Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“See ya, Franco!”

Francisco Di Napoli, or ‘Franco’ as he asked to be called, was just your average teenager. Having only turned 18 a few months prior, he was starting to enjoy his new life at university, deciding to finally start accepting his interests more, mainly in regards to various manga series like One Piece and My Hero Academia (despite the weird looks some people gave him when he mentioned the latter series).

As he made his way home one Tuesday, he decided to pass by a nearby field where he noticed a group of kids playing soccer. Franco decided to stay and watch for a few seconds, before chuckling as one of them decided to celebrate scoring a goal a bit too hard, like kids always seemed to do.

He had always had a soft spot for the sport. It was known as ‘the beautiful game’ for a reason, after all. He didn’t know what exactly made him fall in love with it, but it didn’t matter. Whether it be the players, the fans, the goals, or the history, Franco enjoyed it all, and had since the UEFA Champions League final in Kyiv and subsequent FIFA World Cup in Russia.

As he prepared to leave, he put his headphones on and put on Bosanska Artiljerija, a war song from Bosnia that he enjoyed, mainly due to the instrumental music. When it came to his music choices, war songs were one of his go-to’s, alongside Bon Jovi and songs from the late 2000s/early 2010s.

Had he not put on the headphones, he would’ve heard the kids yell for him to watch out or heard the ball heading towards him…

Waking up after getting clocked in the head by a soccer ball was fucking painful, and Franco had just learned that the hard way. His head was throbbing and everything seemed to hurt all over. After a few minutes of just lying where he was, he started to get up, only to realize he was lying on what seemed to be a bed.

‘Huh…’ he thought, ‘guess whatever happened meant I’m now at a fucking hospital… which is probably concerning.’

As he got up, he looked around the room he was now in and noticed that it definitely did not look like a hospital room. The first thing he noticed were a few photos of people he didn’t immediately recognize and a poster of All Might from My Hero Academia - one that looked similar to the one Franco had commissioned a few months prior based on one he saw in the manga.

“Of all the ways to get isekai’d…” he whispered to himself, silently chuckling as if the whole situation so far was a joke, “I never thought getting clocked in the head by a stray ball would do the trick.”

The more he looked around, the more he felt like it was somewhere… familiar. He couldn’t put an exact place on it, however, before he noticed a peculiar envelope sitting adjacent to him. Inspecting the envelope, he noticed it looked similar to the ones UA used in the manga for the entrance exam results. And when he opened said envelope out of curiosity, a metal disc fell out…

Immediately, a weird feeling came over Franco. That comment he made about being isekai’d… it was a joke… right?

He decided to inspect the disc, noticing the design looked eerily similar to the ones used for the entrance exam results like in Chapter 4…

Oh. He really had been isekai’d.

He still had no idea who he was reincarnated as, but it didn’t matter to him. He was now clearly in the world of My Hero Academia! It didn’t matter to him if he got a shit quirk or not; he had always dreamed of living in a world where everyone had powers.

He soon struggled to turn on the projection of the disc, as in the manga, Midoriya’s just turned on after he ripped the letter apart. After nearly a minute of figuring out how to turn it on, he finally managed to activate the projection. And standing in front of him on said projection, was Nedzu, UA’s principal.

“Well, Young Bakugo,” Nedzu stated, “Congratulations on passing the Hero Course entrance exam-”

Wait, what the fuck did the rat just say?

Franco paled at the realization. Katsuki Bakugo was never his favourite character in the series, but his best friend, on the other hand… 

2 Years Prior

Franco and his best friend, Kieran, were walking home from school one Wednesday during the pandemic. The newest chapter had been released that Sunday, and they were chatting away about it, when suddenly…

“Hey Franco,” Kieran asked. “This might seem random as hell, but I have a question for you.” 

“Ask away. The floor is yours, lad.”

The last bit got a chuckle out of him. “Alright then, who’s your favourite character in My Hero?”

“Tokoyami,” Franco immediately replied. “Just the nature of his quirk and his design alone are easily my favourite in the series, but I’d say Midoriya and Monoma are both close behind.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Kieran chuckled, and shook his head slightly. “I think we both know mine, and that’s-”

“Obviously Bakugo/Definitely Bakugo,” the two of them simultaneously answered, chuckling at the fact they both said it at the same time. And to be fair, Franco completely understood why Bakugo was Kieran’s favourite. 

Chapter 322 had come out not even a few weeks prior, and with Bakugo apologizing to Midoriya following Deku VS 1-A (which Franco would claim as one of the best fights in the recent manga, despite how short it was), he had finally gotten the redemption both of them had been hoping he’d get.

“Imagine if the series did exist though, and we got isekai’d into it…” Kieran decided to change the topic. “Being Bakugo… Explosion would be a cool quirk to have, plus-”

Franco just groaned as he cut him off, already knowing what he’d say. “You’d try to make Kacchaco real. Like we get it, you ship the two, now shut up about it.”

The two of them just glared at each other for a bit before breaking out into laughter and changing the topic onto something else…

Franco soon snapped back to ‘reality’, and ran to go find a mirror, ignoring whatever yelling was seemingly coming from downstairs. He soon reached a bathroom, and paled when the face he saw in the mirror… wasn’t his.

“I really have been isekai’d…” Franco stared blankly into the mirror, the face of Katsuki Bakugo staring right back at him. “Holy fucking shit, I’m a deuteragonist now!” he practically all but screamed.

Immediately following this revelation, Franco realized he would need a plan to survive in this world. Using a notebook he found on a random shelf, he flipped to the back page - which was still blank - and started to write down anything he could vividly remember about the series.

Despite having never watched the anime or movies, he was completely caught up to what was going on in the manga, even with the newest leaks. By this point, the Final War was starting to reach its end, with Shigaraki fighting Deku, while All For One was taking on Bakugo…

The realization soon hit Franco like a truck. ‘Right. This shit is definitely not gonna be easy for me…’

Bakugo, thanks to his part as a deuteragonist - and technically, the main character’s ‘best friend’ - was involved in many of the major events of the series. The Sludge Villain attack had already happened by this point, but there were still so many things he ended up listing down, including:

• The Battle Trials (Volume 2)
• Winning the UA Sports Festival (Volume 5)
• The Final Exams with Midoriya VS All Might (Chapters 60-69)
• Getting kidnapped by the League of Villains at the Training Camp (Chapter 82)
• The Fall of Kamino Ward (Volumes 10 & 11)
• Failing the Provisional License Exam (Chapter 114)
• The subsequent fight with Midoriya & learning about One For All (Chapters 117-121)
• A work study with Endeavor (Volumes 25 & 26)
• Near death during the PLF War (2nd half of Volume 30)
• His apology during Deku VS 1-A (Chapter 322)
• His assumed death in the Final War (Chapter 362) & subsequent aliving (Chapter 402)

That… was surprisingly a lot, and hopefully this time around, Franco could avoid a large chunk of it. After making sure he had all his information right, he flipped the page and started writing up a plan to survive. 

He knew what Bakugo’s personality was like: arrogant, short-tempered, and seemed to snap easily early on before somewhat mellowing out throughout the series; something that was especially clear by the Dark Hero & Final War Arcs. Since this was so early on, he knew he would have to attempt to replicate that same personality if he wanted to throw off suspicion that he was technically a reincarnation. But if they did find out… Franco had somehow managed to come up with a fake backstory that made a bit of sense with the history he knew.

The story was that he was from early September 1991. At the time, the Croatian War of Independence was in its 5th month of conflict, meanwhile the Soviet Union looked like it would collapse at any moment, following a coup d’etat the month prior. 
 
His new backstory also included a slightly different background. Instead of being born in Canada to Italian parents, he would claim that he was actually born in Italy, specifically in Foggia, roughly 2½ hours east of Naples, but how he ended up moving to Toronto sometime during the 1980s, due to the fears caused by the various political assassinations and terrorist attacks during what many dubbed the ‘Years of Lead’. 

He decided to keep the fact he was a big football (or soccer, as they called it in Canada) fan, this time, changing up the players he idolized. Instead of the like of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin de Bruyne, & Mohamed Salah, he ‘idolized’ the likes of Dino Zoff, Aldo Maldera (that was a name that even Franco himself had forgotten), Kenny Dalglish, and even Luis Suarez - who despite retiring before he was “born” (he had actually died a few months prior to Franco being isekai’d), was the one player Franco claimed as one of the best of all time. 

Another thing he also ended up keeping was his weird sleeping habits. While he would claim to have messed up his sleep schedule during ‘Italia 90’ (the nickname given to the 1990 FIFA World Cup), when Argentina were beat by a soon-to-be-unified West Germany in Rome, with the reality being that he had decided to stay up until 5am watching Argentina face Italy in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, and had no desire to fix it since.

Of course, if it turned out the detective All Might knew (Franco could not remember his name for the life of him) had a lie detector quirk (like in the very few fanfics he read), he would just state the truth. That he was from 2023, that he knew some things that needed to be prevented, and that he would spill everything he knew. But only if the detective had a lie detector quirk.

But for now, he had a few weeks to prepare for the inevitable… the start of UA.

The weeks went by, and nothing really changed…

Of course, Franco had decided to change up what used to be Katsuki’s wardrobe, adding some hoodies and a basketball jersey he found (“who fucking knew the Toronto Raptors were still around in this day and age, huh…”), alongside a pair of fingerless gloves that turned out to not impact his quirk at all.

Right before he was clocked by that stray ball, Franco was going through a phase himself; experimenting with a variety of things like growing his hair out into a ponytail and dying it (the dye did not look good with his hair, so he ended up just ditching it after a few weeks), and fingerless gloves (which ended up becoming a staple on him).

He also found time to figure out more about his quirk. He knew that Bakugo’s sweat was something similar to nitroglycerin, which could easily be combusted, as well as that causing explosions in clusters did more damage with the recent chapters showing that apparently, the more pain he’s in, the faster he could actually fly. (“There’s Power In Pain!… wait, was that an actual saying, or just a fanfic title I happened to notice?”)

Bakugo’s parents did originally suspect something was up when Katsuki wasn’t yelling back as often as before, but both of them shoved that thought to the side, albeit for different reasons. While Masaru thought that Katsuki was starting to mature, Mitsuki thought he was going through a rebellious phase - especially after she saw him in a gray hoodie for the first time. (Franco never realized he could yell so much in his life until that point…)

And after a few weeks, which not only including gaining access to Katsuki’s memories (“This will definitely be a  fucking pain in the ass to not mix up with my original ones”), and practicing his Bakugo impression - which included figuring out how to scowl & finding more creative insults - he also managed to figure out what still survived from his era (which, to Franco’s surprise, included a wide variety of sports info, as well as world history, and even Reddit somehow!).

Soon, the day came, and as Franco put on ‘his’ new uniform, all he could do was smirk…

Because today was the first day of UA. How weird could this whole reincarnation thing be?

Chapter Text

If he was being honest, Franco absolutely hated mornings.

“Stupid sleep schedule…” he yawned as he got out of bed, glaring at his alarm clock. “Having to wake up at 6am just for school… who the hell thought this was a good idea?”

As he washed up, he looked at his face in the mirror, still not used to Bakugo’s face reflecting back at him. It had been about 3 weeks since Franco had been isekai’d, and yet still, he wasn’t used to this whole mess.

Eventually, Franco soon put on his UA uniform (despite it technically being Bakugo’s uniform, not his), before smirking.

“I’m ready for this…” he began talking to himself. “UA will be fine, I know what will and will not mess up canon, and I can do this.” 

He shook his head, before sighing, and trying his small speech again. “I… am ready for this!” he said, this time, with more confidence than before. “UA won’t know what hit them!”

Eventually, Franco picked up his backpack, before saying a quick goodbye to ‘his’ (again, Bakugo’s, not his) parents, and headed for UA…

It was only his first day, how weird could this whole reincarnation thing be?

As Franco arrived to UA, all he needed to do was find 1-A…

He had just walked into the main building of UA itself, hoping to not find anyone from the 1-A of the series by that point. He knew his attempt to imitate Bakugo was still not 100% accurate, so all he hoped was that he wouldn’t have to use it until he at least reached the classroom.

Wandering around, he passed by a variety of classes, ignoring anyone who tried to interact with him, until he found the door to 1-A with roughly 20 minutes left until the start of class.

Back in his old life, Franco would regularly arrive anywhere between 30 & 40 minutes early to lectures, typically due to him arriving downtown earlier than he needed to. ( “You never know when someone will decide to be an idiot and fuck with the whole transit network…” he told his friend Enzo, as the latter arrived to the lecture hall, “or when snow decides to be a bitch, but I digress…”)

He soon opened up the door, and wasn’t prepared for what layed inside…

Unsurprisingly to Franco, he wasn’t the first person to arrive, despite having arrived 20 minutes early. What was surprising however, was who was already there…

Iida being there was no surprise of course, and Sato, Mineta, Tokoyami and Shoji also arriving that early did make some sense… But Class 1-B’s Pony Tsunotori and Class 1-C’s Hitoshi Shinso being there came somewhat out of left field. 

Eventually, as more people came in, he started to narrow down who exactly was missing. And by the time the bell rang, only 2 seats remained empty, with only 4 of canon’s 1-A not being there, specifically Todoroki, Aoyama, Hagakure, and Kaminari. Franco remembered reading an article on the train to UA, about the youngest Todoroki kid running away, which meant it was likely Todoroki was one of the two that wouldn’t be there…

He didn’t have time to ponder about it anymore, when Aizawa came from under the podium to address the class… looking a lot more like a woman.

“Alright, children,” the female Aizawa started. “Welcome to Class 1-A. This year will be difficult for you all, so stop messing around, put your big person clothing on, and start being actual Hero Students.”

Surprisingly, Kirishima immediately raised his hand. “Hey, um, can I ask a question?”

Aizawa pointed at him, before nodding. “Yes, Red Hair. What's your question?”

Kirishima soon stood up from his seat. “Right, so…” he pointed at Pony. “You’re Pony Tsunotori, right?”

Pony’s expression immediately changed, now looking more like a deer in a headlight. “Yes?” she replied cautiously.

Kirishima then proceeded to turn around, to point at Shinso. “And you’re Hitoshi Shinso, right?”

“…Yes?” Shinso replied, although Franco could tell he was likely freaking out internally at that.

The red-head then turned back round again, this time, pointing to Aizawa. “And you’re suddenly and inexplicably a woman?”

“I suppose?” she shrugged. “Were you told of your teacher beforehand, since I know I didn't send your admission letter.”

‘Where is he going with this…’ Franco questioned to himself. It was clear that this very likely wasn’t the Kirishima of canon, so something must be going on-

Franco’s train of thought was soon broken by Kirishima taking a deep breath. “…Right. Everyone, raise your hands if you also got isekai’d into My Hero Academia in the past three-odd weeks.”

Oh… OH…

So THAT'S where he was going with this… 

‘Welp, better throw off suspicion that I’m a Self-Insert then…’

“What type of fucking question is that, shitty hair-” Franco started, before getting cut off by a voice from right behind him.

“Yeah, I did, usurped poor Izu’s body-”

Both Franco and ‘Midoriya’ stopped around the same time, before just staring at each other, which eventually turned into a glare on Franco’s end. “Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with that shitty Deku??”

However, Franco didn’t focus on whatever Midoriya’s response was. Instead, he began paying attention to who claimed they were self-inserts (or just "inserts", as he began to mentally call them) off the bat, those specifically being Uraraka, Tokoyami, Aizawa, and Shoji.

Kirishima soon managed to calm everyone down from the chaos. “Right, everyone- Okay, let’s do this in an actually somewhat organized fashion. Mr.- Ms.- Aizawa- I’m sorry, however I’m supposed to refer to you, can I use the chalkboard?”

Aizawa just sighed. “Sure. And it’s Ms. Aizawa now.”

The class just watched as Kirishima moved towards the front of the class, and grabbed a piece of chalk. “Right, headcount. If you have weird future knowledge about My Hero Academia and/or got possessed by a ghost recently, raise your hand.”

Franco soon noticed that half the fucking class, including Aizawa himself herself were admitting they were Inserts. To his surprise notably were Jiro, Iida, and Sato, who hadn’t initially admitted they were SIs themselves.

On the other hand, those that hadn’t put their hands up proved just as surprising. Yaoyorozou, Ashido, Shinsho, Sero, and Ojiro (although, that likely had more to do with the fact he was clearly spacing out of the conversation) were some of the ones who, alongside Franco as Bakugo, didn’t admit they were SIs…

And then there’s Mineta… Yeah, Franco did not wanna touch that can of worms yet.

As Franco took all that information in, Kirishima continued writing the names of those with their hands raised on the board. “Alright, cool. If you’re not an SI, sit tight for a moment- if you come find me at lunch tomorrow I’ll explain the whole thing so you’re not super lost. Anyways, canon knowledg-”

Unfortunately for him, he was soon cut off by Kaminari, who to the surprise of (maybe) 3 people, burst through the door. “Sorry for being late, got lost-" he panted as he scanned the room, before noticing what was going on. "What the fu-"

Before he could finish, Kirishima pointed a piece of chalk at him. “Are you an SI?”

The newcomer just looked at the class, and sighed. “No point in hiding it, I am. I have Denki in my head and I’m going to assume you all are SIs too… This is just great…”

“‘Bout half and half, actually.” the redhead corrected. “Anyways, grab a seat, we’re playing a game of who-knows-what so we’re all on the same page when it comes to things.”

Kaminari just nodded, before muttering something about the manga ( ‘Ah, a fellow manga reader.’ ), and finding his seat.

Shortly after he sat down, Yaoyorozou started to slowly raise her hand, which Kirishima noticed immediately. “Yaoyorozu. Go.”

Yaoyorozou seemed slightly surprised at that. “Hello… I’m awfully sorry to interrupt but… what on earth are you all talking about when it comes to chapters?” she questioned, slightly confused as to what was going on. “And… Did you say SIs? Also, you know my name?”

Before Kirishima could answer, Midoriya turned around to face her. “You see, this world is fiction, and we used to read it. Then, through some cosmic bullshit, we got punted here by God or something.”

‘Yep… definitely a self-insert…’

Yaoyorozu seemed more concerned at that response however, “I believe I now have more questions than answers.”

Kirishima soon decided to cut the conversation short. “…We’ll get to the Q&A after we finish up this whole nonsense. Like I said, if you want, I’ll explain this whole thing at lunch tomorrow. Right, I’m up to… I think Chapter 405?

It was clear each of them were at different points in the series. For some, they were caught up to the more recent chapters of the series, like Franco himself, while others like Sato had knowledge only as far as Kamino Ward, and Uraraka and Midoriya both having fanfic knowledge… ( ‘Can I call that ironic? Considering the two of them are usually shipped together in fanfics… ’)

Franco soon noticed something towards the window, but before he could take a closer look-

“Chapter 408.” Ojiro stated. ‘Oh, so he was an SI as well-’ “Fail for One’s backstory. Hate that wannabe baby and this stupid universe. MHA sucks.”

And boy, did that tense the atmosphere up tenfold. Even the non-SIs were looking at him weirdly, although that likely had something to do with him insulting their universe.

“…Well, now, that’s just hurtful.”

“I mean… I’d rather be brought into this than some of my other fandoms. Death Note? Yeah, no thanks.”

“Imagine being thrown into something like RWBY…”

“I’ve been in enough fandoms with fucked up worlds. Murder Drones? Literally the murder drones and the post-apocalypse setting. SCP? If you know, you know.”

Ojiro just continued grumbling however. “All those are considerably more acceptable to me than fucking My Hero…”

“Right…” Kirishima decided to shift the attention away from Ojiro. “Moving on, anyone else wanna change the subject?”

“Uhm… should I be teaching now?” Aizawa questioned “Or…”

“Before we get to that-” Kirishima cut her off, “Has anyone made big ‘meta-knowledge’-changes in the past three or so weeks? I know Iida and I told the plot to Nedzu, All Might, and Detective Tsukauchi, so that solves a few things there.”

“Meta-knowledge?” Midoriya questioned.

“Basically a catch-all for all the knowledge of the manga and anime stuff we’ve got. Rolls off the tongue nicely… Meta-knowledge … Also it sounds fancy, which is always a plus!”

“Oh… I don’t know if this means what I think it means but my- er- Izuku’s dad has white hair.”

Oh… oh right…

‘Oh fuck…’

In every memory that Franco noted of a young Bakugo with Midoriya, there was always a white-haired man there, which was clearly Midoirya Hisashi, Izuku’s father. However, every time he looked at said person in the memories, it always looked like All For One had in the manga prior to his fight with All Might.

But before Franco could continue looking through Bakugo’s old memories…

“What does him having a white-haired father have to do with anything?” a feminine voice came out of nowhere, startling Franco from his thoughts.

He wasn’t the only one who was startled however, as Kirishima also seemed decently rattled at her coming out of nowhere. “Holy hell! When did you get here, Hagakure? Also, side note, are you an SI?”

Hagakure seemed confused however. “What do you mean? An essay?”

‘ Yeah, no… not with that reaction’ Franco thought, as Kirishima put Hagarkure’s name on the list of non-SIs.

Kaminari soon realized what Midoriya was implying, and sighed, seemingly contemplating his existence. “Well, fuck. You’re the son of All for One. This might actually be an AU after all…”

Hagakure was confused at this, however. “Who’s ‘Awful Won’?”

“Immortal quirk-stealing bogeyman, emperor of the criminal underworld, and all around bastard.” Kirishima explained. “Also All Might’s nemesis, so I recommend running the other direction if you run into a dude with no upper head.”

“Why does he not have a head?” asked Hagakure, seemingly still confused. “Did he get decapitated or something?”

“All Might punched it off a few years ago. It was a whole thing that, honestly, I’m probably not even legally allowed to talk about.”

“So Midoriya’s dad is All for One? That changes a lot.” Uraraka admitted. “And where are the missing people? Are they also SIs?”

“Ooh! I saw an article a couple weeks ago about someone running away,” Hagakure shouted excitedly. “They seemed pretty important, something about the number two hero? Do they have anything to do with this?”

Oh yeah… the Todoroki article…

“Then probably, yeah.” Kirishima admitted. “The missing folks, if I’ve counted right, are Todoroki and Aoyama, and they’re the most likely to have SIs that want to get the fuck out and leave.”

He paused for a moment, before clapping his hands, just like Franco did when he had a realization. “Right, so none of you folks changed canon significantly in the past three weeks?”

“I mean… I transitioned.” Aizawa stated.

“And I’m gonna come out in both ways to my new moms.” Tokoyami added. “Also, call me Fallia now.”

‘Huh…’ Franco thought. ‘Makes sense some people would stick to their old names’ . 

Hagakure was still confused about the whole situation however. “Wait, what do cannons have to do with anything?”

“I can make cannons if it’s required?” Yaoyorozou admitted “It takes a while, though.”

‘Ah right, both of them aren’t SIs,’ Franco remembered. In all honesty, Franco was just looking for an excuse to avoid looking at Pony, who seemed to be losing it at the front of the class…

“…Right, then I’ll surrender the floor back to you, Ms. Aizawa. Take us on scholastic adventures and whatnot!” Kirishima said, with a bit too much excitement.

Wait… did he just say ‘scholastic adventures’? (Yes, yes he did…)

Aizawa seemed somewhat confused at that as well, but quickly regained her composure. “So, uhm- should we do the quirk apprehension test or just skip over that?”

Iida was the first to speak up. “We should probably still do it so we know where everyone’s at in terms of skills.”

“By the way,” Aizawa soon turned towards Midoriya. “Do you still break your bones every time you use One for All?”

Midoriya just stared at the teacher, before turning on what seemed like 5% of One For All, although this time around, it was different. Instead of the traditional green lightning that would dance around him, a toxic green smoke started billowing out instead.

All Franco could do was stare. That was definitely not the same style that One For All was like in canon, so something definitely changed, likely following this new person getting isekai’d into Midoriya.

‘Alright… next chance you get, just say something, and don’t make it sound stupid…’

“So One for All and Smokescreen?” their teacher questioned.

“No,” Midoriya corrected her. “I just manifested One for All as small amounts of green smoke instead of lightning.”

Kaminari just sighed. “At least you’re learning faster than the Midoriya of canon did.” He stopped, before quickly having a realization. “Speaking of, do you have him in your head? Actually, does everyone have the canon character in their head?”

“Yes, I have him as a vestige…” the green-haired boy admitted. “The other vestiges were not pleased about me though.”

Franco soon tried to put on his best confused/angry Bakugo impression “Vestiges? What the fuck are you even talking about, you damn imposter?!”

‘That was stupid, you fucking idiot, and you know it…’ was all Franco could think about after saying that. Even to him, what he said felt kinda forced, and it’s clear he wasn’t the only one that likely thought that, as Fallia was staring at him like something was off.

Kaminari just nodded at what Midoriya said, electing to ignore Franco’s outburst. “That makes sense. You aren’t their chosen user.”

Shortly after, the conversation turned as to how there were apparently multiple types of Inserts. While the likes of Sato and Ojiro had no memories prior to their isekai, others like Kirishima (who’s original name was supposedly James Eisener), Aizawa and Franco himself had the memories of the person they were isekai’d as. 

As if that didn’t spice things up enough, some like Kaminari and Iida also had the original versions of each person as ghosts alongside them, which felt… odd to some extent, knowing that the original could only watch what was going on.

"Okay, this is all very cool," Shinso soon interrupted, "but what about those of us who don't have future knowledge? We did come here to learn how to be heroes, and you guys are talking about something way past our pay grade."

“Yeah, Eyebags over there has a point.” Franco backed up, sounding a lot more like he naturally acted.

“We’re still going to get the appropriate education, aren’t we?” Yaoyorozu also questioned.

“Alright, settle down.” Aizawa said, trying to regain control over the class. “Since this self-insert bullcrap got us off track, let's go actually learn. Everyone to the training ground for the quirk assessment test.”

And there was the Quirk Assessment test announcement that Franco was dreading. Back home, he was never the best at PE, mainly preferring subjects like History and English over it (he was a bit of a nerd, sue him).

Before they could actually go however, Shoji had a realization. “…What about our P.E. uniforms?”

“Oh, right…” their teacher went back to the podium, before pulling out a bin of PE uniforms from under it. “Catch.” she smirked, as she threw a uniform to everyone.

While some like Kaminari and Tokoyami caught their uniforms, others like Kirishima somehow managed to miss, and have it hit his head. Midoriya soon caught his uniform out of the air, before celebrating a bit. “Let’s start this shit!” he yelled.

Franco just watched Midoriya’s little celebration (or whatever it was supposed to be), before starting to mutter to himself. “Yeah, that definitely isn’t Midoriya…”

Immediately after everyone got their P.E. uniforms, Aizawa decided to speed walk out the classroom and towards the training field. It was at that point, Kaminari had a realization. “So… Do any of us actually know where to go, or are we just gonna be left in the dark?”

“Well, if Ms. Aizawa is an… SI, as you put it? Then it’s more than likely she won’t know either?” Yaoyorozou realized as well.

Fallia also had a realization as well. “We should be talking about the implications that Aizawa-sensei is an SI. Who else is an SI besides us? 1-B? Other Pros? VILLAINS?!” And they did have a point. If the villains were SI’s, they’d likely mess with canon way more than the class ever could.

After a brief discussion on the implications of that, the class heard the buzzing of an intercom, and the voice of their teacher. “Yo! I’m already at the field. Get your asses over here quickly!”

Kirishima soon stood up at that. “Right, gang, let’s scooch and boogie! Anybody have any idea where to change?” When he realized no one knew where it was, he just clapped his hands. “Right, blind leading the blind. Let’s do this!”

Sato pulled out his phone. “Actually, I took a photo of the map near the entrance.”

“Then lead the way, my friend!” Kirishima bowed dramatically, before everyone followed him.

After a few minutes, all of 1-A made it to the grounds, now in their P.E. uniforms, where Aizawa was already waiting for them.

“Finally.” Aizawa started once everyone got there. “It took you all far too long. Heroes need less time to suit up into real hero suits, and you all are only wearing P.E. Uniforms. Do better next time!”

After a few apologies from Tokoyami, Ojiro, and Kirishima, who brought up the fact it took them a bit of time to find the changing rooms, she just shook her head. “A Hero must always check their surroundings beforehand. You should’ve used the map U.A provided you in your acceptance letter.”

Momo turned to look at the other students. “Did… did no one else check their emails?” she questioned.

Kirishima just sighed. “That would have been a fantastic idea, yeah…”

“Wait, we got emails?” Hagakure asked, seemingly confused.

“We all have school e-mail accounts from UA,” Shoji explained. “The log-in was included in the info packet enclosed with the acceptance holodisk.”

“So, for the people that didn’t know that, check the letters that you get sent by UA fully, because I may add little surprises like glitter bombs in them when we do send out more.”

While a few of the students seemed concerned at Aizawa’s last comment (minus Failla, who seemed to be celebrating for some reason), Kaminari just looked Aizawa in the eyes. “Send a glitter bomb. I dare you. I’ll mail it back with twice as much glitter.”

And boy, did that make Franco realize that this Kaminari was surprisingly similar to Enzo back home…

(“I’d like to see you try.” Enzo stated to Kieran, looking him dead in the eyes. “I fucking dare you. Whatever you pull off, I’ll do double right back.”)

Aizawa just chuckled at that. “So you don’t believe me? Have you ever heard of Pocket Sand? Try Pocket Glitter!” she smirked, as she threw a handful of glitter from her utility belt into Kaminari.

( “Don’t even think about it Enz!” Kieran chuckled, before throwing a snowball directly at Enzo’s face.)

Kaminari soon pulled out some pocket sand of his own, throwing it at Aizawa, before getting hit from the initial glitter. “ Fuck… ” he groaned, trying to claw the glitter out of his eyes.

(“Come here, you little shit!” Enzo yelled, trying to get Kieran back. Instead however, both Kieran and his girlfriend soon started berating him with snowballs, while Franco just laughed on the sidelines…)

At that point, Franco couldn’t hold it in anymore, and started cackling like a madman. To him, it was almost like he was back… home…

‘Oh right…’

No matter how much Franco tried to forget it, he wasn’t in Toronto anymore. He was somewhere else, with new people he didn’t know. Like starting from scratch…

He was broken out of his thoughts shortly after by the voice of Shinso. “So, what are we doing for the test?”

“Oh, right…” Aizawa realized some of them probably didn’t know what was going on. “So you all remember the eight tests at the start of the year in middle school? We will be doing those with your quirks instead, along with your physical ability if your quirk doesn’t work well with the event.”

She soon watched everyone’s reaction, from Pony’s look of disgust to Ashido and Mineta’s celebrations, before smirking. “Also, last place gets expelled.”

However, unlike the shocked reaction of canon, it seemed no one took the threat seriously this time around.

“Stop lying.” Ojiro just rolled his eyes. “No one ever gets expelled from this school.”

“Yeah, that sounds a little unfair, doesn’t it?” Hagakure added.

“Yeah! In canon, Aizawa claimed that she? he? Whatever, they claimed they expelled an entire 1-A last year.” Tokoyami explained. “But since we’re kinda capable… Only one of us might be kicked out. Hope that it’s none of y’all.”

Immediately however, several looks went in the direction of Mineta. Kaminari just crossed his fingers, Tokoyami grinned, Midoriya just stared at him judgingly, and of course, Franco just smirked.

Mineta must’ve noticed some of them, and started to panic slightly “What did I do?” he asked nervously. 

“Yeah, what did he do?” Hagakure question as well.

“What didn’t he do…” he heard Midoriya mutter from near him, which got a small grin on Franco’s face.

“Okay, everyone, calm down.” Aizawa tried calming everyone down again. “Mineta hasn’t done half the things he has done in canon. So let's actually be unbiased on this. Bakugo, step into the circle.”

Franco just nodded, muttering a small “Alright then…”, before walking into the circle.

Aizawa soon tossed a softball to him, which he caught with relative ease. “Good. Now throw that as far as you can with your quirk. Or, if you don’t want to use it for some reason, use your physical strength.”

“I might regret this later…” Franco muttered to himself. He knew this would be the moment people would likely 100% attribute him as being the canon version, so he hoped it wouldn’t impact anything in case he decided to reveal himself.

After a brief stop, he sighed, before launching his arm back, and throwing the ball just like how canon Bakugo did it. “DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Due to the loud blast of the explosion, he could barely hear some of the conversations going on. He noticed Kirishima elbowing Jiro excitedly, Midoriya muttering something in clear annoyance ( ‘Guess my plan is working, huh…’ ), Tokoyami’s slight panicking, and Kaminari looking impressively at where he had thrown it.

He soon turned towards Aizawa, who was already holding up the phone with his score. ‘705.2m… huh, somehow I managed to exactly match canon!’

“Damn!” Sato’s eyes widened. “It's one thing to see it on screen but that was impressive.”

The next person to go was Yaoyorozou, who decided to make a cannon for the test, to the minor embarrassment of Pony and whistling of Mineta (who was promptly dealt with by Kirishima and Sato). Eventually, she launched the ball, which ended up travelling around 1070 meters, or slightly over a kilometer.

After her, Tokoyami was next, who decided their best course of action was…

“DARK SHADOW, USE YEET!”

To treat Dark Shadow like a fucking Pokemon…

Eventually, when the ball landed, he ended up with a score of 644.4m, around 60 meters less than what Franco was able to pull off. Unfortunately however, Tokoyami just slumped when he noticed the score “Why does the number 4 always follow me…”

The rest of the tests went by in a flash for Franco. While he remembered some of the ball-toss scores, like Uraraka getting infinity again, and Midoriya doing way better than everyone else, the rest were generally forgettable.

As for the other tests, despite doing pretty well at them, he still felt a bit uneasy. He was never used to being towards the top for P.E., so having a body that could actually handle that felt weird to him. 

Eventually, once the tests concluded, Aizawa brought everyone to an electronic scoreboard. “Now that we’ve finished,” she started, “let's show your scores!”

1. Ochako Uraraka

2. Momo Yaoyorozu

3. Izuku Midoriya

4. Katsuki Bakugo

5. Tenya Iida

6. Mezo Shoji

Alright, 4th wasn’t bad… Despite not being the 3rd place of canon, it did make some sense that he was slightly lower, mainly due to Midoriya actually being able to use One For All and Uraraka’s infinity score giving her a guaranteed 1st.

As he looked around, he also noticed the other’s reactions to their scores. Fallia high-fiving Dark Shadow, Ojiro seemingly contemplating his existence after finishing 10th, and of course… canon Mineta’s whaling at finishing last.

After a few seconds, Aizawa started smirking. “And I lied! Nobody is getting expelled! Although…” she pondered, “Mineta, I recommend you go to our counselor, just so that you can find a reason to become a hero that’s more than just getting a girl.”

“…But getting chicks is why I want to be a hero!” Mineta whaled.

“Which means you get to go on a soul search!” Kirishima grinned, leaning in closer to him. “Also, harass anyone in this class and I will physically drag you to Nedzu.”

Electing to ignore this, Aizawa dismissed the rest of the class. “And remember,” she started to conclude, “check your e-mail for the orientation information.”

By the time the end of the day came, Franco… didn’t really know what to make of it.

Of course, he had managed to do a pretty good impersonation of what canon Bakugo was really like, minus one or two small things here and there, and managed to perfectly replicate canon Bakugo’s softball throw down to the exact decimal. But something else kept weighing on his mind…

The fact that he wasn’t alone in this.

If you asked him before today if he expected to meet someone in the exact same situation as him, he would’ve laughed at you, before claiming ‘yeah, not in a million years’. But now, he knew over half of 1-A were in the exact same boat as him, stuck in a new world away from everything they cared about.

Eventually, his thoughts changed to whether or not he should keep hiding, or just come out to his classmates. He knew some like Fallia were somewhat suspicious of him also being an SI as well, but the others…

Franco just sighed. He was already playing the act of canon Bakugo, why not just run with it? If he had to reveal himself later, he would, but at the same time, why not just continue with what he was doing.

Eventually, he realized he needed a break from it all, so he decided to find a soccer match to watch. It took a few minutes to settle on one to watch, which ended up being a 1-1 draw in the Coppa Italia Final between Juventus and AC Milan from back in…

“July 1973?” he questioned out loud. “How the fuck did this survive?”

Franco just shook his head, and sighed. To him, it wasn’t the fact that it had survived that surprised him, but that it came from so far back that the match was already 50 years old back home…

Speaking of back home, that was one thing that had been bothering Franco all day. He knew if he was in this universe, then he’d either be dead or missing back home-

‘Oh… OH NO!!!’

Immediately, his thoughts shifted away from what would’ve happened to his body, and more towards his friends, Kieran in particular. The two had been close for a while, even through turbulent times in their friendship…

So how would Kieran react to whatever happened to him back home?

Kieran had been waiting for hours for Franco to text him back.

At first, he had tried calling him about the possibility of going to a convention over the March Break weekend, which tickets had just gone on sale for. But surprisingly for Kieran, it went to Franco’s voicemail, one which he hadn’t heard for a few years by that point…

Normally, Franco would’ve picked up before it went to voicemail, but considering what time it was, it was plausible that he was still stuck navigating Toronto’s subway system (Which at times could be hell; a feeling all too familiar to Kieran…)

In the meantime, Kieran managed to find a retro arcade nearby to fuck around in. He shot a DM to both Franco and Enzo, another one of their friends, about the location. And within 20 minutes, Enzo was there as well.

The two of them messed around there for a few hours, including nearly an hour on a Cuphead arcade cabinet that the two of them had never seen before. But once it got dark, the two of them decided to part ways, only for Kieran to notice Franco had yet to respond…

For some reason, he couldn’t shake off that weird feeling that something was off. Franco never took that long to return a call, and the last time he had, it was after he’d been involved in a car accident a few years prior. (He knew that his friend still kept the casts from that, despite all the weird shit the two of them had put on it…) Kieran feared that something might have happened to his best friend…

And the next day, he completely understood why he felt the way he did.

Chapter Text

As Franco woke up for his second day at UA, he was starting to regret never fixing his sleep schedule.

Despite his sleep schedule starting off as normal right after getting isekai’d, probably due to how early Bakugo went to sleep in canon (around 8:30pm, if Franco remembered correctly), it started to get worse as the days passed. Now, Franco’s messed-up sleep schedule was starting to bleed through more and more, meaning he was now only getting about 4-5 hours of actual sleep.

“Yep…” he yawned as he started getting washed up. “Still think waking up for school at 6am is a shit idea…”

And after a few minutes of getting his shit together, plus a minor argument with ‘his’ mother (he still didn’t really think of himself as Bakugo, despite having been in his body for nearly a month at this point), he set off for his second day at UA…

Hopefully, today wouldn’t be as surprising as the first...

For some reason, the classes all seemed to go by slower than what Franco expected.

Being in university gave Franco a lot more freedom when deciding on how he wanted his classes set up, so being back in what felt like high school all over again was… mildly annoying to say the least.

The first two classes, English with Present Mic and Math with Ectoplasm, were both just the teachers giving the class diagnostic quizzes, in order to figure out where everyone was at, while both Modern Literature with Cementoss and Modern Hero Art History ( ‘I’ve see university courses with shorter names than that’) with Midnight were both just introductions to the respective courses.

And after lunch, when everyone came back…

“I… AM HERE! COMING THROUGH THE WINDOW LIKE A HERO!”

Was when things got interesting. 

“Welcome, students, to the most important class at U.A. High: Foundational Hero Studies!” All Might announced. “While the other courses at U.A. are meant to provide you with a fundamental base to serve you well, this course is meant to teach you the basics of being a pro and fighting in the name of good! Think of it as Heroing 101. And I’ve found that the best way to measure your progress is to start by throwing you into the deep end! So, today, we’re going to go do some Battle Trials!”

Franco just smirked in pure excitement at that. Sure, he (and probably everyone else) already knew that they would be doing something along those lines, but it didn’t matter.

“One of the keys to being a hero” he continued, before clicking a remote, revealing the class’s costume cases from the wall, “IS LOOKING GOOD! These costumes were designed for all of you based upon your quirks and the requests you sent in before school started! Now, get yourselves suited up and meet at Training Ground Beta!”

And so Franco grabbed his case, before going to find the changing rooms.

It took a few minutes for Franco to actually put the costume on, but once he did, he did a quick look in the mirror, and smirked like he usually did.

If he was being honest, despite Bakugo not being one of his favourite characters personality-wise, his costume on the other hand was a different story. Sure, it wasn’t 100% perfect, but at the same time, it was one of his favourites amongst the cast of 1-A…

He soon noticed everyone walking out, so he decided to join them…

“They say the clothes make the pros, young ladies and gentlemen! And behold, you are the proof!” All Might announced, as everyone walked out in their full costumes for the first time. “Take this to heart: from now on, you are all heroes in training! This is getting me all ramped up!” His grin shifted to look a bit more menacing. “Now then, shall we get started, you zygotes?”

Franco looked around at the others, to see if they were actually ready. It was clear that some, like Iida and Kirishima, had modified theirs slightly, while others seemingly decided against changing it at all.

As for himself, he didn’t really see the need to change his costume yet, considering he was still hiding the fact he was a Self-Insert as well. Although, he did have ideas for what he wanted to change when the time came, specifically the colour palette of the costume.

“Listen up!” All Might announced to regain everyone’s attention. “Now that you all are ready, it’s time for combat training! As you’re no doubt aware, most of the villain fights you see on the news take place outside. However, statistically, most conflicts with dastardly evil-doers take place indoors. That’s why today we’re going to get some practice with some two-on-two battle trials!”

Immediately, Yaoyorozu raised her hand. “Isn’t that a bit advanced for us? We’re still in our first day of full classes, after all.” she questioned.

All Might smiled, likely in anticipation that someone would ask that. “The best training is what you get on the battlefield! But remember, everyone: you’ll be dealing with real humans now, not robots! Be careful with your quirks, but also be aware that their strategies will likely be different than those shown during the entrance exam. The setting is this!” 

He soon pulled out a script (‘Great… I forgot how bad of a teacher All Might was early on…’) , and started reading the scenario off it. “The villains have, somewhere inside their hideout, hidden a nuclear missile! The heroes must foil their plans, either by tagging the missile or capturing the villains with this capture tape!” He pulled a set out for demonstration. “Similarly, the ne’er will succeed if they either capture both heroes or they successfully protect their payload until the time runs out. We’ll be choosing teams by drawing lots!”

Surprisingly, there were no objections to this, like there were in canon, and the team were swiftly drawn. But to Franco’s surprise…

Team A: Bakugo and Sato

Team B: Hagakure and Sero

Team C: Kirishima and Midoriya

Team D: Mineta and Tokoyami

Team E: Mina and Shinso

Team F: Tsunotori and Yaoyorozu

Team G: Koda and Shoji

Team H: Iida and Ojiro

Team I: Asui and Kaminari

Team J: Jiro and Uraraka

‘Team A… alongside Sato… what the hell is going on?’

Franco was confused. If he was being honest, he was expecting the teams to be similar to how they were in canon, not completely shuffled.

However, Franco’s next realization came immediately after realizing who was paired with who. To his knowledge, both teams E and F were made of non-Self Inserts (or at least, that’s what Franco thought after the day prior), meaning that they would pretty much be wildcards in a way-

He was snapped out of his thoughts by All Might, who was already starting to draw the lots of the first match. “And the first teams to fight will be…” he started, before picking up two of the balls, before turning them towards the students “These guys!”

Team I as the heroes and Team B as the villains-

So not only were the teams different now, but also the matchups as well. Franco was slightly annoyed at this, mainly due to the fact he actually wanted to fight the person who was isekai’d as Midoriya. But in reality, it wasn’t really that big of a deal to him, so he just sat back (well, sat back as much as he could while acting like canon Bakugo), and watched the matches unfold.

To start was, as already mentioned, Team I (Asui & Kaminari) as heroes and Team B (Hagakure & Sero) as villains, where Kaminari came up with one of the greatest attack names of all time (“JOESTAR FAMILY TECHNIQUE: BULLSHIT!”) , before promptly knocking himself by walking into a wall…

The second match was just as chaotic, with Team J (Jiro & Uraraka) as heroes and Team H (Iida & Ojiro) as villains. And despite the villains winning because of the time limit, it was clear that Ojiro was giving Jiro one hell of a beating. (And based on Ojiro’s expression, Franco was pretty sure he wasn’t even acting at all).

And as for the third match, between Team D (Mineta & Tokoyami) as the heroes and Team F (Tsunotori & Yaoyorozu) as the villains, that was… interesting, but considering the beating that both Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu got fighting each other, the less said, the better.

And then, the fourth match was called, which ended up being…

“Team A as the heroes and Team E as the villains!”

So he was up against Ashido and Shinso, one of the teams he claimed would be a wildcard. If he was being honest, the match could go either way, pending on what ideas the two were able to come up with (Franco had noticed them chatting during one of the matches, but didn’t really pay attention to any of it).

The two of them were soon called to their respective starting areas, and with that, both teams were preparing for their match…

As both Franco and Sato walked to the building for the trial, it was clear both of them were thinking of strategies…

The more that Franco thought, however, the more he realized this would likely be a losing battle. Hell, he had run through about 7 ideas himself as to what he wanted to do, but with each idea he had, came drawbacks with each and every one, ranging from Shinso potentially catching him off guard, to Ashido doing… literally anything.

After roughly a few seconds of silence, Sato was the first to speak up. “Alright. I've got something of a plan if you want to hear it?”

Normally, Franco would’ve probably ignored whatever his teammates' strategy was. Even if he wasn’t acting like canon Bakugo, Franco was always more of a ‘lone wolf’ when it came to things like this, typically doing things how he wanted without the input of others (unless he was forced into a group project)…

This time however, he really had no choice. None of his own ideas would’ve likely worked, meaning he was now going to have to rely on his teammate’s strategy in order to really stand a chance. Plus, it did help that he was also someone who isekai’d as well…

Acting slightly annoyed, Franco turned towards his teammate. “Fine, considering you’re one of those inserts or whatever you called yourselves.” he decided to grumble out. “What do you got, Big Lips?”

Surprisingly to Franco, Sato just ignored the nickname, and started explaining his strategy. “So, I reckon you can use your quirk to propel yourself up to the top floor and search top to bottom. I'll go from the bottom up, and we can cover more ground. The purple haired one is likely our biggest threat, he can brainwash you if you respond to anything he says. Just dont respond, and hes fucked.”

“Alright, so just keep my mouth shut if he’s there.” Franco nodded as he talked, before realizing something. “What about the pink bitch?”

“Well, she can create acid.” Sato continued to explain. “It varies in how acidic it is, but I reckon either of us could beat her without much trouble. She might try and weaken the area with it, but that shouldn't be too hard to deal with.” 

“Alright then,” Franco nodded. “Guess you inserts or whatever aren’t just extras after all then...”

“Sweet, then it's settled. Let's go kick their ass!” Sato declared excitedly.

Franco just smirked at that. “They won’t know what fucking hit them…”

And with the sound of All Might’s voice, the battle trials began…

As soon as Franco heard All Might’s voice, he set off a small chain of explosions, launching him towards the top of the building.

Now, flying while using Explosion was something that he hadn’t really experimented with prior to the lesson. While he knew how to pull it off, he was still pretty inefficient at pulling it off.

As he landed on the roof, he started heading towards the stairs, which were…

‘Yep, destroyed by acid. No surprise there.’

Franco just sighed. Sure, he knew a bit of parkour from when Enzo tried to teach him it (the concussion he got the last time he tried was enough to convince him to stop doing it), which would help in getting him down to the lower levels, but in reality, he was never a big fan of it.

As he explored the upper two floors, all he found were empty rooms and destroyed staircases, dripping with acid. It was clear what their strategy probably was: destroy the staircases, while they’re likely protecting it around the middle of the building.

He soon dropped down to the third floor, this time, with a thud. For some reason, the distance between the third and fourth floor was higher than the upper ones, which Franco didn’t realize while dropping down.

“Ugh…” he groaned, as he began getting back up. “This is fucking ridiculous.”

This time however, as he went towards one of the rooms on that floor, he noticed a bit of pink sticking out of one of the rooms, causing Franco to smirk in minor victory.

“There you are, pink bitch-” he started, before he noticed something else… “What the hell, is that a fucking fedora?”

“Who you calling a ‘pink bitch’, Bomb Voyage?” Ashido questioned, seemingly annoyed at the name Franco had called her. “I’ll show you pink!” she screamed, as she raised her palm, before whispering something he couldn’t hear, and launching acid towards him.

‘I should probably apologize for that after…’ was the only thought going through Franco’s head, as he dodged the acid. If he was being honest, he was starting to regret deciding to act like canon Bakugo, but he had gotten this far without being caught…

He took a small breath, before returning back into character. “Gonna take a lot more than that to take me on-” he started, before staring at the ground and realizing that the whole floor was now covered in acid! “And I spoke too soon, didn’t I…” he muttered quietly to himself.

Luckily for him, Ashido didn’t seem to hear him. “This town ain't big enough for the two of us, hero,” she started in a wild west-esqe accent. “You must skate, like I have. No, you must skate even worse. If you wish to grasp victory.” She put her hands on her waist, almost like a western gunslinger, before smirking and tipping her fedora.

During her whole monologue however, Franco wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying. Instead, he was thinking of strategies to actually get to the bomb, which were limited due to the acid on the floor. The only way he could really think of getting there was using explosion to basically hover towards the bomb-

“Draw!” Ashido shouted, cutting Franco’s thoughts short, before firing a double stream of acid at him.

Immediately, Franco went through with the only idea he had, charging at Ashido while using Explosion to stay a bit above the ground. Unfortunately for him, the acid girl seemed to have predicted that, as she moonwalked backward over the acid-covered floor while humming a song that Franco couldn’t immediately recognize. 

“Round two, Edgehog!” she shouted, as she pivoted and fired another round of acid towards Franco. This time however, the acid was launched in a wide arc, making it near impossible to dodge. So, Franco decided to do one of the riskiest things he had ever done…

He used his left gauntlet to block the acid.

Immediately, a hissing sound could be heard from the gauntlet, and while it didn;t look like it, Franco was internally panicking. He genuinely had no idea if the acid would cause the gauntlet to explode or not, and was starting to fear that something might go wrong. 

After a few seconds, it became clear nothing was gonna happen, so Franco let out a small sigh of relief, before turning back towards his opponent, who was just smirking at the whole thing. “Love me some personal property damage.”

“Glad ya do, you Michael Jackson wannabe.” Franco spat back in slight annoyance, before smirking as he started quickly thinking of ideas on how to actually get to the bomb. His immediate idea was to use his right gauntlet to propel him towards the bomb itself-

“I’m only a wannabe if you kick my ass, Explosion Murder , and I don't see you getting any closer.”

And just like that, Franco’s smirk fell. That one singular nickname had just given away the fact that Ashido was very likely one of them. Someone who was also isekai’d, but decided to remain hidden…

Immediately, the smirk that came back up was a more feral one than before, as Franco decided to take the risk his immediate idea had. “Guess you’ll see it now!” he yelled, as he pulled the pin on his right gauntlet, angling it upwards.

Ashido’s eyes soon widened. “Oh shit, he’s becoming stupid!” she shouted, as she set up an Acid Veil to protect her from the likely debris…

And then, it happened…

In a way no one saw coming.

Instead of propelling him towards the bomb, Franco had angled his gauntlet a bit too high, essentially launching him through the floor. He realized this immediately, screaming “FUCK!!!” as he was sent through the floor down into the second level of the building…

Where he crashed, before losing consciousness.

As debris from Bakugo’s last-ditch effort rebounded off the Acid Veil that she set up, Ashido turned towards the hole that the blonde had crashed through.

She immediately jumped down to where Bakugo landed, before sliding over to his unconscious body, leaning warily towards it.

Ashido just stared at his seemingly lifeless body for a few seconds. “Oh, wow, he kicked the bucket…” she started, before immediately having a realization. She soon hastily turned Bakugo over, just to make sure his face wasn’t too badly marred by the acid, before winding a roll of capture tape around his wrist and lifting into her arms.

“Uh— medic!?” she called, hoping that All Might could hear. “Also, give me my victory, already!” she started to complain, slightly annoyed.

An airhorn could be heard over the P.A. system, before All Might spoke up. “And the villain team wins!”

She soon started using her quirk to get down to the ground level, where she met up with both Shinso and Sato, the latter seemingly taking the loss surprisingly well. As both of them turned towards her, they were seemingly staring in shock at the state that Bakugo was in, dents and acid damage visible all over his costume and gauntlets.

Eventually, a pair of Recovery Girl’s robots to take Bakugo away, as the three of them went back to the control room, where All Might was waiting for them with his usual million-watt smile on his face. “Well done, everyone! Young Bakugo is safe and sound in Recovery Girl’s office, and should be released by the end of the day. Now, can anyone tell me who the MVP is?”

Kirishima was the first to raise his hand. “Ashido, right? Since she trapped her whole area and then beat Bakugo?”

“Incorrect! The MVP for this exercise was actually Young Shinso! Can anyone tell me why?”

“‘Cause he didn’t melt everything, right?” Mineta answered.

“Correct! While Young Ashido had a flashier fight, and did a fantastic job enraging her opponent to distract him, Young Shinso did successfully take down Young Sato without melting the majority of his floor.” All Might soon noticed Sato just looking down at the floor. “Young Sato.”

That got Sato’s attention, causing him to look up from the floor. “Hm?”

“Do not feel discouraged!” he tried to reassure Sato. “You had the unfortunate luck to be placed against someone who’s quirk works against you. In the future, in similar situations, I would caution against using your sugar right away; saving it for the opportune moment gives you a catalyst to use to your advantage. Finally, before we move on, everyone take caution from Young Bakugo; it is always best to test our Support Items in a safe environment, like these Battle Trials, rather than use them out in the field for the first time. Now, onto Match #5!”

The final match that day was, ironically enough, Team C (Midoriya and Kirishima) as heroes against Team G (Koda and Shoji), where somehow, despite Kirishima being thrown out a window, the heroes managed to pull off the victory.

And once All Might finished giving the review of that match, he clapped his hands. “Now, excellent work, all of you!  Truly, all of you stepped up to the plate and had an excellent first day. While there were some injuries, by and large, all of you did a fantastic job! Well done! If you do have minor injuries, feel free to stop by Recovery Girl and enjoy UA's complimentary healing!”  

His smile somehow beamed even more than it already was. “I hope that all of you have gotten some information to chew on and things to improve about. Now, I’m off to check on Young Yaoyorozu and Young Bakugo. Watch how a hero exits: Like he has somewhere to be!” 

And with that, the hero sprinted away… 

“Ugh…”  Franco groaned as he regained consciousness. “Where am I?” he questioned in Italian, before sitting up and looking around. It was pretty clear that he was now in the infirmary at UA, due to… well, all the medical supplies surrounding him.

Surprisingly however, he was the only one in the room, with his first guess being that Recovery Girl was dealing with another issue. As he just sat there, he started thinking about a variety of random things, from how terribly the battle trials went, to his past life, and other things…

But one topic that he dwelled on was why he decided to continue acting like canon Bakugo, despite the others admitting they’re also in the same situation as him. And the more he thought about it, the sooner he came to one conclusion…

He was doing it as a coping mechanism.

He had known both Kieran and Enzo for a while now, Kieran since they were both 6 and Enzo since their first year of high school, so now being stuck without either of them… was something Franco had completely forgotten the feeling of.

And the more he thought about them, the more he realized they had become a coping mechanism for him. So without them, Franco had latched onto something else to cope with the situation, that being the fact he was now stuck in another universe-

His thoughts were disrupted, when Recovery Girl returned, this time, with All Might in tow. And after a quick round of healing from the school’s nurse to heal the acid burns ( ‘Oh, so that’s why my face felt like it was being stung when I woke up…’ ), and a review of the match from All Might which he barely paid attention to (something about being careful with support gear?), he was soon cleared to leave…

And by the time Franco got back ‘home’, he decided to just go up to his room, and flop onto his bed, before falling asleep rather quickly.

Well, at least day 2 of UA was done. Only two more days until the dreaded USJ occurs…

Franco was missing…

Those three words were ones that Kieran never wanted to hear in his lifetime. He had known Franco for years by this point, hell, he was the one that came up with his nickname when they were 9. But now… there was no trace of him.

The one person who was always there for him, the one who helped him through his breakup not even a few months prior, the one who had seen him at his very lowest. The one who would agree to go to conventions alongside him when his other friends couldn’t go with him…

Kieran just sighed. All he could do was hope. Hope that Franco will be found. Hope that he makes it out alive. Hope that he… just returns home safe.

It didn’t help his conscience that he had left class with Franco not even two hours before he was supposedly last seen. Hell, it hadn’t even crossed his mind that it would potentially be the last time they saw each other…

Kieran let out another sad sigh, as he went to find an old DM between him and Franco. Once he found the specific voice clip, from a specific conversation they had during the pandemic, he pressed play.

“Hey Kieran, remember that time we beat up Matteo back in 2018?” Franco began chuckling. “Good times, lad… good times.”

Matteo was someone that both of them knew growing up, who absolutely despised Franco, for… some reason (neither of them had ever actually figured out why Matteo hated him before he moved to British Columbia right before the pandemic arrived). That day in 2018 was the one where Franco had finally snapped after the years of bullying, and actually fought back. And despite getting suspended for a week due to it, they both agreed it was absolutely worth it…

Kieran cracked a small smirk, as tears started falling from his eyes. To him, it didn’t matter anymore… 

He would either find Franco, or die trying.

Chapter Text

Day 3 of UA was already starting off… interesting.

Franco did what had become routine at this point: Wake up annoyed at his alarm clock, get his shit together for the day, and a small interaction with one of ‘his’ parents, and set off for UA.

But today was different… because there was a crowd of journalists standing in front of the school.

Franco just groaned as he watched them all try to talk to seemingly any student passing by, before a realization struck him. “Oh, so that's why people hate us..." he muttered quietly.

Prior to being isekai’d as Bakugo, Franco was a journalism major in his first year at university, and was genuinely enjoying it. The lectures made a nice change of pace from the usual classes that he experienced in high school, mainly due to the fact they felt less restrictive than before.

He soon made his way through the crowd of journalists, denying any attempt at an interview, before heading as quickly as he could to class.

By the time he made it to his seat, he let out a small sigh in relief. If he was being honest, it was a lot harder than he expected to keep his cool in front of all of them.

As he waited for class to actually start, he decided to start fidgeting with a pencil out of sheer boredom. However, that didn’t last long, as a realization soon dawned on him…

The Shigaraki Break-In was today.

If Franco was being honest, he wanted to avoid that at all costs. Considering he knew some of the others wouldn’t be against changing canon, he would leave it with them to try and do that-

He was cut out of his thoughts by the sight of Aizawa’s neon yellow sleeping bag just crawling into the room. Their teacher soon unzipped the bag, before standing up in front of everyone.

“Hello class! Welcome to another day of UA! I guess..” ‘Wait, what do you mean “you guess”?’

“Hello, Miss Aizawa!” Fallia welcomed, although their eyes looked a bit more dilated than usual.

That seemingly caught Kaminari’s attention, as he looked up from his desk. “It’s time for class already?” he questioned.

“Sadly, yes! Welcome to High School! Where sleep is for the weak!” Franco just stared at Aizawa after what she said. He had been through high school, and his sleep schedule had been surprisingly normal. University on the other hand- “Anyways, onto the schedule. We will be doing something fun!”

It seemed like Kaminari wasn’t the only one seemingly tired, as Ojiro seemingly was as well. “Somehow I doubt it.” the tailed kid annoyingly said.

“Class rep selection, yeah?” Kirishima confirmed. ‘Ah right, the elections…’

“Is that really considered fun?” questioned Hagakure.

Kaminari just groaned. “I was hoping to do this later in the day when I had more energy. We’re doing this via vote, right?”

Franco just smirked as he started to remember what actually happened in this part of the manga. He hadn’t read Volume 2 for a while by that point, so he could only remember some of the details of it.

But as he started to remember the details of what happened in the manga, a few people started to announce their withdrawal from the election, starting with Fallia, and then…

“I’m sitting out of being elected as well,” came the voice of… Iida? “I’m not brave enough for politics.” Franco probably would’ve focused on his withdrawal a bit more, had he not just quoted one of the Star Wars prequels.

But while Franco focused on the quote itself, some of the others were clearly disappointed at the fact Iida wouldn’t be class president, like he was in the series, judging based on the reactions of Kaminari, Sato, and Fallia.

Aizawa soon went back to answer Hagakure’s question. “Of course it’s fun! Anyway, there are a couple rules! No voting for me as I have looked through Aizawa’s memories and a class tried that. Second, don’t kill each other.”

Don’t kill each other… Those were surprisingly low standards, even for what Franco had witnessed in his life.

“…Is that it?” Kirishima asked, seemingly a bit concerned over the lack of rules given.

“I mean, yeah? What do you want me to do, give you all seven thousand rules on how to behave during class when you all should know how to behave? I mean, at least don't murder each other and don't threaten each other without it being in good fun.” The more that Aizawa continued to talk, the more Franco was tempted to say ‘fucking mood’ after literally anything she said.

“I mean, doesn’t the teacher get more involved normally?” Sero asked, and it was clear that some of the others were starting to agree with him.

“Yeah, give us the rules, please.” Hagakure asked.

As Fallia nominated Kirishima for class president, Aizawa just looked annoyingly at the invisible girl. “Y’all want rules? Boring! Class is fun when anything can happen! Just no crimes, at least.” Like Franco had said mentally prior… Fucking mood.

Immediately, Kaminari pulled a hat out of seemingly nowhere. “So… Could we all make, like, a speech on who should be the class president or something or for ourselves if we wanted to?”

As some of the others started questioning where Kaminari got the hat (Franco reckoned he just stole it from Ashido, seeing as it was similar to the one she wore during the Battle Trials), Franco decided to speak up. “Do I really need to make a fucking speech when we all know I’m the best here?”

“Why are we making speeches in the first place?” Hagakure asked, seemingly still confused.

“It’s fun!” Kaminari explained, as he put on the hat. “And it doesn’t involve violence!”

“Also helps concentrate the votes around the folks who want the responsibility, too, so we don’t get a repeat of canon Midoriya passing up the role.” Kirishima elaborated.

As soon as Midoriya heard his name said, he immediately rejected the opportunity. “I absolutely don’t want it this time either.”

“Of course you fucking don’t…” Franco just rolled his eyes, before muttering “Better odds of me winning, anyways.”

“Okay!” Aizawa said, regaining everyone’s attention. “Because some of y’all want speeches, come up and say 'em! Don’t think about them! A hero must be able to act on the spot at all times!”

Kaminari soon stood up. “Perfect! I have one already.”

“How do you already have a speech prepared?” Shouji asked skeptically.

“Magic… Nah, I just thought of it now, to be honest.” Kaminari admitted. “So… do I just walk in front of the class? I’ve never really done anything like this before.” he asks awkwardly.

“Okay, wait, raise your hand if you want to give a speech, please!” Kirishima asked the class, clearly trying to take control over the whole situation.

Franco soon raised his hand, before looking around at the others that did. Momo and Kirishima made sense, considering how the former was one of the reps in canon, and Kirishima is Kirishima, and Kaminari made some sense considering how he was acting about the whole thing, but Asui nominating herself was a bit of a surprise for him.

“Right,” Kirishima started pointing at the others in turn. “Kaminari, you start, then Bakugo, Asui, Yaoyorozu, and I’ll bring up the caboose?”

It was clear the others agreed to it, as Kaminari made his way to the front of the room to actually say his speech.

"I won't lie to you, I don't want to be class president.” he started off, which left Franco confused. If he didn’t want to be president, then why did he agree to do a speech? “I just want to say something serious because of the situation most of us are in, but this also applies to those who aren't reincarnates.”

Kaminari took a deep breath, before continuing his speech. "We're hero students, like it or not. We can't just mess around. I want to, I want to enjoy life, and I know most of you do too. And with most of our problems seemingly already gone, we shouldn't have much to worry about. But we don't know about the future. If we all intend to go down this path then we should train for it and get better at using our quirks. We need to be better, stronger, faster. We can't just slack off. No, we have to put 200% effort into this to try and be the best heroes we can be." He finished his speech with a bow, before walking back to his seat.

The response to said speech was somewhat mixed however, with Ojiro clearly rolling his eyes and Fallia struggling to stay awake, while others like Uraraka, Shoji, and Kirishima all agreed with it.

Kirishima soon turned towards Franco. “Right. Bakugo?”

Franco soon stood up at his desk, and did his best attempt at what a Bakugo speech would be like…

Which just resulted in him saying “At this point, you all know I’m the best here. Just fucking vote me already.”

As he sat down, he elected to ignore the reaction of the others, although Sato calling it “One of the speeches of all time” nearly got a chuckle out of him. From what he could tell, not many people actually seemed to like his speech, which made sense. He could only do so much with Bakugo’s personality this early on in the timeline.

It was soon Asui’s turn to do her speech. She just stood up at her desk before starting. “I hope you all feel good hearted enough to vote for my friend, Jiro. I believe she would be good for class president.”

Franco just stared in confusion, until Jirou’s fidgeting beside him stopped suddenly. “W-What!?” she stuttered out, clearly as surprised as the rest of the class.

“Yeah, elect the anxiety ridden girl to class representative, I’m sure that won’t go poorly at all.” Ojiro commented sarcastically.

“Is nominating someone else allowed?” Hakagure asked, clearly still confused over the whole thing (which Franco couldn’t really blame her for).

“I mean, I don’t see why not!” Kirishima exclaimed.

“…Please do not.” Jirou said, clearly nervous about being nominated.

“I trust in your abilities.” Asui admitted.

“I don’t…” he could hear her mutter beside him.

Kaminari just hummed at the whole thing. “Anyone would be better than Bakugo, I’m fine with whoever.”

Franco just turned toward Kaminari, giving him the biggest possible glare that he could at that moment. In response, Kaminari just grinned before slowly flipping him off. Franco soon flipped him off as well, before turning back to whatever was going on with the election.

“Kaminari, Bakugo, you guys should probably still be nice to your classmates, even if they are acting like jerks.” Kirishima told the two of them, slightly annoyed. “Now, Yaoyorozu, you’re up! Speechify us!”

Did… did he just say ‘speechify us’? (At this point, Franco was still surprised at the things Kirishima would say that seemingly made no sense.)

Yaoyorozu soon made her way to the front of her room to do her speech. “For those of you who reincarnated: I entrust you’ve already seen who I am and what I’m capable of. But for those of you who don’t know me… I’m more than the person you saw in that battle trial yesterday. I’m always striving for perfection, I’m someone who only wants the best for those around her and those we hope to protect.

“Should you choose me to represent you, I can’t promise you that I’ll be perfect right away, it’s entirely possible I’ll make mistakes… But I’ll ensure that everyone in this room has a platform to speak, a place to feel safe and a shoulder to lean on. Thank you.”

She soon went back to her seat, but it was clear to see almost everyone was impressed with it… Well, apart from Ojiro, but he didn’t really count.

As soon as she sat down, Kirishima moved to the front to do his speech. “Alright, to be honest, I’m not super good at fancy speeches. And I’m not going to go around promising lofty goals that I can’t achieve. What I am good at, though, is people. If I do become class rep, I promise that I’ll make sure that none of you guys feel left behind. I promise that if you come to me with a concern, I’ll get it taken care of, come hell or high water.

“I’m not going to go out and promise that we’ll all be the top 20 heroes once we graduate, because the real world doesn’t work like that. But I can promise you that I’ll do my fighting best to give us a shot at taking those spots, plus ultra style. Thanks.”

He soon returned to his, but it was clear that his speech was as well received as Yaoyarozou’s… minus Fallia falling asleep right at the end of it.

Once everything had died down, Koda raised his hand. “So how are we counting up the votes?”

Kaminari immediately took off the hat he was wearing. “I prepared for this moment,” he said enthusiastically.

“Alright, everybody have some notebook paper they can rip off?” Kirishima asked the class, to which no one denied. “Then write the name of your vote for class representative, and the second most votes gets to be the vice rep! Once you finish, take it on up and pass it to Kaminari, and when we’re all done we’ll count it up!”

Everyone immediately started writing down who they wanted to win, with Franco voting for himself. The good thing was that his handwriting was still the same as it was prior to being isekai’d, so it wouldn’t be as noticeable as to the fact he voted for himself.

As soon as all the votes made it to the front, Kaminari read the votes out loud, with Kirishima keeping track of who got what votes. By the end of it, the results were:

8 Votes:
Momo Yaoyorozu
Eijiro Kirishima

2 Votes:
Kyouka Jiro
Katsuki Bakugo

Oh, so someone else had decided to vote for him… That was honestly a surprise to even him.

However, as the others were debating how to handle a tiebreaker, Franco did the one thing he didn’t want to happen during class…

His mind went into autopilot mode.

While the debate was still going on, he soon stood up, before throwing his arms in the air. “Mi stai prendendo per il culo?” he asked, clear annoyance in his voice, before sighing. “Why am I not surprised, of course they won, it’s Kirishima and Yaoyarozou. I mean to be honest, it was pretty obvious they were gonna-”

It was at that moment Franco realized… He fucked up.

He didn’t need to even turn around to notice that pretty much everyone was staring at him, and it made sense. He had just outed himself as one of them, someone else who had been isekai’d alongside them, when he had tried hiding it the whole time…

Franco just sat down, before throwing his head into his hands. “Franco, you fucking idiota…” were the only words he could grumble out.

Almost immediately, several thoughts raced through his head. The main one being that his existing coping mechanism was basically thrown out the window. He had just revealed the very thing he was trying to hide, the thing that was keeping him sane the past few days, the thing that-

Wait, was that an airhorn he just heard?

It didn’t matter… nothing did anymore. The one thing that kept Franco focused in this world, the thing that helped him cope with this whole thing…

Would now be nothing more than a memory.

Franco struggled to focus for the first part of the day.

Every time he tried to pay attention, his mind would wander back to the reveal. Not only was his cover now blown, but he had just lost the only coping mechanism he had in this world. He felt like he just wanted to be alone for once, away from everyone…

And when lunch arrived, he did just that. He decided to avoid everyone else, choosing to try to find a secluded area instead. Somewhere where he could try and accept what actually happened back during the class election without anyone around.

Eventually, he made his way to a spot no one else had seemingly found, and started to just let it all out. Franco was never one to cry often, so being able to do it and not risk his reputation at all (if he even still had one) was nice for a change. Even as the emergency alarm kept blaring, he just continued, before cleaning himself up and preparing to head back to class.

But as he made his way there…

“H-Heya… you doing alright?”

Franco turned towards where the voice was coming from, to see Jiro walking towards him. “Hm…? To be honest, not really…”

Jiro just blinked, clearly not expecting that response. “…Is it bad if I say that I wasn’t expecting an honest answer?”

Franco just chuckled at that. “Not at all. Hell, if I was in your shoes, I’d probably react the same.”

“Fair, but yeah- Do you want to talk about all this?”

“Honestly, I feel like it would be better if I did, but at the same time…” Franco sighed, trying not to let his mind wander too much. “The whole act… to be honest, the more I think about it, the more I realize that it became my new coping mechanism here. And now that that's gone…”

“You feel vulnerable…? Exposed?” Jirou questioned.

“Yeah… As much as I hated acting like that, it sort of became my default setting in a way. Now that it’s gone… I feel more empty than anything.” Franco admitted. “Hell, didn’t you notice that after my outburst during the election, I didn’t react to anything? I’m pretty sure I even heard an airhorn somewhere in there.”

“Yaomomo did do that-” she confirmed. Ah, so it was an airhorn he heard during his existential crisis. “But honestly, I didn’t really notice, though I wasn’t particularly paying attention…”

“Fair enough, I guess.”

“With that said,” Jiro continued, “I think that even if it’s difficult right now, it’s probably better in the long run that you got rid of the ‘Kacchan’ persona, it doesn’t seem particularly healthy- And my ears are grateful for it.”

Franco just chuckled again when he heard that last bit. “You aren’t wrong. I guess better to reveal it now than when everyone hates me…” He thought for a quick second of what that might’ve looked like, before slightly cringing at the idea that came to him. “Now that would’ve been awkward…”

“If it makes you feel better…” Jiro went on. “I kinda went through the opposite thing myself.”

Now that caught Franco’s attention. “Hm…? Do tell.”

She soon started to explain. “Back on Sunday, the first person I met here was Eijiro, and guess what was the first thing to come out of my mouth?”

He thought for a moment, but he couldn’t really think of anything that she would actually say. “Honestly, I got nothing.”

Immediately, Jiro looked away, clearly a bit nervous about what she was going to say. “…My actual name!- After a couple of weeks of not even uttering it once, I blurbed it out to the first guy I talked to.”

Franco just tried to hold in his laughter at that. “Like your original name before you ended up here?"

“Yup.” she nodded hesitantly.

“And I assume you’d rather go by Jirou or Kyouka or whatever than said name?”

“Honestly, it just feels awkward to think about or say- If that makes any sense.”

“Nah, I get it. Speaking of our past names,” he smirked, “call me Franco. I’d rather go by that than Bakugo or “Kacchan”.”

“…I should probably stop calling you the latter in my head then.”

Franco had to resist another chuckle there. “Your choice. Honestly, as long as you don’t call me it out loud, then it’s fine.”

However, she just waved it off. “I’ll get used to it. Just gotta treat it like a deadname in my head, and I’ll even forget that was a thing to begin with.”

“That's understandable. So…” he awkwardly continued. “Uh… we friends now, or…”

“Oh, sure, I guess? I don’t mind-” Franco was internally celebrating. He now had a friend in this world! “Going back to the name thing though, since you did share yours, Mine’s Nei, or was anyway- Just call me Kyouka though.”

“Alright then, Kyouka…” he said, but it didn’t feel right to him for some reason. “That's gonna take a bit to get used to, just been calling you Jiro in my head for the past few days.”

Kyouka just chuckled at that. “Guess we’re even then.”

“Guess so…” he chuckled back, as the two of them made it back to class.

It took another few hours for classes to actually end that day, but when it did Franco only had one goal in mind: try and make it out without anyone noticing him.

If he was being honest, he didn’t want to deal with any more questions from anyone. Sure, he was now friends with Jir- Kyouka- (‘yep, gonna take a bit longer to get used to that…’), but that still didn’t mean he wanted to interact with the others in his class. However, that all went out the window pretty much immediately, when…

“Bakugo? Could you wait a moment?”

Franco turned his head to where the voice came from, to see Yaoyorozu heading towards him. “Hm…? Sure, I guess…” he responded, a bit more dejected than he was expecting.

She ended up stopping a bit away from him, for some reason. “I just wanted to check in on you?” “Unless Kirishima already has, then sorry for bothering you.”

Franco just shrugged her off, however. “Nah, it’s fine… Jiro’s the only other person I’ve actually talked to, though.” 'And I did it again... great.'

“I see…” she responded hesitantly. “Well, how’re you feeling? Obviously you didn’t wish to reveal yourself to the others so it was a big step for you today.”

“Honestly, I don’t really know,” he hesitantly admitted. “I just let my emotions get the better of me there, and now that everyone knows…” he sighed, before deciding to try and change the topic. “I’m gonna be honest, that whole act was more of a coping mechanism for me.

Yaoyorozu just nodded along. “So you feel rather… Exposed without that ‘act’, you say?”

“Yeah.” he bluntly admitted. “Sure, I, and seemingly most others in the class have been stuck here for, what, 3 weeks at this point? And even then, they’ve clearly accepted this whole thing. But for me… I know I’m not Bakugo, and that I’ll never be him.”

“If I may be honest with you? I feel that whilst our classmates appear comfortable in this world, I wouldn’t say that you’re the only one thinking this way.” Yaoyorozu revealed, and she probably was right. He wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Ojiro thought the same way he did. “Furthermore, I suppose you now get to discover who you actually are in this new world.”

“I suppose you’re right,” he admitted, before a realization hit him. “And I know I’m not the only one thinking like that. Hell, I’m pretty sure Ashido’s doing the exact same thing I was.”

Yaoyorozu’s eyes widened a little at that potential revelation. “Oh? What makes you say that?”

Franco soon started explaining. “During the Battle Trials, before, you know, I knocked myself out, Ashido said something oddly specific. I assume you don’t know about Bakugo’s actual hero name in canon?”

“No,” she admitted, “not yet. My only tidbits of knowledge are from small portions I’ve heard from some of you and Kirishima.”

Franco just nodded, before continuing his explanation. “Well, in canon, Bakugo’s hero name was temporarily “King Explosion Murder”, and later “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight”. Long names, I know…” he quickly rolled his eyes. “Anyways, during our fight, Ashido called me “Explosion Murder” for some reason.”

Yaoyorozu seemed to ponder what he said for a moment. “Interesting. That seems far too specific to be a coincidence.”

“Exactly. I don’t know if any of the others know, but just thought I should make you aware.”

“I appreciate you telling me, Bakugo.” Ah right, he should probably tell her as well… “I’ll confer with Kirishima and we can work something out. In the meantime, however, are you going to be alright?

“I should be fine. For now, at least. And also,” he pulled out the same smirk he did to Kyouka earlier that day, “call me Franco. It was my name before I ended up here, after all.”

She just nodded at that request. “Franco? I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. If there’s anything you need at some point, just let me know.”

“Alright, glad there’s someone else I can talk to now.” Franco soon looked at his watch, before a realization hit him. “Oh shit, I gotta get going. See ya later, and remember, tomorrow’s the USJ attack!” he gave her a two-fingered salute, as he started sprinting out of UA.

By the time Franco got back ‘home’, he just went to ‘his’ room, before just dropping his bag on the bed.

As he sat down, he decided to try and find a new coping mechanism, seeing as his existing one was pretty much useless. He had considered trying to see what history still existed of football (which he still called it, despite Japan’s name for the sport deriving from the word ‘soccer’), or maybe seeing what existed in regards to anime at this point in time-

A new idea soon came into his head. Immediately, he pulled out a blank sheet of paper before writing all of his classmates' names down…

He knew some of their prior names, James Eisner for Kirishima, Nei for Ji- Kyouka (‘god, why is trying to not say that so hard?’), and Fallia for Tokoyami, but the others… they were all still a mystery to him.

And with mystery, came Franco’s newest interest in this new world…

Finding out about the other’s past lives.

Enzo’s phone rang.

Now, that wouldn’t be unusual for him, except for the fact it was currently 1 am, and he was trying to sleep.

All he could do was groan, as he picked it up. “The hell do you want?” he asked, still annoyed at the fact someone thought that it was a good idea to call him that early.

To his surprise, the voice on the other end was Kieran, and something seemed… off about him.

“Enz… Franco’s missing.”

However, Enzo was too tired to immediately take in what he said. “The fuck do you mean Franco’s missing?”

“It’s like I just said Enz, Franco’s missing. Simple as that…”

Enzo just groaned again, still not fully understanding what his friend was implying. “Kieran, if this is some elaborate prank you set up, I swear to god-” he would never finish that statement, as his friend cut him off.

“Enzo.” Oh shit. Now that got his attention. Ever since the early days of their friendship, Kieran had never called him by his name, preferring to use the nickname he created for him. Now, he could tell that Kieran was definitely serious. “Do you think I’m joking about something like this?”

And then… Kieran's words actually hit him…

Franco’s missing.

‘Oh… oh god…’

While he hadn’t known Franco as long as Kieran had, Franco was one of the first friends he made after arriving in Canada from Brazil. Both of them became friends pretty much immediately, bonding over a mutual love of football (both of them would refuse to ever call it soccer due to their backgrounds).

And now… he was supposedly gone.

“Kieran, you wanna try to see if we can find him?”

He could hear Kieran chuckling on the other end. “I thought you’d never ask. After class tomorrow, meet me by the McDonalds at the Eaton Centre. We’ll discuss our next steps from there.” And with that, Kieran hung up.

Enzo just sighed, before trying to go back to sleep. But as he tried, he could only think of one thing…

‘Franco, we’re gonna find you.’

Chapter Text

As Franco got out of bed that day, he realized two things…

That he had only managed to get 4 hours of sleep, and today was the USJ attack.

The first point was not really that much of a surprise to him. His sleep schedule had been messed up prior to being isekai’d, and now the effects of it had fully arrived in this new world (sure, it was a month later than he had expected, but it arrived nonetheless).

As for the other, he was already dreading what would come later that day. He knew that the day would’ve happened eventually, partially due to the Shigaraki break-in happening the day prior (if the alarms blaring were anything to go by), and partially because of how critical the events were in the manga, seeing how it was 1-A’s first experience with the League of Villains…

Franco just sighed, as he got his stuff, and left for UA, deciding to pick up a hot chocolate on the way (the last time Franco had tried coffee… let's just say there’s a reason why both he and Enzo avoid it like the plague). And by the time he got to his seat, he still had a few minutes left to finish his drink.

And pretty much as soon as he finished, the bell rang, with Aizawa walking in pretty much immediately after. “Welcome to class.” she greeted. “We don’t have any normal classes today, so leave your stuff here. Instead we’ll be having a fun little field trip-”

Kirishima soon cut their teacher off. “Wait, the USJ?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.” Aizawa immediately responded, seemingly trying to hide the fact they were.

“What’s the USJ?” Mineta asked.

Fallia was the first to start explaining. “It stands for the Unforeseen Simulation Joint and it’s where we practice do rescue training-”

“Hold up,” Sero interrupted. “Isn’t that the place where we get attacked by villains?”

“It is…” Franco started to mutter, before the realization struck him. They would actually be going through it. “Wait a minute, you’re actually gonna make us fucking go through that???”

Aizawa cleared her throat, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “Let’s stop wasting time and let me explain. All of you, change into your hero costumes and meet up outside the locker rooms, and I’ll explain what’s going on there.”

Immediately, Franco joined the rest of the class in grabbing their cases, and to his surprise, it felt like his costume was in it. If he was being honest, he had prepared just in case his costume hadn’t actually been repaired, where he would just put a basketball jersey (specifically, the one he had found early on into his isekai experience.), but alas, he wouldn’t have to do that.

As they were all changing however, 1-B also arrived, which left Franco confused. The USJ was supposed to just be 1-A going, so then why was the other hero course class there as well? Was Nedzu or Aizawa’s plan just to have more hero course students there to make it easier for them?

Franco was still pondering this when he headed towards where the rest of them were, with Vlad King doing a head count. “Good, you’re all here. We’re going to be heading to Gym Gamma today to work on quirkless sparring.”

“Ooooh,” Kirishima realized. “Since-”

“Exactly.” Aizawa confirmed, not bringing up the exact topic that most of 1-A knew already.

“I suppose it makes sense to avoid the USJ since the villains are attacking there.” Uraraka admitted.

“Villains??” one of the 1-B kids questioned in confusion, probably unaware of what actually happened in canon.

“Not really important or relevant right now since we’re not going there.” Iida reassured.

“So we’re just working on quirkless sparring today?” another 1-B student, Kaibara, if Franco was correct, asked.

“Exactly.” Vlad King confirmed. “Being able to fight quirkless is an important part of a pro hero; particularly if villains have something that can nullify your quirk or a quirk like [Erasure].”

“That’s why we’ll be working on your sparring skills today!” Aizawa spoke, seemingly a bit more energetic when compared to her (his? Honestly, it still confused Franco what pronouns to use in a situation like this) canon counterpart. “Everyone, follow us; we’ll explain more once we reach Gym Gamma!”

The walk to the gym itself was, in Franco’s opinion, a bit boring. However, one thought had started to show up in his head…

What if the villains sabotaged this instead?

The USJ attack was just a normal rescue exercise that got derailed. What was stopping them from doing the same thing here? Sure, with Aoyama not in the class, there was a pretty low chance they had a spy in the class, but it wasn’t 100% confirmed.

As they walked into Gym Gamma, Franco noticed four people were already there. However, there was one in particular who Franco had no idea was.

“Vlad, Aizawa, glad you guys made it here.” The unknown person, seemingly a teacher, said as they all arrived.

Franco was about to question who he was, mainly because he didn’t really recognize him from the manga, but Vlad King interrupted his thought process.“Class, this is Snipe, the third year heroics teacher.” the 1-B teacher explained. “He’s joined here today by three of our strongest students, who are collectively known as the Big Three.”

‘Ah,’ Franco realized. He was too busy questioning who Snipe was to realize that UA’s ‘Big Three’, a.k.a. Mirio Togata, Nejire Hado, and Tamaki Amajiki, were also there. The three of them introduced themselves.

“I’m Mirio Togata! Nice to meet everyone!”

“And I’m Nejire Hado! Super cool to meet you guys!”

“I’m Tamaki Amajiki…” the boy waved nervously.

As Vlad King continued talking, Franco stopped paying attention. Initially, he just felt relief that they wouldn’t actually be going through the USJ attack, but that relief soon turned to confusion at the sight of some black mist a bit away from them, and as it got bigger, that confusion morphed into realization.

“Oh shit!” Franco’s eyes widened, catching the attention of everyone else, who all seemingly had the same reaction…

Because there, nearly 300ft away, was a very familiar mist-like portal opening on the wall.

Immediately, the three heroes went on the defensive. While Aizawa tried to erase Kurogiri’s quirk, to seemingly no effect, Vlad King had started to draw blood from his tanks while Snipe had drawn a gun-

“All Might’s not here?” a raspy voice said, emerging from the portal… Tomura Shigaraki himself. “That’s a shame. I’d hate to think we’d come all this way for nothing.”

Immediately, Snipe opened fire at the villains, but Kurogiri was quicker, opening several portals to block the bullets.

“Don’t bother. Kurogiri got an upgrade from sensei.” Shigaraki revealed, as he started to scratch his neck. “Hey, do you know what I hate even more than All Might?” The villain scratched his neck a bit harder than before.

“It’s cheaters.” Oh, he knew… ‘WAIT HOW THE FUCK DOES HE KNOW-’ “So when a guide NPC came to me told me that so many of U.A.’s students were cheaters, peeking at my battle maps before they were ready, I wasn’t sure what to do.”

‘A guide NPC…’ Franco questioned what he meant, before it immediately dawned on him what the villain was implying… someone had definitely told him.

As the look of recognition started to pop up on some faces, the villain just grinned. “But then I figured it out: why not skip the tutorial mission? Why should you guys get an XP grinder when you’ve already got a walkthrough?”

A maniacal light soon emanated from his eyes, before he sneered at them. “Good luck, heroes. You’re going to need it.”

That was the last thing Franco heard, before he started falling…

As Franco seemingly fell from the sky, all he could do was scream. And despite his best efforts to try and slow his momentum, he just slammed into the ground on his stomach.

“Ugh…” he groaned, deciding to just remain as he was for the time being.

However, he wasn’t the only person to fall where he did, as he heard two others land near him as well.

“What’s going on!?” the first one, which Franco could identify as Koda, asked, a hint of panic in his voice.

“Whoa, what was that? Where are we?” The other voice, Nejire Hado, also wondered.

As Franco got up, he just hummed, before deciding to actually analyze where they were. “Looks like a forest, sounds like a forest… Yep, definitely a forest.” he remarked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Franco just watched as Koda stood up, dusting any dirt off, before turning towards him and Nejire. “Why are we here? Does anyone know what’s going on?”

“I don’t know…” Franco pondered for a few seconds. “But if it’s anything like the actual USJ attack, it doesn’t seem good-”

“I’d say that it isn’t for you hero students.” He was cut off by a voice in the sky. Because there, hovering on a platform of ice above them…

Was Geten.

“Both of you, get out of here!” Nejire commanded, before preparing to fight Geten herself, launching a Nejire Wave at the ice villain.

“Aight!” Franco immediately shouted back, slightly slipping into his original accent. However, he didn’t actually move that far, as he focused on something else altogether…

Geten in the manga wasn’t introduced until way after the USJ, specifically in the My Villain Academia arc (Franco would always refuse to call said arc by its actual name, preferring it over the “Meta Liberation Army arc” name), so it made no sense why he was here so early-

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Koda right beside him. “We should go, but I don’t want to just leave Nejire here alone? Maybe we could help her, like cause a distraction before we bolt?”

“Hm…” Franco thought for a minute, before he smirked. “I think I have an idea-”

“Planning in front of your enemy isn’t ideal.” Geten interrupted them. “I’d figure that you hero students would know that by now.” And with that, Geten’s focus shifted away from Nejire, and onto the two students, sending a handful of ice spikes in their direction, which both of them were able to dodge easily.

As Franco began running through ideas on how to stall Geten, Koda had managed to summon a massive flock of birds to obscure the villain’s vision. As Koda had got the last of them, he turned towards Franco. “Hope that plan of yours is better than what I got. There aren’t many birds at the moment so I don’t know how much that will help.”

“Trust me, it will!” Franco yelled back. He knew how to recreate Bakugo’s AP Shot, and figured that would be a viable distraction to stall Geten for a bit. But as for what he was gonna call it…

(“Honestly, ‘AP Shot’ is probably the worst name of Bakugo’s ultimate moves” Kieran nonchalantly admitted.

“Oh yeah?” Franco remarked sarcastically. “And what would you call it instead, genius?”

“It might seem a bit redundant, but…”)

“BLITZKRIEG BLITZ!!!” Franco yelled, as he opened fire on Geten. However, to his surprise, multiple blasts came out at once, similar to what something like ‘AP Shot: Auto Cannon’ would be like. “Holy shit, that's more than I thought…” he muttered to himself in surprise, not noticing that Koda’s jaw had completely dropped upon witnessing the attack.

However, Geten was able to throw up an ice wall in time to block most of the shots, although Franco was pretty sure there were some that nearly hit the villain. “Is that all you got?!” he taunted.

Luckily for Franco, his plan to distract Geten worked, as Nejire managed to get above and behind the ice villain. “Pike!” she shouted, launching one of her ultimate moves at Geten.

As the two of them went back and forth, for a bit, Koda had a realization. “I think that’s our cue to escape. I’m gonna head into the forest a bit and see if I can summon an animal to help lead the way out to someplace safe.”

Franco just turned towards his classmate, before nodding. “You do that, I'll stay behind and support Nejire.”

Koda looked slightly conflicted at his response, but with an “Okay”, he ran into the woods.

As soon as he was out of sight, he turned back towards where Nejire and Geten were still fighting, and saw the perfect chance for another distraction. “Ready for round 2, Ice Fuck?” He yelled up, before firing another ‘Blitzkrieg Blitz’ in the villain’s direction.

Geten, however, just floated his platform higher, with Franco’s shots barely missing. “I'd recommend you run with your animal-controlling friend, kid. You won't be winning this fight if I try at all.”

Nejire decided to take advantage of Franco’s distraction, as she aimed towards the villain, launching another ‘Pike’ attack at the villain. And as the fight went on, all three noticed more birds circling around the villain, who had to adjust his position to avoid them-

The fight was soon interrupted by the sound of wings in the distance, and a multitude of red feathers shooting directly towards Geten…

Feathers that Franco was seemingly familiar with.

With FanExpo right around the corner, both Kieran and Franco had agreed to go together this year, seeing as Enzo wouldn’t be able to go. While Kieran had his cosplay fully completed, that being Roronoa Zoro from One Piece, specifically the outfit he wore during the Skypiea Arc, he had no idea what his friend had planned.

“So, you haven’t actually shown me what the hell your cosplay even is.” Kieran reminded Franco, as he stepped inside his friend’s house. “Care to actually show me it this time?”

“You know what, sure, considering I’ve got it mostly done.” Franco nonchalantly said, before leading Kieran into the basement. And as they both got down there, Kieran just stared in awe at what he saw…

Perched on a mannequin, was a set of wings, specifically designed based on Hawks’ wings from My Hero Academia. The wings were surprisingly detailed, way more effort than Kieran had even considered putting for his costume.

But what impressed him even more was when Franco put it on. It turns out that Franco had installed a functioning mechanism into the wings to make them actually move, with a surprising amount of poseablility to them.

“Holy shit…” were the only words Kieran could actually get out. He was in genuine shock. Franco had never done something like this before, hell, never seemed interested in the concept. And yet…

“I know.” Franco smirked, as he put the wings back. “Took like a week to figure out how to make this shit work, and then another month to get the things for it.”

Kieran just smirked back at his friend. “This FanExpo is gonna be SO much fun…”

By the time Hawks had arrived to the fight however, Geten had already escaped via. one of Kurogiri’s warp gates. “You good there, kid?” Hawks asked, as he landed right beside where Franco was.

Franco nodded. “I mean I can’t speak for her,” he pointed towards Nejire, who was also landing near them, “but honestly, I’m fine. To be fair though, that fight could’ve been way worse than it ended up being.”

Nejire just nodded as well, signalling that she was also alright, before turning towards Franco. “Who even was that villian? You seemed to recognize him when he got here.”

Franco’s expression immediately changed. “That… was someone who wasn’t supposed to be here. Not yet, at least…”

Hawks just nodded, almost like he understood what he was implying (Franco didn’t even know if he knew about most of the students being isekai’d, so it could’ve been that he was just nodding along). “Should probably get you back to the rest of your friends then.”

Franco just nodded to that. He was just glad he managed to make it the whole thing relatively uninjured. He just hoped he could say the same for the others…

As Enzo waited for Kieran to get there, he decided to start scrolling through social media.

Word that Franco had gone missing had seemingly hit everyone they had gone to high school with. And while it was nice to see everyone caring so much about spreading the word around, what good would it actually do in the hunt to find him-

“Enz, you good there?” a voice quickly snapped him out of his thoughts. Enzo turned his head, to see Kieran standing there, a GameStop bag right beside him.

Enzo just rolled his eyes. “Alright, what did you get this time, Tears of the Kingdom?” he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Nah, found this bad boy though,” Kieran chuckled, as he pulled out a Funko Pop, specifically the chase version of the Hitoshi Shinso Funko Pop that had been released a few months prior. “But back to the case at hand, you know why I called you here.”

“Yeah. All we know is that Franco just disappeared. We don’t really have any lead on where the hell he is…” Enzo assessed.

“Seems like it, Enz.” Kieran sighed. “Fuck, I miss him already.”

“We both do. It makes sense though, you’ve known him for, what, 12 years now?”

“13.” Kieran corrected. “Though it still feels like yesterday at times. Fuck, we were so innocent back then…”

Enzo just raised an eyebrow at that. “And then I showed up?”

“Nah, we were like that for years before.” Kieran chuckled, as tears started to slowly leak from his eyes.

Enzo just watched on. He knew the two of them were close, but it was starting to become clearer that they almost felt like brothers at times, even though they were clearly not related biologically. And it was clear that Kieran was taking Franco’s disappearance harder than he had expected…

Immediately, Enzo had an idea to try and distract his friend. “You know, we could rob his place while he’s gone…” he mentioned jokingly, but the look in Kieran’s eye said all he needed to know…

“Enz, you’re a fucking genius.” he smiled, before the two of them bursted into laughter, seemingly ignoring the fact people were starting to stare at them. “In all seriousness though, we should probably go to Franco’s place. That would be our best start, after all.”

“Great. Tomorrow then?”

“Tomorrow then.”

Chapter Text

The walk back to the others was, in all honesty, pretty uneventful for Franco. Sure, Nejire seemed like she was struggling to even walk by the time they reached everyone else, but that was probably the most eventful thing that happened.

It took a few minutes for everyone to get on the bus (mainly due to people making sure everyone was there), and by the time they had all gotten on, Franco was seated beside Sero and Honenuki (‘Thank god for those 1-B Funko Pops they released last year’) and directly across from Amajiki, who had a tired Nejire leaning on him.

As the bus started to leave the forest, everyone was still dead silent… That was, until Kuroiro (the fact that Franco could even remember his name surprised him) spoke up.

“So, anyone know how this shit happened in the first place?” he asked, as he crossed his arms. “Wasn’t there supposed to be a plan by not going to wherever we were supposed to go today?”

“That was the plan that Eijiro laid out for us, yes.” A 1-B student with silver hair confirmed. “As to where it broke down… I’m uncertain at this time.”

“Fat load of good that did.” Sato just grumbled, not moving his head from where he was resting.

“That villain mentioned a guide NPC.” Amajiki mumbled, before a small realization struck him. “Someone must have found out about your actions and went to the League.”

Some of those on the bus just pondered for a few seconds before Komori spoke up. “…Who would do that?”

“Probably one of those body-snatchers, Komori.” Kuroiro almost immediately responded.

“Wasn’t a smart one, I’ll say that.” Franco decided to comment. “Anybody with a half-functioning brain should know that working with the League’s an idiotic move.”

“The fact that a horrible end is waiting for that person as well doesn’t make the situation any less worse.” Amajiki commented, and in Franco’s opinion, he wasn’t wrong. Not only was working for someone like All For One almost a literal death sentence, considering, well… it's All For One, but also if the heroes found out…

Sato mumbling in his seat snapped Franco out of his thoughts. “Worst part is we don’t even know where to start trying to figure out who it is… If it's an insert, then they might not announce that…”

And he did have a bit of a point. If one of them was a traitor, they almost certainly wouldn’t openly admit it, not this early on at least. Additionally, most inserts should at least know the risk of even being associated with the League, thanks to what happened to both Lady Nagant and Aoyama in the actual series.

Midoriya soon spoke up. “We can keep an eye out, at the very least.”

“Yeah, and we know it’s not Aoyama this time.” Iida commented almost immediately after.

Almost immediately, Kuroiro decided to speak up. “No one’s better than keeping an eye out then me! Vantablack is on the case!” he announced boisterously.

This however, got Sato to actually look up from his seat. “Unless you're the traitor.”

Almost immediately, a small wave of panic began to set in, although it was swiftly brought down by Amajiki. “Let’s not jump to accusations so fast.”

“I don’t know the future, or whatever. It’s not me.” Kuroiro admitted, with someone else from 1-B verbally confirming it also wasn’t them.

“Splitting us up is only going to deteriorate the situation further in the long run.” another member of 1-B commented.

“Yeah. Fair enough.” Sato sighed, as he put his head back down on a seat. “We probably shouldnt point fingers anyway, not unless we know for sure.”

Amajiki soon decided to speak up. “It could be anyone from UA; Kirishima was awfully loud with his explanations two days ago…”

“Like anyone outside of the hero course could actually have real relevance.” Ojiro just grumbled, like usual at this point.

“They could have hearing quirks and that’d be enough.”

“What about unknown Self-Inserts, or whatever you call yourselves.” Kuroiro asked. “People could be hiding who they really are.”

“It might not be for malicious reasons, though, if they’re hiding it.” Pony yawned out, seemingly still exhausted after the attack they just went through.

“Could also have figured out we are inserts from outside school.” Sato admitted. “If someone acted out of character, then a malicious S-I could figure it out without needing to be in UA at all.”

“But when?” Kendo asked. “Unless you guys are regularly talking to a lot of other people about your future knowledge, it’d be an astronomical coincidence for someone outside of U.A. to hear about it.”

“Let me bring up Kirishima again; with how easily he speaks of it, he most likely mentioned it to his parents; if they slip up, the information spreads further.” Amajiki explained. “And that’s just one example.”

“Then it could be anyone. They’d be impossible to find.” Koda commented, fidgeting nervously the entire time.

“Yeah, what are you suggesting?” Shinshida asked. “We search for each person any of you SIs have interacted with just in case one of those people has betrayed our school?”

“Don't even have to have interacted with ‘em. If someone acted weirdly, or displayed signs of not being themselves, someone spying on them might notice.” Sato commented. “There's too many possibilities. Too many ways this could happen. I don't know… I don't want to point fingers at anyone here if I can help it.”

“We can narrow it down a little bit, though-” Honenuki revealed. “So far all of you have only become characters that were mentioned in your visions, yes? So it must be one of you.”

“That’s still a rather large number; and, beyond that, it could be someone who merely noticed that someone was acting off and passed the knowledge further on.” another member of 1-B commented.

“Plus Endeavor’s son shacked up with the villains and he’s one of you SI people.” Kamakiri (‘Oh boy, someone else in 1-B I can actually remember the name of!’) pointed out. “Could be someone like him who’s just being an idiot.”

“What?” Sato asked, surprise clearly visible on his face. “When the fuck did that happen! He’s not meant to join them ‘till like, after the sports festival!”

‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait… Dabi was there?’

Franco was honestly just confused. There was literally no sign of Dabi even being there from what he could tell, but the way they were talking about “Endeavor’s son” could only mean they were talking about him specifically.

“Didn’t he defect?” Kuroiro asked. “He was willing to put on that big bulky quirk-suppressant thing.”

“Traitor once, traitor twice…” Franco heard Amajiki mutter.

The 1-B kid that seemingly looked like a golem (Franco really had to learn more of 1-B’s names at this point) shakily raised his hand. “I- I agree with Kuroiro. I don’t think it was him.”

“Then we’re right back where we started.” Tokage groaned.

Another round of brief silence returned, before being broken yet again by Kuroiro.

“…Ugh! This is getting too complicated” he groaned. “Anyone who’s an SI or whatever in here, could you raise your hand or something?”

Franco raised his hand, and decided to look around to see if anyone else had as well. Unfortunately for him, the rest of those that put their hand up, those being J- Kyouka (‘At least I’m getting better at correcting myself faster’), Midoriya, Iida, Sato, Ojiro, and-

‘Wait, Koda’s one of us… when the fuck did this- oh right I forgot…’

The whole time, he had completely forgotten that Koda had revealed he was another insert like most of 1-A were, back during the first day of class. In fairness to Franco, he had been focused on trying to act like canon Bakugo back then to really notice.

“I mean, that’s assuming that nobody’s lying, right?’ the spiky-haired kid from 1-B asked. “And what if someone new becomes a SI?”

“If we suspect SI’s as the traitor, then it would make sense that they would hide that they’re the traitor.” Sato commented.

“Someone new?” Koda asked, a hint of worry and surprise visible in his voice.

“Can that even happen?”

At that question from yet another member of 1-B that he couldn’t name, Franco just shrugged. “Couldn’t tell ya. Still trying to understand the logistics of this whole thing myself.”

Tetsutetsu also shrugged. “Not much point in worrying about that- not like we can do anything if we do become SIs.”

“That’s… rather morbid.” Kurorio admitted. “I mean, one day I’m me and another a rando is suddenly me…”

“I mean,” Tetsutetsu cut Kurorio off, “I’m not the same person I was yesterday, either. We’re all constantly changing. There’s no constants in life; that’s what it means to be alive.”

“…That was surprisingly deep.” Kendo admitted, a bit surprised at what Tetsutetsu just said.

“‘Of course I won, why wouldn't I be able to defeat yesterday’s me?’, something like that?” Sato asked.

Tetsutetsu just grinned, before giving Sato a thumbs up. “Right in one!”

“So that’s where we’re leaving it?” one of the shorter members of 1-B asked. “There’s traitors but we don’t know who?”

“Yeah, more or less.” Sato admitted. “Shouldn't assume anything.”

“What do you want to do?” Amajiki asked. “There’s not much that can be done at the moment. Feel free to suggest going ‘1984’ to Nezu later, though.”

“1984?” Kurorio questioned, slightly confused. “What’s almost three hundred years ago have to do with this?”

“It was an old book from before the Dawn of Quirks, was it not?” Shishida asked.

“That’s right,” Amajiki confirmed. “In short, it’s about a totalitarian state which uses constant surveillance and other tactics to keep people oppressed.”

“I mean, things aren’t all doom and gloom, are they?” Sero commented from right beside Franco. “We all made it out of the USJ- means the villains lost, right?”

“We didn’t all make it out in one piece.” Franco heard Mineta comment quietly, and he did have a point.

“Did… did something big happen?” Kuroiro asked nervously.

“Not everyone’s on the bus with us for a reason.” one of the 1-B girls commented.

“I didn’t see anyone…” Tokage admitted. “I think everyone’s still alive, at least.”

“It was a close call for some.” Amajiki admitted. “We encountered a villain called Wolfram. Mirio and I barely managed to beat him.”

‘Wait… Wolfram?’

From what little Franco knew about the anime-only characters from Kieran, Wolfram was the main villain of the first My Hero Academia movie, which meant…

“Seems like Geten wasn’t the only villain out of place, then…” he muttered out.

“…Is Togata ok?” Kuroiro questioned. “I don’t see him here.”

“He was evacuated using one of the helicopters.” Amajiki confirmed.

“Oh…” was all Kuroiro could say, as he seemingly got lost in thought…

‘Huh, so that's what I look like when I do that…’

“At least it wasn’t any worse?” Midoriya decided to comment, albeit with a. “With AFO and Decay, they could’ve done something really bad to us.”

Kamakiri just snorted at that. “‘Least I got stabbed with a knife instead of a longsword’, is that what you’re saying? You’re still fucking stabbed.”

“They can still hurt us.” Amajiki emphasized. “They still have their teleporter, do they not?”

That brought Kuroiro’s attention back to the current conversation. “…Teleporter? Is that the guy that brought us to that forest in the first place? I saw what he did with Snipe-sensei’s bullets, what really is stopping them from setting up a more coordinated attack?”

“Nothing besides their own wounds.” one of the 1-B students commented.

“Wounds? Unless the teleporter is incapacitated, he can just open portals under us that lead not to forests, but to active volcanoes.” Amajiki revealed.

“It’s fucking Shigaraki.” Ojiro decided to comment. “He’s too much of a manchild to get Kurogiri to do anything he’s not personally involved in.”

“Yeah, plus something happened to him.” Midoriya revealed. “Did you guys see how the front of the lounge got all torn up? There was ice and like scorch marks everywhere.”

“Sounds like Shoto was there.” Iida decided to comment.

“Yeah, he was. I encountered him in the woods earlier.” Sato confirmed. “He's an insert as well. Apparently he died in his last life.”

“I think Eijiro said he died too.” Kendo revealed.

“Does how people end up as SIs matter?” Kuroiro asked, as he began to briefly stretch his arms.

“I mean, it gives everyone different outlooks on things-” Tokage commented. “That’s not nothing.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Kuroiro admitted. “If I died and got reincarnated, I would feel grateful. But if I got randomly transmigrated or whatever, I’d probably want to try and go back.”

As Franco just nodded to what Kuroiro said, Koda turned over to the 1-B student. “Well, if you or anyone else figures out how to get people back to where they came from, that'd be amazing….”

Sato just raised an eyebrow at what Koda said, before Pony decided to make a comment. “I guess I’d want to go back, too. Hard to say.”

“It looks like we’re almost there.” Kendo commented, changing the topic of the conversation.

“Well…” Sato tensed, clearly wanting to change the subject. “This was everyone's first real villain encounter, how is everyone feeling?”

“It was a villain attack.” Franco emphasized, starting to get a bit annoyed. “What the fuck do you think, genius?”

“Fair enough, stupid question. I'm just…” he sighed. “This whole thing made me wonder, how do the other S-I’s feel? Since we didn't necessarily sign up for this…I don't know, stupid question. I'm tired as hell…”

Koda’s face just darkened after what Sato said, before Amajiki spoke up. “Feel free to switch high schools if you can’t handle it. There’s no shame in it, truly.” he said, surprisingly in a comforting manner. “In hero life there is injury; death. It is inevitable.”

Almost immediately after he said that, the bus stopped, and Franco just looked at where they now were, that being a hospital (the name or location of which Franco couldn’t be bothered to either look up or care about). And shortly after, paramedics started to direct everyone into a large lobby area.

It took a couple of minutes for them to heal him, mainly due to them prioritizing those that were decently injured, but once he was allowed to leave, he decided to just go ‘home’ and calm himself from the day’s events…

The next few days following the USJ attack (‘Can I even keep calling it that, since it wasn’t actually at the USJ this time?’) consisted mostly of the same thing for Franco…

And that was contemplating a few things.

The first, of course, was having to basically face the concept of death that early on. He knew something like the USJ would be traumatizing to some extent, especially considering how early it was in their hero career…

But honestly, Franco didn’t really feel that traumatized at all. Sure, he was more than likely just lucky (he’d seen the injuries some of the others had sustained, and compared to them, Franco got barely any injuries apart from some minor scrapes), but at the same time, he also had the feeling that he should’ve been one of those severely injured as well. Bakugo in canon was well-known for his fighting ability, but with Franco coming out as uninjured as he had, he was starting to think he didn’t do enough…

But another thing he started to notice was his seeming lack of friends. Back home, he had Kieran and Enzo, and while they could be idiots at times (mainly Enzo), they were still some of the best people Franco had ever known. But now… he had no one-

Scratch that, he had someone, at least. Kyouka (‘Hey, I actually managed to say it for once!’) was really the only person he could consider a friend, despite the fact that they only talked once. And the longer he spent in this world, the more lonely he was truly starting to feel. The first few weeks were easy to handle, but afterwards…

Franco just sighed. At least he knew what he’d be doing before the Sports Festival… Getting new friends (and maybe a new coping mechanism while he’s at it).

As Kieran arrived at his friend’s house, all he could do was just stare…

Franco’s disappearance had only been three days prior, but to him, it started to feel almost like weeks at times. Sure, they had been separated for longer periods of time in the past, but now… there was a pretty good chance that he’d never see him again.

After about a minute of staring at the house, he decided to use his spare key to open the door. And to his surprise, the alarm was still on, which more than likely meant he never made it home that day…

As he settled down, trying to avoid the realization he just discovered, he decided to shoot a quick text message to Enzo, just to see how long he’d be waiting. And once he got his answer (supposedly 15 minutes), he decided to just kick back and watch TV until his friend got there…

And about 30 minutes later, the doorbell finally rang.

Enzo had never actually visited Franco’s house before.

Sure, they had been friends for about four years by this point, but every time they hung out, it was seemingly either at his house, or at one of the city’s various malls. But now that his friend was gone, Kieran had suggested they meet up at Franco’s place to further discuss trying to find him…

That was an interesting conversation for sure.

(“Wait, you’ve known Franco since we all started high school, and yet you don’t know where he lives?”

“Uh… yeah?” Enzo nervously responded.

Kieran just stared at him, before sighing. “Honestly, I wanna say I’m surprised, but I’m not.”)

As he arrived, he decided to quickly double check if he was at the right address that Kieran had told him, before eventually ringing the doorbell, and not even a few seconds later, Kieran opened the door. “Enz, you’re late,” Kieran remarked, as he let Enzo inside.

“Sorry about that.” He apologized, as he stepped into the house. “Traffic was a bitch today,”

Kieran’s face just morphed into a look of confusion. “We live in the suburbs, Enz, the fuck you mean ‘traffic’s a bitch’?”

“Clearly you forgot where we live.”

“Ah right, the ‘construction capital of North America’, how could I forget?” Kieran sarcastically remarked, causing both of them to chuckle. “In all seriousness though, make yourself at home, Enz. After all, it’s what Franco would’ve done.”

As he made his way through the house, Enzo found that it wasn’t what he honestly expected from someone like Franco. That wasn’t to say that he thought where his friend lived was bad, it was just not what he had mentally envisioned it looking like in the past.

However, his attention was immediately shifted when they got near the kitchen, where he noticed a giant red feather, similar to that one My Hero Academia character (Enzo couldn’t remember its name for the life of him), that was just leaning against one of the walls.

Almost instantly, Kieran noticed this and just chuckled. “Y’know, Franco made that for his FanExpo cosplay last year.”

“Really?” Enzo asked, somewhat surprised, as he continued to inspect the giant feather. “This looks surprisingly detailed for something that he made.”

Kieran just smiled. “That’s what I thought too when I first saw it. Just shows that the guy can still surprise us all.” He paused, before sighing, and making his way towards the living room. “Come on though, we didn’t come here just so you could look around Franco’s place.”

As the two of them sat down on a pair of couches in the living room, Enzo just looked around. “Honestly, this place feels… almost too empty to be Franco’s place.”

“I know.” Kieran admitted “Honestly, it still feels odd, considering I’m so used to it being just me and him here…”

“Wait.” Enzo interrupted. “Does Franco live here by himself?” he questioned, to which Kieran just nodded. “Then what about his parents? Where are they in all of this?”

Kieran tensed up. “His dad… Francisco doesn’t really like bringing up what happened to his father that much.”

As soon as his friend said Franco’s real name, Enzo became surprisingly concerned. “So… what happened then?”

All Kieran could do was sigh. “Died in a car accident when we were both 12. Fuck, I can still remember seeing Franco in tears after finding out all these years later…”

Enzo’s face just paled. For the whole time he knew Franco, he had only brought up his father a small handful of times, and even then, those were when he was talking about his childhood. So to find out the truth was something like that…

And then, he had a realization. “Wait, then what about his mom?”

“Booked the first flight to Italy she could after Franco’s birthday this year.” Kieran explained. “She still pays for him to stay here, of course, but from what I can tell, she seemingly has little contact with him now.”

“That explains why he’s stopped talking about her recently…” Enzo muttered, before another realization struck him. “Wait a minute, does she even know her own son is missing?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Kieran shrugged. “I’m pretty sure my mom’s still in contact with her, so maybe she knows? But I can’t 100% confirm that.”

The two of them just sat in silence for a few seconds, before Enzo spoke up. “Do you mind showing me around this place? Might take our minds off of the shit you just told me about our missing friend.”

“Honestly, sure.” Kieran nodded, as they both got up, with Kieran almost immediately starting the tour. And by the time it had finished, Enzo found that it wasn’t as interesting as he had anticipated.

Most of Franco’s place seemed to be… almost like he expected (the only exception being his friend’s bedroom, which was seemingly a complete mess). But that all changed when Kieran got to the last part of the tour… Franco’s basement. From various bits of his past cosplays on display, to random pieces of merch on shelves around the place, Enzo was honestly not expecting it to be as tidy as it was.

However, it was another thing that hooked his attention, and that was the photos scattered around the walls. There were seemingly dozens of photos, most of them looking like they were from when Franco was younger, with either an older man (which he assumed was Franco’s father) or another kid (which looked like a younger version of Kieran) in a good majority of them.

But what Enzo truly noticed was that there were only two photos with him actually in it. The first one was of the two of them playing football, seemingly from the day they met, and another from their senior prank in high school…

As Enzo finished taking it all in, he sighed. “Kieran, do you ever think… that Franco only hangs out with me because he found me alone that one day?”

“Is this about you being in like two photos?” Kieran asked, to which Enzo nodded. “Most of these photos were from before you arrived in the country. I’m pretty sure he started it to cope with the loss of his dad, but don’t quote me on that.”

“Huh…” that surprised him a bit, but before he could respond, Kieran started talking again. “In all honesty though, if he had met you instead of me all those years ago, you guys would probably be way closer than me and him are right now.”

Now that caught Enzo off guard. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah.” Kieran nodded. “It’s like every time he talks to you about soccer-” “Football?” “-yeah, that. Anyways, every time you two talk about it, he always brightens up almost instantly. Like he’s genuinely passionate about that shit, he just hadn’t found anyone to talk to about it… until you showed up that is.”

Enzo was surprised at that. He knew that Kieran had only started learning about the sport over the last few years, so to find out Franco was seemingly that desperate to have a friend to talk to about it… “And you noticed this… all because we talk about football?”

“Yeah. I’ve never really been that big of a fan of the sport myself, but Franco’s been warming me up to it.” Kieran revealed. “I mean, I know some things. Like I could tell you where the Italia 90’ final was played-”

“The Stadio Olimpico in Rome.” Enzo rattled off immediately.

“-and who scored in said final-”

“Andreas Brehme.”

“-but I couldn't tell you who the fuck started, I don't know, left center back for the Argentines that match-”

“Real Madrid defender Oscar Ruggeri.”

Kieran just stared in shock. “...holy shit, I don’t think Franco could even list it out that fast.”

All Enzo could do was chuckle. “Yeah, he probably wouldn’t be able to… but let’s get back on topic here. What do we know about his disappearance?”

“The only thing that’s clear is he never made it back here after class that day.” Kieran admitted. “The real question now becomes where did he go?”

Enzo just hummed, before he thought of something. “Do you know if he has any other family in the country? Or…”

“No. I met some of his cousins when they came to visit from Italy a few years ago. I vividly remember them mentioning he was their only family here in Canada.”

“Wait, you know Italian?” Enzo asked.

“Non molto, but their English was enough to understand what they were saying with… minimal issue.”

“That’s good to know.” Enzo nodded, before changing the subject. “Alright, to recap what we got so far… basically nothing new.”

“Yeah, pretty much-” Kieran started, before being cut off by the sound of his ringtone. He soon checked his phone to see what it was, only for his eyes to widen with realization. “Ah shit, I forgot about that study group.”

“Exams?” Enzo questioned.

“Yeah…” he groaned, as he got up to leave. “If you want the alarm password, check our conversation from yesterday, but I best get going.”

“Alright then.”

As Kieran left, Enzo decided to make his way back up to the living room, before sitting down on the couch that Kieran was on earlier. Now that they were both on the same page about what happened, it was clear they knew pretty much nothing about what actually happened to their friend.

All Enzo could do was sigh. He knew that both he and Kieran would do anything to get their friend back. But how long they’d actually have to wait to find him, he would never want to know…

Chapter Text

Franco had to do an interview.

Having been a journalism student in his past life (it still felt weird for him to call it that), he was no stranger to the concept. However, what made this one different was the nature of the interview. Nedzu had requested him (and he assumed all the others involved in the attack) to go to UA on Sunday, two days before they were set to start classes back up, to talk with both himself and a police officer in regards to the attack days prior.

As Franco arrived at Nedzu’s office, and stepped inside, he noticed there were only two people in the room: Nedzu himself, and a detective that… honestly, Franco recognized, but completely forgot the name of.

“Ah, Mr. Bakugo!” Nedzu greeted him as he entered the room. “I’m glad that you were able to make it.”

“Uh… Thanks, I guess?” Franco responded awkwardly. In all honesty, he didn’t really know how to respond to the principal’s greeting.

“My name is Detective Tsukauchi; I’m a police detective with the Mustafu Police Department.” The detective introduced, as he held out his hand, which Franco shook almost instantly. “I’m here to ask you a few questions about the attack on your class three days ago.”

“Ah, what happened instead of the USJ incident…” Franco started before quickly getting lost in thought for a quick second.

“Indeed. Now let’s get started,” Tsukauchi replied, snapping Franco back to reality as the detective pulled out his tape recorder. “This is an official record by Detective Tsukauchi on Sunday, April 20, 2256, in the Principal’s Office at U.A. High School. Sir, can you please state your name?

“Physically, I’m Katsuki Bakugo.” Franco started. “Mentally on the other hand, I go by Franco.”

“Now, Mr. Bakugo, tell me one truth and one lie, please, for the purpose of calibrating my quirk.”

“Uh…” Franco struggled to come up with a decent lie quickly. “The sky is blue, and we’re currently in Portugal.”

‘Yeah, that definitely is a lie…’

“Wonderful.” Tsukauchi responded. “Now, what is the name of your quirk or quirks?”

“Explosion.”

“And that is your sole quirk?”

“Correct.”

“Now, Mr. Bakugo, describe to me, to the best of your abilities, the events of the attack upon your class three days ago.”

Franco pondered for a moment, before he started to talk. “Honestly, class was… mostly normal to start off with,” he began. “I say mostly normal, because I feel like a decent amount of us were slightly panicking at the prospect of having to actually deal with the USJ Attack. Turns out, we were gonna be doing some quirkless sparring… Until Kurogiri, the League’s warper, showed up. I’m pretty sure that I was the first to notice him, because everyone else seemingly didn’t notice until I called it out. Then Shigaraki came out of the portal, did his speech, and all of a sudden, we were warped into a forest.”

“I ended up with both Koda and Nejire Hado, and were made to fight Geten, a villain with an ice quirk. Nejire ended up fighting him while Koda and I figured out what the hell we were gonna do. I ended up deciding that I’d provide support to Nejire, while he would run off trying to find an escape. Eventually, after a bit more fighting, Hawks ended up showing up, and Geten pretty much immediately ran off. Hawks made sure both me and Nejire were alright, and… I’m pretty sure that’s it.”

“I see.” The detective responded after hearing Franco’s side of the attack. “Now, the only villain you fought was Geten?”

“Yes.”

“And this is your first time meeting Geten in person?”

“Correct.”

“Now, I’m going to give a list of names. Please audibly respond with yes if you have met the person before Wednesday, either online or digitally, or no if you have not met the person before.”

As he was given the list of names, all of whom were major villains in the series (apart from Aoyama), which meant Franco’s response was rather quick…

(“No, no, nope, no, nope, no, no, nope, no, nope, n-” he did a double take at ‘Dumas’, a name he didn’t recognize at all. “Never heard of him, so no, and no.”)

“Wonderful. Only a few more questions, now. Are you a member of the League of Villains?”

“No. It’s like I said on the bus ride to the hospital, you’d have to be an idiot to even consider working with them.”

“You won’t hear any disagreement from me, Mr. Bakugo.” Tsukauchi admitted. “Now, are you in contact with any members of the League of Villains or people you believe might be members of the League of Villains?”

“No.”

“And, finally, is there any information that you feel would be useful for this investigation?”

Franco thought for a quick second. “Honestly, the only thing I can really think of is that most of us hero course students are pretty sure there’s a traitor. But in terms of shit about the villains, I got nothing.”

“I see.” Tsukauchi nodded. “Well, that’s all the questions that we have for you today, Mr. Bakugo.”

“Enjoy the rest of your weekend!” Nedzu announced cheerfully. 

Franco just nodded, and started walking out of the room, before a realization hit him. “Hey Nedzu, can I ask you something about the Sports Festival real quick?”

“Of course, Mr. Bakugo!” Nedzu responded, quite cheerfully. “What question do you have?”

“It’s in regard to the opening speech.” Franco admitted. “I know it’s supposed to be the person that got the most entrance exam points doing it, but since the whole situation, with… you know…” he gestured to himself, “would I still be doing it, or what’s the plan with that?”

“Well, given the public nature of the event, we are implementing a policy this year where the speaker- in this case, you- is required to submit a speech one week before the Sports Festival to be given on that date.” Nedzu revealed. “As well, if you do wish to not give a speech, it would default to the top scorer on the General Education examination- one Ms. Chikuchi Togeike, if I recall correctly.”

Franco just nodded. It did make sense why something like that would be implemented, seeing how some of the others were. He wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the others would’ve used this opportunity to spread some kind of political message… or maybe even something worse.

“Alright. I just wanted to clarify that before I planned anything for it.”

“Is that all?” Nedzu asked.

“Yes it is. Thanks again!” Franco said, as he walked out of the room.

As Franco left the interview, there was only one thing on his mind…

Dumas.

Based on the name alone, Franco had no idea who he was. He had originally suspected it might’ve been a character from the Vigilantes manga that he had forgotten about, but then a realization struck him…

‘Wait, Dumas… could mean Alexandre Dumas… Dumas was French, wasn’t he, which could mean… wait, was Aoyama whoever this ‘Dumas’ person was?’

Almost immediately, Franco threw out that train of thought. He was making these assumptions about a villain all because of a single name, while knowing nothing about their quirk or what they were even like. Had he known more, then sure, he could claim it might be more than just a coincidence, but for now, he had no basis for his thoughts at all.

The first day of classes after the attack felt… honestly, a bit relaxing for Franco. He finally was able to feel some semblance of normality again after the events of the week prior. Combined with the fact he no longer had to keep his Insert status hidden, and Franco would honestly tell you he was happy for things to finally go back to normal-

“Welcome back, class.” Aizawa started, as she entered the room, seeming… 

“You sound a lot more dead inside than last time, Ms. Aizawa.” Kaminari said, almost stealing the words right out of Franco’s head.

“Before we get started,” Aizawa continued, seemingly ignoring his classmates' attempts to greet the teacher, “There is one announcement I need to go over. I am no longer sharing my body or memories with a second person. Which means,” Aizawa soon formed her (his? their? Franco was just gonna settle with ‘their’ for now) signature grin, “that things are going to get back to normal here.”

At this revelation, Franco just groaned, ignoring everyone else’s response. “And just like that, any chance this would be like university has ceased to exist…”

But that also brought up another question for Franco: the fact that they can potentially be unisekai’d at any point… Which meant there was a chance he could go back…

Well, that was a revelation he never expected to find out.

“Well, shit.” Kaminari started, before a realization hit him. “Competence is back!” He looked like he wanted to say something else, but looked mortified, likely after another realization.

“No, Kaminari, I haven’t forgotten the sand.” Aizawa revealed.

Franco just chuckled quietly as Kaminari pouted. “Damn, wanted to get my revenge one day… it’s not the same now.”

Midoriya soon spoke up. “Well, welcome back Aizawa, I suppose.”

Ojiro soon raised his hand. “I have something I’d like to say too, Ms. Aizawa.”

Aizawa just nodded at Ojiro, who stood up to face everyone. “You have my deepest apologies if he did anything to offend or insult any of you over the past few weeks. I’m sorry.”

‘And another one bites the dust…’

Now, this meant that two people had, almost out of nowhere, lost their Insert status, which felt… honestly weird to think about-

His thoughts were cut short by Shoji. “I am no longer a ‘SI’ as well.”

‘Make that three now…’

“… It’s not just 1A who lost an isekaiee.” Fallia revealed, snapping Franco out of his thoughts yet again. “1B’s Shiozaki Ibara no longer has her isekaiee within her…”

“That’s… four, so far?” Kirishima questioned, before a realization hit him, and seemingly everyone else in the class. “Shit.”

“Well, now I wonder what the criteria for losing your SI status is…” Midoriya muttered.

Kirishima just shook his head. “I spoke with Nedzu earlier this morning and he mentioned that he, as of yet, hasn’t found any particular cause.”

“Could it be something in your original world?” Ashido asked, which left Franco… pretty confused.

If everything he knew was correct, then Ashido should’ve been an Insert like a majority of the class was, if their fight during the Battle Trials was anything to go off of-

“I think it would be related to the stability of our soul,” Fallia interrupted Franco’s train of thought. “Although I do not believe such beliefs…”

“It would be real awkward if I went back.” Kaminari admitted. “I died, after all.”

Franco just smirked, and decided to use this as a chance to banter with one of his classmates. “Imagine having died to end up here.”

Kaminari just looked at him, and clearly whispered something under his breath, but Franco already knew it had more than likely was a comeback or insult of some kind. Honestly, he didn’t know much about who ended up as Kaminari, but as time went on, the more he reminded him of his friends back home. He had both the snark that Kieran had while annoyed, and the near chaoticness that reminded him a bit of Enzo…

“I'm glad some of us are managing to get out.” Iida commented. “I hope they managed to get home and not get stuck in either limbo or just die.”

“They don’t get home, Iida.” Fallia revealed.

Iida just looked skeptical at that claim. “How do you know that?”

“Shiozaki detailed to me how her isekaiee, Mitchell, ended up leaving. The two of them seemed to be in something like limbo or purgatory, for sure, and…then…he went off and was gone. Maybe Mitchell’s soul finally got…” He didn’t finish what he was saying, but the silence alone was enough to signify what he meant.

Kirishima soon had a realization. “Wait… does anyone know how the four of them reincarnated here?

“Never got to ask Mitc—I mean, Shiozaki- for the details…” Fallia admitted, “but she’s the ‘Haunted’ type, like me, Uraraka, and Midoriya.”

Kaminari’s face just turned into a look of horror. “ I’m a haunted too… I literally died…” He soon started muttering something, which from what Franco could barely hear, was him just cursing repeatedly under his breath.

“We know that amalgamated folks can disappear too-” Kirishima also revealed. “Same with people who just had the original’s memory but not their personality.”

“This… may be bad…” Midoriya realized.

“Oh, it’s terrifying,” Kirishima agreed, “but no use in worrying about it at the moment. Not like we can do anything about it from this end, after all.”

“I feel like the fact we can’t do anything about it makes it scarier.” Kaminari admitted.

“I mean, you could have a heart attack right now and die too. Best to keep living life how you want to live it.”

“…Fair enough. But I still have things to do, here. Dying again wouldn’t be great.”

“Eh, I’m willing to die to try and keep as many of you alive as possible-” Iida decided to admit. “Almost did it the other day.” 

Pony just stared at Iida, before turning to the rest of the class. “Do all of you not want to go back?” she asked.

Kirishima just shrugged. “I died. Not much to go back to, at this point.”

Franco soon decided to speak up. “I can’t speak for the others, but as much as I’m starting to slowly get used to it here, I’d honestly take the first opportunity to go back,” he admitted.

“Like he said.” Sato agreed. “I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to going back, but there's not really any way to do it. So we kinda have to accept this.”

Kaminari just took a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm himself down. “I feel like we need to calm down, right? There’s still other things we need to do and worry about.”

“Exactly.” Aizawa nodded. “For example, you guys have another trial coming up: the U.A. Sports Festival is on the horizon, as I’m sure you’re no doubt aware.”

As some members of the class celebrated the announcement (and Midoriya making a comment about not breaking his bones this time), Aizawa continued speaking. “As you all are aware, this is the time for you to show your abilities. All of Japan’s top pros are watching for new talent, and after the attack all eyes will be on you and Class B in particular.”

“I’m tempted to ask if I could pass,” Kaminari admitted, “but everybody we’d need to worry about probably knows about what I could do anyways, might as well give the people a show.”

“But Kaminari, what about villains we haven't fought yet?” Iida asked.

“The principles are still the same as canon, Iida.” Kirishima pointed out. “Sure, we show off our quirks, but it tells people that We Are Here. We tell them that just because we got attacked doesn’t mean that we’ll hide away. Plus Ultra and all that.”

“What Kirishima said.” Kaminari spoke up, turning to Iida. “Plus, we know about them as well. Unless a different card shows up the playing field is still in our favor for threats like the MLA or movie canon characters if they show up. 

“Someone new already showed up at the USJ.” Iida reminded him. “Jirou and I, plus Yui and Rin from 1-B, fought a villian who wasn't in canon.”

Kaminari nodded at that. “I heard about Dumas from Yui, Iida. I have an idea of who he might be.” Now that caught Franco’s attention. “So he may not be a villain in canon but he could still be someone we know.” 

“Wait, who’s Dumas?” Uraraka asked.

“Dumas was some new villain with a buffed up version of Aoyama’s quirk plus something that made him tougher.” Iida revealed, which almost confirmed Franco’s theory that it was just Aoyama. “His personality is way off from Aoyama’s but he was still french- he could be an Aoyama who went full evil, or is forced to be more active, or someone else entirely.”

“Iida, we live in this mess, there could be someone working for AFO with knowledge of canon, and thus Aoyama wouldn’t be needed.” Kaminari pointed out. “It’s likely Aoyama but controlled by AFO.”

“The pendulum can swing both ways, though. We can't just assume it’s Aoyama; while still a possibility, it could also just mean that the villains have people like us who are willing to do anything to get home or just want to watch the world burn and use this place as a playpen.” Iida sighed as he finished talking. “That or I may need to sleep. Haven't slept much since, uh, the first day of class.”

‘…and I thought my sleeping habits were bad.’

“Could be, yeah. But I don’t see why AFO would give Navel Laser to someone else when he can just force Aoyama to be a villain instead.” Kaminari brought up.

“For fuck’s sake, guys, it’s a tournament arc!” Sato interrupted, clearly starting to get annoyed. “Please stop worrying and just have some fun.”

“Yeah maybe we should chill slightly.” Midoriya agreed. “All this stress seems bad for our health…”

“But what if villains attack the festival?” Mineta asked, clearly a bit nervous over the possibility.

“Why would they attack in such an obvious place? With all those heroes right there ?”

“They didn’t attack in canon, either.” Uraraka pointed out. “It would be a pretty bad idea.”

“They didn’t attack Gym Gamma, and we all know how that turned out.” Sero brought up.

As Fallia brought up the fact that they all know there’s a traitor (and made an ‘imposter among us’ joke in the process, which Franco just groaned at), Aizawa spoke up. “Regardless, the Festival is going to be taking place two weeks from Wednesday.”

“We have time, at least.” Kaminari commented.

“And don’t worry- we’ll be running you ragged during that time. We’ve lost two days of school, after all.” Aizawa soon gave their signature grin. “We need to make up that time somehow.”

“At least this means we should be getting some good training in.” Kaminari muttered out loud.

Midoriya just nodded at that. “We do need to get stronger somehow.”

Almost immediately, several members of the class turned to Midoriya to… remind him to keep training One for All? Declare war early? Franco couldn’t really tell. Midoriya in the end, just grumbled something about how he’s trying to train One For All. In the midst of everything, however, Kirishima just raised his hand. “Is this a good time-”

He didn’t get a chance to finish speaking, before Aizawa nodded and told him to go ahead. He soon made his way up to the front of the classroom. “So!” he started. “Speaking of training! Me and a few other folks- Kyouka and Yaoyorozu among them, plus some 1-B kids and Tamaki Amajiki of the Big Three- came up with a bit of a plan to get some extra training in. We’ll be meeting in Gym Gamma after Heroics today if anyone wants to drop on by- should be a combo study/sparring group. We’d love to have you guys if you can make it!”

“Why’d you have to drag me into this…” Franco heard Kyouka mutter from right beside him.

After some people confirmed that they could (or couldn’t in Sato’s case) make it, Kirishima just grinned. “Alright, that’s it from me. Back to you, Ms. Aizawa!” 

As Kirishima went back to his seat, Sato almost immediately spoke up. “Actually, a quick question for Aizawa. Do you want to go by Ms or Mr?”

“I don’t care. Call me whichever.” Almost immediately after they said that, the bell rang. “That’s all for today. Class is dismissed.”

Immediately, Kaminari got up, surprisingly calmly, before walking over to the window and just opens it. Almost instantly however, Aizawa recognized what he was trying to do. “Kaminari, do you have a safety rope or climbing harness?”

“Do a flip!” Sato shouted before Kaminari could give a response, which caused Franco to snort in surprise.

“There’s a bush, a few places to climb down,” Kaminari said, looking down at what was seemingly below, “and If I break an arm it’s an excuse to get out of class and take a nap.”

Aizawa just sighed. “All the same, I’m contractually obligated to tell you not to do that until at least your third year. Close the window.”

“Alright.” He nodded, as he climbed out the window, closing it as he made it out. “See you all next class, I’m going to sleep in the bushes for a few minutes to collect my thoughts.” Franco heard him say from the other side of the glass.

“…Kaminari, we have five minutes until Japanese.” Kirishima immediately reminded him.

“I won’t be late, don’t worry. I’ll arrive when I’m meant to.” Kaminari said, as he climbed down, disappearing from everyone’s view.

“…I’m not paid enough for this.” Aizawa just grumbled, as he finished watching the whole thing occur.

“Have you even tried asking for a raise?” Franco automatically responded, as he got up and soon started to hum a song familiar to him.

The last thing Franco heard as he went to their next class was Ojiro muttering something along the lines of the Gen-Ed kids thinking their class was haunted.

As he arrived at the gym after class, he was surprised to see so many people had also taken Kirishima’s offer of after-class training. As Franco counted, he noted that a majority of the 1st Year Hero Course students were there, minus around four or five of them, alongside both teachers and UA’s Big Three.

If Franco was being honest, he was only there just to see what this training group would be like, and if he was convinced hard enough, then maybe he would join.

“Welcome, everyone!” Kirishima started, spreading his arms wide. “Glad you guys could make it to this whole shebang!”

“Bold of you to assume I have anything better to do right now.” Franco responded, as the others there (which accounted for a good majority of the first year hero course students) also greeted him.

The first one to actually ask a question, however, was Monoma. “So how is this gonna work?”

“Excellent question!” Kirishima smiled, as he pointed to Monoma. “This whole deal was thought up by me and my lovely co-conspirators here,” he gestured to those next to him, which were both teachers and UA’s Big Three. “The idea is that we'll all be working with each other and any mentors that can come in- thanks for showing, Hado, Togata, Ms. Aizawa, Vlad King, Ectoplasm- to improve our skills in various fields! At least for today, I figured we could break into smaller groups to focus on some big stuff; I’ll be taking a group with me and seeing if we can focus on close quarters sparring, assuming you can supervise us, Ms. Aizawa?”

Aizawa just nodded at that.

“Amajiki, I was hoping you could take a group and kind of focus on narrowing down options for versatile quirks and quick decision making? Like choosing what the best option is in a fight or something.”

Amajiki just nodded. “I’ve got it.”

“Togata, I was hoping I could entice you to work on mobility with people through like tag or something?”

Togata gave a thumbs up at that. “You got it!”

“And Hado, I was wondering if I could get you to help the ranged quirk folks get some practice in with that?”

“Mm-hmm!” Nejire nodded. “Leave it to me!”

“Anyone have anything else they want to work on in particular?” Kirishima soon asked. Unfortunately, no one asked before Shiozaki spoke up. “I have a question?”

Kirishima soon pointed finger guns towards her. “Shoot.”

“Are we allowed to switch between groups?”

“In theory, yep!” Kirishima confirmed. “In practice, certain groups are going to warm up in different ways and it’s hard to jump in right in the middle of an exercise, so I’d say stick with one group each day and rotate on different days if you want more practice with different things.”

“Got it.”

Almost immediately, several people asked what group they should join, which Franco took as a sign to leave. While he had considered actually taking part in it initially, he ended up deciding against it, moreso due to the sheer amount of people there, and the fact Franco honestly found it easier to train by himself.

Two days later, Franco made his way up to the office of the school’s cousellor, Hound Dog,

Another consequence of the attack from the week prior was that Nedzu had requested everyone involved to have a mandatory therapy session with Hound Dog. And if Franco was being honest, he was a bit nervous. He had never had to have therapy before, so he was essentially going into this blind, with no expectation as to what might happen.

As Franco opened the door, Hound Dog noticed him almost instantly. “Katsuki Bakugo, right?” he asked, as Franco walked in. “Good to meet you.”

The room itself was pretty open, with plain white walls, and a bunch of things scattered around, ranging from balls, to plushies, and even a few large bean bags…

(Franco would never admit it, but just seeing them brought some nostalgia of his childhood back to him)

“Uh… likewise.” Franco responded, before he decided to sit on one of the bean bags, sinking right into it. “Holy fuck, this is comfy…”

Hound Dog just smiled. “I’ve had experience picking the best ones- it does wonders for helping people feel comfortable.”

“Fair enough.” Franco immediately responded. “So…” he took a brief pause, before deciding to continue. “Considering I’ve never actually had therapy before, I assume this just has to do with getting my feelings out after the whole… fiasco… from a few days ago?”

“Something like that, exactly.” Hound Dog confirmed. “How have you been feeling over the past week- anything out of the ordinary?”

“Honestly… Not really.” He admitted, before noticing a Rubix Cube in the corner and deciding to pick it up. “Like, I know it was a villain attack, and I know I should be traumatized, but…” he sat back down, before beginning to make random moves on the cube. “I don’t really feel any different.”

“Sometimes the trauma can strike you months or years later- or sometimes it just doesn’t ever fully manifest. People react to events like these in different ways.”

“Huh…”

“Exactly. If you don’t ever feel traumatized like your classmates, remember that that doesn’t make your experience any less valid then theirs- it just means you’re processing differently. Keep that in mind, okay?”

Franco just nodded. “Alright.”

“Now, moving on, I believe I heard that your introduction to this world was a bit rough?”

“You mean my first few weeks here?” Franco asked. “Or the fact I was literally clocked in the head by a football to end up here in the first place?”

“I was referring to your first few weeks, I suppose.” Hound Dog replied. “And how you ended up accidentally, ah, revealing yourself to your classmates, but I suppose the football also sounds like it was rough.

“Fair enough. But yeah…” Franco just sighed. “I honestly feel like the first few weeks were just me trying to cope with a situation where I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. It’s like I woke up in a body that wasn’t mine, and the first thing I did was decide to just act as the original Katsuki Bakugo actually would, just so no one would suspect anything was wrong.”

He put down the Rubix Cube, before deciding to continue. “And then I learned there were… a lot more people in the exact same situation as me. And as much as I wanted to reveal myself then and there like most of them did, I just couldn’t. I had latched onto the act as my main coping mechanism. And then the day of the class election, I let my own ego get the fucking better of me…”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a… bit of a competitive streak at times.” He admitted. “And when I lost the election, I don’t know, something just triggered my “usual” response of just complaining about the whole thing. I was… about halfway through it, I’m pretty sure, when I realized everyone was just staring at me and that’s when I realized I blew my cover and everything I had done so far was for nothing…”

Franco soon picked the cube back up, to try and distract him from continuing his small rant. And as he made a few more turns, he stopped, before smiling at what he had done with the cube, which left Hound Dog confused. “Hm?”

Franco just chuckled, as he turned the cube around, showing off what he had done with the cube. “Made a small Italian flag on it. Always been a bit of a vexillology nerd, to be honest.”

“The study of flags, right?”

“Yeah.” Franco nodded, as he went back to messing with the cube.

“I’ve been moderately interested in it myself in the past but never really got into it-” the counsellor commented, which, admittedly, surprised Franco a bit. “How did you start?”

“It began when I got into football- I’m pretty sure you guys called the sport soccer here.” Franco corrected himself. “Started learning the nationalities of players, as well as being able to identify what flags belonged to which country. After a while, I started to look a bit deeper into the history of said flags, how they’ve changed, and discovered flags of countries that no longer existed.”

“Fascinating. Have you been able to follow any sports teams since you arrived here?”

“Sadly no.” He confirmed. “Honestly, I’ve just been rewatching old matches I can find online. And when I say old, I mean from before I was even born… before I ended up here, that is.”

“I’m surprised that so many survived the Dawn of Quirks.”

“Honestly, same.” Franco admitted. “But hey, with so many fans, you’d think at least one person would decide to preserve what they can.”

“Fair enough, I suppose. I’m glad you’re getting back in touch with your interests, at least.”

“Thanks.”

“Now, is there anything else you wanted to talk about today?”

“Unless you got something else to bring up, I got nothing…” Franco looked at the Rubix Cube, and just blinked…

Because somehow, he had managed to actually complete the cube.

Honestly, he had been making completely random moves the whole time, so how the fuck did he complete it-

“The human body is capable of many things, Bakugo.” Hound Dog commented, snapping Franco from his train of thought (and making him realize he must’ve said that last bit out loud). “Also, I have no idea.”

“Fair enough. I assume that’s it then?”

“I’m fine letting you go, yes.” Hound Dog confirmed. "Remember that my door is always open if you want to talk about anything else.”

“Alright then.” Franco smiled, as he walked out of the room.

A few days later, Franco was just just sitting at his desk as class ended for the day. There were still a few people left in the room, of course. Kirishima and Kyouka were talking about something, while Yaoyorozu and Shinso were both doing their own thing. But as Franco just finished getting everything together to leave…

“Yaoyorozu! Bakugo! Shinso!” Kirishima yelled to the three of them. “You guys doing anything today?”

And boy, did that bring back some memories for Franco.

(“Franco! Enz!” Kieran yelled at the two of them after class one day. “You lads doing anything later?”)

Whenever Kieran asked both him or Enzo if they were doing anything that day, he always had a knack for being a bit… Franco didn’t have the right word for it, but it was a mixture of both excitement and the incoming feeling that something chaotic would more than likely happen if he went along with it.

So when Kirishima said something so similar, and with a very familiar tone, Franco’s eyes lit up almost immediately. “Absolutely not.”

As Shinso confirmed they also weren’t doing anything, and Yaoyorozu tried to explain to them that she had other plans, Kyouka just poked Kirishima with her jack. “D-Did you have to do that?”

Kirishima seemingly ignored her, as he just grinned. “Great! You guys are coming to hang out with us. Doctor’s orders.” He said, as he tapped a note sitting on his desk which just read ‘Spend time with friends’…

‘Doctor’s order? What type of fucking doctor would order something like this?’

As both Shinso and Yaoyarozou just stared at the note in sheer confusion, and Kirishima confirming what the note said, Kyouka just groaned, hiding her face in embarrassment, Franco just smiled. 

“Hopefully this doesn’t end up the same as how me, Kieran, and Enz used to hang out…” he commented. As much as he liked the two of them, they were… an interesting pair to hang out with at times. 

“So…” Kirishima started. “What do you guys want to do?

“Uh…” Franco thought for a moment, before coming to a realization and just shrugging. “Usually one of the other idiots planned shit, so I’m at a loss.”

“Well…” Yaoyorozu began, “since the note pertains to Kyouka; shouldn’t she be the one to decide?

Everyone soon turned to Kyouka, who was clearly starting to panic. “Don’t put me on the spot!- He escalated this!” She managed to get out, pointing both a finger and a jack at Kirishima.

“Too bad.” Franco said, although a bit more unsympathetic than he intended. “You’re literally our only option to ask at this point.”

Kirishima just shrugged. “I mean, my suggestion is just going to a park and running around in circles screaming until we pass out, so if you want a different choice…”

Franco tried to keep a straight face at the idea, but honestly couldn’t, letting out a smirk in the process. Had he not known any better, it honestly sounded like something Enzo would’ve suggested, had they all ran out of ideas. He soon turned to the others, who looked like they were just questioning their whole existence.

“…Are you a dog or something?” Kyouka soon spoke up.

“In my defense,” Kirishima held up his hands, “it’s the best way to exhaust Aiko.”

…Franco definitely did not want to ask further.

“ Who is that?” he heard Kyouka mutter, before she sighed. “Ugh, but fine, maybe we could just, I don’t know- Hang around campus? I’m not good at this.”

“Okay, second idea, since you guys for some reason hated the park idea-” he reluctantly admitted. “There’s some sort of shopping center pretty close by that we could drop by?

Franco just smirked at the idea. “Wouldn’t be opposed to that.” He admitted, before muttering a small “Just like old times…”

Shinso, on the other hand, just shrugged and admitted they were fine with whatever, while Yaoyorozu turned to Kyouka to see her verdict on the whole thing.

Kyouka thought for a minute, before smiling. “That- That actually sounds like a good time, yeah.”

“Then let’s do it!” Kirishima yelled excitedly, before pointing to… the board. “Thata way! On y va!”

“…Is the mall really that way?” Kyouka asked.

“I’m just pointing dramatically.” Kirishima admitted. “It doesn’t have to be in the right direction.”

“So in other words…” Franco started, “you have no fucking idea.”

Kyouka just shrugged at that. “You never know, maybe he wanted us to hop into the board-”

“That sounds like a terrible idea…” Shinso decided to comment.

Yaoyorozu, on the other hand, looked at her phone to actually check where it was. “The nearest shopping center is 2.6 miles away… It isn’t that way.”

Franco just stared in confusion. Having grown up in Canada, miles (and a few other American units of measurements) were, quite literally, a foreign concept to him. Sure, he knew the basics, like 0.6 miles was 1km, but that was as far as his general knowledge went.

“Okay, fine-” Kirishima conceded, pointing at the doorway. “Happy?”

“A little bit.” Kyouka chuckled as she walked out of the classroom, with Shinso following almost immediately after. 

“We're losing daylight, people,” he added.

As the remaining three of them left the classroom, Franco decided to start humming a random song that came to his head.

The group just decided to walk in silence for a bit, before Kirishima broke it. “So, ice breakers, everyone- would you rather have 32 American Green Tree Frogs or 27 Southern Toads?”

“Absolutely neither.” Shinso almost immediately said.

“I don’t know shit about frogs.” Franco commented.

“I only know Tsuyu, if she counts? Is that quirkist? ” Kyouka asked, to which Franco just shrugged.

“Well, gotta pick one of them!” Kirishima stated, clearly a bit disappointed that no one answered the question. “32 Frogs or 27 Toads?”

“I’m not sure I understand this hypothetical exercise…” Yaoyorozu admitted, before thinking for a moment. “…But the Frogs would be less maintenance.”

“He didn’t specify what kind of southern toad, though.” Kyouka brought up. “What if they’re smart ones?”

“Wouldn't a smart toad be even worse?” Shinso asked.

“They could maintain themselves…!”

“They could also escape and plan world domination.”

“Ah, but consider.” Kirishima interrupted their little debate. “Toads are fundamentally good creatures.”

“Also, if they’re smart, couldn’t you control them?” Kyouka realized. “What are you getting worked up about?”

“Can smart frogs even understand us?” Shinso questioned. “Because they sure as hell can't speak- and fundamentals don't mean anything in a hypothetical!”

“This is a hypothetical, though, we’re just making stuff up-”

Shinsou just buried his face in his hands, and muttered something that Franco couldn’t understand. Kirishima, on the other hand, just grinned as he turned towards both Franco and Yaoyorozu. “Your thoughts?”

“I don’t think.” Franco deadpanned, before almost immediately breaking into slight laughter. “In all seriousness though, like I said earlier, I don’t know enough shit about the topic to make a decision.”

Yaoyorozu just sighed, however. “I still don’t understand the hypothetical question… What's the context for choosing between frogs and toads?”

“Exactly.” Kirishima replied, clearly not answering anything.

Just then, something else caught the group’s attention, as they noticed… Mei Hatsume being dragged by another student. If Franco was correct, then that student was… Maina Furasu? (Franco wasn’t 100% sure on the first name, but knew the last name was definitely correct.) “Hatsume, I told you. Power Loader needs to air out the smoke and you need some fresh air!”

“But- but- I have a gas mask?” Hatsume tried to point out.

“No!” she shouted, before noticing the group. “…Oh, hey, everyone.”

“Hi-” Kyouka started, before pointing down at Hatsume. “Is… is she okay?”

Almost immediately, Hatsume sprung up. “I’m fine, Earphones! How’re you? Need any babies?”

‘And I seemingly forgot how chaotic Hatsume can be…’

As he turned to the rest of the group, he noticed Yaoyarozou sigh, as Kirishima’s grin just grew wider. “Hey, you guys want to stop by the mall with us?” he asked.

“Sure, I guess.” Furasu nods, as Shinso’s soul seemingly left his body. “Gives a good reason to get Hatsume out of the lab.”

Hatsume soon put her hand up. “Can we buy some baby materials?”

“Sure!” Kirishima grinned, giving her a thumbs up.

Hatsume just grinned back. “Then absolutely!”

“Is it too late to go home?” Franco barely heard Shinso mutter.

As they all continued walking, Kyouka just glanced at the group. “…We’re quite the group now, huh?” she realized.

“Clearly, we are.” Franco admitted. “Still though, could be worse…”

“I mean, we could start an official Ultimate Frisbee team!” Kirishima eagerly suggested.

“And now, you’ve lost my interest.”

“Why was that your first thought?” Kyouka soon asked.

“Only sport I know with seven-people teams!” Kirishima admitted, which just caused Franco to roll his eyes. 7-a-side football was something he loved doing back home, so seeing someone not know of its existence… honestly didn’t surprise him, but he was still allowed to be annoyed.

“We're all going insane…” Shinso muttered out.

Kirishima just spun around as they exited the front doors of the school. “I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

Shinso just glared at Kirishima in annoyance at that. “Sure…”

Kirishima just sagged in disappointment. “Aw, c’mon, nobody? Lewis Caroll?” He looked around, hoping someone would recognize the name, but one he realized no one did, he just waved his hand like he was backhanding the group away. “Philistines, the lot of you!”

“I don’t understand.” Kyouka admitted.

“Ah, it’s a quote from Alice in Wonderland.”

“Never heard of it.” Shinso admitted.

Kirishima just brushed it off, however. “Pre-quirk book, so way back when at this point. It’s a classic, though, I’d say.”

Furasu soon decided to change the subject. “…So, what have you guys been doing in your classes?”

“Torture in the name of learning.” Shinso groaned out.

“Japanese is horrible, why do we speak it?” Kyouka complained.

“I am still flabbergasted about why Hero Art History is one of our core classes.” Kirishima admitted.

“Honestly, same.” Franco agreed. If he was being honest, he still had no idea why they even had that class.

“… I rather enjoy it.” Yaoyorozu decided to admit to the group.

Franco just rolled his eyes at that. “And no big surprise, there’s always at least one crazy idiot among us…”

“Agreed-” Shinso spoke up. “I just sleep during that period.”

“So, what’ve y’all been up to in the support studios?” Kirishima asked.

Immediately, Hastume looked like she was staring at someplace far away. “ Fire and brimstone, smoke and flames, licking higher, higher- ”

Furasu just slapped the back of Hatsume’s head to try and shut her up. “Mostly caused by this idiot. Stop freaking them out!”

Hatsume just grinned, as she rubbed the back of her head where Furasu hit her. “Making babies!”

“…I see.” Kyouka muttered out.

“Speaking of!” Hatsume started to walk away, before Furasu grabbed the back of her shirt to yank her back to the group. “No, Hatsume.”

As Hatsume just gave a sad look, Franco tried his hardest to not let out a chuckle at the situation, but couldn’t hold it in. 

“Glad you guys have been having fun!” Kirishima grinned. “And thanks again for the updated JBEPH, by the way.”

“Hey, no problem!” Furasu smiled. “It was fun to work on.”

As they soon approached a street crossing, Kirishima just looked around. “Alright, Yaoyorozu- which way are we going?”

Yaoyorozu immediately checked her phone. “It’s approximately 0.6 kilometers down the street on our left.”

“So about 7 minutes from here…” Franco commented. “Got it.”

A weird habit Franco picked up during his life was that he calculated distance in time instead of the actual unit of measurement. Sure, he knew kilometers, but he honestly found it easier to just use time to determine distance.

“You mean about hell's walking distance?” Shinso asked sarcastically.

Kirishima, on the other hand, was clearly confused. “Math problem! How far is that in freedom miles?”

Yaoyorozu thought for a moment. “Just under 0.4 miles. So it’ll take as long as Franco pointed out.”

Franco just smiled at that. Honestly, the whole time, he had been slowly starting to get annoyed at everyone calling him Bakugo. So to know that someone actually called him by that name felt… honestly nice.

Kirishima, on the other hand, just grinned at Yaoyorozu’s answer. “Gotcha gotcha. Hey, another math question: how far is that in lightyears?”

Kyouka just blinked. “…Why would you need to know that?”

He just shrugged at that. “I like to stay informed of my absolute galactic position!”

Hatsume, on the other hand, just glanced up from the set of wires she had been messing around with. “-84753294.27436463, 84373617284.81735821, 221924843.7537218343”

‘…were those just random numbers or did they actually mean something?’

Shinso just stared silently at both Kirishima and Hatsume, before speaking up. “Can we just keep walking without these… weird questions?”

“Ah, but my friend.” Kirishima started, a bit dramatically. “Weird questions are the lifeblood of society! You ever think about how somebody invented flight- someone somewhere first asked ‘Hey, what if I could be up there!’”

“Yeah, no thanks, I'm good.”

“I have a baby for that.”/“Hatsume has a baby for that.'' Both Hatsume and Furasu immediately replied at the same time.

“…For not flying?” Kyouka asked, seemingly a bit confused.

“Yep!” Hatsume confirmed.

“What does she not have a baby for?” Shinso muttered out loud.

‘Overthrowing the government-’ was Franco’s first thought, before Hatsume spoke up. “Time travel.”

That revelation caused an uncomfortably long silence between all of them, before Kirishima broke the silence by clapping his hands. “Alright, let’s keep the conversation rolling! Hatsume, who’ve you been inventing for?”

“I’ve still been fixing a lot of my babies that got damaged during the attack!” Hatsume revealed. “I made yours today, Eyebags!”

“Cool, thanks.”

Furasu just leaned in to whisper something to Shinso, but whatever it was, he sighed in relief before saying “That's even better.”

Kirishima just grinned as he looked up. “Hey, look alive, gang! Mall ho!” he said as he pointed… upwards and not to the mall that was directly in front of them. 

Kyouka just blinked at that. “…Eijiro, the mall is literally right there.”

“Well,” he started, as he upturned his nose in a dramatic fashion, “I have thought it over, and I have decided to be a trendsetter.

Shinso just groaned as Kyouka looked at Kirishima skeptically. “A trendsetter… at pointing in the wrong direction?”

“Exactly!” he smiled, as he snapped his fingers. “I think it’ll really catch on!”

“The only trend I see is him becoming the next Roronoa Zoro…” Franco muttered.

As they entered the place (which reminded Franco a lot of the Eaton Centre back home), Yaoyorozu was the first to speak up. “So, where does everyone want to visit first?”

Franco just shrugged. “Honestly, couldn’t care less.”

“Same here.” Shinso agreed.

“If nobody suggests anything I’m choosing the carousel.” Kirishima said, as Franco just looked at him in pure confusion.

‘Wait, there’s a carousel here?…’

Hatsume just raised an eyebrow in excitement at that, before Furasu spoke up. “She,” she gestured to Hatsume, “needs food, if we can find a restaurant or something.”

Yaoyorozu soon started looking around, before turning to Kyouka. “… Kyouka? Do you have a choice?”

Kyouka thought for a second. “Maybe like an arcade…? It’s not like I have a lot of money on me for anything else either.”

“I’d be down with that!” Kirishima agreed. “Maybe we can grab, like, a to-go ramen or something for Hatsume on the way?”

Furasu just nodded. “That works, yeah.”

“I don’t need-” Hatsume started, before she was cut off by Furasu.

“When was the last time you ate?”

“Around noon!” she proudly announced.

“Noon of what day?” Kyouka asked, clearly already expecting the answer to not be that day.

“…Monday.”

Franco just blinked at that. “…It’s Wednesday.”

Hatsume just rubbed the back of her neck as she chuckled nervously, before Kyouka wrapped one of her ear jacks around her wrist. “Where’s that to-go ramen thing again?”

“Ah- I think I see something down that way?” Kirishima pointed down the hall to where the ramen place was.

Kyouka just glanced back at Yaoyorozu. “I got my choice then.”

“Excellent.” Yaoyorozu smiled, as she put her phone back in her pocket and started walking towards the ramen place.

“Woo! Ramen!” Kirishima smiled, holding both his hands in the air in celebration as the rest of them began following Yaoyorozu.

“Joy, talking to people…” Franco heard Shinso mutter out.

“I’m just happy you people dilute Hatsume’s… Hatsumeness.” Furasu admitted.

“I don’t get what you mean…” Kyouka admitted.

“I’m not having to actively drag her physically to the cafeteria. That’s something right there.”

“I mean, if you want that slice of home I could drag you .” Kirishima offered.

“…I think I’m good, thanks.”

Kirishima just shrugged at that. “Hey, I offered!”

The rest of the day was… honestly, pretty fun, if Franco was being honest, even if he tended to just blend into the background of the group.

To start with, what happened at the ramen place they went to was interesting. While Kyouka had managed to (somehow) convince Hatsume to eat something, Kirishima asked for the least spiciest thing they had, which gave Franco an idea…

He knew that canonically, Bakugo liked spicy food (thanks to those character info bits from Volume 1), and combined with Franco… not-so-great ability to handle spice… He decided to try the spiciest ramen they had.

(“Somehow both the best and worst thing I’ve ever decided to have…” he muttered to himself once he finished eating.)

The next place they went to was an arcade… where they all seemingly gave Kyouka a crane plushie.

(“…What is up with you people?” Kyouka asked, after receiving a plushie from literally everyone.

“We love too much.” Kirishima smiled.

“I was gonna say that cranes are overrated,” Franco admitted, “but that works too.”)

The final place the group went to was a clothing store of some kind, which reminded Franco a lot of the high-end clothing stores from back home. Hatsume dragging Kyouka away from the group almost immediately, before Kirishima did almost the exact same thing to someone else...

(As they all watched Hatsume drag Kyouka to… honestly, who knows where, Kirishima turned to the group. “Hey, anyone want to see me try on a bowler?”

“No.” Shinsou immediately responded, before almost immediately being dragged away by Kirishima. “I’m being kidnapped. Help.” He said in the flattest tone physically possible.

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem…” Franco replied, having gotten so used to being on both ends of the situation before.

Shinsou just put a hand to his chest, clearly in some form of fake dramatics. “I’ve been shot with my own medicine.”)

And as soon as they finished and started leaving, Franco noticed the sun setting behind them. If he was being honest, he didn’t know what time it was, nor did he really care…

Because it almost felt like he was home again, dealing with people that felt familiar to him. And even though Franco knew it wasn’t 100% the same, it was as close as he’d get while he was stuck in this world.

“Hey, glad you guys all could make it!” Kirishima grinned. “That was really fun!”

“If draining my social battery means fun, then sure.” Shinsou commented, which Furasu agreed with.

“I should be going, it’s rather late and I need to get some studying done.” Yaoyorozu admitted.

“So! Many! Baby Ideas!” Hatsume practically vibrated.

“Yeah, no, you’re not getting in the lab tonight.” Furasu just rolled her eyes, before turning to Kyouka. “Jirou, which train do you take?”

“Just the Ginza line.” Kyouka replied. “It passes right next to-”

She didn’t have time to finish, before Furasu cut her off. “Awesome. What’s your number?”

Kyouka just blinked, clearly not expecting that. “What?”

Before she could get an answer, however, Kirishima held out his phone to give her Kyouka’s number. Once she finished putting the number in, Furasu just shoved Hatsume in Kyouka’s direction. “I’m texting you her address. Can you make sure she makes it home safely and doesn’t just break away and go to U.A.? Thanks.”

“What?- Wait!” Kyouka panicked, clearly confused at the situation.

“Sorry, I’ve got to get home- see you guys later!” Furasu shouted, as she began jogging off.

“Bye, Furasu!” Kirishima waved, as Kyouka just turned to stare at him in pure shock (and slight annoyance). “E-Eijirou, what the hell?”

“Hm? What’d I do?” Kirishima asked, clearly not realizing what he just did.

“Just-” She lifted her finger, before putting it down and shaking her head. “Never mind.”

Almost immediately, Kirishima changed the subject. “Anybody else heading home on the Yaveen Line?”

“…I am.” Shinso muttered out.

“Awesome! Yaoyorozu, Bakugo?”

“Sorry to disappoint, but no.” Franco admitted.

“I’ve got my own transportation arranged.” Yaoyarozou also confirmed. “Speaking of which I’d better be going. Have a pleasant evening all.” She said, as she started walking away from the group.

“Have a nice night!” Kirishima shouted to Yaoyarozou, before turning back to the rest of them. “And yeah, I guess we’d all better make like a banana and split. See you tomorrow, Kyouka, Hatsume, Bakugo!”

“Aight!” Franco yelled, as the others also said goodbye. And not even a few seconds later, he was making his way home by himself.

As Franco laid on his bed, he had a bit to think about. To start, he could honestly say he had the most fun just from being at that mall with the others that day than literally any of the past few weeks. It was almost like it was just him, Kieran, and Enz again…

Kieran and Enz…

Fuck.

Honestly, the whole time he was out, it honestly felt like they had never left. The outing itself felt like something that they would’ve honestly done as a trio, even the shenanigans that they all got into reminded him so much of back home.

He didn’t know what they were up to. All he hoped was that they were doing fine without him…

Four days had passed since both Kieran and Enzo met at Franco’s place, and both of them had gotten absolutely nowhere. It was clear that both of them were starting to get a bit desperate for information, moreso Kieran.

Now that all his exams were done (he still hated the fact that all 4 of them were crammed into 3 days), he had time to actually focus on finding his friend. But despite the fact that their past classmates had tried where they could, they had basically hit a wall. No new information had shown up at all during their hunt, almost like he vanished without a trace…

So, he decided to call Enzo, and told him to meet at Franco’s place. And a few hours later, the two of them sat down like they had the time prior.

“At this point,” Kieran sighed, “I’m starting to convince myself that this is some shitty game of hide-and-seek that’s gone too far.”

“I know.” Enzo agreed. “Like, if someone told me that something like this would ever happen, I’d have laughed in their face and told them to fuck off.” He sighed, before a realization struck him. “Maybe we should try and get someone else involved.” 

Kieran raised his eyebrow at that. “Easier said than done. The only other person I can even think of…” his eyes soon widened as he began to realize what Enzo was trying to imply. “No, no fucking way, Enz. You know how we ended things off, right?”

“Not really.” Enzo admitted, seemingly ignoring Kieran’s pleas. “But let’s be honest. At this point, anything’s better than nothing.”

Kieran just sighed, before reluctantly calling a number he seemingly didn’t want to. It rang a few times, before a familiar voice spoke up on the other end…

That of his ex-girlfriend.

Chapter Text

Whenever Franco thought of the U.A. Sports Festival, there was always one thing that he could never understand about it…

How the fuck did it (supposedly, if what the manga is to be believed) get as popular as the Olympics.

The Olympics wasn’t even the biggest event back home. It was popular, sure, but not to the same level as things like the Tour de France (which honestly shocked Franco, seeing as he never knew anyone with an interest in bike racing) and the FIFA World Cup…

As he mentally figured out the logistics of how it was even possible, he started to get ready for the day. However, about halfway through, he noticed that his phone’s notifications had started going off rapidly all of a sudden…

‘Almost as if Enzo was doing something stupid again…’

As he opened up his DMs like he usually would, he noticed that the conversation there had been going on for a few minutes, so he decided to just yell at Enzo for doing something stupid… again.

First Year Hero Students

Mina Ashido added Katsuki Bakugo, Eijiro Kirishima, & 36 unknown numbers

7:32am

Eijiro Kirishima: Heya, students of 1-A and 1-B! Just wanted to wish everyone good luck in the Sports Festival today and officially set up this group chat for all of us to use when needed!

Eijiro Kirishima has renamed this chat to “First Year Hero Students”

Eijiro Kirishima: If anyone has Manga Fukidashi’s number, I believe we’re missing him; otherwise, this should be everyone!

Mina Ashido: Say something if you’re not here! :P

Kosei Tsuburaba: something if you're not here

Kosei Tsuburaba: *! :P

Izuku Midoriya: Nah I don't exist lol.

Rikido Sato: Not here.

Fumikage Tokoyami: I am one with the loathing of existence.

Fumikage Tokoyami: >:P

Tenya Iida: Wait how does that even work.

Katsuki Bakugo: Enz, I swear to fucking god-

Almost immediately after he sent the first message, he remembered that, yes, he had been isekai’d and that there was no Enzo where he was now.

First Year Hero Students

7:36am

Katsuki Bakugo: …

Katsuki Bakugo: Oh right…

Tsuyu Asui: Hiiiii (⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

Setsuna Tokage: Well, I for one can only see the best of usages in this chat

Katsuki Bakugo: Stupid memes and/or bantering with everyone?

Hanta Sero: [Attached 15 images]

As Franco took a quick glance at the images that Sero sent, he realized that all of them were indeed stupid memes.

‘Fucking knew it-’

First Year Hero Students

7:37am

Katsuki Bakugo: Fucking knew it

He soon turned off his notifications, and decided to finish getting ready for the day. It took a few minutes to finish up, but once he did, he took another look at the group chat to see what he missed. Which, apart from a few nickname changes, wasn’t that much…

First Year Hero Students

7:41am
Tenya Iida changed their name to KR Accel 2

Setsuna Tokage has changed their name to Triceraset

Kosei Tsuburaba changed their name to DoMeASolid

Shihai Kuroiro: Why do I have 40 messages at 7:40 AM?

Shihai Kuroiro: Nevermind forget I asked

KR Accel 2: forget you asked what?

Triceraset: Probably a good idea, yeah.

Izuku Midoriya changed their name to Christmas

Katsuki Bakugo has changed their name to FunnySpanishMan

FunnySpanishMan: And just like that, normality has been restored.

Neito Nado-Hunt has changed their name to CopycatThief

CopycatThief: Snipe has lots of good food!

DoMeASolid: my mom packed me a couple bento boxes with my favorite foods

CopycatThief: Yum. How’s Peachy?

DoMeASolid: quiet for once, but I can still hear her snickering. idk what twisted jokes she's been telling herself

Tsuyu has changed their name to Tsu’s siblings

Tsu’s siblings : Can someone tell Tsuyu to search her phone?

Christmas: Bento boxes are fire honestly.

Fallia: Mine have puto :D

KR Accel 2: I'm Gonna have to bounce to finish getting ready for the big day, good luck everyone, try not to break your bones today.

Tsu’s siblings: I am hungry-  We are hungry, we wonder what mom will buy

Christmas: I refuse to have my bones in more than one piece. I will simply say no if they try.

FunnySpanishMan: *insert One Piece joke here*

Not even an hour later, Franco had made it to the stadium, and decided to just wait in the stadium’s waiting room. It took a bit for everyone else to get there, but eventually they were all there, a comfortable silence filling the room, which was soon broken by Kirishima as he clapped his hands and stood up. “Ten minutes till we head on out there, folks! Get your stuff together and get your head in the game- it’s just about time!”

“Yay…” he heard Kaminari cheer weakly, before both Midoriya and Ochaco started to hype themselves up.

As Mineta tried to say that he would win the whole tournament, which caused Franco to just roll his eyes, Iida was the next to speak up. “Ok everyone let's try and stay safe, don't push yourself so hard you break your own bones and all that. Recovery Girl is already going to be busy this week.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t break anything… I hope.” Midoriya said, muttering at that last bit.

Kirishima just gave a thumbs up at that. “We’ve all got this! I’ve seen most of you working in the training group, and for those who I haven’t, I know you’ve been working hard. Let’s get out there, show them what we’re made of, and have some fun!”

As some of the others started to celebrate in excitement, Yaoyorozu interrupted with her own small speech. “Most of you are probably already aware of the significance of this event. Therefore, take what you already know and combine it with what you’ve learnt in your time here. Show your very best and don’t be afraid to enjoy yourself in doing so!”

“Speaking of!” Kirishima turned towards Yaoyorozu, his expression changing to one of complete seriousness. “Yaoyorozu.”

“Hm?”

“Objectively speaking, I’m stronger than you. More capable.”

Yaoyorozu just looked at him, clearly confused as to what was going on.  “… I beg your pardon-”

As the others all realized what Kirishima was doing, Franco just rolled his eyes. “Here we fucking go…” He groaned, before looking around and noticing Shinso, Midoriya, Fallia, and Iida all reacting similarly.

“All Might’s got his eye on you, doesn’t he?” Kirishima continued. “Now, I’m not about to pry into why that is, but… I will beat you.”

“… James..?”

The two of them just stared at each other, before Kirishima clapped his hands, his expression changing in an instant. “Alright, folks, like six minutes left! Get your stretching in, get your last minute wiggles out- and let’s get out there and win!”

As Shinso went somewhere with Kaminari, and Iida seemingly talking to himself ( ‘Wait, wasn’t he one of the haunted ones? I swear he was-’ ), a knock could be heard from the door. “Five minutes left, Class 1-A.” Ectoplasm reminded the class from the other side.

Sato, who had somehow managed to fall asleep, sat up begrudgingly. “Fuckin… it’s way too early for any of this…”

Kirishima, on the other hand, seemingly had too much energy, as he began bouncing in place. “Woo! Alright, folks, bring it in- hands in the middle!” Kirishima put his hand out first. “Let’s show them what class 1-A is made of! Like I said, you all got this- let’s make our teachers proud and show the LOV they aren’t keeping us down!”

Franco followed immediately, smirking as he put his hand on top of Kirishima’s. “The League think they know what they’re up against, but we’ll show them why they shouldn’t fuck with us.”

Kirishima just grinned at that. “Exactly! Let’s all do our best to push ourselves higher, further, faster!”

Almost immediately after, everyone put their hand in, giving their own small little speech.

“To bring ourselves to new heights and challenge each other!” Midoriya.

“To work together and have some fun!” Ashido.

“To showcase what we’ve been learning!” Sero.

“To demonstrate our skills and everything that we are.” Ojiro.

“To show that we aren’t our past.” Shoji.

“To win together…?” Kyouka.

“To prove to everyone what we can do!” Pony.

“To let go of our doubts and show our true strength!” Koda.

“To take the win home!” Mineta.

“To piss off AFO and show how a good chunk of his plans are out.” Iida.

“To show off all the power we’ve gained.” Sato.

“To compete and do our best to win!” Uraraka.

“To prove that we aren’t playing around in the dark of innocence and the blurry past.” Fallia.

“To show the LOV we’re no longer playing nice if we encounter them again!” Dark Shadow.

“To do our best.” Asui.

“To show that we all deserve to be here, the same as anyone else.” Hagakure.

“…To prove our worth.” Yaoyorozu.

After she put her hand in, the mood fell for a brief second. They were now all united. One cause, one goal. Kirishima, as soon as he realized this, grinned. “That’s the spirit, everyone! 1-A on three- 1, 2, 3!”

“1-A!”

At that very moment, the door opened. “Time to get moving, 1-A.” Ectoplasm told them, signaling that the tournament was about to start.

Kirishima started walking to the door, putting his hands up and beckoning everyone to follow him. “C’mon, folks, let’s scootch and boogie- honor and glory await!”

And so, it was about to begin…

As they waited in the tunnel for the tournament to start, Franco was slowly hyping himself up. “It ain’t Wembley…” he muttered quietly to himself, “but I think this will do instead.” 

And not even a few seconds later, a familiar voice rang out over the speakers. “PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! IT’S TIME TO GET ROCKIN’ ONCE AGAIN WITH U.A.’S FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL!!!!!”

The roar of the crowd could be heard immediately after, and boy was it loud. Franco had been to sports matches before, but none with an atmosphere that could even rival what he was witnessing now.

”I’M YOUR HOST, AS ALWAYS, PRESENT MIC! JOINING ME IN OUR BOOTH TODAY WE’VE GOT MY GOOD FRIEND ERASERHEAD-“

“...Why did I sign up for this.” Aizawa could be heard over the mic.

“AND HIS GOOD FRIEND, THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE COMEDIC QUEEN, MISSUS JOKE!” 

“Pleasure to be here, Mic!” Ms. Joke said cheerfully, almost a complete contrast to how Aizawa was.

“BUT YOU’RE NOT HERE FOR OUR STUNNING WIT- YOU’RE HERE FOR THE ACTION! TO KICK OFF OUR COMPETITORS, FIRST ON THE STAGE AND SURVIVING A VILLAIN ATTACK IN THEIR FIRST WEEK OF HERO SCHOOL, GIVE IT UP FOR OUR FIRST YEAR HERO STUDENTS: CLASS 1-A AND CLASS 1-B!!!”

As Franco and the rest of the hero course emerged from the tunnels, the cheers from the crowd was even louder than when they were in the tunnel. It felt… almost surreal to him.

Eventually, Mic introduced the other courses as they stepped onto the field, albeit to way less fanfare than the hero course students. He could even hear at least 1 or 2 kids talk about their jealousy to some others.

“NOW, HERE TO REFEREE, PLEASE WELCOME THE WONDERFUL ECTOPLASM!” The teacher just nodded from where he stood on the stage. “TAKE IT AWAY, MY GHOULISH FRIEND!”

The referee just made his way to the microphone on stage. “For the Athlete’s Oath, can Katsuki Bakugo of Class 1-A please come to the stage?”

And now, it was Franco’s moment.

Since being told by Nedzu that he would indeed be doing the speech, Franco tried to make it the best speech he physically could…

And boy, did being a journalism student in a past life help in that regard.

As he made his way to the stage, he honestly still felt nervous. Even if he could write a good speech, public speaking was honestly one of his weaker points, which was ironic considering his career choice. He sighed, as he tapped on the mic once to make sure it was working, and just started speaking.

“Before I begin, I feel like the censors should be prepared in case anything unscripted ends up happening during this shit.” He heard the mic cut out slightly as he said the word, before he looked up towards the commentary booth and noticed Present Mic giving a thumbs up. “Test done? Great. Now that I have your attention…”

He sighed, as he began to recite the speech. “Everyone by now should know about the attack against UA, and us hero course students a few weeks ago. I’m not gonna talk too much about it, because I’m sure most of you already know what happened, but there is one thing in particular that I wanted to say.”

“To those of you that claim we were lucky to have even been involved in a villain attack this early on, no we fucking weren’t.” He heard the mic cut out slightly again as he swore. “We weren’t even a week into the school year, and we’ve already now been thrusted into a spotlight that I know a few of us would’ve rather avoided.” He soon turned towards where his classmates were standing, and just nodded. 

“But there is one message I have. To those villains, who I know are watching this… We know you’re coming. And it doesn’t matter what you decide to throw at us, we’ll be ready.” He glanced towards all the students and smirked. “So, let’s all show them what they’re up against!”

He paused, deciding to give the crowd a chance to cheer, and boy did they. As they roared, Franco couldn’t help but let out a smile in the process.

“And if you’re ever struggling or think you’re by yourself in this, there’s an old quote I know…” he took a small breath, before saying the main phrase of his favourite sports team from back home…

“You’ll never walk alone.”

He soon put the mic back, and as he walked off the stage, started to hum the very song he had just quoted. 

“AMAZING SPEECH!” Mic decided to continue his commentary. “NOW, ECTOPLASM, WHAT WILL OUR FIRST COMPETITION BE?”

“King of the Hill.” Ectoplasm pointed to the screen, the words of the event being written on it.

“AMAZING! YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN, MS. JOKE?”

“I’d love to, Mic!” Ms. Joke said cheerily. “For this event, Cementoss is going to raise a big pillar in the middle of the stage- with ten platforms. Each platform is worth a certain number of points at the end of the match- as long as you were the first one on it! But be careful, because each platform can only hold a certain number of students.”

Aizawa just sighed, before continuing the explanation from where Ms. Joke left off. “The top platform is worth the most points and can hold one student. The second platform can hold three students, the third platform five students, the fourth platform six students, the fifth platform seven students, the sixth platform ten students, and the seventh platform twelve students.”

“EXACTLY RIGHT, ERASERHEAD! NOW, WITH ALL THAT IN MIND, LET’S CLEAR THE FIELD SO CEMENTOSS CAN WORK HIS MAGIC!”

As Cementoss waved to the crowd, the students were all asked to leave the field as they set up. And not even a few minutes later, when they were all brought out again, a giant tower now occupied the center of the stadium, almost like a blocky pyramid. It was… almost surreal to think that the area was empty not even a few minutes prior-

“STUDENTS,” Mic’s voice echoed around the stadium, snapping Franco out of his thoughts. “AT YOUR FEET IS A MARKER CORRESPONDING TO YOUR CLASS AND YOUR STUDENT NUMBER. TAKE YOUR POSITIONS, PLEASE!”

Apparently in the timespan of setting up the tower, they also managed to set up designated areas. He soon found his spot, beside a random business course and someone from 1-B that he didn’t recognize. As he waited for them to announce the start, Franco began to hype himself up, one specific phrase kept running through his head.

“ALRIGHT, EVERYONE, LET’S GET READY TO RUUUUUUMBLE! GET READY…!”

‘It’s lights out…’

“GET SET!” 

‘and away…’

“GOOOOOOOOO!”

‘WE GO!’

Almost immediately, Franco gunned for the top of the tower. He noticed a few others also try the same thing he did, mainly some random Gen-Ed and Support students who ended up not making it high enough, but also Tokage, Kamakiri, and Todoroki-

‘Wait, wait, wait, wait… Todoroki? When the fuck did he return?’ 

Franco was completely confused. The memory of the article from the month prior still lingered in his head about how Todoroki had essentially gone rogue by running away-

No time to think, he had a tournament to win.

As soon as the four hero course students landed, Todoroki and Kamakiri almost immediately began fighting each other, meaning he’d have to fight Tokage. He decided to charge at her, as she dodged by splitting part of her right side off.

“That… is a lot more off-putting in person.” he muttered.

“I heard that!” Tokage shouted at him, clearly trying to quickly prepare an attack plan of her own.

Franco, however, just chuckled at her response, and prepared his own attack in response. “Oh really? ‘Stun Grenade: Point-Blank!’”

Luckily, the blast was able to hit Tokage, briefly stunning her and knocking her towards where Todoroki & Kamakiri were having their fight. Franco could see her mouth move, albeit unable to hear what exactly was said due to the fighting, as she went down to a lower level. He just decided to watch the two of them fight, hoping neither of them would notice him just standing there. Luckily, neither of them did, as less than a minute after Tokage, Todoroki also dropped down, leaving Kamakiri as his last opponent.

By this point, however, Franco had started to get cockier than he usually did, even with Kieran or Enzo. He just spread out his arms, trying to taunt his opponent a bit, chuckling in the process. “And now it’s just the two of us…”

“Looks like it is, you pomeranian.” Kamakiri smirked, before charging at Franco, who managed to dodge pretty easily.

“Is that all you got?” Franco asked, albeit a bit more cockily than he had anticipated. “Gotta say, I was expecting more-”

Kamakiri charged at him again. This time however, Franco only barely managed to dodge the attack. “Shut up, you blonde asshole, and you might have a chance.”

Franco just laughed. “‘Blonde asshole’, eh? I’ll show you who the better fighter here is. And spoilers:” he dodged another attack, before smirking. “It’s me .”

For the next few minutes, it was just a constant back-and-forth between the two of them, little progress made from either side. However, that wouldn’t last, as Franco soon spotted an opening.

“And there’s the gap I needed…” Franco mumbled out, before chuckling. “Sayonara, Bug Boy!” He blasted the tower, launching himself into the air, and prepared to launch his strongest attack. “Gustav Blitz!”

Unfortunately for Kamakiri, despite his best efforts in trying to block the attack, he failed, getting knocked down to the level below. And as Franco landed, he realized he was now alone. “And now, we wait…”

But he didn’t have to wait long for Mic’s voice to reappear over the speakers. “AND THAT’S TIME! PUT THOSE QUIRKS DOWN, FOLKS! AND WELL DONE TO ALL OF OUR CONTESTANTS- WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK ONCE WE’VE TABULATED THE RESULTS!”

“Well that was easy…” Franco let out a chuckle, before a realization dawned upon him. “Wait a minute… I… I actually did it. Holy shit, I did it!” He soon started laughing maniacally, before eventually humming a familiar tune on the way down the tower.

“ 'Cause I'm on top of the world, 'ey, I'm on top of the world, 'ey. ”

Eventually, as he made it to the bottom, Cementoss started lowering the tower back into the ground, and they were told to wait for them to confirm all the points.

“AND WE ARE BACK!” Mic’s voice re-emerged in the stadium a few minutes later. “CONGRATULATIONS, EVERYONE, ON A ROCKING ROUND ONE! AS A REMINDER, ONLY FORTY FOUR PEOPLE ARE MOVING ON FROM THIS ROUND, BUT EVERYONE SHOWED FIERCE COMPETITION ON THE FIELD TODAY! GREAT JOB, STUDENTS!”

The crowd soon started cheering at each name being said, even those from Gen-Ed that had somehow made it through. And after going through almost everyone…

“ON THE TOP FLOOR, SCORING ONE HUNDRED POINTS, I’M PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNER OF THE FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL’S FIRST ROUND: KATSUKI BAKUGO!”

The crowd went wild. Franco still couldn’t believe that he’d even made it that far. Originally, he had thought about doing a knee slide celebration, but considering the surface he was standing on, Franco ruled it out almost instantly. So, he settled on the next best thing…

Striking the same pose All Might did in Kamino Ward.

“AND ONCE AGAIN, ANOTHER ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR ALL OF OUR COMPETITORS! FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T MOVE ON, DON’T WORRY; WE’LL HAVE PLENTY OF WAYS FOR YOU TO STRUT YOUR STUFF LATER ON!”

The crowd let out another round of cheers, before Mic continued. “NOW, LET’S CLEAR THE FIELD AND GIVE CEMENTOSS THE SPACE HE NEEDS TO FINISH PACKING UP THIS PILLAR; ROUND TWO WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN TEN MINUTES, LISTENERS!”

And with that, Franco walked back inside the stadium, the roar of the crowd seemingly behind him.

Ecstatic.

That was honestly the best way to describe how Franco was feeling. He felt like he was on top of the world, that he had an actual shot of winning the whole thing…

And to have the chance to prove that he was capable of matching canon Bakugo’s achievements.

His brief celebration didn’t last long, however, for them to be called back onto the field. “AND NOW WE'RE GETTING READY FOR OUR NEXT EVENT! ERASER, YOU WANT TO TELL EVERYONE WHAT'S UP NEXT FOR OUR LOVELY COMPETITORS?”

“No.”

"CLASSIC ERASERHEAD! ECTOPLASM, SPIN THAT WHEEL!"

Ectoplasm soon spun the giant roulette wheel that was on the stage. And after a few rotations, it landed on…

"Hostage Rescue."

Before Mic could begin explaining however, Ms. Joke cut in. “Ooh, ooh, I know this one!”

“GO FOR IT, MS. JOKE!"

“Our students for this round are going to split into teams of four,” she began explaining, “and each time will be released into a different mock city block with dummy hostages and mock villains! Each hostage is worth a certain number of points, based on how difficult they are to rescue and what condition they're in when rescued! Students earn points for rescuing hostages, but watch out- the villains aren't worth any points but they will try to stop you!”

"EXACTLY! WOW, YOU'RE GOOD AT THIS- WE SHOULD GET YOU BACK IN THE BOX FOR THE SECOND AND THIRD YEARS!"

"Please no." Aizawa’s audible groan could be heard.

"Aw, c'mon, Eraserhead! This is the start of a wonderful relationship!"

"I hate everything about you."

"Such a jokester!"

Aizawa just groaned again. "Just start the event, Mic."

"YOU HEARD THE MAN! STUDENTS, YOU'VE GOT TEN MINUTES TO FORM TEAMS OF FOUR- GOOD LUCK!"

As Ms. Joke’s hum of the Jeopardy theme started and soon stopped, Franco just looked around, honestly just looking for anyone. “Why is it so fucking hard to find a teammate these days…” he muttered, before he noticed a pair of people standing together, clearly already teammates…

Kyouka and Hatsume.

Immediately, Franco smirked, before heading over in their direction. “Hey you two!” he waved to the two of them.

“Oh, Franco-” she started, as she turned towards him, before clearly having a realization. “ Franco!” she called, as she gestured for Hatsume to join her. “Do- Do you happen to have a team already?”

“In this economy?” Franco asked, somewhat sarcastically. “Absolutely not.”

“Oh, that’s great actually-” Kyouka admitted. “Do you want to team up then?”

“Sure.”

Hatsume, on the other hand, just stared at Franco, before turning back to Kyouka. “Who was this again?”

Kyouka just stared at her in surprise. “What?- Hatsume, we were at the mall together!-”

“Do you… genuinely not remember?-” Franco asked, before he realized who he was talking to. “Oh right, it’s you. Why am I surprised…”

“I am in fact me!” Hatsume nodded cheerfully.

“Good to know.” Franco just rolled his eyes. “Since you clearly don’t remember, I’m Franco.”

While Hatsume just nodded, Kyouka pointed to his hands with one of her jacks. “If it makes it any easier to remember, his quirk makes explosions and stuff…”

“Noted!” Hatsume shouted, as she shoved one of her many inventions into her pockets.

Before they could even consider finding another teammate, someone had wandered over to their group. “Oh! You seem to only have three members, mind if I join?” Came the voice of… Midoriya. “You are… kind of the first people I ran into that had three members.”

“Sure, I guess.” Franco shrugged. “As long as the others are fine with it.”

Hatsume herself also shrugged, before turning to Kyouka. “I mean… It’s not like I could say no-” she admitted. “You’re Midoriya, I can’t just say, ‘no thanks’.”

‘I mean, you probably could-’

“Uh-” Midoriya, started, looking at literally nothing, before turning back to Kyouka. “Thanks I guess? I’m thankful you let me into your team. Izuku says thanks for the compliment?”

‘…Oh yeah, wasn’t Midoriya also one of the haunted ones?’

“No problem- And sorry for just saying it like that…” Kyouka apologized, before glancing over to the group of them. “I guess that is all four though.”

Franco just chuckled. “I guess it is…”

“Now, uh, any ideas on how to tackle all of this?” she asked the group, before waving one of her jacks in the air. “I can track where everything is, at least.”

“I could go and gather the victims?” Midoriya suggested. “I have a consistent speed that doesn’t require my arms to use.” 

“Honestly, if I’m stuck having to take down the fake villains so you guys get the hostages, that's fine with me.” Franco admitted. Sure, he wanted to win, but if he had to fill another role on top of that, then so be it.

As Hatsume started to tinker with her jetpack, Kyouka turned to Midoriya. “The only issue I see with that is that it might be a little slow…? I’m not sure if I’d be able to really tell you where stuff is while you’re at max speed.”

“That is true…” he muttered, before having a realization. “Wait- hey Hatsume! Do you have any sort of communication devices we can use?”

Hatsume perked up from what she was doing to her jetpack. “I…! I forgot to make one of those! But!~ That whole speedy thing won’t be an issue!” She strapped her jetpack back on, before walking up to Kyouka, and… picking her up? “Just follow our lead!”

“S-Sure, sure- That works too…” Kyouka stuttered, clearly not having expected that Hatsume would do that.

“Damn she’s strong…” Midoriya muttered, before perking back up. “But yeah! That works!”

Kyouka soon had a realization, as she grabbed what looked to be a paint bomb from Hatsume’s belt. “M-Maybe we could use these too…? As a way to mark places and such? Hastume, how many you’ve got left?”

Hatsume just hummed for a few seconds, before deciding on an answer. “Around a good few!”

“…That’s not a number.”

“A fair amount!-”

“Hatsume!-”

“I’ve got eight!”

“Holy shit, an actual number…” Franco chuckled.

 “That has to be enough, right?” Midoriya asked.

Kyouka just turned to the two guys. “Do any of you remember how long it’s gonna be?”

Franco just shrugged. “I don’t think it was ever mentioned.”

“Then, I guess we can just have two bombs each just in case? Would that be all?”

“Sounds good, probably?” Midoriya commented, a small hint of concern visible in his voice.

“Alright, alright…” She muttered, before realizing the situation she was now in. “Now, uh, Hatsume?”

“What?”

Kyouka just stared blankly at her. “Put me down.”

“Oh, sure!” she cheerfully agreed, before just fucking dropping Kyouka onto the floor. Franco struggled so hard to hold in his laughter, as Kyouka just sighed, face still in the grass.

"AND WE'RE BACK, EVERYONE!" Mic announced a few minutes later.

"...did you really have to hum that song the entire time?" Aizawa asked, more than likely to Joke.

“It's a classic!” Ms. Joke responded, confirming that yes, she had been humming it the entire time.

“NO TIME FOR YOUR MARITAL BICKERING, YOU TWO-”

“We're not married.”

“WE'VE GOT A SPORTS FESTIVAL TO RUN! DO WE HAVE OUR TEAMS, ECTOPLASM?” Ectoplasm gave a thumbs up to the commentator’s booth at that. “ THEN LET'S START ANNOUNCING OUR LOVELY CONTESTANTS!”

The first team announced was, of course, Franco’s team, before being followed up by a team of three of the recommendation students… and Shinso. And following that… a team that was made up of Kirishima’s friend group (at least, from what Franco knew).

He didn't really pay attention to the rest of the teams afterwards, fully confident that his team would have what it takes to win the whole thing…

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

They were soon sent to the arena, and given a very brief window to strategize. And almost immediately after the round started, both him and Midoriya decided to separate from Hatsume and Kyouka, in order to do their own things.

As Franco destroyed robot after robot, and getting the occasional hostage, he caught little glimpses of Midoriya helping Kyouka and Hatsume. And after about 5 or 6 minutes (he had honestly lost track) of running around, they had managed to briefly regroup. However, it was during this brief regroup that Kyouka had a realization.

“Wait…” she blinked, before pointing at him and Midoriya, “how- how did we end up having you two in the same team?”

“Uh- We joined the same team-” Midoriya started, before realizing what she was referring to. “Oh wait, that's what you are talking about. Yeah, it’s kind of funny, isn't it?”

“Honestly… yeah, it kinda is when you think about it.” Franco admitted. “Especially considering, you know… what happened in canon.”

“Ah… yes. That…” Midoriya commented awkwardly, his breathing becoming sharp temporarily. Almost instantly, Franco realized his mistake, and tensed up a bit himself. “Yeah… probably wasn’t a good time to bring it up, I assume?”

“I mean I don't particularly have any memories of it obviously.” He admitted, fiddling with… the cap he was wearing?

‘When the hell did he get the cap? And why has it taken me this long to notice?’

“Oh right, you’re one of the haunted ones…” Franco realized.

“Yep, he is still there, kind of floating next to me.”

“Huh, that’s… interesting.” Franco managed to get out. “Honestly as much as I think it’s cool though, I’m kinda lucky I’m not, considering… ” He gestured to himself.

“Yeah, that would give me a migraine if I had someone screaming in my head that much-” Midoriya commented, before turning to literally nothing. “Come on, you know he would!”

‘Probably just shouting at canon Midoriya… Ok, yeah, that’s weird to just think about-’

“I know it probably isn’t the same,” Kyouka decided to reenter the conversation, “but for the first few days here, everyone felt like they were screaming in my head…”

“That probably has more to do with you not being used to your quirk.” Franco decided to add.

“Yeah, but it also didn’t help how loud you were while pretending to be him…!” she practically yelled at Franco, who winced in surprise, clearly not prepared to be yelled at. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” he muttered out.

“What was with that anyways?” Midoriya asked, seeming genuinely curious.

“Started off as me wanting to not be found out,” Franco started to explain, “and then once I realized that a good chunk of the class was in the same boat as me, it basically turned into the world’s shittiest coping mechanism.”

“...Damn, that sucks.” he heard Midoriya mutter, to which Franco rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it…” And with that Franco decided to go his separate way again.

However, it didn’t take long for him to find them again a few minutes later. After destroying another handful of robots and rescuing another hostage on his own, he found the three of them having another brief conversation.

“-what’s up with the cap thingy?” he heard Hatsume say in the distance, as she moved her goggles onto her forehead.

“Cap- oh! The…. cap.” Midoriya seemingly realized, as he took the cap off revealing… white hair.

‘Wow, way to get the shit end of the genes…’

“Got genetics from ol’ Pa” he revealed, “and I didn't want to explain it, so… I wore this.”

“I see!” She remained silent, her face still holding its grin. “…Who’s your dad?”

“Let’s not get into that mess-” Kyouka started, but was cut off by the sound of Franco landing. “Have you ever heard of ‘All For One’?” he asked Hatsume, hoping that at least one of the other’s would’ve told her at least a bit-

Hatsume just shook her head. “Not at all!” she admitted cheerfully. 

“Good.” Franco bluntly stated. “Honestly, it’s best if you don’t.”

“Yeah, just know he ain't a great guy and just leave it at that.” Midoriya summed up. “But yeah my hair is turning white, which is… fun. I look like a Christmas tree now.”

“Have you tried any dyes…?” Kyouka decided to ask.

“I… haven't.” Midoriya admitted. “Though I'm on the fence about it. I don't angst over the look but it's just that it'd be annoying to keep answering why, but not important enough to tell on mass… Also my mom gave me the cap so that's another reason why I'm wearing it.”

“Oh, that’s nice of Inko to do that-”

“AND THAT’S A WRAP, EVERYONE!” Present Mic’s voice boomed from the speakers, cutting Kyouka off. “NOW, IF EVERYONE WILL PLEASE RETURN TO THE STADIUM, WE’LL GET READY TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS!”

“Welp, let's get goin’.” Midoriya told the group of them, as he started to run towards the exit.

“Yeah…” Franco nervously responded, as he decided to just follow him, ignoring whatever was going on with Hatsume and Kyouka behind him.

By the time they had all made it back, Franco was still nervous. He didn’t know if that last-ditch effort he made for points would be enough to see him make it through, but he fucking hoped it was.

“NOW,” Mic’s voice returned to the speaker, “BEFORE WE PLACE THE WINNERS, CONTESTANTS, YOU’LL NOTICE THAT YOU WERE HANDED A SMALL TABLET UPON ENTRY! THERE’S AN ADDITIONAL TWIST THAT YOU WEREN’T AWARE OF: ONLY THE PERSON WHO RESCUED THE ROBOTS GOT THE POINTS!”

He heard some movement from the commentary box, before Aizawa sighed. “It was a logical ruse.”

‘Shit… Shit…’

“ Scheiße .” he muttered out quietly. Despite it being the only German word he knew, Franco found it oddly appropriate to use at this moment. As he looked around at his teammates, it became clear they all shared a similar reaction, that being one of just confusion.

“THAT’S RIGHT, IT WAS! EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! BUT DON’T WORRY, ALL OF YOU WHO WEREN’T FOCUSED ON RESCUES; PLAYERS, WE’RE GOING TO GIVE YOU FIVE MINUTES TO DECIDE HOW MANY POINTS YOU WANT TO DIVIDE UP ACROSS YOUR TEAM!”

As the timer appeared, Franco immediately selected the only option that he knew would secure him to the next round, and that was to keep all his points. He knew that his teammates would more than likely pass comfortably no matter what, so he hoped they would help him out in a situation like this.

Shortly after, the countdown ended, and Mic went back on the speakers.“AND THAT’S TIME! PLAYERS! I’VE GOT BAD NEWS FOR YOU-”

Franco was confused, until an audio clip of Aizawa saying “It was a logical ruse.” played. “When did you even record that?” his homeroom teacher asked, which Mic just ignored. “THAT’S RIGHT! THIS WAS A TEST OF YOUR HEROISM! PLAYERS, THE NUMBER OF POINTS YOU GET IS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF POINTS YOU WERE PLANNING ON GIVING AWAY-” 

‘No… no, no, no, no, no, no-’

Franco was now genuinely panicking. He chose to keep all his points because it was the only way he knew he’d make it through himself. And now that Mic had revealed the twist…

Franco. Was. Fucked.

“SO WITH THAT IN MIND, LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT OUR SCORES! COMING IN SIXTEENTH PLACE, IT’S DENKI KAMINARI!” 

Franco decided to just listen in as Mic went through the list of who made it through, a small bit of him still hoping one of those called was him, despite the odds. By the time they had gotten to second place, literally all his teammates’ names were called, bar him. And as first place was called out…

“YOUR WINNER OF THE SECOND ROUND FOR THE FIRST YEAR STAGE: IT’S SHIHAI KUROIRO!”

And there it was… the confirmation that he didn’t make it through. Almost immediately, he tuned out literally everything, before hastily walking into the first room he could find, and promptly slammed the door. Immediately, he started pacing back and forth across the room, as several thoughts all began running through his mind: How did he manage to lose this early, was his first round win even worth it, did he really deserve to make it as far as he did…

…

Was he really not good enough?

The last one actually got Franco to sit down, and almost immediately, tears started pouring out tenfold. The dam had finally broken, the straw holding the camel’s back had cracked…

Franco honestly hated comparing himself to canon Bakugo considering how different the two of them acted, but everywhere he looked, he could only be reminded of it. From losing the Battle Trials, to basically being support during the USJ, and now this…

And worst of all, he didn’t even really have any support to lean to. No Kieran to lend a shoulder to cry on like when he lost his father, no Enzo to argue whether or not everything going on in his life was bullshit… Hell, he was pretty sure Kyouka only became friends with him out of pity, considering what happened that day.

(“So…” Franco awkwardly asked. “Uh… we friends now, or…”

“Oh, sure, I guess? I don’t mind.”)

The more Franco thought about Kyo- Jirou’s response, the more he realized that it was definitely from pity, especially since she sounded unsure when she answered. And even as he thought back to that mall outing, he realized he just tagged along the whole time, not really contributing to anything… It was just their way of pitying him, wasn’t it?

As Franco looked at the clock, it was already halfway through the lunch period, and the worst realization actually finally hit him. He really did have no one… No Kieran to make sure he didn’t try anything stupid, no Enzo to do stupid things with, and everyone else in this world seemingly pitying him…

…He was well and truly alone… and he absolutely hated every fucking minute of it.

As time passed, with no one even trying to find him, Franco realized his worst thoughts were a reality… that he was actually alone. Eventually, he pulled out his phone, ignoring and muting the random group chat notifications that were popping up, and decided to pull up a stream of the Sports Festival he found on the internet.

“Glad people still know piracy these days…” he murmured quietly, trying to distract himself from his prior realization.

It didn’t take long for the third round fights to be announced, either, but Franco only really paid attention to the results of the fights. The one side of the bracket started off simple, with Iida beating Kuorio, and Shinso beating Kosei Tsuburaba ( ‘Thank fuck for the commentators actually giving out their names’ ), but the third fight was where Franco started to fully pay attention…

Because Franco had figured out who the (very likely) traitor in their ranks was.

Initially, Franco thought that what he was seeing was some fucked-up joke by the streamer, but as he looked at one of the nearby TVs in the stadium, it became immediately clear that that was not the case…

Because Sato had just used Body Bulk… On live television…

Yeah, not even Franco could believe the stupidity of that. If he had a second quirk, specifically one of All For One’s known quirks, then why the hell did he decide to use it now? Was he stupid? It didn’t matter though, as Sato easily managed to beat Sen Kaibara.

But as quickly as the tournament gained Franco’s attention, it lost it almost as fast, with Asui losing to Kirishima to finish the one side of the bracket, while on the other side, Manga beat Kendo, Monoma beating Reiko Yanagi, Kaminari beating Hatsume, and Midoriya losing to Uraraka.

The quarter-finals was where Franco started to pay attention again, as he watched Iida fucking up and flying out of bounds against Shinso almost immediately. But the second fight lost it yet again, as Sato forfeited almost immediately against Kirishima, followed by Monoma beating Manga and Uraraka beating Kaminari. 

The semi-finals were a simple affair, with Kirishima beating Shinso on one side of the bracket, and Monoma losing to Uraraka on the other. And as for the final, Uraraka had managed to win the whole thing after beating Kirishima.

But Franco didn’t bother to watch the award ceremony, instead going back to the spot he had gone to before. He was still alone, no one had even bothered to find him, even after the whole third round happened… Still alone, no one who actually cared about him… He wanted Kieran and Enzo again… He wanted to see his cousin again…

He just wanted to go home.

As Bianca returned to her dorm room after her exam, she was exhausted. If she was being honest, she was lucky that only two of her classes had exams that term, and that they were both for classes she genuinely enjoyed. As she landed on her bed, however, her phone began to ring. As she checked to see who was calling, she audibly groaned as she recognized the number…

Her ex-boyfriend’s.

She had initially blocked his number after they broke up, but was (somehow) convinced by Francisco to unblock it. Honestly, Francisco was the only one of her ex’s friends that she didn’t actually hate, partially due to the fact they were… Third cousins? Fourth cousins? (She’d have to ask her mom later).

As she picked up, she just groaned. “Ugh, what do you want, asshole?”

“Uh… good to hear from you too?” the familiar voice of her ex spoke.

“Just get to the point Kieran, what the fuck do you want? And don’t even think about trying to ask about making it work again because-”

She was soon cut off, but to her surprise, it wasn’t Kieran’s voice that did it. “Listen, I hate to be the one to say it, but you’re honestly our last resort for this.”

Now that caught her by surprise. “Wait, me?” She asked, genuinely confused. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to go to Francisco for something like this-”

“BECAUSE HE’S MISSING!!!” Kieran’s voice yelled from the other end, in clear agitation. She was about to yell back at her ex, but what he said had just hit her…

Oh… Oh fuck…

If Bianca was being honest, even though she had only reconnected with Francisco through Kieran, he had honestly been closer to her than her ex ever had been. Hell, to her, Francisco was the (sometimes) annoying younger cousin that she had always wanted. (Even though she was younger than him by about two months, the point still stood.)

And even after she and Kieran broke up, the two of them still remained in contact, even if he was annoyed at the fact her relationship with Kieran hadn’t ended on good terms for either side….

She just sighed. “Get me in.”

“Good. Eaton Center McDonalds, tomorrow around 2. See you then.” And with that, the other side hung up.

Chapter Text

The first day back after the Sports Festival was… Yeah, Franco could no longer give a shit. He knew no one in the class really cared about him after what had happened at the Sports Festival, so he really couldn't care about any of them… Or at least that's what he was telling himself.

He soon decided to open up one of the social media sites he didn't recognize (although it looked extremely similar to Twitter), and the first post he saw…

[Opta Revived (@OptaPheonix)

3 - The 3 times U.A.’s Hero Course entrance exam top scorer has failed to reach the third round in the First Year Sports Festival:

2135: Kurai Surudokori [鋭氷 暗い] (1-B) - Withdrew after First Round
2147: Seigyo Suijōki [水蒸気 制御] (1-B) - Second Round
2172: Katsuki Bakugo [爆豪 勝己] (1-A) - Second Round

Upset.]

Franco turned off his phone immediately after reading that. He didn’t need another reminder about his failure in the Sports Festival yet again (his brain was already doing that for him).

He soon made his way to class, and like usual at this point, waited for Aizawa to enter. “Morning class. Today we’re going to have a hero informatics class- and an important one at that.” They paused, letting a bit of tension spread around at what it could possibly be for those that didn’t know. “Hero aliases.”

This got a mixed reaction from the class; some were excited, while others complained about having to name things, which Aizawa ignored like usual. “Before we get started with that, I wanted to discuss your internship opportunities.” They soon clicked on a remote, before a graph appeared on the screen…

That of the internship requests.

While Kirishima and Uraraka, the two finalists, sat at the top with over 2,200 requests each, Franco sat 9th overall in the class with just over 190… As much as he was disappointed with the amount, it did make some sense. He failed to make it to the third round, a reminder that no matter what, he would never be as good as canon-

“As a reminder,” Aizawa snapped Franco out of his train of thought, “these are based upon your results during the festival; essentially, it’s a way for pros to choose who they think is going to get big over your next three years at U.A. It’s their way of expressing interest in your futures.”

“Alright!” Sero cheered from his seat, which caused Aizawa to shake their head.

“But remember: that’s plenty of time for their interest to wane, too. Any and all offers can be revoked when they want- it’s not any sort of promise.”

“However,” Aizawa continued, “with that noted- all of you will be participating in internships next week, even if you weren’t selected. U.A. partners with many agencies around the country so that none of you miss out on the experience, after all. All of you have already experienced real action, but there’s still much to be gained from working alongside real pros.”

“So we’re getting hero names?” Fallia asked. “I’ve been thinking about mine for a while… well, more like a few days.”

“Exactly. But be cautious and pick your name well: if you don’t pick something appropriate…”

“You’ll have hell to pay later!” Midnight soon burst into the room. “What you pick today could be your code name for life. You better be careful or you'll be stuck with something utterly indecent.” She smirked, licking her lips in the process… (Yeah, that wouldn’t traumatize Franco for the rest of his meaningless life-) “So, are you kids ready?”

“…Try not to traumatize them too much.” Aizawa said emotionlessly, clearly used to Midnight’s shit.

‘Fuck you, I’m already traumatized-’

“Me?!” Midnight shouted in shock, before winking at the students. “Never!”

“No worries, Aizawa-sensei. Bakugou isn’t canon anymore!” Uraraka shouted cheerfully, causing some of the others to laugh. But to Franco, it was yet another reminder that people probably just saw him as someone who’s there to make sure the others didn’t have to deal with canon Bakugo-

Aizawa soon got the class’s attention again. “Midnight is going to be approving or denying your names to make sure they’re actually sensible. What future do you see for yourself? What kind of hero do you want to be? Pick a name with those questions in mind.” He soon asked some of the students to pass small whiteboards to the rest of the class. “Start brainstorming now, everyone, and come up when you’re ready.”

“Your hero names are an extension of yourself and how you portray yourself to the world, so, choose wisely.” Midnight reminded them, and gave the class a bit of time to write any immediate ideas they had down. After a few minutes had passed, she called out to the class. “Now students, who wants to go first?”

Almost immediately, Kaminari spoke up. “I have something already.”

“Let’s hear it!”

Kaminari soon walked up to the front of the room, and turned his board around. “The Thunder Hero, Ronin… I’m choosing that name for… personal reasons.”

Wait… Ronin?

To Franco, the name Ronin only really meant one thing: that one Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic from a few years prior. Sure, he knew practically nothing about it, as he wasn't really a fan of the series, but the one thing he knew was-

“I like the name, but isn't your quirk electricity?” Iida snapped Franco out of his train of thought. “Thunder Is a sound based concept so it doesn't really fit, but then again… Hmm.”

“I mean, I guess?” Midoriya chimed in. “Though a lot of people wouldn’t really care.”

Kirishima just nodded. “Have you considered Raiden or something more related to thunder?”

“I would pick a name like it, but this name is more…” Kaminari paused, seemingly trying to find the right words. “Personally fitting, I think…” As Kaminari made his way back to his desk, his words kept circling in Franco’s head…

Personally… fitting…

Oh…

‘Holy fucking shit, I connected the dots…’

The person who got isekai'd as Kaminari was a vigilante.

(Franco elected to ignore the voice in the back of his head claiming he “didn't connect shit”.)

Midnight soon gave her approval of the name, and soon, others in the class started to say their names as well. While some of the class decided to stick with the same hero names as canon, like Yaoyorozu keeping the ‘Everything Hero: Creati’ name, some chose to change just the epithets like Kirishima going for the ‘Stalwart Hero: Red Riot’ and Ojiro choosing ‘The Sisyphean Hero: Tailman’.

And then there were those who went in a completely different direction with their names. Uraraka had decided to go with ‘Gravitas’ for her hero name instead of Uravity, while Hagakure went with the ‘Morning Hero, Dayspring’ for her name.

By now though, Franco had finally come up with an idea for his own name. “Y’know what, fuck it.” He muttered, as he made his way to the front. He stood there for a second, before turning his board around to reveal the name he had chosen…

The Explosive Hero: Rebomba

“Rebomba?” Midnight asked, slightly confused. “As in, an explosive voice?”

Franco just sighed at that, rolling his eyes in the process. “No. It’s a combination of the Italian words for ‘king’, which is ‘re’, and ‘bomb’, which is ‘bomba’.”

While the words themselves might not have made some sense, since ‘re’ was considered a masculine word in Italian while ‘bomba’ was feminine, Franco didn’t care. It was a name he came up with that sounded good in his eyes. Sue him.

He soon turned towards Midnight to see her reaction. “It's short, describes your quirk, and feels comforting. Well done!”

“Great.” He soon turned to go back to his desk, before a realization hit him. “And y’know what, since I now have the chance to actually say it, please just call me Franco from now on. Because I am this close to fucking losing it.”

He scanned the class to see who gave a reaction to that, and noticed that it was only Shinsou and… Kaminari… (He’d have to talk to him after about him now knowing he’s a vigilante)

Soon after, several of the others decided to go up with their names. Fallia decided to go with ‘Hineigoto’, Ashido choosing the ‘Alien Queen Hero: Pinky’, Shinso picking ‘The Mindjack Hero, Psyren’, Sero, Shoji, & Asui all going with their canon hero names, Pony choosing ‘The Free-Flying Hero: Aviator’, and Iida going with the ‘Speed Hero: Ghost’… for some reason.

(“It's a double reference,” Iida began to explain, “for one in the world I come from there is a manga/game series about street racing. The main character had the title of the white ghost as the best racer, and then my armor takes a Kamen Rider-like appearance and there is a Kamen Rider Ghost.”)

And then came Midoriya.“I’m ‘The Helpful Hero: Dekiru’! Me and Izuku came up with that.”

“Eh, it’s close enough…” Franco muttered, honestly surprised that he didn’t just go with Deku like in canon.

Midnight soon approved the name, and soon the next few people came up with their names, those being Nei, who for some reason decided to just stick with canon Jirou’s hero name, Koda, who also went with their canon hero name, and Mineta, who went with the ‘The Ball Hero: Rubber’, which… while better than canon Mineta’s hero name, was still… something.

“To be honest, choosing names is going faster than I thought it would.” Midnight commented seemingly a bit surprised. “All we have left now is… Sato. Are you gonna come up?”

Sato soon came up to the front, and put his board on the podium, but didn’t show any of the class. After a brief moment of silence, he finally sighed, before looking at the class, seemingly exhausted.

“I can't fucking do this anymore…” He muttered quietly, although loud enough that Franco could still hear. “Hey. I’m sure you all saw what I did at the festival. I wanted to clear things up. And, I suppose more accurately, ask for help. I ask that you don't interrupt me.”

As soon as he said that, Franco stopped really paying attention to anything Sato was saying, just reducing it to mere background noise.

“When I first woke up in this world, I'll admit that it didn't really click in my head how serious everything is. Sure, I knew the dangers, but I didn't really understand them. I blame all the fanfics I read making me think things would go smoothly, for giving me this flanderized version of everything.”

“The first thing I did was look for the League.” Now THAT caught Franco’s attention enough to actually make him pay attention to Sato’s speech. “I doubt I was the only one to do so. I figured that I could find them and turn them in, cut that whole problem right off the bat. The problem is, if you knock on enough doors asking for the devil, then sooner or later he will answer. I found Shigaraki and Kurogiri. In an alleyway, standing over a corpse-”

‘…I’m sorry, how in the everloving FUCK does that make sense-’

No matter how hard Franco tried to make sense of what Sato was saying, he couldn’t understand any of it. Considering Shigaraki’s quirk, why the fuck would he be standing over a corpse in the first place?-

“They tried to kill me. No witnesses and all that. I… I thought I was going to die. I was going to die. So I lied, as I always do. I was willing to say anything to save my own life. To try and make sure I didn't die cold and alone in an alley so far from home. I told him that I wanted to join the league. That I knew the future and wanted to be on the side I felt would win.”

“It was selfish, but I just wanted to survive. And it worked. But… Shigaraki isn't stupid. He threatened both me and Sato's parents. He said that if I betrayed the League, he would kill them. I figured I would play along. Better me then someone else, you know? Better if I'm the one controlling the flow of information as opposed to someone malicious. It means I can at least do something. That was my stubbornness, and it cost me.”

“I told him the most barebones info.” And that’s when Franco realized that Sato was the ‘guide NPC’ Shigaraki talked about right before the attack properly started. “The basics of the first three seasons, since everything else I know comes from fanfictions and is unreliable. But I didn't tell him everything I knew, and I've made sure not to tell them everything about what's been happening here at UA. I don't want anyone to get hurt-” (‘Too fucking late for that…’ )“-but things are getting out of my control.”

“After the forest attack, All For One summoned me to him. He gave me this new quirk, the one you all saw me use in the festival. I don't know why he gave it to me, Whether it was a reward or some twisted way of trying to control me. I used it during the sports festival due to sleep deprivation. I was tired and not thinking, now things are worse off for it. The League has taken Sato's parents. They told me to fix this whole thing and get you all off my back or else they would kill them. Or worse, turn them into Nomu.”

“I don't know what to do. I'm in way over my head and I can't find a way to fix any of this. My stubbornness and idiocy led to all this shit, now I'm asking for help, because at this point I just want this nightmare to be over. I'm prepared to answer any questions you might have.”

The first sound made after Sato finished wasn’t that of a voice, but of slow clapping. Specifically, from Franco himself. “Holy shit, congratulations.” He soon stopped clapping, before changing his tone to one of almost complete sarcasm. “Now, can you please direct me to the part where I should actually give a fuck?”

The first proper reaction however, was from Kirishima, who stood up from his seat, clearly annoyed. “I call bullshit.”

“Absolute fucking bullshit.” Shinso muttered, nodding in agreement.

“Really? Just… Really? That's the best you could come up with?” Midoriya asked, clearly starting to get annoyed.

Kirishima soon started to make his way to the front of the room. “Again- bullshit. Putting aside everything else, putting aside the bullshit excuses for how you found Shigaraki- you found the dude with a fucking decay quirk standing over a corpse?” Looks like someone else had also come to the same conclusion as Franco. “Like the one quirk that wouldn’t leave a body- you didn’t act like that during the USJ or the Sports Festival. You didn’t turn yourself in to Tsukauchi and Nedzu when you had the chance to. You got yourself into this mess intentionally, and now you’re lying to get yourself out of it.” He stopped directly in front of Sato. “I. Call. Bullshit.”

“Kurogiri was standing over the body. Shigaraki was just watching.” Sato clarified. “And you're right, I didn’t turn myself in. I should have, but I didn't. If I did, Sato’s parents would die, and the League would just find someone else to do this. I don't have information that could stop them, so what difference would it make to them?”

“What were you even planning on doing, going after Shigaraki like that?” Shinsou asked.

“I wasn't planning on finding them, I planned on finding their base, since I knew what the building looked like.”

“And what- you just didn’t find it?” Kirishima questioned, clearly getting more annoyed. “Didn’t bother to tell anyone that you knew where the league of villains were? Or did you fucking sell us all down the river with the future just to save your own skin?”

“I didn't find it. I still don't know where it is.” Sato admitted. “All I know is that it's in the bar in Kamino, which I think we all already know.”

“Alright, where did the drinks you had at the USJ come from?” Shinsou questioned, which confused Franco. “And secondly, throwing a can at my head? You had the high ground- there’s no way you didn’t see me.”

“Turns out those weren't actually alcohol, despite the name.” Franco just blinked at that. They had nearly died and Sato thought it was a good time to start drinking? “I threw it because I heard someone, and I was told no one would be around. They told me to keep my head down, that I would be safe. That no one would be around. And so when I heard someone, I panicked. I had a bad morning and was jumpy.”

Shinsou just crossed his arms at that response. “Still dodging the question of where the drinks came from.”

“Odd thing to focus on. I got them from a regular store.”

“No, no,” Kirishima cut in. “I’m fascinated to hear why Mr. ‘Scared out of his wits’ stopped by a liquor store to buy beer on the day he knew his classmates were going to be attacked.”

“I don't even know what really happened, but that morning I woke up and something happened to me. It's hard to explain, but that messed me up. Didn't help that I then had an encounter with a mugger on my way to school. At that point, I just needed a fucking drink. Why is this what we’re focusing on?”

Yaoyorozu immediately jumped to her feet, clearly pissed off as well. “Because we have it on good authority that you sat around drinking beer while the League of Villains put your classmates into a perilous situation!” (Starts to walk to the front to reinforce James and stands beside him at the front just in front of Sato) “Those around you were in the hospital, Sato. Hagakure, James, Myself! We ended up in life threatening conditions because of your actions! The others fought for their lives not knowing if they’d live to see the end of the day because of YOUR actions!”

“Kids were in the hospital, Sato.” Kirishima told him, a mix of anger and pain visible in his voice. “You put them there.”

“The fuck was I meant to do?!” Sato retorted. “Not only am I in the body of Sato, who’s not exactly the strongest, but if I did even the slightest thing against the League, Sato’s parents would die. Do you not fucking get that? People would be killed if I did even the slightest thing against them.”

“Gee, I don’t know, fight them.” Midoriya commented.

“Could have gotten help and not sold us out.” He heard Kaminari mutter quietly.

Kirishima just threw his hands wide, however. “The fuck were you meant to do? ANYTHING! You’re the captain of your own ship, Sato, and we’re all training to be fucking heroes. Your classmates could have- would have- died because of you.”

Yaoyorozu was also clearly getting pissed, as she folded her arms angrily. “You proceeded to throw caution to the wind and forfeit the lives of everyone in this room and the room down the hall and you won’t give any of us a reliable answer! What good is telling us this now? In fact why tell us this now if the same risk and consequence is to fall on those you hold dearest to you?!”

“You’re still trying to spin this fucking bullshit to avoid owning up to your own actions because you’re too cowardly to just tell us the goddamn truth.” Kirishima continued.

“You think I don't know all of that?” Sato yelled back, clearly annoyed himself. “Yeah, I fucked up! Yeah people got hurt because of me! But what part of the word hostages don't you understand! Do you have parents, Kirishima? What would you do if they would die the moment you spoke the wrong way! I know I fucked up, I dont need you to tell me that!”

“Then you killed them now, Sato, to save your own fucking skin.” Kirishima said coldly. “And that’s probably the saddest part of all of this- if you are telling the truth, by some miracle? You haven’t learned a goddamn thing.”

“The League already took them! That's why I'm doing this now! Because they need help! Because one more slip up from me and innocent people will die!”

“Hey, uh, so which is it? You couldn’t “slip up” at the Gamma Ambush or you have to slip up now? Because that seems pretty inconsistent from where I’m sitting.” Ashido questioned, clearly starting to get suspicious herself.

“Did you not listen to a word I said?” Sato was clearly annoyed by this point. “I already slipped up during the festival! Something as minor as using Body Bulk-” Kirishima just scoffed at the quirk's name. “-caused Sato’s parents to be taken, what would have happened if I did actively disobey them? I'm already taking a risk telling you lot this, if the league finds out I'm doing this it's game over! And im in way over my head, and can’t fucking keep doing this shit! I didn't ask for any of this shit, I don't want this!

“If you didn’t want this then why take such a nonchalant approach?!” Yaoyorozou countered. “Why refer to supposedly groundbreaking evidence as ‘blips’? Why think so loosely of the lives and wellbeing of the other individuals who live in this world you’ve fallen into?” She pointed at him, her anger clearly evident. “Don’t you dare chalk the consequences of your actions up to accidents and ignorance, Sato. I’m astounded that even though you’re blessed in such a way to know about this world, you could act so thoughtlessly and ridiculously! … H-how dare you insult our intelligence like this!”

“What, was I supposed to just let Sato’s parents die? What part of that don't you all understand! I. Couldn't. Act. Against. The. League. If I did, people would die. If I don't, then there was at least a chance. Was it a good choice? No, but I didn't have much better. But none of that even matters now!”

“If your parents are in such a precarious situation… As I said earlier- Why act so carelessly?! To act on such impulse and with such disregard in the way you conducted yourself in your time here? Tired or not. Worried or not… H-how could you overlook the fact that the choices you made, including this one, would have disastrous consequences for your loved ones, Sato?!”

“Do you want the list in fucking alphabetical or chronological order? I'm heavily autistic, I'm a fucking idiot, and I've been off my meds for at least a month now! I’m so fucked in the head that I struggle to think things through on a good day, let alone when this far in over my head!”

‘Wow, that's… something, I guess…’

“Then you should have gone to someone!” Kirishima shouted. “You’re in over your head because of your own choices, Sato. Nobody else’s. And again, the fact that you can’t tell the truth- that you’re doing all this to save your own skin, and to hell with the rest of us? Genuinely, it sickens me that you won’t even fucking own up to it. If your parents have been in danger this whole time, there’s a myriad of things you could have done to even mitigate the danger slightly for us- and you didn’t do them. Your story doesn’t check out.”

“What the fuck are you on about! I have said I fucked up! I know it's my fault! I haven't denied that! If I only cared about myself, I would have done this a long time ago! As soon as Sato’s parents are safe I plan to take a swan dive off the damn roof! I dont give a rat's ass at this point, it's them I'm worried about!”

Kirishima just held his hands out wide. “You said you fucked up and then spun us a bullshit story that you still haven’t recanted! I haven’t even gotten to you ‘accidentally’ using the quirk All for One gave you, but the point stands: your actions are your own fault!”

“Your actions got so many hurt and so many more pushed to the brink…” Yaoyorozou continued. “What’s more, you’re going to take the life of an individual who didn’t ask for any of this when you’re done. Your actions have consequences; why did it take you so long to realize that?”

Kaminari soon decided to finally speak his mind. “You're a pathetic excuse for a person. You talk a big game about being guilty, about all of that and it's all just bullshit. We all know that. You were fucking drinking in a tree. That's not guilt. Quit your bullshit and fuck off.”

It soon got to a point where the two teachers in the room had seen enough, as Midnight muttered something to Aizawa, who just whispered back, before standing up and turning to the three at the front of the room. “But we will be giving you help regardless, Sato, and investigating your story in the meantime. Kirishima, Yaoyorozu; back to your seats.”

“I- alright.”/“…Yes sir.” They both said dejectedly, as they made their way to their seats.

Sato clearly calmed down at Aizawa's intervention. “That's all I ask for.”

“…I don’t think he’s lying about Sato’s parents, though.” Uraraka soon spoke up. “We should… probably place some attention on that.”

“I hate to be that guy,” Franco cut in. “Well not really, but what the hell do you expect us to do about it?”

“We're in the body of 16 year olds,” Iida pointed out, “we can't legally do shit here. You could have gone to the principal, hell, didn't you have mandatory meetings with him and Hound Dog? Why not tell either of them?”

“Honestly? I don't expect any of you guys specifically to do anything.” Sato admitted. “Call me paranoid but I'm worried someone Was going to shank me in the hallway after the festival. I’m going to talk to Nedzu after this, I'm sure. He’s the one who can do anything.

“If you’ll follow me,” Aizawa told Sato, “we’ll be discussing this with him right now. Midnight, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, you’re in charge.”

Sato just nodded before following Aizawa. But before exiting, he paused in the doorway. “Many of you have your names and home address in the local phone book. I haven't told Shigaraki about that, and I have no intention to.” And with that, Sato was gone.

Kirishima shot out of his chair as Sato said that last bit. “Fucking-” he took a deep breath, before sitting back down quietly.

The class just soon sat in silence for a moment. No one had clearly been prepared for a traitor reveal like that, and the tension from it just lingered. However, that silence was soon broken by Iida. “Honestly even if he gets taken in he's gonna escape, either taken away by Kurogiri to safety or death for failure. Probably be turned into a Nomu.”

“Now now, Iida,” Midnight tried to reassure, “you have to trust UA. And the rest of you, get back to your seats.”

“Remember last month when we got teleported away from the school grounds to fight for our lives, that was fun.” Iida countered, a hint of sarcasm visible in his last few words. “And if Shiggy learns to use the internet for something other than looking at meta builds in games he can track us.”

Midnight just folded her arms at that. “And that's something for the principal to worry about. Besides, if people actually used the internet for something productive, we would have had a lot more trouble on our hands than we do now. Let the heroes worry about things like that. You're in high school, it's time to have fun. And the Gym Gamma incident won't happen again. We will make sure of it.”

Another wave of silence fell over the classroom again, before Ashido broke it. “So! Hero names!”

Midnight just smiled at Ashido, clearly trying to find a distraction from what just went down. “Yes. Let's continue the lesson. Now, how do you think the system of hero names came to be-”

192 offers…

Honestly, as much as he was disappointed with how low it was, it did make sense that he didn’t get many after being eliminated in the second round…

What didn’t make any sense, however, was why the fuck one of the offers was from Hawks.

Franco knew that his performance wasn’t the greatest at all, not by a wide margin, being the first person to both top the Hero Course entrance exam & not make the third round of the Sports Festival in 25 years. But Hawks was still the number 3 hero, Franco must've impressed him enough for him to even consider putting in an internship request to him…

He didn’t need to read the rest of his requests. He had decided to go with Hawks.

A few days later, Franco decided to do something he had put off for a bit… actually visiting Sato.

Despite being the traitor, Franco knew the two of them were more similar than he had expected. Both of them didn’t like being stuck isekai’d in the MHA world, and wanted to get back to their old life. The main difference, Franco thought, was that Sato went to try and find the League, likely thinking that All For One would try and help him get back.

“You have five minutes.” Aizawa, who had been asked to escort Franco, told him.

Franco just nodded, as he walked up to where Sato was being held, a small room that looked like a normal prison cell, only with an electrically-charged current around it. “This looks… something, I guess.” he muttered, as he just stood in front of the window for a few seconds, before sighing. “Y’know what, fuck it, I’m just gonna cut to the chase. I think we both know the real reason you went to All For One in the first place. And it wasn’t to turn in the League right off the bat.”

Sato just glanced up from where he was sitting. "And why do you think I did it?"

“You have the same goal as I do, right?” Franco inquired. “Wanting to find a way out of this world?”

"Fair enough. Yeah, getting home was the goal."

Franco smirked at that answer. “Exactly. You went to All For One to try and find a way back. Am I wrong?”

Sato, however, just laughed. "Wrong. I went to The Demon because I already know he can. More accurately, quirks can get us home. And The Demon is the only one who can use quirks the way they need to be used to do it."

Franco’s smirk soon dropped, as he raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “If you know he can… Then why hasn’t he done it already? Is it because he kidnapped ‘your’ parents to make you work with him…” His eyes widened as he realized what the more likely option was. “Or it is because he had no intention to send you back.”

Sato just shook his head. "He hasn't done it yet because he currently is unable to. The amount of power that would be needed isn't something he has yet. You would need functionally infinite power to boost a warp quirk far enough to send us home. But with One For All, if he dupes the enhancement quirk, he will have two quirks that strengthen each other, infinitely. Then, and only then, will he have enough of a boost to his quirks to break reality to his whims and travel worlds."

“The whole idea still hinges on the idea that he even will send you back.” Franco emphasized. “You’re working with the literal Demon King over here. All he cares about is getting One For All, not helping some random person travel to another universe because they asked.”

He sighed, as he remembered how far Sato was into the series. “You might know as far as Kamino, but most of us know more. We knew All For One gave you Body Bulk, not just because it was a second random quirk, but because it’s a quirk we’ve seen in the manga already, Chapter 371 to be exact. Most of us already know what All For One is capable of. We’ve seen the Final War, we’ve seen him steal quirks from the likes of Hawks and Stain, we’ve seen him beat some of the best heroes in the series. Hell, Shigaraki, his literal successor, all he wanted him for was to use him as a potential vessel to keep living in after basically nearly destroying his own.”

“I think it’s pretty clear that All For One won’t send you back. I don’t know why you’re not realizing it yet.”

“Oh I know.” Sato chuckled sarcastically, which started to annoy Franco. “I know that it's unlikely he'll send me home. The most likely outcome is that he looks at me and says 'fuck it, I don't have to honour any deal I make when I'm this powerful', but at least I'll die knowing I did everything I could.”

“And besides, what if he does keep his promise? The chance of me going home after all this is low, but it's just slightly higher than zero. I guess that's why I joined them and you didn't. If I have to never see my home again, I'll at least go down trying, while you're content to give up on seeing home again.” Franco’s eye twitched slightly at that. “I guess that makes me a bad person. Not like it matters though, since I failed. He's definitely gonna kill me now. But at least I can stare the bastard god-snake-skeleton thingie Balerdroch who sent me here in the eyes and say I tried.”

‘…Is this guy actually fucking insane?’

Franco had finally lost all his patience. “So you decided to work with the main villain, the literal Demon King himself, and mess up everything for all of us, just so that if it all goes wrong, you can say ‘I tried’? You’re more of a lost cause than I fucking thought you were.”

“Time’s up, Baku-”

“I was just about to leave anyway.” He cut Aizawa off, as he turned to walk away. As he did however, he started talking out loud to no one in particular, quoting a video game that he knew Enzo loved. “For most of you, I believe there is peace and perhaps more waiting for you after the smoke clears. Although for one of you, the darkest pit of hell has opened to swallow you whole…”

He paused right before the door, and turned back to Sato. “So don't keep the devil waiting, old friend…”

The last thing Franco heard as he left was the sound of Sato’s laughter howling in the background.

When Bianca arrived at the McDonalds that Kieran had told her to meet him at, she noticed Enzo was already there. As she started walking towards him, he almost immediately noticed her, and just rolled his eyes as she sat down.

“So…” she awkwardly started. She and Enzo had never been on the greatest terms even back when she was dating Kieran, so being stuck with him was less than ideal. “How’s everything been going so far?”

Enzo just groaned. “Depends on what you’re talking about. Exams have been hell, and trying to find Franco has been even worse. So to be honest, fucking shit.”

She just snorted at his response. “I know, what is it with college exams and being absolute bullshit? What even is your major? Philosophy?”

“Politics, actually.”

“Ah. Makes sense that someone like you would want to be one of those people.”

Enzo just glared at her. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Almost instantly, the two of them started arguing, but it wasn’t long before a new voice joined the conversation. “Alright you two, can you shut up already?”

The two of them looked over, to see Kieran standing there, and like when he met Enzo the time prior, he had a Gamestop bag with him.

“Oh, so now you decided to get Tears of the Kingdom?” Enzo asked, very sarcastically.

“Actually Enz, I did.” he instantly replied, pulling out two copies of the game, before passing one over to Bianca. “That’s basically your payment for agreeing to join us on this.”

As she turned towards Kieran, she immediately noticed that he had added light blue streaks in his hair. She knew from Franco that he used to do it when he was younger, so actually seeing it in person… Maybe Franco’s disappearance impacted him more than she thought.

“Look,” he sighed. “I know things went to shit around when we broke up,” (“You could say that again” she mumbled under her breath), “but this isn’t about either of us. It’s about Franco. Surely, you can put aside our past for that.”

She thought for a minute, before finally making her decision. “Alright, fine. I’ll join.”

“Great-”

“But don’t think of even trying to use this as an excuse to get back with me.”

Kieran just blinked at that. “Honestly, I hadn’t even considered that until you brought it up now.”

“Really?” Enzo questioned suspiciously. “Cause I just came up with several date ideas for you within the last minute alone-”

“Enz, shut the fuck up.”

Chapter Text

Waking up early was something Franco absolutely hated… So having been told to get to the main railway station in Shizuoka for 8am, Franco was starting to regret the day he ended up in this world.

Luckily, or unluckily to Franco, he still hadn’t dropped his old habit of showing up early to things. So now here he was, at 7:25am, standing in what seemed to be one of the larger railway stations in Japan. Although, to his surprise, both Kaminari and Fallia were already there, clearly tired themselves. 

As time went on, several members of the class started to arrive, Franco would just wave and give a small tired “hey” to them… That was, until Iida showed up.

“Howdy, welcome to the early wait club,” he started, which felt… odd to Franco (probably since he didn’t expect a word like ‘howdy’ to come out of someone like Iida. “I will beat you eventually, Franco.”

Franco just rolled his eyes at that, although let out a small smirk at someone finally using his actual name. “Keep trying then. Old habits die hard, you know.”

As much as Franco was slowly starting to care less and less about his classmates after his… influx of thoughts during the Sports Festival, he at least wanted to attempt to be civil with them.

It wasn’t long before 8am hit, and almost immediately, Aizawa cleared their throat. “I see everyone’s here.”

“Yes Ma’am!” Mineta smiled, giving a two-fingered salute that was similar to what Franco would’ve done.

The hero just nodded in response. “Then we’ll get started. Before I set all of you loose on some heroes that no doubt deserve you, a few reminders. First of all, remember that while you’re on internships, you represent U.A., both through your actions and your words. I expect all of you to be polite to the heroes you’re interning with.”

“Sounds about right.” Franco nodded.

“Second,” their teacher continued, “remember that you cannot legally wear your hero costumes until you get a license. If I hear of any of you- for any reason- wearing this costume without the express permission of your mentor…?”

“Expulsion?” Kirishima answered.

Aizawa just nodded. “Expulsion. Remember that these are a privilege, not a necessity. Additionally, this year Principal Nedzu wants me to remind anyone that if their hero misrepresented their offer- be that the size of their agency, the skills worked on this week, or anything in between- you are to message me so we can sort that out before the whole week passes you by. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.” Franco replied again.

“And fourth and finally…” Aizawa gave their usual grin, which caused Franco (and some other members of the class, if the shift in mood was anything to go by) to shiver. “Have fun.”

‘…Yeah, I think this traumatized me more than Midnight-‘

“It sounds terrifying when you say it!” Ashido also shuddered, clearly as terrified as the rest of them.

“Also, quick note,” Iida cut in. “Be wary of Stain out there. Tensei survived his run in with less injury this time, and with the villains having more knowledge due to the resident dumbass we don't know what his movements will be like out there.”

“Yep, gotta be careful for many reasons. Can’t be caught slacking.” Midoriya added.

Mineta just raised an eyebrow, however. “Stain? I’ve seen the guy in the news, what’s his deal?”

“He hunts heroes he deems as fakes,” Iida started to explain, “either killing them or crippling them. If you are deemed worthy he will let you live. He can drink your blood to paralyze you.”

Mineta just winced at that, before chuckling nervously. “Heh heh… got it…”

“Don’t bank on being ‘true’,” Midoriya commented. “His perception is terribly warped.”

“He's also agile, quiet, and has more blades than a samurai.” Iida added.

“Hey, if he messes with us, we’ll punch him a new one, we’re class 1-A after all.” Mineta smirked confidently.

“Be confident but not overly so, Mineta.” Kirishima cut in. “The League of Villains is a silly name, but they’re bolstering their ranks with a few villains recently- particularly ones with a body count. Is everyone in the group chat?” Everyone just nodded at that… except Franco, mainly because he forgot it existed after muting it during the Sports Festival. “Make sure to keep an eye on that this week and review the files I sent last Thursday. I don’t want anyone to be hurt this week.”

‘Wait, files…? What fucking files?’

Franco soon pulled out his phone to try and find the notes in question, as he heard Mineta speak again. “The ones on the League, right? What are the odds we have a run-in with them?”

“Considering both canon and what’s been going on in the last little bit, pretty high.” Franco rolled his eyes, as he continued scrolling through the group chat trying to find the files in question.

“I forgot- were there any other SIs in the LOV or no?” Iida asked. “They could change things here since this is a big canon split up.”

Mineta soon made a comment about how someone would have to be a loser to join the League, so Franco decided to speak up. “Not exactly the League, but since Geten was there during the whole USJ fiasco, decently high chance he’s one.”

“It seems so…” Franco heard Fallia mumble from where he was standing, before Midoriya spoke up yet again. “Doesn’t mean SI’s couldn’t have joined the L.O.V without us knowing. Evil people aren’t just limited to this world…”

“And we know that Sato spilled the beans to them, remember?” Ashido reminded the rest of them.

“Worst traitor ever, by the way.” Franco just nodded at what Kaminari said. Even though he kind of understood why Sato did what he did, it didn’t mean that he did a good job at it. In fact, Franco was pretty sure he’d have been a better traitor…

‘No, we’re not that desperate yet-’

“Not a good secret hider, either.” Fallia decided to comment. “Plus, I hope the SIs/isekaiees on the villain side are not as morally black as we would expect. They might be trying to change things on their side for good…but I’m afraid it’s a slim chance.”

‘And there’s the files-’

“Can we go already?” Franco heard Kaminari tiredly ask their teacher, followed by Fallia also yawning in agreement.

Aizawa decided to look over the class one last time, before nodding. “That’s all. Come and get your costumes; I expect all of you have your train details already. If you don’t or you’re coming back to U.A. with me, stand over here.” Aizawa stepped to the side to let the class grab their costumes, with Asui and Shinso following them.

As the class started to grab their cases, Yaoyorozu decided to speak up. “Have a pleasant week everyone, be responsible, pay attention and do try and do some good out there in the world!”

“That’s right, everyone!” Kirishima continued. “Stay safe, learn lots, and most importantly, have a lot of fun! I’m already looking forward to seeing what all of you cook up, and believe me when I say I plan to bring my own surprises. Good luck!”

As Franco grabbed his case and started making his way over to the correct platform, he could hear bits of conversations between his classmates. He soon checked the station’s timetable, only to see his train wouldn’t arrive for another 30 minutes…

Oh well, it did give him some time to look through the files that Kirishima had sent before. Although there were a few names in it that Franco barely recognized, like Nine, who he knew was the main villain of the second movie…

‘Wait, was Two Heroes the name of the second movie, or was it Heroes: Rising?…’

It didn’t matter, most of the files he went through were stuff he already knew, so he just disregarded it, electing to ignore the files of characters he didn’t know.

Almost immediately, he pulled out a set of earbuds, and decided to pull up a playlist of “retro old songs” as it described it (which were mostly pre-quirk era songs from the late 2000s and 2010s that Franco couldn’t believe had survived). And before he knew it, 30 minutes had passed and his train finally arrived.

For the most part, the train ride was pretty uneventful. Despite the trip being nearly 4½ hours in length, Franco just continued listening to his playlist, and then a podcast about Italian heroes once all the songs finished.

By the time he reached Fukuoka and got off the train, Franco saw no sign of the winged hero anywhere. However, he did see someone else begin to approach him. “Rebomba, correct?”

Franco just nodded, having forgotten he chose that as his hero name. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Great.” The person smiled, before pulling out their hero license, although the way they were holding it covered their name. “Hawks is in a meeting right now, so he asked me to pick you up. He should be done by the time we get back, and will take over everything from there.” 

“Alright,” Franco nodded, before he realized something. “I don’t think I ever got your name…”

The sidekick chuckled. “Oh, right. Hummer, at your service.”

Just like the train ride to Fukuoka, the car ride to Hawk’s agency was uneventful, apart from a bit of minor small talk between Franco and Hummer. It didn’t take the pair of them long to reach the agency, and once they reached the upper floors, they noticed Hawks was talking to two people, both of whom looked like they worked for the HPSC. 

They both noticed the pair’s arrival, and decided to leave, while Hawks just smiled at his sidekick. “Ah, Hummer! You bring the kid?”

“Yep.” She smiled. “Hawks, this is Katsuki Bakugo, hero-in-training Rebomba.”

“Rebomba, huh.” The hero looked at Franco, before he recognized who he was. “Hey, you’re the one kid from the whole UA incident last month.”

Franco just raised an eyebrow at that. “Did… did you really not look into who you sent offers to?”

“Nope.” He replied, popping the ‘p’ in the process. “The higher-ups wanted me to send out multiple offers to UA. Don’t know why in all honesty, but hey, I can’t disobey orders.”

“You know what, fair enough.” Franco shrugged. “Anyways, what’s the plan?”

“Follow me.” The hero started walking towards a large corridor, before he decided to shout back at his sidekick. “Hey Hummer, thanks for picking up the kid!”

“No problem, boss!” she shouted back.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to reach a massive training room, almost as large as some of the ones he had seen at UA. “For today, kid, just some basic training to gauge where you’re at.” Hawks explained. “Now, try and land a hit on me.”

And with that, Franco went for it, trying to use some of his smaller explosions to hit the hero, but he kept missing. Undeterred, he continued to try and hit the hero, although kept failing. 

Eventually however, it was clear Hawks was starting to get bored. “Right, let’s spice it up a bit.” And with that, he launched a few of his feathers at Franco, but to the hero’s surprise, he managed to dodge a good majority of them, only getting caught on one or two of them.

After a few minutes of this, Hawks told Franco to stop.  “Not bad, kid…” He heard the hero mutter, as he walked up to the hero-in-training, who was starting to catch his breath. “I’m impressed, kid. Not many can dodge my feathers, let alone as many as you did.”

“Huh…” Franco mumbled out, still trying to catch his breath. “I mean… I did do some parkour when I was younger… so I have experience in quick maneuvering.”

The hero just nodded. “That explains the fluidity of some of your movements-” he looked like he wanted to say more, but his phone started vibrating rapidly. He checked what the message was, although almost immediately, his expression changed to one of complete seriousness. 

“Right, I was just requested for a mission out in Nagano.” The hero revealed. “Probably won’t get back until later, Rebomba, so tell Hummer or one of the other sidekicks to just give a tour of the agency in the meantime.” And with that, Hawks opened the window, and flew out towards the eastern part of Japan.

As soon as Hawks was out of view, Franco closed the window, and decided to head to where Hawks had directed him. Once he made it out of the room, however, he noticed a vending machine sitting just outside. Immediately, he pulled out some random bits of change he found in his pockets, and inserted it into the machine, pressed a few buttons, and got his drink… 

You know, like you usually would with a vending machine.

Once he turned around to continue, however, he noticed several of Hawk’s sidekicks were just staring at him. “…What?” he asked, slightly confused.

One of the sidekicks that Franco had never met before spoke up. “It’s just… we’ve never actually seen anyone use that thing before.”

Franco just turned his head to the machine, then back to the sidekicks, blinking repeatedly. “Then why the hell is it even here in the first place?”

“Honestly, no clue.” They shrugged, as the others also seemed unsure. “Probably to make this place seem more professional, I guess.”

“Huh…” And with that, Franco just continued to try and find Hummer for the tour…

The next day, Franco woke up pretty early… which to his standards, was about 9am.

(Sue him, his usual sleeping schedule was already shit anyways.)

As he woke up and got ready for the day, one of the sidekicks noticed what he was doing. “Hey Rebomba,” he called to Franco, “if you wanna wait ‘bout an hour, you can join Hawks’ patrol today.”

“Alright then.” Franco smiled, as decided to go back to his room for that brief period. Once it got a bit closer to 10am, he went back to the agency’s main desk, where he saw Hawks getting ready for the patrol himself. “Ah, Rebomba. Just getting up?” The hero smirked.

“Nah, been up for an hour already. He,” Franco pointed to the sidekick he had talked to earlier, “mentioned that if I waited, I could ‘join your patrol’.”

“Is that so…” The hero just glared at the sidekick in question, before sighing. “Right, fair enough. We start on the roof in a few minutes, just try and keep up.”

Franco nodded, and immediately went to put on his costume. And within five minutes, he was now up on the roof, Hawks and a few of his sidekicks, including Hummer, already being there.

“Great, that’s everyone.” Hawks smirked as he noticed Franco arrive. “Now, patrol as usual. Hummer, make sure Rebomba can keep up.” The sidekick just nodded at that, and soon, they began their patrol.

Immediately, Hawks, Franco, and three of the other sidekicks jumped off the roof (Franco would never admit that he was scared of doing that… never. ), and started flying using their quirks. To everyone’s surprise, including Franco’s, he was able to keep up with Hawks’ cruising speed.

Eventually, they fell into a smooth rhythm early on, and just flew in silence… that was, until Hawks decided to try and start a conversation. “So…” he started, “the others mentioned you used the vending machine yesterday.”

“Yeah?” Franco was slightly confused as to why Hawks would bring it up. “Was I not supposed to?”

“Nah, it’s just none of us here know how to actually use the thing.”

Franco blinked. “Then… why the fuck is it even there to begin with?”

“HPSC wanted it there for… some reason.” The winged hero shrugged, somehow not messing up his flying pattern in the slightest. “Plus, the occasional visiting hero will use it from time to time, but for the most part, we just use it as decoration.”

“Huh…” And with that, the two of them continued their patrol. 

For the most part, their patrol routine was pretty simple: Either one of them would notice something going on, Hawks would go in and capture the villain with little struggle, he and Franco would give a brief report of what happened to any of the nearby sidekicks, rinse and repeat for about 4 hours.

By the end of those 4 hours, however, it was becoming clear to Hawks that Franco was starting to struggle with keeping up. “Right, you can take a break, Rebomba.” He looked to see which of his sidekicks were nearby. “Hummer, can you bring him back to the agency?”

“Sure thing, boss!” And with that, she took Franco back to the agency. For the rest of the day, she taught Franco the ins-and-outs of the agency’s paperwork, which while usually boring to others, was actually something that interested Franco. And after a few hours, it was becoming clear that Franco was starting to slowly doze off.

“You can take a break if you want, Rebomba.” Another one of Hawk’s sidekicks told him. “Unless you can handle another round of training, I think it’d be best if you just went to sleep.”

Franco just nodded and headed to his room, quickly falling asleep not even a few minutes later.

As Franco woke up for Day 3, there were three thoughts running through his mind… The first one was that he was craving hot chocolate for some reason, the second being that he fell asleep with his usual clothes still on, but the third reason…

Hosu.

In canon, it was simple: the League of Villains attack the city of Hosu when Stain’s there, Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki fight Stain, they win… You know, the usual with the series. But now, with everything having already gone to shit thanks to the USJ incident and technically the Sports Festival now, Franco was uncertain it would even happen…

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a knock at the door. “Rebomba, change of plans for today.” He heard Hummer’s voice from the other side of the door. “Hawks wants you to meet him in the meeting room downstairs.”

“Got it.” Franco replied, as he continued to get dressed for the day. And a few minutes later, he made his way to the room, where he found Hawks already there. “Rebo! Glad-”

“Please don’t call me that again.” Franco immediately deadpanned.

“Alright, Rebomba, alright.” Hawks conceded. “Anyways, you know what we have planned for today?”

“Let me guess,” Franco just rolled his eyes sarcastically. “Another patrol?”

“Nah, that’s for later tonight.” The hero revealed. “Already taught you how to patrol during the day yesterday, so we’re doing something different tonight, but that’s besides the point. I just have one question for you, though.” Hawks paused briefly. “What’s the deal with you first years at UA?”

Franco just froze. Did… did Hawks know about the whole isekai thing? Did the HPSC? What would even happen if they did-

“Kid, you’re clearly overthinking, which I assume means you know something.”

Franco just sighed. “There are some things those in power shouldn’t know,” he explained. “Like how you shouldn’t tell a fucking broadcaster ‘oh, I pirated that from this site!’. You’ll just ruin it for everyone else that wants to pirate it the same way you did.”

“Weird analogy,” Hawks just shrugged, “but I don’t get what that has to do with you first years.”

Franco thought for a brief second, before getting a stupid idea. Immediately, he put a nearby blank piece of paper in front of the winged hero. “Sign this NDA, and then I’ll consider telling you.”

Hawks just stared directly at the paper, before looking back up at Franco in pure confusion. “You’re joking.”

He just raised an eyebrow at that. “Am I, though?”

Hawks just rolled his eyes, before signing the paper. And once Franco got a look at the now-signed paper, he smirked. “Thanks for the signature, amico . Now…” He soon tried to make a break for the door, but Hawks was able to react quickly, using his feathers to just drag Franco back. As he got a better look at Hawk’s reaction, the pro hero just looked unimpressed at the whole thing. “Did you really have to do that?”

“Yes.” Franco deadpanned without skipping a beat, before sighing. “But in all seriousness, nothing I say here goes back to the HPSC.”

“Fine.” Hawks agreed. “So what exactly is going on with you first years?”

“Alright…” Franco paused, trying to figure out where to start. “Have you ever heard the concept of ‘isekai’ before?”

Hawks thought for a second, before shrugging. “Can't say I have.” The winged hero admitted.

Franco just nodded. “Right. So basically, it's a fiction genre where someone is basically dropped into another world and made to survive there.”

Hawks just raised an eyebrow at the explanation. “Alright, but what does that have to-” he paused, as the realization finally set in. “Oh.”

“Yeah…”

“So you aren’t Katsuki Bakugo.” Hawks visibly got a bit more defensive, and looked like he was ready to attack at any second if he needed to.

“I mean physically, I am. But mentally on the other hand…” Franco sighed, before smiling. “I’m Francisco Di Napoli, or Franco for short.”

The hero just ignored Franco’s re-introduction. “And I assume it’s just the first years that got… isakae’d, was it?”

“Isekai’d.” Franco corrected. “And to answer your question, I don’t think so-”

Hawks cut Franco off. “What do you mean by ‘you don’t think’?”.

“I mean our teacher was also briefly someone who was isekai'd,” he admitted, “or as I like to call ourselves, ‘inserts’-”

“So it can be undone.”

Franco sighed. “Yes, but we know jack shit about how.”

“Alright…” Hawks looked like he wanted to ask more, but before he could, one of the other sidekicks at the agency came in. “Hawks, the representatives are here.”

“Ah, right…” Hawks’ whole mood completely changed in an instant. “Guess we can continue talking after then, Rebomba.”

Franco just nodded, as he watched Hawks follow the intern out of the office.

(“Are you already gossiping with the intern?” The sidekick asked, clearly a bit surprised and confused at what she walked into.

“Yep.” Hawks smiled fakely. “It’s good to keep tabs on what’s going on with U.A. for now. Never know when Nedzu will need something from us again.”

“Right…” The sidekick just replied, as he followed the hero.)

A few hours later, after another round of training with some of Hawk’s other sidekicks, the pro hero returned. “Right, ready for another round of patrol, kid?”

Franco just nodded immediately without question, and went to put his costume on like usual. Once he finished that, he met Hawks on the agency’s roof, and they started patrolling like they had the day prior. However, once they got into the air, Franco noticed that Hawks was way more silent than he was the day prior.

“So…” Franco decided to try and break the silence. “What was that about a meeting earlier?”

“HPSC stuff.” Hawks nonchalantly revealed. “You know, the usual with them.”

“Fair enough…” And with that, the start of their second patrol had begun.

For the most part, it was uneventful, only minor villains here and there that Hawks handled for the most part with Franco mentally taking notes the whole time. However, once it got closer to 8pm, everything changed.

“Rebomba, go get the sidekicks.” Hawks told him, looking off in the distance at something. “Looks like something big’s going on here.”

Franco just nodded, as he started to make his way back to Hawk’s agency. However, he would never make it, as a group of what seemed like red spikes tried to shoot him down. And once Franco got a good look at the person responsible for it, there was one thought just repeating through his mind…

‘Who the fuck is this bitch?’

It had been a week since he and Kieran had managed to get Kieran’s ex-girlfriend Bianca on board with helping them find Franco. And since then… Absolutely nothing. Not a single bit of help they could use to locate Franco at all.

So now here Enzo was, stuck with a girl he absolutely hated, trying to hunt down their missing friend with absolutely no information at all… All he could do was sigh, as tears started to fall from his eyes. “Fuck, this is hopeless…”

As he looked up to Bianca beside him, he expected her to just roll her eyes or retort something sarcastic at him… but she didn’t. Instead, she just looked at him with an emotion that Enzo didn’t even know was possible for her: sympathy.

“Look,” she sighed herself, “as much as you hate me and I despise your very existence-”

“Thanks for the confidence boost over here-”

“Shut it. As I was saying, we both hate each other, sure. But we both- hell, all three of us want Francisco back.” Bianca paused for a moment, clearly trying to find the right words for the situation. “Just trust me Enzo, we’ll all find him. Even if it ends up taking a while, we’ll drag him back here ourselves.”

Enzo just silently nodded. “Right, we’ll find him… Eventually… Whenever that may be…” He soon sighed, and decided to remain silent for a few seconds, before speaking up. “So does this mean-”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

He just shrugged at the response. “Eh, can’t say I didn’t try-”

“Which is a first for you.” Bianca rolled her eyes.

“What’s that supposed to fucking mean???”

Chapter Text

As Franco landed on the ground below, he managed to get a better view of the person who had just tried to shoot him out of the air.

The person in question was a woman, seemingly late 20s or early 30s if Franco had to guess, with long, almost metallic-looking red hair. Unfortunately for him, however, he still had no idea who the person was. 

“Y’know, it’s rude to just try and shoot people down mid-air.” He asked with slight sarcasm in his voice. “What do I look like, some plane in Russian airspace?”

The villain completely ignored Franco’s wit. “Looks like my lucky day, hm? UA’s bigshot decided to just fall from the sky.”

“‘Bigshot’, huh? Is that what they’re calling me nowadays?” Franco smirked, his competitive side starting to show its face. “I feel honoured.”

The villain just laughed at that. “Let’s see if you live up to the hype, then!” And then, seemingly out of nowhere, she launched a wave of what seemed to be red needles at Franco.

Luckily for him, he managed to quickly dodge her attack, before launching his own counter-attack with a… yeah, he really needed to figure out a better name for AP Shot than “Blitzkrieg Blitz”. However, to his surprise, the villain just seemingly disappeared into thin air.

“Needles AND teleportation?” He shouted in slight shock, just staring at the empty area where the villain was not even a few seconds prior. “Either you got super fucking lucky, or you-” He froze, realizing what her having a second quirk was implying.

“Seems you figured it out, huh.” The villain’s voice could be heard from somewhere Franco couldn’t see. But before he could figure out where exactly she was, he heard another wave of needles being launched towards him from atop of a nearby building.

As Franco managed to dodge all of the needles again (‘Hey, maybe that parkour training wasn’t useless after all-’), he just muttered to himself. “This is gonna get annoying real fast…”

And if Franco was being honest, it absolutely did. For the next few minutes, the two of them just traded attacks back and forth; Franco would launch an AP Shot, the villain would teleport away, launch a wave of needles at Franco, who’d just dodge most of them (apart from the occasional one or two that did little damage to him), rinse and repeat about 15-20 times.

However, after a while of this, he began to notice the villain’s face shift into one of annoyance as well, clearly getting fed up with the back-and-forth attacks doing absolutely nothing. However, it wasn’t long before Franco figured out how exactly to counter her.

He launched another AP Shot, and when she teleported away, Franco saw his chance. Immediately, he launched himself towards the villain, and before she could teleport away, managed to grab onto her arm. “Looks like a little roulette’s in order!” 

And with that, he managed to use Explode-A-Pult for the first time (he’d come up with a new name for it when he wasn’t being attacked), slamming the villain into the ground below at full force. However, to his surprise, she got back up immediately, looking barely worse for wear. “I see now why he wants you dea-”

“I’m a wanted man?” Franco cut her off, before he started to mumble. “Huh, I knew Kieran was right about something-”

And then, pain. 

In his mumbling, he failed to notice a wave of needles being launched at him, slamming into his left arm and sticking there. 

Now, if you asked him to describe the pain in detail, he would easily describe it as being stabbed with hundreds of needles completely out of nowhere… Which is because he was stabbed in the arm with hundreds of needles, but that’s besides the point.

Unfortunately for him however, all he managed to get out in response to the needles was a loud “AW FUCK-”, as blood slowly started to drip from where the needles entered.

“Got you now.” He heard the smirk in her voice, as she prepared to launch another wave of needles at him.

However, they would never come, as the sound of light footsteps and heavy breathing rounded the corner. “What do you want?” the person asked quietly, and when he looked over to see who it was, all he saw was a pair of floating gloves and boots.

‘So it’s Hagakure, then? JUST MY FUCKING LUCK-’

Despite his inner annoyance, Franco managed to remain… relatively calm for his standards, as he raised one of his eyebrows in confusion. “Not who I expected-”

“Hm?” The villain also noticed Hagakure, and decided to briefly hold off on attacking. “What type of weird distraction are you supposed to be?”

“That's… rude?” Hagakure clearly didn’t know how to react to that.

Unfortunately, the villain just brushed her off. “It doesn’t matter, the blonde kid’s mine.” Almost immediately, she launched another barrage of needles at the two of them. While Franco was able to dodge them like he had continuously done before, Hagakure had clearly been grazed by one of the needles, as a small amount of blood suddenly dripped to the ground from where she was standing.

However, despite the villain seemingly hitting one of them, she started to look more and more annoyed. “Can’t you just stay still already?!” She yelled towards Franco’s general direction.

“AND FUCKING DIE???” Franco yelled back, starting to panic. “HELL NO!” He launched another AP Shot, only for her to teleport away yet again.

“Oh, yeah,” Franco turned to Hagakure, who was still near where he was, “did I mention this bitch can teleport?”

“What kind of coordinated attack is this?” She immediately asked.

Franco just shrugged. “I don’t fucking know, I’ve never seen the movies-” He was cut off once again by another wave of the villain’s needles, which both Franco and Hagakure managed to dodge easily.

As soon as he dodged, he had a realization. “I… think I got an idea.”

“It better be a good one.” Hagakure commented, before moving her position.

Franco just smirked, as he gave Hagakure a simple instruction. “Just keep her distracted, I’ll handle the rest from there.”

And Hagakure did just that. From what Franco was able to tell as he moved into a temporary hiding position, she had tried to land a hit on the villain from the front, only for her to teleport away like usual. “Is that all you got?” The villain decided to mock Hagakure’s attack. “Because that was pitiful-”

“NO IT AIN’T, BITCH!” Franco shouted, as he jumped from his hiding spot, launching a Howitzer Impact- Gustav Blitz (Franco really needed to actually remember what attacks he renamed) at the villain, destroying a decent amount of her hair in the process.  

Unfortunately, the villain seemed to notice this almost as soon as she got up. “YOU…” She sounded way more pissed off than before, “NOW YOU’RE BOTH GONNA GET IT!”

“I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!” Franco shouted back, barely dodging another attack, while Hagakure seemed to barely dodge it herself. Unbeknownst to Franco, however, his breathing was slowly starting to get heavy.

The fight then continued almost as it had before, with Franco and the villain trading attacks back and forth. However, it was clear to Franco that he wasn’t moving as fast as before, which he assumed had to do with the needles in his arm.

Eventually, however, it got to a point where the villain was clearly getting fed up. “JUST DIE ALREADY!” she shouted, launching a large wave of needles at him and Hagakure. While Hagakure seemingly tried blocking the needles with her body, Franco’s luck had seemingly run out.

As he tried to dodge, he was hit yet again in his left arm, blood now dripping more and more, and his breathing getting even heavier. “ARE YOU… KIDDING ME…-”

The villain, on the other hand, just smirked. “There we go. Now, time to finally put you out of your misery-”

The villain then seemed to get distracted by something, likely Hagakure if Franco had to guess, before quickly flipping away from where she was standing and scoffing. “There’s nothing you can do to touch me, so-” 

She was cut off by the sound of wings in the distance, which Franco could only guess were either Hawks’ or one of his sidekicks. “More heroes, now?” She seemed to prepare another attack, before realizing the reality of how damaged her hair actually was.

After mumbling something under her breath that Franco could barely make out (something about “not worth the effort”?), she turned on what seemed to be a communicator near her ear. “Gonna need a quick exit out of here.”

As Franco tried to get one last attack off, one of Kurogiri’s portals opened up, and the villain stepped through. And before Franco could reach the portal, it closed right in front of him. He soon managed to stop, but at this point, he could barely stand, and started to fall over.

“God… fucking… dammit… ” were the last things Franco said before he landed on the ground, his exhaustion finally getting the better of him. 

“A party… on Christmas Day?” Kieran asked skeptically.

The three of them were just sitting in Kieran’s living room, unsure of what to do with themselves. Sure, it was now Christmas, but considering the situation, none of them had really been in a festive mood that year. 

“Yep,” Bianca confirmed. “Just to take all our minds off the shit we’ve been through these past few weeks… I mean, unless you guys have plans with your families-”

“Nope.” Kieran cut her off. “I already know they wouldn’t mind, you know, with the shit that’s been going on.”

“And my family is in Brazil for Christmas.” Enzo added, causing Bianca to sigh quietly, rolling her eyes in the process.

“Alright then, let me just send you the address…” she typed something on her phone, only for Kieran’s notification sound to go off immediately after she finished. “There you go.”

Kieran immediately decided to spend the next minute trying to find where exactly it was, only for him to smile at the findings. “15 minutes from here? Honestly, that’s actually not bad.”

“I know!” Bianca smiled, before getting up. “Right, I gotta go get ready, see you two then.” And with that, she left to head back to her place.

The two of them soon just looked at each other and smirked. “So, a little bit of Mario Kart before we have to go?”

“You’ve read my fucking mind.”

A few hours later, the two of them stood outside a massive-looking mansion and just stared. “Are you sure this is the right place?” Enzo asked, deciding to take another look at the place. “Because this… this mansão is fucking huge.”

Kieran checked Bianca’s message, before looking at the mansion’s address. “Yep, right place.” He immediately opened the door, to see a guy standing there, blocking the entrance. “Who the hell are you two?”

“I’m Kieran, this is Enzo.” Enzo just waved silently beside him.

“Oh right, she did mention you two. HEY BIANCA!” He shouted to her from across the room. “YOUR EXTRAS ARE HERE!”

As Enzo just stared at the guy looking mildly offended and Kieran rolled his eyes, Bianca made her way over, with someone clearly following behind her. “Glad you two dumbasses decided to show up.”

“What, did you expect us to just bail-” Kieran was cut off by the familiar voice of one of Bianca’s friends. “Can you walk slower next time- holy shit, Kieran!” She smiled, clearly a bit intoxicated already. “I didn’t know you two got together again-”

“We didn’t.” Bianca cut her off, while Kieran just nodded along.

“So then why is he here?” she asked, before turning to Enzo. “And who the fuck is this guy?”

Enzo just stared at her in annoyance, as Bianca explained. “That’s Enzo. Can be a bit of an idiot at times, but I’m pretty sure he means well.”

“Pretty sure?” Her friend raised an eyebrow, but the two of them started moving back towards where they had been before. Meanwhile, Kieran and Enzo just watched on, slightly surprised at the fact that she was being… unusually nice towards Enzo. “I think that’s the first time she’s ever been nice to me.” He muttered.

Kieran, however, just shrugged. “I’m pretty sure it’s cause these guys don’t know who you are or your reputation from high school.”

Enzo just raised an eyebrow. “And they know you how exactly?”

“Me and Bianca went to a few parties back when we were dating.” Kieran admitted. “Honestly, as long as you ignore the shitty alcohol at these things, it’s not actually that bad.”

“Fine, sure. Let’s just have fun then.” And with that, Enzo moved towards where the drinks were being stored, while Kieran shouted at him to not do anything stupid.

The party itself would last for a few hours, going late into the night. By then, both Enzo and Bianca were clearly tipsy, while Kieran decided to make sure the two of them got back home safe. The trio walked in silence, before Enzo’s intoxicated chuckling snapped it. 

“Man, foi divertido. It’s almost like we don’t need Franco-”

Almost immediately, Bianca groaned, starting to seemingly remember the reason she invited the two of them in the first place. “And now you fucking ruined it, Enzo.”

But before she could continue complaining, Kieran decided to speak up. “No, Enz actually has a point for once. We spent so much time there actually enjoying ourselves that we forgot… about Franco…” His face shifted to one of mortification as he realized what that meant. “You think us trying to find Franco has been holding us back from actually enjoying our own lives?”

None of them answered, because unfortunately, Kieran did have a point. For the past month, they had been so focused on trying to find Franco that none of them had really stopped to consider the impact that searching for him was actually having on their life.

“So… then what now?” Bianca asked. “Because honestly, as much as I hate to say it, I’ve actually kinda enjoyed hanging out with you again.”

Enzo just smirked drunkenly at them, but as soon as they noticed, the two of them just stared at him, causing his smirk to fall. “Então isso é um não?”

“Yeah, no.” Kieran immediately responded. “Especially not with her in this state. But back to what we were talking about, you guys think therapy might be a good idea?”

“Me? A terapeuta? Why do I need to consultar um terapeuta?” 

“Because Franco disappearing has affected us more than we all think- Oh right, you’re both kinda drunk right now.” He remembered, before groaning. “Guess I’ll just get you two to my place then and explain it later…”

Chapter Text

As Franco opened his eyes, he immediately noted several things: that he was now in a bed, staring up at a white roof, with the sound of hospital machinery in the background…

‘Wait, hospital machines? Am I… holy shit, am I back home-’

As he tried to sit up, a wave of pain shot through his whole body, seemingly stemming from his left arm. When he looked down at it, he noticed a handful of thin red needles in his arm, all but confirming that no, he wasn’t back home.

As he just stared at his arm, noting that several small holes where needles likely once stood, a doctor with no obvious quirk came into the room. “Good to see you’re awake, Mr. Bakugo.”

Immediately, Franco decided to ask the one question weighing on his mind. “Did the heroes end up finding that bitch, or is she still out on the run?”

The doctor's face fell, although Franco couldn’t tell if it was based on the known info or his choice in language. “Unfortunately, they haven’t managed to find her.”

Franco just sighed at his answer. He had let her escape, even after all that effort, all that back-and-forth fighting, he had let an actual villain escape… again! First it was Geten during what should’ve been the USJ attack, and now this…

His mental rant came to an abrupt stop when another thought entered his mind. “Wait, what about Hagakure?”

The doctor raised an eyebrow, before Franco started to explain. Unfortunately, by the time he finished his explanation, the doctor’s face still hadn’t changed. “You were the only one they brought in yesterday. Most likely, the heroes assessed her at the scene and cleared her to go then and there.”

Franco nodded, a small frown on his face. While he was somewhat grateful for what she did during the fight, he did still feel a bit guilty about dragging her into the whole mess in the first place.

“Right, I’ll be back soon. Have to check a few things first before we can continue removing the needles in your arm.” And with that, the doctor left the room, leaving Franco with his own thoughts…

‘I’m literally supposed to be Bakugo, why the hell do I have to be so fucking awful at this?…’

The day had been mostly uneventful from that point, just various tests being done to assess his condition, and getting the remaining needles pulled out his arms, which…

‘GOD I FORGOT WHY I HATED THESE THING-’

But after most of them were done, Franco was nearly cleared to leave, just waiting for the doctor’s final approval. As he waited, however, he noticed someone else enter the room, that being Hawks. “Hey kid, heard about your fight last night. You doing alright?”

“You’re asking me that?” Franco asked in slight shock, as he analyzed his mentor’s condition. His leg was wrapped in a cast and his wings, while looking intact, were not in the greatest condition. “I mean, have you looked in a mirror recently? You look like you’ve been hit by a truck or something.”

Hawks just laughed. “Yeah, fair enough.” The pair of them just stood there (or in Franco’s case, sitting on his hospital bed) in silence for a few seconds, before Hawks decided to ask him something. “You know, I’ve been thinking about something these past few days-”

“Holy shit, it’s a fucking miracle…” Franco mumbled, before noticing Hawks trying his best to hide a smirk at his remark.

“As I was saying,” Hawks continued, “I was wondering, why exactly did you tell me about all that ‘isekai’ stuff that day? Like, you could’ve easily just lied about it, and sure, I probably would’ve found out afterwards, but you just straight up told me. Why?”

Franco actually took a second to think, why did he tell Hawks of all people? He already knew that telling him would be a risk with the HPSC potentially finding out, but why exactly did he tell the winged hero about it?

“I…” he started, before sighing. “I don’t really know. If I’m gonna be honest, it probably had to do with the fact that I’ve basically been holding it all in since I got here, and with really no one else to talk to, I just… started to talk and didn’t shut up until you had to go. Hell, had that not been the case, I probably would’ve blurted out so much more by accident, like about One for All-”

“‘One for All’?” Hawks asks, cutting Franco off from his ranting. “Is that supposed to be something important?”

“It’s…” Franco decided to try and use his words carefully, knowing full well he could tell the HPSC about it, “a quirk, specifically Izuku Midoriya’s, one of my classmates. It’s a stockpiling quirk, and based on what I know, at its peak, it’s more powerful than what even prime All Might was capable of.”

As Hawks took that all in, he decided to change the subject. “Ignoring that… interesting revelation, have you tried talking to someone about your whole situation? UA has a licensed therapist, you know.”

“Therapy has never really been my type of thing.” Franco admitted “Only did it after the first attack because it was mandatory, but I've always found it easier to deal with my own issues myself. Maybe I’d tell Kieran or Enz or Bianca about it back home, but here, I’m basically a fucking outcast.”

Hawks just raised an eyebrow at the names. “And who are they exactly?”

“You mind if I go on a bit of a tangent for a bit?” When Hawks nodded, Franco just smiled. “Right, so firstly, where do I even start with Kieran? I’ve known him since we were 5, and we were basically inseparable since. Hell, he’s the one who came up with the name Franco, although I still think it has something to do with a Spanish dictator with the same first name as me. That man, he was basically my brother in all but blood.

“Then there’s Enzo, or as we all seem to call him, ‘Enz’. Met him at the start of high school, right after he moved from Brazil, and we kinda hit it off as friends immediately. He may be socially inept at times, but honestly, that’s kinda part of his charm; smart when he needs to be, and an idiot when he doesn’t.

“And finally, Bianca, distant cousin on my mom’s side.” Franco let out a small chuckle as he reminisced. “Met her maybe twice at past family gatherings when we were both younger, maybe 7 or 8, then nothing until Kieran introduced her to me as his girlfriend. She took one look at me, and immediately asked if my last name was ‘Di Napoli’, and when I said yeah, she called me an old nickname she gave me when we were younger. Oh god, the look on Kieran’s face once he realized everything was fucking priceless. 

“She’s…” He paused for a minute, trying to find the right words to use, “honestly, she’s interesting. Half the time, I’d forget she’s a distant cousin because she almost felt like a sister to me. When she wasn’t with Kieran or her friends, she was with me, complaining about either of them. Otherwise, she was almost like a cliche popular girl, the ones that you’d usually avoid ‘cause they can be a complete bitch, but honestly, once you get to know her, that whole facade’s just gone.”

As Franco finished his tangent, he turned to Hawks, who was just nodding along. “You seemed to be close to these guys.”

“Yeah, they were basically the closest thing I had to a family these last few years. Dad was killed when I was 12, and mom moved to Italy as soon as I turned 18, so I was basically on my own for the past four months before I ended up here.”

Hawks nodded, and looked like he wanted to say something else, but he was interrupted by his phone. “Gotta take this, kid. And by the way, don’t worry about the rest of the internship. Just relax.” And with that, Hawks was gone, leaving Franco to his own thoughts yet again. And unfortunately for him, all he could think about were his friends back home.

Having just talked about them to Hawks, he felt… nostalgic, which honestly hurt him more than it should’ve. He didn’t want to feel nostalgic over them. They were the people he considered family, the ones he had most of his memories with, the people that had been there with him through thick and thin…

He wanted to go home, back to where he truly belonged. Not at UA, where he just felt like an outcast amongst the others, but back to where his true family was.

It wasn’t long before Franco was told he could leave, and as the days passed by, he elected to isolate himself from everything, contemplating on his… depressing revelation. Every time he thought about his friends, how he met them, the good times with them, he felt more and more nostalgic…

And boy, did that start to mess him up.

As he thought more and more about his situation, he came to a realization: Sato actually had the right idea. Sure, he tried to go to the League of Villains with… honestly subpar knowledge of the series at best (‘I mean, Kamino and fanfics… really?’), but at least he could somewhat understand his idea. All For One, despite being the main villain of the series, and a generally unsympathetic one at that, would probably be one of the only people in the series with the means to actually get any of them back.

But at the same time, he was the series’ main villain for a reason. He had one of the most overpowered quirks in the whole series, used people basically as pawns for his plans, so what Sato saw appealing in that, Franco had no idea. Maybe he thought he’d have some redeeming quality after revealing his situation? Which even then, Franco thought that was fucking stupid.

However, the more he thought about what UA had done to help them… nothing. Sure, they had basically accommodated them into the hero course, but… that was it, trying to make people heroes when in all reality, not all of them probably wanted to be heroes. Hell, the person who isekai’d as Shoto Todoroki apparently went vigilante almost immediately, while the person who got isekai’d as Sato… well, he already knew how that went…

Maybe… maybe Franco was better off away from UA completely. Sure, he was stuck as Katsuki Bakugo, literally one of the series’ deuteragonists, but that didn’t mean shit to him. Franco wanted his freedom, wanted to be normal again, wanted an actual way home so he could see his friends again-

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of the house’s front door opening, followed by the sound of Aizawa’s voice. As Franco listened in, he realized the topic of their conversation was primarily about one thing…

Dorms.

‘Welp, what a way to speedrun canon over here-’

As Aizawa continued to talk to Bakugo’s parents, Franco went back into ‘his’ room, and thought about it. Sure, he had some experience living with other people (the amount of times that Kieran or Bianca had stayed over had made it feel like he was actually living with them sometimes), but with these people, the ones that had basically made him an outcast… it would be fine…

Oh, who was he fucking kidding, he was gonna hate every minute of this.

As Enzo awoke, everything seemingly hurt. His head felt like it was pounding, and-

“I got a hangover, whoa-oh-oh,
I've been drinking too much, for sure.”

As soon as he heard the music, he was very confused. Immediately, he thought the party was still going on, that was until he noticed Kieran sitting on a chair nearby, looking both very tired and extremely unimpressed.

“I got a hangover, whoa-oh-oh,
I got an empty cup, pour me some more…”

“Can you turn that shit off…” Enzo muttered, as he realized where exactly he was, that being Kieran’s couch, with Bianca on the other one. Kieran didn’t however, instead blasting the music louder.

“So I can go until I blow up, eh…
And I can drink until I throw up, eh…
And I don't ever ever want to grow up, eh-”

“Kieran, turn it off, I swear to fucking god-”

Before he could finish, Bianca started to wake up herself, which is when Kieran decided to turn off the music. After a bit of mumbling from Bianca’s part, Kieran just smirked. “Look, I’m not the one who got drunk last night, so honestly? I’m not that fucking sorry.”

Enzo just stared. He knew Kieran could be a bit sarcastic at times, but this was a whole new level that he had never seen from him before. “Alright, who hurt you?”

Kieran just raised an eyebrow. “Do you want that list alphabetically or chronologically?”

“Chronologically.” Bianca answered sarcastically, still yawning.

“Alright, so we got-”

“I wasn’t being serious, you know.” She snapped, before getting a good look at Kieran’s face. “Also, why does it look like you haven’t slept at all?”

“Because I haven’t.” Kieran admitted. “Seriously, I’ve been waiting for the two of you to wake up before I even considered sleeping myself.”

“Aw, that’s you nice of you-”

“Enz, kill yourself.”

As Enzo just rolled his eyes, used to that type of banter from his friend, Bianca just stared blankly at her ex. “You know, I’m starting to understand how Francisco was your only friend until high school-”

“Speaking of Francisco,” Kieran cut her off, “I talked about it last night, but since both of you were drunk-” Enzo tried to protest this, but Bianca managed to get him to shut up quickly. “-I’m bringing it up again now.”

“And that would be…”

“Therapy.”

“Therapy?” Enzo blinked, before raising an eyebrow. “Why the hell would I need therapy?”

Kieran just groaned. “Enz, you asked that last night in Portuguese as well. And it’s because Franco’s disappearance has impacted all of us more than we probably think.”

“Yeah, I briefly remember you mentioning that.” Bianca admitted. “But honestly, I think it’d be for the best. I still remember when you two dragged me into all this, it was honestly the most worried I’d ever heard from either of you.”

“See, she fucking gets it.” Kieran retored, his tiredness clearly showing in his voice. “So why the hell can’t you see it?”

Enzo just sat there, actually thinking about it for a moment, before sighing. “Fine, I’ll give therapy a shot, but if it goes to shit, you’re paying for my session.”

Kieran just smiled as he began to sit down. “Great, now that that’s settled…” Before he could even land on the couch, he had almost instantly fallen asleep. Bianca, upon noticing her ex had fallen asleep, immediately went to grab a nearby black sharpie, only to be stopped by Enzo. “You know, considering how long he’s likely been up, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Bianca just stared at Enzo in slight shock, not expecting him of all people to stop here. “Since when were you the mature one?”

Enzo chuckled. “Since now, apparently.”

Chapter Text

As Franco arrived at the newly-constructed dorms, he… honestly didn’t feel anything.

Having basically lived by himself for a few months before he ended up here (or Kieran occasionally crashing at his place), he had gotten pretty used to being all by himself. But now, he’d be thrown in with his classmates, people who likely could give less of a fuck about him and care more about him keeping canon Bakugo suppressed.

Unsurprisingly, he was one of the first people to arrive, but as everyone trickled in, they were all in their own little group, Franco basically on his own yet again. However, it wasn’t long before Aizawa arrived. “Is everyone here?” they asked tiredly, beginning to look over the class.

“As much as I don’t wanna be here…” Franco mumbled to himself, while the others reacted mostly positively… Apart from Kaminari, who echoed his reaction.

“Good.” Aizawa nodded, having finished counting them before continuing, “to begin with, I hope all of you have had productive internships. Even if they were cut short by the incident earlier this week, your mentors should have had some time to teach you something valuable. Remember these lessons and hold onto them as we return to normal hero classes.”

Almost immediately, the rest of 1-A began talking about their experiences during the attacks, their injuries, that it could’ve been worse, and how some were now getting therapy…

Franco just wanted to move on from the attack, leave it all in the past and forget about it. He didn’t need another reminder about his realization back at the hospital, which would surely keep him up at night again…

‘And you gift-wrapped yourself a reminder of that… God fucking dammit-’

It was soon clear that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to hear about it, as Aizawa cleared his throat, silencing their conversation. “Let’s get back on track. While I’m very excited to see all of you in class tomorrow, today is supposed to be spent discussing dorms. Both of our first year classes are going to share one dorm building, with each student having an individual room and four to five students on each floor. As a reminder before I announce these groupings: living in a dorm with your fellow classmates like this is a privilege, not a right. While we will not be kicking you off campus, I will warn you that living in the teacher’s dorm is a much less pleasant experience.”

As people nodded at that, Aizawa began to explain who was in what dorm, starting with Tokoyami, Kuroiro, Kojiro Bondo, and Kosei Tsuburaba (He ended up having to rewatch the Sports Festival later to remember who exactly the last two were).

‘So 1-B are here as well… Just fucking great.’

He knew practically nothing about 1-B, hell, Franco could barely remember half of their names, and now he was expected to live with them as well as his own class? How could this get any worse?  

“Dorm #2 is going to be Yosetsu Awase, Denki Kaminari, Mashirao Ojiro, Togaru Kamakiri, and Katsuki Bakugo.”

…He just had to fucking think that.

While he had no clue who Awase was, and Ojiro would likely mind his own business, he was now stuck with both the person he fought for top spot in the Sports Festival First Round and Kaminari… As if he didn’t need yet another excuse to want to ditch UA completely.

As he turned towards his blonde classmate, he just blinked. “Could be worse… could be better. I just hope I don’t need to buy headphones.”

As Aizawa continued listing who exactly was in what dorm, Franco stopped paying attention, as he didn’t really care where exactly everyone else was staying. Once Aizawa finished, they told the class to line up by dorm number so he could pass out the keys.

It was during this time, that Iida (or at least the person who got isekai’d as him) said something interesting in the most nonchalant way possible. “So, I don't know a good time to let you guys know, but Iida’s dead.”

‘I’m sorry- WHAT???’

Franco… he didn’t know how to even start to react to that. It didn’t help that the person who got isekai’d as Iida just dropped it like it was a completely normal thing to say. As the others had similar reactions of shock, or consoling him in Kirishima’s case, Franco just switched to the best British accent he could. “Ye fuckin’ what mate-”

“I got blown up by Compress, who was throwing bombs, was in like a vestige realm talking to Iida and he said his connection or something has been weakening and he's just gone now.” He elaborated, somehow maintaining a completely straight face the whole time.

As Mineta claimed that it was messed up, clearly unnerved at the idea, Kaminari soon spoke up. 

“Alright, can’t pretend- Okay… so we’ve seen SI’s disappear. But… this is a fresh new hell…” He took a look around the class, before sighing heavily. “Alright. Anyone else missing friends?”

“I assume the ones from before we all ended up in this shitshow don’t count?” Franco asked, his sarcasm clearly visible. “Cause if they do, there’s three idioti that I’m definitely missing.”

“No…” Kaminari responded, “although that’s just because I never had any. Count them if you like, I suppose.”

Another conversation soon unfolded between Shoji and the others, which clearly made several people have a realization. “There might not have been bodies…” Mineta spoke up, “but it… looks like Wednesday got more of us than we thought…”

“Should we have a funeral for the lost. The others who Are gone?” Iida soon suggested, which didn’t sound like a completely bad idea to Franco. Even if he didn’t get along with most of them, they still deserved to be remembered in some way… Besides, he himself would hate to be forgotten, or even have his legacy just come down to ‘the guy who failed at being Bakugo and was only really good at keeping canon Bakugo away’.

As Kaminari suggested against the idea, claiming it wouldn’t do them any good, it was clear he was the only one with that opinion, with both Kirishima and Yaoyorozu agreeing to the idea in the end.

Kaminari, however, was clearly getting tired of all this talk about death, as he sighed and turned to Aizawa. “Can I just get the key to my room, please? This is a lot…”

“For once, I agree with this idiot.” Franco spoke up, wanting to get to his own room himself. “Can we just hurry this up?”

Aizawa just nodded, as they started handing everyone their room keys. “Remember to be responsible and I’ll see you all in class tomorrow.”

While Ojiro had decided to stay behind, Kaminari didn’t, meaning that Franco would be stuck in the same area as the one guy that seemingly hated his guts. But Franco… He knew that Kaminari was a vigilante (if the pretty flimsy logic he had come up with a few weeks prior was correct), so now would be the best time to finally confirm it.

As Kaminari placed his boxes down in front of his door, he decided to sit down, likely needing a break. This prompted Franco to do the same, before making sure no one else was around in case his suspicion was correct. “So…” he decided to break the silence. “You’re a vigilante.”

Kaminari paused for a moment, before confirming Franco’s suspicions. “I am.” 

“Huh…” Franco mumbled as he sat on his bed, before another round of brief silence followed. “…So how’s that going for you, then?”

Kaminari started scratching his arm. “I’ve committed the stupidest of crimes in the name of justice, been cut, slashed, and so on.” 

“Damn, that’s rough, buddy…” Another wave of awkward silence fell upon them, but it was short-lived, as the pair of them broke out into laughter. “God, I never thought I’d see the day where I’m actually fucking civil with you of all people.”

“Weirder things have happened, I guess.” Kaminari chuckled. “I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be civil with you .”

“Fair enough, we have been kinda assholes to each other before. Like remember during the elections when we just flipped each other off for no fucking reason?”

“Ah, good times” Kaminari sighed, a clear fondness visible. “Back when it was just class elections and not whatever the hell happened a few days ago.” 

“Yeah, back when everything was so…” Franco thought for a moment, but couldn’t decide on the right word to use. “…I don’t wanna say normal, cause literally nothing about this has been fucking normal, but…”

“Peaceful?” Kaminari suggested. “It’s been the exact opposite of normal. But it was at least peaceful… or as peaceful as this all could be.”

“True, true…” He just smiled. For once, he could just be a normal person again, like nothing was even wrong in the first place.

“So… how did internships go for you?” 

“It was alright.” Franco answered with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Did some brief patrols with Hawks, got stabbed with needles in my left arm several times.” he started instinctually rubbing said arm without realizing, “had a near mental breakdown in the hospital. You know, the usual.”

“Nice, Nice.  Sounds like it was a wonderful internship experience. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one who was stabbed as well.”

“Damn, did you run into Toga or something?”

Kaminari just let out a laugh at that. “Toga would have been nice…” Immediately after saying that, his face shifted to a serious look. “For legal reasons, what I say next can’t leave this room.”

“Uh…” Franco just raised an eyebrow, before speaking a bit quieter. “Ok? What, did you kill someone or something?”

“All for One gave Stain a second quirk.” Kaminari revealed. “He was… feral. Not in his mind at all. Even more of a lunatic than usual. And he attacked me and later on, a friend.”

“Ah…” The realization that it wasn’t just him and Hagakure having to deal with multi-quirked villains started to hit. “So it wasn’t just the bitch I fought who had two quirks, then…”

“Figured…” Kaminairi mumbled, as he picked up another box before placing it down somewhere else. “So, who did you fight?”

“No idea.” He admitted. “Some bitch with red hair that could be shot like needles and also short-range teleportation.”

“Red hair that’s like needles… The Teleportation is new… Slice?”

Franco just shrugged. “No idea. I’ve only read the manga myself, and don’t recall ever seeing someone like that in it.”

“Movie character.” Kaminairi confirmed. “Unfortunately, they are canon.”

Franco just groaned, before he started to mumble. “I should’ve watched them with Kieran when I had the chance…” As soon as he stopped mumbling, he rested his head in his hands. “God, this is bullshit.”

“It so fucking is. Nine was involved with this attack and got away. And fucking apparently, Wolfram was involved in the USJ and got arrested.”

Franco looked up, before just blinking. “You act like I got any idea who these people are.”

Kaminari soon started to explain. “Wolfram had Magnetic powers and was given a Strength augmenter quirk by All for One, no idea if that happened here. And Nine has Weather Manipulation. It is what it says on the tin. Don’t know if he has or will get the weaker version of All for One here, though”

“Huh… good to know, I guess.”

“I’m pretty sure the only Movie Villain left unaccounted for is Flect Turn. Who by the way, is Overhaul 2.0 but on a much larger scale… I don’t know much about his quirk, though.”

“Alright. And by larger scale, how big we talking? Bomb a building or 9/11-scaled international terrorism?”

“I don’t know the specifics. But pretty sure he had some kind of trigger bomb?” ‘A bomb with trigger? That sounds like it would end badly-’ “And using that and the anarchy caused from it, cities and shit were destroyed.”

“Wow…” Franco was honestly speechless. Even though he hadn’t seen the movies, the shit he was hearing about these movie villains were insane. And the fact they were all apparently canon on top of that…

“Yeah… it’s a lot. Unfortunately, nothing to be done about it since Flect Turn is in a different country. All I can do is stuff around Japan and hope for the best.” 

“Sounds like that’s the only shit we can do.”

Kaminari nodded. “Unfortunately, yeah…” The two of them stood in silence for a few seconds. “So… should we finish moving in before the other people arrive?”

“Yeah, we probably should…”

“Alright.” 

However, neither of them moved, resulting in them just sitting there for a few seconds as another round of awkward silence fell upon them… Until it was broken by Franco again. “…So are we gonna go or are we just gonna sit here until the next ice age?”

“Option one. My legs already take enough abuse. No need to ice them.”

“Entirely understandable.” And with that, Franco entered his room, only taking out a few minor things before deciding to watch some football matches.

A few days later, the funeral they had planned before was held.

Now as much as Franco didn’t really know any of them that well, he still decided to go out of respect. After his father died, he understood what it was like to lose someone so close, and even if he didn’t really care about any of them, no one deserved to be alone at a time like that.

Unfortunately, Franco forgot when exactly it was supposed to start, so by the time he arrived, they had already started.

“-wasn’t super close to a lot of the folks here,” he heard Kirishima speak, meaning that Franco had missed the start of the funeral, “but I was good friends with Nei- Jirou, as you’d know her. We met each other on the first day of U.A. and started hanging out from there. She was a good friend, even if we didn’t know each other for that long, and did a great job cutting me down to size when I needed it. So- thanks for that, Nei.”

As Kirishima kept talking, Franco's face paled heavily. There was no way… This had to have been some cruel sick joke that they planned since he was late. No way was Jirou- Nei- gone… 

Kirishima soon noticed Franco standing there, and gestured to him. “Oh- heya. Grab a seat, Bakugo.”

“Don’t fucking ‘heya’ me-” Franco snapped, “and don’t. fucking. call. me. that.”

Kirishima just held his hands up, clearly trying to back down. “Franco then, alright. Is- is something wrong?”

“‘Is something wrong-’” he mimicked sarcastically, “of course there is, you’re acting like Nei’s dead. If this is some cruel fucking joke on your end-” Before Franco could finish his rant, however, he noticed Kirishima just blinking. “You didn’t-?”

“...Didn’t what?” Franco raised his eyebrow, clearly confused at what Kirishima was trying to imply.

“She’s gone.” He revealed. “Happened before internships. I thought you- I thought you knew.”

Nei… No, Nei couldn’t be gone, she couldn’t… The only friend Franco had ever had here, and yet they were all acting like she was dead. “That… funny joke, but she’s not dead…” Franco started laughing like it was a joke, although it was clear that there was a bit of hysteria in it. “She can’t be…”

As some of the others started to tense up, Mineta was the first to speak up. “Are you… alright, dude?”

“AM I ALRIGHT?” Franco’s laughing finally turned hysterical, almost manic, as he started shouting. “NO, NO I’M FUCKING NOT. I’ve literally just been told that the only friend I even had here is FUCKING DEAD. TELL ME, DO YOU THINK I SHOULD BE ALRIGHT???”

Immediately, everyone started talking over each other, with Amajiki clearly trying his best at peacekeeping. “Alright, let’s try to calm down,” Amajiki stood up straighter than he had before, getting closer to Franco in the process.

Franco just turned to Amajiki, his hysterical laughing still continuing. “Do you really think telling me to calm down is going to help? Really ?”

“Come on,” Amajiki insisted, “sit down, take some deep breaths.”

Surprisingly, Franco found himself following Amajiki’s orders; his breathing slowed and tears were slowly beginning to form in his eyes. But as he did, several thoughts started running through his head, one of which being a harsh truth that he honestly never thought he’d ever expect to agree with. “You know…” He started chuckling almost depressingly, “maybe Sato was right.”

As soon as he said that, pretty much everyone there went on the defensive, some almost turning near hostile towards him. Sure, Franco agreed with Sato’s whole goal and general ideas, but to everyone else, he was just a traitor, one who sold them out to the League of Villains. But Franco… he just didn’t care anymore. All he wanted his thoughts heard for once, even if it meant ostracizing himself even more than he already had.

“What did you just say?” Kirishima shot up to his feet, becoming the main person that Franco was now paying attention to.

“You heard me, Sato was right.” Franco started to defend himself, although it was clear from the get-go that no one would listen to his side. “Not about going to All For One and the League, even that’s stupid in my book, but actually trying to find a way back home.”

Mineta’s face hardened at that. “He’s a villain, we’re not supposed to sympathize with him.”

“‘Hate the artist, not the art’”. Franco quoted. “Yeah, Sato was a villain, I’m not disagreeing with you, but at the same time, you can agree with some of his ideas.”

As Amajiki tried to be authoritative about the whole thing, Kirishima decided to try his hand at it. “Look, let’s all settle down, yeah? Franco, Nedzu’s looking for a way home-”

“Is he really, though? Is he?” This was the first time Franco had ever heard about something even remotely like that, so he was very skeptical, even if it was supposedly being done by Nedzu. “What exactly do we know he’s done? Nothing. He’s basically adapted all of us into the lives of the students, without a care in the fucking world-”

“You expect him to travel dimensions in less than three months?” Midoriya cut him off, clearly getting angry himself. But before Franco could retort at that, Mineta also spoke up. “Does it matter?” he asked, clearly getting angry himself. “You have one of the strongest quirks here. And you’re spending it sympathizing with a League member? We all lost friends, jerk. Don’t sympathize with the people who took them from us.”

Franco was slowly losing it more and more. ‘They lost friends?’ Sure, he could mean the other Inserts, but at this point, Franco didn’t care. Hell, he had probably lost more than them just by him being in this whole situation. He had Kieran, Enzo, and Bianca back home, all who probably cared more about him than any of these guy’s supposed friends did for them.

“Yeah, I have one of the strongest quirks, sure. But at the same time, I’m also the one with the most expectations here. I’m supposed to be the best, supposed to be on top of this class, and yet I can’t even fucking do that. I never wanted to be in this fucking mess, I want to go back to the way things were before…” As he finished his mini-rant, he muttered quietly to himself, but still loud enough for the rest of them to hear. “At least I’d have people who actually gave a fuck about me…”

“Don’t… start.” Mineta continued, clearly somewhat affected by something Franco had said. “Would you rather be the guy with sticky testicles for hair? You know what, Bakugou,” Franco felt his eye clearly twitch at that, “people like you really-”

“Both of you, calm down!” Kirishima tried one last time to deescalate the situation. “Let’s not start a fight right here-”

But it was at this point that Franco finally snapped for good. “You know what, you can fuck off as well, Kiri. You act like everything is fine, nothing can go wrong for you or your fucking friend group. You’ve deluded yourself too much from the reality that we’re now in.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, dick.” Ashido got up, clearly pissed at Franco herself, but he elected to ignore her outburst. “The League has Inserts as well, you know. They’ve probably been told about everything; if the attacks during internships are anything to go by. They likely know everything we do, so honestly? You need to stop acting like you’re the fucking protagonist of this whole thing and start actually seeing this whole situation for what it actually is.”

“He was in the fucking hospital because of the League!” Setsuna Tokage shot up, her eyes clearly pissed off more than anyone else in the group by this point. But try as Kirishima did to calm her down, she still continued. “What were you doing? Sitting around on your ass?”

“Also in the hospital, needles scattered all throughout this fucking arm-” Franco raised his left arm up using his right hand, “while having let the bitch who attacked me get away. Don’t act like you’re the only ones who went through shit-”

“Alright, as the most senior member here, I’m saying it: this discussion is over.” Amajiki cut Franco off from the rant he was about to go on, before putting a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, you need a break.”

Franco however, just shrugged it off, before turning to walk away. He just couldn’t take it anymore, it was clear no one would be on his side anyway, so what was even the point of staying anymore? “You know what? I’m done. I can’t fucking take this place anymore. Farewell, and fuck off.” And with that, Franco began to walk back to the dorms.

When he got back, he ignored the stares that some of the others were throwing at him while he went up to his room and put as much as he could into his backpack. Of course, he couldn’t fit everything in it, but he knew what he needed to bring with him. And once he packed it all up, he went out through his window (which wasn’t that far since he was on the second floor), hoping that none of the other hero course students would notice. 

The moment he got to the front entrance of UA, he took one look at the blue arch that made up the school’s entrance, and smiled. Before, it would be because UA was such an important place in canon, but now, he smiled because he was about to be free. Free from the confines of the school, from people that never really cared for him, who treated him like an enemy when all he did was share his thoughts…

He walked out and didn’t look back.

As Franco walked the streets of Tokyo, a black hoodie now concealing his hair, all he could do was smile. He was free… actually free from the confinements of UA… free to be who he actually was again…

And god, did he not know what to do with it.

Now that he had completely ditched UA, there was no chance he could ever become a hero anymore, and becoming a villain was also out of the question for him. Sure, he didn’t want anything to do with those at UA, but at the same time, joining someone like the League of Villains would mean being a pawn to All For One, one of the most dangerous people in the series.…

The only option he could even realistically think of was going vigilante. Besides, if Kaminari of all people could do it, it couldn’t be that hard, right?-

Franco was snapped out of his thoughts at the site of blue flames lighting up one of the nearby alleyways, which left him very confused. Last Franco had heard, Dabi had been part of the USJ attack on the League’s side, but defected to the hero’s side afterwards, so shouldn’t he be locked up somewhere?

“Are you gonna keep staring or should I just burn you alive as well?” Dabi asked Franco, snapping him out of his thoughts and confirming to him that this was the Dabi of canon he was dealing with, which gave Franco… a pretty stupid idea. 

“I mean I could just leave.” Franco shrugged nonchalantly. “But at the same time, I think I could be of use to you-”

Dabi actually laughed at that. “You, of use? What the hell can you even do? Or should I spare you the breath and just burn you here myself.”

And so, Franco told him. “Critical information. Sure, some might be redundant to you, but at the same time, I feel a good portion of it might actually be useful now that you likely don’t have the League of Villains to fall back on.”

“And what makes you think I’m not part of the League?” Dabi asked, raising an eyebrow. “For all you know, I could still be with them and could just kill you right now for knowing.”

“It wouldn’t make sense,” Franco started to explain. “You were at the USJ Attack last month, but from what I know from the others, you defected from the League. Which would likely mean that not only were you an Insert at one point, but also that you managed to escape from UA custody or whoever’s custody you were in and considering how Shigaraki is, he probably fucking hates your guts now for actually defecting.”

“Fair assumption, but still, you know nothing about me-”

“Touya Todoroki, but you go by Dabi. 23 years old, abused by Endeavor before supposedly faking your death, now you’re trying to kill your father as revenge.”

Dabi just laughed. “Well, clearly you know too much then.” And with that, he launched a wave of blue flames at Franco, which he barely managed to dodge, although his hoodie did get singed a bit.

“Woah, woah, woah, woah…” Franco tried his best to get Dabi to calm down. “If you think I know too much, then I’d hate to tell you, there’s more of us that do.”

“What, so there’s more of you imposters out there?”

‘Wait… “more?” Does he already know about us? How the hell-’

“Yep.” Franco admitted, mentally noting that Dabi clearly already knew about the situation. “Although I prefer the name ‘Inserts’ instead, since this whole thing feels like a massive isekai or self-insert thing that we’re all just trapped in.”

Dabi actually thought about it for a second, before sighing. “Fine, I guess you could be of some use then,” he reluctantly accepted. “Although you better keep up, cause I’m not gonna slow down for you.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Franco smirked, happy at the fact that he now had an ally… Even if it was one of the series’ more notable villains, anything was better than nothing.

It didn’t take the pair of them that long to find a hiding spot, specifically an abandoned housing unit out of the way of Tokyo’s main streets. As the pair made themselves at home, Dabi soon spoke up. “You do know you’ve yet to tell me your name. For all I know, I just picked up some random hobo off the street.”

“Fuck, I knew I forgot something…” Franco muttered, before letting out a small smirk. “Physically, I’m former UA Hero Course 1st Year Katsuki Bakugo, but mentally? Just call me Franco.”

“‘Franco’, huh? What, were you Spanish in your past life or something?”

“Italian, actually,” he elected to reveal, “but long story short, I was originally named Francisco after one of my dad’s old friends. Since my friend Kieran couldn’t pronounce it for shit, he just started calling me Franco and the name stuck.”

“That’s cool, I guess.” Dabi just shrugged off his explanation, before changing the subject. “So what the hell even is your goal? Cause I was just gonna try and kill my shitty father again.”

“I mean, I was going to suggest we also try and take out the League of Villains, if you're down to try that as well.”

“And why exactly should we take them out?” Dabi asked, acting a bit skeptical at the idea.

“Shigaraki might be powerful, but he’s not the one truly in charge of the League. In fact, their actual leader, All For One, is the one running the show, especially since he can steal people’s quirks and-”

“‘All For One’? Steal quirks?” Dabi cut Franco’s explanation short. “That just sounds like the dumbest bullshit I’ve ever heard.”

“I wish I was bullshitting, but I’m not. In fact, All For One’s main plan is to transfer his own quirk to Shigaraki, just to use him as a vessel, since his face got destroyed by All Might a few years back-”

“Alright, now you just sound like a crazy man.” Dabi lits up his hands, clearly ready to attack Franco the moment he says the wrong thing. “Explain how you know all this or I’ll burn you down alongside this place.”

“How do I describe this in a way that doesn't sound batshit insane…” Franco mumbled, before he realized the exact way he wanted to explain it. “Before I ended up here in this shitshow, I was just a normal kid from Canada-”

Dabi just glared at him. “So you lied about where you’re from as well?”

“Canadian with a large Italian background, I just associate myself more with my Italian side. Anyways, before I ended up here, there was this manga series I was reading, which I became heavily invested in. Imagine my surprise when, all of a sudden, I’m waking up as the fucking deuteragonist of said series.”

“So what you’re saying is that none of us are real?” Dabi began to let out a soft laugh, clearly maniacal, before Franco cut him off. “At this point, my best theory is this place and you guys are real, but that I’ve been seeing the world from a more fictional perspective before I ended up here.”

“Huh…” Dabi put out his flames, although his expression didn’t really change, before he made his way to the door. “I got shit I need to do, just stay there until I get back.”

“Fine, fine…” And Dabi soon left, leaving Franco alone with his own thoughts, which is when the reality of the situation started to hit him…

He had just agreed to be an ally of a villain.

The one thing he didn’t want to do, and yet he did it anyway. He didn’t want to be a villain, want to be seen by people the same way Sato was, and yet… He didn’t feel any regret at all. At UA, he felt alone, outcasted, but now he finally felt the freedom he’d desired the whole time…

Maybe this was the place he truly belonged, right with the rejects of society.

“Alright, ‘Kieran Moore’?”

As soon as he heard his name called, Kieran moved into the therapist’s office. Once inside, the therapist just smiled at him. “Welcome, Mr. Moore, or would you just prefer I call you Kieran for today’s session?”

“Just Kieran is fine.”

“Right,” he nodded, before looking down at his notepad. “Now, from what I’ve been made aware of, you’re here because your friend went missing nearly a month ago. Would you mind starting from the very beginning, if you can?”

“Well, it all started-”

———

“-after I moved to Canada.” Enzo started, remembering the exact day. “I knew no one, decided to play futebol - soccer I mean- at school, and this kid came up to me, asked if I was Italian, then asked if I wanted to play. I said yeah, and we became friends.”

“And this was ‘Franco’, I assume?”

“Yeah, it was. He soon introduced me to Kieran, and it became a trio. Just the three of us, everything was fine…” He paused, before continuing. “Then Kieran introduced me and Franco to his girlfriend-”

———

“-and the moment I saw Francisco, he looked so familiar, that I jokingly asked him if we were related.”

“Were you?”

“Yeah,” Bianca answered. “Distant cousins on his mom’s side. We had met like twice when we were maybe 7 or 8, but that was it until then. God, the look on my boyfriend’s face was fucking priceless.”

“And by boyfriend, I assume you mean Kieran?” Bianca raised an eyebrow, to which the therapist just chuckled. “Yes, I know about patient confidentiality, but Kieran did mention he was completely fine with anything he said being shared amongst either you or Enzo.”

She just nodded. “Yeah, we dated for a brief period, roughly a year and a half, and then… then…”

“Take your time. It’s your choice to talk about it, I’m not forcing you to open up.”

“Well, you see…”

———

“I honestly think Bianca was just jealous. To be honest, I did hang out with both Franco and Enzo more than with her during that time, or would rope them into whatever we were doing, so I think that contributed a bit to what ended up happening.”

“Did you think to ever talk to her about it?”

Kieran just sighed. “Looking back, I probably should’ve. But social cues have never been my greatest strength, autism and all that.”

“You’re saying that you were diagnosed with autism?”

“Self-diagnosed, but both me and Franco recognized several signs when we saw a list of symptoms. Anyways, back to Bianca and my issues-”

———

“-honestly, it was surprising they stayed together as long as they did.” Enzo admitted. 

“So then what’s your view on her?”

“Shes…” It took Enzo a second to decide on the right words. “I feel like the right word to describe her is odd. Like since we met, it was clear she hated something about me, god knows what. But now, she’s been acting… surprisingly normal. No insultos , no glares, nada .

“You think she likes you?”

“Fuck if I know.” Enzo shrugged. “I mean, I doubt it because of before. In fact, the day she admits she likes me is the day the world ends.”

———

“Me liking Enzo?” Bianca just scoffed. “Look, I never really liked him since we first met. But to be honest, losing Francisco was like losing a brother to me, and probably them as well.”

“So, you’re saying that…”

“Even if I don’t like him, no one deserves to be treated like shit after they lose someone close. I know one of Francisco’s old bullies learned that the hard way, pretty sure they mentioned lives on the west coast now.”

“Honestly, I agree. Now, is there anything else you’d like to bring up before my final thoughts?”

“Not really, no.” And after a brief overview from the therapist, and a bit of advice, she was allowed to leave. As she made it to the waiting area, she noticed both Kieran and Enzo just sitting there, watching what seemed to be a video talking about some soccer anime. “Right, I’m done here. Let’s go, you two.”

“And since when were you calling the shots?” Enzo asked sarcastically as he looked up.

“Since I drove us here, dumbass. Besides, it’s late and none of us have eaten yet.”

Enzo wanted to counter her point, but before he could, he heard his stomach growl. “Yeah, fine. Can’t argue with that”

“Since we’re on the topic of food, you two want Greek?” Kieran suggested. “Cause I know a good place near here if y’all are up for it.”

“Eh, sure, as long as I’m not paying for it.”

Kieran just stared at his ex for a few seconds, before standing up, sighing in the process. “You know what, fine, just this once. But you’re paying for food next time.”

“Oh, right, tomorrow’s New Years.” Enzo suddenly remembered out of nowhere as he started walking towards Bianca’s car. “You two got any plans for that?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”/“No, not really.” Both Kieran and Bianca answered at the same time.

Enzo just smiled “Good. Pretty sure they’re doing a massive fireworks thing at the park near my place, if you two wanna go.”

“I’d be down for it.” Bianca admitted, which surprised both of them. “What, just cause I agree to do something, that’s surprising to you guys?”

“Uh, yes?” Kieran answered, still shocked. “It’s you willingly agreeing to do something with Enzo, what part of that doesn’t sound off to you?”

Before she could reply, Bianca received a notification, and upon checking it, it turned out that Enzo had already sent her the location. “You want the place as well, Kieran?”

“Sure, but only because I don’t trust you two alone in the same room.”

As Bianca started arguing with her ex, Enzo just put on his earbuds and drowned out the noise with some music from back home...

Chapter Text

As Franco woke up, the first thing to hit him was that the bed in the abandoned housing unit he now called ‘home’ was fucking terrible. The second thing, on the other hand, was the smell of charred corpse in the air.

‘God, that shit hits so fucking hard…’

Shortly after Dabi initially agreed to work with him, he realized that the lingering smell of burning skin would potentially be a slight issue. And while he could handle the smell on a normal day when he’s fully awake, having to wake up to it was an entirely different can of worms.

He soon got out of bed, and moved to where Dabi was, sitting on a couch that was also there when they arrived. (‘Seriously, who the fuck leaves this much furniture behind?’) As soon as Dabi noticed what Franco had on, he just raised an eyebrow. “The hell are you wearing?”

Franco looked down at what exactly he had on, that being the same basketball jersey he bought after he got isekai’d. “Have you never seen a basketball jersey before?” he asked, before realizing who exactly he was talking to. “Nevermind, that actually makes sense you haven’t.”

“That’s not the issue. Purple of all colours? Really?”

“It’s iconic.” Franco defended. “How many sports teams do you know actually use purple in their jersey? Probably none since I’d assume you wouldn’t care but I can only name a handful myself.”

“Whatever,” Dabi just rolled his eyes, as he got off the couch. “You have anything actually planned at all or can I just leave?”

“I mean I do have a few things I wanna do, but I don’t think I’ll need you for any of them.”

“Great.” And with that, Dabi left the room. Now that his ally was gone (Franco himself still couldn’t believe he could actually say that), Franco had one question he seemingly couldn’t answer himself: what does he actually do now?

When he chose to leave UA, he finally had a semblance of freedom for the first time since he got isekai’d, but now that he had said freedom, he felt… lost.

Part of him wanted to go through his archive of ‘pre-quirk’ media again, just to see if things like Top Gear survived, but then again… He would probably be better off looking more into who Dabi wanted dead. 

Fuck it, he was studying heroes now.

Over the next few hours, he decided to do a proper analysis on Endeavor’s attacks, and what the number two hero was capable of. (‘Who knew doing those soccer analyses for fun would pay off?’) Of course, most of his typical ultimate moves were on full display, but based on what he could find, there was one particular attack missing: Hell Spider.

‘Either he hasn’t developed it yet or hasn’t shown it off publicly… I’ll ask Dabi later about it.’

Ironically enough, Hell Spider was one of Franco’s favourite attacks in the whole series; just the idea of manipulating something like fire as if it were string simply mesmerized him.

But as Franco went over some more of the footage again, he had a realization… did Dabi even have any unique ultimate moves of his own? Every named attack he could think of that he used, Endeavor also did, with the sole exception of Phosphor, and even then, that was an attack copied off of Shoto…

Eventually, after an hour, he managed to fill a whole notebook page with ideas on what Dabi could do for unique attacks, plus an idea or two that he wanted to run through with his ally first…

But now, he was tired… Which meant he could fuck up his sleep schedule yet again!

The next few days soon came and went, and Franco… honestly didn’t really do that much. For the most part, all he did was binge shows he’d been meaning to catch up on (‘God, this archive is the greatest thing since Wikipedia’), and occasionally checking in on what was going on in the news (which to his surprise, had very little to no mention of him running away from UA).

But as the days went on, it was clear to him that Dabi was starting to get a bit annoyed at his presence, likely because apart from the first day, he hadn’t really done anything. The real question though, was what could he really do?

Luckily, it was just him there at that moment, meaning he didn’t need to tell Dabi where he was going. So, after putting the hood on the hoodie he had on, Franco left for a for a brief walk, just to clear his head and potentially come up with ideas. And the further and further he got from the unit, the more he could only think of one way to try and impress his ally… Committing an actual crime. 

As much as Franco absolutely hated the idea, there really was no other alternative to him. Dabi was a villain who wanted to kill a pro hero, Franco was supposed to be a hero in training… or at least he was. He knew the others wouldn’t want him back at UA, not after what happened at the memorial…

But then, he saw an opportunity. There, sitting in a parking spot in the middle of the road, was what seemed to be a convertible high-end sports car, still with its roof open. And surprisingly, the keys were still in the car.

‘Holy shit- who the hell would leave their keys in something like this???-’

This could be an opportunity to actually impress Dabi. The car looked valuable enough that they could make big bucks if they managed to get rid of it. And even if they didn’t, it was still a high-end sports car, driving around in something like that would definitely make chases a lot easier-

“Oh my god!” he turned to the voice, only for it to be someone he didn’t know. “Holy shit, I never thought I’d see one of these things in person.”

“Are these rare or something?” Franco asked, hoping to see if the person would talk more about it.

“The original model itself? Eh, somewhat. This version of it though, absolutely.” The person revealed. “Pretty sure it’s supposed to be a throwback to an old motorsport livery, so they only made like 10 of them for Japan.”

“And how exactly can you tell?”

“See these?” He pointed to the wheel arch. “On the normal model, they’re the exact same material and colour as the car itself. But on this one? Pure 100% carbon fiber.”

‘I’m gonna pretend I know what that means-’

“That’s neat.” Franco smiled. “If you want, I could take a few photos of you next to it.”

The man excitedly agreed, handing Franco his phone and posing beside it. After a few poses, the man walked up to Franco, who immediately began showing him the photos he took. “Wow, these are actually pretty good! Thanks a lot, man.”

Franco just nodded, as the person walked away. And as soon as they were out of view, Franco went back to inspecting the vehicle. Luckily for him, he didn’t find any trackers or anything that could potentially lead back to where the car was. He soon hopped into the driver’s seat, and turned the car on. “Hopefully this thing won’t be too hard to drive.”

As he pulled out, he narrowly avoided hitting the car parked near it. But apart from that near accident, it was surprisingly smooth sailing, even as he approached the nearby highway. And lucky for him, the highway traffic wasn’t that bad, meaning that he could actually go on a bit of a joyride.

He sped the car up to 100km/h, and continued to increase it from there. 110… 120… 130-

Right as he got up to 130km/h, he heard the sound of sirens starting to blare from behind him. Looking in the mirror, he saw a single police cruiser, and assumed it was following him. However, instead of slowing down and pulling off to the side (like his gut was telling him to do), Franco had a different idea.

“Sims, don’t fail me now…” he muttered to himself, as he began to floor it. Swerving through the traffic, he began to speed up even more… 140… 150… 160… 170…

As he looked back, he noticed the amount of police cars had increased. Instead of the one, there were now three or four after him. And while there was a small part of him that was terrified, in reality… he was actively enjoying it. The thrill, it was like he was driving a larger version of a go-kart, now with some slightly higher stakes.

After a little bit, he pulled off the highway, and began weaving through streets and side roads, hoping to finally lose them. And once he couldn’t see them anymore, he pulled off into a side alley, praying to god the police would pass him while he took the license plates off. And luckily for him, they did, with a total of seven cars completely bypassing him.

“Finally got away… took fucking long enough. Now, just gotta make it back undetected.” And with that, he began to make his way back to the unit.

It ended up taking Franco a few minutes to locate where the unit was, but in the end, he did find his way back without getting caught. Immediately after putting it in the garage, he took a tarp that was in the corner, and covered the car with it.

As he walked in, he expected it to be empty, as Dabi had been gone most of the day, but to Franco’s surprise, there he was, laying on the couch looking clearly annoyed.

“Where the hell have you been?” he asked, annoyance clear as day in his voice. It looked like he was going to say more, but Franco managed to cut him off with a small chuckle, twirling the key on his finger. “Went to go clear my head, and ended up stealing a car.”

Dabi just looked unimpressed. “A car? Really?”

“I feel like your mood will change immediately once you actually look at the thing.” As Franco led him to the garage, he could feel Dabi glaring at him with suspicion. When they did eventually get there, Franco pulled off the tarp he had put on not even minutes prior to reveal the car.

“Holy shit-”

“That was literally the exact same reaction I had. Just look at this bad boy.” Franco moved to the front of the car, and pulled up the hood of it. “A… twin-turbo V8 engine? Huh, that’s way better than I thought.”

“You mean you didn’t look at the thing?”

“I literally stole it in broad daylight, what chance would I have to look at the internals?" Franco pulled off his hoodie, having completely forgotten he still had it on by that point. “Based on the noise, I assumed it could be either a normal V12 or a supercharged V6-”

“I have absolutely no idea what either of those would sound like-”

“But anyways, as for top speed on this thing… I don’t know, anywhere between 250 and 300mph at its absolute limit?”

“Not bad.” Dabi nodded, although his voice lacked any emotion at all. “And based on all this, I assume you had a license in your past life?”

“I used to occasionally play on racing simulators for practice back in the day. Not exactly a license, but it’s better than knowing fuck all.”

“I guess that’s better than nothing." Franco assumed Dabi would just go back in, but instead, he pulled out Franco’s notebook from earlier. “Also, what’s this supposed to be exactly?”

“Just some ideas I had regarding your quirk,” Franco admitted. “Considering most of your attacks are pretty much just a copy of Endeavor’s, I thought we could potentially try a few ideas I had.”

“And the last bit here?” He pointed to two particular notes that Franco had put near the bottom of the page.

“One’s basically impromptu therapy and the other’s something we can do to mess with your father. Anyways, you wanna try some of this shit out over the next few days?” 

“Fine. Didn’t have anything planned anyways.”

“Great.” Franco smiled. “Now, you think replacing the orange on that thing with a cyan would be a good idea…”

As Bianca arrived at the park, she didn’t know what exactly to expect. 

In a way, Enzo was still a bit of an enigma to her. Ever since she met him a few years prior, he was always an asshole who would banter a lot with her ex and Francisco. But in the span of a month, it felt like that side of him was part of just some facade, with the true side of him having begun to come out in the past month-

“Oh, hey,” Enzo waved, motioning her over to the bench he was sitting on. As she sat, her thoughts went back to where they were before, which Enzo seemed to notice. “Alright, there’s something on your mind. You want to talk about it?”

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s something you’d understand.”

“Alright then, tiro.”

“…I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

Enzo just blinked before sighing, his face clearly turning red with slight embarrassment. “Tried to use English slang in Portuguese. Tiro basically means ‘shoot’, so-”

“You thought trying to use Portuguese for your slang would work?”

He just shrugged. “I mean it works in other languages. Like… you know, ‘der Shitstorm’ in Alemão-”

“Alemão?” It ended up taking a few seconds for Bianca to realize what language he was referring to. “Wait, since when the fuck did you know German?”

“I don’t know it, but my old Argentino neighbours did.”

“…I’m just gonna ignore the implications of that for a minute-” before she could finish talking, she heard the sound of familiar footsteps approaching them.

“Alright dumbfucks,” Kieran’s voice spoke up from behind them. “Hopefully I’m not too late. Traffic was a pain in the ass.”

“We’re in the suburbs, though?” Bianca asked, somewhat confused as Enzo checked what time it was on his phone. “Nah, you’re good. We still have a few minutes until they start.”

“Good, good…” He sat down on the other side of Enzo, and the trio just let the silence fall between them. That was, until Kieran spoke up. “Don’t you guys feel like something’s still missing right now?”

“Kieran,” Bianca immediately spoke up. “I get it, we all miss Francisco. But at the same time, it’s been a month at this point, we can’t keep living in the past. I know you were closer to us than me or even Enz were,” Enzo’s eyebrow perked up at the fact she used his nickname, “and it’s understandable to take longer to fully grieve. But at this point, it’s starting to get a bit unhealthy. I’m not saying you shouldn’t grieve him and completely forget he exists, but you need to try and move on.”

While Enzo just nodded along to what she said, Kieran just let out a small sigh, not even turning towards her. “Yeah, maybe you’re right…” he mumbled out, still clearly deep in thought, which made sense to Bianca. Of the three of them, he had known Francisco the longest, and was the one closest to him, so it made sense that even after their therapy session that it still hit him hard. However…

“$20 he’s still like this when the fireworks go off.”

Bianca just smirked. “Why bet money when his reaction will likely be priceless?”

“Na verdade, good point.”

It wasn’t long before the countdown to midnight started, and still, Kieran hadn’t budged at all, so they waited for the moment the fireworks launched. And when they did…

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST-” he shouted, the explosion fireworks finally snapping him out of his thoughts. Unfortunately for Kieran, his startled reaction caused both of them to burst into hysterical laughter. “Ha ha, laugh all you want you two, it wasn’t that funny.”

“Yeah, of course it wasn’t…” Bianca mumbled, before Enzo butt in. “Actually, it was fucking hilarious!” And the pair of them laughed even harder than before.

As Kieran just rolled his eyes, Enzo managed to fall on his side, landing right on Bianca’s side, but got back up immediately. 

While it was clear that either he hadn’t noticed where he landed or wasn’t paying attention to what he did, Bianca on the other hand felt her heart skip a beat. She hadn’t felt that way since she met Kieran for the first time, a bit before they officially got together, which confused her so hard; she didn’t have a crush on him. 

Enzo was banterous, a bit of an asshole, and could be somewhat idiotic… but at the same time, those rare moments where it felt like the real ‘him’ came out had changed her entire view of him. It was clear he was also devastated by Francisco’s disappearance and had moved on in his own way, which seemingly made him more mature. 

Those moments of him being an asshole? Fewer and far between over the past few weeks. The banter? Toned down, and usually kept between him and Kieran. It’s like her getting involved in their whole thing had changed him for the better…

The more she thought about it, the more her face turned red. Luckily, she could explain it away due to the cold of winter, but in reality… maybe their therapist was actually right, and she truly did have a crush on Enzo…

‘Fuck.’

Chapter Text

The fire raged on in front of them, a vast landscape being burned right to the ground. 

What was once a small forest was now being ravaged, bright blue flames tearing it apart while thick smoke billowed out of the remains. And as it continued to burn, two people just stood there, watching it all happen from the sidelines…

“Huh, you were right,” Dabi admitted. “That was kind of therapeutic.”

“Told ya.” Franco smirked, as they began to walk back to the car. “And considering we’re basically in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, pretty high chance we’re not gonna get caught.”

“And if the other ‘Inserts’, as you call them, see this?”

“All they’d know is you’re somewhere on the run.” Franco got into the driver’s side, and started the engine, causing it to let out a roar. “God, I love this bad boy.”

“I’m still surprised you managed to steal it without getting caught.”

“Agreed.” The two of them soon drove off. “I mean the police did try and track me down, but that had more to do with me speeding than actually stealing it”

The drive back ended up being uneventful for the most part, with both sides keeping mostly to themselves. It remained that way for a solid twenty minutes, before they were cut off by someone driving…

“What the hell is that thing?”

Franco just glared at the vehicle in question ahead of them. “That, my good sir, is what we in the industry call a ‘shitbox.’”

“Cause it looks like shit?”

“Yep. Dirt cheap, looks like absolute shit, yet somehow the fucker behind the wheel still drives it.”

Franco stayed behind the car for a solid minute, hoping the guy behind the wheel would know better and just move out of the way. Unfortunately for him, however, the guy didn’t seem to budge. 

“Ma vaffanculo…” Franco mumbled, as he prepared to overtake the car. And when he did, he rolled down his window to yell at the driver. “YOU DRIVE LIKE A FUCKING WHORE!”

As Franco sped ahead, he could faintly hear the other driver yell back at him. (Franco could only make out the words ‘fuck’ and ‘actually fucking drive’). 

"The hell is he complaining about?” Dabi asked. “He’s the one who can’t drive for shit.”

“I know! It’s like nothing’s changed from back home, they're still just giving licenses out to anyone.”

“And where exactly is ‘back home’ for you? You’ve said Canada, but not exactly where. Not that I’d even know where it is in the first place.”

“Toronto.” Franco revealed, pronouncing it without the first ‘o’. “Honestly, it still impresses me how many dumbasses there managed to get a license, only to be unable to drive for shit.”

“If it was supposedly so easy, then why the hell didn’t you get one?”

“Honestly, I was too lazy to.” he admitted. “Besides, the city actually has half-decent public transit, unlike most places I’ve been to, so I’ve never seen the need.”

“That’s nice, I guess.”

And with that, the silence between them returned once more.

A few days later, Franco decided to go check out a nearby mall he found online. He had seen from the list of stores that one would likely have the paint he was looking for. And after a few minutes of mindlessly walking through half the mall (‘It’s like the Eaton Centre all over again!’), he found the exact store he needed. But when he found the exact section he had to go to…

“Huh, since when the fuck were-”

“Sir, you’re not allowed to swear here.” The cashier working there cut him off, clearly annoyed, before pointing to a sign that said ‘No swearing’ on it in both Kanji and English.

“Shit, my- dammit. Sorry.” Franco apologized, as the cashier just glared at him. “Seriously though, how many shades of blue does one place even need?”

He pulled out his phone to try and find the exact colour he was looking for, but unfortunately, he couldn’t find it. He then pulled out his phone to find a reference image of Dabi’s flames, and when he found the image he was looking for-

“Sir, I’m going to need you to leave.”

‘Woah woah woah woah- the fuck did I even do???’

Franco raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but why exactly do you want me gone?”

“We don’t serve people who sympathise with or support villains." The cashier revealed, their expression not changing in the slightest.

‘What type of fucking logic is that-’ “Sir, it’s literally just an image-”

“Get out right now, or I’m calling security.”

As much as Franco wanted to continue arguing, he knew that it would just be a losing battle. “You know what, fine.” He rolled his eyes as he made his way out. “This place ain’t fucking worth it anyways.”

He soon ended up wandering the mall for a few minutes, hoping something would catch his eye, before finding an open bench and sitting down. He just sat there for a few minutes, just  contemplating what to do next with his life-

All of a sudden, he felt someone’s hand wrap right behind his neck. “I wouldn’t move if I were you.” A very familiar raspy voice spoke from beside him. Franco turned his head, only to see Tomura Shigaraki himself sitting beside him. “Act natural, like we’re old friends."

‘Oh fuck, I completely forgot about this… wait, does that make me the main character now?’

Unfortunately for Franco, however, his brain seemed to operate in a different way to his mouth, because the first word to come out of his mouth was… “Kinky.”

“Huh?”

“What?” Franco managed to somehow maintain a straight face. “Also, considering who my friends are, they absolutely would’ve expected me to crack a joke like that.”

He thought back to Kieran and Enzo, immediately envisioning how both would react (Kieran would be either unsurprised or ready to punch him for a joke like that, while Enzo would just laugh like a maniac). But it didn’t take long for him to snap back to reality, considering the situation he was in. “Now, what exactly do you want? To kill me? Weaken the heroes by taking out one of their own?”

“No, no…” Shigaraki assured, in a completely unassuring voice. “I just want to talk.”

“Alright then, talk.”

“Straight to the point, huh?” Shigaraki smirked. “It’s simple, I hate everything. But what’s pissed me off the most right now are you cheaters.” Franco felt the grip around his neck tightened briefly. “Everything we've done, the attack on UA and the ones across Japan, and yet you all somehow end up unscathed. We even broke some allies out of Tauratus for it-” 

‘I'm sorry you did what-’ 

“-and yet you cheats still somehow found a way to win. How? What's so special about you and your stupid cheating friends that allows you to do it, Katsuki Bakugo?”

As much as Franco wanted to complain about the assumptions Shigaraki made, like the idea that he had any friends, or even simply calling him by that name, he actually thought for a second… What did actually make him special?

As much as he wanted to yell something stupid like ‘Parkour, bitch!’ at him, he knew it would only get him killed. So, Franco decided to give him a proper answer. “Honestly, I ask myself the same thing sometimes-”

Almost immediately, Shigaraki tightened his grip ten-fold. “So you know nothing? I might as well kill you right here-”

“I… never fu… fucking… said that…” Franco managed to cough out, with Shigaraki loosening his grip. “Anyways… as I was saying before you did that shit, I’m pretty sure it comes down to a combination of our knowledge and adaptability. We know who all of you are, what happens, and for the most part, how it all ends. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of us ‘so-called’ cheats know way more than any member of the League does. Even if you try to surprise us, we’ll all still have an idea of what we’re up against and what you’re capable of.”

“And once something happens that either messes up our existing knowledge or renders it completely useless, we adapt. Sure, some of us might do it better than others, but we eventually do it in the end. So unless you end up throwing something completely out of left field that none of us know shit about at all, we’re gonna win in the end.”

Shigaraki remained silent for a bit, but it didn’t take long for him to come to the realization he needed. “I think I've connected the dots as to why all of you piss me off… It’s making complete sense now. It’s all cause of All Might!”

‘That’s… I didn’t even mention- You didn’t connect shit, how do you even fucking reach that conclusion???’

Shigaraki soon started muttering, something about All Might being the reason that the ‘cheats’ were able to pull off what they do (Franco didn’t really pay attention, his mind was still trying to catch up to the fact Shigaraki somehow managed to pin the blame on All Might for all of it?). Once he finished, he got up and took his hand off of Franco’s throat, causing him to let out a wave of coughs. “Ah, I’m glad we had this chat. Thanks, Bakugo!”

“Great.” Franco got up himself, and took a step back from the villain. “Now, kindly fuck off.”

Shigaraki, who had seemed to be leaving, paused and turned to glare at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be a hero, brat?”

Immediately, Franco’s expression turned completely neutral, although his eyes easily had a broken look to them. “Me? A hero? I’ve given up calling myself that weeks ago. I’m just a survivor now.”

Shigaraki didn’t seem to react to that, just letting out a small “Hm” as he left through one of Kurogiri’s portals. And as Franco just stood where he was, one thought continuously ran through his mind…

‘Why me of all people?’

About an hour later, Franco returned without the paint he had gone to get. As soon as he stepped in, Dabi noticed it was missing, and looked at him with what seemed to be slight annoyance. “No paint?” He asked. “Thought that was the whole damn reason you went in the first place.”

“Oh it was, but I ran into your old boss.” Franco revealed. “Couldn’t do shit since we were in public, but now I know he knows my name.”

“The hell did he want?”

Franco just shrugged. “Just wanted to talk, apparently. Claimed all us Inserts were cheaters, and asked what made us special compared to his group. Somehow, that fucker ended up coming to the conclusion that killing All Might would solve everything.”

“So he’s mad because people are smarter than him?” Dabi just rolled his eyes. “Him and that stupid League he has.”

“League…” Franco muttered to himself, as he started to get an idea-

“Let me guess, you’ve come up with some stupid name for us as well?”

Franco let out a small chuckle. “I mean, I personally wouldn’t call it stupid… Actually scratch that- it might sound a bit stupid without proper context, but-”

“Just spit it out already.” 

“V.” Franco looked for any signs for recognition from Dabi, but the villain just stared blankly at him, clearly looking for an explanation. “You know, ‘V for Vendetta’, that movie?”

“Never heard of it.”

Franco just stared at him, stunned. “You’ve never- HOW? Anarchist British vigilante? The Guy Fawkes mask? Really, you’ve never even heard of it?”

Dabi just shrugged. “Never really cared about movies, remember? Too busy training under my shitty father and then trying to kill him to pay attention to it.”

Franco wanted to argue further, but he then remembered who he was dealing with. “You know what, fair enough, watch it if you can find it. But back to the whole name thing-”

“It’s fine, I guess.” Dabi admitted, slightly surprising Franco. “For all I know, it could be a completely obscure reference, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. The League’s already got that title.”

“Yeah, of anything to name yourself after, League of Legends? Really? Makes you sound like a bunch of video game tryhards.” This got a small laugh out of Dabi that Franco hadn’t expected. “But anyways, the guy working at that paint place was a complete fucking bitch. Kicked me out for, and I quote, ‘sympathising with villains’-”

“Sympathising with villains?” Dabi immediately got on edge. “What, did you get us caught or something?”

“No, literally all I did was pull up an image of you on my phone as a reference. Literally, that’s what caused it.”

“Huh, sounds like a completely bullshit reason then.” Franco just nodded at that, before Dabi continued. “So now I expect you want me to get it?”

“Go ahead, I guess. Just make sure it’s a close enough blue to your flames.” And with that, Franco decided to go get some rest…

Over the next month, life began to return to normal for Kieran, Enzo, and Bianca. Classes returned, and for the most part, they focused on passing those… Unfortunately, however, it was during this time that Bianca’s crush on Enzo had become so visibly obvious, that they knew they needed to do something about it.

“Alright, I think it’s time we talk about the elephant in the room-”

Enzo just raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it a bit rude to call your ex, who you’re still friends with by the way, an elephant?”

“Oh, ha ha.” Kieran laughed dryly, before continuing. “But as I was saying, we do seriously need to address it.”

“You think?” Enzo rolled his eyes. “Honestly though, I still don’t know how it happened. It’s like one moment, she despises me, then she begins to act civil out of nowhere, and now she has paixão súbita.

“…she has a what?”

“I…” Enzo took a second to try and explain what it meant. “I don’t think there’s a proper translation for it, but it’s something along the lines of a strong romantic feeling out of nowhere.”

“Strong romantic feeling from nowhere…” Kieran muttered, as the potential realization came to him. “Enz, did you cry in front of her at any point?”

“Uh… I think so?”

Kieran just nodded “Alright, that explains it. She seems to get attached to people pretty quickly, doubly so if they show a strong negative emotion in front of her.”

“Huh, so like an ‘I can fix him’ situation… You think there’s some sort of mental condition that causes it or?”

“Good question.” Kieran pulled out his phone, and began looking for the answers himself. “…I mean there are some that do, but definitely nothing I think Bianca would have.”

Enzo just nodded, before Kieran changed the topic. “Look, just do at least one date with her. If it works, congrats, you got a girlfriend. If not, then literally nothing changes.”

“…Fine” Enzo sighed, as he began typing up a message. After about a minute, he showed what he had typed to Kieran. “You think this is good enough?”

After a brief bit of analysing, Kieran just nodded. “Yeah, that’d work.”

They continued their conversation for a few minutes, bouncing from topic to topic, when…

*DING!*

“…Enz, why the hell do you have your notifications so damn loud?”

“Am I not allowed to?” Enzo just rolled his eyes, as he pulled out his phone. And after a few seconds of just looking at the screen, he smirked. “She said yes.”

“Well Enz, congratulations, you got yourself a date…” Kieran smiled, as a thought came to him “God, can you imagine what Franco would say if he was still here?”

“The words ‘why are you trying to fuck my cousin’ come to mind… as do ‘you can 100% do better than her’.”

“Honestly, that sounds exactly like him.”