Heroics and Other Things

Chapter 8: Go Big Or Go Home

"Monsters in Musutafu!

Early yesterday morning a truly monstrous looking villain was taken down in downtown Musutafu, not far from UA High School. Seven Pro Heroes responded to the disturbance, including Kamui Woods and Mount Lady. The villain's rampage was brought to an end only through their impeccable teamwork. Rumors that this was one of the villains that attacked the USJ facility at UA High School are unconfirmed. Five of the seven Pros showed off new special moves during the fight, including a new leaf-based move from Kamui-"

"Hey Midoriya," Tsu interrupted as Izuku read aloud to the cluster of students that had gathered around his desk. When Izuku stopped reading and looked up, she went on. "Isn't that area on All Might's route to the school? You mentioned during the USJ that he stopped a bunch of crimes on his way into work, so you can probably guess which direction he comes from, ribbit."

"Oh, yeah," Izuku agreed, looking back at his phone to confirm the location of the attack. "That area is definitely somewhere All Might would have passed on his way in. And look-"

He scrolled down, then held up his phone so the other students could see. Between two paragraphs of the article was a picture, the villain in chains and being led away by the police. They all nodded grimly as they recognized him. It was unmistakably the biggest villain from the USJ attack.

"It's definitely the guy Shigaraki called Nomu," Izuku said, turning his phone back so he could look at it again. "Shigaraki said he was going to kill All Might, right? This was probably another attempt. It's a good thing the other heroes got to him first."

There was another round of nodding. Everyone was aware that they'd dodged a bullet when Shigaraki had decided to leave with Nomu. They did not, however, know how much of a bullet All Might had dodged. To them, he was just the symbol of peace, a nigh-unstoppable force for good in the world. Only Izuku knew how much the fight would have taken out of him, and how dangerous his existing injuries would have made it for him to strain himself defeating a villain designed to kill him.

"Its a good thing you were at the USJ Midoriya," said Yaoyorozu suddenly, snapping Izuku out of his morbid thoughts.

Izuku looked up at her, blinking in surprise. "Me?" he repeated. "I didn't do anything-"

"You persuaded the villains to retreat," Yaoyorozu cut him off. "You manipulated events so that instead of fighting All Might alone, Nomu had to get through a bunch of other heroes first, ultimately causing him to fail in his mission."

"And as an added bonus, those heroes thankfully weren't us," Kaminari piped up with a shaky smile.

Izuku returned his smile weakly, then looked down at his phone again. Despite what his friends said, he knew he hadn't done as much as any of them at the USJ, and they were still miles ahead of him in terms of combat prowess. His first few heroics lessons had gone unexpectedly well, but he was still mostly relying on the quirks of the others to get him through. He'd performed best in team challenges, where the quirks of his teammates would allow him to strategize with more firepower than he could offer alone. He might have beaten Kacchan, but he still wasn't much in a straight fight against someone he hadn't spent ten years studying.

"Lemme see that article," Jirou instructed, leaning over the desk so that Izuku only had to turn his phone a little bit to show her, and they could both look at it at the same time.

Izuku obediently turned the phone, but before he'd been looking at it long his attention was drawn by a creepy little laugh. He looked up, peering over Jirou's back, to see Mineta standing just behind Jirou. He was short, so Izuku could only see the purple balls on top of his head, but it was still pretty obvious he was looking up Jirou's skirt.