Chapter 82: Welcome to Heights Alliance

The students return to U.A. now that they're living in the dorms, but they notice that one among thier number is missing...

In the days following the Kamino incident, much happened. The media covered it daily, with any new details distributed and dissected like frogs in a high school science class. The people's concerns only grew since All Might may have handled the League's strongest member, but it was far from a clean arrest, and the rest of the League managed to escape. But that was small potatoes compared to the bigger news of the night.

Midoriya’s rampage was all over the place, his almost demonic bellows echoes on phones, his transformed monstrous face frontpage news, footage, both professional and amateur, playing on computers and TVs. People worried about the League.

Or maybe downright terrified of him, furious as reports confirmed a final casualty toll higher than any single villain attack in decades. Friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. People who had been minding their own business and had nothing to do with the incident became victims of the living volcano.

It wasn't all bad, but it was clear that the media wanted bad coverage as they interviewed the people of the temple town. They had all been in support of Midoriya, just like she and the rest were. None believed he did that of his own free will.

They were even vindicated when the fucking President of the Hero Public Safety Commission gave her own press conference and confirmed that Izuku was drugged with 5 times the regular dose of some super-strong variant of Trigger.

All Might and Ryukyu confirmed that when they found him, he had tubes connected to him, which was how All for One got the stuff into him. And yet, that didn't stop the reporters who hammered the pros and U.A. for not stopping them, or taking 'preventative' measures, like what? Perfect prediction that a madman would do that? That AFO would want Midoriya in a bloody rampage and bring a shit load of fire extinguishers?

Pony hated it. Watching the news talk about her friend like that, treating him like some sort of dangerous criminal or animal that needed to be caged or put down. Since she returned to her apartment, she kept up to date on things. Still, much like the rest of them, she couldn't see Midoriya himself. He wasn't answering any messengers, if he even had a phone to receive them.

She, or more likely, Tetsutetsu, would have just gone to Central Hospital to see him and try to talk to him, but they couldn't. The reason was that her place, along with the rest of the Kamino squad, now had constant police outside.

“For our protection, my ass." She grumbled once. It wasn't a bad lie—it wasn't even a lie, as it took a few days—but eventually, someone noticed their quirks and put the pieces together, which left U.A. and the pros in more shit as people either called them reckless for getting involved or laid into the pros for needing first years to help save the city.

Either way, she and the others, except for Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, saw just how intense the media could be when they tried to go out for anything and were surrounded by it. So, cops now stayed outside to protect them and keep reporters back.

Also, it was a means of placing them on house arrest as they had broken a lot of rules by going, and she was pretty sure they didn't bother with ankle monitors or something just because it would look bad.

But they made the most of it. She kept in contact with the rest of the group chat, Tokage being more bummed out than anything that she was excluded from their crazy raid, Tsu happy that they were all okay, and Iida, after he sent several texts reprimanding them, being incredibly proud of them for what they had done.

She couldn't speak with her class B counterparts, but from what those in the chat with their numbers pointed out, it was largely supportive of them...largely, some weren’t happy with them, but she’ll deal with that soon.

'After all, we're all going to the dorms now.' She sighed, as Vlad and Ectoplasm had come by the other day about it, they spoke with her family via video chat, and long story short, things were shit. Losing a student was bad, having that student rampage through a city and only be stopped in no small part because of other students looked worse.

People wanted U.A. closed, if only temporarily, but other schools couldn't take them, and she sure as hell wasn't going to transfer. So, a compromise was reached. Any students who wished to stay would need to stay at the dorms. The Kamino group were 'lucky' as they were told they'd stay, as they had officially gotten rap sheets.

"Dad found that funny…" Pony mused as she packed up her belongings, knowing the moving van would be there tomorrow morning for her stuff. "Should probably stay clear of mom for the Christmas holidays." She added with a shiver, as her mother was always the family's disciplinarian, and hearing that Pony was basically a criminal didn't sit well with her, good reasons or not.

"But it'll be a new day, and we'll see each other again." She nodded, as Vlad confirmed Midoriya was still a student. So she'll see him with the rest, and then they can start putting their lives back on track—no sweat!

Line Break

“Good morning, well, students.” The next day, the heroes' course students gathered outside one of the new dorms, a massive building that seemed to be seven floors tall, with a sign that read "Alliance First Hero Hero Course."

The building is circled by low hedge bushes that leave a path open to the entrance. The students all stand on this path as their teachers stand closer to the building, facing them. The entrance is comprised of two sets of double doors. Alongside the pathway are two park benches and two towers with lights on them. The first level of the building is white, while the upper levels are brown on the outside.

To Vlad's greeting, the two called back in near-perfect unity. “Good morning, Vlad-sensei, Eraser-sensei!”

"We're glad to see the teachers all return. I was afraid you wouldn't be allowed; the people at the press conference seemed pretty mad," Asui noted. The press had not been light on their criticism then, even if most ended up aimed at her friend, as if he were some sort of ticking time bomb.

“No shit, after that it was like one bad thing to say about you after another. My folks stopped watching the news after the 3rd news channel talked about you guys not being good enough.” Kamakiri scoffed, as if they wanted people scared to leave their houses. And when someone tried to speak against it, in one ear, out the other, with most of those people.

"I won't lie. There was pressure on us to either take unpaid leave or be replaced, but the administration stuck by us through the worst of it. We'll be under some intense supervision for a while." Eraserhead replied, as he had been suspecting such, but they were told in no uncertain terms that U.A. couldn't lose any further credibility by dumping them.

Nezu did add that it was also because other pros simply didn't want to take up any offers from U.A. to teach, either because they couldn't handle the workload that came with teaching, had no experience in teaching to begin with, or just didn't want their names attached to U.A. At the same time, it went through the wood chipper.

He wasn’t even mad they chose to seek alternatives first and then contact them; he was amused by how they broke out in nervous sweats when Nezu outed their attempts.

“Well, I can say that it’s good to see you all here, despite how chaotic things have been.” Vlad nodded. He had been worried that some wouldn't be returning, but perhaps through a miracle and All Might's continued presence, their parents had all proven willing to hear them out.

“We all got the go-ahead?” Sero asked the group.

"My parents didn't have as many problems with it as I thought," Jiro noted, as her folks had been pretty okay with her staying at U.A. To them, U.A. was still the best place for her, and these incidents weren't due to negligence but more bad luck.

"Really, you took the worst of the gas." Ojiro pointed out.

"Same, but my folks didn't hold out long, though they were already thinking about transferring me, so I was working them down before the teachers showed up," Tokage added, as her dad had wanted her to transfer to Shiketsu before she wore him down. Having Vlad and Ectoplasm walk through their steps to reinforce safety helped, even if it meant accepting some losses of freedom of movement.

“Wait, not all of us are here!” Tsunotori called out, drawing attention to herself as she had been looking through the crowd since she arrived, but she hadn’t spotted a certain green head or snake. “Where’s Midoriya?”

Her question drew attention to the missing student, which caused some worry amongst the students as they turned back to their teachers. “Was he…not allowed to return?” Yaoyorozu asked, as she wished it wasn’t true.

"Come on, that seems a little unfair. The guy was drugged out of his mind at Kamino." Kaminari could admit he was scared shitless when he saw the battle. Still, outside Midoriya outing his and Mineta's plans for the girls to dress like cheerleaders, he had no issue with the guy. He would hate for what he did against his will to be held against him.

“And yet, he burned down a considerable portion of the city, quirks went unchecked can be…dangerous things…” Tokoyami couldn't look them in the eye and made a point to stand in a spot with no shade, no darkness.

“Tokoyami.” Yanagi frowned. When she arrived, Tokoyami had been the first to see her, which meant he saw the fact that she now had a slight but notable scar along her right cheek, barely missing her eye and going down to her chin.

As soon as he saw it, he turned away and grew withdrawn.

“Did auntie pull Deku or something?” Bakugo was the next to ask; for once, he didn't sound angry.

It didn't help their nerves when the teachers didn't immediately respond to the question; instead, they gave each other a glance before Vlad finally spoke up. "Midoriya's situation was…complicated, compared to the rest of you, but he was allowed to return as a regular student, and his mother gave her consent to it. He just arrived earlier to sort things out."

“Why would he need to do that?” Tokage asked. She was happy she would still see him around, but she would have liked to see him now. In fact, if he had finished things earlier than they had, couldn't he be here now, or was he still handling them?

“Moron, it’s because the guy went demon dragon, school probably had to sign some paperwork and waivers.” Bakugo crossed his arms, ignoring how Tokage threw him the bird for calling her a moron.

Eraser spoke up before something could happen. "It wasn't so simple, Bakugo. Midoriya was cleared of wrongdoing, but he's…different because of the encounter. So, with pressure from the public and his own wishes, his dorm room was built to a different specification than yours. He also needed his new support gear checked out."

“Support gear? Does he even use that?” Kaibara asked, as he couldn't think of a time when Midoriya had it. His costume could shift to match his quirk, but that was right…right?

“Not that I recall.” Kendo frowned.

"It's a suit of armor, one which he'll be wearing like Aoyama does his belt, so don't expect to see him outside of it," Vlad stated, which only made their worry worse. Aoyama especially looked like he ate a lemon, and Yaoyorozu and Iida couldn't blame him.

They knew how his quirk worked and why he wore his belt at all times. Midoriya's need to do the same could mean that whatever was in that Trigger screwed with his control over his flames, and they wouldn't wish the fact of being unable to stop burning on anyone.

Vlad seemed to catch on to what some were plotting and nipped it in the bud. "Also, don't try to coax him out of it; he's terrified of losing control again."

Iida raised a hand, and once he got permission to speak, he did so. "Pardon me, Vlad-sensei, but if Midoriya cannot remove his suit because of his understandable trauma, was it wise to keep him in the hero course? Couldn't he be moved to general studies till he's in a more stable and healthier mindset?"

Iida was grateful to Midoriya for what he had done for his brother and family. He was honored to train alongside him and was horrified, like the rest, when he learned he had been kidnapped. That horror grew as he watched what the villains turned him into, and he mindlessly burned down the city around him.

Such actions, despite not being his own, must weigh heavily on Midoriya, but he couldn't see the logic in having someone who needed time away from hero training and a good therapist to remain an active member of the hero course.

"That was the idea; however, the Hero commission pushed against it. They claim he’s still perfectly capable of training to be a hero under current conditions.” At that, even the most clueless of them could catch that Eraser was displeased with the decision, the same with Vlad, who looked like he wanted to punch something.

“But isn't the Hero Commission mainly in charge of regulating heroes and their licenses?" Shiozaki asked, recalling some things she had heard about them.

"Mainly, but they have other means to conduct their work, such as regulating hero schools. Listen, you deserve my blunt response after all the stuff you've been through, despite being in your first year." Aizawa responded, before his stance shifted.

“The commission believes Midoriya can be an effective hero. They stuck their neck out by siding with U.A. despite the Kamino mess. So, they'll pressure us to keep Midoriya in the hero course unless something else happens. I don't know how, but they already got Midoriya to agree." He told them, as they deserved to know, that the commission wasn't some normal government agency, not when they pull stunts like this.

U.A. wouldn't have played with them, but Nezu thought it best. He suspected that if not with them, the commission could move Midoriya to a school firmly under their thumb, and God knew what would happen then. When he contacted her, Ryukyu, Midoriya's pro guardian, had agreed with Nezu's move. However, she, too, was displeased to only hear about it from them, as the commission had neglected to approach Inko when she was present to advise against it.

“Hold on, that doesn’t sound manly at all!” Kirishima barked.

"There was no way they approached him when he was in a good state of mind to ask, that can't count," Kendo called out, as surely this would count as distress or not being considered legally sane, right?

“It can and it does.” Vlad shut that down. “So just be prepared to see him later.”

"But that's not the biggest issue we have to discuss. The first is your provisional license." Aizawa moved this along, and while some visible wished to continue questioning the commission, they could tell Aizawa wouldn't speak more about it now, nor would Vlad.

“Licenses feel like an afterthought," Sero muttered.

"So much happened that a license kind of slipped my mind." Ashido sighed, as she couldn't really feel pumped to train for that when one of their classmates was being seen more like a tool than a person.

"Would we have enough time to get training down? Camp was a wash, and we've been at home since." Honenuki asked, as with how hard the teachers and pros were pushing them at camp, he had assumed they would be trying for the licenses either during their summer break, or when classes started up, which didn't give them much time.

“There has been a change in plans," Aizawa stated before he looked through their ranks, his gaze landing on specific students who immediately felt his eyes on them.

“Tetsutetsu, Kirishima, Todoroki, Tsunotori, Yaoyorozu, Kendo, Monoma, Komori,” Aizawa listed them by name. Some, like Komori, shook; Kendo looked nervous; Todoroki seemed calm, knowing this would happen eventually. Some, like Tsunotori, looked defiant under his gaze. "You 8 were the ones who chose to break the law and go to Kamino, nearly getting killed for it."

Aizawa hit the topic with the gentleness of a hammer to the face. Immediately, they felt the tension built up by Midoriya's situation growing to engulf them. Both classes had known about it, but the teachers could tell the difference between those who knew thanks to seeing it on TV and those who, through some means, seemed to have known about the attempt before it went to shit.

“Shit…” Awase cursed.

Vlad looked over them, his pronounced overbite making his frown all the stronger. "Class A doesn't seem to have known anything about this, but my students were clearly a different story."

Aizawa could see it as well. "I'll keep it short: Class B aren't my students, and I don't have any influence over how Vlad conducts his class. But for those from class A who went, if this were any other situation, I would have expelled the lot of you."

Class B shivered at that call, even the defiant-looking Tsunotori, as that seemed extreme.

Class A, on the other hand, recalled Aizawa's logical deception on the first day. While he had admitted to lying to push them, they couldn't say he was lying about how unfair being a hero was. Then there was his lie about those who failed finals being barred from the summer camp.

They knew now he wasn’t lying.

Vlad wasn't as extreme as his fellow teacher, but he wasn't about to give them a bone for the actions of. It didn't matter that only 5 of his students went; the rest hadn't stopped or reported it, and he was particularly upset that Kendo had gone along with that plan. "I wouldn't do the same, however, if I had my way, all of you would be barred from hero training for the coming semester, as it'll be too challenging to bump you to General Studies."

“But we helped, didn’t we? I mean, the pros there had their hands full as is.” Tetsutetsu pointed out, but neither teacher was in the mood to argue.

"Does that excuse you for breaking our trust? Does that justify risking your lives with so little training to back you up, or means for the rest to pass along information? Or does it pardon that from what I hear, you're lucky you didn't get blown to pieces when All for One appeared, or incinerated when Midoriya first transformed." Vlad asked, the group flinching with each question he piled on top of them.

Aizawa took things from there. “Doing the right thing doesn’t count for anything if you don’t have the means to achieve it and live to tell the tale. U.A. isn’t interested in rising martyrs, nor do we trust most of you to follow the rules without direct supervision.”

“So, to regain that trust, we expect you all to live and study as model students. The rules we set will be your code of life.” Eraser finished, the mood low as dirt, the underground pro turned and walked towards the building, Vlad following him.

"Look alive, we have some dorms to see, " Eraserhead said, though none of the students felt any excitement about their new dorms.

‘We’re supposed to be happy after that?’ A cloud of depression fell over them. Bakugo looked like he wanted to smack them for it, but he refrained as this…wasn't normal. He thought the Pyromaniac would break, that he would show off his true colors eventually.

But he didn't feel any vindication from it and didn't know why. Was it because All Might had struggled so hard to handle things? Was it because Midoriya was drugged, and it didn't really count? Or was it something else? He didn't know, and it pissed him off.

Tokage did not like to marinate in such dark thoughts and low moods. So, she approached Tsunotori and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, drawing the horse girl’s attention to her shark tooth smile. "Hey, you guys did well. So, what if it was luck? You got the job done.”

"Yeah, now we should focus on trying to get Hebimi out of his new shell. We don't need our snake to be a turtle." Monoma tried to add some cheer to things.

Momo nodded. “He's right, so to try and uplift everyone's spirits, please allow me to treat you all to dinner."

Those in class A cheered, recalling how stupidly wealthy Momo was, especially those who studied at her place. “Oh, hell yeah, we’re gonna eat like kings!” Kaminari could already see it now.

"She's not going to be the only one to pick up the tab; we can make it a group thing." Kendo stepped up, Komori and Todoroki nodding, as they might not have as much cash. Well, Shoto could get his dad's credit card and run up an insanely high bill, but the rest could still pick.

"We can even show off our costumes from Midoriya's rescue. It's a little weird for me, but I like it." Komori added, with a blush on her cheeks and a smile.

Kuroiro froze, his mind jumping back to that wretched night. Still, through his dread at seeing his classmates and Komori face off against hell incarnate, he recalled that she had been wearing. “Komori…wearing that again?” Despite having pitch black skin, his cheeks also gained some red to them.

“Slow down, Shadow. We don’t need to see you drool.” Kaibara joked, being the only one to notice how Kuroiro reacted.

Ashido cheered, as she had already discussed this with Yaoyorozu via text and calls. Still, if the rest were willing, she had an idea. “Oh, maybe we can all go out there and pick stuff out, that way, we’ll match!”

“I’m not so sure about that…” Kendo shivered, as she wasn't a fan of the outfit, though she hadn't tossed it, if only because Momo spent good money on them.

The teachers couldn't help but wonder about the students' mood rising. “Food and clothes.” Eraser could never understand how teens worked.

"Says the man who smiles at stray cats. Sometimes it's the little things," Vlad joked after they had said their piece. As long as the students understood that, he had no issue with them getting excited once more.

“Hold on, why are we all here?” Bondo asked as Vlad reached for the dorm's doors, as both classes were present.

"Maybe the dorms look the same, so we can see one building, see them all kinda deal.” Hagakure guessed, as it wouldn't make much sense for the dorms to be different. Still, then again, U.A. liked being different in general.

"Not quite. Since the Kamino group comprised students from both classes, we decided it would be ideal for future cooperation if the 2 hero classes shared a dorm."

Line break

When the doors opened and the group crowded in, they were left in awe. Despite being 41 people, the place still felt too big for them. Closest to the door was what looked like the living room space, with several large couches and armchairs that could easily fit 30 people, along with some coffee tables. The TV was massive; for most of them, they didn't even know flatscreens came in that size, not for anything other than mounting them on buildings for commercials and news.

Beyond that, they saw a polished wooden floor leading up to a vast space where tables were set up for meals, study, or just to relax. The building's size was covered in large ceiling-to-floor windows, which opened up to a well-groomed garden with several benches and tables for people to sit out in the sun if they so chose.

To the other side of the space, they saw the kitchen, which, like the living room, was massive with lines of cupboards, countertops, four sinks, a dishwasher, three large fridges, an honest-to-God walk-in freezer, and two 6-plate stoves with a massive oven built into the wall.

The teachers were unaffected by this, as they had already seen the plans and the finished buildings, and like their students, they could expect nothing less from Cementoss and the construction and décor company brought in for this. “The rooms will mix the classes, but the girls’ rooms will all be on the right, boys on the left. The entire first floor is the common area: the living room, kitchen, baths, and laundry room."

“Holy crap, this place is huge! It’s like a high-end hotel.” Kamakiri looked around, wondering just how much all of this cost. Suddenly, he wondered if part of why his folks agreed to let him stay was because no other school seemed to have tens of millions lying around for stuff like this.

"We even have a courtyard and everything!" Ashido looked out the window and giggled like a madwoman when she saw all the different flowers and shrubs. It was like looking at a botanical garden.

“So big and expensive…” Uraraka wobbled a little before she fell over, barely conscious.

“Uraraka!” Iida managed to catch her before she hit the hardwood floor. Of course, he should have known all this might come off as a shock to her, considering the financial situation she had grown up in. Even for him, this seemed like much, as despite his family's wealth, they didn't live like the wealthy but more…affluent middle class. Most of their earnings went towards their heroic work or charity.

“The common floor has plenty of windows and natural light, that’s good.” Shiozaki smiled as she looked around the place, noting how few places shadows could gather. And with a garden like that already prepped, she wondered if she couldn't request help with yard work or plant some of her own flora.

"Kitchen looks pretty big and well stocked, beats what we worked with at camp," Jiro remarked, giving her vibes like it was meant for a restaurant more than a dorm.

But then again, 40 people would need to eat 3 2 meals a day here during school days, and 3 on weekends and holidays, so maybe that was needed.

“No chances of Bakugo blowing up a stove….okay, he still might.” Monoma joked as Bakugo growled and was reminded of how he had accidentally blown up one of the grills.

“You want to go, copycat?!” Bakugo yelled back.

“Our baths…are in the common space.” Mineta seemed to have stopped listening once he heard that particular bit of info, only for his dirty might to grow shadowed when Vlad stood over him. The man glared at him with eyes pierced through Mineta and down to his bones.

“They’re separated by gender,” Vlad grunted. “I hear so much as a peep about you and you’ll be cleaning this entire building with a toothbrush, understand?”

“Crystal!” Mineta squealed as he remembered how things went at camp when his plan to get some prime sights on the girls blew up in his face.

Line Break

Taking the stairs, they went up to the first floor. "Each floor has 8 rooms, 4 for the boys and 4 for the girls. The rooms are pretty comfortable, with your own bathrooms, fridges, and closet space. You're free to decorate them however you please."

Walking into one such room, I noticed it was pretty spacious. It had a simple bed, desk, and chair set-up, which was similar to what the standard/cheap set-up in a décor store would look like.

“We even have balconies…” Kendo smiled, only to look to the side and note that the room on the far side of the first floor had a different balcony set up. It looked reinforced, closed off from the rest with additional walls and thick windows—vents like those found behind a fridge. Why would….unless it was meant to keep a space exceptionally cold or vent out vast amounts of heat in a snap.

“What’s with-!” Before Kaminari could ask, she grabbed his shoulder and gripped hard.

“You say something, Kaminari?” Eraser asked, the rest looking at the two as well.

"Oh, he was looking at the garden, right, Kaminari?" Kendo replied, smiling at Kaminari, who rapidly shook his head.

"Y-yeah, I was looking at the garden, so many plants I didn't recognize, you know?" Kaminari didn't know what he did to piss her off, but he wasn't about to anger her more.

Aizawa and Vlad seem to pick up on what Kendo had spotted, but choose not to draw attention to it. Let them have some fun before they approach the Midoriya topic again.

“This room is about the same size as my closest back home, but I’ll manage.” Yaoyorozu looked around, wondering how she would fit all her stuff into such a tiny space.

As Uraraka muttered how the space was the size of her house and fell over, only to be caught by Iida once more, Kamakiri looked towards Momo with open confusion. “Just how much money do you have?”

As Momo realized she might have misspoke and accidentally rubbed her wealth in her classmate’s faces, Jiro tried to liven the mood.

"Some people are born with stainless steel spoons, others have silver; she's probably got a jewel-encrusted platinum one.” She joked, but she paused when Momo didn't immediately laugh off the joke, and looked nervous.

“Those are for special occasions.” Momo quietly admitted, digging the hole deeper, as now Jiro and Kamakiri wondered just how rich she was.

“I can’t believe my joke was right.” Jiro had seen her house, but maybe that was just the tip of Momo’s family’s wealth.

Eventually, they returned to the common area, where a blackboard was mounted on the wall. Taped to it was a sheet with floor numbers and room layouts, with tinny chibi pictures of each of them stuck to a room.

"These are your dorm assignments; don't worry about memorizing them. Your doors already have your names on them, and all the stuff you sent ahead has been placed inside.” Eraser explained, which meant it wouldn't take hours for students to move in their stuff, as most had brought more than just clothing and other belongings; they brought their own furniture to help personalize their rooms.

"You can relax, but it'll be better to use your time to unlock and organize your things. We have a busy schedule tomorrow," Vlad advised.

“Yes, sir!”

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Oh yeah, now you all see what I was talking about with those chapter names for those last two. It's a very different tone. And like last week, this was written on Sunday as I really wanted to handle this more than Monday's chapter—sue me. Don't worry; it was written as I'm sure you've seen, and with what ideas I combined with my notes, it was a Shoto-heavy story as I started putting those pieces together to this altered Todoroki subplot.

Line Break

It's weird that I wrote a chapter where Izuku isn't even shown, but I wanted to focus more on the rest of them. He'll be shown in the next chapter, as they'll still have a room contest. Midoriya would need to come out, but I first planned for him to avoid them until class, so I decided to shift that for the night. Thanks to Kamino, we'll get more of the changes made to the story as they come up.