Midoriyaand I kneeled outside of the hotel he'd led us to and he waited quietly while I tried to focus on my quirk. I kept tapping my forehead with frown, trying to call to it, even though I knew that's not how it worked.

I sighed. I could always feel a little tingling in my forehead around my broken horn when other people were close by, but it usually took a lot of focus to tap into that small feeling and pull out what's left of my quirk from wherever it hides.

After a few moments I managed focus in on it and grasp it. After getting a decent hold of it a small shiver ran from my horn down my spine and I was able to sense two main sources of decent power inside the hotel. The strange thing was that one of the sources was surrounded by a lot of other less powerful forms similar to the first.

"Some sort of multiplying quirk?" I whispered to myself. Midoriya's brows rose in surprise, which I took as confirmation even though I hadn't expected him to hear me. So some form of cloning probably. And it's likely the villain's quirk because the student- erm- captive wouldn't be using their's.

"Um, you wait out here." I told Midoriya, figuring he was still a victim so my priority might still be to protect him.

"Oh okay, do you have a plan?" He asked.

"Eh. Sort of." I responded as I stood, preparing to enter the store.

I'd had experience with cloning quirks in the past. After all, I'd had to watch Twice use his against innocent people on several occasions. I wasn't exactly happy at encountering a similar quirk now, but I knew that the circumstance was completely different now, so I held onto that comfort.

Essentially my plan was to first figure out the makeup of the clones- if they could actually hurt me or were more of the illusion type- by interacting with one of them. Then, after that I had two plans of action. If they were more the deceiving type, and couldn't actually do me any harm, then I knew that it would be taking the human source's energy to produce them so I could probably just run through the clones quickly to get to the victim, while avoiding the villain, who would likely not be able to do much since he was using his energy on the clones. If they were actually solid beings with attack power, then it'd be hard to avoid all of them, so I'd just have to form a path to the student by destroying the minimum of clones I had to to get by. I knew that clones were typically pretty weak so it probably wouldn't take much more than a strong blow to the head or ribs to get one of them out of action.

I guess I have to rely on my strategy and wits again to make up for such a weak quirk, I thought, and even my mental skill isn't as good as others after being stuck in captivity for nearly my whole childhood. With a quirk as useless as mine I didn't know how I could ever expect to get into UA, or how they'd even want me at all. Part of me has been wondering if Shota recommended me so that if I got in I'd be UA's problem and he wouldn't have his hands full with all of my issues anymore. I wouldn't blame him for that, in fact it's partly why I was so excited to go to school in the first place, I didn't want to burden him any longer.

The moment I walked in the door of the mock hotel I was met with a loud mechanical-sounding maniacal laugh. "Young hero you have no chance of getting past me and my clones, for I am the formidable villain Ectoplasm. Mwahahaha."

I raised an eyebrow. I guess this guy was really getting into his role. Too bad he doesn't sound like a villain at all, I suppose I'd better withhold that information though.

I quickly searched for the hostage. My eyes landed on a boy tied to the banister of a central staircase with the same tape material that Midoriya'd been tied to the lamppost with. I noticed some - what I assumed was- fake blood splotched onto his forehead. Great, a head injury, I thought sarcastically.

Neither Ectoplasm or any of his clones (which I estimated there were about fifteen of) were making any moves, so to decide of they were solid beings instead of attacking I simply walked up to the nearest one and poked it in the forehead. It didn't react, only looked a little confused, but my hand didn't pass through it's head so I figured I'd have to go with my second plan. Not too happy about that.

Suddenly then, all the clones began moving as one to converge on me, which I had not been expecting. Shoot! If I managed to avoid all of them then it'd be much easier to get past them as a group, but I'd have to figure out how to accomplish the former first and I didn't have much time.

I could jump, causing them to run into each other instead of me. No, they're pretty tall, I can't jump that high. I can't exactly slide under either, they're all wearing large floor-length coats so I wouldn't have the room. I couldn't go back out the door, there were already some clones guarding it, I didn't have enough time to go around.

I'd have to fight. I didn't want to fight. I don't want to fight. Not again. Not anymore. Never.

My heart started beating a little more rapidly, making it harder to catch my breath. My eyes widened, they were getting closer. They might not be human but I still don't want to fight them. Hurt them. What if Ectoplasm's quirk causes him to feel whatever his clones do? No, I can't hurt them. I can't hurt anyone. Not again. Not anymore. Never.

I began shaking and backing up into the ones behind me. However, seconds before they were about to close in on me, I sensed a sudden rise in power behind me and I was gently pushed onto my knees. Then, a large force hit all of the clones, causing them to dissipate into a greyish gas/smoke.

"H-huh?" I turned around to see Midoriya with one hand on my shoulder, the other extended in a fist. It seemed like it took a second for him to realize what he'd just done, then he raised his hands in surprise and backed up,

"I'm sorry I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to interfere, I know I'm not supposed to, it's just that you weren't doing anything to defend yourself and you looked so helpless! I shouldn't have acted rashly like that though, I might've just jeopardize your chances." He looked down in shame. My surprised expression softened and I looked down as well. Helpless. I'm sure he didn't mean it the way I took it, but that wasn't the first time I'd been called that. That wasn't the first time I'd been that.

"It's alright. Thank you." I whispered to him before looking up to the villain. He stood with his arms crossed, a look of confusion and disappointment on his face.

"You know you weren't supposed to do that Midoriya, this isn't your test. I don't know how it will affect her, but I suppose there's nothing you can do about it now though, so feel free to continue." The large man spoke in his strange voice. Midoriya frowned,

"(y/n) i'm really s-"

"It's alright Midoriya. Go back outside, I gotta go." I cut him off curtly. I figured it might take a bit for Ectoplasm to regenerate his clones and he still seemed a little confused so if I ran to the hostage quickly this could be my chance to get out of there with him. I just had to forget about what had just happened and act.

Before the acting villain could react I sprinted as quickly as I could up to the staircase. I flicked the pocket knife I'd gotten from the store out of my pocket and slashed the boy tied to the banister free as quickly as I could. Then I figured I couldn't make it back out the same way, seeing as I'd have to pass back by the villain, so slinging his arm over my shoulder, I shielded his face and my own as I kicked through the closest window. Quickly after, I hopped through and pulled the dark haired victim out after me.

After the two of us had made it out safely and found shelter in the alleyway outside of the hotel with Midoriya, I heard Ectoplasm yelling some 'I'll get you next time!'s and 'If it hadn't been for those damn kids!'s, clearly already back in character. I checked to make sure he didn't come after us and then let out a sigh of relief.

I set the victim down so that he was sitting with his back against the alley wall and knelt down in front of him. I moved some of his straight, black hair out of his face to check the 'wound'. "What's your name?" I questioned, asking more to see if he'd had any 'memory loss' than because I actually cared to know in the moment.

"Sero, but you can call me anytime." He wiggled his eyebrows. I cocked my head and stared at him confused,

"I- I don't understand." I stated, my brows furrowed, "Are you okay?" Maybe he has to fake brain damage? I wondered.

"I don't know. I might need CPR, because you're taking my breath away." He winked. This only confused me more,

"Are you having a hard time breathing? What's CP-"

"He's fine, lets go." Midoriya interrupted abruptly. Sero looked a little dejected, but he nodded and stood up nonetheless.

"Damn. I gotta stop going to Kaminari for advice with hot girls." He muttered in disappointment and stuffed his hands in his pockets. I huffed in exasperation, it's like this kid was speaking another language, I don't feel hot at all. If anything it's a little chilly out here. I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something, but still I joined them back on my feet.

The three of us began walking in no particular direction while I tried to use my quirk to see if I could sense any nearby sources of power. Midoriya every once in a while had to stop Sero from trying to strike up a conversation with me so that I could focus, and often for the same reason Sero had to shush the green eyed boy when he started unconsciously muttering under his breath.

"Wait, stop." I muttered after a few minutes of walking, gesturing to my two companions to halt. I looked up to a large parking lot. I sensed two sources of power, and though I couldn't tell where they were in the building, seeing as my quirk wasn't built for locating people, I could tell that they were in the large cement parking building. "Okay, Sero. Midoriya said you can each tell me something about these 'villains'. So, what's this one's quirk?"