Knock Knock Knock!

For the second day in a row, Shoto was knocking at your door first thing in the morning. Many things have grown to annoy you since being brought into modern times like touch screen phones, being cold, ignorance, Enji but the one thing you hate most is when someone is knocking at your door. If you’re in your room, in which you don’t like being in there in the first place, that means one of a few things: You’re sleeping, getting dressed or you want nothing to do with anyone. Anybody could piece together you don’t want to be disturbed...

When Shoto’s knocking refused to cease, the echoes driving your head mad, your eye began to twitch. “What is it Shoto?” You growled from within your room as yet another textbook was shoved into your backpack with lack of care. Something didn’t feel right about it, the backpack you mean. Wasn’t it heavier yesterday than it was this morning? “That’s cause Aizawa forced me to keep that file…” Yet it’s not here anymore. Not a trace. That file’s thickness was that of a brick, now way you could have misplaced it. You could’ve sworn Shinsou returned it last night, or are you just imagining things? Imagining things for sure. You went right to bed after visiting Shoto’s Mom. Being tired is like the less loopy equivalent to being drunk, no wonder you can’t remember things clearly.

You completely forgot about Shoto as he shook the door by the handle, making a ruckus in the process. “Did he just try to enter my room without permission again? Thank god I locked it…” Probably one of your best decisions yet! Although imagining Shoto struggling got you to snicker. Such a goofy boy!

Shoto tried to open the door again but gave in as it refused to budge. Most people would have given up the first time and so should he. Shoto cleared his throat, pressing a hand to the face of the door after realizing his many many mistakes. “Aizawa said not to come to class today,” Shoto informed you. His body shifted to rest up against the wall.

You hummed trying to figure out why class isn’t planned for the day, “any particular reason why?” Sickness, Aizawa has a day off, school holiday? Nah don’t be silly, Aizawa doesn’t take days off.

“He said for us to get into our hero uniforms and meet him at the front of the school,” in which Shoto stood in his navy blue jumpsuit. He was fumbling around with one of the decorative metal pieces that dangled from the waistline of his uniform. It wasn’t uncommon for him to play with them as to entertain himself in any given moment.

That boy just made it sound like there was no class at all… “Again why?” You stood up from the floor. If there’s no sense in fighting your backpack then why bother. Not like you were gonna win that fight anyways.

“Class exercise… Field trip to some new off site training facility.”

“That’s all you had to say,” you sang and approached the door. You turned the knob from your side, automatically unlocking it, and faced your boyfriend in uniform. You’ve seen him wear it one other time, that time being when you were rescued from that icy prison. Shoto really is your hero and you wish he could wear it everyday if possible. Except, why does Shoto smell like a wet dog and maybe cigarettes? “I was gonna gonna kiss you but when was the last time you showered?”

Shoto tilted his head curiously like a dog, man that was adorable. “Last night.”

Then what smells so god awful? Unless, dare you look at him at a closer scale. Under closer examination, you could confirm that the musky odors had to come from his uniform. It’s seen a good deal of wear as it was stained to hell and back. You almost didn’t notice as the dark navy to his uniform worked like magic to his imperfections. The smell Shoto was carrying around was oddly familiar to you in particular. Musk, earth, vegetation… Is he covered in lake water? That just says how long its been since he’s last done some laundry. “When was the last time you washed that thing? You smell like a wet dog who enjoys rolling around in ashes...”

“That’s oddly specific,” Shoto hummed. When curiosity got the better of him, he arched his neck to bury his face into his shoulder. A quick inhale through the nose led to the perfect expression. It was mild shock and disgust all rolled up into one. Props to him though, he played everything off as if nothing was wrong.

You fought to hold in another snicker, “Don’t hide it! You smell bad.”

“Since we don’t wear our uniforms often, I never really thought to wash it.”

“Go rub yourself on Bakugou or something!” You shoved the boy away playfully.

“B-Bakugou!?” Shoto couldn’t wrap his head around your comment. “What does he smell like?”

“Burnt sugar? Maybe Caramel? Smells better than you right now.”

Shoto dug his heels into the ground and fought against your pushing. “How do you know what he smells like?”

At this point, you’re truly trying to get rid of Shoto. His stench can scare off anyone within a block radius. “Whenever you’re roughly within a ten foot radius of Bakugou he smells like a sweet shop. How could you not notice?”

“I’ll go ask someone for cologne or something…” Shoto came to a reasonable solution. “Anything you like?”

Awe, how sweet of him to ask. “Anything is better than what you smell like right now.”

“I’ll find something…” Shoto grinned lightly. “Thank you for being nice about my BO.”

“You thank me for a lot of things,” your heart was beginning to melt. “I’m your girlfriend, it’s what I do. You don’t have to thank me for everything.”

“Okay,” Shoto made a mental note to quit saying thank you as much as he does. “I’ll save you a seat on the bus.”

First thing’s first, you had to run down to the costume department of UA to pick up your new and approved Hero Uniform. You would’ve gotten the uniform back sooner, but there were some setbacks. While UA did keep your old uniform’s design on file from thirty years back, the seamstresses and engineers said that a design like that could never pass in today’s standards as it was cheaply made and did little for your personal needs as it was only a form fitting spandex suit like that you’d see a surfer wear. While Uraraka’s suit was spandex, she was an exception since her uniform needs to be lightweight. They basically claimed that technology has evolved to great lengths and that the impossible was now possible. Although you left the design to them, your only request was to add a heating function into the uniform so that you could use your ice quirk for longer without the fear of your body freezing up. 

Today is the big unveiling.

You’re quite happy with the results, thrilled actually. Your uniform consisted of a form fitting dress that was mid thigh in length. Long cozy fur embroidered the skirt as the color as a whole was of freshly fallen snow. There was no sleeves, but luckily you had gloves that covered your forearms. Your personal favorite touch to the uniform was the hooded cloak that sat around your shoulders. It was blue with a white fur trim and it had a heater built into it!!! It’s like walking around and getting a nice warm hug wherever you went. Maybe you’ll steal the cloak for personal use too.

This costume here is pretty much exactly how I imagined it plus the cloak as well. The Reader can also create herself ice skates made from her powers as a perk to her quirk if you remember from chapter 1. Also, there's like no imagine online of ice skates made of ICE. So, settle on this pic of Sora in KH3 when he wears said skates.

However, costume aside, that seat that Shoto claimed to save you never happened. Iida stressed how he wanted the entire class to sit in attendance order which apparently is the usual each time the class goes on a field trip of some sort. Since Shinsou and yourself were the last two students added to the class roster, you were stuck sitting beside him as lucky student number twenty-one.

Shinsou whistled as you approached him on the bus in your brand new hero uniform, “quite the costume.”

You peered down on yourself, grabbed the sides of the skirt to your form fitting dress and did a little curtsey. “You can thank the costume department for designing this.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, the dress looks quite flattering on you,” That’s got to be the nicest thing you’ve ever heard from Shinsou.

“You’re quite the gentleman,” you finally took a seat beside Shinsou. “Well, enough about me. You read the file didn’t you? It wasn’t in my bag this morning when I checked,” Shinsou thought for a second, puzzled, but nodded his head vigorously as he finally understood you meant the file Aizawa left in his hands just yesterday. “What’d you learn?”

“I thought you told me you didn’t want to hear anything-”

"I know what I said," you retort. "But you said it yourself: unless there's something I need to know, then you'll keep your mouth shut."

"Well," Shinsou sat forward in his seat that creaked to his actions. "There's nothing in there that you NEED to know but I will say that… That Shun's been through more than you can imagine."

"You like disturbed…" Shinsou's looking quite pale and that's saying a lot since his complexion is usually pale as if he’s never seen the light of day.

"His medical records got quite descriptive," he lied one leg over the other and let out a long overbearing breath. “I wish that I never read it honestly…”

"Oh I see," you rested your head into the back of the seat. The vibrations from the bus soon began to course through your body. "I'm a bit scared to ask any further details…"

"Well," he clicked his tongue. "I'm sure your brother will tell you everything himself."

"What makes you say that?"

"It'd be quite hard to hide the fact you're missing almost half of your body parts," Shinsou saw the smile fade from your face. That’s the reaction he anticipated since minute one. "Am I wrong?"

"H-half?” He looked just fine when you met him. “What happened? Is it why schools won’t accept him into their hero courses?”

"I don't know," Shinsou shook his head. “If you ask me, he’s perfectly capable of becoming a hero but we all know that adults can be shitty sometimes. You heard Aizawa, he’d gladly train Shun himself but y’know, he already has me,” there was moments from last night until now that Shinsou actually thought your brother is more deserving to have Aizawa as a mentor more than himself. “Shun’s opportunities are being squashed all because he has a few disabilities but look at the facts! There are heroes current and past who operated with disabilities, All Might being the most famous example with a chest injury that hindered his ability to do most heroic activities for too long.” The back of the bus went silent as they heard Shinsou loudly project his opinions.

“Just forget me alright,” Shinsou realized that he went on a small rant that you ultimately probably didn’t want to hear since the get go. “Shun’s file was a bit weird even to me. There was medical records that talked about his injuries but not how he got them," that must've made things difficult for sure. Don’t hospitals normally ask how people got hurt in the first place to know how to treat their patients? "I did dig into it though!" Shinsou emphasized that he DUG into the subject through his speech patterns. His eyes however showed evidence that he had barely slept last night. "This is just a theory as I faintly remember that there was something on the news like a year or two ago? Not sure exactly when, the news report was vague on specifics. No names, faces, dates or addresses were listed but It was about a teen who jumped headfirst into a dangerous villain raid because the Pros couldn't make it in time so he took things into his own hands," the beginning of this story didn't sound all too great. One teen taking on a bunch of criminal grade villains? That's meant no good right out of the gate. "The results weren't in the teen's favor as his body was put through the wringer. It was undetermined if the villains crippled him or he did it to himself like Midoriya-"

“What happened to Midoriya?” You can vividly imagine the entire playthrough of that dark day within your mind. That boy jumped into a risky situation to save people and came out crippled. How he got crippled was the question.

“He um…” Again, another day Shinsou grew to be greatly disturbed and sick to the stomach. “It was the Sports Festival and he was set up to fight Shoto. One by one, Midoriya broke his own bones all to prove a point to him. I heard that because of that fight, Midoriya rarely uses his arms in combat anymore.”

“No wonder why Shoto holds so much respect for him,” their relationship now made much more sense.

“Taking Midoriya into account and the injuries that boy from the villain raid came out with, the injuries may be one in the same with your brother's. Again, it's just a theory because one injury your brother had resulted from a fight while the others resulted from complications due to his own quirk. The crippled teen however got all of his injuries from one source being the fight in question but their injuries are the same no matter the circumstances. Two arms and one leg."

"You just made it sound like Shun and this crippled guy are two entirely different people!" You're pissed but your heart could be put at ease.

"I'm determined they're the same," Shinsou thought with great determination.

"I don't think so," your head shook in return.

"You're in denial."

"I'd rather hear it from Shun in person."

The rest of the bus ride was silent. Shinsou was very well aware that he should have kept his mouth shut for reasons galore. Aizawa ended up listening to the whole conversation of all things sick and twisted and had Shinsou come up to the front of the bus with him. You're not very sure what those two talked about, but as you can see from the bus driver's large rectangular mirror that stretched from one side of the bus to the other, their reactions shifted from pure excitement to deep concern between one another the entire ride.

An hour later, the bus had arrived at this large futuristic building that reached high into the sky with UA's logo printed on it on all sides. The entire exterior of the building was made of glass as you could see office cubicles and workers within. None of them paid any mind as the class filed out from the bus one by one to be greeted by a handful of pro heroes. You only assumed they were Pros because of their costumes. You didn't recognize most of them but luckily you stood beside Midoriya who was more than happy to explain who everyone was.

"The one on the end in the spaceman suit," Midoriya whispered to you discreetly and pointed at the hero in question. The hero was more on the shorter side it’s gender couldn’t be determined from looks alone. It wore a large fish bowl helmet that was clouded black with white taunting eyes. The suit also hid most gender defining features as it looked like one of those large self defense suits a man would wear when training an attack dog. "(Y/n), she’s Thirteen. We worked with her a few times before at school. She specializes in search and rescue during worldly disasters."

Well, Midoriya just answered your question. "She looks like she could give a nice hug," was all you had to say. Her bulbous space suit looked real cuddly. It reminds you of the white comforter that was on your own bed.

"I'm sure she would give nice hugs," Midoriya agreed with a cheesy smile then shifted his attention to the remaining heroes starting with the blonde man who stood beside Thirteen. He looked awful young, maybe no older than twenty or twenty-one and wore a comfy aviator's jacket. His hair was ashy blonde and each strand was an individual feather in texture to the eye. Large elegant crimson wings fanned out behind himself. A blonde angel perhaps? "That there is Hawks as his quirk would suggest. He's one of the youngest heroes out there who's made it into the top 10. He's known for working undercover, working with Endeavor and helping lower rank heroes reach higher ranks."

"Which may just explain why he's helping us today," you awed.

"Now I don't need to explain All Might do I?" Midoriya questioned since next in line was in fact All Might.

"You don't need to explain the rest of them," you assured as the retired hero was talking casually with a hero you recognize from your youth as Gran Torino. Just seeing him here today was jaw dropping. Thirty years ago that man was taller than yourself, had muscles on his body and for a lack of better words, had no wrinkles. He was living proof that adults lose height the more they age.

"Leave the introductions to the heroes Midoriya," Aizawa spoke up which ultimately spooked the boy out of his wits.

"My apologies Mr. Aizawa!" Midoriya bowed suddenly.

"Let's just get to the point, shall we?" Aizawa handed the class over to the veteran heroes who stood before the class.

"This is UA's newest and most high tech training facility!" Thirteen announced with a peppy swing to her voice.

"Pros from all around chipped in to fund this building," All Might humbly tagged on before being interrupted by Hawks.

The interruption was surely something. That man gasped loudly as soon as All Might began to speak with stars in his eyes. "Half of the funding came from me! And you guys get to try out-"

"Somebody call him down…" Aizawa shook his head with eyes forced to a stressful close.

"Don't you wanna hug Thirteen?" You blurt out in an attempt to distract this man. Based on initial reactions when he got all excited over fundings, you immediately thought that he had the mindset that was similar to if not the same as a child. Everyone gave you wild looks as clearly they did not assume such from Hawks' first lines, only to be simultaneously blown away by the fact that Hawks tackled the hero into a huge open armed hug. You began to mouth ‘I’m Sorry’ to Thirteen.

"I'll get to the point then," All Might went wide eyed. "Thank you for the help (Y/n)," you just stood there and smiled in return as he should get to the point before Hawks loses his interest in Thirteen. “You’re all here today to test out one of this facility’s prime features to better understand and use teamwork. In groups of four or five that we’ve already decided, you’ll enter a testing simulation chamber that changes according to intellect it has collected from us about you in order to put your skills and teamwork to the test,” everyone was in awe hearing their teacher explain the purpose of the simulation chamber in question. “We like to call the testing grounds within this building, The Gauntlet, as it can throw more than a hundred different trials your way. Through careful analysis, The Gauntlet already knows if you can’t solve a given trail alone or as a group and won’t test on said trial-” Midoriya’s hand shot in the air. “Why yes young Midoriya?”

“But there’s no such thing as a problem that can’t be solved. There’s always a resolution of some sort even if it feels impossible.”

“That’s the harsh reality here in the Gauntlet; Problems can be impossible in there,” Torino spoke with his gravelly voice as he pointed at Midoriya with his wooden cane. “A fish dies when taken out of water for too long because it needs water in order to survive. So imagine throwing a fish in the desert… You know what happens next,” the elder tapped his cane upon the cement.

“It’ll dry out and die immediately…” Momo brought that harsh reality to light.

“Therefore, the Gauntlet won’t force you into an impossible situation,” Tornino gladly came to a conclusion.

“The Gauntlet may put you into a deadly situation if it feels you can handle it. So keep that in mind,” All Might warned. He’d hate for his students to assume everything will be safe and okay. “Now, each group will face a random amount of trials. However, each group will be able to finish their exercise within an hour.”

“Therefore, while one group may have three trials, the next may have six,” Torino hummed.

“And none of you are expected to finish your trials on the first try,” Thirteen has finally added herself back into the equation. Where Hawks was, nobody knows. “You all will visit this facility once a week until your teachers feel you do not need it anymore. However, that doesn’t change the fact you all should prioritize teamwork and strive to finish your trials in under an hour. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Most of the class spoke together.

Hawks popped in from behind All Might and Torino. All Might was greatly surprised and he ended up on the ground hacking up blood from his lungs. “I must apologize now… Get into your groups please!” Hawks began to comfort All Might in an attempt to smooth things over.

“My weak heart can’t handle the small things anymore…”

Two groups of five, three of four and it didn’t change the fact that the groups were assigned and you were in one of the smaller groups of four. Aizawa gave everyone a number which assigned you to the team you were on. It felt random, but you got the number three and was told to get into the group of students who were also assigned the number three. At first, you were alone. Then one by one, your teammates gathered around. Those students ended up being Eijiro Kirishima, Kyoka Jiro and Shoto Todoroki. You’re awfully close to Shoto and Kirishima, but Jiro felt like a pure wildcard.

Shoto was keeping his distance from you as a precaution since you pointed out how he stunk earlier and he didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. It was the opposite actually, you were smelling something awful nice and sweet and it was coming from him! “Smelling nice Shoto!” You snaked your arms around his waist earning a pleased smile from him. “No really, you smell nice,” his scent was almost addictive.

Kirishima, not thinking straight, came over and gave Shoto an experimental sniff. “You smell just like Bakugou… Trippy.”

Jiro wasn’t sure whether smelling like Bakugou was a good or a bad thing, so she invited herself for a sniff too. “That’s oddly sweet.” The biggest jerk in class smells sweet like candy.

“No wonder why you smell good!” You weren’t complaining.

“I asked Yaoyorozu if she could make me something to smell like him,” Shoto pulled at the grenade charm that was connected to his belt. “She couldn’t at first, but this is pure nitroglycerin which is why Bakugou smells so nice. It was converted into a spray and I’m covered in it,” leave it to Shoto to be as blunt as ever when it comes to showing emotions. “Don’t come near me when I use my fire side.”

“Why?” You hummed.

“POOF! That stuff is flammable,” Kirishima chuckled.

“Oh…”

“I see you four found yourselfs,” Aizawa marked that the four of you were accounted for.

“Sir,” Kirishima stopped Aizawa before he could leave. “Why was Shoto and (Y/n) put together? Don’t teachers normally want to keep couples separated?” What, Kiri couldn’t play along this one time? Maybe you both want to work together as a team for once, not as lovers.

“That’s one of the many reasons I put them together Kirishima,” Aizawa was still writing something down on his clipboard. “Their quirks are practically the same besides Shoto’s fire side, it leaves me to wonder if put together they can make themselves stand out as two separate people,” Aizawa gladly explained his reasoning and moved on, only to come right back. “Follow Thirteen and Hawks to the Gauntlet, you’re up first.”

“Will the class be watching us?” Jiro was timid about the idea.

“You just answered your own question…”

“That sucks…” Jiro muttered.

“Why were we put on the team?” Kirishima playfully pulled Jiro into his side.

“You because the team lacks close range fighters,” Aizawa suggested to the fiery redhead. “Jiro is better equipped for stealth and here she’s surrounded by three prominently combat driven peers. I’d like to see where this combination of skills takes the four of you.”

“I too am curious,” you admit.

“Head on in for the exercise.”

“On it!” Kirishima rushed the three of you to the teachers as they led you all to the hyped, Gauntlet. The whole setting felt like that of a sci-fi film as the room was chrome, had large television screens plastered about the space and a large vault like door in the dead middle of the farthest wall. That must be entrance, no doubt about it. As scientists prepared the simulator or ‘trials’ the class filed in behind the rest of the teachers and Pros. The preparation on the other hand was a little invasive. They needed to scan your body, top to bottom, with this large gun that had a touch screen on its face. Upon switching to another setting, they scanned your brain alone. The next step was to prick your finger and collect a drop of blood on a small electronic strip much like a diabetic does daily. That was the last of the preparation. The newfound information was processed into a computer that apparently designs the trials within the Gauntlet. Within minutes, you all were ready to head on in.

“Take these watches!” A female scientist had her arms full as she handed the four of you electronic watches. From left to right, it had one hour, zero minutes and zero seconds on it’s electronic face in blue. “These will keep track of the time you’re in there. Use your time wisely!”

“If anything these will only make us go mad,” Shoto spoke up.

“Well,” the scientist adjusted her glasses. “This is the first time someone is going in there timed.”

“What’s the longest someone’s been in there?” Shoto asked in return.

“Seventy three hours, thirty two minutes and eight seconds!” And somehow all of that rolled right off her tongue.

“Did they live?”

“Shoto!” You snapped.

“That person was me!” The girl laughed merrily. “I’ve always had a few screws loose before you ask!” She made sure to reassure you all.

“You aren’t making anything better,” Jiro toyed with one of her ear jacks.

“Let’s get down to business!” The girl rushed the lot of you past that vault door and right into the heart of the Gauntlet. The room was blank and colored a dark grey. The floor, walls and ceiling was all made up of square tiles like the room itself was a big box. That’s when the door to the room closed and the wall liquified to make it so the door never existed in the first place. Your watch beeped in unison with everyone else’s and a robotic voice flooded out.

“Trial one: The Leap of Faith. One tile is unlike the rest. Activate it in order to escape,” upon finishing the instructions, the clock on your watch changed from one hour to fifty nine minutes and counting. The exercise has begun as quick as that.

“The name has nothing to do with the actual trial,” Jiro scoffed as she lowered herself to the floor. Her ear lobe, or better named ear jack, elongated in length and inserted itself into the floor. Within a few silence filled seconds, she points quickly at the wall directly parallel to herself. “The tile is on that wall, direct middle, fifth row from the floor!”

You were blown away, that was quick! “We wouldn’t have figured that out as quickly as we did without you Jiro!” Kirishima praised the girl and ran over to the wall in question.

“Really though,” you joined Kirishima with Shoto to follow. “Without you, we probably would have been stuck here for the entire hour pressing tiles!”

“It’s scary how the Gauntlet wanted us to rely on Jiro to use her quirk,” Shoto thought openly.

“That’s…” You couldn’t fight that argument. “We were told these trials were made with our particular skill sets in mind.”

“I just counted all the tiles!” Kirishima exclaimed and approached the middle of the wall, making sure to count five rows up.. “There’s twenty tiles left to right which means the middle must be lucky number ten!” The boy hardened up his body and punched the tile. The tile sunk into the wall and Flash! The floor to the room disappeared without a trace leaving nothing but a black abyss.

You were practically running on air! Every emotion possible was attacking your heart at once and tears began to stream from your eyes while falling to your destined doom for black seemed to continue forever and ever. Falling forever fueled your fear of heights and the inability to breathe through all your screaming atop the black of darkness fueled that heavy rooted fear of drowning. A body petrified, mind clouded, everything went still as your mind officially exited the situation. Strong arms had pulled you into an embrace, “I got you!” Shoto grunted as he had used a fireball to propel him into your direction.

Kirishima nose dived to catch up with Jiro as he embraced her, “I got you girl!” The boy exclaimed with his body hardened to protect Jiro from a potential landing.

“(Y/n) are you okay?” Shoto couldn’t get a response out of you. He wasn’t even sure if you were even breathing.

“Is something wrong bro!?” Kirishima called from below still falling without the ground in sight.

“She passed out I think!” Shoto lightly slapped your face repeatedly in lightning fast intervals. You won’t respond, but your expression remained conscious at the least. “She’s scared to death of heights. The sooner we land the better!”

Yes, precisely like when All Might was slapping Deku in episode one.

But the bottom was nowhere in sight.