"Alright, so, this is how it's going to work-" Allmight's voice echoed across the small lake through the megaphone he'd borrowed from another teacher before class. I had to cover my ears, as the speaker was right next to me and blasting at full volume.

We were on a boat. I've never been on a boat before. It was odd, the way it rocked and swayed with the wind and the closeness to an occasional fish that might dance out of the water for a moment. There were three boats actually. They were spaced out, with seven students on each, and Allmight on ours in the middle boat.

"-Each boat will have seven training battles, of which all battles will have three participants who fill the different roles of hero, villain, and victim. Everyone will participate in three separate training battles. Once as a hero, once as a villain, and once as a victim. Each individual battle is fought between the hero and the villain, and the victim must remain neutral in that they cannot fight for themselves. The villain will start in the water with the victim and the hero will start on the boat." Allmight paused to make sure everyone understood so far, and then continued,

"I will set a timer for seven minutes at the beginning of each battle. When that seven minutes is up I will call for the battles of all three boats to end and winners will be declared."

Allmight then proceeded to explain how the battles would work. It seemed the only way for the villain to win was if when the timer was up them and their victim (who must be in their grasp) were in the water. Whereas, the goal of the hero was to have the victim on the boat when the timer ends. If the victim was in the water, but not in the grasp of the villain, or on the boat, but in contact with the villain by the time the seven minutes was up then a draw would be called.

"And I highly recommend trying to avoid that outcome, as Mr. Aizawa tends to assign cleaning duty to those who end battles with draws. So, any questions?" The teacher concluded.

"If the hero gets the victim on the boat, but the villain manages to get them back into the water by the time the timer is up, then does the villain still win?" Iida called out, using his boat's megaphone to communicate across the distance.

"Yes, the villain would still be declared the winner. Any other questions?" Allmight was met with relative silence, so he continued, "Good, then I'll announce the participants of the first battles and we can start."

Boat one consisted of Todoroki, Uraraka, Sero, Sato, Aoyama, Mina, and Koda, and their first battle was announced to be between Sero and Uraraka, with Aoyama acting as the victim. Boat three was Tsuyu, Iida, Ojiro, Kaminari, Hagakure, Mineta, and Yoayorozu. Their first fight was between Iida and Yoayorozu, with Kaminari assigned the role of victim.

Finally, our boat (Bakugo, Jirou, Kirishima, Midoriya, Shoji, Tokoyami and I) would start off with Tokoyami as our hero, Shoji as our villain, and me acting as victim.

I wasn't exactly siked to hear that my first training exercise as a hero-to-be would be as a neutral captive, but at least I'd get to participate more later.

Allmight set the timer and announced that he'd wait for everyone to get in their places and situated before starting it. He also briefly warned my group against causing me any kind of injury that could bleed. He told them when he thought I wasn't listening, but I'm not quite sure why, I was grateful for the warning as I didn't want to endanger anyone.

Tokoyami left the benches and walked to stand on the edge of the boat, where he'd be ready to jump in and begin as soon as the timer started, and Shoji jumped into the water, gesturing for me to follow.

I approached the front of the boat and hesitated, but only briefly. Because of the young age at which my parents isolated me, and then the following events, it took until last year for me to finally learn to swim. Even then, it was a rushed teaching, as I only needed to know the basics for a "mission" Shigaraki was taking me on that included escape through some canals. Suffice to say, I could swim, but I wasn't the best at it. So I could only really hope that Shoji could keep a decent hold on me.

...which I didn't think his grip would be an issue considering all his.. arms? Appendages? He reached his spot around eight feet from the edge of the boat and began treading water there before transforming one of his again, arms? appendages? into a mouth to call out to me.

"Are you coming, (y/n)?"

"Mhmm." I pushed aside my doubts and jumped into the water.

As soon as I resurfaced and began swimming towards Shoji I realized that it was less difficult than I remembered. Maybe that was because before with the LOV we'd had to swim through the canals with all our clothes on and holding our gear. Now, however, I -and the rest of the class- was outfitted with UA's hero course swimsuits, which must have been made out of some especially light material, because I nearly felt like I was floating through the water.

When I reached Shoji he used two of his arms to continue treading water while he stretched the other four infront of him to envelope and hold me in place. It was oddly comfortable, and though I thought best not to mention it, was done with the gentleness that I would expect a real villain would not have employed in their restraining of a victim.

Once we were positioned Shoji gave a thumbs up to Allmight, signaling that we were ready to start. Our teacher returned the gesture, and then assured us that he'd begin as soon as he got the final OK from boat one, who seemed to be having some trouble.

While we waited a series of slight pangs went through my head, which was not uncommon with my quirk when in this close vicinity to another person, but still caused me to wince slightly.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Shoji asked.

"No." Once I'd replied I looked back up at the boat to search for Jirou. In the locker rooms when we'd changed into our swimsuits I'd told Jirou that she looked pretty, thinking that that was one of the thoughts that you're supposed to communicate. But maybe you're not supposed to say that, because since then every time we made eye contact she's looked embarrassed and then averted her eyes. It made me feel a little guilty.

Now, however, she didn't look embarrassed. Instead she was not so discreetly glaring at Allmight. I couldn't help but wonder why.

Evil evil evil. Evil Allmight. Would it really have been so hard to make me the villain? Or at least the hero. I've never been much for physical contact, but ever since this morning waking up so close to (y/n) I couldn't help but crave more of that closeness, more of her cool touch. Even though she was mysterious, such an unknown still, being in her embrace, or embracing her just made me feel safe. But there she was, being held by Shoji instead. Stupid Shoji. Evil Allmight.

"Uhh, young hero. Did I do something to offend you?" The wrongdoer himself asked nervously as he caught me staring.

I didn't answer and instead just turned back around on the bench and looked out to the water. Immediately I locked eyes with (y/n), and immediately I felt my face grow hot and looked back away.

"You look pretty."

I shook my head, all this swimsuit does is expose my stupid flat chest. She probably didn't know what she was saying. After all, ever since I first met (y/n) it's been apparent that she doesn't quite understand everything that the normal teenager would.

"You look pretty, Jirou."

That bugged me for another reason.. I think after class I'm going to ask her to use my first name.

"Young Mina, is that a thumbs up I see?"

"Yessir!!"

"Alright, then. Get ready!" I turned my attention back to Tokoyami and our boat group as Allmight began to count off the starting of the timer, "Four, three, two.. And start!"

At Allmights cue Uraraka and Iida, the acting heroes of the other boats, dove into the water. On our side, however, Tokoyami didn't move. I could tell this put Shoji on edge, as the limbs of his wrapped around me tensed up. And for good reason, because before I could decipher what exactly was happening a large dark mass stretched out from behind Tokoyami and plucked me directly out of Shoji's grasp.

Shoji grunted, but didn't seem too surprised at this mode of attack, and reacted quickly in grabbing me by one of my arms.

I groaned internally. Is this really just going to be seven minutes of tossing me around like a ragdoll and playing tug of war with me?

"Aw c'mon," An unfamiliar voice whined in a high pitched voice, "Stupid octopus."

I looked up in fear to see the dark mass tugging me from one side take shape as a black misshaped, bird head similar to that of Tokoyami's. And it was.. talking? What an odd quirk. If that's what it was.

"He's not an octopus, Dark Shadow, his name is Shoji and we've talked about this." Tokoyami sighed.

Shoji then reached out another of his arms to successfully wrench me away from this 'Dark Shadow''s claw-like grip.

For a couple of minutes Dark Shadow continued his long range attacks, and Shoji continued to evade, but eventually he got a sense of the range of Tokoyami's quirk.

When that happened, he then swam a little further backwards, enough so that he was out of the reach of Tokoyami and his strange talking quirk.

The crimson eyed boy exhaled deeply in exasperation, and then seemed to give up his stance of staying dry and dove into the water.

"Dark Shadow, I am going to engage directly, you take the victim and place her safely on the boat, please." He then directed his gaze and words towards me, "I apologize if he is rough."

"Let the child go, you evil villain scum!" The shadow's voice squeaked as it dove towards us.

"Eep!"

Shoji attempted to shield me from the attack, but Tokoyami popped out of the water in front of him and, using the element of surprise to his advantage, pried Shoji's arms open. This created a brief opening for Dark Shadow to swoop in and grab me by both arms. In one quick motion and stretched back to the boat and dropped me down, and then receded back.

I braced myself for a harsh impact on the deck of the boat, as Dark Shadow had dropped me from a relatively lofty height, but at the last second Allmight discreetly tossed a life preserver my way to break my fall.

"Aaaaaand.. Time!" Allmight called.

I sighed and flopped back onto the deck. Who knew being the victim could be so exhausting?

"Boat one winner is Uraraka, boat two Tokoyami, and boat three Yoayorozu. Congratulations you three, now everyone get back on deck, take a towel and the next fights are between-"

Boat one, Todoroki (villain), Mina (hero), and Sato (victim). Boat three, Tsuyu (villain), Mineta (hero), and Hagakure (victim. And our boat, Kirishima as the victim, Midoriya as the hero, and as the villain, Jirou.

Tokoyami and Shoji, the latter looking a little sad, emerged from the water and went to get towels. Midoriya walked over to them and grabbed one to toss to me.

"Thank you." I thanked and sat up to dry out my hair, despite the fact that, being as thick as it was, I surmised it wasn't going to dry out for a long time.

"And three, two, one, go!"