Chapter Text
January 3rd, U.A. Final Semester, Day 1
BAKUGOU
Everyone’s just as yappy and excitable as ever. Bakugo huffs, slouching further in his seat as the wall of sound buffets around him. They always get like this on the first day back. Like it’s their first fucking time coming to school or something. A thrum of energy radiates from the classroom along with the chatter making it feel like the epicenter of one of Bakugo’s explosions.
Shitty hair hangs off of him as usual. It’s not like they haven’t seen each other, shit. Bakugo rolls his shoulders, giving a halfhearted attempt to throw off the offensive appendage. The guy is so clingy. They worked out together a shit ton over the winter break. That’s enough.
“Welcome back.” Aizawa says shortly as he walks in. Same black uniform, same tired eyes even after the break. Bakugo had him labeled as an insomniac week one and only later learned that Aizawa doesn’t have any sleeping issues—he has delegation issues. Often working school nights as an underground pro, not because he needs to, but because he wants to. “I’m sure you’ve all looked at the syllabus—”
Glasses immediately shoots to his feet, “Sensei! We have been discussing several possible gift options to present to the new teacher coming from America and we would like your input on which would be most appropriate, sir!”
“That can wait until the end of the day, I think.” Aizawa says and Iida shuts up and sits down. Bakugou smirks. “To start off the semester, your new instructor has requested a rather unorthodox introduction.” Aizawa’s tone is even and droning and it’s impossible to detect how he feels about this new teacher or their methods. “Since you don’t know her quirk and she is a foreigner and relatively unfamiliar with yours, this morning is going to be wholly devoted to a combat simulation, with your new teacher as a new and completely unknown villain.”
Aizawa goes on to explain more but Bakugo is already ten steps ahead. This is perfect. They don’t know anything about this new mystery teacher, just like they wont always know much about new villains they face in the real world. It’s the perfect opportunity to test their reaction time in a controlled environment. Even better if she gives them the chance to come at her one at a time and doesn’t hold back.
Why hasn’t anyone done this before? Aizawa had said she didn’t know their powers either. That has the potential to put this hero at a serious disadvantage. Surely she has access to all of their files. Why not just look? Why is she attempting to kick their Asses without even the base knowledge of their quirks? That’s either a lot of self-confidence or she’s got some unexpected scheme up her sleeve. Probably a scheme—knowing UA. Bakugou frowns, considering, analyzing... only there's not much to analyze yet, not until they actually get a look at this chick.
“The exercise will start in training ground G. It’ll be a combination of teamwork scenarios and one-on-one so be prepared to be isolated as well as collaborate at a moments notice. Go change into your uniforms and meet there in fifteen.” Aizawa finishes and leaves the room just as it erupts in excited chattering again.
“A she! That’s more information then he gave us before but still not much. I guess now we know why the teachers were all being so secretive about her identity. This exercise is gonna be intense!” Kirishima flashes his shark teeth as everyone packs up their bags.
Bakugo grunts, his own excitement crowded out of usable mental space by contemplation.
As they file out of the classroom Roundface attempts to get Deku’s attention but as usual he’s preoccupied, hand on chin, eyes down and running his mouth a mile a minute and doesn’t even hear her.
“Oi, Deku!” Bakugou voice chops through the nerds chatter and his head jumps up, blinking at Bakugou. “Think you know who it is?”
Green eyes blink away as Deku shakes his head, body practically vibrating with suppressed excitement. “There’s just no way to tell until we get a closer look at her. Even then, I’m not sure I’ll be able to recognize her by costume alone. There are just too many Pro’s in the US and they change rankings so often I don’t know many past the top twenty.”
Others chime in but with an angry tisk, Bakugou tunes out of the conversation.
Fucking Deku, useless as always. Bakugo already knew that. America’s Pro Hero rankings were ridiculous, with the top slots changing on a monthly base instead of the more normal, infrequent yearly changes of most countries. Anyone’s guess as to why: the large population size, the ethnic diversity, the unique types of crime that seem to only occur in the US.
Whatever the case, the stats change too goddamn often to keep proper track of. Bakugou tries to follow at least the top ten but that’s probably not going to help him much here.
The boys and girls split at an intersection and head to the respective locker rooms.
Time to get in the zone.
CORINA
Cori bounces around from foot to foot, loving the feel of her new Hero armor, lightweight and ninja sleek, as she waits for the go-ahead from All Might. Excitement bubbles up in her belly like a carbonated drink and she checks her watch again. She’s wanted to do this before at other schools but U.A. is the first to humor her like this. Though honestly, it’s not that crazy of an exercise. In fact, it’s rather ingenious if she doesn’t say so herself. It’s the perfect way to assess how well a student can interact with and react to unknown threats in the real world.
The best part is, she’s been given free reign of the entire school! That means potential loss of life for the ‘Heroes’ and all sorts of potential hostage situations for her. More destructive quirks will also have to worry about structural and property damage so she'll likely be able to see some of the more subtle quirk users taking the lead. It’s more realistic than any other training scenario she can think of.
Cori presses a finger to the piece in her ear. “All Might, how we lookin’?”
“Everyone’s almost in place. There are a few stragglers on the way to the girl’s locker room. They’re on their phones.”
Aiwzwa’s gravelly voice chimes in over the intercom. “Googling you no doubt.” There’s false reproof in his tone. Cori can tell he’s pleased with his student’s ingenuity.
“I’ll hit them first.” Cori grins, crouches, ready to spring. “All Might, lead the way.”
URARAKA
“It’s not much but this is better than nothing.” Momo comments quietly almost to herself as they slowly follow behind their classmates, both frantically scrolling.
Uraraka doesn’t look up from her phone. “I can’t believe how many female Pro’s are in the top fifty in America right now! It’s over half!”
“Yes that country does seem to produce more—” Her voice cuts off abruptly and Uraraka looks up in time to see a mesh like cloth wrap around Momo’s entire face and yank her head back.
Momo immediately twists but strong black clothed arms encase her, quickly attempting to wrap the other girl’s wrists in the same dark material. With a strangled gasp, Uraraka lunges forward, body moving before her mind can fully comprehend what she’s seeing.
The figure attacking Momo is clothed from head to foot in a black armored bodysuit. Dark burnished plates interlock seamlessly over high impact areas on the torso, knees and elbows with a utility belt at the waist. With the androgynous almost bulky cut of the suit and a full facial mask, it’s impossible to identify their new teacher. Yet for some reason, Uraraka instinctually understands that’s who this is.
Honestly at this point, it’s practically the school’s M.O. to see how class A reacts to logical ruses and to catch them off guard without their suits like this before the test was even supposed to start. It definitely tracks with past behaviors. Not to mention that over the years, security has gotten so insane at UA (sensors and cameras in almost every public space), it's highly unlikely this is a villain. To top it off, when the intruder strikes, the blows aren’t aimed to break, only incapacitate poor Momo as she thrashes around in the other woman’s grip.
Logically Uraraka knows this, yet she still can't help the way her adrenaline spikes and her trained body attacks.
Without hesitation, Uraraka darts forward to place a hand on the attacker's arm. The woman doesn’t dodge away like Uraraka has come to expect but instead just smacks Uraraka’s forearm in a powerful block that has the shorter woman careening to the side. Uraraka feels the reverberations from the hit all the way up her arm. That was like taking a hit from Deku! No wonder Momo is having a hard time breaking free from her hold.
Just then, in a feat of impressive concentration, Momo sprouts multiple knives from her face and arms, forcing her attacker to leap back lest she be stabbed.
Uraraka moves in immediately, pressing shoulders with Momo’s heaving torso, covering her, presenting a strong front as they assess their opponent.
The woman doesn’t give them even a moment to catch their breath, she’s instantly back on the offensive, charging them with startling speed. Momo and Uraraka doge and strike out together, forced into close quarters hand-to-hand combat.
Luckly, both Uraraka and Momo excel at close range fighting and two on one should be great odds... but fuck it's immediately apparent how outclassed they are. The woman moves with an impossible speed, striking, diving under their attacks, and flipping over them in jaw-dropping maneuvers that should only been possible with a gravity reduction quirk.
Jumping quirk?
Sweat drips down into Uraraka’s eyes. They’re moving too fast to do anything but defend, Uraraka can't even get an idea about the "villain"s" mental state because that damn mask gives nothing away.
Suddenly the woman is too close. She gets under Momo’s guard, striking in small, economical but ferocious jabs and Momo goes down hard. Uraraka’s heart drops. She lunges forward with frantic speed and finally manages to get all five fingers on the attacker's arm, following it up with a quick swipe at the legs. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for them, the woman jumps to avoid Uraraka’s blow and sends herself rocketing straight into the ceiling with a resounding thump.
Plaster rains down as the woman yanks her left arm and leg from where they were impaled in the ceiling and accidentally whips herself around with the momentum of her weightless body, back hitting the ceiling with another rain of debris and a pained electronic grunt.
The figure looks down at them and there’s a frozen moment where the mask is just looking down at them and they’re looking up at her/it in a shocked, panting daze. Then suddenly there’s the sound of gleeful, robotic laughter coming from behind the woman’s mask. The first thing they’ve heard from her except a few labored breaths and it’s startling. Uraraka feels her eyebrows rise in surprise.
Then, without warning, the woman launches herself off the ceiling and straight at them, hands and feet dusted white. Uraraka quickly returns the woman's gravity and she drops like a rock. Right on top of them. The woman’s powerful springboard and momentary weightlessness sent her at them with such force and speed that not even Momo’s half conjured sword makes a difference. Their new teacher avoids the blade like a gust of vengeful wind and takes them down with merciless efficiency.
In two seconds flat, Momo is unconscious and Uraraka’s hands and feet are bound.
“Weapon creation and gravity cancelation. Those are really neat quirks. And you utilize them well.” The voice coming out of the masked face is distorted and mechanical, it’s almost like the woman is talking to herself as she finishes the knot at Uraraka's ankles.
Clearly the administration still doesn’t want anyone to guess their new teachers identity during the exercise. Though with a hysterical kind of amusement, Uraraka thinks they’re going a little overboard with the precautions. She doesn’t even remotely recognize this Pro Hero or her lightening fast fighting style or her cool stealth battle armor. Uraraka wishes she had a ninja suit.
“If you recover quickly, head to training ground G. If not, Recovery Girl.” The woman says standing up, all business as she finishes off one last knot around Momo’s ankles.
Then she’s just gone--sprinting down the hallway on light, silent feet.
Uraraka blinks after her, confusion and a sudden burning, frustration welling in her stomach. That woman just took them out with ease. Ease! Sure it was an ambush, and by nature one was never really ready for those, but Uraraka excels in close quarters combat. Has been training herself specifically and doggedly in that field since her first year so she could be prepared for situations like this. Heck, she can take on Bakugo without quirks on a good day. And yet the woman took both her and Momo down like it was nothing. Not even a workout.
Urarka feels her hands shaking, lips trembling. She wants to do better. Has to do better. And this woman is gonna teach her how.
BAKUGOU
He’s three fourth’s of the way through getting his uniform on when the lights in the boys locker room stutter off. Bakugou freezes, listening, his eyesight completely gone. There’s silence for a moment, then a sharp intake of breath.
Someone shouts. Todoroki creates a bubble of light around himself with a small flame and all the boys blink at each other, hearts pounding.
All the boys but one, Bakugou realizes. Sweat breaks out all over the explosion Hero’s body, especially his hands.
“Where’s Sero?” Kirishima’s voice is a whisper but it still sounds too loud in this cramped space. It’s quiet for a moment outside of their too loud breathing as everyone glances around as if expecting tape arms to jump out from behind one of the lockers and say ‘Gotcha!’.
Bakugou tisks in annoyance.
Then a muffled grunt from the hallway has everyone sprinting for the main door. At almost the same time, the damn overhead sprinklers go off, drenching them in seconds. With that they lose Todoroki’s fire and are again plunged into total darkness.
Someone reaches the door and pounds on it a few times, “Hello?” That’s Deku’s voice, high and strained. Dumb fuck, villains aren't gonna answer!
From behind them, there’s a muffled thump. Bakugou reacts instantly this time, despite the unwanted shower dampening all his senses and his quirk, he lets of a small blast in the direction of the noise and catches a glimpse of feet being dragged behind a locker. “Over here!” He shouts sprinting through puddles, feet sliding erratically over the flooded tiles. Fucking water. A constant stream of tiny explosions lights his way, and honestly is all he can really make right now, until something rock solid collides with his head.
With all the white noise and almost no sight, he barely senses it coming. Raises his arm too slow and whatever it is barrels through his defense and slams him into the nearby lockers. Distantly, Bakugou feels something sharp and excruciating give in his neck and grunts in pain as lights that aren’t there dance before his eyes.
His classmates are shouting. Someone places frantic, searching hands on Bakugou’s back that he immediately shoves away.
After that, everything gets a little blurry. There’s a lot more yelling, screaming. Bodies go down hard. It’s impossible to see except for brief flashes of fire. Someone finally has the good sense to knock down the main door and let in light. The locker room is mess of students shuffling around checking corners and finding nothing, and a few of them slosh out into the hallway, gasping, blinking in the sudden light, eyes darting around looking for the intruder.
But the intruder somehow fucking materialized out here with them and is already streaking past in a blur of black. Suddenly, electric green meets muted black and the figure is swatted into a nearby wall like an insect. Cement cracks with the force of the hit and there’s an audible, if mechanical sounding grunt from the attacker as Deku steps back, gives her space… her Bakugou finally has time and light to notice.
His eyes widen as everything clicks into place.
The combat assignment doesn’t start in training ground G.
It started five minutes ago.
Confidence and a scheme, Bakugou thinks as he roars out his frustration, launching himself forward, pulling back a fist. The woman’s mask is focused on Deku who hesitates after dealing such a powerful blow. Deku doesn’t want to hurt her more without knowing how much he's hurt her already, but if she's still conscious, she's a problem in Bakugou's book, so he goes straight for her head, aiming for a knockout.
He doesn’t even get close enough to touch her.
It seems like she moves on instinct. Like the video of what Bakugou is about to do is already playing through her head and she doesn’t so much react, as act before he has time to truly start the action.
With insane turnaround speed, she lunges for his legs—her mask wasn’t even turned towards him—and Bakugou has to dodge at the last second. After a serious hit from Deku, she shouldn’t be able to move at all, let alone that fast! Durability quirk maybe? She moves past Bakugou lightning fast and pounces on Sero where he’s slumped on the ground, choking, grasping at his throat. She must have already hit him earlier.
Bakugo and Todoroki both aim blows but she expertly avoids even the idea of them, moving just before they do, weaving and dodging like a bird in flight. Predicting both their movements at the same time? Time manipulation quirk? The woman scopes Sero up as though he weighs nothing, spins him around and presses a knife firmly to his neck, his body over hers, shielding herself from them as she walks backwards.
Everyone pauses for a second, panting and expecting. Now is the time for the villain to start shouting threats, ultimatums, and demands. Instead, she just keeps backing up, that ski-mask-type-face-covering giving nothing away. When it finally sinks in that her aim is not threats but escape, Todoroki shouts wordlessly and sends ice to cover the door but she dives in at the last second, shoving off Sero like a springboard, body instantly swallowed by darkness and water.
Fuck, she’s fast.
“Pikachu, light her up!” Bakugou roars wasting no time. Can’t afford to.
“Half our class is still in there!” Kaminari shouts back and he’s right. During the confusion it seems only the five of them made it out.
“It doesn’t matter. We have to incapacitate her.” As usual, Todoroki is pure logic in the face of chaos. He doesn’t look the least bit ruffled. Asshole.
“Do it, Kaminari.” Deku confirms, expression grim. Under their combined peer pressure, Kaminari reluctantly steps forward as the ice melts away and aims a shock wave of lightening into the dark watery abbess. It lights up the locker room and a few weak cries can be heard, though there’s no way to tell if one of them is from the attacker. Somehow Bakugou doubts it.
Without a backward glance, Deku darts in, body alight with green. They pause for a moment, giving him room to move before dashing in after.
“That way!” Someone shouts from atop a wood bench, pointing to the back exit door that leads to the pool. A few others rise from various none electric conducting locations to join them in the chase as they race out the door.
“What’s going on?!” Cottencandy calls as they run, following the trail of green lightening.
“New teacher. Duh.” Bakugou’s brain must be concussed for him to be answering the sleepy fuckers questions. He usually avoids that. They turn a corner and see Deku hurtling backward into a wall, his arms somehow bound at the wrist in the space of the two seconds it took the rest of them to catch up. Dust rains from the ceiling when his back makes contact with the cement, creating a wave of cracks and a gut-wrenching crunch when his head whips back.
“Fuck!” Bakugou rages, blasting forward as the figure turns to run again.
She dives into a classroom, Bakugou hot on her heels but he comes up short when he finds her once again pressing a knife to someone’s throat. The classroom is full of second year students, support department.
“One step closer and he dies.” Her voice comes out distorted and robotic, modified by the mask no doubt.
“Ok, relax, we’re not moving.” Shinso pants slightly, stepping up beside Bakugou, hands raised in a placating gesture. “What exactly do you want?”
Bakugou’s gut clenches. If she answers it’s all over. If she just answers one Goddamn question, they win.
Instead, she starts murmuring sinisterly into the hostage’s ear.
“Hey I’m talking to you! Tell us what you want or we’re coming in there.” Sweat drips down the side of Shinso’s face, all his concentration on making her respond.
She sucks in a breath to answer and something bizarre happens. Her figure stiffens but so does Shinso’s. Tension draws between them like a bowstring and Bakugou takes advantage of the distraction, whatever it is. He lunges into the classroom, first priority to get the hostage out of the attacker’s grasp.
“Hold still!” Shinso grits out, not to Bakugou but to the woman. Her body shudders. Jerky movements showcase that she’s struggling but she’s still moving, not holding still like he ordered. Shinso grunts, falling to his knees and at that moment Bakugou wrenches the hostage from the attackers grasp and whips the boy behind him. The woman immediately grabs another person and unceremoniously tosses, tosses like a ball, the student in Bakugou’s direction. With a grunt, Bakugou dives and manages to catch the person’s head just as the woman shatters the nearest window and hurdles straight out.
They give chase.
They run and dodge and weave and never fucking catch her. It’s the most maddening, useless… ridiculous farce Bakugou has ever participated in. She never actually fights, just runs! They don’t know what she’s doing or where she may be heading or what her goals are besides fucking with them, so there’s no predicting her movements. No telling where she’ll go or who she’ll target next.
Bakugou and Deku managed to corner her at one point, at the edge of the soccer field, neither of them really holding back, and she takes a few hits then. Finally. Before she sprints like mad for a cluster of first years practicing on the nearby pitch.
Why are there so many fucking people at this goddamn school? He has to reign in all of his blasts to avoid property and human damage while she just runs around breaking anything she wants. Grabbing people. Redirecting their attention, throwing civilians at them both physically and metaphorically. Hell, Bakugou has to stop and comfort a hysterical student that thinks Bakugou Katsuki of all people is a good person to start crying on. It takes a hot second but with a pointed look from Deku, and many expletive fueled growls, Bakugou manages to stop and not hit the kid and grit out polite words and pat his stupid crying head.
Their new psycho teacher put the kid up to it. Bakugou knows. They had been getting too close. Stupid, fucking—with her fireproof armor and dumb mask and ridiculous evasion tactics—just fight!
After a few hours of tearing up campus, Aiazawa announces over the loudspeakers that the simulation is over and it’s time to meet at training ground G. He has the nerve to thank the other classes for their participation in the circus.
Bakugou has tear stains on his uniform and steam coming out of his ears. No way. No fucking way they all lost. What a load of shit.
3-A is looking a little worse for wear as everyone struggles onto the empty field where All Might and Aizawa are waiting for them. Froggy walks with a limp, Glasses has a black eye and a few broken ribs judging by the way he’s clutching his torso, and Bakugou has a concussion along with several loose teeth that he keeps poking at with his tongue. He had been screaming up a storm, as usual, and she had gone straight for his mouth. Rude. No one has ever deliberately tried to knock out his teeth before. Or maybe no one has ever gotten this close.
Bitterness and hot anger war for dominance in his head and Bakugou hisses when he absentmindedly clenches his burnt hands again. Backfire so rarely happens anymore, he’d almost forgotten it could happen to him.
As the class approaches, their new teacher still clothed in that black armor jogs out from behind a nearby building and it’s all Bakugou can do not to start letting off explosions with his already fried hands. His body clenches, ready for the fight she never really gave him through the entire dissatisfying chase.
She doesn’t acknowledge them though. Just lopes over to Aizawa, says something into his ear to which he nods. Then she’s whipping off her mask.
“You guys, that was amazing!” The fucking menace is panting slightly, sweat dripping down over light brown cheeks, and she sports an excited, incredulous expression. “I can’t—I mean, that was incredible! I’ve never had a group of students tire me out so bad. You had me on the run almost the whole time. I barely had time to breathe.” She adds with an exaggerated hand to an imaginary stitch in her side and a smile. Her accent is light, like she’s been living in Japan for years not days.
There’s a moment of stunned silence as everyone just takes her in.
Except for the bubbly smile, she could be the poster child for one of those old military recruitment offices, complete with excellent posture, soldierly armor and a shaved close, no nonsense hairstyle. Light scares mare the otherwise silky brown skin of her face. Two thin lines on her jaw and a jagged one right above her left ear, the last one almost looks like a burn mark.
More than anything else that stands out about her physically, she’s tall. Americans generally are, statistically speaking, but this woman is massive, almost as tall as All Might. She towers over Aizawa, all lean muscle and confident bearing.
This woman who grins at them as though greeting old friends, as though she didn’t just thoroughly, brutally, stomp all their asses in one go.
At least she broke a fucking sweat doing it.
She blinks expectantly, face curious but everyone is either too stunned or too annoyed to say anything to the person who just went from beating them senseless to complementing them, swift and unsettling as a light switching on and off.
She seems to notice the tension and her smile turns a little sheepish, if not properly contrite, “I know this was a difficult challenge. This was our one and only opportunity for a truly blind matchup and I didn’t want to waste it by going easy on you. A lot of the stuff I threw at you is—were, ah,” A fleetingly darkness flashes over her face. “Situations I had to deal with personally in the field and I’m sincerely impressed with how well you all reacted. Better than I did the first time, that’s for sure.” She grins conspiratorially. “Even with all the odds stacked against you, everyone performed… um, very… admira-ble-y?” She hesitates, frowning slightly and glances at All Might.
“Admirably.” He enunciates clearly and she parrots the word back with proper pronunciation. It’s fleeting and casual and done with such a remarkable fearlessness of scorn that Bakugou is left momentarily winded. It’s the kind of easy confidence of a person completely unafraid of admitting ignorance.
“Anyway, I’m sure you’re all eager to hear you’re results. The three of us are going to look over the footage of our fights and have a short debriefing ready for you by the last period. While it’s still fresh, you know? There’ll be a more comprehensive review of your performance later in the week. For now, you’re dismissed for lunch.”
There’s an informal cadence to the way she talks. Like they’re all just mingling at a barbeque and not a teacher and her students after an intense physical evaluation. Informal. Friendly.
Everyone just stares at her, disbelieving. Bakugou is still struggling to process and hating her for every second she’s not explaining exactly what the fuck—
“Sensei, wait, we—you haven’t even told us who you are yet!” Mina speaks what everyone else is thinking, a split lip and distrait inquiry coloring her face.
“Oh right,” The woman hesitates for just a second. “I’m Corina Day, my Pro Hero name is Dreamer and you can use that or my first name or last name or whatever. I’m not fussy.”
There’s a beat of silence again.
“Fucking what?!”
Then the noise that explodes out of the class truly rivals one Bakugou's own outbursts, except it’s from everybody.
“WHAT? No way!”
“Pro Hero Dreamer? That’s incredible!”
“Why did you come here?!”
“No way. No fucking way.”
“But… Dreamer-san is the number one Pro Hero in America.” Deku’s voice is very far away, as if calculating some unfamiliar equation and finding an impossible answer.
“Whoa guys, relax.” She grins, holding her hands up. “The rankings in America don’t really matter that much. It’s just a popularity contest. I’ve been number one for, what? Like three months? It’s not really a big deal. Besides, I agreed to this waaay before I got the top spot.”
“You shouldn’t sell yourself short, young Dreamer. You’ve worked very hard to get where you are.” All Might says fondly, softly, and Dreamer’s eyes flash to his, going wide in shock for a second before she quickly glances away, “Uh. Right. Anyway, it’s lunchtime. Are we done here?” She says with a very unsubtle topic change.
The interaction screams of familiarity. Like they’ve had this conversation before, Bakugou realizes distantly while the screaming in his mind finally comes to a head.
“NO you are NOT done here. You have a lot of questions to answer.” Bakugou spits out loud and angry and righteous. For the first time, the woman looks at him without a mask on and he notices that her eyes are tan of all colors, like a field of wheat. “Your quirk is supposed to be Dream Hopping, right? Not super strength, or speed or durability or time manipulation. So how the fuck did you take a punch from Deku at full power, with only dream hopping, and get right back up? It can’t just be that fancy suit.”
“I wondered about that too.” Deku adds with a frown.
“And you move almost as fast as All Might!” Mina chimes in.
Dreamer didn’t come anywhere close to All Might in speed as far as Bakugou could tell but that wasn’t really the question right now.
“And you completely negated my quirk. That’s never happened before.” Cottencandy says quietly, glancing at Aizawa.
Dreamer opens her mouth. Closes it.
All Might and Aizawa both turn to her, presumably allowing her to decide how much to disclose now that the exam is over.
She glances at the other two teachers and then back to the students, taking a sharp breath through her nose. Suddenly her expression shifts, blanking out completely. The change in demeanor is so striking that Bakugou blinks a few times to be sure he’s seeing it right. It’s an expression that reminds him of nothing so much as a buffering computer screen with too many tabs open. Deceivingly still. A Blank face hiding thousands of processes and complex operations going on beneath the surface.
What the fuck. Is this her quirk? What di—
Then the woman blinks and her face melts back into crinkled eyes and an easy smile, as though it had never been anything else.
“Those are all good questions but I’m not gonna answer them right now. It’s lunch time and I’m hungry.” Everyone groans. Bakugou glares. What’s the point in being secretive now except to piss them off? What does she have to hide?
The others must be sporting pretty pathetic pouts on their miserable faces because she rolls her eyes and adds, “I’m gonna be here for five months, guys. We have time. I’ll answer all your questions eventually, I promise. For now, go eat!”
She makes a shoeing gesture and then turns to All Might and Aizawa in clear dismissal.
Well. At least she knows how to act like a teacher some of the time.
Deku still has a frown and isn’t moving as the rest of class disperses. His eyes are fixed on Dreamer.
“Move, Deku.” Bakugou shoulder checks the green bean to get his attention and adds under his breath. “We’ve got some research to do.”