A Second Life

Sumire packed her bag and was ready for the new day at school. Unless one looked very closely, they would be unable to notice the tiny and new dark circles under her eyes.

"Farewell, Kiyoko-chan. Eat properly and don't cause any trouble, okay?" Sumire pecked the little girl's head as she was going.

"I won't. I'll enjoy my holiday. It's not everyday that I get one. So, bye. Come soon."

"Mm. I'll try to." Sumire walked to school. On her way, she saw Kiyoko's school closed. She felt a bit guilty about it. Since she was the reason, the school had to issue a sudden 'holiday'. But she doesn't regret it. She really didn't want to take any risk.

Anything that involves All for One, it's better to be prepared. Kiyoko being taken as a hostage was the last thing she wants. And speaking of preparations, she can do more. Thinking of this, she flash-stepped to the school.

She entered the classroom and opened her laptop. She promptly entered the mainframe of the school and checked every teacher's timetable. So far, it has been all good. She was debating, whether to proceed with the next step of her plan or not. It might be an extreme measure but it's All for One she's dealing with. So, nothing's extreme.

She closed her laptop as she heard the footsteps of someone come in.

"You're early." Bakugou commented.

"Yep. Kiyoko-chan's school was closed, so I came in advance." She replied.

"Alright." He didn't say anything else and lied on his desk. The morning classes began and ended, but Sumire was in no mood to pay attention to it. Her mind was reassessing the plan for the millionth time. There were too many unknown factors that might affect the outcome. She needed having as many backup plans as possible…

It was 12:50 pm.

Aizawa looked at his students. They were nervous like usual. He sighed and announced about the rescue trail to the class. He gave them some warning/suggestions and waited for them to get changed. He simply walked away to the bus.

Once again, the girls didn't see Sumire. She waited for them near the bus, clothed in her costume. Iida came up to her and spoke.

"Class Rep, I think it would be better if they get to according to their numbers."

"Hai. Please do as you see fit."

"Thank you! In order for everyone to be seated smoothly in the bus, file into two lines according to your numbers!" He said while motioned with gestures.

Everyone obliged and sat together. The students chatted along the way. Sumire didn't pay attention to any of it.

"What's going on in your head?" Bakugou asked.

"Sorry? I didn't listen to you just now." Sumire replied belatedly.

"You have been spacing out way too much." He said politely because she didn't look good and he didn't want to be strangled just because he accidentally irritated her.

"Oh. It's nothing. I'm merely thinking about the rescue trial." She said, but he knows she's hiding something. Again. But he just let it be. Like he said, he respected privacy.

Class 1-A reached their destination: The USJ - Universal Studios Japan… just kidding it's the Unforeseen Stimulation Joint, created by the one and only, 13. Yep, another very cool pro hero in the school. So yeah, the man gathered some more fanfare and after some explanation and stuff, the heroes-wannabe were excited, like plus ultra.

But every sweet little fairy tale has one or more than one embittered villains. Shigaraki Tomura happened to be one of them, along with many of course. He appeared out of some dark vortex, probably to make an entrance. It's a fundamentally important thing for rookie villains, the entrance that is. It decides whether a villain is a cool or stupid or downright psychopath type of villain.

Shigaraki is well… he needs no explanation about him. When Sumire saw the man, her heart beat lowered dangerously. Almost nearing to bradycardia… almost. And this slow heart rate provided her body the best metabolism, meaning her senses, coordination, reflexes and thinking were heightened by at least three times. And boy she was calm, like calm enough to ponder on whether or not to give Shigaraki some Chapstick and lotion when all of this was over. In simple terms, she had plenty of time.

An unnoticeable smirk traced her lips, as she cast a not so simple bakudo spell.

"Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six." She muttered under her breath, and no one heard it clearly. It was close to incoherent stammering due to dread. And that was all it took Aizawa to snap out of his rare, momentary daze and get into action. But he was soon stunned to stillness by what happened next.

"Bakudo #61: Rikujokoro." Sumire said this, now barely above a whisper. A solid yellowish light beamed out from her index finger and spread into six thin threads. It flashed towards its target, well with the speed of light and struck him. The target, Kurogiri was shocked.

He wasn't the only one though, Shigaraki, his third-rate thugs, etc. were speechless to. The good guys weren't an exception either, except for Bakugou who felt it was understandable. Why is this fellow accepting it? Because, Sumire managed to do fix his near death induced trauma, despite being the one to cause it in the first place... So what else she couldn't do? He thought and as a result, he became a little immune to extraordinariness.

But that surely doesn't mean everyone else is. Kurogiri, the bakudo spell victim was experiencing something akin to a panic attack. No one can blame the man about it. It was his first time after all. Getting tied and unable to move. Completely restricted. His quirk was not faring much better, it just stopped working.

All of this happened with 3.57 seconds after Shigaraki's grand proclamation about some malice of outrageous proportions, the nomu and cannon fodder made their enigmatic entrance. Though it ended up as an utter flop due a certain seasoned shinigami's bakudo spell.

"Mr. Aizawa, please get everyone close to me, sir." Sumire whispered to the man who was standing right beside her. The Eraser Hero was a pro for sure, without asking some mindless question like, 'what the hell was that?', he simply scooted every little student of his close. 13 did the same. They both knew there was always the time called 'after battle' for any queries. Only newbies would make a rookie mistake like starting a conversation in the middle of a battle. And if a pro did that, it was either to stall or he/she is stupid without any redemption.

When her classmates were close to her, Sumire started casting another spell, a barrier on this time – Twin Cliffs, with incantation and all.

As the colorful barriers erected out, everyone seemingly broke out of their stupor.

"Kurogiri, what the hell?" Shigaraki scowled through his palm covered face.

"I-I am unable to move." The man gave out a reply, try he might but was unable to conceal his panic.

And this maddened the I-turn-everything-to-dust man. He finally ordered his minions to get into action. Nomu and Shigaraki tried helping Kurogiri, while the foot villains started attacking the barrier, making an effort to try and shatter it.

And just like everyone from quirk based society, they all used their quirks. Thanks to this, class 1-A was able to witness a wide display of quirks. But none of the attacks had any effect on the barrier. It seemed be made of the toughest shield out there. The barrier bluntly refused to break despite the continued assault of quirk-based attacks. Sturdy as Mt. Tai.

But was it really unbreakable? Clearly, no. Some serious 'physical' damage was the key here, raw muscle. And for those who relied on their quirks, a lot, the mundane thought of not using their quirks didn't cross their minds. Shigaraki too, failed to disintegrate the rikujokoru. He was able to dust-ify stuff, not light or energy or whatever the hell kido meant.

But ladies and gentlemen, Shigaraki Tomura was anything but witless. He was All for One's heir for a reason. Since his quirk had no effect, he tried thinking of other ways. Soon, he thought of feasible idea. He ordered nomu break it with 'all' his effort.

So here comes the question, Nomu. This nomu thing was really a bad omen, abomination, etc. for the lack of better word. It was unreservedly no brain and all brawn. And an appropriate counter for Sumire's kido spells but no had to know it. And Sumire was betting on it. She hoped that nomu was stupid enough to use its enhanced strength. As long as it doesn't use its pure natural strength, Sumire's barriers are cool to go.

And since nomu used 'all' strength, meaning quirk enhanced strength, the barrier was safe and sound. Sumire secretly released the breath she was holding. And took another deep breath. She needs to maintain 'this' state of body. Otherwise, there was a risk in things going a bit out of hand.

Aizawa and 13 noticed this. With a ton of battle experience under their belt, they were able to tell Sumire was under 'pressure' and they knew better than to disturb her. Alas, the same could not be said for the imm.a.t.u.r.e brats.

"How are the villains here? And what the-" the pikachu (aka Kaminari) was the first one to give in to the sweet temptation of talking though he was soon shut off by the more rational(?) ones.

"Shut up, you little shit. Can't you see you are not helping at all, you dumb ass?" Bakugou hissed. Everyone was shocked by his words, especially our sweet little Broccoli, Midoriya. Composure was the last thing one expected from the teenager with anger issues.

"He's right, everyone, please try staying quiet. Azumi-san doesn't look so good." He tried placating the mob, more politely. At his words, everyone looked at their class rep. Her temples were oozing sweat like some leaky tap, her face a little pale and hands a bit shivering. If they didn't see the situation beforehand, they might have believed Sumire was definitely overdosed. Her tiny dark circles were also brought to notice by this. (A/N: LoL).

When Sumire marked this, she lowered her head and smirked once again. Though no one saw it.

[Looks like they bought it, huh. Good. Now's the time initiate the next stage of the plan.]

With that thought in her mind, she slowly started decreasing the strength of the spells. It took a lot more effort than to cast them, but it wasn't enough to stop her.

"Mr. Aizawa, I might be unable to hold on for much longer." Sumire said with difficulty.

Aizawa thought it made sense. "All of you, stay close to me." He looked at 13, who was also prepared by now. The students inferred what they were about to do. Midoriya was the first one to protest.

"No. You can not face them all on your own!" the boy yelled.

"Well, I can only suck it up." Their teacher said as he pulled his goggles and turned his battle mode on. Slowly, thin cracks appeared on the barrier before they enlarged and the barrier dissipated.

Sumire got down on her knees at this point and huffing for breath, about to kiss the ground. Bakugou was quick to catch her and let her lean on him. But the villains didn't waste their time and started attacking the defenseless students, despite the heroes' best efforts to stall them.

Without thinking, Bakugou charged towards the exit only to remember it was sealed.