On the last day, Shido was invited to eat dinner at Endeavor's house, but he rejected it since he wanted to accompany Eri.
Their winter break flew by in a flash, well, at least for the students.
A hero's work was never done! Until they retire or die, that was.
"Happy new year! For today's class, Aizawa sensei has told us to give practical reports on your internships." Izuku said on the podium, "Be prepared to share what you've gained through your experiences. Now then, let's suit up and head to ground Alpha!"
Just as he finished speaking, the door was slammed open, and Shido and Aizawa came inside.
"Stop talking and get moving."
Hearing Aizawa's words, the students took the suitcase containing their hero costume and went to the changing room to get changed.
"Senseis!! Happy new year!!" Mina greeted as she skipped past the two teachers.
"Happy new year to you as well, Ashido." While Aizawa remained silent and gloomy at the prospect of a new year, Shido greeted back cheerfully
"Good morning, Senseis. Happy new year." Contrary to Mina's casual greeting, Tsuyu bowed and greeted more formally.
"Happy new year to you as well, Asui."
"Iida's all fired up, huh?" Denki commented as he looked at Iida's enthusiastic behavior.
"Manual-san (the hero I interned with) led a team at Hosu. It was too peaceful, so much that we couldn't even do much." Iida sighed at the peacefulness of the city. But he wasn't sorrowful. After all, much more can a hero ask for than a peaceful city? Though he might not get as much experience as he would in other cities.
"However, that might be, it was a short week, but nevertheless, I've learned the art of being flexible!!" Iida adjusted his glasses before doing some weird action that involved shaking his hips back and forth.
Aizawa just stared at him like he has some sort of mental problem but didn't comment on anything. Everyone has their own quirks (not the superpower one), and he was already used to having weird people beside him.
"Aizawa-sensei. Please report to the facility office." At that moment, an announcement was made.
"Hm? Why did they call you, Aizawa-sensei?" Shido curiously asked as he listened to the announcement being repeated once more.
"No idea. Take the class and test the students together with All Might. If I don't make it back in time for class, do as you see fit." After leaving instructions for Shido, not that he needed it, Aizawa went to the faculty office.
"Hai!"
Shido made his way to the Ground Alpha ahead of the students, only to see All Might in the UA gym attire, making cotton candy.
"Huh? Why are you making cotton candy in the middle of the training ground?" Shido asked, but he took out a long wooden stick and started forming a huge cotton candy for himself.
"I wanted to make a gag."
"I look forward to seeing the students ignore it."
"How mean..."
While Shido tasted the cotton candy, which tasted surprisingly good, he heard footsteps, and it seemed that All Might did as well since he started swirling around the cotton faster.
As the students started gathering around, All Might began his gag.
"I...Am...Making cotton candy!"
[A/N: This is found in the manga, but for those who didn't read until this point since they only watched the anime, this is the T/N: "I am here!" is 15 syllables away from "It's a cotton candy!"]
"All Might!" The class was surprised to see All Might but didn't further react in any way. They were instead more interested in Aizawa-sensei's disappearance.
"Hey guys, how are you just gonna ignore my almighty gag like that?"
The wind blew as the silence stilled. All Might's presence has become more of a mascot figure than a hero figure ever since the Kamino incident.
Shido snickered at the reactions given by the students but explained to them about Aizawa's emergency reasons.
"Alright, class! Even if Aizawa-sensei isn't here, it doesn't mean that you can slack off!"
Hearing Shido's words, the class's facial expressions didn't change. It showed that they never planned to slack off in the first place, and noticing that, Shido gave an approving nod.
"Good! For today's practical report, you will be demonstrating what you have learned under your respective internships."
"Sensei! Will we be facing against more villains!?"
"Sensei! Will it be a rescue trial or battle trial?!"
"Sensei!"
"Let me explain, will you?" Shido wryly smiled at the enthusiasm of the students. After seeing them nod, he continued his explanation, "Unfortunately, as much as I want you guys to face off against real villains, we don't have the luxury to always wait for villains to come to us. So unless we have another incident like at USJ, we will be fighting against robots today."
Hearing this, some people cheered while others remained indifferent.
And soon, without any further ado, Shido released the robots and called out the students in groups based on the agency they joined.
*****************
"Die, humans! We are the Skynet of this world!!"
Several levels three and two robots screamed as they rushed in tides as they dashed towards the students, aiming to incapacitate them.
The first to get tested was the trio that interned under the number ten hero, Yoroi Musha.
Aoyama didn't hesitate and immediately dashed to the middle of them, and within split seconds, ten robots were sliced into half by the navel saber he had protruding from his...naval.
The next one to show off her move was Toru, who used the naval saber from Aoyama's naval and refracted it to hit a robot to his right.
"Oh? It curved..." Shido muttered as he wrote down whatever he saw and noticed. Toru's ability to manipulate light refractions was a perfect fit for Aoyama's naval laser quirk, which could only shoot straight light beams.
However, with Toru, his naval laser would have much more options than just a straight line beam.
At this time, the last of the trio, Mina, came from the air and dissolved a level three robot into mere liquid.
"Humans...are scary..."
These were the last words of the surrounding robots before they, too, dissolved.
"Excellent! Applause, everyone!!" While All Might cheered on the students using his words, Shido took a more realistic look at the results.
'Under the internship of the number ten hero, they have certainly improved plenty. But it's still not up to the standards of the year threes...'
Perhaps Shido's expectations were too high for them, but they would certainly rank in the top fifty among their age throughout the country. And that was saying something considering the number of hero schools in Japan. Furthermore, although what Shido thought was 'year threes', what he honestly compared to was the Big Three, the three strongest heroes in school. Thus, his comparison couldn't be valid.
"Good job, the three of you. Now the next group to go are the ones who interned under Endeavor. Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya. You three are up!"
As soon as Shido announced that, the three immediately stepped forward without delay. They started destroying the robots as soon as they got out of the 'cage'.
'It seems they have truly learned how to be at the scene the quickest.'
Endeavor's internship was mainly teaching them how to be fast and quick to the scene of incidents while also increasing potential power as a side lesson. After all, if they were late, no matter how strong or how useful their quirk was, civilians' lives would have already been lost, and no quirk would be able to revive a dead person.
At least, they haven't discovered it yet.
"Good job! It seems that what happened at Todoroki's house really helped all three of you grow well. Good job!"
"Hmph!" Katsuki, of course, just ignored Shido's compliment and moved back to the waiting spot while Izuku and Shoto nodded in acknowledgment.
"At this rate, each of your internship progress is showing!" All Might continued praising each of the students that had gone through the test.
The next group was a duo that interned under the number fourteen hero, Lion. As far as Shido could tell, both Ojiro and Sato mainly relied on martial arts since their quirks were suited for that particular route, something that not many people do nowadays with the appearance of flashy and show-off quirks.
As a martial artist himself, Shido could tell that Ojiro and Sato had gone through tremendous changes. Though it wasn't obvious when people looked at them, Shido could tell that they had improved based on how they released and utilized their strength and learned how to predict the enemy's movement.
The next duo was Jiro and Shoji, who interned under the number 13 hero, Gang Orca. Both of them were reconnaissance-type heroes with their quirks, so that was what they focused on: enhancing reconnaissance.
However, it didn't mean that their attacking abilities were reduced. In fact, with their enhanced reconnaissance, their attacks were even more lethal than ever, being able to locate and target strategic points within the enemy formation.
The next trio interned under Mt. Lady and worked together with Team Lurkers. With their quirks, they managed to do a well-executed combo together.
Their personal ability didn't grow as much as the others, but Shido observed that their coordination was well-timed, polished, and proficient.
With Mineta's sticky balls and Sero's tape, they managed to bound a bunch of robots together before Kaminari electrocuted them all at once.
Under the normal hero, Manual, Iida had learned how to adjust his mindset, though his actions were...quite unnatural...but he got the idea.
Koda, the one with the shyest personality, learned how to communicate more easily with his animals. Well, Shido couldn't tell whether his ability to communicate with his teammates had improved due to a lack of teammates, but his ability to use his quirk had visibly enhanced.
After learning from the number three hero, Tokoyami couldn't learn much from normal heroes anymore. This time, without Hawks' guidance, Tokoyami didn't do much other than improving his overall strength by himself.
Kirishima interned under Fat Gum, the number fifty-nine hero. He learned his move, unbreakable, and his objective turned to how quickly he could make his enemies lose their will to fight. Not that it would work much against the robots who were programmed to keep fighting no matter what until they were torn apart, ripped apart, disabled, or erased from existence.
Under the number eleven hero Ryukyu, Uraraka and Asui managed to learn how to make decisions on the fly, an outstanding skill that both girls needed. Uraraka because her quirk is a control-type quirk, and Asui because of her mentality and personality that made a natural leader.
Momo managed to learn how to predict and efficiently use her quirk to make the best of the situation.
After Momo was done, Shido gathered all of them once more.
"You all seem to have been educated well...some more than the others, but everyone did well nevertheless. I have recorded it all and will pass it on to Aizawa-sensei to analyze your performance more in-depth. Keep going and work hard at your internships!" Shido stated as he looked at each and every one of his students.
"If you think that you have done well and decide to slack off from now, you're sorely mistaken. A hero's journey never ends.
Grow...even more.
Mature...even more.
And finally, never be too complacent."
Shido paused for a while to let his words sink in before the bell rang just in time.
"All right! Class dismissed!"
∞
For the next three months, Shido busied himself with many things, teaching the students, spending time with Eri, and most importantly, organizing meetings to prepare themselves for that fateful day.
Although none of his students nor Eri mentioned anything about it, it was visible that tension was growing thicker. However, no one chose to purposely disrupt that fine line between tension and peacefulness, opting to let nature run its course.
Until that day came...
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