Minoru munched on a convenience store rice ball as he scowled down at the notebook in front of himself. For the better part of the past day, he'd been trying to map out his memory of future events and to that end he'd been staying alone in the classroom while the rest of the class traipsed off to the cafeteria. What was bothering him most at the moment was that he was having a hard time remembering exactly when they had faced their first villain attack. He could have sworn it was sometime in the first week, but All Might didn't appear to even be at school today, and he knew All Might was the target.

  His other quandary was that even if he did remember when exactly it would happen, he wasn't sure if he should try to do anything about it. On the one hand, if he could convince someone in power at the school the attack was coming, they might be able to snag Tomura Shigaraki before he became much of a threat. That was complicated by the portal user supporting him, though, and Minoru wasn't sure if it was even worthwhile because especially at this point Shigaraki wasn't anywhere near as dangerous as he would become, and nabbing him would completely throw off Minoru's future knowledge because All For One would definitely not take the removal of a favored pawn lying down.

  Then there was the question of who he could even rely on to believe him without deciding that he was a mole for All For One…maybe it was best to just let history repeat itself, in this instance? After all, no one died in the attack and they captured a ton of villains. But then would he be responsible for the injuries their teachers sustained during the fighting?

  An alarm blared through the school, causing Minoru to jump and fumble his rice ball. What the hell…?!

  "SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BROKEN. ALL STUDENTS, PLEASE EVACUATE IN AN ORDERLY FASHION."

  Minoru froze in place as the sound of stampeding footsteps echoed down the hallways. Why hadn't he remembered?! The school was broken into the day before…they were doing rescue training tomorrow! He had this evening and after that…well, he was out of time.

  Minoru sat in miserable silence on the bus as around him his classmates excitedly discussed the upcoming rescue training at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. He hadn't been able to make up his mind yesterday, and here he was still just going in circles. Once again, a crisis had arrived and he was just utterly worthless, even with full knowledge of it ahead of time. As the students crowded off the bus and gathered around Thirteen for their introduction to the USJ, Minoru absent-mindedly trailed after Midoriya. He was easy to spot; along with Minoru himself, he was the only person wearing a gym suit instead of a costume.

  As the moment drew closer and closer, Minoru found himself breathing faster and faster. Could he help Aizawa somehow? But if he tried, he might just distract him and cause him to be injured even before the nomu showed its true colors!

  And then it was too late; as Thirteen bowed and ceded the floor to Aizawa, a swirl of black formed in the main courtyard revealing first the crazed eye of a man covered in hands, followed by a hoard of villains of all stripes.

  Minoru's breath stopped, but the teachers were already moving.

  "Huddle up and don't move!" shouted Aizawa. "Thirteen! Protect the students."

  The students aside from Minoru evidently didn't realize what was going on. "What the heck's that?!" said Kirishima. "More battle robots? Like during the entrance exam?"

  "Don't move!" reiterated Aizawa. "Those are villains!"

  The darkness of the portal swirled into a humanoid figure. "Thirteen…and Eraser Head, is it…?" said the portal user. "According to the staff schedule I received the other day, All Might is supposed to be here…"

  "Of course," muttered Aizawa. "That whole incident was this scum's doing."

  Shigaraki whipped out of his hunched position, his crazed eyes scanning the students and teachers above him. "Where is he…? We've come all this way. And brought so many playmates…All Might, the symbol of peace…is he here? I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here?"

  Aizawa leaped into action as the class exploded into panic, and Minoru remained frozen, a deluge of his worst memories and fears immobilizing him until at last he found himself swept up with his classmates as they turned to flee, only to be confronted with swirling blackness as the portal user materialized between them and the exit.

  "Greetings," the villain said. "We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but today we've come here to U.A. High School—this bastion of heroism—to end the life of All Might, the symbol of peace. We were under the impression that All Might would be here today, but it seems his schedule was revised? Well…no matter. My role remains unchanged."

  His monologue was interrupted by Bakugo and Kirishima both rushing him. "Not if we end you first. Betcha didn't see that coming!" shouted Kirishima as the smoke from Bakugo's explosion cleared.

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  "No no no," muttered Minoru to himself. He had to think of something, had to…

  But it was too late. The portal villain exploded into a huge cloud of darkness, and Minoru, along with most of the rest of the class, vanished from sight.

  Minoru was drowning. Drowning in his own fears, drowning in his inadequacy and powerlessness, and literally drowning in the waters of the Flood Zone where he'd been dropped.

  He barely noticed the strong grasp around his middle as he was dragged through the water, until suddenly he was flying through the air to land on his back. "Gah!" he cried out as he slammed into the deck of the ship that floated in the Flood Zone, then rolled over and began coughing as Asui—who had rescued both him and Midoriya—climbed over the railing.

  "Thanks, Asui," said Midoriya, as he clambered to his feet while Minoru continued to wheeze on the deck.

  "Call me Tsuyu," she responded. "But we seem to be in trouble here."

  Midoriya was muttering to himself, rapidly working through the ramifications of the attack and the brief tidbits the villains had mentioned before separating them all.

  Minoru rolled onto his front and slammed a fist against the deck in frustration. Damn it. Damn it all! He knew this was coming, it wasn't even a surprise he'd ended up in the Flood Zone again, and he still panicked like a child while the actual children around him were rising to the occasion!

  He forced himself to his feet. "We can worry about the villains' plan later. For now, we need to deal with that!" He pointed over the side of the ship where a multitude of aquatic villains had quietly surrounded them. Midoriya immediately started muttering to himself again, and Minoru grabbed his arm and shook it. "Big picture later, details now!"

  "Right!" said Midoriya, turning to look the villains over more closely. "We have a fight to win!"

  "But how are we supposed to do that?" asked Tsuyu nervously. "We're just students!"

  Midoriya narrowed his eyes. "Those villains…they're clearly suited to aquatic combat, right?"

  "So the ringleaders must have recruited their team knowing about USJ's different environments," said Tsuyu.

  "Exactly! But with all their careful planning, one odd point sticks out."

  Minoru chimed in. "They sent Tsuyu into the Flood Zone. They don't know anything about our Quirks."

  "Yes!" said Midoriya. "Because they don't know about our Quirks, their strategy was to scatter us and overwhelm us with numbers. And look at how they're not trying to get on board! They're trying not to underestimate us."

  Minoru stole a glance towards the courtyard, but he couldn't see what was going on. If he was going to have any chance of turning this event in their favor, they needed to move things along. "So we exploit their caution. I can pop off my grapeshot and it will stick to anything but bounce off me. A new one will grow in its place really quickly, but if I take too many in a short time period I'll start bleeding. If we can somehow force the villains into close contact with enough of my grapeshot, they won't be going anywhere."

  "That's really useful," said Midoriya. "I have super strength, but immediately after using it…it messes me up. My Quirk is a double-edged sword."

  Tsuyu chimed in. "I can jump really high and stick to walls. My tongue can stretch to a maximum of 20 meters. Also I can spit up my stomach to clean it and secrete a poisonous fluid…I say 'poisonous', but it really just stings a little."

  "Ooh, secretions, huh? That's…fun."

  She stared at Minoru blank-faced for a moment and then shook her head. "Those last two aren't that useful…just forget about them."

  "Alright," said Minoru. "I'll saturate the water with grapeshot. Tsuyu can get us into the air. Midoriya, can you make a shockwave?"

  Midoriya's eyes lit up. "If we displace enough water, everything will flow towards a single point…!"

  "I'm getting bored over here," came a shout from the water. "Let's finish this thing." Water came crashing into the ship, splitting it completely down the center and forcing the three students to grab onto the railing to keep from getting thrown overboard.

  "So strong...!" exclaimed Tsuyu.

  "Now, Mineta!" cried Midoriya, and Minoru started wildly tossing as many grapeshot into the water as he could, forcing the villains to withdraw from their charge toward the boat as they waited to see if the things would explode or something. Of course, they just floated there harmlessly.

  "Any time now, Midoriya!" shouted Minoru as he continued to toss grapeshot willy-nilly, starting to tear up from the stress and pain. He glanced aside to see Midoriya standing frozen, fists clenched and shivering. Oh. Right. He'd forgotten how young they all were.

  "This is…the only way we can win!" Midoriya muttered to himself, and with a cry of "Go to hell!" threw himself over the railing.

  "Mineta," said Tsuyu, grabbing him around the waist. He knew it wasn't the time, but oh man she was soft in all the right places.

  "DELAWARE SMASH!" screamed Midoriya and flicked his finger.

  With a huge FOOM the water was blown away from the source of impact, and Tsuyu leaped into the air as the boat was pushed out from under them.

  Damn it, these kids. Minoru just couldn't understand how all of them could be so incredibly cool. As they rose up above the frothing water, he started throwing as many grapeshot as he could. He definitely couldn't hold back right now; if even one aquatic villain escaped, that could screw them over royally.

  As Tsuyu snagged Midoriya out of the air with her tongue and sent them all sailing away from the point of impact, the villains behind them were condensed by the returning flood of water into a solid mass that was sent flying into the air.

  "Looks like we beat our first challenge. Or something," said Tsuyu out of the corner of her mouth. "Good job, you two."

  Minoru smeared away the tears and blood trickling down his face and gritted his teeth. Now for the hard part; the real villains lay up ahead.