"Right then you bunch of newbies! Time for battle training!".

"Today we will be doing indoor anti-personnel battle training, where one of the teams are villains and the other are the heroes." All Might began to explain the training activity, it seemed as if he was very inexperienced with teaching because he kept checking his book. All I could focus on was the fact the All Might was wearing his Silver Age costume. It was iconic. "The villains win if they can defend the weapon for the full time and the heroes win if they can capture it." All Might summarised as he snapped his book shut and beamed up at us. The class shared smiles between each other, we were all ecstatic for our first hero lesson. 

Everybody walked up to the little box which All Might held to draw lots to determine who we would be working with. All Might explained that when we become heroes we won't have a choice as to who we work with so drawing lots was the best way to teach us to work with the circumstances we are given. I looked down at the ball with an 'A' on it in my hand and looked around at my classmates who were pairing up. "Hey Midoriya, do you have A?" Uraraka's bubbly voice chimed from behind me. I smiled at her and held up my ball, answering her question. "Please, call me Izuku. We're friends aren't we." I said. "Of course! You can call me Ochako then." she bounced on the balls of her feet. I knew that Ochako and I would be very close friends, with her bubbly attitude and very positive vibe, we were destined to be friends. "OK! The first two teams to fight will be..." All Might dipped his hands into two separate boxes and pulled out two letters. "The hero team will be A team and the villain team is D team!" All Might shouted. I looked around to see who our opponents would be and caught Kacchan's eyes. It looked like I was against Kacchan and Iida. 

Ochako and I stood outside of the building in which we would be facing off against Kacchan and Iida. "We should come up with a plan," I said as I directed my attention towards Ochako, she nodded in agreement, we put our heads together and came up with a plan. A plan which used Kacchan's weaknesses against him and used our limited knowledge of Iida. "I need to beat him, if I don't I won't hear the end of it," I whispered to myself, but Ochako heard me. "Don't worry Izuku, if we work together we can take down Bakugo and Iida!" Ochako pumped her fist into the air, a perfect example of her positive charm. 

"START!" All Might's voice boomed over the speaker system. Ochako and I rushed into the building, we were careful to keep our footsteps light to conceal our presence. Even though neither one of our opponents had a detection or surveillance quirk, I didn't want to underestimate them. We made it up to the third floor, carefully but quickly checking every room on the way before we came face to face with Kacchan. He was stood in the centre of the corridor, his face was set into one of determination. "Hello, Izuku," Kacchan growled.  We weren't friends at that moment, we were rivals and opponents. There was no space for formalities or time to be lenient with each other. "Hello, Katsuki," I replied. Without Kacchan noticing, I made a motion for Ochako to come a little bit closer, as out plans stated.

"Kacchan is smart and has a really good handle on his quirk. We've trained together for a long time so we know most of each other's techniques. It'll be hard to beat him on my own so I'll need your help to take him down. He'll come at us alone, he doesn't work well with people, so we'll use that to our advantage." I quickly explained to Ochako, conscious of the fact that the training exercise would start in a few short minutes. "There's a time limit on the exercise so we need to be fast. I'll gesture for you to come closer then blind Kacchan for a brief moment, at that moment I'll transform into you and we run. Once we're running, if we find anything loose we'll make it float so that it gets in his way. Once we find the bomb, I'll distract Iida whilst you secure the weapon." as I finished the plan I knew that there were a lot of holes in it, but we didn't have time to create a foolproof plan. "What if Bakugo engages one of us in a fight?" Ochako asks. "I'll fight him because I know his tricks. If that happens, do your best to get around Iida. Pick up any random objects you can just in case there's nothing for you to fight with." I explained. She nodded her head in understanding. 

"Close your eyes." I whispered almost inaudibly to Ochako. I gave her a second to comply before I transformed into an old school mate of mine who had a light radiating quirk. It wasn't a very good quirk for offensive fighting because it just made your body glow bright for two seconds, but it was perfect for the situation. I didn't give Kacchan the chance to see who I had transformed into before I activated the quirk. When the radiating light coming from my body dimmed, I transformed directly into Ochako, grabbed the real Ochako's hand and began sprinting down the corridor, Kacchan's shouts of rage echoing down the hallway. 

We didn't slow our pace once. I had since let go of Ochako's hand but we ran at the same speed so we were still next to each other. I ran a bit slower than usual since I was using Ochako's body. It seemed as if we were going to get to the fifth floor, where the weapon inevitably was when the familiar sounds of explosions reached our ears. "Keep going and try to secure the weapon. Wait... I have an idea. You can make yourself float right?" I questioned. Ochako nodded her head with a confused look on her face. "Go out the window. Make yourself float up to the next floor and sneak into the room through the window. The weapon is likely to be near the window if the room in which the weapon is being held is set out like the rest of the rooms. All you need to do is touch the weapon and we win." I explained at rapid speed. Kacchan was nearly on top of us, we didn't have time to argue about the plan. Ochako's face hardened with determination. She nodded before she ran over to the window and threw herself out of it. I got a bit worried when I didn't immediately see her begin to float back up but after a few seconds, she floated by and waved at me. With Ochako on her way to secure the weapon, I could focus on fighting and defeating Kacchan.

"DEKU!" Kacchan shouted from the end of the hallway. I know he wouldn't usually call me that and it was supposed to be offensive, but I didn't care what he called me. You can interpret Deku as 'you can do it' so I ignored the name and focused on how pissed Kacchan looked. I knew that blinding him would annoy him a bit, but I didn't expect him to get so angry. "Why the fuck did you blind me!" he roared as he began to stalk towards me like a predator. "We're supposed to be fighting Kacchan. I was just doing the most logical thing at the time." I responded calmly. Kacchan narrowed his eyes before sticking his hands out behind him. I knew he was going to propel himself towards me so I prepared myself. As Kacchan's quirk activated and he flew towards me, I transformed into my dad and nullified his quirk, causing Kacchan to drop out of the air with a sound of surprise. I wasted no time in leaping forwards and attempting to tie Kacchan up in the capture tape. I wanted to end the fight as fast as possible. The longer Kacchan fought, the more sweat he built up and the more powerful his explosions were. Unfortunately, Kacchan jumped up and backed away, his eyes were weary as he appraised me, looking for the best opening. I didn't have the pain tolerance of my dad, so I couldn't keep my eyes open for as long, plus Kacchan knew how I fought with my dad's quirk so continuing to fight as Shota wouldn't work. I needed to do something new. "Just give up Izuku. I know all of your tricks." Kacchan said smugly with one of his infamous smirks on his face. I knew he was right, but I didn't stop scheming as I transformed into a falcon and flew down the corridor, giving myself time to come up with even the simplest of plans. 

Hidden in a cleaners cupboard, I heard Kacchan stomping up the corridor, a stream of profanities spilling from his mouth. "OI! IZUKU! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!" Kacchan shouted, his rough voice bounced around the walls of the empty building, making it 10x louder than it actually was. "Izuku," Ochako's voice whispered into my ear. Her voice startled me slightly before I remembered that we were given communication devices. "I've gotten into the room and you were right about the weapon being close to the window, but Iida is close to the weapon. It's gonna be hard to touch it." Ochako whispered, she sounded a bit panicked. "Don't worry. Just go in for it, if you get caught, I'll come and help you." I whispered back. Ochako hummed in agreement before the line went dead and I was left alone in the cupboard once again. I had formed a plan by this point, I just hoped it went well. 

I stepped out of the cupboard transformed as Todoroki. He was my one chance at incapacitating Kacchan. I was about to head to the stairs when Kacchan rocketed around the corner and glared at me. I didn't waste a second in sending a huge ice wall towards him before transforming back into myself and drawing my knives. Kacchan was unaware of the fact that I knew how to dual wield. The only person who knew was my dad. As expected, Kacchan blew apart the ice wall and propelled himself towards me, he didn't seem to notice the blades in my hands until he was directly in front of me. "The fuck." he choked. I lunged forward with my knife causing Kaccahn to lean to the side to avoid the blade, just like I wanted to. Before Kacchan could even realise what I was about to do, I spun around and kicked him in the side with all my force. This caused Kacchan to be thrown to the floor, clutching his side in pain. Before he was able to stand once again, I pinned Kacchan to the ground and tied his hands up with the capture tape, eliminating him from the exercise. "Sorry Kacchan, but it looks like I win this time." I chuckled slightly, Kacchan growled in irritation in response. I laughed as I sprinted up the stairs to help Ochako. 

It turns out, Ochako didn't need my help. She had somehow made Iida float and just as I entered the room she placed her hand on the paper mache bomb, confirming our victory. "A-Team win!" All Might shouted through the speakers. I ran up to Ochako and pulled her into a friendly hug in celebration. "I congratulate you two." Iida said in a stern voice from his position floating on the ceiling, "But Uraraka, could you please let me down.". 

After Ochako had let Iida down and I had freed Kacchan from the capture tape, we all walked down to the basement of the building where the rest of the class had been watching. Kacchan had calmed down slightly since I had tied him up. He was calm enough to hold a civil conversation with me and at least greet Ochako and Iida after I discreetly hissed at him to do so. Iida seemed a bit salty about Kacchan running off on his own but Ochako returned Kacchan's greeting with her usual bubbly attitude. "Your quirk is really powerful Bakugo, I bet you'll be a great hero." Ochako chirped as she walked, a slight skip in her step. "Of course I'll be a great hero, round face, don't doubt me you..." I cut Kacchan off with a glare which resembled my dad's very closely. After living with Shota for over 7 years, I picked up on how to intimidate people. "Umm... I mean, thank you?" Kacchan stuttered (very unlike him) before looking down at the ground resolutely. After that little interaction, we walked the rest of the way in somewhat comfortable silence.

"Well done! You all did remarkably well! Now class, who do you think should be the player of this match?" All Might asked enthusiastically. The class was silent until Yaoyorozu stuck her hand up in the air and spoke once All Might acknowledged her. "I think it should be Midoriya. He came up with a brilliant strategy which exploited his pre-existing relationship with Bakugo. He was able to direct Uraraka in a friendly but assertive way which resulted in their team being able to capture the weapon without potentially damaging it. Uraraka herself didn't just follow instructions but also thought independently which is imperative in the heroic field. Iida and Bakugo weren't able to keep the heroes at bay because of their lack of communication. It was clear from the start that Bakugo was focused on engaging Midoriya and not on the exercise itself. This was the main reason for the villain team's failure. Iida could have also anticipated Uraraka coming through the window given her quirk.". The entire class, including All Might, looked at Yaoyorozu stunned at her very in-depth breakdown of the fight. After a moment, All Might seemed to recover from his shock. "Couldn't have put it better my self young Yaoyorozu." he smiled at her before directing the next two teams to take their places. 

As I watched the rest of the teams battle, I realised just how much potential my classmates had. It was clear to me that some people hadn't realised the full capability of their quirks yet, but I could tell they would be magnificent heroes in the future. I took a keen interest in both Todoroki's and Yaoyorozu's fights. I noticed how Todoroki practically ended the fight the moment he entered the building. He had a very powerful quirk, but it was only to be expected from the number two hero's son. Yaoyorozu's quirk was fascinating. It seemed as if she could make any sort of non-living object. She just pulled it out of her body. I knew she was somebody I wanted to befriend, she was smart, polite and I could tell she was friendly past all that aloofness. I wanted to be friends with every person in my class in all honesty. They all seemed so nice. Well, except for Mineta. I wasn't a fan of the way his eyes scanned all of the girl's bodies. 

"Well done students! You all did amazing for this being your first heroics lesson. You all have a lot to learn but with hard work and dedication, I believe you can be terrific heroes. Now, return to the changing rooms and change back into your school uniforms before you leave for the day!" All Might spoke in a rushed voice before he sprinted away from us. He looked quite uncomfortable. I shrugged off All Might's weird behaviour and followed the rest of my class to the changing rooms.

"Why the fuck did you have knives?" Kacchan questioned me as we were changing into our school uniforms. I smirked slightly as I looked up at Kacchan. To anyone else, he would just look angry, but I could tell that he was confused. "I have knives because I want knives. Plus Dad taught me how to fight with them ages ago, I just kept it a secret." I shrugged as I attempted to tie my tie. The keyword there tried. My tie was way too short and for some reason seemed to be 3x thicker than everybody else's. Kacchan just didn't wear a tie. He felt the need to violate school rules and just not wear the correct uniform. Once I had finished changing, I walked outside of the changing room to wait for my friends when I bumped into someone. 

Being the clumsy little shit I was, I began to fall forwards. I fully anticipated face planting the floor but I was stopped by a familiar arm encircling my waist and stopping me. "You should be more careful, Midoriya." Todoroki's monotone voice deadpanned from above me. I jumped away from him and looked up at his face. Why was he so tall? He was probably taller than Kacchan. "S-sorry, Todoroki. I'm really clumsy. But you probably know that. Wait, why would you know that. We don't even really know each other. Haha. Umm... you know what, I think I'm just gonna go. You're probably annoyed right now, ok, bye!" I rambled as I backed away from him before I spun around and sprinted away, my entire head burning crimson from embarrassment.

Yes, I'm updating on Monday. Why? its's 20th April! You know what that means (I hope)! It's Bakugo Katsuki's birthday! He's one of my favourite characters so I have to post for his birthday! Imma post for all my favourite characters' birthdays. I have no idea why I love him so much. He's a fucking asshole. But I love him none the less. Maybe it's because he's redeeming himself and actually growing as a character. Compared to season 1 Katsuki, where he is in the manga at the moment is a lot of progress. By the end of the manga I think he will have the same personality but be less egotistical. Anyway, thank you for reading chapter 23 of my story. I hope you have a lovely day wherever you are. 

Also, Hufflepuff-cutie made this art which is a drastic improvement on my art. So I think we should thank him for his fantastic artwork.

Thank you!!!!