Costumes. Some would call it one part of the bread and butter that made up being a hero. One of the most important parts to get right if you wanted to truly climb the ranks and become one of the most well known heroes in the country. Maybe even the world with the right tactics.

Those people would probably find themselves on the other end of Stain’s blades if they were doing hero work for fame.

I held back a sigh, trying to put that out of mind as I walked forward, cracking my neck and rolling an arm, focusing instead on getting used to my new get up. Emerging from the darkened tunnel and into the large building filled area that we’d be training in today, a handful of others were already there.

Tsu, in a bright green wetsuit littered with darker spots and yellow, was among the first to take notice of me, one of her large beige colored gloves poking the corner of her mouth as I walked over to her.

“Katsu?” She guessed, giving me another up and down after I nodded. “That costume looks good on you, ribbit, but its not very heroic.”

Trust Tsu to say it how it was.

The parts of the costume that were entirely my own idea were all more practical in my opinion, heroics, image, and style all disregarded. A simple black bodysuit that, as I requested, was made of some kind of material that should remain comfortably fitting but was able to grow along with me if I needed to use Tsu’s blood type. Some dark armor plating at vital areas and joints that probably wouldn’t do much against anything major but would at least protect against more basic stuff without restraining freedom and could easily discarded. And of course, a good old utility belt with some school provided supplies in them and gloves.

The helmet that covered my face, a dark red in color with black accents and red tinted lens. The dark armored vest, marked by a centered symbol of fangs. The simple but more stylish dark pants and boots. All of that carried a bunch of styling and ideas that Himiko had put together and insisted on when we were submitting our costume designs.

“I wasn’t really giving that as much thought as I should’ve when I was coming up with it.” I agreed, my voice a bit obscured by the helmet, before nodding to her. “Yours is fitting though.” Bit of an accidental double entendre there. The skintight nature of the bodysuit and straps brought attention to her chest and thighs while the webbed flippers and goggles above her head lent themselves to her frog brand. “You planning to be a water focused hero?”

“That’s right. It’s where my quirk shines.” A rare bit of earnest determination and excitement showed up. Maybe it was because of how rare it was, but Tsu really was cute when she felt strongly enough to do away with her plainer expressions. Well, she was either way, just more so.

Best to leave that thought process there though.

“Are you planning to be an underground hero like mister Aizawa?” She asked, another small ribbit leaving her.

More like a solo hero the way Mirko was. I wouldn’t necessarily be avoiding the spotlight or anything but if I was going to be doing this hero stuff for real, my main concern was actually fighting villains rather than appealing to the masses. That and avoiding as much of the paperwork this job entailed as possible.

“I want to be more like Mirko, the Rabbit Hero.” I said. “Solo work sounds more like my thing.”

“Too bad. You’re stuck with me.” I turned, falling in beside Tsu as we looked over the newly arrive Himiko who struck a pose, smiling at the us. “How do I look?”

Predominately white and red, Himiko’s costume was without a doubt more heroic than mine, the color scheme combined with little details like the little heart symbol along the upper portion alongside the sharp line representing a stable heart rate, all giving off the vibe of a medic if you asked me. The golden belt around her waist held some pouches but otherwise her look was finished by a hooded black fang riddled scarf around her neck and red face mask along the lower portion of her face with the same symbols.

“Looking good.” I said, smiling.

“It’s a good look, ribbit.” Tsu agreed. “It fits with your quirk.”

“Thanks. I wanted to have a few more things added to it, but it looks like it got denied.” Himiko complained. The whole blades, syringes, and some more medical focused equipment, I’m sure. Between putting off updating her quirk registry information and a lot of that demanding specialized training before any hero could just run around with them, it only made sense that she didn’t get exactly what she had in mind.

“Told you, you’d look cool in that.” She said after looking me up and down, arms crossed as she nodded to herself. With how many additions and alterations she made to my initial ideas, I guess she should be satisfied to see it all come together. “And you look so good in yours Tsu!” She moved over to Tsu, catching her in a half hug. “I’m kind of jealous of what you got going on. Its matches your quirk and shows off your figure.”

“It’s meant to prevent drag in water.” Tsu said. At first completely unbothered by walking around in skintight clothes, Himiko’s words and eye contact with me, actually brought out a bit of rare embarrassment, Tsu quick to look away.

I chose to do the same, quickly finding my gaze sweeping past All Might who was looking over our gathering class with his usual smile and the ever quiet Todoroki who kept one half of his body encased in ice, before settling on Iida. His pure white armor, face covered by a helmet like mine, was probably an exact replica or as close as possible to his brother’s.

Appearance wise, he was already set to inherit the hero name his family passed down between them.

“Toru…are you naked?”

“Hey, why would you say something like that out loud?”

“How could I not?” Himiko, despite being so blunt, at least had enough class to match Hagakure’s whisper as she joined us. “So are you wearing some kind of invisible suit to go with your quirk or-“

“Lets at least wait until it’s just us girls to talk about something like that.”

Even if I knew I wouldn’t see anything I opted to just keep my eyes away from them and their hushed conversation. Didn’t really feel like the kind of thing I should be included in even if a certain someone wouldn’t hesitate to bring me into it.

“That’s an interesting costume, Akaguro.” The click of her boots’ heels giving her away before she said a word, Yaoyorozu stepped up to my side, chin cupped as she looked me over. “It’s certainly impressionable which is important for any pro hero but I’m not sure I’d call it heroic.”

“Sounds like I’ll be hearing that a lot.” I said as I returned the favor, thankful for my helmet. My eyes definitely lingered longer than they needed to. “Yours is pretty impressionable too.”

“That’s good to hear.” She said, smiling. “My quirk limited the options I could come up with.”

“I don’t think you understood what he meant by that.” Himiko butted in, head leaning between us, a look I knew all too well settling into place as she looked Yaoyorozu over. “You seem kind of uptight, so I expected something completely different. You’re bold.”

“Thank you?” Yaoyorozu’s thanks came out sounding like a question. I don’t know if she was too dense to pick up on what was being implied, that sleeveless leotard of hers exposing plenty of skin, or just uncertain of how to deal with Himiko and wasn’t any sure which one would be better.

“And that’s all of you!” All Might announced, gathering up everyone’s attention. “They say clothes make the hero and you’re all looking great!”

Any who might’ve been unsure of their costume got a boost in confidence under his praise, standing with a bit more certainty.

“Now, let us begin with today’s training!” He declared.

“Given the setting, will today’s training involve battle in an urban setting like the entrance exam?” Iida asked, a hand raised.

“Not quite. Today you’ll be battling indoors.” All Might revealed, quickly explaining how likely it was that as heroes we’d be battling some of the smartest villains, who used the shadows to their advantage, in such a setting. He followed up by listing out the bomb scenario from the show. “And for this exercise, you’ll be grouped up in teams of two. One to act as the heroes, the other as the villains.”

“How will we be graded?”

“How will teams be decided?”

“Oh, can we pick our teammate?”

“How much can we hurt the other team?”

Among the barrage of questions sent All Might’s way, Bakugo’s was by far the most questionable with phrasing like that, but either not hearing it or paying it no mind, All Might moved right along, stepping aside to reveal a simple unmarked box set up just behind him.

“Teams will be decided by drawing lots!”

That got some disappointed responses, but it wasn’t long before we were pulling out simple papers marked by letters.

Midoriya and Uraraka ended up on the same team. The same went for Bakugo and Iida. Beyond that, the memories I had about all this weren’t all too clear on the rest of the team formations, the rest of the battles beyond theirs barely remembered at all.

When my time to pull from the lot arrived, I stepped up, grabbing the first slip of paper I felt.

“Team C!” All Might said. “Quite fortunate I’d say.”

He was right about that.

Pocketing the sheet, I stepped back, letting the Hagakure step up to it, and headed over to Himiko, Yaoyorozu and Tsu, their lots already drawn.

“Looks like we’re a team.” I said.

“And I’m certain we’ll do well.” Yaoyorozu said smiling. “Unlike the others, we have the advantage of prior experience working together. That should work in our favor.”

XOXO

“In short, though they may have won, team A took advantage of the fact this was training.” Yaoyorozu explained, just about every eye across the class on her rather than the array of monitors that’d been used to watch Midoriya and Uraraka go against Bakugo and Iida. “From the very beginning Iida was the only one to take the scenario we were provided seriously, embodying the spirit of the exercise.”

Yaoyorozu really did border on the title know it all, confidence and genuine sincerity to her words the main things keeping it from being fully dropped on her. Hard to believe someone was just trying to put themselves up, when they seemed so invested in actually finding the right answer.

“That’s correct! You missed a few points there, but I’d say you have a good grasp on things.” All Might, overcoming the moment of silent surprise Yaoyorozu’s detailed explanation had left him in, gave a thumbs up, tacking on more insights from himself.

With that opening fight done, that whole thing between Midoriya and Bakugo having gone the way it did in the show as far as I could tell, this observation room not letting us in on the audio, I was less interested in further explanation about the exercise and more on what we’d been provided.

Floor plans of the buildings we’d be fighting in.

Next up to head out was team B, Todoroki and Shoji, and team I, Ojiro, the guy with the tail, and Hagakure, the former playing the part of the heroes.

Honestly, the only time those memories I had, now so distant it was hard to think of myself as the same person who experienced all of them, didn’t clash with my own was when it came to simple hobbies where there was an overlap in interest, gaming being one of them.

And this whole battle trial set up felt like a good old round of Rainbow Six Siege.

The hero side was allowed to select from four different entry points; the front door on the ground level, a fire escape alongside the building, the rooftop, and, if they’re quirks or skills allowed it, a specifically labeled window halfway up the building. In a way that might’ve given the heroes an advantage, but it was offset by the villain team being provided with a few minutes to use as a preparation phase.

Literally a typical Siege match, no two ways about.

“Yaoyo, do you know how to make cameras?” I asked, while committing the different entry points to memory, along with different routes that could be taken from them. We wouldn’t know whether we’d be playing the heroes or villains until the time came nor where the bomb would be if the former happened but if we played things right, with her quirk we could get a quick victory no matter who we went up against.

“I can.” She said, looking down from the monitors everyone else had gone back to focusing on. “Do you have something in mind?”

Oh did I. With Yaoyorozu’s quirk this was going to turn into a one sided Siege match.

XOXO

(A/N: I considered actually writing out Bakugo vs Midoriya but no matter how I did it, it just came out feeling like I was full on rehashing the plot. I don't know about you guys but feeling like I was just regurgitating the show back at myself really put me off so I just skimmed over it. Next few chapters should be far more interesting though.

Got to get back to Katsu's abilities and Toga's knowledge of them. Not to mention Toga being Toga; no way she of all people hasn't noticed Tsu's reactions to Katsu.)