CHAPTER 8: Lead by Example
Nothing in sight… again.
The familiar darkness from a couple of nights ago came back to plague him once more.
The same swirling blue and white lights circling around the body of the only individual in this plane.
And yet again, Ben Tennyson was back at the threshold of his current predicament. The endless vortex that now stuck inside his dreams as well.
Closing his eyes off and opening them again did no good to solve the situation. Dreams can't be so easily escaped after all.
Just what appeared to be further ahead at the light of the end of the tunnel, he could see the same two figures he saw before. Their details were still fuzzy, but he was sure those were people now.
Just like how trying to remember something will cause it to be forgotten even more, by trying to make out who those two were, he inevitably caused the image to become further away and the dream to collapse.
-Ben's Room-
Ben grumbles as the alarm beside him blares to life, awakening the teen from his strange dream. Or rather nightmare depending on who you asked.
-"Ugh, my body is still adjusted to sleeping in through the day." He groaned complaining about the stabbing sounds of the small machine forcing the hero 'In Training' to slam his hand down onto the snooze button of the clock. Despite his body wanting to fall back to sleep he forced himself to stand up and walk over to the dresser Naomosa had placed. He opened and grabbed the casual U.A. uniform provided by the school.
He looked himself in the mirror, still questioning if he wanted Naomasa and the school to protect him and get into his mess of a life. But steading himself, he remembered that it was their choice and it's easier this way than running about without knowledge. Ben grabbed a towel and went to the bathroom. Taking a quick shower and getting dressed his stomach grumbled, so he entered the kitchen, given that it was the only space in the apartment with a table meant for eating. The living lie detector had a strict rule about food outside the kitchen which was fair but still somewhat annoying.
-"Hello, Ben." came the tired greeting of a certain detective causing the American boy to wince.
-"Long day?" he asked, sitting down at the table and digging into a simple bento box that Naomasa likely picked up from the convenience store down the street.
-"Long night." He corrected, taking a long sip from his coffee mug "Being a detective requires you to be able to function on nothing but coffee and store-bought bento." he joked, chuckling eliciting a laugh from the teen hero. -"So how was school yesterday?" He questioned.
-"It was alright for the first time going to school in Japan, the food was great but the fight training could've gone better." He admitted, knowing Naomosa could tell if he lied or not.
-"Fight Training on the first day?" the detective questioned before remembering who had joined the U.A's staff and sighing -"It was All Might's suggestion wasn't it?" He questioned.
-"How did you know?" Ben questioned.
-"Deduction is the most important skill a detective can have." He responded before looking at his watch and standing "Hurry up and finish your Bento we have to get going," He said "Can't have you running late on your second day" He grabbed his keys and jacket allowing his teenage companion to devour the rest of his meal and rushing out to join the Detective out in his car.
-On Top of U.A.'s Hill-
The ride was uneventful as Naomosa wasn't in the mood to be as jovial as he usually was when "off duty", though one would say that given his line of work he was never truly off duty.
And that mood was soon about to be worse when Naomosa stopped some distance, about a block away, from the entrance of the school as he and Ben could notice a crowd near the front gate that both could immediately tell who they were and why they were there.
-"Reporters." They groaned loudly in unison.
-"You hate them too?" Ben questioned the detective.
-"Most of them are no good leeches and the decent honest ones are harder to find than a Four Leaf Clover." Naomosa complained as he parked. -"I'm gonna park here so that none of them question why a police detective is personally dropping an American U.A. student."
-"I was about to suggest that actually."
-"Oh and before I forget," He said, stopping Ben from getting out.
-"Yeah?" He questioned letting the unbuckled seat belt slide back into place.
-"I will be going back to the alleyway you appeared in."
-"Huh, why?" The teen questioned, confused.
-"Because I want to see if I can find anything from when you first appeared. You did say you saw a few pieces of metal beside you when you woke up." Naomasa said, grabbing the cup of coffee in the cup holder and taking a sip.
-"Eh, I dunno, I am pretty sure that wouldn't give you much information. At least in my world, we have the technology to try to build another one, but in this one I don't know."
-"Oh well, even if we can't find a way to take you back home with it, I don't want to have to chase a random burglar with alien tech on his hands."
-"Yeah, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry."
Ben nodded and the two smiled. Naomasa then unlocked the car door, allowing Ben to exit and head for the school.
-"Huh, he's clearly more popular than I thought." he said. He had known that All Might was rather popular in this world, being Japan's number 1 hero and all, but he had severely underestimated just HOW popular the man was. There must have been reporters from every news station from the country in the crowd.
As he walked his eyes graced the crowd and the people within it. He couldn't help but overhear the sounds of his fellow students within the crowd being accosted by the press, and from what he could hear they were asking about All-Might.
When he woke up today, the last thing Izuku wanted to deal with was immediately being surrounded by reporters when he reached the school, with one woman taking the lead to interview him -"Hey you!"
As usual for the green-haired teen, his nervousness came right in, making him shake from so much attention.
-"Can you tell us what it's like to work so closely with All Might?" the reporter asked.
Izuku was very much caught off guard by the sudden attention on him -"U-Uhm sorry I have to go to the uh… the nurse's office!" he tried to excuse himself while backing up into the school -"Yeah! Right away!"
Disappointed, the reporter then went and asked another student coming by, who just so happened to be Ochaco, -"Are you one of All Might's students? Tell us– what's the symbol of peace like in person?!"
-"Uhm… What's he like?" The girl really didn't know how to answer that, -"Well uh… he's super muscle-y. Yeah!"
Again not getting a good answer from the teenagers, the woman went on to try with another student, this time it was Iida, -"How is he faring as a teacher? What are you learning?"
Unfortunately for her, she might have bitten off more than she can chew.
-"His leadership and wisdom remind me on a daily basis that I attend the world's most prestigious educational institution." Iida answered, but with each phrase he became more and more intense and sincere in his response, -"Of course, he's the personification of honor and integrity that one would expect, but he's also not afraid to show his students a more humorous side. It's truly a unique opportunity to be under the direct tutelage of the pro we all admire."
By the end of it, every reporter there was almost considering giving up, given how not a single answer was explanatory AND short. Before that though, the woman tried with another teenager going in. Arguably the worst one for this kind of thing. Bakugou.
-"Excuse me, kid! Are you in All Might's class?" She then noticed who she was trying to talk to, -"Oh, hold on. Aren't you that Sludge Villain kid?"
And Bakugou was obviously not happy to have people remember that particular event that happened in his life.
What happened was that, 10 months ago, Bakugou kicked a bottle that coincidentally contained a villain with a sludge-like quirk. That villain used him as a hostage and the heroes couldn't do anything in fear of hurting Bakugou in the process. Fortunately, All Might came in and saved his ass.
But the worst part is that Deku had shown up just before that and distracted the villain to try to release him. It may have not worked, but it was still much more than the heroes or even himself had done.
And now he had to go to school with the nerd. That angered him even more and he simply tried to bury that memory and go in without saying a word to the press.
Luckly, no other student was going to be questioned, because the Class 1-A homeroom teacher arrived at the entrance.
-"Please sir, can you get All Might for us?" begged the reporter, a little afraid of Aizawa due to his… appearance -"Also, you look like a mess, what's your deal?"
-"All Might's not on campus today." he responded, sounding weirdly on edge -"Now get outta here, you've disturbed my students enough already." he then waved his hand as to 'shoo' them away and turned his back.
The woman, and the rest of the press by extension became louder as Aizawa walked away, -"But my viewers wanna know how he's adjusting to life as a teacher!"
-"Wow." Was the only response Ben had. Maybe in the beginning he had been able to pull a crowd like this everywhere he entered, but nowadays people in his world are kinda used to him. -'Is this jealousy I'm feeling?'
Focusing on the now, he noticed that the reporters were probably not going away any time soon. and he couldn't really talk to them to not risk anything.
-'Guess I'll just have to find a way around.' Looking to his side he spotted a good place to transform, and he knew just the right alien to get the job done. Walking over to a nearby tree obscured by some shadow, he opened the Omnitrix's dial and went searching for the transformation. -"Grey Matter should be small enough to pass unnoticed."
Finding his Galvan transformation, he slapped the dial to change. But the Omnitrix had other plans.
Instead of Grey Matter, he was now WAY smaller, about a centimeter tall. He was made of gray silicon-based alloy with a green circuit-like design on it and triangular feet. Now possessing four green wings capable of flight, as well as one large green cyclopean-eye. The Omnitrix symbol rested on his chest, as per usual.
-"Nanomech? Aw man." he spoke with a now very squeaky robotic voice, -"At least it's a small one. Nobody will see me anyway."
With that he took flight towards the entrance, passing every reporter between their feet.
-"I feel like I've seen that guy before. But where?" he heard one of the reporters mention.
-"I don't know, but he's a bit scruffy for a hero…" another one muttered.
-'How does All Might get anything done with this media circus stepping on his cape?' Thought Aizawa, annoyed.
That first woman reporter got angry at the hero dismissing them and started to take steps towards entering the school -"All right. If you won't bring All Might out, I'll–"
-"OUCH!" They all heard a cameraman squeak.
-"AHH!" Another one let out while almost tripping and falling.
-"What's happeni- AHH My leg!" A reporter screamed, holding up her leg as if something had bit her.
-"Huh?" Aizawa noticed the commotion and turned around to see what was causing it. He watched as one by one the reporters started skipping around and holding their legs, as if there was something messing with their feet, but as far as anyone could see, there was nothing.
In reality, Nanomech saw that reporter wanting to trespass the grounds and decided to do the same thing he did when the press showed up at his head for the first time -'Except more… controlled. And annoying.'
Making sure he didn't actually hurt any of them, Ben shrinked to a size smaller than an ant and started zapping the legs and feets of the entire press there, causing them to think that maybe they were being bitten by mosquitos or something.
Ben then went up in the air right in front of the gate to see if someone was leaving, -"Hehe, this might make them leave for now."
But as his eyes wandered the crowd he couldn't help but notice the strange figure across the street. Upon noticing him Ben raised a brow at his strange appearance, he looked to be a few years older than Ben and had pale skin that looked desiccated and needed moisturizing badly. He had long pale blue hair, but the most noticeable thing to Ben at least were his eyes. They were so full of hatred and poison, focused purely on the school.
Ben shuddered at the sight; they reminded him so much of a certain rogue of his, Captain Nemesis. He still remember the look the orange themed villain gave him when he caught up to him after what he did to that poor driver. Explaining to a family why their husband or son was missing a face had to be hard for whichever cop that was forced to do that made a wave of sympathy rush over the hero as the memory of the "Incident" rang into his mind.
His old memory was interrupted when a red light appeared and an alarm was set off behind him. Turning around, he saw a protective metal barrier form inside the gate, not allowing anyone to come in or out, probably activated by the woman that was close to it and now on the ground due to the surprise. He figured a military base would have this, not a school.
After the initial shock, the verdant hero turned to look back at where the strange man stood only to see he was no longer present. He briefly wondered where he went before deciding to go into the school so that he wouldn't miss class.
Dropping by behind a tree and making sure no one saw him, Nanomech pressed the Omnitrix Symbol on his chest and turned back to human. He could see Aizawa and a teacher he didn't remember the name of, though he was pretty sure it was Present Mike or something, stood right at the front of the doors to the school.
-"Hey, Mr. Aizawa" He greeted and bowed when he remembered the customs of the country.
-"Tennyson." Came a dry greeting from the overworked hero. Clearly he wasn't in the mood for talking.
Good thing Ben didn't figure it out it was because of him.
In contrast, his friend was in a good mood, -"Heyya Tennyson!" Present Mic greeted bearing his signature wide smile -"You better hurry if you want to have small talk with your friends before the sour puss gets there." He joked causing his fellow teacher to glare at him causing him to flinch.
Ben chuckled and jogged past the duo. As he walked upstairs he could see the defensive barrier raised. He couldn't help but whistle impressed.
-"Man, they didn't skimp out on protection." He admired the massive wall of metal that would block most from entering but Ben debated on how they intended to stop flying enemies and someone like Way Big, but hey maybe there wasn't anyone large enough in this world to simply step over that large of a wall.
Shrugging he jogged up the rest of the stairs and quickly entered his home room.
-Musutafu-
While the mood of the school was relatively good, the mood on a particular car… was not. Naomasa drove through the streets with worry in his mind.
Today he was going to check out where his charge first appeared in this world. It had been almost 2 weeks since the teen entered his life, and every time he thought about the boy and his story he would get a massive headache. Because despite the period of time he had to process this information he simply couldn't comprehend it.
A 16-year-old with an alien watch that allowed him to transform into who knows how many different aliens came from an alternative universe where not only aliens were real but so was magic. He remembered when Ben explained to him what his cousin could do.
He clutched his temples as he felt another headache coming on and took a pill from his pocket, -"I swear people are gonna think I am addicted to aspirin at this point." he said, groaning to himself and turning into a parking place just across the street from the alleyway.
He sighed and walked over, once at the entrance he looked around and immediately knew he found the right place as on either side of the alleyway were smudges or more closely scorch marks from the teleportation process with the largest being on the ground forming a circle which at the epicenter of which was likely where Ben had found himself.
-"Now where is it?" He questioned.
–Back at U.A–
As the class settled in, their sleep-deprived teacher entered the classroom, the shaggy teacher looked down at the papers in his hand before speaking.
-"Decent work on yesterday's combat training you guys I went over the video feeds and went over each of your team's results. Bakugo, you acted rashly and volatile during the combat training you broke the rules and in the process, you not only destroyed the fake bomb but worse yet injured Uraraka and nearly killed your teammate Ilda, what do you say about this?"
-"What about it? I was just playing the villain or whatever. Not like I killed them." Aizawa, hearing this, pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed by the boy's behavior.
-"But you could have. Should they have been a second slower, they would be dead. Your attitude was beyond limits. We'll talk about it later." He spoke seriously, his tired eyes seemingly attempting to bore a hole into the teen trying to get his point across.
Bakugou for once looked shaken but quickly recovered and simply responded with a simple "tsk" but muttered under his breath -"Yes sir" shaking his head seeing this as good enough.
-"And Midoriya," He said, causing the greenette to jump as he was spoken to looking down when Aizawa called his name. -"Instead of breaking your arm again, you settled it by not even using your quirk once."
Midoriya was fully expecting his teacher to give him another scolding and talk about how he's not hero material. Lucky for him, Aizawa went on an entirely different route.
-"That was good work. You took the role of a leader of your team in a nice manner and was able to beat a stronger opponent and command a wild card in the process without issue. Though your reluctance to use your quirk isn't great, the fact you easily won and came out of the fight without any injuries was impressive. But I must reiterate that you can't keep not using it because you can't control it. As long as you fix the control issue, there's a lot you'll be able to do." Aizawa explained to Midoriya.
The teen was extremely surprised by his teacher's words, and upon hearing and processing all of this, he looked up at Aizawa and smiled at his words.
-"Yes, sir! Thank you!"
-"So, show a little urgency, huh." he commented.
-"Right!"
-"Now for our resident exchange student…" He spoke, though if there was a specialist in the room, they would be able to hear the slight venom in his voice when speaking towards Ben. His eyes turned to the brunette student, who had been distracted looking out at the raised defensive wall.
After school hours ended yesterday, both him and Midnight went to the principal's office to question him about Ben's capabilities shown in the fights. What he learned was much more than he asked for.
Learning that Ben was a quirkless human from another universe capable of transforming himself into aliens with a small piece of technology was… too much to believe in. But when All Might and later the detective confirmed it, Aizawa was thrown into a situation that he really didn't know how to approach.
The only thing he knew… was that he was afraid. Afraid of Ben's capabilities. Afraid of how far he would go and how much he's willing to 'play along'. But Aizawa himself needed to play along so that nobody would suspect him, especially not his student/target.
-"Yes sir?" He was startled by being questioned.
-"Well for one I was informed that you partook in two battles during the exercise one as a hero and the second as a villain. Is this correct?" He asked, still wary of how Ben would respond.
-"Yeah, I suggested it as a way to get around having an odd number of people" He spoke, the way he said it was more carefree than he intended.
-"I understand you're still adapting from being in America but you should work on your manners" Aizawa criticized, narrowing his eyes, annoyed. -"Anyways, I have seen your performance during both fights and I have to say you've performed admirably and shown great battle tuition, but in both battles you've made several mistakes" Aizawa chastised. -"First in the first round, you could not work with your teammates but I have been informed by All Might that this was likely due to the transformation you had chosen I believe."
-"Yes sir, I give each of my transformations their own unique name so I can easily differentiate them. To me I think of each transformation as their own person, since the DNA of certain animals can change a lot of my personality. It's just that the instincts of tiger DNA affects my mentality a lot" Ben explained. -"... i-in an aggressive way." he said, trying his best not to blow his cover, he added to this by rubbing the back of his head bashfully.
Aizawa's eyes narrowed at the teen staring at him for an uncomfortable amount of time before nodding slowly, -"Hmm, alright" Was all Aizawa said before continuing -"As for your second battle I don't have much to say except you were sloppy you bursted through the floor with no regards of your teammates or worse yet the bomb." He complained.
-"I am sorry, I was in a rush to get to the fight and relieve my teammates, cause with the power Todoroki showed I didn't want to risk him taking them out." he apologized, though he sounded a little confrontational about it.
Aizawa narrowed his eyes even more now, noticing the slight confrontational tone in Ben's voice, but decided to let it drop for now. -"Alright, that's all I have for you on that, now let's get down to business." he addressed the class. -"Our first task will decide your future."
The class was instantly scared of his next words -'Is it another Quirk test?' most of them thought.
-"You all need to pick a class representative."
-'Oh good! Just normal school stuff!' They all breathed a sigh of relief.
-"Pick me, guys! I wanna be class rep!" screamed the red-haired boy.
-"I'll take it!" said Kaminari while raising his hand.
Almost immediately after Jiro raised her arm as well -"Yeah, you're gonna need me."
Aoyama got excited as well and went for it -"Someone with style would be bes-."
Unfortunately he again got overshadowed by Mina -"I'm, like, totally the right pick!"
Ben was confused about such a ruckus being caused just to be the class president, most people in his old school would probably want to stay away from such positions so that they could focus only on studying without more responsibility on their backs. He went to ask his friends in front of him: -"Hey guys, what's so special about being a class rep anyway?"
Momo turned around surprised, -"Huh? You never had that in your school?"
-"Yeah, but not like this really, not in a school meant for heroes."
Izuku was the first to answer, -"In a normal classroom, a representative's duties would be just a bunch of extra work. But here there's more to it."
-"What would that be?" Ben curiously asked.
This time, Momo answered him, -"Being a class representative means you'll most likely get noticed more by agencies and it can show your skill regarding leading a large team like some pro heroes do."
-"Oh right." He remembered that Naomasa had mentioned to him about the hero agencies in this world, but he was honest to himself, it looked more like an exhausting job than it was worth and not at all what heroes are like in his world -"Thanks Momo."
-"Silence, everyone, please!"
Iida screamed to get everyone's attention on him and to stop the fuzz, which worked.
-"The class representative's duty is to lead others. That's not something just anyone can do. You must first have the trust of every student in the classroom. Therefore, the most logical way to fill this position is democratically. We will hold an election to choose our leader!" Iida spoke with conviction in his voice.
-"It's pretty obvious you want us to vote for you." Almost everyone in the class immediately said after he finished.
-"Is this really the best idea?" Kaminari questioned.
-"We've only known each other a few days, how do we know who we can trust?" said Tsuyu.
-"Besides, everyone will just vote for themselves." The red-haired boy tried to argue.
-"Most people will." Iida argued back. -"But that means whoever does receive multiple votes must truly be the most suitable person for the job." He then looked at Aizawa, who at this point was getting into his sleep cocoon, -"It's the best way, right sir?"
-"Do what you want, just decide before my nap's over." he said, zipping up his sleeping bag and dropping to the ground on the side of the room.
-"Thank you for your trust!"
All the while Ben was simply dumbfounded that the homeroom teacher of the number 1 school for heroes just… took a nap in the middle of class and left the students for their own accords! -'Why is nobody saying anything about this?!'
What the students didn't notice during the whole thing was that Aizawa never took a nap in the first place. He was awake through the entire thing. While he was reluctant to even play this card, only doing it to see how well the students behave and treat each other with seemingly no supervision, he decided to do it anyway because he wanted to know if Tennyson would try anything.
What if Ben decided to simply take over the class when he thought no one was looking? Or hurt any of his students? The doubt in his mind about this boy was too much, but he stayed strong and didn't make a single wrong move to raise suspicion.
- Some Minutes Later -
The class organized itself in a timely manner and started making the choices on who should be the class rep, with the names of the votes being written in the chalkboard along with the number of votes each got on the side. By the end of it, the final results were in the board.
-"Wait, I actually got four votes!" exclaimed Ben.
It was relatively calm and surprisingly nobody made a scene about it.
-"How did I get three votes?!" exclaimed Izuku, surprised that he even got votes from others at all!
Well… all but one person.
-"Okay you idiots, WHO VOTED FOR HIM?" Bakugou demanded, standing up.
-"What, did you honestly think anyone was gonna vote for you?" said the black-haired boy, seriously doubting Bakugou's ability to think right.
-"Especially after what you did yesterday." said Jiro, with some venom in her voice.
Bakugou didn't even have an answer to that, the amount of scolding he received and the guilt he felt lately has put his mind in a weird place. Without a comeback, Bakugou simply sat again with his arms crossed and grumbling.
Meanwhile, Uraraka was simply whistling away in the back, deciding to keep her vote for herself.
-"Zero votes." said Iida, literally shaken by not having anyone vote for him, -"I fear this might happen, but I can't argue with the system I chose."
-"So you voted for someone else, huh?" Momo questioned.
-"But you knew it was best to vote for yourself, right?" said the boy with brown spiky hair and thick lips -"What were you tryin' to prove here, Iida?"
Todoroki merely observed the scene but stayed in silence through it all, he made his choice and had no desire to say who he had voted for.
-"Alright," said Aizawa after the students stopped talking -"The class rep is Tennyson, and our deputy is Midoriya."
-"Damn, how did the late exchange student become the class rep?" Kaminari joked to Jiro.
-"It's the Green Boys in the front of it all." she joked back.
Both students stood in the front of the class, ready to accept their roles. Well, at least one of them was. The other was shaking in his boots, still surprised at the outcome.
-"R-Really? Uh. It's not a mistake?" said Midoriya.
-"Hey dude, it's alright, that's a good thing!" Ben tried to comfort him.
-"This might not be so bad." said Tsuyu.
-"Yeah, I can get behind Midoriya I guess." said the red-haired boy.
-"Ben was awesome at both fights and the teams came out on top because of it." praised Kaminari.
But none of them were paying attention to the two students skulking and sad that they weren't the ones chosen to be the reps.
- Streets of Musutafu -
If he was worried before, now he is almost losing his mind… in a calm manner.
After searching the alleyway for about 30 minutes, it was clear to Detective Tsukauchi that the pieces he was looking for weren't there. He was sure that Ben didn't send him in a wild goose chase since everything he said before was true, which leaves two options: Either Ben got confused with what he saw…
-'...or someone took them.' he dreadly thought.
Already worried about the possibility of someone finding out who Ben is, there was now the possibility of a random citizen getting his hands on pieces of alien tech! Even if they couldn't do anything, a single search through the periodic table would prove that those materials simply didn't exist on Earth.
Going from door to door of the two buildings that made up the alley, he looked for any sign of someone taking it to make a quick buck, or use it to hold the door, or anything really. Even though it wasn't standard procedure, he couldn't really file a report on the metal or even get permission to do this without other people suspecting it.
*Knock* *Knock*
The door opened to an old lady in a casual flower dress, glasses and white hair tied up in a bum. She said in a welcoming voice -"Yes?"
Tsukauchi smiled at her -"Good afternoon ma'am, I'm detective Naomasa Tsukauchi of the Musutafu City Police Department, could I take a little bit of your time to ask you some quick questions?" He then showed her his police badge.
-"Oh, of course! It's no problem at all, officer." She smiled and opened the door to a full -"Do you wish to go in?"
-"Oh no, it's okay ma'am." Naomasa took out his notepad -"Did you notice anything unusual happening about two weeks ago?"
-"What do you mean by unusual?"
-"Strange sounds, bright lights coming from the alley, a neighbor being more noisy than usual, anything."
-"We live in an unusual world my dear." she answered with a sarcastic but kind smile.
He chuckled at that statement. The lady looked very old and probably saw the evolution of quirks appearing more than before, -"It's true." He also should probably make the question less ambiguous.
The lady then realized something -"Actually I do remember one thing."
The detective quickly focused on the old lady's words.
-"A couple of weeks ago I was getting out to go buy some groceries and one of my neighbors, Chikara- Arata Chikara if I'm not mistaken." the detective simply motioned for her to continue while writing everything -"He lives right above me. We don't speak much, but whenever we see each other, he kindly greets me. He even went back to give me misplaced mail and helped me with my groceries one time, very nice man."
The detective noticed her getting a bit distracted and pulled her back in by coughing in his hand. -"Ahem."
-"Ah yes, sorry dear." he chuckled and Naomasa dismissed her worries -"Anyway I was going out to the shop and he entered the building pretty fast with a big box covered in a sheet. I greeted him, but he just went past me really fast, going up the stairs without even acknowledging me. I found it weird, but didn't think much of it. But then the next few days I could hear loud Clunk sounds coming from his apartment and we even had the lights flicker and malfunction a lot of times since then."
That sounded like the guy Naomasa was looking for, but he still needed to be absolutely sure -"You said that he lives right on top of you right?"
-"Yes. Oh boy I hope he didn' do anything wrong…" she sounded worried.
-"Don't worry man, it doesn't have to do with him specifically." He smiled trying to reassure her that everything would be fine -"I thank you for your time Mrs…"
-"Hikaru Kazumi, young man, and it was my pleasure!"
Naomasa took of his hat and bowed to her -"Thank you Ms. Kazumi, I- Huh?"
Before he could even go check on the man, his cell phone started ringing. He took it out and answered it.
-"Hello, Detective Tsukauchi speaking."
Ms. Kazumi could see his eyes widening, fear and surprise implanted in his face and as he ran off out of the building and into to his car, she wondered if everything was fine.
- U.A. Cafeteria -
After the class reps were decided, the break was announced and all students went to the cafeteria, getting their cheap lunch in "Lunch Rush's Eatery" and later forming groups at the tables to eat together like the day before.
Uraraka sighed at the table with her friends -"It's always so crowded here!"
Currently, said people are made up of her, Iida, Izuku, Ben and Momo.
-"That's because students in the support, management and hero courses all share the same cafeteria." answered Iida.
-"Man, how many students even are in this school?" asked Ben.
-"I don't know, but as long as they can keep making this delicious rice, I don't care!" Uraraka was gobbling up the bow in her hand.
And Ben was doing the same, -"I have to agree, this stuff is great!"
While one of the group was merely staring at his food, -"Guys, I'm kinda worried about the class rep thing, I don't think I'm qualified." said Midoriya.
-"Sure you are." Uraraka dismissed quickly to eat more.
-"Yeah man, I think we can be good." reassured Ben.
-"You'll be great." reaffirmed Iida.
Izuku was confused, -"Hm?"
-"Your courage and quick thinking under stress will help make you a worthy leader. Not to mention the strength you've demonstrated. Those are the reasons I voted for you at least."
-"You were one of the three?" That was a surprise for Izuku.
-"So that's who you voted for." Momo realized.
-"Didn't you wanna be rep really badly Iida, I mean you do look the part." said Uraraka
-'That's not exactly how we should be choosing our rep.'Midoriya and Momo thought.
-"Wanting a job and being suited for it are quite different things. Observing the Iida family's hero agency has taught me that much."
-"Agency?" Izuku, Ochaco and Ben asked at the same time.
-"Hold on, what does your family do?" asked Midoriya.
-"Uh- Oh it's nothing." Iida said, embarrassed to talk about it.
All the while Momo was simply enjoying the scene quietly.
-"You know, I've been wondering something about you. Admit it Iida." Uraraka got excited -"You're filthy rich!"
-"Uh– I was afraid people would treat me differently if they knew about my family."
Ben was just confused by it all -"Uh– Hey! Foreign here! What are you talking about? Who's your family really?"
Iida sighed, -"I guess I'll explain. You see, the Iidas have been pro-heroes for generations. It runs in our blood."
-"What? That's awesome!" Ochaco and Izuku said in unison.
-"Are any of you familiar with the Turbo Hero, Ingenium?"
-"I know all about him! He's a super popular pro with 65 sidekicks working alongside him at his Tokyo agency!" said Izuku.
That was a whiplash for Ben. Having a bunch of superheroes in your world was one thing, but he severely underestimated just HOW many people were part of it -'65 sidekicks… not pro-heroes, just sidekicks.' He felt like one big fish in a small pond that has a million small fish in it.
-"Don't tell me…" Izuku realized.
-"He's my elder brother!" Tenya stood proud at that.
-"Your family's famous!" exclaimed Uraraka.
-"I can't believe it!" said Izuku.
-"Momo, you don't seem surprised at all." questioned Ben with a snarky smile.
-"Wait, Yaoyorozu, did you already know?" Izuku asked, confused.
-"I knew who he was the moment he introduced himself." She revealed -"It wasn't hard to figure it out honestly. Our families know about each other even."
Uraraka was definitely the most surprised of all -"Wait, Yaoyorozu, what does YOUR family do that you know Iida's by name?"
-"Well, i-it's complicated… It's not really something easy to explain." she awkwardly answered.
They could clearly see that she wasn't comfortable talking about it at the moment, so Ben decided to switch the topic back to Iida's family.
-"So, it seems that you look up to your brother a lot, Iida."
He was back to his cheery mood, -"Ingenium is an unmatched commander who honors the hero code. As the second oldest Iida son, I strive to be just like him. However I think it might be a bit soon for me to be in a real leadership role."
-"Why do you think that?"
-"Look at you Ben, for example."
-"What, me?"
-"Yeah. When All Might and the rest of the class still thought about how to make you fit, you almost instantly gave a good solution that would be fair to both parties and it worked perfectly."
Momo added in, -"And when we were formulating a plan together, you were the one to come up with the idea of sticking the bomb with metal and stay communicated."
-"And you Midoriya," Tenya turned to the boy with green hair -"You figured out what the judges were looking for in the practical exam. A rep needs that sort of insight."
Midoriya was happy to receive support from his friend, -'Iida wants to be like Ingenium in the same way I wanna be like All Might. But he shouldn't be so hard on himself. I was clueless in that test.' -"Hey, yeah, so about the practical exam-"
Before he could answer, the school bell echoed through the cafeteria.
-"What is that?!" Asked Izuku, confused about the sudden alarm.
The automated voice on the school speakers revealed -"WARNING. LEVEL THREE SECURITY BREACH."
-"No way." A student beside the group exclaimed.
-"ALL STUDENTS PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING IN A ORDERLY FASHION."
-"What's a 'Level Three Security Breach'?" Iida the student.
-"It means that someone's managed to get past the school's barrier! This hasn't happened in my three years here." The boy got up and ran with his friends -"We should get going."
-"I suggest we do the same!" Momo worriedly said to them.
-"Yeah, let's go!" said Iida, pointing to the exit.
-"I'll be right behind you guys! I need to go grab something first!" Ben screamed while running in the opposite direction, towards one of the stairs.
-"Wait, Tennyson! Don't go!" He tried calling out, but it was too late, Ben had already gone outside their view.
- Corridors at U.A. -
- Upward Level -
Instead of going with the rest of the school, Ben instantly decided to see what caused such an alarm to be set off. He's a hero first and foremost and if a bad guy infiltrated the school for whatever reason, he needed to catch him quick!
-'I need to find whoever broke in quick, before someone spots me!'
Running through the hallways of the school, floor by floor, he tried to find anyone that looked out of place.
-'If I invaded a school… where would I go?' He thought for a moment before realizing where most of the important information could be held -'The Principal's office!'
Immediately Ben went straight for it, choosing to go on foot instead of an alien just in case there was a lost student that might see him.
He turned into a corridor after going up another floor towards the office, but before he reached it, he heard some rumbling coming from the Administration Office. Due to the alarm, most teachers were probably outside trying to guide and protect the students and see if there was someone at the gate, -'The perfect opportunity.'
Running towards the office, he saw a figure emerge from the secondary door further away from him, but he couldn't make out who it was as they were wearing a hoodie and cape covering his identity.
-"Hey you!" Ben called out for afar. The figure froze and instantly began to run away from him.
Choosing to end this quickly, Ben activated his watch, selected the right alien for the job… -'Come on XLR8!' and slapped it!
Unfortunately the Omnitrix had another alien he thought best.
Now at only six inches tall, Grey Matter stood annoyed. -"Oh, NOW you give me Grey Matter?! Come on new Omnitrix…" he groaned.
Even in this unfortunate predicament, Ben still decided to run and catch the now way larger and faster opponent.
-"Stupid small Galvan legs!" He complained to no one in particular.
Still trying to catch up to the supposed villain, he turned a corner to see nobody in sight, seemingly having lost him.
-"Damn it!" He pointed to the Omnitrix symbol and spoke to it in anger -"Next time you give me the wrong alien, I'll upgrade you myself."
With his anger out of the way, Ben chose to go back to his human form, seeing that nobody was in sight. Walking away slowly, making sure nobody would catch him, he tried to go back to the cafeteria and see if there was anybody there and what was happening.
Unfortunately, he just happened to bump into another teacher from the school, one much more evil looking.
He was a tall man with completely blank eyes tilted inwards. His costume was a tan cloak that covered most of his body, the area over his torso, and the high collar resembling that of a double-breasted trench coat. Underneath this, he wore a skin-tight black bodysuit with a golden striped neck area and a matching black helmet that covers his entire head, a jaw-guard attached over his nose and around his jaw, and circular mufflers. He also wore baggy dark gray pants and a pair of thin, lightweight prosthetic legs.
This imposing figure was the hero known as Ectoplasm, U.A.'s mathematics teacher. Ben had seen him the day before alongside his classmates, teaching them the first math class in the year.
-"Oh uh– Hi!" Ben said awkwardly.
-"What are you doing here, student? You were supposed to be evacuating with the others." he said with a deep and almost robotic scary voice. Though Ben doubted that's the impression the hero wanted to have on others.
-"Uh… Funny story actually!" The teen said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
- Corridors at U.A. -
- Ground Level -
The hall was filled to the brim with students and the traffic was slow and aggressive as there is only one exit to the school.
-"Stop shovin' so hard!" one student called out.
-"Wait, I'm getting trampled!" another one screamed.
-"I said, stop pushing me!"
-"Ow!" Uraraka said due to how much they had to squeeze in just to walk, -"This is a total mob!"
-"Everyone was quick to react. As I'd expect from U.A. students."
Even in this situation, Iida still found a way to compliment the school.
-"Sure. But they're also causing a huge panic." Izuku then saw that there was one person from the group already missing -"Where's Ben?!"
-"He said that… that he had to grab something before coming with us and just left in a hurry." said Yaoyorozu, struggling to even speak due to how many people were pushing them.
-"He's out there alone?" Before Izuku could suggest they go after him, the amount of unease of the students around him grew and he was carried by the current -"Crap! I said stop!"
-"Godspeed, Midoriya!" cried out Iida.
-"Hold on!" Called out Momo in worry.
-"Oh no, Deku!" said a worried Uraraka.
Iida wanted to know if he could see what was really happening, so he went towards the window of the corridor -"Who in the world could've trespassed onto campus ground?" he asked himself.
Looking outside he could see a crowd in the distance and realize what had actually occurred. That there was no villain attack.
-"It's… the press that was outside!"
- Front Doors-
-"All you have to do is give us All Might!" The woman reporter from earlier demanded from Aizawa and Present Mic while holding the microphone close to them -"He's here somewhere!"
They as always were trying to calm the whole situation down, -"We said it's his day off." said Mic.
-"Just give us one good comment on record and then we'll leave." one of the reporters promised.
But Aizawa had played this game for a long time, -"I know how you people work, give you an inch and you'll want a mile."
Present Mic then went to his friend's ear and whispered to him: -"They're trespassing. That means they're kinda like villains. Why don't we just beat 'em up?"
-"Unless you want your name dragged through the mud, don't even think about it. Let's wait for the cops." said Aizawa calmly.
Present Mic simply growled in response with annoyance.
- Corridors at U.A. -
- Ground Level -
-"I was afraid it was some kind of attack on the school, but there's no need to worry, everyone!" Iida tried warning, but no one was paying him any attention, too scared to realize it.
-"Ow!" one student called out.
-"Sorry, I think I…" and another.
-"Back off!" and another…
-'Where are the teachers? Why aren't they taking control?'Tenya asked himself.
-"Everyone stop freakin' out!" the red-haired boy tried calling out to the others.
-"The current's too strong!" said Kaminari, being taken away alongside his friend by the mass of people there.
-"Kirishima! Kaminari!" Iida tried calling them.
Momo was able to come close to him and yell -"I don't think anyone will listen, Iida! There's just too many people and they're scared!"
-"AHH" They heard a familiar voice scream. -"Help me!"
-"Uraraka!" They both called out as they saw her being taken away just like Kaminari and Kirishima were.
Iida tried thinking of a plan that might work in this situation. His mind immediately went to his brother, the person he admired most in the world -'What would my brother do, how would he handle this?'
An idea popped into his head. One that just might work.
-"You're right Yaoyorozu! We need to be louder!" he extended his hand towards her, -"Make a megaphone!"
Immediately understanding what he was planning, she opened up the belly part of her uniform and materialized a megaphone from it, handing it to him as fast as possible: -"Here!"
He took it and then went after Uraraka, slow and steady, with Yaoyorozu following close behind. After almost reaching her, he screamed -"I have an idea!" Iida then extended his hand to her -"Touch my hand!"
Uraraka noticed him, but was confused by it.
-"Make me float above everyone else!"
She understood and trusted him. Trying to touch his fingertips with hers was difficult, but after some tries, she was able to just mildly braze them.
Starting to float due to the loss of gravity in his body, Iida took a breath and calmed his mind -'This is it. Be concise, clear and confident! Make an impact!'
He switched on the megaphone and spoke into it.
-"EVERYONE! Listen up, everything is okay!"
Everybody in the entire corridor stopped to hear the loud announcement coming from above their heads.
-"Look out the window, it's just the media outside. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. Everything's fine! We're U.A. students. We need to remain calm and prove that we're the best of the best."
The students all started calming down, one by one. Sighs of relief were coming out all around, including from kamiraki and Kirishima.
Deku watched in awe as Iida put on a brave face for such a large crowd of scared people.
-"Look, the police are here!" a girl mentioned.
-"Thank goodness." a boy commented.
Another student appeared on top of everyone else alongside Iida, with the same megaphone as him
That was Yaoyorozu, -"Please everyone! Let us all return to our classes in a calm manner and wait for the official word from the teachers of this incident."
She addressed the crowd with conviction, yet with kindness in her voice. -"Please refrain from pushing each other and let's make sure no one was hurt in the panic. We were merely scared and that's understandable, but we have to look out for each other!"
The combination of both of them easily calmed everyone down and made them go back to their room without much trouble.
- Outside -
Sirens flashed as the police finally arrived at the scene. Present Mic called out in happiness: -"That's a wrap. Get these vultures out of our station!"
After a few minutes, Aizawa was then approached by Detective Naomasa, -"Hello, Eraser Head. Long time no see." the detective greeted him with a smile.
-"Nice to see you too, detective. We have a lot to talk about. Especially due to our mutual teenager friend." He made sure to mention that last part really quietly.
- Outside Class 1-A -
As the final students of the class 1-A approached their room, Ben finally reunited with them. -"Midoriya! Iida!" he called out.
Both classmates saw Ben approaching them with Ectoplasm.
-"Are you okay?" asked a worried Izuku.
-"Where were you?" asked an even more worried Iida.
-"I'm fine, just needed to grab something but it isn't important right now."
-"That was incredibly reckless, you know that right?" Iida said with conviction in his voice.
-"Huh? What do you mean, it was just the press and I went to get-"
-"If it was a real villain you could have been in grave danger. Since you didn't tell us where you were going and decided to simply run off on your own, none of us would know where to look. A teacher or even one of us could have run off to try looking for you in the middle of this chaos."
They both could see the worry in his face and how much he cared. Ben could protect himself easily, but they didn't know that, so to them he was just as helpless as the rest of the students.
-"And what if we happened to encounter a real villain and had to fight him? How would we explain that to a teacher? Or even to the rest of the class?" His face softened and his gaze got kinder, -"You should be more careful with your actions Ben, that are people here that care about you, and as the class rep, you should care about them too."
With that, he entered the class, leaving both green friends to think about things.
-"He's right, you know." Izuku was the first to speak.
"Yeah, I know…" he said, sounding defeated. -"I should have stayed with the group and coordinated everyone. That's what a good class rep would do anyways."
-"But I guess we both failed at our jobs today." Midoriya admitted, sounding just as defeated as Ben -"I could have helped more, but I didn't. It was too much chaos and I didn't know what to do."
An idea then popped into Ben's mind -"Hey Midoriya, how about we actually do something good with our positions?" he smirked.
-"Huh? What do you mean?"
-"Just hear me out." And the two conversed in secret just outside the classroom.
- U.A. Entrance Gate -
The principal was standing in front of what was once the U.A. Gate, now reduced to a mere pile of almost disintegrated and decayed metal dust. His hands were behind his back, clutching each other out of anger for such a failure in protection.
He questioned to himself: -"How were ordinary members of the press able to bypass our security systems? Someone else must have been behind this. Some villain actually manage to infiltrate our school. But was this purely a show of power or a declaration of war?"
Behind him were Midnight, Thirteen and Recovery Girl, the first of which signaled the other two to go back inside while she came close to him spoke:
-"Sir, I think we need to consider the option that maybe it wasn't just an outsider."
Without turning to look her in the eye, he deducted -"You're suggesting that Mr. Tennyson either did this or helped make it happen, am I correct?"
Her gaze became stern, -"After what you told me and Aizawa, and even prevented us from telling our closest and most trusted friend, I can't help but think that might be the case."
-"While there's always the chance I'm wrong, I know this wasn't him."
-"Respectfully, how can you know this sir?" she questioned.
Nezu knew the sign of an infiltrator when he saw one, and Ben didn't have those qualities. While he clearly didn't know anything about Benjamin, his intelligence deduced that if Ben wanted U.A. gone, he could have done so in a thousand other ways. The boy was unpredictable, but also extremely kind and too naive to be this much of a mastermind.
And also, he had cameras inside the school, and saw that Ben was eating lunch with classmates when the alarm sounded, and since Naomasa confirmed he was the only person coming from another universe that landed on this one and that he didn't interacted with any villains before stopping the criminals in his first day in the city, Nezu knew there was something else at play here.
What he didn't knew was if that was good or if it scared him even more…
- Class 1-A -
All students of class 1-A had come back and taken their seats. The initial panic had subsided and they were just waiting for their class presidents now to make announcements and their plans.
Ben and Midoriya were at the podium in front of the class.
-"Everyone, me and Midoriya have something to announce now before any procedure takes place."
The class was intrigued, especially their friends, since they didn't know about anything even though they stayed together the whole day.
-"Me and Ben thought about this and decided that it would be best if Tenya Iida and Momo Yaoyorozu were the class presidents instead of us."
To say that both students mentioned were surprised would be an understatement. They looked at each other to see if either knew about this, but it was clear this was news to the other one as well.
Midoriya continued -"Iida and Yaoyorozu were able to get everyone's attention, make us calm down and feel stronger with just words and get us in line."
Ben took over and continued to explain -"Iida also was the one to suggest we elected our reps and he didn't even vote for himself. That's a whole nother level of being honest and humble if you ask me." he then motioned over to Momo, -"And if it wasn't for Yaoyorozu's knowledge and skill, we would never have won that fight in the first place, she was the one to suggest the ice-resistant metal. She was the MVP in that."
-"We genuinely believe that they would be better suited to lead our class from now on." Midoriya concluded.
They were star stricken to receive such praise from their friends like that, and such an honor.
-"Yeah, you know what? If Ben and Midoriya vouch for them I'm good." said Kirishima.
-"They were both really big help, honestly." commented Kaminari.
Iida and Momo looked at their friends, waiting to see confirmation that this was indeed real. They both nodded at them, confirmed as such. Yaoyorozu almost started crying at such a display, but held herself back, simply choosing to smile in gratitude, with Iida taking the same route.
Both of them stood up from their seats. Yaoyorozu spoke first -"If they both agreed and nominated us for these important jobs…"
Then Iida continued with enthusiasm -"...then we humbly accept! We pledge to carry out the duties of class rep to the best of our abilities!"
-"Sounds great to me!" Said Jiro.
-"Hey, don't you have to run that by the teacher first?" Mina questioned.
-"We'll all talk to him about it when he comes back from talking to the cops." Ben answered while going to his seat. -'I hope you live up to the title, Iida. I never would have done well with paperwork anyway.'