56 Chapter 56

Aoyama is feeling very uneasy and he would like to brush it off and not come off as a nervous wreck, but it's hard when he realizes what he has done and what that could mean for the future. His sparkle isn't sparkling as it should and he's worried it may be obvious even when no one pays him much mind. He fidgets with his hair, his belt, his glasses, anything to distract him from the terrible churns in his stomach that slowly get worse with each passing moment. He's done a terrible thing unbefitting of a hero in training and it disgusts him. But what choice does he have, right? Do it and watch the devastation unfold, or don't and lose everything and everyone he cares about. It's a lose-lose situation and he'd rather lose and keep those close to him than lose and be alone.

It's just this once, they promised.

Everything is fine, he shouldn't worry, he'll be too obvious and that'll make it all worse.

It's fine.

"Hey"

The person who greets him has him jumping out of his skin and his stomach twisting in painful knots. He tries not to be stiff when he turns to face her and tries to keep his smile in the face of brown eyes kept neutral and unreadable. Zena smiles back at him, small and friendly and in no way suspicious of anything that may be going on. It almost has him sighing in relief but something nags at the back of his head and her presence makes it worse.

"Bonjour mademoiselle Renard" he greets in turn, sounding as exuberant as he always does and holding that closed-mouth smile and that almost knowing look in his eyes.

"Très fluide" is Zena's reply and Aoyama falters for just a moment.

She speaks French? He didn't know this and it's not surprising seeing as he hasn't been around her as much as some of his classmates. It's hard for him to interact with them and he never knows what to say. And when he speaks French he gets weird looks because no one ever understands a word that leaves his mouth.

"Tu parles français?" He asks and tries to reign in the sudden excitement that overtakes him.

"Comme vous pouvez le voir" Zena responds easily. "Been speaking French for years, my friend, a bit of Russian here and there and some other stuff"

His nervousness melts away when he speaks to Zena and he knows he should not be so relaxed around the one who can make things worse for him. Does she know? Has she told anyone?

"You're nervous friend," she says just as he thinks that and she rests a hand lightly on his shoulder with a smile that does little to reassure him. "I would be too, but you're making it far too obvious"

She knows and he knows she knows. He's frozen in his place with those words and the hand on his shoulder squeezes lightly.

"Vous leur avez dit?" - did she tell them?

"j'ai fait quelque chose" - she's done something.

She's done something?

That feels far worse than knowing she's told on him and she walks away with those words, pocketing her hands in her cargo pants and shouting at Bakugo for calling Mina names she does not tolerate. She acts so casual and unbothered and it's unnerving - frightening - because he now knows that she knows and she likely knows everything. And she's done something about it, but what? If she had told someone he doesn't think he would be standing here right now, ready to board the bus for their trip. So if she had done something, what exactly had she done and how badly will this blow up in his face?

"Alright everybody, settle down" Izuku calls for order at the front of them all, standing near the open door of the bus with a chart in hand.

He's envious and amazed all at once when he looks at the green-haired boy. Here he is, a quirkless person in the hero course and skillful enough to prove his worth in this class. He's quirkless but hasn't let it stop him from reaching his goals and the confidence he has in his abilities makes it hard for Aoyama to even look at himself in the mirror.

He took them down last night.

"Single file please" Izuku calls over the group, his voice this awkward thing they've gotten used to, and the only one struggling to follow his words is one explosive blonde.

"You better keep your mouth shut BoomBoomBoy," Zena says to put an end to any conflict before it could start. She smiles in the face of Katsuki's glare and points him to the bus. "Go on now"

"Are you sure we sho-"

"Single file, Iida"

"Hey!" Zena shouts and points at Mineta who stops in his tracks and brings attention to himself. He's dangerously close to Toru and the expression on his face tells the story enough. "You better stop your perverted ways grape boy or you'll be in for some trouble, trust me"

Coward that he is, he quickly makes distance between him and most of the girls, but he does mumble something along the lines of "what are you gonna do?" and Zena hears him quite clearly.

"Mess around and find out" is her reply to him and she's back to the task at hand.

As their classmates load the bus, class B comes filing out of the building following after a smiling Kendo and passive Yoroi. Like Class A they've opted for wearing their costumes for this expedition and the classes meet at the bus, Zena and Kendo exchanging greetings in a complicated handshake that has Yoroi watching in question.

Since when have Zena and Kendo had the time to develop a close enough relationship that would garner a secret handshake? Well, it's not like she's close friends with either of them so she wouldn't know, but still, they live in separate dorms and the only time she has seen them together is in the training room.

"So it's a joint class today" Yoroi remarks as she steps aside and watches her classmates board the bus after 1A. They've seen a lot of each other to the point some of them have become great friends with some of class A students. Tetsutetsu and Kirishima are great examples of this.

"Yup, should be fun," says Kendo, who has been looking forward to this trip since it had been brought up.

"Yeah, fun"

~~~~~~~~

"Okay, so Midoriya, right?"

Class A and B have all been shuffled onto the bus and are now on the road. Conversation has been anything but scarce since the bus set off and it seems things have turned to the sole quirkless on the buss. It's Shiru Gin who suddenly takes an interest in Izuku. The speedster leans on the back of his seat, hair a mess and only kept in some form of order by the goggles on his head. His curiosity could be seen on his face as he looks at Izuku with raised brows and a tilted head.

"That's me" Izuku responds idly, messing around with a handgun and earning a warning glance from Aizawa. The safety is switched on soon after that and the weapon returns to its place at his hip.

"I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way" is Shiru's next words, worded carefully and filled with the edge of hesitation. "But you're here and quirkless?"

"Yes, I'm quirkless"

The white-haired boy goes silent for a moment, thoughtful with eyes on the guns at Izuku's hips.

"Cool, because I wasn't sure if it was true" he then says. "So what do you do?"

"Make stuff, work with computers, build my own computers, build systems, study quirks, make gear, make and customize weapons" is the list that Izuku offers to the boy in front of him and leans back in his seat with an easy smile. A friendly and open thing. "Gotta find a way not to be a Deku, you know?"

"Nice" Shiru grins, liking the easy way Izuku carries himself. The last time he spoke to a quirkless individual they got defensive and assumed he was making fun of him when he had just been curious. "Show off a bit, won't you?"

Izuku needs no further prompting and swiftly sits himself up in his seat. With a casual gesture with his hand, a holographic screen appears in front of him and earns some stares. It's hard to understand what's actually being displayed, but it's there and Izuku interacts with it as if it were some touch-based monitor.

"This is a work in progress but functional enough" he explains and slides something over to the opposite side of the screen. "There's a lot of stuff this should be capable of doing but so far I can only hack into most systems, including traffic systems, which will be helpful in pursuit. It's also linked to the hundreds of miniature cameras I carry on me at all times - I made them myself they have incredible visuals and amazing sound transferring abilities. Another feature is that it can take down any electronic device should I order it to, meaning most support equipment; it's already been tested. It's only a work in progress and this is just a small glimpse of what I want it to do"

Gin is quiet, as are most of the other students. Alissa snickers at the looks Izuku earns while the boy himself shrugs away the attention as his holographic creations disappear as abruptly as they had materialized.

"Okay, so you're a genius" Gin then says, blunt and matter of factly. "Could have just said that"

Izuku only shrugs in response, giving no answer to those words, and returns to his handgun, once more earning a warning glance from Aizawa.

He accidentally fired it off once and now he's under constant supervision.

To be fair there had been an issue with the trigger he was trying to rectify, which led to the stray bullet, but there was no one in the area. No one got hurt and no one will get a bullet through them today because the safety is and shall remain on until the gun needs to be used.

"Next question" Gin, now even more curious about his fellow hero in training, continues his questioning. "How many weapons do you have on you?"

"Three firearms, four daggers, a baton, brass knuckles, and varying bombs" Izuku lists off carefully. "Yeah, that sounds about right"

"Three firearms?"

As far as Gin can see he only has two handguns attached to holsters on his waist. There's the baton in its own holster, the brass must be built into the gloves he wears, the bombs might be the odd containers attached to his belt and there are no signs of the daggers he spoke of.

"Three firearms" Izuku confirms, but does not attempt to prove anything"

"You're pretty cool"

"Thanks" Izuku smiles.

"Yeah, you're likable" Tsuyu adds to the conversation with a glance at the quiet Bakugo. "Unlike certain classmates"

"Shut it frog bitch" is Bakugo's immediate response.

"The fact you took offense proves a point," Izuku says bluntly.

"Watch it Deku, the fox girl won't protect you this time," Bakugo warns, referring to Zena who had fallen asleep at some point in time.

"I'd say she was protecting you, but you're not ready for that conversation, Kacchan"

"We're on a bus on a busy road" comes a sleep-filled voice and Bakugo scoffs when he looks at Zena. Apparently, she hadn't been fast asleep as he had thought. "You can fight some other time"

"Awake?" Mina wonders, adjusting just a bit for Zena to rest a bit more comfortably. What she ends up doing is moving away enough for Zena to limply fall into her lap and remain there with a groan.

"I was never asleep" is Zena's sad admittance. " I regret everything"

"You sick?"

"Migraine"

And she doesn't reveal more than that. There are many reasons for Zena's headaches and it could be anything today. She had been happy enough this morning, especially happy, Mina should say even if Zena hates to admit her joy. The complaints started when they all got on the bus so Mima assumes it's because of everyone present. It's not just their class, but Kendo's as well. There's Aizawa, Kuma, Vlad King, and Midnight to add to the list too. That's fifty-one people in total that Zena has to deal with.

Though she has gotten used to such things so the headache could be due to something else.

"Everybody shut up, we're here" Aizawa orders

"I understand that you haven't had your morning coffee, Aizawa, but do you have to be this depressing?" Kuma worries.

"I'd be depressed if I had to supervise a bunch of teenagers with weapons and abilities that can cause massive damage if they get trigger happy," Shinso says, defending his homeroom teacher as he trudges off the bus.

"Hell, I'm depressed just being alive sometimes," Izuku says with an uncomfortable amount of cheer, and the looks he gets are ignored as he follows after Shinso.

"I worry for him"

"You should"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome to the ultimate space for jams!" Thirteen announces when everyone has filed into the facility with various looks of wonder. "Or USJ for short"

Izuku wonders why it's called space for jams excluding the most obvious reasons. On his right is an over-excited Uraraka who is now face to face with one of her heroes. On his left is a less excited Zena who sighs and pulls her neon glasses over her face to cover tired eyes. Apparently, she has a death-inducing migraine. And apparently, it's a normal enough illness that she isn't concerned in the slightest. A drawback of her ability is constant migraines, even when she's used to the voices in her head and the use of her other abilities.

Still, Izuku can't help but wonder if Zena isn't using her abilities in this very moment with how bothered she is. He has come to understand that she can expect migraines when attempting to gain control of an individual. Knowing that, he now wonders who she could be attempting to manipulate and scans his classmates for any signs of pain or discomfort.

It doesn't always hurt her chosen victim - he remembers. If their mental forces are weak enough and if Zena is strong enough then the person won't notice a single thing.

That makes things a bit difficult.

Or it could be, quite possibly, that she's just suffering one of her usual migraines.

"I'm not surprised but I'm going to ask" Aizawa sighs as he moves to stand next to 13 and shifts away from Kuma. "But where is All Might?"

"Out saving lives, apparently"

"Thought so"

"Now then, let's begin," 13 says, obviously overjoyed to be teaching a class today. "But before that, there is just one thing, or two...or three or four- " the list just keeps growing.

13 explains a bit about her quirk, Aoyama is fidgeting in place and any attention he draws makes it worse. He glances from Zena to Aizawa and back again as if the answer would fall into his lap at any moment. Zena's words still ring in his head and it has taken great effort for him not to empty his stomach on the bus ride over.

"This is exciting," Mina says with a smile and earns a humorless snicker from Zena, who looks up at the ceiling for the third time since they've entered USJ. "What was that?"

"You know how I sometimes know when things are gonna go horribly bad?" Zena asks dryly.

"This is one of those times isn't it?"

"Yup," Sighing Zena looks ahead then looks to her right when Alissa catches her attention. Her cousin makes a gesture with her hands that has Zena furrowing her brow, her confusion shown by the cartoonish eyes on her glasses that squint at the gesturing Alissa.

"The dimension traveling thing is complicated but one thing about it is that I can sense when things are not good in the air. Like when someone with a teleportation quirk uses their powers, I can feel it on my skin" Alissa speaks quickly and quietly. "Yeah, I'm getting that feeling"

"13 is demonstrating her quirk, isn't that what your feeling?" Mina asks.

"Nope," Alissa shakes her head.

Zena didn't think so and when she looks up this time, there is something to be seen near the ceiling, a deep purple mist-like hole that grows bigger and bigger with every passing second until it gets the attention of everyone present.

"Okay, that's not good"

Very much not good, especially when villains start pouring out of it like some sort of video game spawns.

Aizawa sighs, curses, and shoots Zena a look that earns a shrug in turn. Kuma, oddly enough wears a broad smile on her lips as she watches things unfold and the hands that had been in her pockets are now balled fists.

"This isn't part of our lesson, is it?" Izuku wonders and Zena shakes her head.

"No one gets in or out, Kusei!" Zena calls loudly and forces the image and thought of an impenetrable forcefield into the mimer's head. "We stay safe and don't get in the heroes' way"

Kusei's imagination works before she can process much of what is going on and her worry only surfaces after she has done as told, glancing at Zena who is already occupied with something else.

"Yoroi, I hope you can equip a rifle of sorts, I need you and Izuku to pick off the fodder so our teachers can have it easier and focus on the true threats"

"Give me a high vantage point and I've got your back" Is Yoroi's response, a sniper rifle now in hand and a deadly grin on her face. Zena interacts little with Yoroi, but from the small interaction she has concluded that her companion takes some sick pleasure in the act of violence

It's easy enough to grant her wish and Yoroi scrambles up the now raised platform and rests her weapon securely on its bipod. She's grinning all the while, almost laughing as she pulls down her visors and takes aim.

"According to the curriculum we got yesterday, All Might be supposed to be present at this time" one speaks, Zena takes the time to watch him monologue while signaling towards Denki and Izuku. Denki as clueless as he is understands despite it all, an urge suddenly arriving in him that has him pulling down the microphone on his headphones and doing as was intended.

Izuku pulls up his screen and begins broadcasting the current situation while linking Denki straight to Nezu to call for help.

"Where is he? We went through all this trouble and rustled up so many of us to bring along" the other - Shigaraki - speaks and Zena makes a face. His voice sounds like it itches his throat and Zena can almost feel it. "You can't tell me All Might, the symbol of peace, isn't here"

Zena hates to disappoint, but it's very clear that he's not here.

"I wonder if he'll show up if we kill the kids," he says with glee and Zena turns to Yoroi.

"That one with the hands," Zena says, pointing. "Yoroi, shoot him"

"Be precise please"

"In the head" Zena clarifies easily. "Shoot him in the head"

"Kitsune, that could kill him" Someone points out and earns a pointed look.

"Did he not just say that he's going to kill us?" Alissa points out. "Are you sick in the head, pal?"

"He's a villain who has no issue killing us," says Izuku, now assembling his rifle. "So we should have no issue returning the favor"

"Exactly" Yoroi agrees, pulls back the bolt, and squints behind her visor. "I see no problem with that logic"

"Denki, did you get through?"

"Yeah, thanks to Midobro"

"Good, Midoriya, what of the visuals?"

"Already taken care of, I have everyone and everything in sight"

"Kusei, how are we doing?"

"No one can get in, no one gets out, bullets can go, villains can't use quirks to get in, the wall cannot be penetrated by enemies" words rush out of her in her nervousness and she fidgets until she doesn't and takes a deep breath. Blinking, she looks ahead, suddenly calm. "Um, I feel weird"

"Don't worry about it" Zena dismisses the issue and crouches down on the ground. She's looking at Kurogiri now, who's approaching. "Nitsu, you see that contraption around that one's neck?"

"It's hard to miss"

"It's the only physical part of him, I'm sure, either you choke him or get it off so someone can hurt him"

"Roger"

Good.

Yoroi and Izuku pick off whoever they can while Aizawa, Midnight, Kuma, and 13 handle the most dangerous of them. If Yoroi can get a clean shot of Shigaraki, Zena will be happy, that's for sure. Kusei's imagination is strong and Zena has seen her quirk in action enough to know that she can create much of anything, no matter how ridiculous it may be. So they're safe as long as Kusei is conscious and imagining the indestructible forcefield around them. Nitsu and his magnetic abilities make him the best person to take care of the Kurogiri situation, and exposing or taking advantage of his one weakness. With Izuku's help, Denki has contacted the school and Izuku has already connected his system to USJ's and has sight of everything and everyone within the facility.

Things are reasonably good.

Zena sighs, wincing.

"My head hurts" She complains.

This is what she gets for highjacking the minds of fifty-one people.