Chapter 6: The Bus Ride to Nowhere
The next day, the unease from the break-in had mostly dissipated, replaced by the excitement of a field trip.
"Today's training will be a little different," Aizawa announced from the podium. "You'll have three instructors. Me, All Might, and one other. It will be Rescue Training."
"Rescue!" Kaminari pumped his fist. "Looks like we'll be showing off our utility!"
"Wear your costumes," Aizawa continued. "The facility is off-campus, so we're taking a bus."
Aokiji grabbed his briefcase. He decided to wear the suit. It offered mobility, and honestly, he just liked the pockets.
Outside, the bus was waiting. It was an open-layout vehicle with bench seating facing the center.
Aokiji boarded last. He scanned for a seat. The back row was full. He ended up sitting next to Todoroki.
Great, Aokiji thought. The freezer section.
As the bus rumbled through the city streets, the atmosphere was light.
"I say whatever comes to my mind," Tsuyu Asui, the frog girl, said suddenly. She looked at Midoriya. "Midoriya-chan, your Quirk is a lot like All Might's."
Midoriya panicked. "W-w-what?! You think so?! I mean, uh..."
"But All Might doesn't break his bones," Kirishima pointed out. "If we're talking about flashy, strong quirks, you gotta look at Bakugo, Todoroki, and Kuzan."
Aokiji, who had his sleeping mask pulled down over his eyes, felt the attention shift to him.
"Yeah," Kirishima continued. "Kuzan frozen that whole building. But I've been wondering... who's colder? Kuzan or Todoroki?"
The bus went quiet. It was the question everyone had been thinking. The two powerhouses of Class 1-A.
Todoroki didn't look up. He stared at the floor.
Aokiji lifted his sleeping mask. He looked at Todoroki, then at the curious faces of his classmates.
"It's different," Aokiji drawled lazily. "Todoroki creates ice. He generates it. It's aggressive. It expands." He held up a finger, and a small layer of frost covered it. "I am ice. Or rather, I become it. My cold is... passive. It's the absence of heat."
"So who would win?" Kaminari pressed.
Aokiji chuckled, a dry sound. "In a fight? Probably him. He cares more. I'd probably give up halfway through to go get a vending machine coffee."
The class laughed. The tension broke. Even Todoroki's shoulders seemed to relax a fraction of an inch, though he didn't smile.
"We're here," Aizawa called out. "Stop messing around."
The Unforeseen Simulation Joint (USJ)
The building was a dome of gargantuan proportions. Inside, it looked like a theme park of disasters. There was a shipwreck zone, a landslide zone, a mountain zone, a fire zone.
Standing at the entrance was the Space Hero, Thirteen.
"I love Thirteen!" Uraraka squealed.
Thirteen began a speech about the dangers of Quirks. "A power meant to save can easily kill. You must learn control."
Aokiji listened with half an ear. He was looking at the central plaza of the facility. The lights in the ceiling flickered.
Electrical malfunction? he wondered. In a high-tech facility like this?
Then, the fountain in the center of the plaza sputtered. A black hole, a swirling vortex of purple mist, expanded in the air.
It felt wrong. The air pressure in the dome dropped.
A hand reached out of the mist. Pale, sickly skin. Then a face, covered by a severed hand. A man with messy, light blue hair stepped out.
Behind him, dozens of others emerged. Monstrous shapes. Thugs with weapons. Mutants.
"Is this... part of the training?" Kirishima asked, squinting. "Like the entrance exam?"
Aizawa froze. His scarf began to float, his hair rising.
"Don't move!" Aizawa shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. "Those are villains!"
The word hung in the air. Villains.
Aokiji took a step back. His heart didn't race. Instead, his body temperature plummeted. His survival instinct was kicking in, turning his blood cold.
"Real villains?" Mineta squeaked. "Here? But... there's no way they could get in!"
"The sensor breach yesterday," Aokiji said, his voice unusually sharp. "It was them. They were waiting for an opening."
Down below, the man with the hands on his face—Shigaraki Tomura—looked up at the students.
"Eraserhead... and Thirteen," Shigaraki scratched his neck. "According to the schedule we retrieved... All Might should be here."
A massive, beak-faced creature stood beside him. The Nomu. It breathed heavily, a sound like a compressor engine.
"Where is he?" Shigaraki sighed, sounding like a disappointed child. "We went through so much trouble to bring this crowd... All Might... the Symbol of Peace... I wonder if he'll show up if we kill a few kids?"
The threat was casual, terrifyingly so.
Aizawa turned to Thirteen. "Protect the students! And try to contact the school!"
Aizawa leaped down the stairs, his capture weapon flying. He engaged the villains head-on, fighting like a demon.
"We have to go!" Iida yelled. "Everyone, to the exit!"
The class turned to run. But the purple mist was faster.
The vortex appeared in front of the door, blocking their path. Two glowing yellow eyes narrowed in the smoke. This was Kurogiri.
"I am afraid I cannot allow that," the mist spoke, his voice polite and deep. "We are the League of Villains. We have come to extinguish the breath of the Symbol of Peace."
Bakugo and Kirishima didn't hesitate. They lunged, explosions and hardened fists flying.
"Bet you didn't see us coming!" Bakugo roared.
They passed through the mist. It did nothing.
"Foolish," Kurogiri said. "Begone."
The mist expanded, enveloping the class. The floor disappeared.
Aokiji felt the sensation of falling. Space warped around him. He wasn't afraid. He was annoyed.
I just wanted a normal field trip, he thought as the darkness swallowed him. Now I have to work.
The Shipwreck Zone
Aokiji hit the water. It was cold, but not to him.
He sank for a moment, then opened his eyes. He was in the artificial lake. Around him, villains with aquatic quirks were swimming toward him like sharks sensing blood.
"An easy target!" one of them laughed, baring sharp teeth. "A fancy rich kid in a suit!"
Aokiji didn't swim. He simply righted himself in the water.
"You guys..." Aokiji's voice bubbled through the water, distorted but audible.
He touched the water with one finger.
"Ice Age."
CRACK.
In a millisecond, the entire Shipwreck Zone—millions of gallons of water—froze solid. The villains were caught mid-stroke, their faces frozen in expressions of shock.
Aokiji stood encased in the ice, then slowly phased through it, stepping onto the surface of the frozen lake. His suit was dry.
He looked around. Midoriya, Asui, and Mineta were on a boat nearby, staring at him with wide eyes. They had been terrified a moment ago. Now, they were surrounded by a silent, white wasteland.
Aokiji adjusted his sunglasses. He looked down at a villain whose head was sticking out of the ice near his feet.
"You interrupted my nap schedule," Aokiji said, crouching down. "That's bad luck."
He looked toward the center plaza, where Aizawa was fighting for his life.
"Guys," Aokiji called out to the boat. "I'm going to go see if I can help the teacher, that monster with the chicken-like beak gives off a strange sense of danger. Be careful not to let the villains break free from this ice."
He began to skate across the frozen lake, his hands in his pockets, sliding toward the center of the chaos. The lazy frostwalker was going to war.
.
.
.