Something bad was going to happen.

Todoroki Shouto did not know what it was.

Aside from the sinking feeling in his gut, he had no evidence of anything whatsoever going wrong anyway. Nonetheless, he still told the wonderful Kero to "keep an eye out today, Kero."

"Feeling dready today, kid?" Kero asked, "I'll try not to sleep during class then."

Shouto let out a small smile. He really did appreciate it when Kero did those small things. It made him feel somewhat safer in the hellhole that was his life. "Thanks, Kero."

"No problem, kid. You takin' the cards today?"

"When do I not?"

"Fair point."

"You're coming right?" Shouto asked. Kero rushed inside his bag as Shouto walked away.

The ride to school was pretty boring. He hasn't been driven by his father ever since the Recommendation Exam, which was a relief to Shouto. He rode on the train and made it to school on time easily. Walking into the classroom, as usual, Shouto noticed that Choppy Motions and Momo were already there.

"Good morning, Todoroki!" Choppy Motions greeted with his usual choppy motions.

"Good morning, Shouto!" Momo chirped soon after.

"Good morning, Momo... Iida," Much to Shouto's embarrassment, it did take him a long time to remember Choppy Motions' actual name.

Shouto then went to his seat, not saying another word to either of them. He watched as his classmates strolled in casually, all in their normal friend groups. He watched many things, Shouto's pretty observant, or he likes to think that he is. One that stood out to him was Koda's shyness. It reminded Shouto somewhat of him since it seemed like Koda didn't know how to enter or start a conversation, much like Shouto.

"Today, we're going to USJ," Aizawa said in his regular deadpan voice, "Get your hero costumes on."

Shouto doesn't like the term 'hero costumes'. It makes it sound like you're in a play and you're only playing hero. For now, at least, Shouto knows he's playing hero. He's only a student, being a hero seems like a dream currently. But it still stands how he does not like that term. He quickly dressed in his hero costume and exited the locker room. Once everyone was out, they boarded the bus.

The bus was filled with chatter. Shouto liked listening to the conversations (Though he thinks he's a bit rude for doing so), they're somewhat interesting.

"I'm going to be blunt, Midoriya-kun, your quirk is a lot like All Might's," Froggy said.

Midoriya's eyes widened slightly as he turned into a blushing and stuttering mess, "R-really? I-i-it's j-just an e-enhancement qu-qu-quirk..."

"But it's so cool and flashy, I'm jealous!" Kirishima joined in on the conversation, "Perfect for hero work! My quirk isn't flashy or that cool."

Aoyama flipped his hair, "My quirk is the perfect combination of flashy and strong."

Ashido snorted, "Maybe if your stomach didn't collapse while using it."

"N-nonesense! Y-your quirk i-is amazing, Kirishima!" Midoriya said, "It's perfect for offense and defense..."

Shouto admits it's unnerving how fast Midoriya analyzes quirks and the fact that he only caught like five sentences of the full thing Midoriya was saying.

"If we want to talk about flashy and strong quirks then..." Uraraka said, "Todoroki's and Bakugo's are really flashy."

"And hella strong! Stronger than most people!" Kaminari said.

"Bakugo wouldn't make it too far as a hero with his attitude," Froggy bluntly stated, "He'd cause fear."

(Reminds Shouto of a certain #2 hero.)

"Hey! Shut the f*ck up!" Bakugo yelled, "I'll have you know—"

"See? Too many anger issues."

"Settle down, we're here," Aizawa interrupted Bakugo's temper tantrum. Everyone got out of the bus and saw the wonderful Space Hero: Thirteen.

Thirteen started explaining how quirks are able to kill someone off easily, and why they should be used to help. Todoroki listened to most of it. The sinking feeling of his gut increased as did his paranoia.

Did I bring the cards? Yeah, I did- And the key? Yeah, I did. Kero's... Wait, where is Kero? Todoroki subtly glanced around and spotted something near the center of USJ. What... What is that?

It was a swirling black portal, and a lot of people came out of it. Aizawa glanced at them and narrowed his eyes, "Stand down! These are villains, real villains."

And suddenly everything felt too real to Shouto. Yes, he had been in dangerous situations before but those were cards. Cards. Not real-life people, he doesn't even know why it makes such a difference but it just does.

"Iida! Go get help! Kaminari, try to contact the school!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," The swirling black mist then transported in front of them.

Shouto looked up at the black mist, he couldn't do anything to it. Ice, was ice, but even ice needed a base. If he had to freeze something, he usually froze solids, like the floor, the walls, but not the air directly. His ice started from the ground up. And the fact with this villain is that he was a gas, Shouto couldn't do anything against him.

It seems like Bakugo didn't think. He charged straight at the misty-dude, and that's when Shouto noticed something.

Why is he dodging Bakugo's blows? He came to the conclusion that Misty-dude had a body. But, it had to be hidden underneath the mist, which didn't make Shouto's life easier.

At some point in the battle, everything seemed to slow down and suddenly, Shouto himself was falling into a portal. Shouto ended up in the earthquake zone. Filled with rubble, falling buildings, and... A hella lot of villains to fight. With him came the wonderful Momo, a classmate he forgot the name of (Ojirou) and Lightning-Bolt dude (Kaminari).

"Where are we?" Tail-dude asked.

"Earthquake zone...?" Shouto replied more of as a question, "I think..."

"Oh god," Momo paled significantly as she looked at the villains in front of them, "There are so many."

"We need to get to the entrance and evacuate everyone," Shouto said.

"And how do we do that?" Kaminari asked, "Defeat the villains? We're outnumbered."

"What do you expect us to do then? Die?" Shouto's tone was sarcastic and snappish, but the situation called for it.

Tail- Dude got into a fighting stance, "Let's do it then."

Momo nodded, "Let's."

~~~

Shouto was tired of using his quirk. He wasn't overuse tired, but more of a why-do-I-have-to-do-this tired. But he was relieved. As they finished off the last villain, they started sprinting towards the other side of USJ, the exit.

Shouto saw the exit getting closer and closer, but then he paused. Couldn't he do something more? Couldn't he help more? So falling back with a, "I'll be fine, go on!" to Momo, he sprinted to the center of the facility.

He didn't like what he saw. A noumu was holding Aizawa up by the arm as Shigaraki was talking to Midoriya Izuku directly. Froppy was hidden in the bushes, watching everything. Shouto didn't like this already, but something that made it all worse was when Aizawa's head was smashed into the pavement. At that moment, Shouto knew he could do more.

His hands were gripping the key around his neck tightly. He knew that if Aizawa doesn't get help, will he survive? "Key that uses the power of the moon, release!" The key around his neck grew, and unfortunately, grabbed the attention of the villains. But Shouto didn't care, he just had to get to Aizawa, use Heal, and pray that he had enough medical knowledge to at least stop him from passing out-

"Help me get to Aizawa-sensei, Dash!" Tapping upon Dash, he sped through the villains and straight to Aizawa.

Shigaraki grinned, "What is this? A new player? Or a new npc?"

"Todoroki, you're not supposed..." Shouto stopped Aizawa from talking, "It's okay, that doesn't matter." Shouto took out another card from his deck, "Heal Aizawa-sensei as much as you can, Heal!" Heal came out and began her work on healing Aizawa.

Something moved on the edge of Shouto's sight, and it made Shouto freeze solid. Midoriya punched the noumu with what seemed like the full strength of his quirk, and from what Shouto knew, Midoriya's quirk was very strong. And if the noumu could stand those punches....

He isn't sure Midoriya can. When Shouto saw the noumu moving to do something, in those split 4 seconds that he had, he scrolled through his card deck and prays that he's just in time. "Protect Midoriya, Armor!" Shouto speaks as fast as he can, his voice wavering in desperation. The magical armor wraps around Midoriya and protects him from the strength, but Shouto sees the armor crack slightly.

Shouto's eyes widened, not even Firey could crack armor.

"What a lucky child you are to have the npc, aren't you?" Shigaraki looked pissed off, absolutely murderous. His eyes locked onto Shouto, a wave of bloodlust so high that it left Shouto paralyzed in fear. "Too bad you may not have him anymore." Shigaraki charged.

Shouto panicked as he hastily dodged, making sure to have a firm grip on the staff and cards. This wasn't like him fighting the cards, no, at least the cards gave him time. Here, that seemed like the only thing he was missing, time. Shouto couldn't activate Time right now, but he sure as hell could activate his quirk.

"W-what?! Two quirks?!" Shigaraki dodged the fast ice spike that seemingly grew out of nowhere. More kept growing, Shouto made sure to balance his temperature, but not erupt in flames.

Shigaraki didn't care about the new spikes since he disintegrated them, and kept charging at Shouto, who tried his best to dodge. Shigaraki touched him, but Shouto glanced to the side to see his sensei, glaring at Shigaraki with the crimson red eyes.

In the split second of Shigaraki's surprise, Shouto activated yet another card, "Bind him to the ground, Earthy!" Shigaraki was 'buried' waist down, efficiently immobilized.

It was now that Shouto was starting to feel the toll that his quirk and the cards pulled. Currently, he had Heal, Armor, Earthy, and he had just used Dash, plus the constant use of his quirk was a strain Shouto wasn't expecting.

"Shigaraki Tomura we must go," Mist-dude appeared next to the villain Shouto just encased in dirt. "One of the students, Ingenium's brother, escaped."

Iida? Does that mean the others are fighting since they haven't escaped yet?

"The heroes are coming soon."

Shigaraki glared at Mist-dude and as if on cue the door burst open revealing,

"I AM HERE!"

Shouto was filled with relief as the heroes filed in. He was sure Shigaraki couldn't-

He forgot the fact that Earthy is still normal Earth. Shigaraki touched the dirt once his quirk was back and it disintegrated. The villain turned his murderous gaze to Shouto, "We'll be back." and they left in a swirling black portal.

Shouto, meanwhile, was immensely tired. As the medics got here, Heal returned, having fulfilled her job for the time being. Armor also returned as the noumu was decimated by All Might. Shouto felt dead on his feet, the only really high-level card he used was Earthy, and perhaps Heal, but even then, he shouldn't be this fatigued. Does he really not know how to use his quirk in unison with the cards? He needs to figure that out soon.

Shouto let the staff in his hand become a key again as he put the card into his holster. The villains were getting arrested, and Shouto trudged to the entrance, praying that he didn't look as dead as he felt.

"Shouto?"

"Todoroki-kun?"

Shouto yawned, "I'm tired... I'm gonna take a quick..."

It went black.

~~~

Fin.

~~~

A/N: Thank you for reading!