Soooo it seems like almost everyone agreed that Taylor was acting way too out of character, even after accounting for her declaration of wanting a change in the way she handled things to Contessa in Speck 30.7. (Insert [Everyone disliked that.] meme)

I've revised the previous chapter a little to hopefully help bridge that. Hopefully she should now come across as a little more Taylor-like, dealing with potential but not confirmed allies. I've tried to insert a healthy amount of paranoia and distrust but also acting on a desire for a change in her methods. I don't really have good references for post-timeskip Taylor working with such a situation, and kind of worked a middle ground between how she handled the wards/Undersiders and just about everyone else.

If you don't want to read that massive pile of dung again (i.e. you're not a masochist), some main differences are that she hasn't directly revealed that she's killed anyone, Scion's true nature is hidden, she hasn't revealed the bit about what she did to Lung to the students and Aizawa (potentially Nezu) is reading between the lines. Less personal information that might harm her is divulged.

Hopefully it makes for a better read now. I'm uploading these up as I churn them out, and not really reading through how it looks properly. Sorry for how the first draft turned out, and thank you very much indeed for your comments and suggestions. I'm sorry for everyone who was disappointed in how things turned out. I might revise it again, if it turns out to instead be a massive, festering pile of dung with melaena now.

On the other hand, this chapter might be even worse than the last. Brace yourselves. I'm expecting most people to abandon this story soon.

Chapter 4: The First Lesson

I had been unceremoniously dumped at the entrance of a training ground of some sort based on the simulation of a city. Just how much money did this high school have?

According to Kan, the task was simple. Applicants to the high school had to take part in a practical exam pitting them against an army of robots, competing against one another to take them down. There were villain points for their destruction and rescue points for helping other examinees, but in my case I was simply tasked with elimination of as many robots as I could in a ten minute window.

The rest were still in range of my bugs, gathered comfortably in a control room somewhere. I had enough bugs present on their clothes and hidden up in the ventilation system of the room to eavesdrop on everything they said.

It was fortunate Nezu hadn't thought that I was hiding more of my abilities after he'd caught me out once. Either that, or he was hoping that I would eventually trust them enough to reveal them by my own discretion. Maybe he simply didn't want to push me right after I'd folded into his suggestions. Thinkers liked playing long games like this.

I had been gathering bugs through the walk here, out of sight from the students, but ready to descend upon the grounds at a moment's notice. The buildings of the training ground were remarkably realistic, containing an actual sewage system somehow connected to the school and Musutafu City beyond, ventilation, dank alleyways and more, perfect areas where my bugs could be hidden.

"Are you ready, Hebert-san?" Kan's voice came from both the speaker attached to my costume and from the senses of my bugs in the control room, the barest of delays just discernible.

"Yeah," I said. A moment later, my voice echoed back in my mind. Seems like they were putting my microphone on loudspeaker then.

Of course, I had already been working at the task since the moment I'd come into range of the grounds. The robots had been set up, not yet operational, but bugs were freely crawling around them. I was somewhat disappointed at what I saw. Unless they somehow had a way of purging bugs in a wide area, the task would be way too easy.

Joints were exposed, allowing my bugs to freely gain access to wires and circuitry. Experimentally, I had some bugs bite at one of them, and found that there wasn't any countermeasures in place against simply taking apart their circuits. A single bite tore off the smallest of chips of the copper wiring, not enough to cause any damage, but a couple of thousand bugs targeting weak points would be enough to shut one of them down.

I had well over two million bugs available to strike, hiding in the sewers and shafts, and more reinforcements if necessary outside the training grounds but within the range of my power.

These weren't anything like Dragon's creations. Hers were refined, almost impossible to take out with bugs, self-repairing systems with the firepower to match. I'd lucked out against the Azazel by using its programming against itself.

"Begin!"

My bugs felt Kan press something in the control room. The robots came to life, my bugs shifting as they moved.

Nezu knew that my power was bug control. Why wouldn't he provide the robots a way to destroy my bugs? Insect repellent, simple closing of the joints, heating or cooling systems were all viable and fairly easy ways to deal with me. So why?

It hit me. Of course. This wasn't a test for me , this was an opportunity to show what I could do. The students needed to respect me if I was going to be a teaching assistant.

I called my swarm.

I heard shrieks and shouts as a tide of miniscule black bodies flew out from underneath the city, from the insides of buildings and more locations where I'd sent them.

" Holy shit!" someone was swearing.

" Language!" a girl chastised. It might have been Setsuna, but I wasn't too sure. " But yeah. Holy shit."

I stood comfortably where I was, still at the entrance to the grounds. The entirety of its length was within the range of my power, and I didn't need to do a thing.

I tuned out the rest of the conversation in the room, casually directing my bugs around. Bugs of all sorts chewed their way through wires, sending robots toppling over. Others were hit by projectiles and jets of flame, but the tide of insects didn't cease. I jammed weapon systems with webs, causing robots to blow themselves up. When they'd run out of silk in their glands, I sent spiders to clog up barrels and anything that seemed even remotely like a weapon, sacrificing my disposable minions to take them down. Those that couldn't bite or tear blinded their extremely obvious visual systems, guiding robots toward each other as friendly fire crippled them.

This was just a bit too easy. I needed to show off some sense of versatility, show that Skitter and Weaver were more than just the bugs they brought.

My bugs located a group of nearby robots. I diverted the bulk of that subsection of my swarm away, leaving just enough to leave a small number of bugs on their bodies to track their movements and attacks.

I made my way toward them, standing about twenty metres away. I stood just outside of their vision, my bugs showing me where they were looking at. Plunging my stump into the ground, I formed an asphalt mimic about half my size, then cut the connection, ending the shaping process. With my other hand, I formed a much larger version that ripped it out of the ground.

Then, I reared that hand back, and threw .

My makeshift projectile struck on the upper half of a two-pointer, sending it falling back into two one-pointers just as I'd intended. A visible dent had been left where my creation hit, cracks radiating out from the centre. Steam and sparks flew from the three downed robots, and they didn't rise again.

The other few robots turned quickly toward where my projectile came from. A second chunk of asphalt was already in motion as they did so, smashing into another two-pointer. While all this was happening, I was already in motion, running around the corner of a building since the instant that I released my second attack.

My bugs shifted as robots looked around, searching for a phantom enemy that wasn't there. As their attention shifted, I dashed out from behind the corner of the building I was hiding behind, on the other side of a junction where I had initially attacked from. I shaped a hand that grabbed at the leg of a one-pointer, its smaller size allowing me to actually swing it around as my asphalt limb grew in size. I doubted that I could move the larger robots the same way; the limbs created from my version of Theo's power were either too small in size to support their mass or too large and the shaping too slow to swing them around.

The one-pointer swung into a second of its fellows, as the two crumpled into the ground. I cut off my power, running off to a side as my bugs felt the sole remaining three-pointer point an arm toward me. The missile it released missed comfortably, leaving the ground where I had been standing on charred in the aftermath of its explosion. Once again, I hid behind a building.

Right then. Too heavy to be thrown, and I didn't quite want to use my bugs to swarm it. I had to impress my students-to-be, after all. What could I do?

Webs? Too simple, and I'd already done that with the other robots. I could use Rachel's power to strengthen some minions, but I wouldn't be able to control my other bugs tearing swathes through robots elsewhere in my range. Besides, it just didn't seem elegant to rely on the brute force of my empowered insects.

There probably was some way to disable the robots without fancy powers, but it didn't immediately strike me. Perhaps an off-button sequestered away somewhere, but my bugs hadn't found one yet. Regardless, doing that wouldn't really be impressive.

What could I do with Theo's power? I couldn't exactly move it, given its size.

An idea came to my mind. It was too heavy to be moved, but did I really need to move it?

Once again, I formed a new hand, securing it around one of its legs. It was too large to be thrown, but I could restrain it.

With its movements impeded, I pounced toward it, circling around while it tried to turn, leg catching against the restraints I'd created. From behind, I plunged both arms deep into the steel of its remaining exposed leg. As quickly as I could, I formed two limbs, one complete and one a simple stump, enlarging them as much as I could. They emerged at the back of the very top of its head.

At their maximum size, I cut off my power, then formed new limbs extending out from the ones I'd created. Then I did it again, and again, all the while watching it try to turn around and target me, the single asphalt hand slowly cracking as it struggled.

Too late for the robot. Three repeats of that process later, two limbs each about nearly the length of the robot's height jutted out from the front of its head, away from me. The mass and position was enough to destabilise its centre of gravity, sending it careening face first down to the ground below, the trapped leg snapping off from the tension of its own weight while trapped by my asphalt hand.

" Holy shit!" I heard the same boy shout.

" Language, Monoma!" The one that I thought was Setsuna scolded. "Hey, Tetsu! You think that Taylor-chan could do that when you use your quirk?"

Could I do that? I had no idea. The thought did cross my mind when I'd read about his quirk, though. Theo hadn't been able to use it against Hookwolf, but he'd said it was because Hookwolf's metal hooks and blades were too thin for his power to act on. Something I could try later, maybe.

I heard the boy grunt. I couldn't quite discern what his tone was supposed to convey through my bugs. "I hope not. No way I'm letting her try."

Well, there went those plans.

Of course, while I had been taking on that small group of robots, my bugs had been more efficiently destroying robots throughout the training ground. The last one I could find fell over, exploding as my bugs did something that probably overloaded its circuits. If there was one thing I enjoyed about all of this, it was finally having my revenge at bullshit Tinker creations, even if this one was extremely subpar.

"I think that's all of them," I said.

Kan took a moment to reply. Shock, awe? Wariness at my methods? I hadn't demonstrated just exactly how far my control went, after all. I hadn't even gone all out yet; I had many more bugs lying in wait.

"Not quite," his voice came at me twice. "There's still the zero-pointer."

He pressed another button, and I felt the ground nearby open up as bugs were displaced. A robot rose up on a platform, emerging to stand just short of a hundred metres high, dwarfing the nearby buildings. Immediately, it began to move toward me.

"Ah," I said. It fired a rocket toward my position. Placing my hand on the side of a building, I built a new limb that intercepted with it in mid-air, shielding me from the attack.

At the same time, I ordered my bugs to converge onto my location. The first of the bugs crawled over its surface. It seemed to have the same weaknesses the other robots did, gaps small enough for bugs to enter, cheap wiring and altogether much less threatening than the Tinker creations I was used to. It looked like destroying it would be quite a simple task, really.

Actually, thinking about Tinkers, I wanted to try something out. It hadn't quite worked against Dragon's creations, but it was already evident that the designer of this robots was far, far below her level. That, and they probably weren't meant to be very robust builds, seeing as they were meant for inexperienced students to handle and destroy. Replacements probably weren't cheap.

I stepped toward it. It loomed over me, multiple red optic sensors staring right into me. Its hands were in motion, and I got Theo's power ready just in case my gamble failed.

It hadn't worked against the Azazel, but…

"Hey. Do you talk?"

"HERO IDENTIFIED. COMMENCING EXTERMINATION," its robotic voice intoned. Excellent.

"This statement is false," I declared.

For a second, there was no reaction. Well, it was worth a try, I guessed. I prepared my bugs to go on the offensive.

Then, the red eye-like sensors blinked, sparks began to emerge, and its arm froze.

"STATEMENT TRUE. FALSE. FALSE. FALSE. StateMENT is TRUE. HERO detected. COMPUTING. COMPUTING. COMPUTIIII -"

Its voice stuttered. I heard a small explosion, and smoke emerged from its head as the red eyes dimmed.

"…Seriously? That worked?"

I could hear the students shouting along the same lines.

"Seriously?" Setsuna Tokage asked unnecessarily. "Are you shitting me right now?"

"Language, Tokage-san!" Shiozaki gasped. "It is uncouth for you to swear!"

Setsuna turned to face her classmate. "Why are you scolding me but not Monoma-san?"

Shiozaki's cheeks reddened. "I, ah, was distracted."

Setsuna's senses tingled, and she pounced. "Oh, Ibara-chan? Could it be that our pure and virtuous classmate might have thought something 'uncouth'? Could you perhaps have thought 'Holy shit' like the rest of us?" She ignored Shiozaki's rising denials, giving a mock gasp. "My word! Is this the kind of influence that Taylor-chan has? Is any one of us safe?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Itsuka's, probably. True enough, Setsuna heard her scolding. "Knock it off, Tokage-san."

"Spoilsport," she stuck her tongue out. Looking around, she noted that her classmates were impressed and intimidated in equal measures. "Hey, Monoma-san! What did you think?"

"Huh?" He looked more than a little caught off guard, a little unlike his haughty self. Hmm, would there be some friction there? "Umm… I guess she's quite something…"

His voice trailed off. Setsuna didn't know what he was thinking about. In the few weeks that they had classes together, she got the sense that he liked a sense of superiority, being the smartest one in the room. He had been furious when the news broke about 1-A being caught in the attack on USJ, thinking it some attempt on their part to gain attention. Was he jealous of Taylor-chan's quirk? Was he scared?

She moved on to other classmates. "Pony-chan! What did you think?"

The girl, bless her, looked surprised at being addressed. "Tokage-san! I think that Taylor definitely has…" she hesitated. Pony did have some trouble fitting in with the rest, slightly ostracised because of her difficulty communicating in Japanese. Assholes, the lot of them. The girl was one of the nicest Setsuna had ever met. " Experience," she said in English.

Setsuna smiled. "Right? Did you see how she took made those robots take out each other? She wasn't just all bugs, she went up close and personal!"

"Yeah!" Pony was nodding rapidly. The sweet girl was happy to be included, poor thing. Setsuna was definitely going to make an effort to talk to her more. Maybe drag Taylor into it as well, if she could. The two could speak in English together, and maybe Pony could have a good friend to talk to.

Setsuna pulled Kendou over to the conversation. "Itsuka-chan! What about you?"

She squirmed uncomfortably. "Well, I think Taylor-san is definitely going to be a good addition to our class. I look forward to working with her."

"Stop being so proper!" Setsuna chided. "Tell us what you really think!"

She coughed nervously. "I, uh, I don't think it's right to discuss about our classmate while she isn't here!"

"Meh," Setsuna commented. "Fine then, keep your secrets. I'll tell Taylor-chan you said bad things about her."

"I did not!" she immediately denied. Itsuka was way too easy to rile up. It was almost cute. "I think that she's really smart, using her quirk like that!"

"See, was that so hard?" Setsuna smiled. "She didn't even use her quirk on the zero-pointer, though."

"That's the best part, right?" Kinoko cut in. Huh, she was actually talking! Setsuna had been worried when the girl had shyly opted out of conversations when she'd tried to include her. Would wonders never cease? "She didn't just rely on her quirk, she used everything that she could. And she used her quirk in such a smart way, too, I didn't think to put my spores inside the robots and grow them up when I took the exam!"

She spoke more than a single sentence? Setsuna really needed to treat Taylor to a meal at some point.

"Yeah! I took the recommended students' exam, but I wouldn't have thought to separate a part of my body and destroy them from inside!" And wasn't that something to consider. In fact, couldn't she technically send a finger or something down someone's mouth and block their airways or something? Scratch their fleshy insides?

Those were kind of distressing thoughts. She tried not to think about them. What less extreme methods could she employ?

Taylor blinded the robots' eyes with bugs. Maybe she could do the same with a few fingers? Or use that trick that she did against the three-pointer, hold down their legs with an arm and send the rest of her body to tackle them down?

There was a lot of potential there for her to learn. She really needed to talk to Taylor about it.

Kan-sensei cleared his throat. The talking ceased. "Good job, Taylor-san. You cleared the task two minutes ahead of time. You took out seventy-five one-pointers, forty two-pointers and fifteen three-pointers." Then he paused, before begrudgingly adding, "And the zero-pointer."

He grumbled under his breath, turning off the communication to Taylor's speaker. "I don't know how no one thought about a paradox when they designed those things."

Setsuna saw him press the button again, continuing communications on the speaker system. "We will be joining you again shortly. Please make your way out to the training field next door, and we can begin the lesson proper."

With that, Kan-sensei gestured for the class to follow him. Obediently, they did so, all the while talking about how Taylor was either awesome, terrifying or batshit insane. Shiozaki hadn't appreciated that last descriptor.

Of course, no one had any clue that Taylor had been listening in all this while.

I had been waiting for only a few minutes when the rest of the class approached. I had dispersed most of my swarm, leaving only a few hundred thousand with me. I didn't know just exactly what I would be doing during this class. Hopefully I could wing my way through it.

Surely this couldn't be any more difficult than training Theo to prepare for his inevitable duel with Jack Slash, right?

"Kan-sensei," I greeted him. "How are we going to do this?"

"You'll take six students, and I'll take the other fourteen. We'll be preparing for the UA Sports Festival. I'll be talking to you later in private about it, but it's an annual event we hold for students to showcase their abilities and get scouted by Pro Heroes," he added, seeing my non-recognition.

A glorified PR event? "What kind of things are there in this festival?"

"A range of different events, but mostly ones that allow the students to showcase their quirks and heroic abilities."

"Okay," I said. It didn't seem too difficult. "You want me to train them about using their quirks or battle strategies?"

"Whatever you feel comfortable with. It's in two weeks, you will have more time to work with them," he told me. "Is that alright?"

"Sure," I nodded. "Which six do you want me to work with?"

"You can take your pick, whoever you feel most comfortable with. You know most of their quirks already."

I considered the information that I'd been provided with. Most of my experience came down to my personal use of bugs for long-range reconnaissance and planning for missions, traps and ambushes. I'd worked with the Undersiders mostly in hit-and-run attacks, the masters of escape. With the wards, Tecton had opted for a team composed primarily of Shakers, moulding the battlefield to our advantage. Of course, as Khepri, I had worked with just about every cape I could find.

I thought about who would fit best with my experience. There weren't exactly any Masters among them, although Tokage Setsuna's, Pony Tsunotori's and Komori Kinoko's quirks could be seen as functionally creating a minion-like effect. Shiozaki Ibara, Honenoki Juzo, Tsuburaba Kosei and Bondo Kojiro could work as Shakers.

Perhaps I could work with a Brute as well, seeing as Rachel's dogs had functioned as the effective Brutes of our team. Trumps were also easy fits into any team, and Monoma Neito's quirk was a clear and simple Trump power.

How could I set up the team? I didn't really know how they would fit together, both in terms of their quirks and as people. I thought back to the eavesdropping I had done after taking with the zero-pointer with the power of paradox.

Setsuna had been outgoing and seemed to speak her mind, almost overwhelmingly so. She seemed decent enough a person, although I wasn't sure quite how to deal with people like that. The people she'd talked to hadn't seemed to mind her presence.

Come to think of it, weren't all of them on my consideration list?

A potential team was there. Setsuna, Pony, Kinoko, Ibara, Itsuka and Neito? Were there too many Masters?

"Taylor-san?" Kan-sensei called. I must have been taking too long considering. "Have you decided?"

It would probably be fine to work with them during this lesson, I supposed. It would take too long to set up a perfect team.

"I can try working with Tokage, Pony, Komori, Shiozaki, Kendou and Monoma," I said. "If that's alright with them?"

"Sweet!" Setsuna raised her fists up in the air, detaching them from her body and flashing me a thumbs up. "We get Taylor-chan!"

"Behave, Tokage-san!" Itsuka tapped her still floating hand, then turned toward me. "Of course it's fine, Taylor-san. I'm sure we can learn a lot from you."

Pony and Kinoko gave shy smiles, Ibara nodded while Neito didn't comment. He had seemed off since this morning, even before I had demonstrated my power during the assessment. I would need to talk to him about that.

"Alright then. The rest of you, follow me. Call me if you need any help, Taylor-san."

The students departed with Kan, leaving me with my new bunch of students.

"You're probably wondering why I picked you for this lesson," I said.

"Because we're awesome?"

Setsuna was beginning to remind me a little bit of a less annoying Aisha. I ignored her remark.

"Where I come from, we classify powers into different categories. Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker. Master, Tinker, Blaster and Thinker. Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger."

Pony perked up at those terms. "English?"

"Yeah. They were devised by the group in charge of heroes in America in my world. I or the other senseis might go over them during other classes. Generally speaking, if all else fails, there are some very standard strategies in dealing with different power sets based on their classification."

They were paying close attention to my words. Good. "I'd qualify as a Master, using minions as part of my power. I've worked with Shakers that alter an area in my old team, and my use of webs could technically count as a Shaker-like effect. A Brute with enhanced physical attributes is typically present in any team to deal with threats up close, and a Trump that manipulates powers fits well into any team."

I pointed at Setsuna. "I have no idea what you technically qualify as, maybe a Changer or Breaker. Functionally though, your quirk has very versatile uses, with effects that could mimic Masters, Movers, and Strangers."

Next was Pony. "Like Setsuna, you don't fit clearly into technical power classifications, although your horns could function as a Master and Mover effect."

I addressed the next three at once. "Kinoko – if I may call you that – your quirk works a little like a Master and Shaker effect. I'm not sure how much control over your spores you have, but we can try and explore other uses of your quirk. Ibara, yours is again technically a Changer power, but Shaker in its application. Likewise for you Itsuka, but with a Brute application."

Finally came Monoma, and probably the easiest to work with. "You have a Trump power, a good fit to round off any team."

Silence.

"So you're saying we do make an awesome team, then?" Setsuna chirped.

I groaned. "If that's what makes you work with me, sure. You all make an awesome team. Happy?"

She flashed me a grin, rejoining her still-floating hand with her body.

"For today, I was thinking that we could work on an exercise in battlefield control. A common strategy would be for Shakers to modify an area with traps or to lead an opponent somewhere where a Brute or Striker could attack up close. Masters can work from far away, either for reconnaissance or to pick off stragglers, or to deal with enemies that breach the zone of control of Shakers. Trumps can adapt on the fly, reacting to their enemies actions and assisting their teammates wherever necessary."

"You're saying I'm awesome, then?" Monoma gave a weak smile. Now that was more in line with the information on my file. Calm, collected, supposedly with a bit of a superiority complex. Kind of fit the Trump mould, really.

"You get the same answer I gave Setsuna."

"What kind of exercise are you thinking of, Taylor?" Pony asked curiously. I noted that she dropped the honorific when addressing me. Kindred souls, probably. It was honestly beginning to confuse me as to whether I should address them by their first names as I'd always done or their family name.

"For now, I'll give you a scenario." I gestured at the open training ground. With no buildings or other environment, it would probably be the easiest way to work with their quirks. Making use of environmental hazards or potential areas of ambushes would be a lesson for another time.

"You are tasked with defending an area from enemy villains until the end of the lesson. Their quirks are unknown to you. If any one of them stays in the zone for longer than fifteen seconds, you lose. For simplicity's sake, physical contact with one of them means elimination from the scenario, except in Setsuna's case where you can designate one body part of a reasonable size as being your defeat condition. Pony will be allowed to attack with her horn. Itsuka can freely attack them, but will be considered as defeated if swarmed by more than three. Neito's defeat condition follows whichever quirk he's using."

"Who are these villains you're talking about?" Ibara asked.

Wordlessly, I called my swarm, organising them into human-sized swarm decoys.

The shy Kinoko shrieked.

On second thought, that probably wasn't one of my better ideas.

"Umm…" Setsuna asked, staring disbelievingly at the hundreds of bodies composed of random bugs. "No offense, but do you have anything less creepy?"

I sighed. "Give me a few minutes."

I dismissed my swarm, keeping the less nightmare-inducing ones, then called more butterflies, moths, ladybirds and similar bugs. I fashioned a few swarm decoys with the ones I had on hand while waiting for the rest.

"Happy now?"

"Aww, they're so pretty! " Setsuna cooed at a butterfly decoy.

I recalled one of Clockblocker's comments from before I'd officially joined as a ward. "You know that if you lose, you'll forever be known as having been defeated by butterflies , right?"

"We won't lose, then!" she said, pumping a fist. "Right guys?"

"R- Right!" Kinoko affirmed, sounding as though trying to muster her own confidence.

"You'll be defending a twenty metre by twenty metre square in the centre of the training ground. Take this time to prepare a strategy," I told them. "I'm gathering more bugs."

The group came into a huddle. I listened, curious as to what they're plan would be, given my extremely abbreviated overview of a possible course of action.

"Right! I think the most obvious strategy is to start far out at the perimeter, then slowly converge on the centre if we get pushed back. That way, Taylor-chan can't just keep us in the square and slowly overwhelm us."

"Won't it be difficult to take out stragglers if we stay far out on the sides, though?" Itsuka asked. "We'll get tired out if we had to rush at every single target every time. If we stay nearer to the centre, we don't need to move as much."

Ah, smart girl. I had been planning to slowly wear them out, then descend upon them with a tide of bodies. My plans would need revision.

"Hmm, you're right. We should fight just a little bit outside the square, then." Setsuna said. "Hey Taylor-chan! Will your butterfly bodies be behaving like regular villains?"

"For the most part, yes. I'll try to model their movements like humans," I replied. "A few of them will mimic some quirks, just to keep this scenario realistic."

"…it's like one of those zombie survival games," Ibara commented. The rest blinked.

" You play zombie survival games? You, Ibara-chan? Our class' purest soul?" Setsuna was practically right in front of the girl's face, shaking her shoulders. Ibara stammered out some rushed denials.

"L-let's stay on track," Ibara hurried.

"I can grow some mushrooms to slow down their movements, but I'm not sure if they'll get in the way once we get forced to the square," Kinoko said.

"I've got an idea…" Pony began. "Tokage-san and I can rush around to take out targets so the rest don't have to move as much, since we don't get tired as easily. Shiozaki-san can, uhh…"

She trailed off, then looked at me, speaking in English. "I don't know how to translate this. Can you tell Shiozaki-san to lay some traps while Komori-san funnels them in?"

I raised an eyebrow. That was a fairly decent plan, all things considered. I translated for her.

"Great plan, Pony-chan!" Setsuna cheered. "Itsuka-chan can take care of the toughest ones that get nearest to us, and Monoma-san can assist as we go!"

"I can switch between three quirks at once. I'll start with Shiozaki-san, Komori-san and Pony-san, since we'll be beginning from the outside."

Seeing as the rest didn't show any signs of disagreement, he quickly touched and copied their quirks.

By this point, my bugs were ready. I had a few hundred bodies, and I planned to recycle the insects once they became downed.

"Okay. Everyone ready?"

They nodded, and moved toward the area that I'd pointed out as the designated defend location.

Mentally, I rehearsed some possible quirk effects I could mimic. One that would let a body transform into butterflies and be reformed within a second of disassembly, one that grew wings and flight, one that could flatten itself and move along a two-dimensional plane. I would designate one as mimicking my Shaker power, while I made limbs of stone to simulate an enemy Shaker effect. I could come up with more on the fly.

"Begin."

"Wait!" Setsuna shouted. My soldiers paused mid-step. "You need to give us a villainous monologue!"

I stared at her, then relented. I said drily, "Beware, you heroes, of the Butterfly Legion. Our proboscises shall drink of your blood. Muahaha, ha."

With that, they advanced.

Immediately, Kinoko began growing mushrooms. It wasn't sufficiently humid to grow enough to completely block off the path of my advancing butterfly bodies, but I simulated them slowing down as they were funnelled along by the mushrooms. Ibara's vine-like hair grew and spread along the ground, helping to block out some of my soldiers as they advanced while destroying others as her quirk's effect speared out of the ground. Neito utilised Ibara's quirk, assisting her in her endeavours. It was clear that he wasn't as experienced in using her quirk, as his vines were slower and covered a smaller area.

Time to up the difficulty. I made one body move faster, mimicking a Mover's power. To their credit, the group reacted quickly, Setsuna and Pony both using their quirks to hit the target just as it was about to reach the centre.

"Hey! That's cheating!"

"I told you I'd simulate some enemy quirks," I said.

I made a few more bodies rush their targets. Pony and Setsuna destroyed most of them, but one reached the centre. Itsuka's arm enlarged and took it out with a punch.

I began to mix and match my mock villains. Movers came together with Brutes. I made the Brutes require several hits before dismissing them and sending them back to the periphery, where I made new bodies again. The students faired decently well for people who hadn't had much combat experience, but I was being extremely lenient in terms of how durable and slow I made my minions.

I continued on at this tempo, increasing the durability of my minions over time. I increased the speed that the regular goons took to clear the mushroom field, and made them avoid obvious traps set up by Ibara's quirk. My mock intangibility Breaker passed through the mushroom field with ease, hiding amongst them while Setsuna and Pony were blocked by their teammate's Shaker power. Neito became the one designated to take them out, switching over to Setsuna's quirk to cover a wider area.

A couple of my Brutes and Movers made it to the centre, but each time they were destroyed by Itsuka or Neito within a couple of seconds. I counted a clean hit by the Brutes as having sufficient force to take them out.

After ten minutes at that pace, I ramped it up slightly. Flyers came into play, forcing Pony, Setsuna and Neito to engage them. My soldiers that had the simulated ability to flatten themselves ran undetected for awhile, until they began to edge close to the centre. At that point, Ibara altered the area covered by her vines, forming barbs that hooked at my soldiers. I counted that as a successful kill, and sent my bugs back to the periphery.

On and on it went. The students were clearly becoming tired, but they were completely engaged with the lesson. At least that aspect wasn't a failure.

For the next five minutes, I added my Shaker effect to the mix. Hands of stone tore at Ibara's vines, allowing other soldiers to advance through. The sharp-eyed Itsuka spotted the swarm body mimicking my Shaker effect with its hands buried in the ground, and pointed it out to Pony. Immediately, she sent horns spearing through it, and I allowed them thirty seconds of respite before sending that particular variant of my minions into play.

I sensed Kan and the other students approaching. They stood a respectful distance away. Thankfully, my students hadn't noted their arrival yet. I wasn't quite sure what they thought about my teaching methods, but I didn't want to turn and look at them just yet.

Kan walked up to my side. "How long have they been at this?"

"About… twenty-five minutes, give or take. There's still another five minutes of this lesson, right?"

"Yeah. Mind if I watch? Your method seems rather interesting."

I shrugged. "Be my guest."

With five minutes left, it was time to bring out the big guns.

I made several bodies converge together, forming a giant of a butterfly-man. He stomped through the mushroom field with ease. Pony, Setsuna and Neito hurried to engage that one.

"Holy shit, that's so not fair!" Setsuna was shouting.

Just to spite her, I made another one of those.

They altered their tactics. Kinoko began growing mushrooms on top of mushrooms, forming a larger wall. For the purpose of the exercise, I slowed my giants down as they reached that obstacle. Ibara's vines lashed at an arm several times, and I disassembled it from the giant's body, sending the constituent butterflies down to the ground where they formed more of the regular minions.

I made a note of the time. I wanted to give them a win, of course, just to boost their confidence, but I wanted to make it memorable.

More fliers came into play, Brutes carried on their backs. When the fliers were destroyed by Pony's horns, the Brutes fell onto the ground, charging at a decent pace toward the centre. Itsuka engaged them, joined by Neito who hastily switched from Pony's power.

Neito was doing pretty well, bolstering his team wherever it was needed. For future exercises I considered making him or Setsuna the designated leader, just to see how that idea turned out.

All the different kinds of soldiers were on the field. At a time, two Shakers were not just countering Kinoko's and Ibara's quirks, but also directly impeding Itsuka and Neito as they fended off approaching soldiers. Only when both Shakers were taken out did I cease that power, giving them twenty seconds of breathing room before forming more of those.

As the exercise had progressed, the students had developed their own priority order. Shakers came first, then fliers and other Movers, with Brutes handled by Itsuka and Neito whenever he was available, and regular soldiers mostly taken out by the Shaker duo. Breakers were targeted by Setsuna and Pony whenever they made their way close enough. I was pleased with their ability to adapt on the job.

At one minute to go, I escalated further, forming soldiers with combinations of powers. A giant Mover/Brute carrying a payload of normal unpowered underlings, Shakers protected by Brutes, Movers with Breaker effects. More and more of my minions were entering the square, as the students became boxed into the middle.

I double checked the timing. If everything went right –

The bell rang.

I dispersed the bugs that formed my army, walking up to check on my students.

"Oh, my God," Setsuna was panting, reassembling her scattered body parts. "Did we win?"

"Congratulations. The bell rang at the fourteen second mark."

"We didn't lose to butterflies!" Kinoko cheered, her mushroom-like hair dishevelled and coated with sweat, her normally hidden eyes exposed.

"Those weren't just butterflies," Neito said sagely, words punctuated by rapid, deep breaths. "They were zombie butterflies."

He appeared drastically different from how he had earlier in the day. I didn't quite know what was up with him, but at least whatever this exercise was seemed to help.

"You're right! That actually was like a zombie survival game!" Setsuna agreed.

"You know, Taylor-san, you're actually a really nice person," Ibara said.

"Hmm?"

"You let us win on purpose, didn't you?" She smiled softly, sweeping and tidying at her hair in the aftermath of her quirk.

"No comment."

"Taylor, can we do this again next time? That lesson was really useful!" Pony looked at me with pleading eyes. It was hard to resist.

"Yeah!" Setsuna shouted, practically lunging forward to hold my hand. I stepped back, just out of her reach. She pouted. "We learned a lot about each other's quirks!"

I looked to Kan. He shrugged. "Seemed like an effective lesson. You can keep working with them, if you want."

"I'll be increasing the difficulty," I warned.

"Holy shit, it's actually a zombie game. Can we call it the Dawn of the Zombie Butterflies?" Setsuna said.

"No. Anyway, we need to get to our next class," I said.

"Fine. What about Left 6 Butterflies?"

"That doesn't even make any sense."

"Plants and Mushrooms vs Butterflies?"

I ignored her.

"Call of Duty: Butterfly Zombies?"

As the stream of horrible suggestions rose all the way while we walked back to class, I allowed myself a small smile.

That went better than I expected.

Hope this chapter was at least better than the last one. Again, sorry for how the story turned out, and I hope that I can at least sustain your interest going forward. I'd appreciate comments on whether characterisation feels better now, or if its even worse than before (knowing me, that's probably the case).