Okay, I have no idea how I ended up on a school bus surrounded by three girls talking about Quirks. Is this some kind of otome game? Did I miss a secret route, or is my luck just that good?
Izuku settled into the window seat while Ochako, Kyoka, and Momo claimed the spots around him before he could even process when the arrangement had become official. Ochako had grabbed the seat in front and turned around on her knees, arms propped on the seatback as she talked. Kyoka sat across the aisle with one leg crossed over the other, her earphone jacks swaying lazily near her shoulders. Momo had taken the spot next to Izuku after politely asking if it was alright, which had almost cost him the ability to respond like a normal human being.
This is fine. Extremely fine.
At the back of the bus, Mineta was staring at him like he'd murdered his father.
If I ever die under mysterious circumstances, the grape boy tops the suspect list. Maybe I should leave a letter behind. "Dear authorities: if you're reading this, Mineta finally snapped after seeing me surrounded by women. Please look for evidence inside his sticky hair balls."
"Izuku-kun?"
Izuku blinked and snapped back to reality just in time to see Ochako waving a hand in front of his face.
"You spaced out again," she said, flashing him a bright smile. "Were you thinking about rescue stuff?"
"Of course, hero stuff," Izuku answered immediately.
Kyoka arched an eyebrow.
"That was way too fast."
"I was thinking about a lot of things," Izuku corrected, sitting up a little straighter. "The rescue stuff was definitely one of them."
"One of them?" Momo asked.
Her voice was perfectly polite and her costume was perfectly incapable of stopping Izuku from noticing the curve of her chest as she leaned slightly forward with interest.
Izuku! Don't let the sacred Yaoyorozu mountains destroy your professional image before the bus even leaves campus!
"Mostly the USJ," he said, gripping his seat a little tighter. "The facility has multiple disaster environments, right? Fire, flood, landslide, storm, probably urban debris too. If Thirteen's supervising, then the focus won't just be evacuating civilians. It's gonna be about how we move, communicate, and make decisions when the terrain's working against us."
Momo nodded, satisfied.
"That's a reasonable assumption. Rescue training requires more situational judgment than raw offensive power. Even the most potent Quirks become difficult to use if the environment limits visibility or movement."
"Yeah!" Ochako leaned further over the seatback, eyes shining. "Like if there's debris everywhere, I can float the heavy stuff out of the way! Or if someone's trapped up high, I can take their weight off and lower them down safely!"
"That sounds really useful," Kyoka said, tapping an earphone jack against her knee. "Way better than yelling at rocks until they move."
"Your Quirk could locate people before anyone else even knows where to dig," Izuku said. "That could be the difference between saving someone fast and wasting time in the wrong spot."
Kyoka looked at him for a moment and then glanced away with a small shrug.
"You make it sound more interesting than I do."
"That's because it is," Ochako said immediately. "Jiro-san, imagine everyone panicking 'cause they don't know where the trapped person is, and you just plug in and go 'over there.' That's amazing."
Kyoka's fingers closed around one of her earphone jacks.
"When you put it like that, it sounds a little less boring."
"It was never boring," Momo added. "Sound based reconnaissance has enormous tactical value. In fact, within a collapsed structure, your auditory range would let you construct a considerably more efficient search map than most of us."
Kyoka stared at her.
"Yaoyorozu, you somehow managed to turn a sincere compliment into a homework assignment."
"W-was that too analytical of me?"
"A little intense."
"I sincerely apologize for how I phrased that."
"Don't apologize. It was still a compliment. Just a really fancy one, and kinda weird."
Ochako laughed and tapped the seatback.
"See? This is why sitting together was a good idea. We haven't even gotten there and we're already boosting everyone's confidence."
"I'm not sure my confidence got boosted," Kyoka muttered.
"It totally did! You just don't wanna admit it 'cause you like acting cool."
Izuku smiled at the exchange. Ochako had a way of cutting through awkwardness without breaking anything. She'd grab any good thing she noticed and hold it up until the other person had no choice but to look at it too.
She's really good at this without calculating every word. She just says things and somehow people end up feeling a little better, which is beautiful in the best heroic way.
"What about you, Izuku-kun?" Ochako asked. "You got a plan for the USJ yet?"
"Some possible plans," he admitted. "None of them are complete because we don't know the exact conditions of the exercise. If there are simulated civilians, we prioritize identification and evacuation. If it's obstacle based, then movement and route planning. If it's team based, we need to assign roles fast."
"And if it's combat?" Kyoka asked.
"Then we adapt..."
Momo rested a hand under her chin, attentive.
My heroic power is undoubtedly incredible and useful for boosting allies, but it requires an extremely compromising level of physical contact to work at full strength. Modern society definitely has very strict opinions about heroes going around touching breasts during a crisis, so my activation method... Yeah, better not bring that up.
"...Physical condition, tools if available, communication, and support positioning," Izuku continued.
Kyoka leaned back in her seat.
"Basically you're planning to become the smart guy yelling helpful instructions from the back while the rest of us pull off the dramatic superhero landing on the front line."
"If yelling helpful instructions saves lives during a disaster, I'm more than willing to accept that fate with pride."
"That mindset sounds deeply noble and, at the same time, deeply tragic."
"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't start drafting my eulogy just yet, Jiro-san."
"It's too late to stop my creative process. The speech opens with the line: 'He lived as he died, overthinking every tiny detail of his existence.'"
Ochako burst out laughing, and Izuku felt his shoulders loosen.
"That's not even wrong," he said.
"I'd add to the description that he was an extremely dedicated student to his craft," Momo commented, her tone wrapped in so much seriousness that Izuku almost missed the slight flicker of humor dancing in her gray eyes. "And I'd also note that he was occasionally rather distracted."
Izuku's spine snapped straight as a board.
"Distracted? Me?"
Momo tilted her head with an elegance that was almost intimidating.
"I've noticed that you sometimes pause for an unusually long time in the middle of an important sentence whenever some visual detail unexpectedly catches your attention."
Noooooo, she already knowsss! Yaoyorozu Momo has identified the pattern and now she's politely giving me the chance to surrender before presenting formal evidence at a tribunal to charge me with getting distracted staring at her cleavage.
"Those pauses just happen because my brain is considering multiple environmental factors at the same time," Izuku defended, praying his voice wouldn't shake.
"Of course. I have complete faith in that explanation."
Kyoka glanced between Izuku and Momo, letting a sly smile slowly form on her lips as she caught the subtext.
Ochako blinked several times, looking confused by the sudden shift in atmosphere.
"Huh? W-wait, did I miss something?"
Momo smiled with the perfect elegance of an aristocratic noble.
"Nothing of importance has occurred, Uraraka-san."
I'm definitely surrounded by extremely dangerous women. One of them can launch heavy objects into the stratosphere, another can listen through armored walls, and the third can demolish my dignity using a single polite sentence. I take back what I said earlier. This is nothing like an otome game. This is a survival horror game disguised as a school trip.
A shadow fell across the aisle.
"Midoriya."
Izuku looked up to find Iida standing there, one hand gripping the top of the seat. His posture was rigid enough to qualify as part of the bus's structural support.
"I must remind you that while productive discussion is welcome, we are currently in transit toward an important training exercise. Excessively informal conduct could negatively affect our mental preparedness."
"We're talking about rescue applications," Izuku replied, baffled by the reprimand.
WAIT! HOLY HELL, AM I NOT THE CLASS REP? I'M THE ONE WHO'S SUPPOSED TO BE GIVING ORDERS!
Iida paused.
"Ah. I offer my most sincere apologies for the interruption. If that is your topic of conversation, please continue with your excellent tactical debate."
He turned sharply and walked toward the front, then stopped and faced them again.
"However, I implore you to keep the volume of your voices at an appropriate level so as not to disturb the concentration of others!"
"Loud and clear, Iida-kun!" Ochako answered with enthusiasm, throwing him a thumbs up.
Iida nodded with visible satisfaction and returned to his seat.
Kyoka watched him go.
"He comes with built in announcements."
"He's doing his best," Ochako said.
From the back, Mineta's voice cut across the bus.
"Midoriya!"
Every head turned.
Mineta was standing on his seat, a trembling finger pointed at Izuku. His eyes burned with wounded betrayal.
"I demand that you explain yourself right now!"
What kind of unforgivable offense did I commit against this guy now?
Izuku looked at him with a calm, thoughtful expression.
"Why exactly would I need to explain myself?"
"Don't you dare pretend you don't know what you're doing!" Mineta clutched his chest dramatically, like he was having a heart attack. "You have three girls! Three! Gathered exclusively around you! Sitting together on a bus! During the course of a school outing! You've mercilessly violated the sacred natural order that governs nerds!"
"I must correct you and remind you that this is not a simple recreational school outing!" Iida shouted from the front, waving an arm. "We are headed to an official rescue training exercise!"
"That detail makes it so much worse!" Mineta wailed, on the verge of tears. "This traitor has turned our valuable professional development into his own personal romantic development event!"
Kaminari poked his head over a nearby seat, resting his chin on the backrest.
"Honestly, dude, you gotta admit Midoriya looks pretty powerful right now. Having three girls paying exclusive attention to his every word gives him an undeniable main character aura."
"You're a traitor to our cause!" Mineta snapped, shooting him a furious glare.
"I'm just describing the cruel reality we're all witnessing in this moment."
Izuku raised both hands in a peacemaking gesture, trying to put out the fire before it spread.
"We were just discussing different theoretical applications of our Quirks for the upcoming exercise. That's literally the only topic of conversation, so there's no reason for you to get worked up like this."
Mineta narrowed his eyes.
"You really expect me to believe the story that Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, and Jiro decided to gather around you for the simple pleasure of participating in a boring study discussion?"
Momo turned her torso to face him, radiating a calm and dignity that silenced the nearby murmurs.
"The answer is yes. Midoriya-san consistently offers extremely useful tactical perspectives that enrich our understanding of hero work."
Ochako nodded firmly.
"Yeah! Izuku-kun is really good at helping people figure out what they can do!"
Kyoka shrugged.
"I don't know what I'm doing here."
Mineta froze, absorbing the three responses one by one. His finger lowered slowly.
"So... if I offered useful tactical perspectives..."
"No," Kyoka said.
"Y-you didn't even let me finish!"
"Saved you the time."
The bus erupted in laughter from several seats. Mineta sank back down, devastated.
Izuku covered his mouth with a hand, fighting back the laugh trying to escape.
Sorry, Mineta. Your sacrifice has improved the group's morale. A real hero would respect that. I wouldn't, but a real hero would.
Momo leaned slightly toward him, lowering her voice.
"You handled that better than expected."
Izuku made the mistake of turning toward her too quickly. His eyes landed on her face, behaved themselves for half a second, and then drifted.
Inspiration hit him like a divine message engraved on his soul.
Support positioning, group center, vulnerable angles, visual awareness. Momo's chest is not a tactical diagram. My brain has betrayed me again, although if it's gonna be this shameless, it'd better extract something useful before the guilt kills me.
"I just realized something," he said.
Kyoka narrowed her eyes.
"Should we be worried?"
"Maybe," Izuku admitted. "In a rescue zone, we should avoid clustering up. If a hazard hits the group, everyone goes down at once. But if we spread out too much, communication breaks down. The ideal formation changes depending on the terrain."
Ochako lit up.
"Oh! Like if we're in the flood zone, I could stay closer to whoever needs movement support, and Jiro-san could listen for people from a safer spot!"
"Exactly," Izuku said, grateful for the lifeline. "And Yaoyorozu-san could create ropes, floats, or signal flares depending on what's needed."
Momo's eyes sharpened with interest.
"That would require fast material selection. I'd need to prioritize simple items with immediate utility. Ropes, whistles, flares, perhaps compact breathing masks if smoke or dust becomes a factor."
"That's incredible," Ochako said. "You can make all of that?"
"If I understand the structure, yes."
Kyoka looked at Izuku.
"Okay, I take it back. The tactical yelling thing could actually work."
"I prefer tactical coordination."
"Tactical yelling."
"Please don't make that my brand."
"Too late to negotiate the terms."
The bus began to slow as the enormous dome of the USJ came into view through the windows. Conversations softened across the cabin as students leaned toward the glass, taking in the scale of the facility. Even Izuku felt his thoughts settle for a moment.
There it was. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint. A place built to teach future heroes how to move through disaster without freezing, how to save people when the world stopped being convenient.
Ochako turned around properly in her seat, hands gripping the seatback.
"Whoa... it's huge."
"It physically has to be," Momo explained, evaluating the structure. "A proper rescue environment requires massive scale to simulate realistic conditions."
Kyoka looked out the window.
"It looks... way too expensive."
Izuku stared at the dome and felt the familiar pressure in his chest, an anticipation that came from needing to prove he belonged here even when his Quirk was complicated, ridiculous, and legally stressful if explained wrong.
This is rescue training. A controlled exercise with teachers watching. I can do this, and I can be useful without relying on the obvious method.
Momo adjusted the neckline of her costume while everyone else was distracted.
Izuku's eyes betrayed him for one dangerous second.
And if inspiration shows up along the way, I'll accept it humbly.
The bus doors opened with a hiss.
At the front, Aizawa rose from his seat and looked across the cabin with tired eyes.
"We're here. Everyone off the bus. Stick together, listen to the instructions, and don't make this more annoying than it has to be."
"Yes, sensei!" Iida answered before anyone else could.
The class began filing out.
Izuku stood up, grabbed his notebook, and stepped into the aisle. Ochako moved ahead with visible excitement, Kyoka followed with her hands in her pockets, and Momo moved beside him with calm confidence.
From the back, Mineta whispered loud enough for him to hear.
"This isn't over, Midoriya."
Izuku glanced back.
"I'm sure it isn't."
I'm definitely writing that letter... You never know how these criminal masterminds operate. They're tiny but extremely dangerous, and he's so small he could grab a rock and bash me before I notice. One more thing to add to the list: avoid places with a lot of rocks.
He stepped off the bus and looked toward the entrance of the USJ, not knowing that somewhere beyond those walls, the calmest training day of the semester had already been turned into the most carefully prepared trap in the history of UA.
********
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