awe.

“I’ve been working with Sato-san to try and become a better fighter, but I don’t remember him teaching me how to use a medieval flail.”

“Is that what it’s called?” Mina asked. “I thought it was a mace?”

“No, that’s just a handle with some heavy blunt shape on the end, like a club.”

“Oh, so like if there was no chain between the ball and the stick?”

“Exactly.”

“I thought that was called a morning star?” Uraraka asked.

“Well, they’re very similar, but a morning star has more pronounced spikes on the end to both bludgeon and pierce targets.”

“Dang, gurl,” Mina said warily, “I guess Todoroki really got off easy if you had all this medieval stuff in that big, wrinkly brain of yours.”

“ Oh god. ” Uraraka’s haunted gasp drew her friends’ attention. “What are we gonna do in class tomorrow?” Her revelation made the blood of her companions in humiliation run cold. “What am I going to say to Iida-kun?!”

“I have Todoroki-san right next to me, and the only thing separating me from Midoriya-san is Mineta-san. ” Momo said, piecing together what hell was going to look like. “And if I want to try and pay attention to the lesson, I’m going to have to look right over her head!”

“What am I gonna say to Kaminari?!” Mina despaired. “Oh no, and I’ve got Aoyama’s smug, French face right in front of me! And Kirishima is RIGHT THERE!!”

The pillows were not done absorbing screams that night.

“I must say,” All-Might said, “in all my years I’ve never seen a case like this.”

“I’d usually dismiss it as an elaborate prank or a diversion for something bigger.” Aizawa added, looking over the same incident report as Nezu and most of 1-A’s other teachers as they sat in the meeting room. “But the coastline and the campus were completely quiet, the incident didn’t attract that much attention as it happened, and they targeted U.A. students. They hit a high-profile target with a pretty low-impact incident.”

“I don’t think those kids would call it ‘low-impact.’” Cementoss pointed out. “I can’t say I know what they were thinking, but they were clearly shaken up.”

“They’ve been through worse.” Aizawa noted.

“I think there’s a saying about this. Something about apples and oranges?” All-Might pondered aloud.

“We can only lend support to the students when they reach out to us.” Nezu advised. “Our main focus should be finding the one behind this. Though aside from marginally increasing surveillance around the campus, we have no leads.” The ascended rodent sighed. “I hope the last interview turned up-”

His wish was answered/cut off by the door slamming open, a cloudy-eyed Midnight entering the room, followed by Ectoplasm. The aura of internal conflict within her kept the room’s occupants quiet while the pair found their seats, Midnight immediately burying her face in her hands.

“Something to say, Nemuri?” Aizawa asked with characteristic unwillingness to read a room. After a few more moments of silence, she spoke.

“This is the worst, cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” She said through her well-manicured hands. The room turned to Ectoplasm for clarification, but he only shrugged his shoulders. “The villain tried to play matchmaker with our students.” One could hear the confused blinking in the silence that followed.

“Matchmaker.” Present Mic parrotted. “With our students? As in, like, trying to make couples?”

“Uh huh.” She nodded limply.

“I’m going to regret this,” Aizawa predicted, “but what makes you say that?”

“No other criminal activity coincided with this incident which means this was their objective,” Midnight explained apathetically, “and they chose their moment and targets perfectly.”

“What do you mean?” Cementoss prompted. “With the moment and targets, that is?”

“They struck when students who had crushes on each other were isolated, giving the ones she brainwashed the perfect opportunity to get some ‘alone time’ with their targets.”

“Nemuri, please, try to be serious.” Aizawa scolded. “A villain just attacked U.A. students without leaving a trace, this isn’t some shoujo manga.”

“Aizawa-kun,” shot back, a troubling amount of annoyance in her voice, “have you ever considered that not being emotionally stunted might have its benefits?” Her peers' eyebrows shot up almost involuntarily. “Anyone with functioning eyes can see pubescent sparks flying between them.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Aizawa sighed, “this villain has been targeting specific high school students with their quirk because they knew those students had a crush on another student. They do this to try and get the two target students in a relationship. Does that cover it?”

“Pretty much.”

“Silly as it may be, Aizawa-kun,” Nezu interjected, “her theory is remarkably void of logical fallacy. Plus it all lines up with what information we have on this villain’s methods. However,” he added before Midnight’s smug grin could grow too wide, “this theory doesn’t help us very much. We have an idea of what this villain’s objective might be, but it doesn’t help us at all when it comes to finding out how they were able to monitor class 1-A so thoroughly that they knew when and where we would hold our boat activity. And if Nemuri-kun’s theory is correct, they may have also learned the personal feelings of certain students, which even we aren’t truly tracking.” His analysis did well enough to put a more appropriate tension in the room. “Though if there’s any silver lining to be found it would be that this villain has yet to strike twice in the same place, or school in this case. With that in mind, we will allocate resources to improving the school’s security, both online and on campus, and you are all to stay on the lookout for any negative aftereffects of this incident from any of 1-A, not just those directly involved. Any objections?” He was met with silence. “Very good. Now, I know it may feel like a lackadaisical decision, but given what we know about this villain, I think we should proceed under the assumption that they have moved on.”

“Iida-kun, I’m begging you, please stop.”

“I simply want to make it clear that I harbor no ill will for you because of the beating you gave me under the villain’s influence, Uraraka-kun.” He insisted, much to the chagrin of his friend who sat with her red face on the desk in front of her.

“Iida-chan,” Asui advised, “I know you mean well, but I don’t think this is helping.” At the desk in front of her, 1-A’s pinkest student wasn’t faring much better.

“Aoyama, I swear to god, I can feel the smug grin on your face! Stop it!”

“Mademoiselle, I know that my dazzlingly handsome face can cause any who look upon it to become uncomfortable,” he embellished as he kept his gaze forward, “which is why I have made an effort to not expose you to its further anxieties. I am nothing if not considerate.✩”

“Aoyama…” Mina growled, strangling the air right behind his neck.

“Dude, I’d just start wearing a mask or something.” Kaminari advised the Frenchman. “You thought the sports festival was bad? That was her playing nice, trust me.” He patted the still-taped spot on his ribs for effect.

“You’re next if you don’t watch it, Kaminari!” She pointed at him, turning back to Aoyama after catching a glimpse of some spiky red hair.

“At least you had a halfway decent time out there, right Kiri-?” Kaminari stopped short when he looked to the seat behind him and found Kirishima deep in conversation with Koda. What one could consider a deep conversation with the near-mute Koji Koda anyway. It was really more like Kirishima asked him what the difference was between a wolverine and a badger and was playing charades with Koda’s gestures and mumbles.

With a chuckle, Kaminari turned to Jirou on his left. Seating-wise, she was the luckiest of Blue Team; close to the front of the room and none of the other involved students to look past, just Mezo Shouji’s remarkably broad back to stare into and pretend she didn’t exist. Oddly, both Shouji and Sero seemed to be sitting as stock-still and blank-faced as the girl that sat between them. “Uh, you guys good?” Kaminari asked the boys. “You know she’s not one of the ones who-”

“You’re gonna wanna shut the hell up, dunce-face. Ears is on the warpath today.” Bakugo warned before pointing to the desk ahead of his. “Nobody here went looking for gossip and got the electric chair for her trouble.” Sure enough, Hagakure appeared to be slumped over in her desk, a small pool of drool where one would assume her mouth was.

Being a frequent target of Jirou’s jacks, Kaminari quickly assumed the same position as his desk-neighbors.

“I swear to god, I thought the shitty nerd turning into a space heater was bad, but listening to you dipshits whine is making me- GH!” Bakugo choked as Jirou’s unusually strong heartbeat shook his system through a jack to the neck. While he hadn’t exactly rubbed salt onto her wounds, the class had realized as the school year went on that Bakugo was more of a manic sociopath than the ok guy with a funny temper that they thought he was at first, so humbling him when he became belligerent had become almost routine for the class. It had also been a great mental help for Izuku, since seeing his longtime bully and source of most of his traumas and anxieties be so frequently silenced by a large group of kids around their age was a great ease on his soul.

Unfortunately, the previous day had introduced him to a whole new set of anxieties, which caused him to become a ‘space heater’ as Bakugo put it. A set of anxieties that was, incidentally, the talk of the class. Although he was being left relatively alone, the same could not be said for his classmate two seats behind him.

“All I’m saying is, the flail seems to be your weapon.” Todoroki pointed out to a steaming-red Momo seated to his left. “Maybe you should retire the metal pole as the default weapon you make.”

“Todoroki-san, I’m begging you, please stop.” She implored, face in her hands.

“I’m sorry, but you really made an impression yesterday. And not just with blunt force trauma.”

“Todoroki!” Mineta admonished the scarred boy. “Can’t you see she’s uncomfortable?”

“Hm? Oh.” Todoroki noticed as though he had just developed an additional level of social competence. “I see. Sorry, Yaoyorozu. You always were able to tell when other people were uncomfortable, Mineta.” Before he could see anyone sitting around him, Mineta included, giving him an absolutely bamboozled look, Aizawa opened the classroom door.

“Alright, settle down.” He said, causing the class to snap to seated attention even those whose faces were glowing pink. Bakugo and Hagakure were still face down on their desks, but he paid them no mind, he figured someone would push too hard. “Alright, let’s get this out of the way first. I expect you all know the main notes of what happened yesterday, but let me set the record straight. Red Team was put under the influence of a villain’s quirk and targeted Blue Team. Yellow Team tried to neutralize the situation, but got repelled. Aside from Yellow Team, there were no injuries and from what we know about the villain, they will not be targeting this school again.” His typical monotone lowered slightly to his ‘no nonsense’ monotone. “Anything beyond that is not important. Got it?” The class responded with a firm “Yes sir!” aside from the still smoldering members of Red and Blue Teams who were a bit more meek than usual.

“Good.” Aizawa returned to his normal apathetic timbre. “Now with that being said, we’re taking a bit of precaution with our next exercise. The exercise at Ground Beta we had scheduled for this week is being moved to next week.” He took a moment to look across the class, noting the students that were unconscious and those who wished they were unconscious. “Before we begin, let me just say that you all should take yesterday’s events as a lesson in humility.” There were more than a few faces that gained a curious glint in their eyes. “No matter how skilled or experienced you become, you will fail once in a while. You’re going to get knocked on your ass and made to look like a fool. Yesterday was fortunate in that there were no cameras around to record things, but that won’t always be the case. You won’t get a warning when you’re going to get knocked down a peg in front of a few people or the nation, so you’d better start thinking about how you’re going to deal with that humiliation now so you’re ready for when, not if, it happens.”

The class was more or less used to Aizawa dropping the occasional stern wisdom bomb, but it always managed to hit them deep. This particular piece of advice would help many of them later in their careers.

But over the next few weeks, it wouldn’t be too helpful to the six students who had already learned it the hard way.

Chapter Text

Uraraka looked down at her gauntlet, staring blankly at the spot where she had wiped strawberry yogurt from her mouth. Or so she tried to tell herself. This was the first time the class had donned their hero costumes since the boating incident the week prior. The time since then had been uneventful, which was a gift in that no further trauma was suffered, but a curse in that the embarrassment and awkwardness lingered untreated among the six directly affected classmates. What’s worse, by the nature of elephants in rooms, nobody wanted to talk about it. Not to the people involved, anyway.

“Do you always keep lipstick in your costume, Momo-chan?”

Except for Tsuyu Asui, that is.

“I-I’m sorry?” The black-haired girl stammered, the rest of the once awkwardly silent girls’ locker room now focused on the conversation.

“I just don’t get why you’d keep lipstick in your hero costume.” Tsuyu explained, fastening her gloves as though nothing were amiss. “Especially with how you have all those pockets to store items you make.”

“Oh, w-well, I was thinking about items I could keep with me that serve the most purposes and take up next to no space.” Momo explained, the words coming easier when she wasn’t talking about the incident itself. “And I concluded that lipstick could be used as a writing utensil, but you could also remove the wax and store very small objects innocuously. Plus, the kind I use is made with aloe vera, so it can be used to treat burns and scrapes in a pinch.” She looked back to Tsuyu and found every other girl looking at her in slight surprise. Aside from Jirou, who had strategically taken the locker furthest from Momo’s and averted her gaze the instant the taller girl raised her eyes. “Though I realize it’s all rather silly since I could just make anything for any of those reasons.” She chuckled to herself.

“See, this is why I live that head empty lifestyle.” Mina proudly declared. “Can’t overthink if you don’t think at all!”

“What about you, Ashido-kun?” Hagakure asked, causing Mina’s cheerful grin to falter slightly. “Carrying makeup on your hero costume seems like a you thing, but you don’t have pockets either.”

“Neither do you, Ochaco-chan.” Tsuyu pointed out. “Where were you guys keeping them?” Both of the pink-themed girls spent a few moments squirming and mumbling sentence fragments before they seemed to have a simultaneous epiphany.

“Actually…” Uraraka began. “I don’t really wear too much makeup. I only tend to carry chapstick with me. Does that count as makeup?”

“I don’t think so,” Mina said, “but even if we both did, we can’t when we’re dressed like this.” She pointed out while looking down at her own pocket-less costume. “Where did our lipstick come from?”

“Momo-chan probably made them.” Tsuyu swiftly pointed out, causing the locker room’s attention to return to Momo.

“But why?” Hagakure wondered aloud, pointing an index finger up, presumably putting it on her chin thoughtfully.

“W-Well why a lot of things, right?” Uraraka chuckled nervously.

“Yeah! Like, what even was the point right?” Mina laughed awkwardly, an odd sound from the pink girl who usually never had an issue guffawing genuinely.

“Y-Yes! Exactly!” Momo said with anxious enthusiasm. “We are so often told to not worry about villains’ motives, right?”

“All the lipstick on Blue Team’s faces was pretty obvious, kero.” Tsuyu said to Hagakure, apparently uninterested in Red Team’s nervous noncommitment. “It had to be for a reason.”

“Do you think it’s like when serial killers leave clues for the police?”

“No, it hasn’t helped anyone figure them out before… Kero…” She ribbited with realization. “Maybe they just wanted the kisses to be nicer for their targets. Better than chapped lips, right?”

“Oh!” Hagakure gasped in delight. “That’d actually be kinda sweet! Jirou-kun, did you notice how…?” The invisible girl stopped when she was greeted with empty space and a closing door. “Huh… What about you ladies? Did the…?” Once again she was met with silence and space. “And I thought I was sneaky.”

Jirou jogged as she made her way down the path toward Ground Beta. She liked to maintain an edgy and aloof persona when she could; two words most wouldn’t use to describe literally running from one’s feelings. However, the humiliation and subsequent awkwardness of the past week made it hard to remain edgy and her aloofness came off less like a rock star relaxing and more like a retired soldier with PTSD thousand-yard-staring into a wall. Nevertheless, time marched on and she caught up to the procession of boys.

She slowed to a walk, but found herself passing her classmates until she came to the front of the crowd where she found her former crewmates and current companions in cardiac clumsiness Midoriya and Kirishima whose gaits lacked their usual enthusiasm. With a glance back at the pack, she was shot a trio of thumbs up from Todoroki, Kaminari, and Iida. She trotted up to the leaders of the pack, ready with a question she feared she already knew the answer to.

“So uh, what’s their deal?”

“I think they’re trying to make up for last time.” Midoriya explained without lifting his gaze from the pavement in front of him.

“Yeah.” Kirishima confirmed, idly scratching the back of his head. “Real manly of them. Though for once I think I’d rather some… I was gonna say girliness, but that’s not right…” This earned a giggle from Jirou. “... Cowardice! That’s the one.”

“Well, they’re probably gonna have an easy day today.” Jirou mused. “That villain doesn’t stick around so I’d say things are gonna go back to normal, right Midoriya?”

“Well, yeah, I’d say we don’t have to worry about our friends going crazy again,” Izuku said, “but I don’t know if things are really going back to normal.”

“Why not?” Kirishima asked.

“I mean…” the green-headed boy sighed, finally looking his friends in the eye. “Uraraka-san was the first friend I made here. The first real friend I’d made in years. I used to talk to her every day, but this past week we’ve hardly been saying hi to each other. I’d like things to go back to how they were, but after the boating incident… I don’t know how…”

“Yeah… I get what you mean.” Kirishima said. “I knew Ashido in middle school and we’ve been getting on pretty well, but now I can tell she gets way quieter whenever I walk in. It… really sucks.”

“I mean,” Jirou began, realizing the flow of the conversation had reached her, “I don’t have the history you guys have, but I’d say Yaomomo is my best friend here and this whole fog that’s been hanging over things…” She looked to the ground as she gave the idea a quick thought. “Yeah, it’d be real lame if it didn’t go away.” She looked back at the boys to see them quickly avert their gazes, a small blush forming on their cheeks. “What?”

“Well ah,” Kirishima began cautiously, “you’re a girl…”

“So the girls are more likely to talk to you about stuff…” Midoriya continued.

“So have the girls… y’know…” Kirishima said before the boys looked back to her from the corners of their eyes. “Said anything about… the situation?” 

“Eh?” Jirou thought back over the past week and, aside from the time she had to silence Hagakure, there was only the chat in the locker room. A chat she had prematurely left because the conversation had turned toward… “Ah, well, y-y’know,” she stuttered, “there were some theories about the villain’s plan, but nothing that hasn’t been said before, right? Hahaha…”

“R-Right, that makes sense. It’s really all anyone can talk about.” Kirishima reasoned. “Sorry, that might’ve been a weird question, Jirou.”

“Nah, you’re fine, I get it. Besides,” she clapped Izuku on the back, “maybe all we need is one of these assignments to get things back to normal, right?”

“Yeah! Once we get to work, I’m sure everything will just flow naturally.”

“You’re all here!” All-Might declared when Hagakure and Tsuyu joined the rest of the class at the entrance to Ground Beta. His slightly altered catchphrase really only delighted himself and Izuku. “Very good! Now, today’s exercise is all about stealth and mobility. Despite what many may think, I haven’t been able to solve every problem with brute force and muscle. There are times when even I have to lay low and keep my distance. Today, you’ll be in just such a situation. Your objective will be to make your way to waypoints around this ‘city’ as quick as you can. However you must do so while avoiding… these!”

On his cue, dozens of small cars pulled out of the alleys that outlined the countless buildings of Ground Beta’s urban landscape. “These self-driving cars are equipped with cameras and microphones mounted in the driver’s seat as well as the passenger’s seat. The cameras are placed to accurately simulate occupants’ viewpoints and the mics are only sensitive enough to pick up sounds that are over the decibel level of average city noise. You will be graded on how quickly you get to your objectives, as well as how well you avoid detection by these phantom drivers!”

“Will an alarm go off or something if we get spotted?” Sato asked, his anxiety spiking as soon as he heard the word ‘stealth.’

“Not at all! With the abundance of heroes in this day and age, the sight of a single hero dashing across a rooftop wouldn’t cause a villain to abandon their cover. Unless that hero is making an aggressive bee-line for them, of course. Even so, staying undetected is always preferable, so be careful you don’t give yourself away in your pursuit of speed. Any other questions before we begin?” There was a long pause before Mineta’s brightly-gloved hand went up.

“How do we know where we’re supposed to go?”

“Ah! Fair question, Mineta-shonen!” All-Might said as a steel box rolled itself from the alleys to the massive man’s side. The crate opened and he held up examples of its contents. “These forearm-mounted signal locators, as well as the beacons you’ll be searching for, were provided by the support course! They will assign you a beacon and tell you how far you are from it in terms of general distance, direction, and height. When you reach a beacon, just hold the screen up to it. Don’t worry, you’ll know it when you see it. Then you’ll be assigned a new, random beacon to find. Now come and get suited up!” The class did just that, putting on the devices that were essentially small tablets mounted on short, thick, nylon compression sleeves that seemed to be sized and colored to compliment each of their costumes appropriately. There was one issue, however.

“Oi, All-Might!” Bakugo yelled, waving his steel-colored device in the air. “How the hell am I supposed to get this shit on my gauntlet?”

“Ah, Bakugo-shonen! Well, uh…” All-Might scratched at the back of his head awkwardly. “It was assumed you’d leave your gauntlets behind on this mission because it demands stealth and they… aren’t designed for that.”

“What if I want to use one for a distraction?!”

“That’s… not going to help you on this one, I assure you. Plus, I can’t imagine you’d be able to use it without harming civilians.”

“Goddamnit!” Bakugo growled, putting the device between his teeth as he fiddled with his equipment’s latches, grumbling as he walked away.

As All-Might sent the order for the cars to start their patrols, the class chatted amongst themselves, as was normal before exercises. Most discussions revolved around how they were or weren’t well suited for this sort of mission. Hagakure lamented her poor cardio, Iida lamented the noise his engines made, Aoyama was begging Tokoyami in vain to work with him, and while the unfortunate stars of the last exercise managed to keep their minds on the task ahead of them, none of them could help sneaking the occasional glance.

Midoriya’s internship with Gran Torino, while it involved more life-threatening encounters than he’d have liked, was an immense help to him. The revelations and lessons he’d learned that led to the development of Full Cowling made his quirk infinitely more manageable. The day’s exercise was a perfect opportunity to practice his new technique.

His strategy was simple enough; stick to rooftops and alleys, look for openings between cars to make a leap if he had to go across a street, and use above-ground parking garages as rest stops if need be. One such visit to a parking structure brought him to one of the three encounters he was really hoping to avoid.

“M-Midoriya-san!” Momo whisper-yelled at him as he was making his way across the concrete.

“Yaoyorozu-san?” He whisper-yelled back as he came to a halt. The pair awkwardly held each other’s gazes, like a couple of deer with headlights for eyes. Though perhaps it would be more apt to say Midoriya was a deer in the headlights, and Momo was a person who desperately wanted to not scare the deer away.

“I-I could use your help, Midoriya-san.” She explained cautiously. Midoriya, typically one to assist anyone and everyone without hesitation, slowly shuffled his way in Momo’s direction while taking in his surroundings, on the lookout for an ambush.

“With… With what?”

“Well, you see, I need to cross the street to get to my next beacon, but,” she produced a grappling hook launcher from behind her, “I can’t be certain this hook will find purchase on that building.” She looked across the street to a rooftop about a story below them. “Could you perhaps…?” She held up the hooked end of the wire, and avoided eye contact.

Izuku was conflicted. On one hand, his instincts compelled him to help, but the memory of Momo’s crew pursuing his crew with unsettling aggression nagged at him. The mental and emotional math he did in his mind concluded that he should have nothing to fear from the girls, and even if he did, Uraraka was the one who had focused on him. He looked at his signal locator to dismiss that particular memory, confirmed that he could make this slight detour without much hassle, and jogged toward his scholarly friend. “Sure, no problem. Where do you want it?” He took the offered hook and peeked over the garage’s wall.

“The roof of that white building with the billboard facing away from us.” She clarified. “If you can secure it to the water tower’s railing or legs, I can use it as a zip line. Can you make the jump?”

“Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem. I just need to let this car pass by.” He said, his eyes on the sedan on the street below.

“Excellent, thank you… And, Midoriya-san?” Their eyes met again. “I hope you know that the girls and I are… we feel terrible about what happened. I understand that things may be a bit… tense for a while, but just know that we still cherish your friendship. Yours and Blue Team’s.” Her words were sincere and articulate; very Yaoyorozu. Knowing she was still her put him at ease.

“I appreciate it, Yaoyorozu-san. Don’t worry, we still think highly of you. I’m sure we’ll be able to laugh about this before too long.” His bright, confident smile put her at ease. It had that effect on people. He looked back over the edge and saw the car disappear around the corner. “Alright, the coast is clear. I’ll give the line a tug when it’s secure.”

“Understood. No need to wait for me, I do this often enough. Good luck, Midoriya-san.”

“You too, Yaoyorozu-san.” They shared a nod and Izuku let the power course through his body, green sparks dancing around him as he tensed his legs. He launched himself over the barricade and through the air over the street. As lovely as the view was, he kept his eyes on the rooftop in front of him. He hit the ground with a tuck and roll and took a moment to find the water tower before tying the wire to the thick steel supports. He gave the wire a couple firm pulls before dashing across the rooftops toward his own objective. After a few moments, he spared a look back to see Momo’s black and red form giving him a thumbs-up. He returned the gesture and continued on his way.

Had he been much closer to her, he might have been able to avoid reliving the nightmare that approached.

Pride in himself; he had only felt it a couple times in his life, but it was always sweet. Despite only developing Full Cowling less than a month prior, he used it now like it was second nature. The ease with which he maneuvered through the cityscape made him feel good in a way he couldn’t quite place.

As he approached what would be his thirteenth terminal he spotted a couple figures in an alley below. A small pit in his stomach opened when he realized it was not Aoyama trying to get Tokoyami’s help again, but instead Jirou and Kirishima having an unnervingly tense chat. With a leap across the street and a wall-jumping descent, Izuku joined the kneeling pair.

“Kirishima-kun, Jirou-san, what’s going on?”

“Oh no…” Jirou muttered as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Midoriya,” Kirishima began, a haunted look in his eyes, “is this your next target, too?”

“Yeah… you guys, too?”

“Yep.” Jirou sighed, looking to the door to what was essentially a construction site. “This is probably a trap, isn’t it?” She looked back to the boys to find them wearing the same small blush and unnerved expression as her.

“W-Well, this could just be a coincidence!” Izuku offered, earning him a couple of unconvinced looks. “No, really! Stranger things have happened, and I actually met up with Yaoyorozu-san earlier and she was acting normally.”

“W-What did she say?” Jirou asked, trying to sound like she wasn’t desperately interested.

“She just asked for my help to set up a zipline, but she also told me that they’re still our friends.” His words made his friends lose some of the tension in their shoulders.

“Ok, maybe this is fine, but… let’s do this cautiously. Just to be safe.” Kirishima’s proposal was met with nods of agreement.

“Jirou-san, could you listen through that wall? See if there’s anyone there?” Jirou agreed and plugged one of her earlobes into the concrete wall. After a long pause, she reported her findings.

“I’m definitely hearing the terminal in there, but I’m not hearing anything else besides the cars and you guys’ heartbeats.”

“Alright, let’s go in quiet and take our time.” Midoriya said, glancing at his locator. “It says the terminal is below, so let’s look for a way down.” He looked to his friends who gave him nods of agreement. “Ok, I’ll take point.”

Midoriya opened the door, followed by Jirou and Kirishima, and followed the hallway ahead. The building was largely skeletal; thick concrete foundations making up the walls and support beams while the floor was essentially just long planks of plywood laid across steel joists. There were no artificial lights, so the area was only illuminated by the reflected sunlight streaming through the doorway, as well as the ambient sunlight peeking up from below. A stone stairway was almost immediately to the left, and the reunited Blue Team quickly made their way across the plywood and down toward their objective.

The next floor down was the bottom floor, a single, expansive room dimly, casually lit by the sunlight outside. It was technically bright enough to read a book, but only if you had to. The floor was an uneven plain of dirt with the occasional shallow depression of mud. If he had to guess, Izuku would say this was going to be a below-ground parking garage for the building. The team fanned out to take cover behind adjacent support pillars, waiting for Jirou’s all clear signal to move up to the next pillar toward the spot their locators were guiding them to. After a few tense minutes in silence, Jirou’s locator descended into the single-digits and the trio stopped to scan their immediate areas. Jirou’s gaze landed on a glowing rectangle in a wide puddle of thick mud. “Found it, guys.” She announced at a conversational volume that startled the boys. They met her in the middle of the mud, the air too tense for any of them to mind getting a little dirty. She picked up the terminal, about the size and shape of a credit card reader you could find in just about any store and wiped the grime from the screen. She held her locator up to the device, but neither screen showed that the gadgets recognized each other.

“Oh, ok, it was just glitching from the mud!” Kirishima determined with a sigh of relief. “Man, that was way too tense!”

“What do we do about this, though? I could try to open it up and clean it, but maybe we should just text All-Might.” Jirou turned to Izuku on her left. “Wanna see what he says about this?” He didn’t answer, his eyes locked on the device. “Uh, hello? Earth to Midoriya?”

“Why was it here?” He asked.

“Eh?”

“All the other terminals were mounted on a wall or on a table.” He explained. “I don’t doubt that some of them would be in odd locations, but of the twelve I’ve found, none of them were somewhere like this.”

“I mean… I found one in a crate, but…” Kirishima said, his voice getting progressively quieter as his blood chilled. “Yeah, that’s weird.”

“Could it have fallen off one of the pillars? No, there doesn’t look to be anything on the-”

“ Release. ”

Jirou whipped her head up to see three figures land gently on the ground in front of them. The boys on either side of her followed suit and they recognized the girls they had hoped to avoid meeting alone, but the glowing pink hearts in their eyes made a chill grip their hearts.

“Listening to you guys play detective made my heart skip a beat!” Uraraka sighed dreamily with a goofy grin on her face.

“And you were so sweet to come here so quickly when we called.” Momo said half-teasingly as she waved a tablet computer in front of her before sliding it into a case on her back.

“Good to know you wanted some more alone time as much as we do!” Mina said with a wink at Kirishima.

“Oh no… No no no no no!” Kirishima babbled, a rising blush accompanying his rising panic.

“Midoriya! I thought you said Yaomomo was cool!” Jirou growled at him, more fear than anger in her trembling voice as Momo’s warm smile caused her legs to begin liquifying.

“Sh-She was!” Izuku asserted, trying his best to ignore Ochaco’s chest as she hopped in place in excitement. “The villain must have done this after that!” Izuku closed his eyes and clenched his fists to steel himself. “But we’re not on boats this time, and we know they’re stronger than normal. We can figh- Huh?” An unexpected resistance when he tried to slide into his combat stance made him stop short. He looked down, his comrades following suit, to find they were up to their ankles in an unfamiliar, sticky, heavy, gelatinous substance that only allowed them to move their feet a few millimeters; completely stopping them from taking a single step. A pair of shiny, metallic orbs stuck out of the goop.

“W-What the hell is this crap?!” Kirishima yelled as he tried desperately to pull his leg out of the mystery substance.

“You’ll have to thank Yaomomo for this one!” Uraraka announced proudly, uncapping a tube of pink lipstick before applying it, causing Izuku’s heart to do a flip.

“She asked me to make some weird, non-melty acid to make sure you three didn’t get cold feet!” Mina explained when she paused the application of her own glittery fuschia lipstick.

“It’s a biodegradable rubber cement.” Momo explained as she inspected her now generously painted red lips in a compact mirror. “With there being so much chemistry between us, I figured there was no harm in adding some more, right?” She giggled, making Jirou’s mind glitch.

“Uh! Uh! Uhh…!” Midoriya frantically looked around for some means of escape and eventually landed on Jirou’s reddened ear. “Jirou-san! Can you use your quirk to break up the cement?!”

“Uh, maybe?” She said, willing to try anything. Her jacks shot into the rubbery surface and she funneled her hammering heartbeat through them. However, all they got for her effort was the feeling of standing in a pool of pudding with a dozen vibrating phones in it. “Damn! It’s no use!”

“Oh, Jirou-chan, you flatterer!” The sudden proximity of Momo’s voice made the trio jump, and jump again when they looked up to see that the girls were staring into them from a meter away at most. “But enough about that kind of chemistry,” the girls stepped forward, making their quarries fall back when they tried to retreat, only to be caught by their wrists, “time for our kind of chemistry~” The girls pulled their scaroused targets into their embraces; Uraraka and Mina wrapped their arms around Izuku and Kirishima’s necks while Momo pulled Jirou in by her waist.

With Izuku, Jirou, and Kirishima speechless, glowing red, and in the embrace of the most beautiful girls in the world, they were puddy in the heart-eyed girls’ arms. “Alright girls,” Momo rallied her mind-muddled comrades, “time for some home cooking!” With that, the girls dove in; capturing the lips of the flustered messes and replacing any whisper of coherent thought with their love.

Izuku could only note how soft Ochaco was, how she smelled like vanilla, and how he felt the joy of bouncing on a trampoline as her lips bounced across his face. Kirishima enjoyed the scent of cotton candy and the charming sight of Mina’s sparkling lips as they glided by his eyes on their way to his forehead. Jirou was reveling in the scent of jasmine and the smooth warmth of Momo’s bosom on her resting chin as the brainy beauty decorated her face with crimson kisses.

They were no longer on the water, but they were being drowned.

It wouldn’t have been a problem if it was Hagakure. She might have just been on the far end of the area when All-Might had called it. If it had been Kaminari and Sero, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Kaminari would probably just be trying to get Sero to carry him as they swung from building to building. Todoroki couldn’t blame him, it seemed like it would be fun. It might have been a little worrying if it had been Iida. He might’ve twisted an ankle with all the ninety degree turns in this urban setting. But it wasn’t them. It was them . Ashido, Uraraka, Kirishima, Jirou, Midoriya, and Yaoyorozu. The ones that had been involved in the boating incident last week.

Ever since Midoriya had shown him a better way to live at the Sports Festival, he’d become more protective of his friends. Midoriya was special for the aforementioned reasons, and Momo sat next to him in class, so they’d grown close as well. Uraraka and Jirou were important to him mainly because they were particularly close to Midoriya and Momo. Kirishima and Ashido were… well they were just too friendly and outgoing to not form a rapport with. So when all six of them were on the wrong end of a villain’s quirk, he had become interested in their well-being with an intensity that Tokoyami had called ‘charmingly off-putting.’ Whatever that meant.

Perhaps it was that intensity that carried him into the city so quickly when the class realized exactly which six students were taking their sweet time regrouping. Todoroki may have been the first one to start searching but he was by no means the only one. Iida overtook him in no time and the cacophony of footsteps behind him told him the search party would be quite robust. Despite their numbers, Ground Beta was still a veritable city with countless nooks and crannies, so the fourteen of them (fifteen counting Dark Shadow) were facing an uphill battle. Iida’s speed didn’t help him indoors, Shoji was unable to sense anything of note, and Bakugo was just yelling ‘Deku’ angrily. What’s more, this whole search was under the pretense that the missing students were still in Ground Beta at all. Even if they assumed the villain from last time was striking again, there’s no reason to think the girls didn’t just leave with their quarries once they had been neutralized.

That was another aspect of this whole situation he didn’t quite fathom. As far as he understood it, all that happened was a bunch of kisses between friends. He supposed Red Team’s aggressive attitudes might have been off-putting, but that didn’t explain why both teams were so cagey and tense about it after the fact. Though he acknowledged his ignorance when it came to kissing, never having kissed or been kissed himself, and ultimately decided that if it was something that upset his friends so much, then he would do what he could to stop it.

Though with how much time had passed, he feared he was already too late.

Even though it felt much longer, only a few tense minutes passed before Todoroki saw a splotch of color in what was an otherwise shadowed area of brown and gray. Green, red, a couple pink; it was them alright. He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a beacon to the rest of the class as he jogged into the dirt-floor arena.

He had only heard the stories of the scene on the docks when Blue Team’s boat floated in. The tales couldn’t have prepared him for the jarring peculiarity of the scene he walked into.

All six of them were on the ground, the girls draped over their quarries. Red Team seemed to be sleeping peacefully, their heads resting on Blue Team’s midsections. Blue Team on the other hand, while their bodies were similarly inert, their wide-eyed expressions were anything but tranquil. On the left, Kirishima’s eyebrows were knitted upward and his sharp teeth were bared in a downturned, gaping grimace. Overall, his face and neck were positively decorated in pink, glittery, lipstick marks that, as Todoroki confirmed with a glance at the pink face resting on his abs, matched the shade on Mina’s lips. The two other pairs largely matched the first, differing only in the color of the kisses and the expressions of the kissed being more blank and dissociative.

Todoroki sighed and shook his head, partially from disappointment  and partially from confusion. He shook off these feelings for the time being and decided to be productive, a notion helped by the new arrival on the scene.

“Todoroki-kun!” Iida called as he jogged across the dirt. “I saw your beacon! Have you found th-?” His voice was cut off when he saw the familiar forms on the ground. He blinked a couple times as a light blush dusted his cheeks.

“Yeah. They look ok, but let’s separate them so we can make sure.” Todoroki suggested, already walking toward Uraraka.

“Uh… Y-Yes, that would be best” Iida agreed, moving to lift Uraraka’s upper half. “I heard what happened last time, but it’s… quite strange to see.”

“Yeah,” Todoroki grunted as they lowered Uraraka’s limp form on a dry stretch of ground a fair distance from ‘ground zero,’ “it’s a welcome change of pace from our previous encounters with villains, though.”

“I’m not sure they’ll be inclined to agree with you…” Iida muttered as he waved a hand over Midoriya’s unresponsive, pink-stained face.

“Iida, come look at this.” Shouto said as he picked up a muddy device from the ground between Midoriya and Jirou. “This is one of the terminals for this exercise, isn’t it?”

“It is!” Iida confirmed as he took the offered device. “What an odd place for one. None of the ones I found were somewhere like this.”

“Same.” Shouto paused when a tablet on Momo’s back caught his eye. He slipped it from its pouch and looked it over. Before Iida could comment, the impromptu investigation team added to its ranks.

“Hey guys! Oh, goddamnit, is that them?” Kaminari lamented as he ran up with Sato at his side. “Man, I thought this was all done!”

“Unfortunately it’s not. Would you mind moving Ashido and Yaoyorozu over there?” Todoroki requested, pointing to where they had left Uraraka. “We might have a lead.”

“Huh? Sure, I guess. C’mon, Sato-kun.”

“Damn, I know the exact opposite happened, but all that lipstick kinda gives them ‘just got their asses kicked’ vibes.” As the yellow-themed duo got to work, Todoroki activated Momo’s tablet and found more than he expected.

“That’s Yaoyorozu-kun’s digital encyclopedia, right?” Iida asked, leaning over to observe the screen as well.

“Yes, her Yaoyorictionary.”

“She still hasn’t found a better name for it?”

“Not that I know of.”

“A shame.”

“Indeed. But anyway, this doesn’t look like the sort of thing she’d use this for.”

“You’re right. This is clearly a command prompt… Wait…” Iida paused to look between the terminal in his hands and the tablet in Shouto’s.

“You think this was a trap?” Shouto ventured.

“Maybe. It seems to fit at a glance. May I have the tablet? I’d like to look into this.”

“Sure.” With that simple agreement, Todoroki handed off the tablet to Iida who went to sit at a support pillar while he worked. As Kaminari and Sato carried Mina over to her unwilling comrades, another group of footsteps drew Shouto’s attention. Tokoyami, Mineta, and Sero arrived and gave their version of the now standard ‘oh god, not this again’ phrase upon entering this scene. Todoroki moved to approach them, but tripped and stumbled on something.

“Whoa there Todoroki!” Sero called as he tensed to catch him. “You good? What happened?” Todoroki looked back instead of responding since he didn’t have an answer. He kneeled to inspect the previously undetected anomaly at the feet of Blue Team and the three newcomers joined him at his sides.

In the shallow trough of dirt was a pair of shiny metal orbs in a puddle of light brown pebbles. Shouto picked up one of the orbs and scrutinized its seemingly simple form. It was very light and smooth, defying its sturdy appearance. Four equidistant openings on the ball held what seemed to be small, mostly translucent globs of dried glue. A quick tap with a knuckle made a sound suggesting it was partially hollow.

“What’s the story?” Kaminari asked as he and Sato had finished moving Red Team.

“Not sure yet. Could you move these three, too?”

“I’ll help!” Dark Shadow declared, already moving to pull Kirishima off to the side.

“What have you found?” Todoroki asked the boys at his sides who had been ‘investigating’ the squishy pebbles.

“Uhhh…” Mineta began, “well… y’know how fresh asphalt leaves those little black pebbles that have a tiny bit of… squishability?” Todoroki nodded as Sero let out a gasp of realization. “Well they’re like that, but more squishable… and not black.”

“They are… very satisfying to squeeze.” Tokoyami admitted, squeezing a handful of them in his palm.

“Y’know what this reminds me of?” Sero mused, focusing on his own handful of mystery squish. “Y’know how when you use a hot glue gun and there’s always that little bit that just drips onto the table? It’s like that, but shaped like gravel.”

“Glue…” Todoroki repeated thoughtfully, picking one of the globs off the orb and inspecting it.

“Whatever this is,” Tokoyami said, dropping his handful of the unidentified goop, “it does not seem like a natural thing to be in this environment. One has to wonder how it came to be here. Todoroki, what contraption have you found?”

“It looks like this ball held whatever this stuff is.” Todoroki explained, holding the softball-sized orb up for the others to see. “Listen guys, Iida and I are working on a theory.” He stood as he explained to the three beside him, as well as Sato, Kaminari, and Dark Shadow who had just finished their job. “Could you all look around here for anything odd? Any clues as to what happened here might be helpful.”

“Ohhh! Like CSI: Miami!” Kaminari said eagerly, his realization also perking up the rest of the boys.

“Oh hell yes!” Sero pumped a fist. “Oh! Let’s take pictures of the crime scene!”

“Documenting the state of the bodies might prove useful as well.”

“They’re… they’re not actually dead, though…”

“Alright boys!” Mineta rallied the group. “Leave no stone unturned and report back to Captain Todoroki with your findings!” With that, the boys whipped out their phones and fanned out, snapping pictures of Blue Team and using the built-in flashlights to inspect every nook and cranny of the area. Todoroki, after taking a moment to turn over the phrase ‘Captain Todoroki’ in his head, carried the orb as he went over to check on Iida.

“Iida, find anything?”

“Well, I haven’t put together the full picture yet,” Iida explained as he offered Todoroki a seat next to him beside the pillar, “but everything is pointing to our initial suspicions being correct.”

“They used this terminal as bait.”

“So it would seem. What about you?” Iida asked, eyes drawn to the orb Todoroki held.

“It looks like this was used to deploy some kind of glue trap on Blue Team.” Shouto explained, holding the orb up for Iida to see. “Presumably it’s what kept them here once they were lured.”

“We are here!” All-Might’s voice from the street drew their attention. As his modified catchphrase suggested, the top hero had arrived with the seven other 1-A students to the ‘crime scene’ as it would be occasionally known. Todoroki shared a nod with Iida before getting up to greet their teacher. As he trotted past his arriving classmates who were fanning out to either help with the apparent investigation or keep an eye on the unconscious trios, he approached their ever-smiling teacher, whose grin was veering into grimace territory as he surveyed the odd and disappointingly familiar scene.

“Todoroki-shonen,” All-Might greeted the scarred boy with a tone that tried to project typical confidence, but was unquestionably tainted with disquiet, “it’s good to see that nobody is hurt, but I see that uh…” he gestured vaguely at the two trios, “this happened again.”

“I’m afraid so, sensei.” He agreed before holding up the orb. “Though there’s a bit more to it this time.”

Chapter Text

“No, but you see what I mean, right? They all hit the same places. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“The face is only so big, man. It’s not like they could explore new facial features.”

“Is there some way to determine the sequence in which they left the marks? That could lead us somewhere.”

“You should’ve thought about that before the witnesses overheated.” Kaminari said, gesturing vaguely to the rest of the classroom. Most seats had been emptied as the class had largely gathered around Ojiro and Kaminari’s desks to review their findings from the ‘crime scene’ the day prior. There were two other small gatherings as well. At Uraraka’s desk in the back corner was Red Team; the three girls who had been influenced by an unseen puppet-master to commit the ‘crime.’ On the other side of the room at Midoriya’s desk was Blue Team; the trio that had been marked by Red Team. At least that’s how the investigation team (the rest of the class that wasn’t involved in the incident) described things.

“Very well, we’ll put that on the list for the next interrogation.” Iida relented, turning back to the collection of phones on the desks that displayed pictures taken of the crime scene. “For now, I believe there is some significance to this glitter.” He pointed to a picture of Kirishima’s face dotted with sparkly pink lipstick marks. “I’m sure the marks on Kirishima from the first incident lacked this glitter. Does anyone have any theories?”

“This was an ambush, which means they had more time to prepare, right?” Ojiro proposed. “Maybe there wasn’t glitter last time because they were more focused on capturing Blue Team than the particulars of their makeup.”

The continuing chatter of the amateur sleuths carried on unburdened by the discomfort of the pair of trios. Over at Midoriya’s seat, he, Kirishima, and Jirou had long since abandoned attempts to chat amongst themselves to focus on something besides their classmates picking apart the minutiae of their shared nightmarish dream.

“At least they’re not messing with us… I guess…” Kirishima offered, quickly realizing how this alternative was not much better.

“Are you kidding?” Jirou frowned, apparently not of the same mind. “I’d rather have Mineta go back to his incel era and start breathing down my neck for details than have Todoroki ask about the specifics of the…” she clenched her fist and fought a blush, “‘smooching event’ one more time.”

“Tokoyami-kun called it the ‘affection assault.’” Midoriya offered limply, staring at his desk with hollow eyes.

“Man, why the hell are they even like this?! We’re in high school, isn’t this the sort of thing a bunch of boys should be acting all immature about?” Jirou growled, pulling at her earlobes.

“No, I get it.” Kirishima sighed. “Aside from fighting bad guys and rescuing people from danger; detective work is the coolest part of hero work. I remember asking my parents for a cork board and some red yarn for my birthday once.”

“I saved up my first allowances to get mine.” Izuku offered, accepting a quick fist bump from Kirishima.

“Ok, fine, but what about Hagakure and Tsu-chan?” Jirou gestured at the girls in question who were busy drawing a rough map of the crime scene on the chalkboard. “This is like… a girly… gossipy type thing, right? Why are they playing along?” She turned back to find Kirishima giving her a deadpan stare.

“Jirou, are you asking us for insight on girls?”

She looked at Midoriya, who had only recently broken a years-long streak of not having a prolonged conversation with a girl his age, and back to Kirishima, who unironically wore a headband with the word ‘manly’ on it on occasion. “Right, my bad.” She admitted. “Man, I hope they get bored with this soon and start acting like normal freakin’ teenagers.”

“No, this is business for them.” Midoriya said, finally turning away from staring down his desk. “This is technically real hero work, it directly affects people around them, and they’re living out a childhood fantasy. They’re going to stay on this until the villain is caught.”

“And since the villain has been a ghost…”

“This is just life now.”

Midoriya let his head fall to the desk. Meanwhile, in the opposite corner of the room, the atmosphere around Red Team was… slightly different.

“Ok, so they won’t be looking for Tsu-chan’s body because Aoyama will be framed as a cannibal, Sero strangles himself with his own tape, Mineta chokes to death trying to eat one of his own grapes, Bakugo dies of either a heart attack or stroke, and Hagakure is easy because hiding the body takes care of itself.” Mina looked up from the highly incriminating notes app on her phone. “Is Tokoyami running into a window too cliche, or is it just right?”

“Ashido-san, please, that’s enough.” Momo pleaded, her head in her hands. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Yeah. Besides, Tokoyami-kun would hit his beak on the window before his skull.” Uraraka pointed out, left cheek planted on the desk.

“Ugh! You’re right…” Mina relented. “How hard do you think it is to learn Korean?”

“Ashido-san, we are not running away from this!” Momo asserted. “We are heroes, and we cannot flee just because a villain has gotten the better of us.”

“Well, the villain part of this isn’t the main reason I was thinking of changing my name and moving to Okinawa, but you have a point.” Uraraka said. She lifted her head from the desk, but the despair still showed in her slouched posture. “But what can we do? The villain just makes our heads go all…” a blush appeared on her cheeks as she looked for the right word, “...mushy without warning! How do we stop that?”

“Actually,” Momo perked up, “I was thinking that since this quirk affects our minds, maybe some mental exercises might help fight it off!”

“Mental exercises?” Mina repeated, intrigued. “Like meditation?”

“Yes! I doubt it could fully stop the quirk from working, but it could slow it down long enough for us to get a warning out to the others.”

“Ohhh we’d be like shaolin monks! Hell yeah, how’s it work?”

“I’ll have to research the specifics, but I’ll give you the details as soon as I find them!”

“Any ancient techniques to banish cringe?” Uraraka asked glumly. Her teammates followed her gaze to the other side of the room where Jirou was acting as a bodyguard and dissuading Iida from interrogating Blue Team again.

“Ugh, I wish.” Mina lamented, her previous enthusiasm evaporated. “Man, I miss Kirishima’s dorky bravado.”

“I miss hearing Jirou-san humming as she does schoolwork.”

“I just miss making eye contact with Deku-kun.”

The three girls sat silently staring at the trio three rows down. Although the hot embarrassment and heavy shame were the most frequent and visceral feelings to be felt, this lonely melancholy was quickly becoming more and more familiar as well. It had begun building in the week between the two incidents, and was now reaching unbearable levels. Though they did harbor feelings for their counterparts on Blue Team, these incidents had ruined something more present than prospective romantic journeys. They had robbed them of their best friends. Beyond just being good company, they had fought beside each other, supported each other in life-or-death circumstances, and inspired each other to be more than they thought they could be. But now, due to circumstances outside their control, that was gone. Replaced by the barest of uneasy common courtesy.

However, if there was anything their time at U.A. had given them, it was grit. They had kept their focus and nerve in the face of villains and monsters on multiple occasions, and though their current foe was not as tangible or malicious, they still resolved to defeat it. Uraraka spoke to put that resolve into action.

“We need to talk to them.”

Iida Tenya was ecstatic. Being elected class president was an honor he took seriously and a role he gave himself to fully. Though one aspect of leadership he had yet to experience was conflict resolution. Aside from the occasional Tokoyami-Aoyama lighting disputes and the mere existence of Bakugo, Class 1-A was chaotic but far from contentious. Iida was thankful for this, really, but his desire to be the best class representative he could be for his fellows made him want to test himself. As fate would have it, the ongoing crisis would give him an opportunity to do just that.

Uraraka, the rosy-cheeked girl who had formed a day-one friend group with himself and Midoriya, had approached him during lunch with an unusually formal request. Uraraka and the rest of Red Team apparently wanted to speak with Blue Team, but did not want to come across as threatening, and wanted Iida and a handful of other students to be present to act as ‘witnesses.’ Under normal circumstances, this would have been a baffling ask. The girls of Red Team were arguably the most friendly and approachable kids in 1-A. Plus, they were very close friends with the respective members of Blue Team. Of course, all this cordiality between these students went out the window following the incident that gave the pair of unwilling trios their color-coded names. With one of his best friends being in each of these unfortunate camps (who just so happened to be head over heels for the other,) Iida felt more compelled to help than even his Class Rep position obligated him to. At first, the only way he and most of the class could help was by offering emotional support and trying to catch the culprit.

However, Uraraka’s request gave him an opportunity to fix the symptom of this problem that weighed heaviest on him; this lingering awkwardness. Though the excitement of the class’s haphazard investigation helped distract from it, there was no ignoring how… off the class felt without some of its most charming and energetic personalities. Even the investigation felt incomplete without Momo’s sage insights and Midoriya’s quick-witted theories. So naturally, Iida eagerly accepted Uraraka’s request and began his preparations. He had told her the meeting would take place after the final bell, so he needed to be quick.

Now, obviously he would need to tell Blue Team about the meeting, but that was the easy part so he delivered the message quickly and not-at-all ominously to the not-at-all terrified trio. Next, he had to recruit some of the requested ‘witnesses.’ These helpers needed to meet a pair of prerequisites. First, since there would likely be a fear that Red Team would get… influenced again, they’d have to be ready and able to restrain them if they tried to pounce. Second, since this discussion was sure to be personal in nature, they’d have to be trusted to keep whatever was discussed confidential. If he had the time, he would have compiled a Midoriya-like report on the best candidates, but with the time crunch he was under he went with his instincts and grabbed Sato and Tokoyami.

Tokoyami was an easy choice; his solemn nature made him gossip-averse and Dark Shadow’s speed and otherworldly strength had defeated Momo and Mina in the past. Sato’s strength was undeniable and had never shown any interest in gossip, so he was confident in choosing him as well.

With the teams notified and the witnesses recruited, all that was left to do was inform Aizawa and wait until the final bell. Or so he had thought, but it turned out that there was a bit more waiting to be done. After Aizawa had shooed out the rest of the class, there were startlingly few words being exchanged for what he'd expected from this discussion.

The two teams were collected in the same spots they'd been in during the investigation meeting earlier in the day; Red Team huddled around Uraraka’s desk in the corner whispering frantically to each other, and Blue Team sitting in the seats around Midoriya’s desk studying the floor and giving off a pretty gloomy aura. He, Sato, and Tokoyami stood silently at the front of the class to give the teams the opportunity to begin, but they had since settled into that space between anxiety and boredom.

“Hey, Iida,” Sato whispered as discreetly as he could, “you said they wanted to talk, right?”

“That is what Uraraka-kun said, yes.”

“So why isn’t there any talking going on?” Iida could only shrug. He knew that the surrounding circumstances would make this discussion at least a bit difficult for the teams, but this prolonged silence was unexpected. Though he supposed that this was a thoroughly unprecedented situation, so there was no sense in developing expectations in the first place.

However, one thing he knew for sure was that they couldn't be here all night so something needed to be said. Before he could break the ice himself, Red Team’s huddle broke and the girls formed a line, brows furrowed in determination. The “security team” returned to their attentive stances, and Dark Shadow peeked over Tokoyami’s shoulder.

Momo took a deep breath and broke the silence. “Thank you for agreeing to speak with us, you three.” The three in question startled out of their comas and quickly staggered to their feet and put on the face one wears when a parent refers to them by their full name. “We asked you here so we could clear the air of this… unpleasantness between us.” Momo, confident as could be at first, was already starting to struggle with eye contact. “I believe I speak for all of us when I say the… pause, I suppose, that's been forced on our friendships is unacceptable. So while we accept that things will be awkward to some degree while the villain remains at large, please know that you can still talk to us because we still care.”

That word “care” hung heavily in the air between the two trios. Mina was quick to step in.

“Yeah! ‘Cause, like, we're your friends and we wanna talk to you! Plus, the jerk who's doing this only messes with our brains during exercises, right? So you shouldn't need to be all on edge at the dorms or class or anything.” She animatedly gestured at the ‘witnesses,’ anything to ease the tension. “You've got your own security team, too! So there's no reason we can't all hang out, right?”

“You're right!” Kirishima agreed, his sharky grin the first of Blue Team’s to make an appearance. “Besides, whatever this villain’s after, we can't just let ‘em mess up our friendships like this!”

“Hell yeah.” Jirou nodded with the best confident smirk she could muster. “I hadn't thought of it like that, but no way am I just gonna give this creep the satisfaction.”

“I-I'll do my best, too!” Midoriya's brave face fell not long after he put it on. “Though I can't help but wish we had a way to fight this…”

“As a matter of fact, we have a lead on that!” Momo said, gaining the full attention of the room. “I'm going to be researching mental exercises that may help counteract hypnosis quirks. I can't guarantee that it will keep us from being influenced completely, but it would still be a valuable advantage.”

“Way to go Yaomomo!” Iida noted how Jirou’s encouragement made Momo squirm a little bit. A familiar sight.

“But even if we can slow down the villain's quirk, we still have to assume that we'll get controlled again.” Uraraka's uncharacteristically stoic tone brought a chill to the room. “So the next time we try to… catch you, please do whatever you have to to stop us!” Her wide stance, furrowed brow, and clenched fists drove her message home. 

“You want us to fight you!?” Kirishima asked, dumbfounded. Even the thus far silent guards couldn't help but grunt in surprise.

“Only if necessary!” Momo was quick to clarify. “If you can flee, call for help, or hide, then that would be preferable of course. But if none of those options are possible, please do not hesitate to try and incapacitate us!”

“And don't worry about us,” Mina jumped in, apparently not as bothered as everyone else, “we get a strength boost or something when we get controlled, so we should be able to take whatever you throw at us!”

“And even if we didn't,” Uraraka piped up, the same glint of determination in her eyes as before, “I'd much rather take a few bruises than… y'know… put you through that again!” She gritted her way through the memory to finish the thought. 

Iida was torn. On the one hand, the bravery and selflessness Red Team was showing was nearly enough to bring him to tears. Preferring to suffer injury, particularly from the likes of Blue Team, rather than cause their friends any discomfort? The sentiment was as heroic as any he could remember. But on the other hand, the idea of these two groups fighting each other, especially when half of them wouldn't be in their right minds, was a viscerally upsetting thought. Though be it through a sense of duty, an unwillingness to ruin the tension, or mere morbid curiosity, the guards remained silent while Blue Team processed the request. Midoriya, whose posture had notably stiffened, was the first to speak. 

“I-I can see the logic in what you're saying,” his tone was tensely even, like he was forcing some feeling or thought down, “but I don't think I’d be able to do it.”

“But Midoriya,” Mina pointed out, “I remember you saying something like ‘we can fight them now’ this last time.”

“W-Well yeah, I did say that, but I don't think I would have actually been able to. I've been in fights before, we all have, but it's only ever been against people who want to hurt me. When you're all being controlled your intentions are…” his blush rose “...th-they aren't violent. Not only that, but you're not in total control of your own actions either. It's just… I don't know how to say it exactly, but it's just not something I think I could do.”

“Same here.” Kirishima said solemnly. “Hitting someone, a friend, when they're not thinking straight and not trying to hurt anyone? I can't think of anything less manly than that.”

“I'm in the same boat, kind of.” Jirou piped in a bit sheepishly. “I might be able to hit you with my jacks, but… in the moment? I dunno. Plus there's the fact that I think you're all stronger than me, probably even without that boost you get, so I probably couldn't hit you even if I could bring myself to try.”

“I believe you are all overlooking an option here.” Iida interjected for the first time, oblivious to the doki doki occurring on Red Team's side of the room. “It is as Yaoyorozu-kun said, you would only need to incapacitate them, which wouldn't necessitate violence. You could find some way to tie them up, or restrain them in a wrestling hold. Perhaps even pinning them to a wall or floor would work. I'm sure the support course has some handcuffs you could carry for the time be-”

“Iida.” Tokoyami spoke. “I believe they get the picture.” Following the avian-headed boy’s gaze, Iida was surprised to find every one of the meeting's participants practically glowing red and covering at least some of their faces in their hands. He only looked confused as he wondered how his words created such a reaction. The pragmatic prude was unaware of the sensual images he planted into his classmates’ heads. He was oblivious to how the image of Momo being tied up nearly gave Jirou an aneurysm. The fact that the thought of Midoriya pinning Ochaco to a wall gave them both vertigo was completely lost on him. It never crossed his mind that the concept of Kirishima’s bicep wrapping around her neck might make Mina’s mouth water. And he certainly didn't foresee how the thought of Jirou wielding a pair of handcuffs made Momo feel as though she was about to explode. 

Alas, Iida was blind to all of these sinful pictures he had given his painfully pubescent peers, so he tried to inquire directly about their mysterious silence. Luckily, Sato slapped his hand over the class rep’s mouth before he could do any more damage. “Thank you for that Iida! Real helpful there! Now you guys can just get back to it!” He turned and whispered quickly in Iida’s ear. “I'll tell you later.” The teams used the time Iida took to restrain his curiosity to cool their internal temperatures to safe levels.

“Y-yes, we will definitely… keep that in mind.” Midoriya acknowledged with a breathy, haunted twist to his voice.

“Right! Well!” Mina piped up, hoping to dispel the red from her usually pink face. “I'm sure what we're trying will be hard too, so… it's the effort that counts, right?”

“Yeah, right.” Jirou agreed earnestly. “Whatever gets thrown at us next, we'll fight it however we can.”

“Yes! Even though it seems like we're being divided, we're all comrades, fighting for each other.” Midoriya's rally put life into Kirishima's heart as well. 

“No matter what, we're still 1-A! We won't let anyone pull us apart or take us down!” Eight of the room’s nine occupants let out a resounding ‘yeah!’ of determination. Chuckles and laughter carried on as the two teams held the gaze of their respective counterparts. The warmth in their smiles and eyes gave them each a familiar, warm feeling in their chest. These were their close friends, someone they admired and confided in. Having them here, trusted, desired, comfortable, was something they'd sorely missed over the past week.

The reality of just how deep that affection went, and subsequently the horrifically awkward situation they found themselves in turned that warm glow in the chest into a warm pit in the stomach. Meaningful gazes quickly turned to hard stares at floors and walls as faces heated up yet again. They were all suddenly desperate for an out, and Momo blessedly provided them with one. 

“W-Well this was very productive and reassuring. Thank you for your time, and we will see you later. Farewell!” She spoke faster than she thought she was able and bowed sharply in sync with the girls beside her before dashing out of the room.

“Well, that went quite well! I hope you all-” Iida stopped short when he turned to address Blue Team and found a blur of red, green, and dark purple flashing by him and out the door, turning the opposite direction the girls had. He briefly wondered why they'd go such a roundabout way to the stairs before conceding to being content at the friendly outcome of this discussion. Though there was one matter he needed to address as he turned to Sato. “Did I say something wrong?”

Chapter Text

“Ooouuummmmmmm… Oooouummmmmm… Ooouummmmm…”

“Ashido-san?”

“Ooouuummmmmmm… Oooouummmmmm… Ooouummmmm…”

“Ashido-san.”

“Ooouuummmmmmm… Oooouum-” A pillow to the face interrupted Mina’s humming.

“Thank you, Uraraka-san.” Momo’s gratitude was met with a smug thumbs up from Ochaco. The two went back to their reading, Momo on her laptop sitting at Mina’s desk and Ochaco on her phone laying on Mina’s bed, as Mina herself sat up and removed the pillow from her face.

“Hey! I was trying to meditate over here!” Mina griped, puffing her cheeks out in mock frustration.

“And we’re trying to research over here!” Uraraka shot back, playfully sticking her tongue out. While the pink pair began a giggly pillow fight, Momo sighed in affectionate exasperation. While this did make it more difficult to do her research, she welcomed the moment of levity. The last few weeks had been a consistent deluge of anxiety, embarrassment, and semi-rational guilt and it was nothing short of draining. As was the case with the fallout of the USJ and camping incidents, alleviating the stress was essential to maintaining sanity. As luck would have it, the girls of Red Team had gotten together for a reason other than lamenting over their unfortunate circumstance; research. For the first time since the mystery villain first struck, they had a way to be proactive instead of waiting in terror for a breakthrough from either the faculty’s investigation or the class’s. That, plus the experience of just ‘hanging out’ like normal people with normal problems was a tiny taste of heaven in the slog of nerves they were in.

As Momo let her friends’ roughhousing meld into ambiance, she found her reading rhythm again and continued to scan through the medical journal article she had found. It was as she had assumed; no amount of meditation could defend against a psychic quirk with the same effectiveness as quirk-dampening technology or another psychic quirk. However, it had been repeatedly recorded that meditation could make a person's mind more difficult to manipulate through most mind-manipulating quirks.

Though meditation was a quite vaguely defined practice with no solid, unifying guidelines. The only real rules were to stay relaxed and still, and think about either only one thing or nothing at all. She hit a wall trying to determine the specifics of how they should go about it, and turned to the tried and true method of collaboration.

“Yeah, that's not a whole lot to go on.” Ochaco said, her and Mina’s pillow fight having resolved in the two leaning against each other on the bed. “But I guess that means we can do it however we want!”

“Yes! In truth, your method was entirely viable, Ashido-san.”

“Oh, I was just doing what I've seen from yoga stuff.” Mina admitted. “I think the humming would throw me off if I was actually trying to think. Or not think. Which are we doing, again?”

“I believe trying to empty our minds would be counterproductive in this instance.”

“Dang, that's what I do best.” Mina goofed. “Ok, so what should we think about?”

“Well, we’re trying to keep ourselves from being brainwashed, right?” Uraraka pondered, a finger on her chin. “So we should think about not getting brainwashed?”

“No, that won't work.” Mina asserted. “Trying to not think of something only makes you think of the thing you're trying not to think about.”

“That's true, it's not possible to think about the absence of something…” A light bulb lit up in Momo’s mind. “But it's possible to think about the opposite of something!”

“Opposite? What's the opposite of brainwashing? Mind… dirtying?”

“In our case, that's kinda the same thing…” Uraraka chuckled darkly at the play on words they had stumbled into.

“I think the opposite here would be not being controlled or influenced.” Momo thought aloud. “So concepts like freedom, independence, and autonomy. We should meditate on being the masters of our own minds and bodies!”

“Yeah! That sounds great!” Mina cheered, emboldened by Momo’s enthusiasm. “So how do we do this?”

“Well, there's no real right or wrong way, so let's start with what you were doing, Ashido-san.” Momo slipped off the chair and onto the floor around the lilac colored table in the middle of Mina’s room. “Oh! How about some peaceful music for ambiance…” She pulled out her phone while the others found their own seats around the table. Their eyes lit up when a beautiful Celtic ballad began playing. “Now,” she began as they all began to settle into cross-legged poses, “don't worry about making progress or doing this right, all that matters is focus and thought. Remember, we are meditating on our mental freedom. And… begin…” She breathed out the last word and closed her eyes, pushing away thoughts of her friends following suit and let the ambient music steady her.

Freedom of mind. Freedom of body. She thought to herself. Her academic mind quickly moved to the philosophical works regarding free will she had read and her own considerations on them. She was quick to reject the Determinist theories of the Greco-Roman Stoics, as they were too rooted in a reflective perspective, not taking into account the actual properties that went into people’s real-time decision-making. As she went through theories she knew of, from Buddhism to Physicalism, she eventually stumbled across an angle she had not considered.

Quirks! She exclaimed internally, apparently so deep in her meditative state that she did not feel the impulse to yell her epiphany aloud. What has the Quirk Era taught us about free will? I know first-hand that quirks exist that can manipulate thoughts and feelings in ways that challenge most interpretations of free will. After all, if there is a force or power (aside from social pressures and societal influences) that can make a person behave in ways that are diametric to their natural choices and wishes, that has to mean that there is an underlying phenomenon to be opposed! Therefore, free will is a provable, observable phenomenon! She giggled in delight, unconscious to any potential disruption to her friends’ focus. How exciting! I should tell- No. No, they’re on their own paths right now. Stay focused, Momo. She took a steadying breath. Hm. I may now have a solid grasp of free will’s existence, but it is still quite a nebulous concept. Not entirely unlike the unspecified nature of meditation I suppose. Perhaps free will is more of a qualitative thing than a quantitative one, similar to how music is an art and not a science. When Jirou-san says a song is ‘killer’ or ‘rad,’ she doesn't use an objective scale to choose one word over the other. Or when the next time I see her, I won’t use calculations to determine how long I will gaze into her piercing black eyes before I continue to-

Her eyes shot open as a dozen things sounded alarms in her head. Those thoughts, so absolute and singular in their conviction, had only passed through her mind twice before. The heat in her chest was similarly familiar. The way images of her refused to leave her mind’s eye, each of them picturesque in their own beautiful way, sent the right kind of shivers through her in the wrong way. Though most alarmingly of all was the way the world took on a uniform haze of pink. She looked to her friends, who were now wearing dazed smiles and she could see the glowing bottoms of pink hearts in their half-lidded eyes. It was happening again.

No… Why now? We’re not even… She clenched one fist and put her other hand over her chest, trying to regulate her breathing or something. Doesn’t matter! Focus! I need to find h- No! Freedom of mind, freedom of body. Warn someone. She fought the lethargy in her muscles as her mind relentlessly produced her image. Warn anyone! Freedom of mind, freedom of body. Her arm shook as she reached across the table for her phone which was still playing the majestic Celtic tune that went way too well with the montage of Jirou smiles that played in her head. She grabbed her phone, hand trembling and eyes squinting as her own thoughts became harder and harder to produce, and opened the messaging app. Thankfully, it opened right to her most recent thread with Midoriya.

Her fate was sealed when she flicked her eyes down to the text bar and caught a glimpse of the last message he had sent: “Jirou and Kirishima already know.”

“Jirou and Kirishima already”

“Jirou and Kirishima”

“Jirou and”

“Jirou”

“Jirou”

“Jirou”

“Jirou”

“Jirou”

Jirou~

Izuku was having an unusually good day. Before his U.A. era, he could count on two hands how many times he'd been able to talk with someone about his independent quirk studies who actually wanted to listen, or at least humor him with mild attention. Now, he would be sought out by someone every few days to hear his thoughts on their quirk. Today was one of those days.

“And you're sure? The blacklight didn't affect you?”

“Well, it did, just not as much as this does.” Dark Shadow gestured vaguely around the sun-lit common room as he explained, floating above his host. “I think it was like… that time in the afternoon when the sun has fully set, but it's still light out.”

“Twilight.” Tokoyami mussed as he sat in the lounge chair across from Izuku, reading the notebook the greenette had compiled notes of Dark Shadow in. “The hour when the creatures of the night awaken and contemplate their coming dark deeds.”

“Yeah. That.” Dark Shadow confirmed. “But like, a little bit darker. It felt almost as good as being in a pitch black room, I think.”

“It sounds like different types of light affect him differently.” Iida mused, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw. “But a blacklight produces UV rays, just like sunlight. Why does it not have the same effect?”

“Perhaps our dear Dark Shadow only withers in dazzling light such as mine.” Aoyama suggested as he struck a pose while lounging on the adjacent couch.

“That's a great point, Aoyama-kun!” Izuku exclaimed, causing the other three boys (Aoyama included) and one shadow demon to look to him in surprise. 

“Truly?” Tokoyami asked, drawing a scorned glance from Aoyama.

“Yes! It may not be a certain type of light that affects Dark Shadow’s size, but the illumination caused by the light.” He hypothesized, trying to avoid muttering as best he could. “After all, the stadium lights make him shrink just the same as sunlight. But then what's the quantity here? Lumens? And what about water? Would the distorting effect of deep water on light make a more accommodating environment?”

As he went on, managing to keep his volume above ‘muttering,’ the others simply watched him intently. Apparently the line between muttering and thinking aloud was the same line separating unsettling from entertaining. 

“... Though if the water is too shallow, then it might have the opposite effect; magnifying light that passes through it. Oh! Actually…” A thought snapped him back to reality and he went searching through his backpack. “...I think I have something about that in… Huh… I thought I'd brought it…”

“What are you looking for, Midoriya-kun?”

“My notebook on Ashido-san’s quirk. I had some theories about how light passing through her acid might interact with light-based quirks. But it doesn't seem to- Oh! That's right, I lent it to her a little while ago and never got it back.” He righted himself and got out of the chair. “Let me go see if she's done with it.”

That caused all attendants to voice their concern. “Wait!”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Midoriya-kun, surely you're aware that Ashido-kun is one of the three who has been targeted by the unknown villain.” Iida explained, gesturing sharply. “I wouldn't advise you to approach any of them alone unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“Oh yeah… Well, I don't think there's anything to worry about.” He responded earnestly. “If she were being influenced right now, it would break almost every aspect of the villain's known procedure. Besides, even if she were being influenced, she's not the one who pursues me.” He intentionally avoided noting who did pursue him. Aoyama picked up on this, but chose not to mention it in a rare show of restraint on his part.

“This may be true,” the Frenchman admitted, “but this is still a surprising lack of caution on your part, Midoriya-kun.”

“I wouldn't say that. I do see the possibility of danger,” Izuku admitted, notably not putting any sarcasm to the word ‘danger,’ “but all the variables point to this being fine. Besides, we can't keep tip-toeing around each other. If we're going to have each other's backs, we need to show that a little risk won't stop us from being there.” A brief silence after he finished made him wonder if he'd said something weird, but Tokoyami's neutral grunt settled him. 

“As ever, you are a fountain of wisdom, Midoriya. Go. Retrieve it. We will wait here.” Receiving a nod of approval from the others, he turned and made his way to the stairs. He was nearly out of earshot when Aoyama quietly asked the others, “Is that truly the same boy we met at the beginning of the year?” Though Izuku heard it, he didn't really process it, as his mind was more occupied with strategy and hypothesis.

While he did believe every word he had just said to his friends, he had omitted how he was nervous for the same reasons they were. Sure, seeing Ashido could be safe even if she was being influenced, but Uraraka’s room was on the same floor, and there was no precedent for multiple girls being present with only one of them. His pathological evasion of thinking about Uraraka and associated emotions took him from that topic and onto strategizing. If the villain influenced Red Team while he spoke to Ashido, he could outrun her, evade Uraraka if she came out of her room, and get around Yaoyorozu if she came down the stairs. From there, he might need to worry about Yaoyorozu using gadgets to try and catch him, but he was in a building with his classmates. All he would need to do is call out and somebody would be there within seconds.

The confidence and ease he'd gained while establishing his contingency plan was cut in half as he opened the door on the fourth floor and immediately saw Uraraka's door. He didn't know if she was in, and she hadn't decorated her door as some others did, but the mere proximity to her domain was enough to shake him. Whether he actively thought about it or not, what had happened during the recent incidents, how it made him feel, how he felt about her ; he'd found no conclusions, but the thoughts still moved in the consciousness beyond his mind's voice. 

He shook his head and kept walking, running through his reasoning and contingency plans to regain some of his balance. Then he heard the muffled sound of music from up ahead. He couldn't make out what it was exactly, Cementoss did a good job with the building’s soundproofing, but it was peaceful. As he approached it became a bit clearer; a high, feminine voice taking her time singing words in a language he didn't understand, definitely some kind of string instruments in the back, too. He realized, then, that this was great music to meditate to. The connection clicked in that moment; Red Team was trying to mediate, like they'd said they would during their meeting. In the next moment, he realized he might be interrupting their meditation by knocking and decided it would be best to come back later.

Unfortunately, that thought occurred the moment he finished giving the door three polite knocks. He would have internally kicked himself for the perceived transgression if the music hadn't stopped so abruptly.

“A-Ashido-san?” He cautiously called through the door, the silence of the hall suddenly oppressive. “It's just me. I was wondering if you were done with my notebook yet. Tokoyami-kun asked me something, and I think-” His rambling was cut off by the sound of muffled bumps approaching quickly from the other side of the door. The door flew open and revealed the last thing he was ready for. 

“Deku-chan!” Uraraka cheered as she lept toward him. In the moments before she impacted him, he saw the telltale glowing hearts in her already bright eyes. As if the glaring use of ‘-chan’ wasn't enough, that set off all the necessary alarms to get his mind racing and his heart pumping. Though Uraraka had already wrapped him in a warm hug and was beginning to rub her cheek on his neck like a cat, so all that energy went nowhere productive.

“Hiya, Midoriya!” Mina greeted cheerily from the doorway, flanked by Momo, the both of them also sporting the same pink hearts in their eyes. “Good to see you! Oh! Is Kiri-chan here too?”

“What about Jirou-san?” Momo asked, joining Mina in scanning the hallway for their quarries. “Will she be joining us?”

Why now?! What do I-?! His mind raced as he tried to think through the warm softness of Uraraka’s body wrapped around him. Alas, things were moving too fast for his brain to have much input on his actions, and he fell back on instinct and gut reactions. “N-No, it's just m-me.” He said politely with his rapidly drying mouth and reddened face. “I’m here to just- to get my notebook back from Ashi- Ashido-san. Or well, you could technically call it your notebook since it's all stuff about you. Your quirk, rather. But I-I’d very much like it back. Only if you’re d-done with it, Ashido-sa-san!”

“Oh, Deku-chan, you're always so polite, calling ladies ‘san’ and stuff. MmmM!” Uraraka hummed as she planted a kiss on his neck that made him flinch. “I love how you're such a gentleman.” Any response he might've had was torn to shreds in the churning soup of panic and hormones that was his brain. The closest he came to a vocal response was a high-pitched, trembling, breathy exhale.

“Oh yeah, I remember!” Mina said, carrying on what was technically a conversation. “I can get it for you, no prob!”

“Would you like to come with us while we search for Kirishima-san and Jirou-chan?” Momo asked him. “I'm sure you'd like to accompany Uraraka-san~”

Whether it was luck or the thin thread of focus he still held onto, he perceived in that statement a possible escape and went for it. “L-Let me get them for you!” He offered, a shaky smile finding its way onto his face. “Y-You ladies can stay here and freshen up, and, a-and I'll bring them here so we can all h-hang out!”

“You'd do that for us?” Momo gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth before moving to cup her own cheek. “How kind of you, Midoriya-san! I can see why Uraraka-san loves you so much.”

That stopped him in his tracks. Where before he couldn't think because of the sheer volume of thoughts, it was now a pure absence of thought. Those words in that order in this context were beyond his ability to process at the moment, and so his brain effectively shut down all non-essential functions.

“She’s right, Deku-chan.” Uraraka insisted, cupping his cheeks and nuzzling their noses together in eskimo kisses, making him float a couple inches off the floor. “You’re so kind and considerate and smart and cool and…!” Her adoring list was capped by a whine as she bounced on her heels before turning to her teammates. “C’mon girls, let’s just kiss him!”

That was enough to shock him back to his senses.

“‘L-L-Let’s?’” He muttered hauntedly.

“Really, Uraraka?” Mina asked in awe, a collection of sparkles surrounding the hearts in her eyes. “You’d share him with us?”

“Are you sure? I’d hate to impose…” Momo said bashfully.

“Well, it’s just…” Uraraka paused to look back and forth between her friends and the near-catatonic boy in her hands. “He’s just so cute, and I just can’t take it, and I don’t think I’ll be able to wait until he finds the others. And I mean, come on, just look at him!” She squished his cheeks for effect. “He deserves all the kisses we can give him!” Izuku, weightless putty in her hands, could only look in horror to see their reactions.

“Oh, Uraraka-san, you’re so generous and loving!” Momo praised. “I accept.”

“Me, too!” Mina cheered, sending an arctic shiver through him. “C’mon, let’s pooour soome sugar on hiiim! ” She sang and went back into her room with Momo right behind her. With a delighted giggle, Uraraka grabbed him by his collar and pulled him toward what he thought would be his final resting place.

“W-W-Wait! Hang on!” He pleaded, unable to hang onto the doorframe as Uraraka pulled with unprecedented strength. “Th-This isn’t necessary! I’ll find them quickly! Really, i-i-it won’t take lo-!” He was cut off by Uraraka tossing his untethered mass onto Mina’s bed, bouncing once before she released her quirk.

“Deku-chan, just relax!” Uraraka urged him as he propped himself up on his elbows. “You work so hard, just let your girlfriend pamper you today!” He might have heard her say that exact phrase in a dream once, but in this moment it instilled him with nightmarish terror. The use of the word ‘girlfriend’ tripped his brain once again, keeping him speechless as he watched Momo hand Uraraka a pink tube of lipstick.

“Don’t worry, Midoriya-san,” Yaoyorozu assured him as she paused the application of her own rich red lipstick, “just consider this our thanks for taking such good care of Uraraka-san!” A clicking sound drew his attention to Mina who had just capped her own tube, her glittery, vibrant pink lips upturned in a cheery grin.

“And take this as a thanks from me for letting me borrow that notebook!” She said with a goofy wink. The other girls capped their tubes and fixed their gazes on him. He had never felt so cornered in his life. Not while paralyzed in that alley with Stain. Not while facing off with Muscular while both his arms were broken. While this trapped feeling was comparable, it was unquestionably unique. When facing those villains, he felt like a cornered animal; ready to scratch and claw and bite and rip and tear to keep himself and those around him alive. This was not that. This was the static anxiety of a second grade boy being fawned over by a troupe of attractive college girls. He was small and weird, they were pretty. Like, REALLY pretty. Ashido was like a living party; always moving and laughing. Yaoyorozu was like a real-life princess; always wise and proper. Uraraka was… there was nothing and nobody like her. She was beautiful, she was kind, she was strong, she was funny, she was fierce, she was selfless. She was everything he wanted to be.

Him? The only thing he was that mattered in this moment was lesser. He was so far beneath her, all of them. He didn’t deserve this kind of attention from them, and they didn’t deserve the humiliation of this scenario. Despite his conviction and his fervent desire to avoid this fate, his body could only tremble as the girls took the one or two steps to close the distance to the bed. The three girls leaned over the bed to hover over his face, their smiling, heart-eyed faces occupying almost the entirety of his vision. He wanted to run, he wanted to plead, but all he could do was look between their faces and stew in anticipation, embarrassment, and despair.

“Thank you for everything!” They all cheered before puckering up and crashing down. The instant their lips met his face, his consciousness was exclusively the intake of stimulus. He saw an up-close look at Uraraka’s face and eyes and hair. He smelled the cacophony of pleasant aromas the girls wore; some coconut, some bubblegum, and a hint of store-brand deodorant. He heard the rapid smacking of lips and energetic giggles, as well as the occasional ‘mwah.’ But more than anything else, he felt. He felt the oily smearing of lipstick on his cheeks, the pressing of their soft lips on his skin, and the sacrilegious presence of Ochaco’s chest against his.

He could have been there seconds, he could have been there years. Was he even there to begin with, or was this the latest trip from the months-long hallucination that resulted from eating All-Might’s hair? Somehow, someway, in the boiling, churning mush of Izuku’s brain, a single thought found its way to the forefront:

How careless of me.

“So you’re telling me that there are multiple kinds of light that can’t be seen?”

“Correct, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, even microwaves. There are many kinds of light that our eyes are either too sensitive or not sensitive enough to see.” Iida explained to Dark Shadow and Aoyama, who both seemed to be going through an internal crisis. “Are you two alright?”

“Can’t be seen? Can’t be seen? ” Dark Shadow babbled, clutching the top of his avian-shaped head. “That’s darkness’s whole thing! How long have I been around getting hit by light that I can’t see?! Do I have a tumor somewhere that keeps growing every time we microwave pizza?”

“What horrors might I wreak on souls unfortunate enough to stand in front of me?!” Aoyama muttered, curled up in the fetal position on the couch. “Who’s to say I don’t shorten life spans just by chatting with people?!”

“Uh! I-I don’t think there’s any need to worry, friends!” Iida stammered, thrown off balance by the sudden shift in tone. “You’re both had your quirks for over ten years! Or… Well, you’ve been alive that long.” He added with an apologetic look at Dark Shadow. “If there were such terrible side-effects, surely you would be aware of it by no-”

“Hold.” Tokoyami said suddenly, holding up a hand. The muttering and rambling stopped as they all looked to the class’s resident chuuni curiously.

“Tokoyami-kun?” Iida asked cautiously as they watched him slowly scan the room with his eyes. A few tense seconds passed before the silence was broken.

“Midoriya.” He said simply. “Where is he?”

“Oh, Midoriya-kun?” Aoyama answered easily. “He went to get his notebook from Ashido-kun. He should be back any…” Aoyama trailed off as they all looked around the room and felt a creeping sense of wrongness. Nothing was out of place, the common room had been pretty quiet since they sat down, but something wasn't right. Then, all at once, it hit them; the light. The shadows weren't quite that long a moment ago, were they? They instinctively looked to the nearest clock; on the wall, on their wrists, on their phones, and they all realized the same thing. Midoriya had been gone for way too long. They didn't remember exactly when he had left, but even the smallest estimate was about fifteen minutes too long for a simple trip to the fourth floor.

“Perhaps he simply struck up a chat with her?” Aoyama offered lamely. “Ashido-kun is quite the conversationalist after all.”

“Perhaps.” Tokoyami admitted, closing the notebook and knitting his fingers together. “Though I'm skeptical that he would linger for so long, given the circumstances.”

“I should text him, just to be safe.” Iida offered, but he froze with his hand on his phone and shifted gears. “A-Actually, I'll go check on him myself. No harm in-”

His reasoning was interrupted by a swarm of muted bumps from above them. It only lasted a couple seconds, but it repeated before any of the boys could voice a question. A third bout of thumps sounded, this time by some identical, if more defined thuds echoing from the stairwell. Another pause and another string of chaotic bumps, now more clearly defined from the stairs than from vaguely above. As the bumps got louder and closer, the boys left their seats and formed a line as they stared down the ascending stairs, tense as they awaited the arrival of the source of the ominous noise.

Finally, their wait was rewarded when the green-topped form of Izuku Midoriya came tumbling ass-over-elbows onto the ground floor. “Mi-Midoriya-kun?” Iida called out cautiously as his friend shakily rose to his feet. The unsteady boy turned to them to reveal a face that had been positively painted.

“H-Hi guys… I… I-I got it.” He said with a strained, elsewhere voice, holding up the notebook weakly before falling flat on his back with a final thud.

“Midoriya-kun!” Iida yelled as the boys charged forward with almost desperate energy. They were at his side in a moment and there they assessed the proverbial damage. 

As with the previous two incidents, his dissociative face was generously covered in lipstick marks, but the unmistakable difference was the quantity and multiple colors. The center of his face; his features, forehead, and most definitely his lips, were densely packed with marks the shade of pink they had come to associate with Uraraka. However, the sides of his face were painted with the colors of the other girls; Yaoyorozu’s red on his right and Ashido’s sparkly pink on his left. His neck hadn't been spared either, but curiously it seemed as though Mina and Momo had targeted it more than Ochaco. Overall, his face looked reminiscent of a children's paint-by-numbers picture mixed with the criminal aura of a complex calling card left by a serial killer.

“Aoyama-kun! Message the rest of the class, tell them another incident has occurred!” Iida commanded before then turning to Tokoyami. “Tokoyami-kun! Head upstairs, see if you can locate Red Team. If they're still active, do what you can to subdue them, if not then just keep an eye on them. Either way, don't take any unnecessary risks.” The boys nodded and took on their respective tasks. Aoyama took out his phone and began typing away. Tokoyami jogged up the steps while letting Dark Shadow take the lead, checking corners for their targets. Iida was left to inspect his friend's comatose form. 

As he knelt to more closely inspect Midoriya's face, he sighed in regret. They had addressed the potential danger before he went upstairs, but he doubted any of them considered the possibility of something like this. Even so, they should've been more careful. They could have sent him with an escort, or sent Red Team a message beforehand. Something that could have guarded him against this fate.

Another sigh escaped 1-A’s representative when he considered Midoriya's part. It was bad enough when he had been only targeted by Uraraka, and with Kirishima and Jirou beside him to share the burden with. But the idea of all of Red Team focusing on him? He could only imagine how mortified his bashful friend must have been. His gaze fell in shame, but consequently landed on a peculiarity.

There, on Midoriya's left arm were more of Ashido's marks, concentrated on the stripes of scarred tissue from his forearm to his fingers. His other arm featured the same pattern, only with Yaoyorozu's red marks instead. Also on his right side, resting a few inches from his hand, was the fateful notebook which now sported a sparkly pink lip stamp on the cover’s top right corner.

Questions and theories swirled in Iida's mind, but before one could be answered or judged, another two demanded his attention. So many precedents were shattered and so much data had already been provided by this incident that it was too much for him to process in the moment. Instead, he decided to check in with Tokoyami to confirm that this incident truly had concluded. 

Red Team is unconscious in Ashido's room. I will stand guard outside. Iida responded to Tokoyami's simple report with thanks before turning to see the first responders to Aoyama’s alert message.

“Iida!” Todoroki called out as he jogged up with Tsuyu at his side. “What happened? Where are-?” The both of them stopped short when they caught sight of Midoriya’s colorful corpse.

“That's… actually pretty unsettling, kero.” Asui observed, her standard mild frown becoming a bit more pronounced as she studied her fellow greenette’s features. “Was this just Ochaco-chan or all three of them?”

“We don't know for sure, but Tokoyami-kun reports that all of Red Team is currently asleep in Ashido-kun’s room, and,” he took a look at the group chat on his phone and saw the surprised and curious responses from Jirou and Kirishima, “since nobody else from Blue Team was hit this time, I believe it's safe to say they all targeted him.”

“This is bad.” Todoroki sulked, now kneeling at Midoriya's side. “I thought we had a good handle on things, but this changes so much. Iida, what exactly happened here?” As Iida told what story he could, their classmates continued to file in, taking a look at Midoriya before either taking pictures of the evidence, playing security along the stairway, or listening in on Iida's recounting of events. 

“He hasn't moved since and there has been no activity from Red Team.”

“So, wait, you just let him go up there on his own?!” Sero asked, baffled.

“We did try to dissuade him, but he… well… he made some good points.” Iida admitted with a noticeable hint of shame. “Or, at least they seemed good at the time.”

“Hey guys?” Kirishima spoke for the first time since he arrived. Both he and Jirou had been deathly quiet when they first caught a glimpse of their fallen friend and spent the time staring wide-eyed at Midoriya's unresponsive form, like they were looking at a bus they missed that had just crashed. Oddly, most of their skin had become distinctly pale, but their faces were unmistakably blushing. “Can we please do something about Midoriya? I think you have enough pictures at this point.”

The ‘crime scene photographers’ raised their heads like startled deer at that comment before relocating to the common room’s couches to review their findings. 

“Yes, you're right Kirishima-kun, we should get him cleaned up.” Iida agreed, a bit embarrassed that he let the situation distract him from his friend's well-being. “Would you carry him to the sink?”

“Actually, I think the onsen is a better place for it.” Kirishima offered, casting a sidelong look down at Midoriya’s generously colored face. “I’m pretty sure this is a job for the showers.”

“Good call. I'll help y-”

“Actually,” Iida cut off Todoroki’s offer with a hand on the shorter boy’s shoulder, “I need to speak with you about something. Kaminari-kun, would you please assist Kirishima-kun?”

“Sure, no problem.” As the two lugged Midoriya's carcass toward the men's onsen, Iida looked to Todoroki with solemn determination. 

“We need more information.” He began, jumping straight to business. “With the first incident we were present for parts of it, and the second was easy enough to put together from the evidence at the scene. But this case has too many unknowns. We need to learn the specifics of this attack.”

“Makes sense.” The scarred boy agreed. “What are you thinking?”

“Our only option is to interrogate Midoriya-kun and Red Team, but I expect he will be out of commission for longer than before, which just leaves the girls.”

“I guess you want me to do the questioning, then?”

“Yes, but not just you, and not like my previous interrogations.”

When Momo awoke, it was with the protesting whine of someone who was really enjoying sleeping, trying to dismiss their own consciousness with a groan of discontent. She could even identify the fuzzy memories tugging at her attention as pleasant dreams. The contents of that dream slowly revealed itself as she pried her eyes open a smidge. The lights were on, odd, she was definitely not on her bed, odd, Uraraka was laying next to her, odd, judging by the color of the rug she rested on, she was in Ashido’s room, odd.

Did I doze off while…? She wondered, trying to fit the pieces together coherently. What was I doing? With Ashido and Uraraka…? Study? No. Meditation. We must have dozed off after… after…

Midoriya's unseeing eyes surrounded by a sea of pink and red. That image floated into focus and brought her clarity. Horrible, horrible clarity.

With a harsh gasp she shot up like Nosferatu in his casket. Her eyelids were suddenly not so heavy, sleep not so important, and most terribly; that dream not so dreamy. She whipped her gaze to the floor beside her to confirm what she already knew. There, only now stirring were Uraraka and Ashido, both wearing flattering shades of pink lipstick. A quick lick of her own lips confirmed she was wearing her own color.

She shot to her feet, the panic carrying her around the room, eyes searching desperately for nothing in particular. Uraraka's drowsy voice stopped her. “Yaomomo?” She asked, rubbing her eye. “What's going on?” Momo whipped around to look at her, though she couldn't find the right words, if there were any. But her glowing blush, red lips, and the mania in her eyes apparently communicated things well enough. Uraraka's eyes and mouth flew open, as if releasing a soundless shriek.

“Oh man. What time is it?” Mina asked as she sat up beside Ochaco. The pink girl looked between the horrified faces of her two friends a few times before her sleepy expression turned to one of similar horror. “Oh god, oh god… uhhh… W-Where is he?” She asked, getting to her feet as well.

“I'm not sure, he's not here, but I don't…!”

“W-What happened to him? Did we bring him somepla-” Uraraka got to her feet and made for the door, but flinched when it opened before she reached it. There in the doorway stood the goliath form of Mezo Shoji, taking up nearly the whole opening. “O-Oh! Shoji-kun! What happened? Is Deku-kun-?”

“Don't worry, he's fine. He's getting cleaned up now.” The masked boy’s words were reassuring on the surface, but the fact that Midoriya needed to be ‘cleaned up’ solidified their fears. 

“Shoji. They're awake?” Shoji backed away enough to reveal the source of the voice; Todoroki, flanked by Asui and Tokoyami.

“Yes, and it looks like they’re not being influenced anymore.”

“Todoroki-san, what happened? Do you know wh-?” As Momo stepped forward, one of Shoji’s thick arms blocked her way. 

“That's actually what we're here to talk about.” The scarred boy clarified. “May we come in?” It was spoken like a question, but there was no missing the cold firmness in his voice. So caught off guard by the tone, she only nodded in response. She gave Mina an apologetic look when she turned, since this was her room, but the room's official occupant was also too wary to care.

The girls took what seats were available as their visitors filed in; Mina sat on her bed, Ochaco sat at the low table, and Momo took the desk chair. While the pink pair idly rubbed their eyes or faces, Momo observed the new arrivals. Shoji stood with his back to the door, and a few of his extremities morphed into eyes or ears and were pointed at one of the girls. Tokoyami leaned against the wall, while Dark Shadow curiously held a pad of paper and a pen at the ready as he peeked over his host's shoulder. Todoroki and Asui sat on the side of the table opposite Ochaco. Momo suppressed a groan; they were here to interrogate them.

Last time it was Iida asking simple questions of where, when, and how that they were able to answer. As polite as he had been, it was still awfully uncomfortable for her to mentally review what she had done during those incidents. Given the blunt and intense roster of interrogators this time around, she sensed they would not be as… pleasant as Iida had been.

“Tokoyami-chan reports that Midoriya-chan came up here to get a notebook he let Mina-chan borrow.” Tsuyu explained with her characteristic flat nasality. “But when he came back down, it was clear that the mystery villain had struck again.” She glanced at Todoroki who retrieved his phone and tapped it a few times before sliding it across the table for Uraraka to inspect. Momo and Mina joined Uraraka at the table to see the evidence. They blanched as they swiped through the photos of Midoriya's face, neck, and arms brightly painted with their now signature colors. None of them could find anything to say, and Uraraka silently slid Todoroki's phone back to him and slowly rested her forehead on the table as Momo and Mina continued to stare blankly at the space where the phone used to be. 

“Since this incident happened behind closed doors, we will need the details of what happened.” Todoroki explained, eyes not leaving the stunned trio. 

“W-Well, I mean, it's kinda obvious what happened, don't you think?”

“No.” He answered Mina’s partially rhetorical question immediately. “You- rather, your influenced selves broke many precedents. You all targeted one person, two of you didn't pursue your usual targets, Midoriya was allowed to walk free after the fact, and you marked his arms this time. We need you to walk us through what happened while you were being influenced so we can get a better understanding of what to do in the future.”

“It could also give us clues about the villain, kero.” Tsuyu added. “Let's start from the beginning; what were you doing when you first became influenced?”

Momo drew in a steadying breath; if this was going to happen, they might as well get it over with. “We were actually meditating to try and build up a resistance of sorts to this villain’s quirk. I believe I was able to notice and fight the influence for a short time at first, but I was not able to capitalize on the opportunity before it took over my mind.”

“Wait, really?” Uraraka asked, apparently surprised out of her shame stupor by Momo’s report. “I don't think I noticed it at all.”

“Me neither.” Mina added, more impressed than surprised. “It was kinda like just falling into a dream as soon as you fall asleep. How’d you do it, Yaomomo?”

“Well…” She truly did want to share her method, but with the weight of their interrogators’ stares she simply wanted to get through this moment more. “I will tell you later, ok?” While her teammates agreed reluctantly, she caught Todoroki and Tsuyu sharing a brief nod out of her periphery.

“What happened next?” Todoroki prompted. And so, Red Team related their experience; greeting Midoriya enthusiastically at the door, Uraraka's proposition, Midoriya's attempts at persuasion. Momo had taken the lead, and her teammates even added a detail or two, but then came the moment of truth.

“Then we… you can see what we did.” Momo said firmly, though her attempt at projecting authority sounded more like a pleading inflection.

“We can, kero, but there’s some things we can't figure out.” Tsuyu said and Momo internally cursed herself for hoping their ordeal would be over so easily. “Firstly; the marks on his arms. Why kiss him there, and why only you and Mina-chan?”

The only thing she hated more than how good of a question that was, was how she could remember her ridiculous thought process. “I believe I caught sight of his arm at some point during the incident, and my addled mind,” for not the first time she made a point to distance herself from the heart-eyed persona the villain forced her to adopt, “thought it was a good idea to try and… heal his scars.”

“You tried to kiss them better.” Todoroki unknowingly recited what she had said in the moment, making her flinch. “I see. And I take it you simply followed suit, Ashido?”

“Y-Yeah…” Mina confirmed reluctantly. Momo had her eyes pressed shut in frustrated embarrassment, but she assumed Ashido's pink face was taking on a redder hue like her own. 

“On that note,” Todoroki continued with agonizing nonchalance, “Ashido, why was one of your marks on Midoriya's notebook?” She opened her eyes at that to give Mina what she hoped was a supportively empathic look.

“I, uh… I think I just wanted to put a decoration on it?” She offered with a shrug. “I don't really remember giving it much thought.”

She looked back to Todoroki, but movement in the corner caught her attention. Dark Shadow had flipped back in his notepad to write something before flipping to the most recent page. She tried to take solace in the fact that a crucial detail may be uncovered from this, but the image of the rest of the class poring over every last detail of this, yet another humiliating event kept her from such relief.

“I see.” Todoroki hummed in thought for a moment. “If I'm reading the flow of events right, you would've marked the notebook right before he left, yeah?”

“Y-Yes!” Mina confirmed with the enthusiasm boost the girls felt as they sensed the impending conclusion of the interview. “We were getting sleepy, so we picked him up, I gave him the notebook, and we let him out.”

“Right, kero. Do you have anything else to add?” Asui asked with Dark Shadow’s scribbling in the background. “Any other details you can think of?”

“No, I believe we've covered everything.”

“Yep, that was it!”

“Yyep!”

“Something to add, Ashido?” Shoji’s voice made the room seem colder for a moment. Every set of eyes in the room fell heavily on Mina, whose eyes had widened and pupils had shrunk.

“Uh… W-Well, I have to check,” she began as she pulled out her phone, “but I kinda remember…” A grimace wormed its way onto her face as she found whatever she had hoped not to. “I took pictures…” Her voice was an empty murmur. Uraraka nearly tore the phone out of Mina’s hands, and whatever blasphemy she saw caused her to copy her pink friend's dead stare into space. Momo more gingerly took the phone and grimaces as well; Mina had indeed taken pictures.

There weren't many, not even a dozen, but they were painfully campy. In one, Uraraka squished Midoriya’s cheeks and kissed the resulting exaggerated pucker while Momo looked on affectionately in the background. Another had Momo and Mina kissing either cheek of his colorful, expressionless face. Yet another was a selfie of all three of them enveloping poor Midoriya in a surrounding hug. Before she could swipe to the next cursed photo, Tsuyu blessedly asked to see the phone and Momo aggressively slid it across the table, her desire for privacy getting smothered by the need to get that damned phone away from her. 

Their interrogators made a few whispered observations as they reviewed the pictures, but the girls perceived none of it. This was the first time they had seen their disgraceful actions from an outside perspective, and it was another unique horror. While Momo’s pity for Midoriya only grew as she saw how they had monopolized him, her own humiliation deepened. It was like the visual equivalent of hearing her own voice on a recording, but that recording was her enthusiastically reading a poorly written and painfully corny adolescent romance novel involving herself and her friends. The fact that it was all real certainly didn’t help.

“Well, the good news is you didn’t send these to anyone.” Todoroki’s words lifted an anxiety they hadn’t realized they held. “You don’t need to send these to us either, we already have the sequence of events and the pics of Midoriya.” Momo hadn’t been so happy with her scarred friend since the practical exam. However, even after the interrogators mercifully left with respectful bows and assurances of discretion, the girls were left in a silent stew of shame and defeat. It was terribly familiar, but no less potent. Momo saw in her periphery how Uraraka’s head once again lowered onto the table and Mina flopped onto her back, presumably to stare at the ceiling like it was the abyss. She followed suit in her own way, burying her face in her hands and propping her elbows on the table. After many minutes of dead air and thoughts with the general theme of ‘what have I done?’ in this mockingly bright and pink room, it was Uraraka’s voice that broke the silence.

“So, how are we feeling about moving to Okinawa now?” She didn’t say it, but Momo found the idea terribly appealing.

Chapter Text

“And we can confirm there were no anomalies in the security system?”

“Yes, there were no alarms, no maintenance, and all security footage has been determined authentic.” Nezu’s confident report was met with a few exasperated exhales and leaning back in chairs.

“So then either the culprit is part of the staff or student body and is on-campus, or their quirk has a massive range and they're somewhere in the surrounding city.”

“And we strengthened our already rigorous vetting process when the dorms were built.” Aizawa huffed, setting down the profiles of the campus’s support staff. “We build a home for the kids to be safe and some smartass starts playing dolls with them. Speaking of which; Midnight, how’s this last incident fit into your theory?”

“Not great, but admittedly better than I had feared.” She said, rubbing her eyes before putting her mask back on. “From what Iida told us, Uraraka had to convince the other girls to join her in kissing Midoriya. It didn’t take much to convince them, but Ashido and Yaoyorozu were still focused on Kirishima and Jirou when they first got controlled. I still say our villain’s quirk focuses on feelings of love, but while it mostly enhances romantic love, platonic love also gets a bit of a boost. That would explain why Yaoyorozu and Ashido agreed to kiss Midoriya; to honor Uraraka's request and to, as they saw it, do right by their friend Midoriya.”

“Does that mean anyone in the class is a potential target?” Aizawa asked, keeping his anxiety out of his voice. 

“Doubtful. If it had been anyone outside of Blue Team, I suspect they'd simply probe them for information regarding Blue Team's whereabouts and begin searching.”

“It’s almost like you’re describing a team of contract killers.” Snipe pointed out.

“Judging from the damage they did during the first incident, the comparison isn’t too far off.” Aizawa mused. “While under the influence of this quirk, they seem to be single-minded in their pursuit. They went so far as to assault non-targeted classmates with little restraint in order to reach their goal.”

“They become dangerous in their capabilities, but not in their intentions. That’s what’s both keeping the police from getting involved and what’s keeping this situation out of the public eye.” Nezu sighed, lamenting that paradoxical aspect of their predicament. “Well, even if the police cannot help us, I believe we have another group that will be lending aid. All-Might, I believe you have some news for…”

Like Nezu, everyone in the room that looked to the retired number 1 hero found themselves stunned. The near-skeletal man had his face buried in his hands and a thick fog of gloom hung over him as he muttered despair. “I should have known. He’d always been a bashful boy, I should have known he’d be vulnerable to feminine advances! I had planned on teaching him how to maneuver through crowds of adoring women when he became a pro, but if I had taught him sooner maybe he would not have had this blemish on his already wounded pride! Maybe I should do what I can for him now. I should go visit him in his room when- No he doesn’t like it when I’m in his room due to all the memorabilia. Plus given the state he’s in I don’t think he’d-”

“All-Might?”

“Eh? O-Oh!” He straightened his posture as much as he could. “Apologies, I was lost in thought. What were we talking about?”

“I believe you have a report about 1-A’s new class project.”

“Ah, y-yes, of course.” All-Might coughed (without blood) into his fist and picked the appropriate paper from the table. “Given the enthusiasm and undeniable competence shown by our students in their crime-scene investigations and analytical deductions, I have seen fit to approve their request to make the investigation of these incidents an official class project. After each project meeting, the class’s findings will be submitted for teacher review by the class representative…”

“Iida Tenya! Calling to order the first meeting of Class 1-A’s independent investigation team!” His declaration was met by a quick cheer of approval from most of the class. Those who did not cheer were either victims of the case or simply not prone to such outbursts of enthusiasm. “Now, though we should all be familiar with the case and its incidents by now, we should make our first report to our teachers an overview of what we know so far. To that end, we will review the facts and timeline of this case and make sure we include all relevant details. Inspector Todoroki, if you would.”

“Inspector?!” The case’s victims thought, dumbfounded.

 As prompted, Todoroki walked to the podium with his notebook. “As Chief Inspector Iida said,” Todoroki prefaced, prompting another internal groan at the use of police ranks, “I will now go over the general overview of this case.”

The present victims; Ashido, Uraraka, Kirishima, Jirou, and Yaoyorozu, couldn’t help but quietly sigh and put their gazes on their desks as they listened to Todoroki begin a terribly dry summary of the most embarrassing circumstance of their lives.

“Starting a couple weeks ago, three of our classmates; Uraraka Ochaco, Yaoyorozu Momo, and Ashido Mina, collectively known as Red Team, began being influenced by a phenomenon assumed to be the quirk of an unknown villain. This quirk changes the affected parties minds so that they respectively pursue Midoriya Izuku, Jirou Kyoka, and Kirishima Eijirou, collectively known as Blue Team, with the objective of kissing them.” The aforementioned students flinched as their blushes deepened. “Red Team, the only ones to be influenced by this quirk, have displayed a pathological focus and resolve in achieving this objective. In addition to these changes in personality, they have also shown marked increase in physical strength, speed, endurance, fighting skill, and quirk aptitude while under the quirk’s influence. In all three incidents, Red Team succeeded in reaching their objective despite attempts by Blue Team and other classmates to stop them and would continue kissing their target for varying amounts of time before they invariably fall asleep.” Todoroki paused for a moment to spare a glance up at the blushing members of the class before continuing.

“As of now, there are no leads or reliable theories as to the reason these students were chosen by the villain or why Red Team pursues Blue Team specifically.” A few meaningful glances were shared when Todoroki finished the review that went thankfully unseen by the blushing five.

“Thank you, Inspector Todoroki.” Iida said as he finished writing an abbreviated version of the review on the board. “Now that we have the broad strokes outlined, does anybody have any details they feel should be added to our initial report?”

“The lipstick!” Hagakure shouted with her hand raised (presumably.) “There’s got to be a reason Red Team has used it every time!” Red Team let out an imperceptible groan at the reminder.

“Excellent point, Senior Officer Hagakure!” Iida credited the (possibly) saluting girl before adding the note to the board.

“Shouldn’t we include a brief summary of the incidents?”

“Ah, yes, I planned on including that, but didn’t write it here. Thank you for the reminder, Senior Officer Shoji!”

“It would be prudent to lay out a procedure for how we intend to investigate future dark deeds, no?”

“Superb foresight, Senior Officer Tokoyami!”

“Is nobody here just a regular officer?!” Kirishima yelled in his head.

“Now, I believe there will be three phases to our incident response; first response, investigation, and victim interrogation. However, for the sake of the present members of Red and Blue Teams, we will not review our interrogation plans and I ask that you trust that duty to myself and Inspector Todoroki.” Iida’s request was met with nods of approval throughout the class, as well as a handful of unsaid sarcastic sentiments from the blushing five.

“Gee, thanks.”

“And… that’s what happened.” Kirishima wrapped up his report to Izuku’s semi-conscious body.

“Are you sure he’s hearing you?” Jirou asked as she idly inspected one of the comatose boy’s many All-Might figures from his desk chair.

“Yeah, remember when we met with Recovery Girl to make sure she wasn’t going to use her quirk on him? She said people in situations like this can still hear and stuff when they’re like this.” Kirishima adjusted himself as he sat at the foot of Midoriya’s bed. The pair that had been spared the attention of Red Team by circumstance were spending a second consecutive afternoon keeping their motionless friend company. After learning what had happened to him, they had felt the need to keep their fallen teammate company. The previous day had been much quieter and reflective since the shock was much fresher. Though now, with time having lifted some of the previous day’s weight, it felt like they were just three friends hanging out. Even if one of those friends was more-or-less a corpse.

“Oh yeah. I always thought that was for people who were in comas and stuff, not just… this.” She gestured with the action figure at Midoriya.

“Well, I don't know if this is a coma exactly, but I guess it's close enough? Except instead of a car accident it's… y'know.” No blush appeared on his face, but he still felt a tightness in his chest upon having to address things.

“Honestly, by Midoriya's standards, it might as well have been a car crash. Hell, I remember I whispered a joke in his ear once and he looked like a stop light.” She recalled with a fond smirk.

“Heh, that definitely sounds like him.” He looked back at his friend's frozen blank expression and his amused smile turned quizzical. “What do you think he's thinking about?”

“Judging by the look on his face, probably nothing.”

“Mwah!”

“One for each freckle! *chu chu chu chu chu chu*”

“*Giggle*”

“Haha! On his hands like he's a prince!”

“*Chu*”

“He's definitely handsome enough to be a prince! Mmmwah!”

“*Smack*”

“Oh! Oh! Yaomomo, you and me kiss his cheeks and that'll make him pucker, then you kiss him Uraraka!”

“Ashido-kun, you're a genius!”

“Yeah, you're probably right. Like when a computer overheats and stops working.”

“There you go.” She stopped fiddling with the figure. “So, they're all kinda tip-toeing around us, right?”

“The class, you mean?” He received an eye roll and a nod in response. “Kinda? I guess they're still a little weird at times, but they're not as bad as they were at first.”

“No, I mean, like…” she put All-Might back on the desk and swiveled to look directly at him. “It kinda feels like they're hiding something.”

“Them? Hiding something from us?” He reiterated cautiously, not expecting her sudden shift in demeanor. “I don't see how, they’ve been talking about all their theories right in front of us for a while now.”

“Sure, but doesn't it feel like there's something they want to say that they're not?”

“I don't… think so? W-What do you mean exactly?”

“Like… There's times where they'll be talking about the incidents and stuff, and it seems like they're figuring something out, but then they just shift gears without finishing the thought.” She un-slouched herself in the chair. “Not only that, but it feels like they're whispering. And not the kind of whispering where you're being polite. It's the secret-telling kind of whispering.”

“Well, I mean, you're the hearing specialist, not me, so I guess you would know the differences.” He rubbed his neck nervously, feeling a twist of embarrassment at not being able to match her observational skills. “But I haven't noticed, no. Do you know what they're saying?”

She held his gaze for a silent moment before leaning back in the chair again and looking toward their comatose friend. “No,” she lied, “not sure. I dunno, it's probably nothing.”

“If it's important enough, they'll say it in the open eventually right?” He tried to reassure her.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” They both lapsed into silence, the orange afternoon light streaming through the curtains as their eyes rested once again on Midoriya. Jirou's brow furrowed as a thought crossed her mind. “Has he used the bathroom at all?”

“Huh?”

“Because he's been out like this for a full day now. Don't people in comas have to be… taken care of with stuff like that?”

“Now that you mention it, I think he's been like this since we brought him back from the onsen. Ma-”

“AAAHHHHH!!!!” Midoriya shot up from his stasis and let out a scream of the damned, nearly causing his friends’ souls to flee from their bodies from shock. They didn't have the wherewithal to say anything before he went flying out of the room with a shout that bordered on a war cry. “TOOOOIILEEEEEEEETT!!!” The sound of his roar faded surprisingly quickly as he streaked his way in the direction of the nearest bathroom.

A different kind of silence occupied the room then, devoid of its official resident for the first time in over 24 hours. 

“Alright, yeah, turns out he could hear us.”

“We killed him.”

“We did not kill him.”

“He's never going to look at us again.”

“You're overreacting.”

“He's going to spend the rest of his life as a vegetable.”

“He's in shock, not in a coma.”

“We have to spend the rest of our lives at a temple to redeem ourse-”

“Ashido-san! Would you please be reasonable?!” Momo’s rare burst of anger was enough to snap her pink friend out of her melodramatic trance of grief that had her staring out the glass door of Uraraka's balcony. “Negative thinking like that will not help anything.” She huffed to calm herself down.

“Sorry Yaomomo.” Mina whimpered, joining her at the small low table. “But I can't help it! I mean, I know we all were forced to do that, but I can't get the images out of my head! It’s like being in the driver's seat of a self-driving car.”

“I know, I feel the same. Even now, the image of him being at our mercy is… distressing.” She admitted, squeezing her eyes shut a bit at the memory. “But Midoriya-san is resilient. Even though this almost certainly affected him, we can't let ourselves fall into despair.”

“I get ya, but…” Mina paused and cast her gaze toward the bed, where Uraraka laid unmoving, face-down in her pillow, a heavy smog of angst hanging over her. “I think some of us have already fallen.”

“Uraraka-san, please.” Momo pleaded, unwilling to let her usually bright, cheery friend sulk like this. “I know Midoriya-san is a close friend of yours, but that is all the more reason to believe he won't hold any of this against you, isn't it?” In truth, this was the latest of a handful of angles she and Mina had tried to get her out of her slump. She had welcomed them into her room over 15 minutes ago and promptly flopped into her current position on the bed, the only proof she was still alive being the gentle rise and fall of her midsection and the occasional sigh she hefted into her pillow. And no matter the conviction or sense her friends tried to use to rouse her from her apparent slumber, she remained motionless.

“I feel like we should apologize to you, too, Uraraka.” Mina sighed, drawing an unseen quizzical look from Momo. “I mean, Midoriya is your guy and stuff, and we couldn't do anything to stop ourselves from sharing him like a pizza. I mean, you offered, and we were all powerless at the time anyway, so I don't know if apologizing is really-”

“W-W-What do you mean ‘my guy?!?’” Uraraka sputtered as she propped herself up on her arms to give Mina a wild look.

“Uhhh… Well, y'know he's the one that the villain keeps making you go after…” Mina, who never missed an opportunity to tease her about her plain-as-day affinity for ‘Deku-kun’ before the incidents began, now fumbled into a lame excuse that even Momo couldn't help but wince at.

“Wh-! Th-That doesn't mean anything!” Uraraka asserted, fists clenched at her sides as if ready to physically fight off some accusations. “The villain could have chosen us at random, or coincidentally since we were the first ones to go out on the boats!”

“You're right, you're right! But well…” Mina paused as she tried and failed to resist the urge to press this particular button. “Mayhaps the lady doth protest too much?” Her smirk was at once mischievous and apologetic, but worked well enough to fuel Uraraka's already toasty face.

“W-Well…! You just… surprised me, that's all! B-Besides, if you're saying that about me and Deku-kun, then wouldn't the same be true about you and Kirishima-kun?!” She leveled an accusatory finger at Mina.

“I- Well that's… uhhh…” Mina's own color began to rise as she rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “W-Wait, don't change the subject! This is about your crush, not mine!” She pointed a finger right back, all that was missing was the courtroom drama soundtrack.

“So you do have a crush on Kirishima-kun!”

“I'm not hearing a no from you, either!”

“Girls, please!” Momo interjected with closed eyes, a slight blush and a hint of hesitation in her voice sabotaged any authority she tried to project. “Th-This is all speculation, and it does us no good to accuse one another abo- Wah!” She squealed when her eyes opened to reveal her friends' faces looming menacingly mere inches in front of her, causing her to fall backwards.

“How about you, Yaomomo?” Mina asked with emotionless intensity.

“Seems like you're real fond of Jirou-kun, huh?” Uraraka's voice held the same cold pressure. Under the weight of their icy stares and uncompromising questions from her usually cheery friends, Momo could feel the will to resist leave her. That, and she wasn't the best liar.

“W-Well, I mean… maybe…” She said sheepishly to the floor.

“Guilty!” The pink pair declared with a dramatic point.

“I-I said ‘maybe!’” Momo asserted, getting sucked into the defensive mania. “B-Besides, it's not important right now unless we can connect it back to the… Wait…” The muscles in her face relaxed when an epiphany appeared to her.

“No use resisting now, Yaomomo!”

“We've got you dead to rights, so you might as well-!”

“Wait!” Momo ordered with rallied authority, slapping a hand over her friends' mouths. “Is… Is that it? Is this villain using our feelings for them to control us?”

Mina and Ochaco had to fight the juvenile urge to lick Momo’s hands and instead gently backed out of her grasp. “Well… our alleged feelings…” Mina would have let her trickster impulses say something cheeky to Uraraka's statement if Momo had not spoken up first. 

“No… No, this is too important.” She decided, bringing her hands into her chest. “If it leads us anywhere, I'm willing to admit that I… I…” She turned away, created a few pieces of soundproof foam from her stomach, and applied them to Uraraka's door before returning to the table with closed eyes, a trembling brow, and a creeping blush. “I have feelings for Jirou-san.”

Despite her quick anti-eavesdropping measure, the confession grounded her friends as well. She opened her eyes and gave them a firm look that earnestly requested their cooperation. Mina was the first to speak. “Yeah… I… I like Kirishima, too.”

“Well… D-Deku-kun… yeah, I l-like him…” Uraraka completed the trio’s confessions and left them in silence. She covered her face with her hands and began to float, Momo squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her shirt, and Mina sighed and asked, “Pillows?”

“Pillows.”

“Uraraka?”

“Closet.”

Mina made her way over to Uraraka's closet and retrieved three plain, white, rectangular throw pillows. She tossed one over to Momo and one up to Uraraka before taking a seat. The three let out screams that would have shattered every piece of glass in Heights Alliance had their pillows not absorbed the sound. Once they had released what nervous energy their throats would allow, they lapsed into another silence, though more relaxed than most of their recent silences.

“So… do we wanna talk about it?” Mina asked cautiously. 

“About the villain or about… our feelings?”

“We're in this deep, so might as well get all the mushy stuff out now.”

“I would have thought you would enjoy  this sort of topic, Ashido-san.”

“Usually yeah, but not so much when it involves me. Especially not like this…”

“Fair enough. Uraraka-san, are you ready to talk about this?”

“Yeah, just a sec.” She released her quirk and seemed to welcome the impact when she fell face-first into the wood floor. She got to her knees and shimmied her way to the table. “Ok, now I'm good.”

“I-I’ll go first.” Momo offered, getting the feeling letting Uraraka begin things wasn't the best idea. “As you might have guessed, I am not the most… socially adept person. I had something of a sheltered upbringing, and I only really interacted with kids my age at formal gatherings. Even the private schools I attended were quite straitlaced. By the time I was accepted into U.A., I realized I didn't really know how to socialize. And while just about everyone has been patient and accepting of me and my eccentricities, Jirou-san… She's different.” Her hands found the pillow again and she lightly squeezed it into her chest. “She's cool and easy to talk to, and the confidence she carries herself with… I have always tried to project an air of composure, but she… She walks like the nation’s eyes are on her, but she couldn't possibly care less. And despite all that, she's very kind. She always tries to cover me up whenever I rip my hero outfit and she's always willing to stand up for me whenever I let myself be overly polite. I cannot pinpoint exactly when these feelings developed, but… I certainly feel them now. Also she's just…” She looked between her friends who were attentively soaking in her words before lifting the pillow closer to her face in a vain attempt to hide her glowing red cheeks. “She's very pretty… I-I’ve been forced to think about her aesthetic appeal far too often recently so I hope you'll forgive me if I don't detail that… aspect of… this.”

Mina giggled, not from any humor in the situation, but in a sort of polite support. “Don't worry, we getcha. Besides, we're all in the same boat here, so it's not like we can judge!” Mina's easy smile and Uraraka's encouraging nod did wonders for Momo's nerves.

“I-I'll go next.” Uraraka declared firmly. The other girls were surprised, but said nothing and found comfort in their pillows; Momo repositioned hers in her arms and Mina put her own on the table and rested her head upon it. If their hearts weren't hammering away in their chests, they'd be downright cozy.

“Well I… I first met him on the way to the entrance exam and I… I thought he was kinda cute.” She fought the urge to cover her face and float away. “And then, y'know, he saves me from that big robot and… well… that was awesome!” She chuckled nervously at the lame summation of her thoughts. Though her friends were unbothered, listening intently. Mina was restraining herself from pointing out the ‘knight in shining armor’ quality of the event. “And then I actually got to talk to him and get to know him and… I don't think I know anyone like him. He's so timid, but never shies away from doing what's right. He's so soft spoken even though he's crazy strong and cool. A-And he's so kind! He saved me from that robot, he willingly gave up the class rep position to Iida-kun, he offered to give me a strategy when I had to fight Bakugo-kun. H-He even helped you out in that stealth exercise even though all this stuff has been happening, Yaomomo!” She stuttered on that last example, surprising herself with the catalog of acts of kindness her crush (it was going to take a hot minute to get used to that title for him) had displayed in the relatively short time she'd known him. 

“Indeed.” Momo agreed, unable to help her soft, bright smile while listening to Uraraka's impassioned monologue. “He's even helped Bakugo-san, despite his rotten attitude.”

“Right!?” Uraraka's hyperactive speech suddenly took on a color of manic disbelief. “Like…! How is a guy so cool and strong, but also so nice and humble and stuff?!” She took a moment to groan almost angrily into her pillow. “Plus he's… yeah, he's cute! He's really cute! Am I just supposed to sit here and not like him?! Like, c'mon!” She began to laugh hysterically, as though the comedy of liking a boy so hard she got angry about it had hit her in the face. The other girls were swept up in the laughter and for the first time in a long time, their faces were red from raw joy instead of anxiety and embarrassment.

“S-So, heh, yeah!” Uraraka giggled as their collective laughing fit died down. “That's pretty much what I've got. Sooo…” Her and Momo’s eyes landed on Mina, who's giggles were transitioning from amused to nervous.

“We- hehehe! Well, I uh… I don't really have a big huge story behind it, but here we go. We went to the same middle school and we… Wait, have I told you about that villain I tricked back then?”

“B’scuse me, the what? ”

“I'm quite sure you haven't.”

“Ok, so I guess there is a bit of a story.” She corrected, shifting her posture a bit. “So, after school one day, a few of my friends get cornered by this big guy, and I mean big . Like two stories tall and looked like he was made out of stone. Anyway, he's asking them where he can find… someone. I don't remember exactly, but of course my friends had no idea what he was talking about, and it seemed like he was getting mad. So, without really thinking, I just got between them and him and gave him some phony directions. He didn't ask any questions and left. We all started crying as soon as he was gone and got the heck out of there, ‘cause holy crap that was scary! Anyway, the next-”

“Whoa whoa whoa! Ashido-kun, that’s crazy!” Uraraka blurted out before the story could move on. “How have you never talked about this before?!”

“Well, I dunno, it just… never came up before? But it’s not important. Anyway!” Mina powered past her friends’ fiercely inquisitive looks before they could press the issue any further and continued with the story. “The next day at school, Kirishima apologized to the girls because he had apparently seen the whole thing but didn’t do anything about it. Which wasn’t really that bad because it was scary as hell and I only stepped in on impulse, but still, props to him I guess. Then! I get into U.A. and who do I see on the way to school on day one? Kirishima! Except he's changed up his hair! He dyed it red and spiked it up all crazy! He said it was something like ‘leaving his cowardly self behind’ or something. But ever since then, I kinda kept noticing how cool he is, and how he's a great guy. Plus he's easy on the eyes!” She giggled into her hand, a wide grin now settled on her face. “And yeah! That's the whole story! Still can't believe I never told that villain story before.”

“Uh, yeah? That makes two of us!”

“Three, really.” Momo corrected, her reaction being more restrained as usual. “But I notice most of that was the story and not the emotional venting I was expecting.”

“I-! Wh-! I dunno!” Mina blubbered, realizing she had indeed digressed far more than she meant to. “I didn't know what else to say! He's cool and nice and handsome!”

“It's alright, Ashido-san!” Momo chuckled, enjoying the rare scenario of flustering her more socially adept friend. “I understand it's not an easy thing to describe. I appreciate your openness and trust, both of you.” Her gracious smile helped ease her friends' nerves, as it often did. “I'm relieved to know I'm not alone in this particular aspect.”

“Heck yeah, gurl!” Mina cheered. “We're all in this together! Plus, it's like you said, no way we can call ourselves heroes if we back down from a little cringe!”

“Quite right.” Momo nodded, her overall demeanor becoming a shade more serious. “Though now that we have all confirmed this emotional detail, I believe it is all too likely that this is how the villain is manipulating us.”

“The vill-? Oh right, the whole reason we just said all that.”

“So, if I'm picking up what you're putting down, you're saying the villain is using our feelings to turn us into their puppets?”

“For the most part. More specifically, I believe this villain's quirk targets these feelings and amplifies them to a point where we lose all inhibition and restraint.”

“But how can we be sure it's because of our crushes?” Uraraka asked, scratching her head. “Couldn't it just be that their quirk makes us act like that and go after someone randomly?”

“That is a possibility, but I doubt it.” Momo began while pulling out her phone. “We went after the same people, to some extent, on three separate occasions, even concocting a complex trap for them in the second incident. Additionally, ask yourselves; what could have stopped them from making us pursue Yellow Team during the boating exercise?”

“I don't get it.” Mina admitted shamelessly.

“Yellow Team consisted entirely of classmates that we are also quite close with and, frankly, would make more sense for someone unfamiliar with us to assume we had feelings for. Take myself for example, I am quite close with Todoroki-san, plus he is quite conventionally attractive and, most notably, a boy.” She turned her phone to them with a list of prior incidents of their mystery villain. “Every other target was a girl who was made to go after a male classmate. With the naturally higher rate of heterosexuality, one could assume that these girls’ targets were chosen either at random, for aesthetic fitness, or due to their feelings. But I'm sapphic and Todoroki-san is… what's that term, Ashido-san? For a pretty boy anime character?”

“Bisho?”

“Yes! So if the villain’s quirk was just sending girls after ‘cute boys’ that we know, why send me after Jirou-san instead of Todoroki-san?”

“I think I get it. Like, I'm tight with Kaminari, and I think he fits the ‘hot guy' role better than Kirishima.”

“And Iida-kun is more, like… macho-man-looking than Deku-kun.”

“Exactly! So while there are enough fallacies with this logic to keep me from being absolutely certain, there is more than enough evidence to say that it is safe to assume that the villain’s quirk manipulates our feelings for our crushes!”

They could almost hear the echoes of a crime drama soundtrack crescendoing as a silence filled the room.

“Man, what a dick.” Mina said absentmindedly, drawing a snort from Uraraka and a chuckle from Momo.

“Not how I would put it, but I agree.”

“Why the heck are they doing this anyway? Is this how this creep gets off?” Uraraka pondered with a mix of anger and disgust.

“Unlikely. Assuming the quirk doesn't give the user some sort of boost when it influences us, there's no way for them to have observed the incidents.”

“Then what? Just to mess with us?”

“What if they think they’re helping us?” Mina gasped.

“Like, they think this is going to get us to start dating them?”

“That's… absurd. But not the most unhinged motive a villain has ever had.” Momo reasoned, seemingly upset at the additional layer of ridiculousness they had uncovered.

“What the hell kinda Pepe le Pew-ass logic is this freak on?” Again, Mina’s stream of consciousness pulled some laughs from her friends. “Anyway! I think we’ve had a breakthrough, right?”

“Indeed! We have a strong theory regarding the villain’s quirk. Perhaps if we… Oh…” Momo’s optimistic tone seemed to run right into a wall 

“Yaomomo?”

“I was about to say this will help with the investigation, but…” The thought of the class, Blue Team included, learning about their feelings and discussing it at length was nearly enough to give the girls panic attacks.

“Well that's just not happening!”

“That's a big no right there!”

“I agree! A foolish thought!”

The girls devolved into a cacophony of nervous, almost manic chuckles which carried on awkwardly until a similarly awkward silence fell over the room. 

“So!” Mina blurted, banishing the hypothetical nightmare. “What now?”

“W-Well admittedly knowing how the villain's quirk functions does not help us counteract it, nor does it help us identify the villain. So… I suppose this breakthrough is not as productive as I had thought…” Momo’s reality check would have brought the mood down further had Uraraka not spoken up.

“Well, I know I feel better having gotten that off my chest. I never thought admitting that would make me feel better about it.”

“Honestly, it was pretty rough at first, but this is probably the best bit of ‘girl talk’ I've had in a while!”

“I confess I am new to such things, but this was quite the liberating conversation.”

“Speaking of liberating,” Uraraka pointed out, “Yaomomo, didn't you say you were able to fight the quirk for a bit? How about helping us get there?” The accusatory fire in their eyes from earlier was entirely gone as she and Mina looked to Momo with bright enthusiasm and determination.

“I would love to.”

Chapter Text

Izuku had never truly had friends before. It wasn't long after the school year started that it became clear to him that his relationship with Bakugo could never truly have been classified as friendship. But no bitterness came with that realization because his first real friends made him feel welcome and valuable. That, and the fact that there were around twenty of them really softened the blow. They were friends who accepted him despite his awkwardness, and provided him with the support he needed.

After his encounter with Shigaraki at the mall, they offered to visit him at home. After he broke his leg (again,) there was always someone happy to carry a bag or food tray for him. After he had fallen into the grasp of three of those friends who were under the influence of a mystery villain and kissed him into a coma, they offered to spar with him to take his mind off things.

All normal mishaps that happened to normal teenagers and the normal things that good friends did to help out. For what counted as normal in their lives, anyway.

So it was in their unorthodox normalcy that Izuku found himself sparring in a rotation with Kirishima and Jirou in Gym Gamma. Despite how futile he feared it might be, the exercise was both mentally and physically stimulating. He was helping them refine their combat fundamentals, Jirou's quick earlobe strikes helped show them where they were leaving themselves vulnerable, and Kirishima's thick skin was helping them process the importance of striking with force as well as accuracy. All-in-all it was exactly what he needed. It didn't fully relieve the lingering tension and anxiety of the most recent incident, but it was the most helpful activity since the incidents began.

“Anyone ever tell you you're scary as hell when you've got your quirk up?” Jirou asked as she accepted a hand up from Kirishima.

“Yeah, I get that one now and again.” The shark-toothed boy chuckled, dusting off his sparring partner's shoulder. “I think most people tend to keep that to themselves thinking I might try and bite a chunk out of them or something.”

“Ah well, most people don't know you're just a freakin’ dork under all those edges.” She swiped at one of his hair-horns.

“Alright alright, don't go ruining all my hard work, now.” He turned from her to Izuku who sat watching on a nearby ledge of the numerous crags Cementoss had raised earlier in the day. “So, Midoriya-sensei, what notes do you have for us this time?”

“Hm? Oh! Well, uh, honestly you both did very well!” He said before jumping down, impulsively dusting off his bare forearm. For whatever reason, Kirishima had suggested they go right from class to the gym, so he was in his tank-top undershirt, Jirou was in a light athletic jacket, and Kirishima had elected to go entirely shirtless. Thankfully, he had done this often enough to desensitize pretty much the entire class. “I can tell you’re being more cautious and careful Kirishima-kun, and all you need to do is work on building some muscle Jirou-san and you could hit him hard enough to put him off balance. Or strengthen your jacks enough to pierce through his quirk.”

“I could alwa-!”

“Yeah yeah, if I ever start visiting the weight room, you’ll be the first to hear about it, Kirishima.” She interrupted his predictable offer. “Y’know Midoriya, I kinda expected you to ask me some new question about my jacks, like, an hour ago.”

“Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I haven’t heard you ask one of your weirdly specific yet really good questions this whole time. Everything alright, man? Well, aside from the obvious.”

“Huh? Oh no, nothing's wrong! It's… just the opposite actually.” He clumsily explained to his patient friends. “I just… I wanted to thank you guys for this. I know that we're all feeling the strain, even if I did get the brunt of it this last time, so coming out here with me even though you probably want to be doing something else with someone else. It means a lot.”

“Hey man, don't be like that!” Kirishima insisted with an odd mix of offense and support. “Sparring with someone as smart and manly as you, Midoriya? That's a great afternoon any day in my book. It just happens that there's an extra good reason for it right now!”

“I can't say I wouldn't rather be back in my room listening to music while studying or something,” Jirou admitted, “but there's no way I’d be able to relax. I'd find my way out here with you two meatheads one way or another.”

Their earnestness and warm smiles were nearly enough to drive Izuku to tears. Not that that's a particularly high bar, but he had to fight them off regardless. “Even so, thanks. Both of you.” Instead of responding, the pair silently held out their fists to him. Izuku accepted the gesture; a pair of fist bumps acting as a quiet affirmation of their solidarity.

“Hey, Midoriya.” Kirishima spoke up, his previously upbeat tone replaced by unexpected solemnity. “Y’know how we talked about fighting Red Team when we had that little meeting?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Well… How do you think that would actually go? Like, could we beat them?” His question was posed with the energy of an apology.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if we tried to fight them, could we win? Would they try to fight back? Y'know… Midoriya it out for us.”

“O-Oh!” Izuku stammered, still flabbergasted at the idea of people willingly asking him to monologue his thoughts at them. “Well… given how they act while being influenced, I don't think they'd try to fight us exactly. But they would be trying to… get their hands on us. And if they are able to get a hold of us, history says that… uh…”

“Right. Game over.” Jirou finished for him, the three of them avoiding eye contact in that moment.

“Y-Yeah. But that still means we have a chance if we see them coming. Their increased strength will make it harder for us, but I can definitely see us neutralizing them. I have improved control of my quirk to the point where I should be able to outmaneuver Uraraka-san, so for me I think it should be a matter of not being ambushed. Jirou-san, you could use your jacks to stun Yaoyorozu-san, but that would mean you have to let her in close which is a danger in and of itself.”

“Yeah, I gotcha.” She acknowledged, focusing on the topic to avoid thinking about Momo and ‘close.’ “If I was in my hero outfit I could buy some time by using my boots. That would probably be a pretty good distress call, too.”

“You're right, great thinking! Though with her quirk she could probably create some headphones to counter that. But still, you have options! As for Kirishima-kun…” He turned to the boy as his tone became more cautious. “I'm fairly certain Ashido-san’s quirk would eat through your skin even if you had your own quirk activated. I may be speculating, but I'd say she wouldn't use it when pursuing you.”

“Sweet! So all I have to do is fight her, not that big a deal, right?”

“Unfortunately, I think you might actually have the hardest time out of all of us.”

“H-Huh? Why?”

“Ashido-san is the most agile person in our class and from what I've gathered from her fighting style, it's extremely well suited to countering yours.” He continued as his friend seemed to pale slightly.

“You are a very grounded fighter; you hold your position to absorb punishment and strike back when your opponent reveals an opening. But in this scenario, your opponent isn't trying to injure you and is far more mobile. If you try to fight her like she was a more traditional fighter, she has the agility to avoid your punches and get in close before you can react. And if she gets in close…”

“Game over.” Jirou solemnly said, not at all helping to quell Kirishima's rising anxiety.

“W-W-Wait a sec, Midoriya what're you saying?! Don't tell me I'm just cooked!” Kirishima begged, his voice reaching the highest octave anyone had heard from him.

“Oh no no! Not at all! You just need to learn how to counter her fighting style. And for you I think it will be easy to make the adjustments.”

“Oh… really?” He asked, suddenly feeling a bit silly for his momentary despair.

“Yes, you should focus on grappling, like a wrestler. If you can control the action when you're in close and get a hold on her, then you should be able to out-muscle her and get her in a hold, then you should be able to keep her restrained even with her enhanced strength!” Midoriya finished, apparently oblivious to the non-ideal nature of his proposal.

“R-Right, I think I get it.” Kirishima shakily nodded, going right back to that despair.

“So either squeeze her real tight or get caught? You really did draw the short stick here, Kirishima.” Jirou thought with a sigh.

“You will want to learn holds that have her facing away from you, which will limit your options. But like I said, you are already in the toughest spot here, so-”

“Y'know, for someone so smart you can be really dense, too.” An unfamiliar, silky voice echoed from above. “I can totally see the appeal!”

The trio’s heads whipped up to find the source sitting at the highest stone ledge in the middle of the gym. The woman was young, likely college-age, and even from their slight distance it was clear that she was the kind of woman Mineta used to conjure in his daydreams.

“Who the hell…?” Kirishima muttered.

“But I'm so glad I found you guys! You dummies might never have had a chance if I hadn't stepped in! You're welcome, bee-tee-dubs.” The woman hopped off the ledge and landed effortlessly despite her thickly-heeled pumps and the sizable drop. She made her way to the edge of the next ledge and gave the trio a much better look at her.

Her hair was strawberry blonde with bright pink highlights that fell just below her shoulders. She wore a bright pink crop top that gave any observers a generous view of her sizable cleavage, as well as skinny jeans that sported several heart-themed patches and hugged her hourglass hips and thick thighs very well. She seemed to be wearing bold eyeliner and vibrant fuchsia lipstick on her plump lips. Despite her lust-inciting figure, what most stood out was her skin. It was unmistakably pink, but somewhere between a natural human shade and Mina’s.

“Who the hell is this chick?” Jirou whispered to the boys.

“Is she a third year? A pro?”

“If she is, I don't recognize her.” Izuku offered before steadying himself and addressing the stranger. “Excuse me miss, who are you exactly?”

“And polite, too?! Oh, you're really too much!” The mystery woman gushed before hopping down the last two ledges to bring herself to the ground level with the three bewildered students. “You can call me Biyakupid, at your service~” She bowed deeply, shamelessly framing her bust as she did so, causing Izuku to look away and Jirou to feel a creeping animosity.

“Biyakupid?” Kirishima parroted, his genuine confusion managing to suppress his less savory thoughts. “I've never heard of you. Are you a hero or something?”

“You betcha, handsome!” She confirmed with a wink. “Wherever loving hearts are trapped behind the prison of societal expectations, I arrive to liberate such precious feelings!”

“What kinda chuuni-ass…” Jirou grumbled. “Alright lady, cool story I guess, but what are you doing here?”

“To be honest, I just wanted to finally meet you three in person!” She explained gleefully as she slowly approached them, breasts bouncing hypnotically. “Sure, I saw you all at the sports festival, but I haven't gotten a glimpse since I started to work my magic! I just had to pop in and say hi!”

The more she spoke, the more pieces fell into place and the more Izuku found himself able to look at the woman without scandalous temptation. “Wait a minute… Are you…?”

“The one you have to thank for giving you the girls of your dreams? The one and only!” The woman declared proudly before checking her expertly manicured nails and saying with passive aggression “Still waiting on that thank you, though…”

“That's…! No, you're manipulating our friends into… you're manipulating them!” He accused and fell into a fighting stance.

“That's really how you see it?” The woman giggled. “You are so adorably blind.”

“So this is our culprit, huh? Maybe this will be easier than I thought.” Jirou pondered, also readying herself for action with an eager grin.

“Seriously? The villain just wanders in here like it's nothing?” Kirishima wondered as he settled into his own stance. “How did you manage to get past all the security?”

“Amor Vincit Omnia.” Biyakupid said dreamily as her eyes flashed pink for a moment. “Love conquers all. It's the doctrine of heroes and the motto of my valiant crusade!” Though Blue Team was within feet of her and they were all primed to attack, the woman herself didn't seem to register their demeanors as she spouted her flowery words.

“You really think you're helping us? Oh that's rich.” Jirou chuckled venomously. “Listen lady, your fun ends here. Give up before this gets messy.”

“We don't want to hurt you…”

“Debatable.”

“... but if you resist, we'll have no choice!”

“Oooo! So diplomatic and assertive!” She gushed with her hands on her cheeks “If only you applied that charisma to more romantic pursuits…” Deku, body glowing with the energy of One for All, closed the gap between her and the villain with superhuman speed. He didn't have time to process why his arms only found empty air before a light kick to his backside made him stumble to the ground.

“...then I wouldn't be needed.”

“Wait, what?”

“What the heck just happened?” Jirou asked dumbfounded, looking between Midoriya's prone form and Biyakupid’s coyly giggling one.

“We warned you! Take this!” Kirishima roared as he charged at the unbothered woman and threw a wicked hook toward her midsection. His fist connected, but with her palm as she caught his hardened punch. Her posture remained casual as she caught his other fist as well.

“And you!” She said, finally turning to Kirishima fully as she twisted his arms aside with no apparent strain in her voice. “For a guy who's constantly showing off his washboard abs, you're awfully conservative. That gap between gentlemanly and hardcore fits you perfectly,” she leaned in and lowered her voice, “and I'm not the only one who likes it~”

“Urgh! How the heck?!” Kirishima grunted, fruitlessly trying to match her inexplicable strength.

“And you!” She said, tossing Kirishima aside and looking over to the wide eyed Jirou. “You may not exactly have the…” Midoriya's kick aimed at her head caught empty air as Biyakupid had closed the gap between her and Jirou faster than any of their eyes could track. Jirou gasped as she was suddenly face to face with the older lady's generous cleavage. “...assets you'd like…” In a mix of anger and nervous energy, Jirou propelled her jacks at the villain's face only for them to get caught in her pearly white teeth. That was enough to stun her on its own, but when Biyakupid closed her pillowy lips and ran her tongue over the tips of Jirou's sensitive jacks, the beet-red girl struggled to stay on her feet. “...but with your natural swagger,” she continued, curling the girl's earlobes around her index and middle finger, “you could get anyone wrapped around your finger in no time!”

“That's enough!” The boys roared in anger, striking the air where the villainess stood only a moment before. Kirishima looked around for their enemy while Midoriya caught Jirou as she fell to her knees, using her own anger to shake off the unexpected flood of amorous emotions.

“Y'know, I’ve thought the same thing!” The woman said from the doorway of the hangar-like building, drawing fierce glares from the three students. “I've given you guys more than enough chances, especially with how strong-willed you guys are, but you still haven't opened the cage.” She shrugged with a huff of disappointed acknowledgement. “But don't worry, I'll be giving you kids plenty of opportunities!” Her wink was met with a grunts of anger.

“We don't want anything from you!” Kirishima yelled defiantly, stepping toward the villain.

“We're the ones who are gonna give you an ass-beating!” Jirou practically roared, having regained her wits.

“Hmmm……” Biyakupid hummed, tapping a well-manicured fingernail on her chin. “No, I don't think that's how this is gonna go, actually! Especially since I have to go. But I'll leave you lovely kids with a special goodbye present! I'll take those thank yous any time. Ta-ta!” With a blown kiss the woman turned her back and began to power-strut away from her victims.

“Get back he-!” Midoriya's demand died in his throat when three figures appeared in the opening, two walking out from either side and one floating to the ground from above.

“Hiya, dreamboats~!” Momo, Uraraka, and Mina called to their ‘partners’ as they blocked their path.

“No, no, no, not now!” Jirou agonized as her mind once again made the switch from furious to flustered when she saw Momo, lips already painted red, standing in her elegant nightwear.

“Right when we had the culprit in front of us!” Kirishima slapped his forehead in exasperation and looked to the ceiling as Mina, bouncing in glee in her pajama bottom and T-shirt, smiled at him with sparkly lips.

“Makes sense,” Midoriya said lowly as the sight of Uraraka in her pink lipstick, grey sweatpants and worn yellow T-shirt made him blush, though the proximity to the one behind their recent misfortune helped ground him, “trying to cut us off from pursuing her by using Red Team.”

“You didn't think we could just not come to see you, knowing you'd be all hot and sweaty like this, did you?” Mina asked playfully, hitting them with the realization that this is the least clothed they'd ever been during one of these incidents.

“A-And I hope you don't think I don't love you anymore, Jirou-san.” Momo told Jirou, making her flinch by dropping the L Bomb. “I was only helping Uraraka-san show her own affection for Midoriya-san. I have only ever had eyes for you.” Though Jirou knew the words weren't truly Momo's, it was still her voice and her impossibly earnest face. She had to fight the weakness in her knees.

“And now that we're all here, I can have you all to myself, Deku-chan!” The name Ochaco used hit him in the stomach, but a clear target helped him absorb the blow and remain focused.

“You three, please, you have to listen to me!” He pleaded with nervous intensity. “The villain behind all this is right there! If you let us by, we might be able to bring an end to all this now!”

“Ashido, you showed me what it means to be a hero.” Kirishima said, forcing his jaw to relax so he could say his piece. “I can't let that wack job keep using you like that!”

“Yaomomo, I really miss just hanging out with you.” Jirou said, adrenaline letting her be more open than usual. “But that skank is making it so I can't talk to my best friend.”

“Uraraka-san, please.” Midoriya pleaded, looking into her eyes that currently held the pink hearts of Biyakupid's influence. “You help me so much, saved me so many times. I'm begging you; let me return the favor. Let us pass.”

A tense silence followed their pleas. Blue Team, despite having discussed fighting in this very situation, were hoping beyond hope that their words had gotten through the villain's manipulation. Though they tensed their muscles for action, they were already fighting with the idea of hurting their closest, most cherished friends. The way the setting sun framed those friends and their dazzlingly casual forms wasn't helping either. They watched for any change in the girls’ wide eyed, gracefully surprised expressions until-

“You're too much!” The girls squealed in unison, making Blue Team jump.

“Huh?”

“I still can't believe you are so… so cool!” Momo yelled seemingly in frustration.

“So strong!” Mina cheered with her fists held in front of her wide grin.

“So heroic!” Uraraka cried, punching the air.

“Uhhh… huh?”

“How could we possibly say no to our favorite heroes in the whole wide world!” Momo said with uncharacteristic childishness.

“Thank… Thanks?” Jirou said, so gobsmacked she wasn't even phased by Momo almost slipping into uwu speak.

“So… So you'll let us go?” Midoriya asked cautiously.

“Yep! You guys can go ahead and do your awesome hero stuff!” Uraraka declared, causing smiles of relief to appear on Blue Team’s faces…

“On one condition!”

Only for Mina to make them disappear a moment later.

“Ashido-san?”

“We’ll let you guys go do whatever it is you're gonna do…” She paused for effect. “After you give us a kiss!”

The butterflies in their stomachs turned into jet fighters.

“Uh… W- Well… Um…”

“Hang on now,” Jirou spoke over Midoriya's listless mumbling, “we don't have that kinda time! That little prick is getting away right now!”

“No no no, not our usual alone time.” Mina explained as her brainwashed companions looked on with sparkling eyes. “Each of you just have to come over here and give your girlfriend a kiss on the lips! And at least three seconds! No pecking and running!”

“Wh- Why though?!” Kirishima asked with panic in his eyes.

“‘Cause you guys were so cool just now!” Mina practically whined back. “You can't just do that and leave us with nothing! Besides, we're always taking the lead, the least we can do is let you give one to us before you get to work!”

“You're a genius, Ashido!” Uraraka stage-whispered.

“S-So! Is that agreeable?” Momo asked, stumbling over a word in her excitement to get an answer. Red Team looked to their 'partners' as one with that same wild excitement.

Midoriya and Kirishima were stuck trying to formulate a coherent syllable, so Jirou gave Blue Team's diplomatic response. “Give us a sec.” She said before swiftly collecting the boys in a huddle. “What's the game plan here, guys?”

“Sh-Should we just try to fight them?” Kirishima asked.

“No, that would end badly.” Midoriya said, snapping out of his fugue state.

“What are you talking about?”

“They seem to be even more motivated than usual after hearing Ashido-san's plan. And even if they weren't, we’re off our game right now, too.” He gestured down to their knees, all of which were slightly yet perceptibly trembling.

“Damn, you're right.” Kirishima admitted with no small amount of shame. “So what do we do? Could we try to get away through the other door?”

“Even if we do get out of here, we won't be able to track down Biyakupid with them on our trail.” He explained, eyes searching the ground for an answer.

“That's right!” Jirou realized. “She's here and we can't risk her getting away. So… the quickest way to get to her is…” The trio glanced at Red Team, who were practically vibrating in anticipation.

“Well… Let's just get it over with, I guess.” Kirishima sighed as they straightened themselves out of the huddle.

“We can apologize to them after they go back to normal.” Jirou offered with an idle scratch of her head.

“It's a risk, but it's our best shot at ending this whole thing now!” The jet fighters had turned back into butterflies as Midoriya looked between his allies in this ordeal. Though he quickly realized they were looking at him pointedly, almost expectantly. “...What?”

“You first.” They said simply.

The jets were back. “Wh-Wh-What?!?” He nearly shrieked. “Wh-Why do I have to go first?!”

“You're the fastest one here!” Jirou retorted as Kirishima nodded in agreement. “You have the best chance of catching Biyakupid.”

“I-! That's-!” Midoriya scrambled for a reasonable counterpoint, but huffed in despair when he realized the futility. “A-Alright…”

“Good luck!”

“Three seconds, that's it!”

His friends’ encouragement might have helped if he could have processed it for longer than half a second before turning and somehow immediately finding Uraraka’s eyes across the entryway. His heart skipped a beat and he fell back on analysis to cope.

“Calm down, Izuku, this is no big deal.” He told himself as he began to walk toward her. “You've kissed her over a hundred times by now, and at least forty-five of those were at least three seconds long. This is no different! Well… except that I'll be the one kissing her… Oh… Actually, that's… Oh no, I've never kissed her before! She's kissed me, but I wasn't really an active participant! This is going to be the first time I've kissed her! Kissed any girl! Well, going by that logic, she wasn't an active participant in any of the prior kisses either. Ok! That! Use that! This isn't even a kiss! At least not one I can count toward my all-time total. But I'll still have to…”

As his thoughts reached what he was about to do, his body reached the point of no return. He came back to his awareness standing a few feet away from Uraraka, who had stopped vibrating, and her smile was less ecstatic and more warm. It made his chest tighten up even further. He could remember thinking that looking right at her when she smiled was a struggle.

Well this next task was Herculean in comparison.

“U-Uraraka-san.” He addressed her, clenching his fists.

“Deku-chan?”

“I hope you'll excuse me…” He said before stepping forward and into her personal space. Her breath hitched, she closed her eyes and pursed her lips, leaning forward ever so slightly, not enough to make contact. The right amount to put the ball firmly in Izuku’s court.

His fists were held so tight his arms were shaking at his sides. “Just three seconds, that's it. You can do this.” He told himself before closing his eyes and began creeping his face forward. He was going about it the way one goes about taking an eyedrop; hold the position until you feel the contact. Just like an eyedrop, it felt like forever before the shock came. He used that time to remind himself he needs to do something with his lips for it to qualify as a kiss, so he tried to find the right position for his lips before impact. She might have laughed if she had seen his attempts

As soon as he felt her, all the calculations, all the questions, all the numbers and theories and contingencies disappeared. No matter how much he tried to rationalize away the previous experiences, there was no denying the familiarity of the sensation. Sweet, familiar, warm, like an embrace but less physical. And soft, by God was she soft. It was like a pile of clothes fresh out of the dryer; welcoming plush and heavenly warm. He did not notice his muscles relax; his fists unclenched, his eyebrows unfurrowed, and his shoulders unhunched. For reasons he could not identify, he found himself recalling the ferocity on her face during her match against Bakugo. Then the determination in her eyes when she sacrificed her shirt to help create a splint for his arm. Then the resolve in her voice when she requested her entrance exam points be shared with him. It was no surprise, really, that in this moment where everything but her faded away, thoughts of her filled the space.

But then the lack of oxygen in his system made itself known. He didn't realize it, but it had been more than three seconds.

He pulled back, their lips parting with a petite ‘chu,’ and he gasped for breath, taking a small steadying step back. His eyes managed to stay still long enough to take in Uraraka's face. She was taking a deep breath in and the hearts were still in her eyes. But before he could consider if this had been a terrible mistake, her eyes fluttered shut and her palms cupped her cheeks as she let out a long, dreamy sigh. He had thought she was falling over, but instead she began to gently float away from him.

In a grounding series of movements, Momo clipped a cuff onto the floating girl's ankle and secured another clip on the opposite end of a rope to one of the door’s many thin iron beams. He had returned to reality, but had to be woken up by a more sober voice.

“Get going, Midoriya!” Jirou commanded, making him flinch.

“Y-Yeah, right I'll just…” He loudly muttered as he began to jog his way out of the gym, his brain struggling to focus on anything but the moisture and waxy residue on his mouth.

“Sooooooo…” Mina sang as she and Momo fixed their eyes on the remaining pair. “Who's next~?”

“You're up, big guy.” Jirou's matter-of-fact tone stabbed Kirishima in the back at the same time her hand patted his back in hollow reassurance.

“Wh-Wh-Whoa hang on a sec, when was that decided?!” He whisper-yelled at her as Momo had already begun congratulating an over-the-moon Mina.

“When you ran a faster time than me at the quirk tests, now get moving!” She whisper-yelled back, putting him in the same logical trap Midoriya had fallen into. Just like their green-haired comrade, Kirishima could not find a reasonable retort and was forced by Jirou's agitated glare toward his destination.

“Ok, ok, just breathe. Midoriya did it, then so can I!” Kirishima thought, trying to hype himself up. It worked until he looked into Mina's eyes that seemed to be smiling right along with the rest of her face. “Y-You’ve been through worse! Y-Yeah! And given how Uraraka reacted,” he glanced at the floating girl who looked not unlike a balloon with the rope attached to her leg, “this will pretty much knock her out. And just three seconds! Most climactic kisses in action movies last longer than that! Ok, yeah, I'll just copy the quickest one I can remember. It'll be easy!” He came out of his considerations to a good look at Mina’s horns. He tilted his head down to find Mina looking up at him from much nearer than he had intended to get. From there he got a fantastic look at her otherworldly eyes, and the glowing pink hearts therein, as well as her sparkling, inviting, smiling lips. “I was wrong.”

“Hi Kirishima~” She said in a small, almost timid voice. Despite being shorter than him, despite exuding the least threatening vibes imaginable, despite her cartoonishly cute schoolgirl disposition; she had never been more intimidating in his eyes. However, the fact that it was her also provided the catalyst of action. The memory of her boldly stepping in front of a massive villain motivated him on three fronts; he was determined to live up to her example, he was dead-set on saving her from this unacceptable embarrassment, and a third, more emotional, more tempting thing that he refused to dignify with acknowledgement.

With these convictions and the template of countless action movies driving him, he swallowed and lifted his hands to her shoulders, gently holding her in place.

“I'll get you out of this, Ashido.” He told her, hoping the real Mina would hear him as she lifted her chin in anticipation. “I promise.” The thoughts of movie scenes carried him through the half-second of rising anxiety it took for him to close the distance. But as soon as contact was made, his lips pressing firmly against hers, thoughts were replaced with feelings. The warmth in his face whenever he made her laugh, the fluttery feeling in his chest whenever she smiled at him so widely like she did, and this new feeling he had no comparison for. Scary like falling, but freeing like flying. Hot and open like laying on the beach, but warm and cozy like a thick blanket and hot chocolate. Like receiving something precious and valuable? What could that be? He wanted to ask her, as she was the source of so much else, but that would mean he'd have to stop-

OH GOD

However long it had been was too long. He pulled away from her as if he'd just face-planted onto a working stove, mania in his eyes as he tried to gauge a reaction. Her lips were still slightly parted and the look of wonder in her eyes almost entirely overshadowed the vaguely threatening presence of the hearts in her pupils. But slowly, awe turned to jubilation as a smile spread wide across her face and she began to giggle and bounce on her heels. He released her shoulders at that moment as well, letting her back off into a jittery dance of celebration to the music of her tittering laughter. She eventually settled down (relatively speaking) on the ground on the opposite side of the entrance from Uraraka, kicking her feet and chuckling into her hands like she'd received a whimsical curse from a forest spirit.

“Howsweet! Thankyou,Kirishima-san! Nowoffyougo! Goodluckonyourmission!” Momo said with frantic energy as she not-so-politely guided (pushed) Kirishima through the large doorway, making him stumble to the pavement. He got up and looked back in a daze, the sparkly pink stain on his mouth not helping his aura, before he remembered that, oh yeah, he did actually have a mission.

As he unsteadily jogged away, Momo turned back to the last remaining target who, now that she didn't have anyone of sound mind to look unflappable for, was looking quite flapped. “Hello, Jirou-san~”

As Momo’s flirtations hit her like a concussive force, Jirou began to realize just how lucky she was that she had been put in this predicament with the two most virtuous kids in the class. Though she, too, was a good person at heart and subscribed to the idea that letting herself enjoy this opportunity would be morally reprehensible and generally gross, she needed a little boost in moral fiber she hadn't been without until now: indirect peer pressure. In all previous incidents, the boys' presence had subconsciously dispelled any notion that letting herself enjoy the incoming tidal wave of affection was even an option.

But now, the boys were gone. Now, the other brainwashed girls were out of it. Now, she was about to walk over and kiss Momo Yaoyorozu of her own accord… kind of. One part of her was trying its best to conjure Midoriya's words and steeled her against the temptation feeling of Momo’s rose-like lips would no doubt bring. Unfortunately, another part of her was lost in recalling the feeling of those lips, those arms, those brea-

She smacked her hand over her eyes to momentarily dispel such thoughts and images. "C’mon Kyoka, pull it together!" She thought at herself. "You talked a big game to the boys, now it's time to put your money where your mouth is!" Unfortunately, the words mouth, money, and big all conjured some less-than-helpful images of Momo. "Son of a bitch!"

She forced herself forward as if to escape the airborne residue of those treasonous thoughts. Looking at Momo was not a good idea, so she cast her gaze to Uraraka’s floating, sedentary form. "Right! Yes. This will knock her out and then I can follow the boys and we'll be able to end this nightmare once and for all!" She thought, clinging to the first productive thought in what seemed like hours. She closed her eyes and bowed her head to lock in as she approached her destination. "Just put her to sleep, and then it's clobberin’ time!"

She stopped, opened her eyes, and lifted her head to find, much like her predecessors, a very detailed look at the most beautiful girl in the world. Long, silky, black hair that looked like it was pulled from the night sky. Skin as clear and smooth as freshly fallen snow. Two full lips painted a spectacular shade of red, like a rose and a cherry donated their essences just to heighten an already glorious sight. And her eyes, dark like onyx yet bright like… her. Tainted only by those damn hearts; their only saving grace was that they brought Jirou out of her impromptu writing of (yet another) song about how gorgeous Momo was and into reality, where the next step was inevitable whether she liked it or not.

Some disorganized cocktail of emotions and motivations pushed Jirou into action. Her hands found Momo’s shoulders and tugged the taller girl down, eliciting a small yelp that was smothered in the impact between them.

Ohhhh… Fffuuuuuuck… Jirou groaned in her mind, somewhere between panic and excitement the moment they made contact. Her hands, one infected by lust, the other by gluttony, moved from the shoulders to the back of the neck and pulled slightly harder as if she were trying to squeeze water out of a bottle just a little faster. Momo, already infested with amor, wasted no time hooking her arms under and around Jirou's shoulders and planted her fingers in the shorter girl's scalp, also tugging hungrily.

While Jirou continued to pay the proverbial toll, heads occasionally rotating slightly for a new angle, she realized she had never truly understood what lyrics meant when they alluded to someone's love being something they could get drunk on or get addicted to. She had always assumed it was just an aesthetically appropriate metaphor. Now, feeling herself rocketing willingly toward a disastrous overdose, she understood.

Jirou was whipped jarringly back to reality not by the realization of the passage of time, nor by her momentarily buried moral compass, but by a beady-eyed face flashing in her mind’s eye by pure serendipity. She gasped as she pushed Momo enough to break the kiss. Her mind raced wordlessly as she looked into Momo’s face. The taller girl looked back with her mouth slightly agape as if in awe, the red on her lips smeared a bit in a couple directions. Momo took a deep breath and sighed in utter contentment as she fell backwards. Jirou made a half step to catch her before she landed on a plush mattress, presumably created while they were… distracted.

While Momo napped in blissful catatonia, Jirou stood silent and frozen in place. Her mind was consumed with vague, incomplete questions; What? Why? When did-? How? Did-? Was that-? After a few seconds of silence, Jirou puffed out the deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and put her hands on her knees as she began to pant harder than the exercise of just a few minutes prior had caused.

Rather than formulate or answer any of the questions she probably had for herself, she concluded that this was definitely not where she wanted to be right now and made her way out of the gym, remembering her real objective in the process.

Coming to the split in the paved path she stopped at a familiar head of spiked, red hair on the ground just off the path. Kirishima lay sprawled on the grass, blankly looking up into the branches of a tree that he had apparently been injured on, if that welt on his forehead was any indication. “Kirishima?” She called as she approached. “H-Hey! Kirishima!” She waved her hand right in front of his eyes to no avail before smacking him across the cheek. “Wake up!”

“Huh? Oh, hey Jirou.” He greeted her nonchalantly, mouth still stained a glittery pink. “What happened? Did we win?”

“Wh-!? You tell me, dumbass! I only just got out of the gym!” She yelled more in exasperation than any real anger. “Did you guys catch her? Did she do this to you?”

“What? Oh… N-No this was my fault.”

“Huh?”

“I, uh- I couldn't remember which way she went, so I tried to remember which way Midoriya went, but I couldn't remember that either. So I think I just… missed the turn.”

“And you ran straight into this tree?” She asked, looking up to see the jagged impression his hair had made in the tree’s bark.

“Yeah.”

“And why didn't you activate your quirk?”

“I was really focused on trying to figure out which way to go. Plus I was a bit… distracted by… stuff…”

“That-!” She stopped herself from admonishing him as she had also very recently been “distracted” by “stuff.” “Yeah ok, I getcha.” She stepped around to give him a helping hand up. “Well, with how quick they were moving they could be anywhere by now.” She looked off to her left for any peculiarities. “And since Midoriya got a head start, he might have even tracked her down already.”

“Uhhh… Unless he was distracted, too.”

“I dunno, he tends to lock in when…” Jirou trailed off upon following Kirishima’s gaze to a pair of legs clad in U.A. activewear sticking up out of a garbage can. “... That could be Kaminari.”

The pair made their way over to help the unfortunate legs, and sighed in as much disappointment as sympathy when Midoriya’s face met them.

“I'm sorry…”

“We get it.”

“It's fine.”

“Hey! Guys!” The arrival of Tsuyu and Kaminari kept the mood from devolving into a complete pity party. “Is everything alright over here? We saw- Oh.” The blonde stopped himself upon seeing the colors on the trio’s mouths. “They gotcha again, huh?”

“Yeah.” Was the reserved, simultaneous response.

“Well, you're up and about, and it looks like you got away without much damage. That's way better than any of the other times!”

“But it looks like you got the worst of it, Kyoka-chan.” Tsuyu noted, pointing at the smear of red on Jirou's lips, which was noticeably larger and messier than the boys’. “What happened, exactly, kero?”

“O-Oh… Well…” Jirou fumbled for an excuse for a second before being rescued by the ever-diligent Midoriya.

“Wait! That's right!” He shouted, suddenly filled with urgency. “There's been a huge development! We discovered the culprit!”