Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*SHATTER*

The sound of breaking glass cut through any conversations happening in the common room, leaving cold and heavy silence in its wake.

Standing in the kitchen area was Midoriya Izuku. Shattered glass shards and puddles of water scattered around at his feet, while small cuts on his hand started bleeding. 

Midoriya Izuku, resident sunshine boy with a reputation for being one of the kindest and most caring people in the class, dawned one of the most hateful and betrayed looks to ever grace someone’s face. 

Time seemed to completely stop.

The air felt heavy, so heavy it could probably be mistaken for waves of a raging torrent crashing down on them.

It was weighing them all down. Everyone’s instincts seemed to be screaming some form of get away, run away, get as far as you can.

All the while everyone’s bodies couldn’t move.

It was terrifying.

“Waddup guys, *YAWN* I heard a cra—“ Shinsou stopped dead in his tracks as he paused in rubbing the tired out of his eyes and took in the scene after just coming down the stairs. 

That seemed to snap whatever trance the class was in as the pure waves of rage that were weighing the room down suddenly lifted, instead leaving Midoriya with a cold and closed off look as he started swiftly making for the stairs. He stopped for a moment to take a long, over the shoulder glance at Shinosu before finally ascending the stairs. Out of sight. 

No one dared move to stop him. 

“What the fuck?” 

/

Hitoshi liked to think he was a people person.

No, not in the sociable way. God no. Instead, it’s more in the way of reading people and learning the type of person someone is so that they can be easier to predict and therefore easier to avoid. Midoriya, by all accounts, was no exception to this rule. Sure, he’d surprised him on a multitude of occasions, like with his complete absence of fear towards his quirk and his distinct lack of opinions about how “villainous” it was. But overall, Hitoshi thought he had a good mental profile on him-- at least kind of. 

That is, until he stumbled upon that shit show, whatever the hell that was. 

Now, Hitoshi knows better than anyone that everyone has a breaking point. It’s kind of the reason he’s able to use his quirk so effectively. He digs for what makes his opponent tick and uses that against them so they lash out. Midoriya, again, is no exception. In fact, Midoriya is usually the most susceptible to it because of his complete unconcern about it and the trust he gives Hitoshi. He’s seen Midoriya get defensive, determined, and even occasionally agitated, but never has Hitoshi seen such pure malice radiating from the green hair teen than when he did at that moment. 

So, excuse him for standing there like a doofus and casually letting a “what the fuck” roll off his tounge like some kind of unreaslied proficey. 

“Sho- Should someone go talk to him?” The first to snap out of it was, surprisingly, Momo. 

For a while, that question went unanswered. People just kinda shuffled around, not really knowing what to do. Iida and Todoroki at first glance looked as perturbed as everyone else, though there seemed to be an underlying unsettlety that was only unique to them. Why, Hitoshi couldn’t tell you.

“I don’t think that's a good idea man… did you see how-- how mad Midobro looked?” said Kirishima, voice laced with uncertainty and wavering slightly. 

“But what was he even mad about!?!” pirked Kaminari “Last time I checked, most of us were just sitting here chatting about the news!!” He said while pointing to the paused flat screen for emphasis. 

That’s when Hitoshi let his gaze flit over to the paused tv. The headline was: Quirkless teen once again falls to the new suicide trend “journey for the weak”.

Hitoshi scowls, he’d heard passings of that challenge when he was in middle school but it had supposedly vanished before the beginning of his 2nd year in said middle school. Basically, there was a set of “tasks” that the person participating had to follow, eventually leading to the last “task” which isn’t really that hard to guess. Frankly, Hitoshi doesn’t blame Midoriya for his reaction. Though, something still nagged at the back of his head that told him there was something more at play here. 

Walking over to the couch area where most of 1-A was strewn, Hitoshi picked up the remote to unpause the Tv when he suddenly stopped himself, thinking.

Slowly, he turned to face Kaminari.

“What… what were you talking about...?” He asked, slowly. 

“Whatchu mean? I just said we were talking about the--”

“Yes I know, that’s not what I meant.” Hitoshi leveled him with a glare.

There was once again silence, the awkward energy getting to everyone present. Everyone in the common room collectively glanced at each other, seemingly waiting for someone to answer.

“Well…” Iida, this time, started slowly.

“We were just discussing the quirkless and how they are… how do I put this… underdeveloped” Iida concluded with a hand chop.

“Yeah! I’ve personally never met one, but if you think about it, they’re just kinda… there? Like- what can they even do?” Kaminari said almost dismissively, waving his hand around like he could physically swat the topic away. 

“Not to mention their overall suicide rates are pretty high- according the news at least” Momo said, looking at the paused headline on screen. 

“Maybe they just can’t handle it, you know? Being around a bunch of kids with quirks and not having one yourself would make me pretty envious. Not to mention you couldn’t really do-- anything, really.” Sero piped in. 

“I’m just glad they aren’t suffering anymore, they must’ve had it pretty hard…” Hagakure said solemnly, shoulders hunched as she slumped on the couch. 

Hitoshi just stared at them all with steadily increasing incredulity as the whole room seemed to mumble in agreements, opinions tacked here and there as he just stood there, baffled at the sheer naivety of his classmates.

Looking around a bit more, Hitoshi could spy a few notable exceptions out of the corner of his eye. Tokyami seemed to look more than a little uncomfortable with the conversation, looking away and mumbling to himself a bit, probably talking to Dark Shadow. Kyoka also looked a bit out of place, looking like she wanted to interject, but uncharacteristically holding back. Other than them, it seemed the people who didn’t contribute to the conversation were in general agreement with everyone else discussing as they mumbled affirmations here and there. 

Though this was all, quite frankly, unsettling … Hitoshi still couldn't explain Midoriya’s reaction. Whatever Midoriya’s reaction was, it wasn’t the dumbfounded unsettlement or whatever else Hitoshi was currently feeling… no… what Midoriya exhibited was pure, unnerving, rage. 

Hitoshi was about to go follow Midoriya back up, suddenly losing his appetite for the snack he was originally after…

Until-- he saw it. 

There, standing on the other side of the room was none other than Bakugou Katsuki. Headphones lay loosely around his neck as he stands uncharacteristically Stalk. Still. He was facing away from everyone with a water bottle in hand, and upon further examination, Hitoshi could make out a slight shake to Bakugo’s hands. 

Ok… that's kinda weird.

Hitoshi let his eyes linger, staring right at Bakugou over the crowding of students as he studied the blond carefully.

It seems Midoriya isn’t the only one breaking Hitoshi’s carefully crafted profiles. 

It could’ve been because he stopped or because of the eyes currently drilling into his head that got Bakugou moving again, but before Hitoshi could identify any more, Bakugou started walking off.  

Hitoshi took the chance to make his leave too, shooting a quick, but cold glare at his class before finally ascending the stairs.

Hitoshi had a lot to think about. 

/

The next day started off without much fanfare. 

Hitoshi did his regular morning routine before class with little interference— wake up, contemplate existence, fall asleep again to somehow make up for the 4 hours he may or may not have gotten, wake up 15 minutes before class and rush to the fountain of life (coffee maker), make it to homeroom 2 ½ minutes before the bell, get chewed out by Iida for getting to homeroom 2 ½ minutes before the bell, and all's well that ends well. 

However, Hitoshi still couldn’t shake the off feeling he’s had since yesterday, and the cause of said off feeling seems to only contribute to it the more Hitoshi looks at him. 

Midoriya is facing away from everyone currently milling about and instead locks his focus onto the world outside. He has a distant look if you look closely, and if you look even closer you can see the slight shake of his clenched hands that very quickly breaks the illusion of anything thoughtful or calm. 

Hitoshi doesn’t really know what to do in a situation like this. He knows little about Midoriya -this fact only heightened by yesterday's events- and despite him being the only person he’s most comfortable around in 1-A so far into his transfer (excluding Aizawa-sensei), there’s not much he can think of that he actually knows about Midoriya. He thinks he has a solid profile, and then it's gone and broken a couple days later. 

So instead of leaning over his table and getting Midoriya's attention to ask what was wrong like any normal person would, Hitoshi instead opts to just “keep an eye on him”. Now, some might call this a weird form of passive stalking, but Hitoshi thinks that's too creepy for his taste so he's just going to go with the former. 

Much like the morning, the rest of the day goes on without much fanfare, except of course for Midoriya’s subtle odd behaviour, but that’s neither here nor there at the moment. Anyway, the day goes on and the bell finally rings for the lunch period and Hitoshi is excited for another fun period of staying in the classroom all by himself while everyone else scrambles towards the cafeteria. 

Everyone except him and Midoriya. 

The friends that Midoroiya usually hangs out with during lunch shoot him a beckoning look but are very quickly shut down by the sideways glance Midoriya spares. It seems nobody is quite ballsy enough to actually approach Midoriya today so Hitoshi acquires a lunch buddy. 

They don’t actually share any words for the better part of lunch, as Hitoshi is currently occupied with his foody goodness and Midoriya merely writes in his notebook. It’s not actually an awkward experience but Hitoshi can feel the subtle way the air gets heavier and heavier every couple minutes. 

That's what Midoriya’s notebook slams shut. 

“Hey, Shinsou…” Midoriya asks, voice quiet.

If Midoriya were actually turned around and facing Hitoshi, he would’ve seen how startled he was. But luckily he’s not so Hitoshi answers with a quick “Yeah?”.

“How do you feel about the quirkless…?” It’s asked in a kind of drawl, slow and almost wistful in nature if you squint.

“Uhhhh…” Whatever Hitoshi expected from the green haired enigma it was not that, but despite that he shakes his head and delivers his honest answer.  

“Well— I don’t really have any opinions to be honest. They’re people just like everyone else, what’s more to say?”. Hitoshi responds back with a shrug. 

That’s when Midoirya stills-- His body going rigid and back stick straight. It’s only after Hitoshi opens his mouth to ask if he said something wrong did Midoriya almost slump in his seat, turning to look at Hitoshi with something akin to hope and… apprehension? 

“D-do you think, uh, somebody quirkless could become a hero..?” Midoriya asks, hope and an almost worn feeling leaking from the seams of his question, almost like he’s asked this question so many times the words themselves come out tired and used up. 

This fact makes Hitoshi all the eager to answer.

“If I can become a hero, I don’t see why someone quirkless can’t” Hitoshi answers simply.

That’s when the water works start, but there’s something distinctly different about these tears than there are to the ones Midoriya often  lets flow. These leak out unsteadily, as if being held back, and they are almost completely silent. Midoriya’s shoulder’s shake violently as he lets silent tears fall onto his clenched and scarred hands and tries to hold back choked sobs.

Oh…

I’ve seen this kind of crying before…

Before Hitoshi can even think, he’s getting up and reaching out to hold Midoriya close in a tight embrace. Midoriya stills again for a moment in surprise, but very quickly melts into it, letting Hitoshi try and hold all of his old and bleeding wounds together as he sobs.

This goes on for a while. Hitoshi holds Midoriya close, whispering sweet nothings as Midoriya lets old wounds bleed. Letting every last tear dribble down, the clogged and built up pipelines of Midoriya’s suppressed tears finally being used and he suddenly can’t stop the stream. 

Only after Midoriya finally starts to quiet down does he look up at Hitoshi and smile. It’s not like his usually blinding 100 watt smile he’s so known for, but it's still somehow more genuine. It’s tired and fragile, but Hitoshi still can’t help but think ‘oh… is that what his real smile is supposed to look like...?’.

“Thank you.” Midoriya states, barely above a whisper but no less meaningful and filled to the brim with emotion. 

Hitoshi lets a small grin claim his face.

“You’re welcome.” Hitoshi shoots back. Hitoshi’s glad that he was able to help him in some way…Though, something still nags annoyingly at the back of his head. So instead of going back to content silence, Hitoshi continues. 

“Though… if it’s alright with me asking…” Midoriya looks up at him questioningly.

“Why?” Hitoshi asks and promptly cringes a bit— that’s not as descriptive as he would have liked... he should back track—

“I-“ Hitoshi’s saved from his own mental panic as Midoriya seems to have gotten the message.

“I was— before UA, before the entrance exam—“

Hitoshi listens.

...

“I was quirkless ”

Chapter Text

...

...

“So what your saying is—“

“Mhm”

“You didn’t get your quirk…”

“Nope”

“Until the— until the day of the entrance exam…? ”

“Yep” 

Midoriya starts rubbing the back of his neck like he was embarrassed— FUCKING EMBARRESS— 

Hitoshi takes a in a deep breath and lets out a long and drawn out sigh, pretty dramatic from an outsiders perspective with no context, but held true in the perspective of Shinsou fucking Hitoshi. 

“So… so you were essentially quirkless… until the exam?”

Hitoshi knows this question is kinda unnecessary because he knows Midoriya knows he knows the answer to that question already, but Hitoshi finds himself asking it anyway, as if asking will make the answer any less true. Because if it is—

“yes…”

—Then Midoriya shares a lot of stuff in common with Hitoshi, maybe even a bit too much for comfort.

And by the look on Midoriya's face when he confirmed the obvious, it could even be more. 

They sit in silence for a while. It’s not Awkward any more than it’s comfortable, it just kind of is. It’s the kind of silence that’s filled with two minds whirring a mile a minute that simply don’t have the mental capacity to bring words forth into the outer world. 

Midoriya breaks the thin sheet of ice first.

“Shinsou, I— I have a plan” Midoriya is staring directly into Hitoshi’s eyes with pure determination. He’d be scared if he didn’t see a mischievous, if excited smile start to twitch at Midoriya’s lips. 

Despite this fact however, Hitoshi has no idea what he means.

“A plan for what?”

Midoriya suddenly takes on a very flustered appearance as if the fact that Hitoshi can’t read his mind suddenly dawned on him and he starts making wild gestures with his hands in a panic. 

“I- Im sorry y-you probably don’t even know what I’m talking about… it’s about what happened yesterday— oh you probably don’t know what happened there either… well, yesterday—“

Hitoshi held up a hand, effectively cutting Midoriya off. 

“If you're talking about the class and the News story then I already have an idea… you’re not exactly the type to get so angry it’s terrifying to even be anywhere near you yeah’ know— only natural I’d try to find out why” Hitoshi says as his face slowly starts to spread into a small smirk. Honestly, good for Midoriya— it must be tiring to act as sunshine incarnate and keep up a smiley front all the time. 

Midoriya lets out a sigh at Hitoshi’s words, probably because he doesn’t have to explain and by extension… doesn’t have to re-live it. Thankfully instead of getting pissed again, Midoriya just makes a nervous laugh.

“Yeah… I’ve never felt that angry in a while. I honestly thought U.A. was different— and it is! But...” Midoriya looks to the side, eyes going sad and almost resigned “You should have heard what some of them said— it’s, and I just listened for a while, hoping someone would say something or correct someone but… it just went on. They didn’t even look to know her name— the girl who, you know…” 

“It was Airi Ito… right?” 

Midoriya looks up at Hitoshi, looking surprised.

“I looked into it a bit last night a bit when I couldn’t fall asleep. You did too I’m guessing?” 

Midoriya nodded slowly. 

“Welp, anyway— what was this nefarious scheme you’ve got?” Hitoshi says with a sly smile, trying to lighten the mood. 

Midoriya shoots Shinsou a grateful look before letting his face curl into a devious smirk. 

“Oh yes, the plan…”

Hitoshi gestured with his hand to continue, his own smirk getting wider.

“Well, it goes a little like this—“

/ 

Midoriya Izuku has been acting strange all day.

Don’t get Shouta wrong, he knows first hand off days exist— he has them often. That just comes with the territory of having to teach class 1-A, aka the “Hell Class” . 

Yes, Shouta knows off days intimately— however, even he can admit that class 1-A’s resident Problem Child has been acting really out of sorts all day today. 

Maybe it was the fact that he walked in on Midoriya giving his friends the cold shoulder and not acknowledging the existence of anyone around him. Maybe it was the fact that there was an almost constant slight shake to his hands accompanied by a grit jaw. Maybe it was the lightning fast glances he’d send Shinsou before staring back into space with dull eyes that lacked the sparkle they usually had. 

Whatever it was— the Problem Child was obviously acting weird and Shouta couldn’t for the life of him, place why . 

(And if Shouta was being completely honest with himself— he was worried)

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he made his way down the UA halls. It probably wasn’t anything and the kid was just having an off day like Shouta figured. 

He had a class to teach. 

It was the end of the day and he was going in to oversee the heroics training. More specifically quirkless sparring. In the world of heroics, anything can happen— so he needs to prepare them for the possibility of having to fight quirkless if the time were to call for it. 

Walking into his class he saw everyone already at their desks, having learned by now to be ready before Aizawa came into the room. 

He scanned over them before stopping abruptly on the Problem Child. Maybe because he expected him to still have his far-away look and not eyes almost glowing with a slight, but no less bright toxicity that left Aizawa reeling just a bit. (Not that he’d ever admit to that)

What the hell happened? 

Breaking his prolonged stare and continuing his sweep of the class he also caught the way Shinsou’s mouth was twitched into a wide grin as he shot pointed glances at Midoriya. Midoriya seemed to be shooting them back in kind.

Weird. 

“I want everyone out on the P.E Grounds in 10 minutes. We’ll be doing a new type of sparing, so no costumes. Don’t straggle behind” 

With that— Shouta sauntered out of the classroom and made his way down to the PE field. Taking mild satisfaction in the way he heard everyone scrambling to change to make sure he didn’t wait on anyone. 

Once down at the P.E field, he only had to wait about 3 minutes for his resident problem children to start trickling out. More specifically the problem children Shouta’s tagged as acting out of the norm today. 

Midoriya and Shinosu run up to stand right in front of Aizawa, having a short staring contest that lasted all of 3 seconds before Shinsou asked what they were planning to do today. 

(These problem children changed faster just to come talk to him didn’t they—)

“We will be doing quirkless sparring. That’s all you’ll get for now” 

At that both Midoriya and Shinosu seemed to blue screen for a second before they shot each other wide-eyed glances and started vibrating in place in visible excitement. 

“Wow— that’s actually perfect. Maybe the universe doesn’t actually hate me today!” Midoriya mumbled under his breath. 

Shouta didn’t give any comment to that— just raised an eyebrow and shot a pointed questioning look over to Shinsou who was obviously in the know. The little shit just shrugged.

More members of class 1-A started coming out shortly after that, so Shouta didn’t get to silently question the two enigmas any further. He mourned the loss for all of 2 seconds before turning his attention to the now fully present class.

(And if Shouta mentally sighed in relief for the fact that Midorya didn’t seem out of it anymore and felt a slight shiver go down his spine at the same time, that’s for him and him alone to know) 

“Now that everyone is present, we can begin today’s exercise—“

Shouta’s eyebrow twitched slightly when Iida shot his hand up in the air. He really needed to learn to wait until the end of an explanation. 

“What is it Iida” 

“Aizawa-Sensei! Why did you want us to wear regular gym attire instead of our hero costumes? Isn’t it beneficial for us to—“

“If you’d let me finnish my explanation, then you’d know that they would only get in the way for what I have in mind at this moment in time.”

Iida slowly put his hand down— good. 

“Anyway, we’ll be doing quirkless sparring today. You will be teaming up in groups of two and sparing with each other without using your quirks. This is so I can gauge where you’re all at in terms of regular fighting ability. 

Uraraka’s hand shoots up along with some other classmates.

“Yes Uraraka?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if we also used our quirks?”

Aizawa just blinks at her for a moment.

“You took an internship with gunhead, correct?”

Uraraka nods.

“Then shouldn’t you know all about how important it is to know fighting movements first?”

Aizawa sweeps his gaze over the entire class after that. Making a point to see everyone’s attention on him.

“There may come a day where you won’t be able to rely on your quirk in battle. Whether you’re fighting someone that doesn’t match well with your quirk, or when using your quirk would only make the situation worse. That’s the main point of this exercise today. With that said, your groups will be of your choosing today. If anyone has any problems, come to me” 

No one had any more questions after that, taking Aizawa’s shooing gesture as a cue to get started. 

Shouta took note that Problem child #1 and #2 instantly zoomed to each other. Muttering hushedly to themselves with big grins in their faces. Those plotting bastards—

(Despite himself, Shouta couldn’t stop the small grin creeping up on his face. Only his capture scarf will ever know. He couldn’t help but be curious as to what they were planning to make them so excited)

The exercise went about as well as anyone would expect. Kids that didn’t already have at least a little training had messier forms and unrefined movements without quirk aid. No one except a few had abysmal basic skills, but there was still a lot of room for improvement. A few notable examples were how Todoroki had basic fighting knowledge, but obviously heavily relied on his quirk when in actual combat. Ojiro had a hard rule based mindset from his martial arts— as in he was obviously very knowledgeable and skilled with his movement, but was ultimately more predictable because he stuck to the rules of the martial art and likely only stepped out of them if he could use his quirk. Kaminari, Hagakure, and Tokoyami had the most room for improvement overall.

Off to the side, Shouta noticed the problem children of the hour basically flying around each other. It seemed they’d put whatever they were plotting on hold for now to let loose a bit if the giant concentrated grins on their faces were any indication. He shook his head fondly for a moment before stalking off to go watch Bakugo and Kirishima go at it. It seemed that without quirks, they were a relative match with Bakugo having a bit more skill.

And soon, the lesson was over. Shouta called out time and told them they’d be going over their skill levels in home room tomorrow— shooing everyone away to go get changed. He was about to go follow them all in as well when he was suddenly stopped by Midoriya and Shinsou. He noted that everyone was already a good distance away and basically inside. 

A private meeting, it seemed.

“What do you want, problem child?” Shouta asked, keeping his gaze locked on Midoriya’s.

“Well… Me and Shinsou were wondering if I could take extra classes after school. More specifically quirkless fighting…” Midoriya trailed off a bit, looking over to Shinosu to avoid Aizawa’s scrutinizing gaze. Despite this however, the problem child’s eyes seemed to glow with an almost unnatural toxicity that screamed determination and excitement.

Both of Shouta’s eyebrows raised at this in slight shock. Whatever he expected Midoriya to ask it certainly wasn’t this.

“Why?” Shouta would ask if this was why Midoriya was acting weird today but it’d be better to let him talk it out. 

Shinosu shoots a resolved nod to Midoriya— the other returning in kind before continuing on. 

“Not only do I not want to have to rely on my quirk when fighting in the future, but I’ve also got something I need to prove.” Midoriya’s hands clench at that, eyes hardening even more with silent resolve. 

“I need to prove that I can fight just as well without my quirk as I could with it. That my quirk is nothing but a tool in my Arsenal for heroics. Show that it wouldn’t matter if I had it or not— that it isn’t the determining factor that makes me a hero.” 

Shouta blinks at that. Not really knowing how to respond right away. 

Midoriya has obviously thought hard about this. His steely eyes and clenched fists are obvious indicators. There’s something brewing beneath his and Shinsou’s surface and Shouta would be a dirty liar if he said he wasn’t excited about figuring out what that was. 

Shouta couldn’t stop the creepy grin that stretched across his face. 

“Well you’ve obviously made up your mind— I can’t very well deny my student more opportunities to learn and better themself now can I?” Shouta drawls.

They both visibly relax and light up at that.

“You’ll be joining the extra lessons that I already do with Shinosu for about 1-2 hours after school everyday including weekends. Because we aren’t bound by regular lesson plans, these classes are very fluid, so if you start getting too fatigued or worn out you tell me.” Shouta said resolutely— making a point to squint his eyes pointedly at Midoriya. 

“We’ll be going over a lot of things you might find in an underground heroics class if there was one. Things like fighting styles, stealth, and weapons training to name the absolute basics of what we’ll be going over.”

“So if you’re up to the challenge problem child, then lessons start after school today.” Shouta finished with a nod, still grinning madly to himself. 

Midorya nods resolutely at Aizawa. Shinosu grinning off to the side at the prospect of having a new training partner and Midoriya’s Plan™ getting one step closer to coming into fruition. 

Izuku’s eyes gleam toxic green as he lets his own creepy grin stretch across his face. 

Watch out 1-A. Midoriya Izuku is here to show you exactly why you don’t need a quirk to become a hero. 

“Aizawa-Sensei, if you don’t mind— I’ve got a plan I’d like to share with you.” 

Chapter Text

Hitoshi is excited.

It really is as simple as that to describe how Hitoshi’s been feeling recently. Before, there was an almost constant small buzz of doubt under his skin. Yes, he’s more than happy he got into the hero course— he’s never felt more relieved and determined before! But sometimes when he’s sitting through another bout of insomnia and he’s left only with his thoughts to fill the silence, he couldn’t help but think “ when’s the other shoe going to drop? ”. 

But then Midoriya just took one look at him and said “yes— this is friend material” and wormed his way into his life. 

It didn’t start off as a lot at first— but that still didn’t take away from the fact that Midorya was the only person Hitoshi felt comfortable around in 1-A.

Then with the revelation about izuku’s previous quirklessness seemed to just seal the deal for Hitoshi. Midoriya was someone who understood — understands the feeling of “where the hell is that other shoe?!”. He gets why Hitoshi feels that way because he probably does too. 

In fact— Midoriya might’ve actually found it. 

The other shoe was the revelation of the true way their classmates think. The other shoe is the reason why Midoriya felt as if he couldn’t trust his classmates with actually knowing him for so long.

And that brings Hitoshi to his current source of excitement— Midoriya’s plan™. Now that the other shoe has dropped, Midoriya wants to burn it into nothing and grind its ash into the pavement with his heel. And Hitoshi’s excited because he gets to do that too.  

Before anything really fun could happen though, Izuku had to start focusing more on his own skills and traits that he already has—  and that’s where Aizawa-Sensei came in. With the revelation of what lies in Midoriya’s notebooks, Aizawa-Sensei has been mainly pushing both fighting styles and techniques while he puts off schedules for a meeting with Nedzu about them. 

He’s also agreed to join Midoriya’s plan™ so that automatically gives them infinitely more freedom to do whatever the hell they want and have Aizawa-Sensei back them up. He was visibly furious when they told him about the very originally dubbed “News incident” and was more than happy to aid the spread of chaos in the name of “ learning ”. 

(Hitoshi could have sworn Aizawa-Sensei mumbled something about fighting “fire with fire” but that also could’ve been his imagination) 

Hitoshi nor Midoriya are complaining though. This truly is the definition of Aizawa’s “liquid teaching methods”. 

Hitoshi grins a bit to himself as he waits for the heroics class to start. 

/

Hitoshi’s grin only gets wider .

“Today class, we’ll be doing something similar to what you’ve been doing with Aizawa. Except today— you’ll be using your quirks along with the hand-to-hand you’ve been learning! Specifically you’re super moves!” AllMight boisterously informes. Despite being limited to his skeletal-self,  he never lost his booming voice.

Hitoshi sends a pointed mirthful glance at Midoriya who was right next to him— Midoriya returns it in kind; practically vibrating in silent anticipation. 

Hoooo boy—- this’ll be good .

“You may pair up with whoever you like! HOWEVER! It is advised you pair up with someone you usually don’t, so you have variety!” 

Some decide to heed to AllMight’s recommendation and pair up with opposing quirks— while some just went to their usual friends. Recently, Hitoshi and Midoriya would hog each other— running straight to the other before anyone had a chance. This time however will be different . 

With Midoriya being “freed” from Hitoshi, one of the friends he’s been avoiding decides to make a move— clapping their hand down on Midoriya’s shoulder. 

“Hello Midoriya! Would you like to partner up?” Iida asked. His voice was slightly apprehensive, but that was only noticeable if you were paying attention.

Midoriya froze up slightly— even if he was expecting to be ambushed by someone in his friend group the second he was available, it didn’t stop the brief flash of slight fear and anger that traveled up his spine. Thankfully though, none of it seemed to show through as he turned to Iida and gave his best fake-but-trying-not-to-be-fake smiles.

Iida smiled back— silently relieved as they walked off to go spar and work on incorporating their quirks and super moves more effectively into their sparring.

Or… so it would seem.

Hitoshi was brought out of his thoughts by an approaching classmate— Ojiro Mashiro.

“I want a rematch” Ojiro declares. It's simple and sweet, but the meaning gets across fine. 

Hitoshi nods in response going over with monkey boy to spar. Though, he makes sure to keep an ear out for when things will get interesting . 

/

Iida wouldn’t show it— but he was relieved when Midoriya accepted his partner-up request. 

He’s been acting so out of sorts for the past couple of weeks and Iida just didn’t know what had caused it!

Well, that was kind of a lie— he knew where it started. It was the day Midoriya had struck fear through everyone down in the common room after breaking his glass. But despite that, he still didn’t know what prompted such a reaction! 

Not only did Midoriya show true anger for the first time, but he had started avoiding Iida and his other friends in favour of spending time with that new transfer student, Shinsou Hitoshi. 

Well, it would seem as though Midoriya has gone back to normal. That is truly a relief.

They both stretch briefly on opposite ends of their designated sparring spot— staring across at each other with the promise of good and fulfilling spars to come.

When they’re both done, Iida gets into his ready stance, whereas Midoriya settles into a… relaxed pose? Well no matter! A fight waits for no one, so Iida takes off with a Recipro Burst right at the beginning. Midoriya shouldn’t have enough time to situate himself and dodge so—

Midoriya side steps Iida at the last possible second— ducking under Iida’s outstretched arm and safely out of the way. His almost relaxed posture still held.

In Iidas surprise, he continues off into a wide arc to come back around. Keeping up his forward momentum, Iida runs at Izuku again— the results staying the same. It doesn’t matter how low or high Iida comes in with his punches or kicks— Midoriya always seems to be able to step out of the way fast enough. The only time Iida’s been able to get Midoriya moving more is when he jumps up for a high ground attack. 

Getting frustrated, Iida try’s a new strategy. Instead of readying himself for a punch or jump, Iida simply brings his knee up to hit Midoriya in the stomach. 

This is where Midoriya finally strikes— instead of just side stepping out of the way, he also jumps. With a well placed kick to the back of the head— Iida crashes down to the ground. In mere seconds after— Midoriya is on top of Iida holding him down. After a few attempts to wriggle free— Iida yields.

After Midoriya gets off— Iida sits up to go compliment Midoriya on his skills only to abruptly stop in his tracks. Midoriya… Midoriya never actually used his quirk, did he? 

Now that Iida thinks about it, not once during that fight did he see the tell-tale green lightning of Full Cowl activating. 

Despite this, he still approached Midoriya to give his comments.

“Midoriya! Your movements have become so fluid! I wasn’t able to land even one hit on you! However— I can’t help but realize that you never used your quirk once?” Iida phrased that last part like a question, giving Midoriya room to prove him wrong. 

Midoriya just nods in affirmation as a response, eyes hard and full of determination. 

It puts Iida off a bit, but he doesn’t verbalize what he’s thinking— instead taking his place from right where he started. 

The next few spars go on similarly— Iida will sprint forward and Midoriya will jump out of the way until he finds the best opening to take Iida down. They’ve used different tricks and moves, but one thing remained the same. Midoriya never used his quirk once. 

“Midoriya— why aren’t you using your quirk? We are supposed to be working on using our quirks in sparring and combat! Not the quirkless sparring we did with Aizawa-Sensei!”

Midoriya just raises an eyebrow at Iida. 

“You think I don’t know that?” Midoriya asks. 

“Well—“

“What seems to be the issue?” AllMight questioned as he walked up to Iida and Midoriya. 

There’s a tense silence for a few seconds as Iida tries to formulate a sentence.

“W-Well AllMight-Sensei! I-It seems as though Midoriya is not using his quirk for the exercise today!” Iida finally stutterd out— waving his arm in a chopping motion. 

AllMight looks over at Midoriya, slight concern written on his face. 

“Young Midoriya… I thought you had a good handle on your quirk now? You also have your shoot em’ up style you’ve been working on, wouldn’t your quirk help—“

“ I’m not using it ” it comes out firm with no room for argument. 

“Y-young Midoriya…?” AllMight looks even more concerned.

Silence once again falls on all three of them. AllMight looks over at Iida for an answer only to get nothing. Iida was just as confused as AllMight.

“I was doing just fine fighting Iida without it— I don’t need to use it” Midorya clipped— voice oddly detached but still carrying a firm weight. 

By now other students have started noticing the confrontation— abruptly stopping their sparring to instead look over at the three. 

Iida notices the subtle glance that Midorya shoots over to Shinosu who’s currently smirking. This seems to prompt Midoriya to send over a small smile before his face settles back into a determined and unyielding expression. 

“Why don’t you, young-Midoriya?” AllMight presses on despite the slight wobble to it.

“Iida?” Midoriya questions. 

“Y-yes?” Iida unconsciously straightens up. 

“Did I need to use my quirk at all during our spar?” Midoriya refers. Though, it’s said like he already knows the answer.

“Not p-particularly… no” Iida answers honestly.

“Well there you have—“

“DEKU!!!” Someone roars out. 

It happens so quickly most couldn’t even say what happend. One second Bakugo Katsuki was rocketing towards Midoriya, only to get slammed into the ground after being knocked off balance with Midorya’s knee firmly pressed into Bakugou’s neck. 

Still no sparks of green lighting.

The shock of it was what probably caught Bakugo off guard— but that doesn’t matter right now. 

“DEKU!! WHAT THE HELL!! YOU LOOKIN’ DOWN ON ME HUH? YOU THINK YOUR SO HOT SHIT YOU DON'T NEED YOUR QUIRK?”

“Bakugo” it comes out so cold , it’s hard to imagine it coming out of Midorya’s mouth.

Bakugo suddenly goes ridged— almost limp in shock as he slowly looks up at the cold and calculating toxic green of Midorya’s gaze. 

“You of all people should know why .” Midorya states like it's a fact— only to lean down and whisper something too quiet for any others to hear into Bakugo’s ear.

Bakugo’s eyes blow impossibly wide with realization and… 

fear…?

Before anyone can do anything more the bell suddenly rings, signifying the end of class. 

Midorya huffs out a sigh and gets off of Bakugo. Surprisingly, Bakugo doesn’t try anything more after that— simply looking at Midorya with his blown red eyes as he mindlessly rubs the dirt off of his face.

Shinosu sauntered over— passing all of the God smacked and stalk still members of Class 1-A. He threw his arm over Midorya’s shoulder and started leading him back inside— whispering softly and quietly with a small smile on his face.

No one dared move .

/

Shinsou and Midorya walked back out to the field where Aizawa stands waiting for them. He’s about to ask them to start their warmups when he cuts himself off at the expressions his students are wearing.

Shinosu has his usual smirk— but it’s accompanied by wild eyes that make it appear almost sharper— threatening— dangerous.

A similar expression rests on Midorya’s face, except for the fact that he’s not smiling at all. His face is stone cold and his gaze soul piercing. Pure determination seems to almost drip off of the two as they stare their teacher down. 

Aizawa smiles .

/

Somewhere in a large room with a camera recording pulled up on the computer monitor, a rat cackles into his tea— spilling it all over the place. 

“My, my! What a mess I’ve made!” The rat states with joy— looking down at the tea puddles on the desk in delight. 

/

“You of all people should know what I need to prove .” 

Chapter Text

Small explosions go off in the palm of Katsuki’s hand as he waits for class to start. His head’s resting on his propped up arm as he tries to hide his shaking fist that’s currently building up excessive amounts of nitroglycerin under his desk. 

His mind is oddly blank. Normally his vision would be clouding over with red by now as his stupid ass brain whirred non stop with muddled thoughts. 

No… for once his brain is oddly clear—

If you ignored the one thing currently looping on repeat like some kind of broken record.

“You of all people should know what I need to prove .” 

Katsuki clenches his shaking hand tighter— knuckles turning white as he grinds his teeth together.

Katsuki remembers it vividly. He remembers blasting forwards with the full intention of putting Deku back in his place— only for Katsuki’s entire world to tilt and all of the sudden he was on the ground and at the mercy of Deku . 

‘Those unnaturally bright toxic green eyes that seem to pierce straight through you— digging and digging into your very being only for them find nothing worth their time. Nothing new, interesting, or exciting to be found. Just the same thing they’ve always seen.’

Katsuki remembers sitting on the ground like an idiot while his dumbass friends tried to wrangle answers out of him. Though they didn’t get very far, because once he snapped out of his trance he screamed at them to “FUCK OFF!” and stalked away.

Despite his full intention of just forgetting the day ever happened in the first fucking place, what that stupid nerd said kept on repeating over and over .

Katsuki should be mad— furious even! What gave Deku the right to fuck with him like that? Stick in his mind like that?!?

But… then he remembers what the nickname “Deku” means. 

He remembers that Deku used to cower before him. He remembers how he’d take his anger out on him— push him— punch him— kick him— burn him—

He remembers that Deku used to not have a quirk. He remembers Deku used to be quirkless.

“You of all people should know what I need to prove .” 

Yeah… Katsuki knows very well. 

He remembers that day. When everyone’s perception of Deku cracked and shattered like the glass that was dropped. The water puddles of their misconceptions spilling all over the floor and laying bare. 

‘Why did Deku deserve what I did to him again…?’

Katsuki runs his hand through his blond spiky hair— ruby eyes looking down at his desk.

Heroes are supposed to save the day. Heroes are supposed to help people. Heroes are supposed to be the very best. 

No— Deku was not the very best. He didn’t have a cool quirk that could make him teleport or manipulate water. He didn’t even fight back when Katsuki would beat him up. 

Katsuki though— he was the very best. He could blow shit up and tell people what to do. He could beat them up with no consequences because everyone knew he was going to be a great hero one day.

But Katsuki doesn’t save the day. He doesn’t help people— fuck— he makes their day worse!

Deku though— he has saved the day. He tries to help everyone because that’s what a hero does.

Even before he had a quirk— Deku saved the day. 

Katsuki remembers how a vile liquid filled his mouth and cut off his airway. The feeling of helplessness and anger at the heroes who stood by and did nothing .

Katsuki lets out a quiet growl as his eyes start to quiver. His hand pressing uselessly against his head to somehow relieve himself of his now painful thoughts. 

What the fuck…

Katsuki lets out a sigh. It’s not his usually annoyed huff or groan. It’s long and drawn out— quiet and strained.

His hand stops shaking and just settles limply at his side. 

Heroes are supposed to save the day… Heroes are supposed to help people…

The memory of those cold and calculative green eyes fixated directly on him flashes across Katsuki’s eyes.

How’s he supposed to save the day now…?

“You of all people should know what I need to prove .” 

“What I need to prove.”

Prove…

Dek— no… Midoriya Izuku wants to prove something, doesn’t he? 

Katsuki’s breath hitched as his mouth stretched into a somewhat hysteric and wobbly smirk. His eyes looking straight ahead and shaking as his resolution stones.

Heh— yeah…

He’ll prove it all right.

/

The 1-A classroom is quieter than it usually is. There’s still idle chatter, but it’s very minimal and most conversations are spoken softly.

Maybe it was because everyone was still tense from yesterday— or maybe it’s because two students are missing while classes should be starting here in the next few minutes.

No— that’s exactly the reason why the air feels so heavy and quiet. One of those missing students is who has been the main cause of these recent... outbursts…

Before anyone can nominate someone to text one of the two students— Jirou suddenly voices out that she hears… banjo music? 

Before anyone can question her sanity the melody starts to faintly reach the ears of everyone else in 1-A. 

The tune is quiet and echoed— approaching at a leisure pace, but still approaching nonetheless. 

It’s strangely ominous despite the up-beat tune.

Wait… is that singing? 

The lyrics can only be barely made out from the people sitting closest to the wall and people who have hearing quirks because of how muffled it is, but despite that— when the sound reaches just outside the door of class 1-A, everyone collectively feels a spike of dread wash over them that sinks into their very souls. 

~ [I've No More Fucks To Give] ~

Midoriya Izuku kicks open the door— not even taking a moment to acknowledge the confused and quite frankly frightened faces of 1-A before very loudly singing—

“I’VE NO MORE FUCKS TO GIVE!”

“My fucks have runeth dry!”

“I've tried to go fuck shopping but there's no fucks left to buy!”

“I've no more fucks to give”

“Though more fucks I’ve tried to get”

“I'm over my fuck budget, and I’m now in fucking DEBT!”

There’s a giant smile on Midoriya’s face that seems to leak amusement and joy as he sings— eyes wide with mirth and an underlying smugness that only the most perceptive can pick up.

Behind him is Shinsou with an equally wide smirk— nonchalantly holding up his phone with the banjo track playing on it as background music. 

“I strive, strive, strive, to get everything done”

“I've played by all the rules, but I’ve very rarely won”

“I've smiled, I’ve charmed, I’ve wooed and laughed, alas to no avail!”

“I've run round like a moron, to UNEQUIVOCALLY FAIL!!!!!”

Midoriya saundured to the front of the class— throwing his hands out to his sides dramatically, arms out wide as he boisterously screams out that last line. 

Most— if not all of his classmates have their jaws hanging open like goldfish. This just makes Midoriya’s eyes gleam more than they already were. 

“I've no more fucks to give”

“My fuck fuse has just blown”

“I've been hunting for my fucks all day”

“But they've upped and fucked off home!”

“I've no more fucks to give”

“My fuck rations are depleted”

“I've rallied my fuck army but it's been fucking defeated!”

There’s a bit of a chuckle that leaks into Midoriya’s voice as he puts a hand on his forehead in fax despair— though the grin on his face just makes him look like he’s giggling in utter amusement while simultaneously not believing he’s doing this right now. 

“The effort has just not been worth the time or the expense!”

“I've exhausted all my energy, for minimal recompense!”

“The distinct lack of acknowledgement has now begun to gall!”

“And I’ve come to realize that I don't give a fuck at all!”

Midoriya puts his hands on his hips as he draws out the ‘all’— turning his head to gaze out of the window as Shinsou continues to lean against the doorframe of the door that was just ruthlessly slammed open as he casually watches the show unfold. 

“I've no more fucks to give”

“My fucks have flown away”

“My fucks are now so fucked off they've refused to fucking stay!”

“I've no more fucks to give”

“My fucks have gone insane”

“They've come back round and passed me while they're fucking off again!”

Midoriya’s now making frivolous and dramatic gestures with his hands to emphasize each word. 

“I've no more fucks to give”

“My fucks have all dissolved”

“I've planned many projects, but my fucks won't be involved!”

“I've no more fucks to give”

“My fucks have all been spent”

“They've fucked off from the building and I don't know where they've went!”

After making a show of “searching” for his fucks he gestured to Shinsou as they started walking towards their desks. Midoriya put his feet up on the desk and leaned back with his hands resting behind his head to support it. 

“I've no more fucks to give!”

“I've no more fucks to give!”

“I've no more fucks!”

“I've no more fucks!”

“I’VE NO MORE FUCKS TO GIVE!!!!!!!!!”

As soon as Midoriya finished singing his last line and Shinsou turned the banjo accompaniment off— the bell rings and Aizawa-Sensei walks in exactly when it goes off. 

Nobody has any time to register what the hell just happened. The self dubbed “Deku squad” looks particularly unsettled— with Todoroki rubbing and squinting his eyes like he didn’t believe what he just witnessed, Iida existing in a limbo state of “getting up to go reprimand—  but too shocked to actually do anything”, Uraraka looks like she’s going through an existential crisis, and Tsuyu just looks concerned. 

Before the deafening silence can continue any longer, Bakugo abruptly bursts out laughing. Cackling madly and heaving over— holding his stomach. There are physical tears rolling down his face at this point— boarding hysterical. 

Everyone else is still too shocked to do anything .

Midoriya briefly looks surprised at Bakugo’s reaction, but decides to join in himself and starts laughing out his own cackles— Shinsou, not being able to keep it in anymore, succumbs and doubles over too. 

(Shouta hides his own snickers and grin in his capture scarf— having been standing outside listening in the whole time. He’ll have to go bug The Rat for a recording of it later) 

“Alright class— we’ll be going over hero laws again today. By the end of the year, I want at least most of these engraved into your soul”

Aizawa-Sensei just talks over the 3 currently wheezing students like they don’t even exist— turning to the black board behind him as he starts writing out the different laws. His turned back only provides more blind spots to shield his physical amusement from view. 

Nobody really got anything done during homeroom that morning. 

/

“You got the goods?”

“You know it”

Midoriya passes one of his notebooks off to Shinsou discreetly like some kind back alley drug deal. The effect is quickly ruined when Shinsou not very discreetly snorts into his hand as Midoriya stares at the ceiling like it had ancient runes written on them, utterly failing at hiding his grin. 

Tucking the notebook carefully into his messenger bag— Shinsou bids Midoriya farewell as he joins the steady flow of students making their way to lunch, only to break off and head down another hallway towards the support course . 

Off to purgatory .

Midoriya lets his hand that was in a half wave fall down slowly at his side shortly after Shinsou left. Suddenly feeling slightly hollowed and very exposed without Shinsou by his side.

Taking a quick and shuddering breath— Midoriya mentally steels himself before following Shinsou’s lead and disappearing into the stream of UA students, walking towards the Cafeteria. 

Utilizing the stealth training that he’d recently started learning from Aizawa-Sensei, Midoriya blended himself seamlessly within the crowding of students. 

Call him cowardly for going to such lengths to avoid his friends, but honestly after just pulling a stunt like that , Midoriya doesn’t really want to deal with them at the moment. 

And maybe he’s being too petty— but he also hasn’t forgotten their previous words …

A brief flash of anger suddenly flickers through Midoriya's viridian eyes before he seems to catch himself and takes in another steadying breath. 

After getting his food and successfully avoiding any of his classmates' notice— Midoriya sits himself down at a relatively vacant table on the far side of the cafeteria. 

Enjoying his personal solitude for all of 2 minutes, Midoriya abruptly notices another distinct presence that seems to have their attention on him .

Monoma Neito .

Despite what the blond is previously known for— Monoma doesn’t actually look like he was seeking out a confrontation. Rather, he’s got that “oh shit—  the place that I usually occupy is being occupied. What do I do now???” face instead of his usual sneer.

The two heroics students just kind of slowly blink at each other a couple of times before monoma breaks the impromptu staring contest first with an audible “ Tsk ” before turning to go find a different seat.

At least he would have if Midoriya didn’t call him out first.

“Sorry if I was In your spot… I can— you know— move if you want?” Midoriya's words stumble over his awkwardness as he rubs the back of his neck.

A flash of surprise briefly filters through monoma’s grey eyes before he seems to remember what class Midoriya was in and promptly channels his inner weasel. (Bastard)

“Ha— what’s 1-A scum doing all the way over here anyways? Doesn’t 1-A’s poster boy usually have his little friend group to hang around with—  or did you think your arrogant asses needed to take up more space?” Monoma questions. 

Monoam’s clearly not prepared to go off on a 1-A member right now, as all of his points are flimsily at best. If you look close enough Monoma’s sporting a minor wince as he’s obviously noticed that too. 

Despite Midoriya’s sudden urge to laugh, he knows that will only add fuel to the fire and promptly stomps it down. Instead, Midoriya opts to answer Monoma’s question.

“If you really must know— I’m actually avoiding them right now. Long story short they pissed me the fuck off after saying some pretty fucked up shit and I genuinely fear I’ll do something I’ll regret if I hang around anyone from 1-A for too long.” Midoriya admits, finally finding his previously withering self confidence.

If Monoma could cover his surprise before he sure as hell can’t now . From all of the stories he’s heard of the green haired teen— Midoriya Izuku was depicted as 1-A’s poster boy cinnamon roll that had a self sacrificial streak a mile wide. Monoma didn’t peg Midoriya as someone who swor, so hearing a bunch of swears come out of his mouth was surprising on its own.

Initially Monoma perceived Midoriya as arrogant or pretentious given the way 1-A seemed to think he represented heroism. For someone who had such a self destructive— yet powerful ass quirk, Monoma admitted it was odd to see that the teen had a heavy nervous aura, but skimmed over everything in favor of thinking 1-A was pretentious for saying one of their own was the pinnacle of what a hero should be. 

So looking at Midoriya right now all by himself and clearly just as distasteful of 1-A as Monoma was is certainly surprising. 

‘ The fuck did those idiot 1-A bastards say to have Midorya turn on them this drastically? Geeze Louise ’ Monoma thought bitterly.

“So… Do you want to sit down together?” Midoriya suddenly asks— breaking Monoma out of his train of thought. 

Pondering it for a moment, Monoma determines Midoriya wouldn’t be the worst to hang out with. As much as Monoma thinks 1-B is superior, he does admit that they're being a little too pushy with him recently. (Not that he’d admit that out loud)

“Fine— but only because you clearly hate 1-A as much as I do right now and that’s always a pass in my book” Monoma said with a nod before plopping down in the seat directly Infront of Midoriya.

Midoriya lets out a chuckle “heh— whatever you say”.

/

Slinking out of the teacher's lounge like an alley cat, Shouta sauntered down the hallways on his way towards his Homeroom.

‘Dammit— I don’t think I can hold this off any longer’ Shouta grumbled internally as he rubbed at his temples.

He’d been meaning to do this the second Problem child #1 showed him his analysis notebooks but… 

‘It’s fucking Nedzu’

Shouta really didn’t want to have to deal with The Rat, but at the moment the pros outweigh the almost guaranteed con of world domination .

Despite that dangerous detail about letting The Rat and Midoriya meet— it’s a risk Shouta’s unfortunately willing to take.

‘Quoting the Problem Child: “ In the good name of learning! ”’ 

Ughhhhhh

Peering into his classroom he’s surprised to find it vacant. Where were Shinsou and Midoriya?

Shouta’s about to go gear up for an excursion into the cafeteria when he notices a presence.

Glancing down the hallway he sees Shinsou trudging forwards completely covered in soot and sporting a dead look in his tired eyes. Shouta would compare Shinsou’s look to someone who opened the gates of hell once, slammed them shut, and is currently on their way home to sleep for 16 hours because they aren’t paid enough to deal with this.

When Shinsou finally reaches Shouta they stare unblinking at each other— Shinsou looking at Shouta as if challenging him to question anything .

Sighing loudly— Shouta resigns to the fact that he probably doesn’t want to know.

“Have you seen Midoriya? I need to borrow one of his notebooks for Nedzu ” Shouta grumbles.

Shinsou blinks before smirking.

“Tough luck. Anyway, I have no idea where he is. But I do have—”

Shinsou pulls out Midoriya’s notebook dramatically.

“ —This already in my possession!”

Shinsou holds it out to him like a knight presenting a treasured artifact to their king. 

Shouta only groans louder when he begrudgingly takes it.

Despite the mocking dramatics— Shouta gives Shinsou a quick hair ruffle even at the cost of his hand getting covered in soot.

“Thanks Shinsou”

Strolling off, Shouta makes his way to The Rat Demon himself.

/

‘Fucking Rat ’ Shouta thought to himself as the obnoxiously giant ass doors open by themselves.

“Greetings Aizawa! To what do I owe this pleasure?” Nedzu grins.

“Cut the shit Nedzu— you know why I’m here” Shouta grumbles out.

“Yes… I suppose you’re correct”

There’s a bout of awkward silence.

“Well don’t dilly-dally! Bring it here, bring it here!” Nedzu prompts excitedly.

With great reluctance, Shouta walks slowly over to Nedzu— setting the notebook on the table for Nedzu to look over. However instead of going to sit down, Aizawa keeps a finger on the book as he leans forward a bit in Nedzu’s face. 

“Whatever you decide to do had better not hurt Midoriya Izuku in any way— got it?” Shouta threatened.

“Oh! But I wouldn’t dream of it!” Nedzu chirps— unaffected. 

That does little to reassure Shouta, but he unfortunately has to accept that Nedzu probably wouldn’t cause any mental scarring in Midoriya. 

Like a child on Christmas— Nedzu carefully takes the notebook in his paws and starts to leaf through it. The Rat’s grin only grew more animalistic after each passing second.

After what seemed like an eternity Nedzu finally snaps the book shut. 

There’s a moment of silence.

‘Maybe If I leave now, I’ll— ‘ unfortunately Shouta didn’t get to finish his thought before Nedzu bursts out in maniacal laughter.

‘ Fuck ’

/

Heights alliance descends quickly into night as the day comes to a close. The halls are pitch black and the dorms quiet.

All except for a singular light resting on the common room table.

“Was it really necessary to have a lantern for this?”

“Of course— there’s no other way”

“There’s a million other way ways—“

“SHHHHH”

Everyone shuts up. 

“Todoroki, while I do sometimes seriously question your methods, I think we need to actually discuss why we are here…”

Everyone present looks down at the lantern currently sitting on the coffee table before collectively sharing glances at each other.

All of the “Deku squad” and some other students like Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, and Kyoka all sit around the table. Given the ambiance, you’d think they’re telling ghost stories.

Todoroki suddenly stands up. As their resident conspiracy theorists, he’s admittedly an invaluable asset to figuring this mystery out despite most of his ideas being recognized as outlandish. 

Todoroki brings his hand down on the table— rattling the lantern slightly and calling for attention.

Todoroki lets his grey and icy blue eyes look around at everyone present.

“We need to figure out the mystery that is Midoriya ” Todoroki states.

Kyoka continues to stare intently at the tiny flame flickering in the lantern, deep in thought. 

Chapter Text

There’s a soft, but reverberating clap that brings a hushed silence in its wake.

“Thank you Todoroki for starting us off. First I’d like to thank everyone for being here so we can figure out what happened to Deku to make him… you know—” Uraraka trails off. Though the meaning seems to get out fine, as some nod in grim understanding.

“Yeah man, It’s been kinda surreal seeing Mido-bro look so… I don't know— cold ? A-and he’s been avoiding everyone recently!” Kirishima’s words tumble out of his mouth, as if he doesn’t really know how to articulate his feelings on the matter.

“Yes, I have noticed that too Kirishima! Midoriya also seems to have been favoring spending his time with the new transfer student Shinosu!” Iida points out.

“I know some of us aren’t in Midoriya’s immediate friend group, but it's been quite disconcerting seeing him changing like this. I’d like to help him in any way I can, so I suggest looking back to where we first started noticing changes?” suggested Momo.

Everyone takes a moment to mull it over as Kyouka looks up from her lantern-gazing to look at Momo after feeling a little tap on her arm. 

“Hey, are you alright? You’ve been staring at that lantern for a quite while” whispered Momo worriedly.

Kyouka ponders her words for a moment before giving a reassuring smile and nodding. Momo, one of her best friends, appears to silently sigh in relief. Seems she took the half-lie at face value. 

Like everyone in the room, and (Kyouka would bet good money) probably the entire class was worried about their resident sunshine child. Gone was the nervous and skittish demeanor— and in its place being a determined toxicity that would bend to no one.

Kyouka always found it weird how fast Midoriya could change . Before, it’d happen in little bursts. Where the slightly erratic and fluttery heartbeat of someone clearly nervous would suddenly become as steady as an undisturbed pond. It was a little unnerving when she’d hear it, but it’s not like it bothered her any.

Kyouka can confidently pinpoint the exact moment Midoriya decided enough was enough. That day, when he shattered that glass cup with his bare hand as her classmates talked about what they thought about quirkless people. Honestly, she’d have never thought she’d hear such words come out of her classmate’s mouths— and she was about to say so when her friend Momo had joined in. For once in her life, Kyouka had no idea what to say.

Sense then It’s been eating her alive. Like a sickness that ate away at you from the inside out. A constant itch under your skin that whispered “You should’ve said something. You need to say something”. But at the same time she didn’t want to argue with Momo about it. She’d had to drop too many friends in the past for that, she didn’t want to lose Momo too. 

But at the end of the day, Kyouka felt as if she’d lost a chunk of herself. She’d heard it before—  “quirkless people are nothing but used pieces of gum uselessly sticking to a society that didn’t need them any more”. She’s heard every variety of that below the sun. She’s heard it said in pity, disgust, and disdain. She’s heard “they’re under developed” and “they can’t even be considered human” more times than she can count. And she’s Jirou fucking Kyouka, the one that overhears everything, so she’s heard a lot.

Her cousin is quirkless, after all. 

So, Kyouka did what she did best. She listened in on everyone in this room, trying to “figure out” the quite frankly obvious answer to their questions. It’s almost scary how blind someone can be— terrifying actually. Sometimes Kyouka herself is kept up at night just thinking about how blind she could be while simply not knowing about it. But, as it was, she’s got the 20/20 vision of hindsight on her side.

‘ I’m just too fucking cowardly to use it ’ Kyouka thinks as she clenches her jaw.

Her jaw hurts. 

“Do you maybe think it’s a quirk?” Uraraka mumbles, more to herself than anything.

“Oh yeah! That could explain—” 

“I don’t think so kero, it would have worn off by now if it was” Tsuyu cuts Kirishima off.

Her jaw burns .

“In fact kero, I think he might be mad at us.” Tsuyu bluntly states sadly.

Kyouka’s breath catches. ‘ Could she know too—‘

“Interesting theory, but I don’t believe that is the case” Todoroki suddenly states with all the resolve of someone who knows they’ve figured it out. With that, Todoroki rises from his seat and begins to pace around the room.

“For anyone who knew, at the beginning of this school year I had never used my fire once” Todoroki ignited a small flame and let it flicker in the palm of his hand. 

Once he gets a round of confused nods he continues.

“That is, until Midoriya basically threw the match in the sports festival at my face and forced me to use it” 

“But what most of you probably don’t know is the reason why. And I’m here to tell you…” Todoroki pauses for dramatic effect, heterochromatic eyes glinting from the flame.

“Midoriya is acting the way he is right now for the exact same reason as I had for not using my flames”

A heavy silence falls over the group. 

Kyouka tries not to let the incredulous face she wants to make show through her facial expressions.

‘ Are you fucking serious right now? ’ 

“Yes, I’m being very serious when I say it’s as bad as it could be.” Todoroki says solemnly, completely unaware of Kyouka’s internal crisis. 

“W-well what do we have to do to help him?!” Uraraka and Kirishima shout in unison, desperate for answers. 

“The answer is simple, we re-enact the sports festival, just in a completely different setting. I will personally volunteer as Midoriya’s challenger, and I will fight him until he has no choice but to use his quirk again.” Todoroki lets the flame flicker out, leaving the lantern as their only light source once again. 

“He saved me that day, and I don’t plan on leaving him behind when I could help.” Todoroki states with finality to his tone. Everyone else in the room seems to be thoroughly  persuaded and ready to give their aid in this new plan. 

‘ Shit, this is dangerous. He connected all the wrong dots… Fuck ’ Kyouka abruptly shoots up, startling Momo. 

“Sorry guys, I forgot I had something I needed to do right about now” Kyouka hurriedly spits out, forcing out a horribly strained awkward laugh before hurrying out of the common room and up to her dorm. 

Everyone watches her swiftly receding back with puzzled expressions, while Momo just looks plain worried. 

‘ Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK ’ Kyouka internaly chants as she speed walks up the stairs. This was bad, like really fucking bad. She might not be the closest with Midoriya or even count as a friend, but she’d be damned if she didn’t do something here. 

As Kyouka speed walks through the halls, she glances down at her phone to see what time it was. 

‘ 12:06 AM, damn it’s late, why was the meeting this late again?’ 

Just as Kyouka begins to accept this might have to wait for tomorrow she looks up and hears light muttering from Midoriya’s room. Looking over at the dorm room she noticed there was the soft light of what might be from a computer screen leaking out from the gaps in the door. 

Taking a moment to organize her thoughts and take a much needed deep breath, Kyouka silently steels her resolve as she slowly walks over to the door.

Lifting her hand, she knocks—

Once

twice

After waiting a few agonizing seconds the door finally opens. Midoriya doesn’t look annoyed like Kyouka had feared and instead he just looks surprised and vaguely confused. 

“Oh, hey Jirou— do… do you need something...?” Midoriya asks, clearly trying his hardest to stifle a yawn.

“Yes, I apologize for coming so late— but I’ve got something important I need to talk to you about” Jirou says upfront. 

Midoriya just blinks at her for a second before opening his door wider to make room for Jirou to come in.

Midoriya’s room is the same all-might-filled room that she remembers from the dorm room contest thing, but his desk is a mess of random papers and notebooks. It kinda looked like a bookshelf exploded on his desk. The computer on his desk was also on, proving her earlier theory.

Walking over to his desk chair he takes a seat, gesturing for Jirou to sit on the bed. She obliges.

“What did you want to talk about?” 

/

Kyouka didn’t expect many things to happen after she’d told Midoriya.

But what she was not prepared for was to have Midoriya burst out laughing.

‘HA! holy shit— does he really fucking think that? Oh my god that's too funny—” He continues on trying to supress the giggles and laughs that threaten the bubble out more. He’s failing.

It takes a couple of minutes, but Midoriya is finally able to compose himself enough to continue the conversation.

“Sorry— sorry, you probably don’t know what Todoroki is talking about— Basically it has something to do with Todoroki believing I’m All Might’s secret love child and that’s all you need to know.” 

Kyouka couldn’t stop the incredulous laugh that she abruptly barked out.

“Damn— I knew Todoroki was a conspiracy theorist, but seriously ?! Though, I suppose I can see where he might come to that conclusion…” Kyouka lightly teases. 

Midoriya shoots her a playful glare.

“If you want the full story I’d suggest asking Todoroki, but something tells me this isn’t the only reason why you came?” Midoriya asks with a raised eyebrow. Was she really that transparent ?

“Heh— yeah… was I really that obvious?” Kyouka asks, an almost subdued air floats around her.

Midoriya doesn’t respond, just keeping himself open for listening.

Kyouka sighs.

“I didn’t go to this meeting to find out why you were acting this way. I think I already know. I just wanted to see what everyone else thought…” Kyouka starts, glancing up to see Midoriya sporting an impassive face. 

“And— well— I just thought that maybe if someone else came to the same conclusions that I did, I would be able to talk to my best friend Momo about it… but I was wrong.”

“It’s about what everyone said right? That day you broke your glass. That day when everyone was talking about quirkless people. Honestly, It surprised and sickened me at the exact same time and I wanted to say something! But…” Kyouka doesn’t look up at Midoriya. Keeping her gaze firmly on her lap.

“But I faltered. Momo had joined them and I— for once I didn’t know what to say.”

“I should have spoken out, I know that… But in that moment I—” She gets cut off by the hand being raised in her peripheral. A gentle and kind hand lands on her shoulder, grounding her.

“It’s okay Jirou. The fact that you’re here right now and talking about it is proof enough that you know what they said was wrong and are trying to help fix it, if only subtly.” Midoriya reassures.

“I for one didn’t exactly say anything either, but like you I’m trying to fix it the long way around. I’m not using my quirk for a reason you know.” 

Kyouka looks up, Midoriya’s eyes are soft and full of silent understanding.

Kyouka’s eyes widened with sudden understanding. 

“As for my “new attitude”, I think that wonderful song I sang explains how I’m feeling pretty well. I don’t want to worry about appeasing people who don’t seem to give much of a shit about the people around them anymore. I’ve done that my whole life, I’m kind of tired of it.” Midoriya explains. 

“And I’m aware most of them probably don’t mean anything by it, but it’s not something I want to let stick around. I made that mistake with Bakugou, and—” Midoriya suddenly cuts himself off, seemingly thinking about his reply before shaking his head. 

“Doesn’t matter. The point is I’m trying to let myself go a little, you know?” leaning back in his chair, Midoriya puts his hands behind his head to support his head. 

“Makes sense. Honestly, it’s almost kind of nice seeing you like this. It feels less… I dont know— fake?” Kyouka replies, falling into the easy conversation.

Midoriya lets out a little chuckle at that. “You think so?”

Kyouka smirks. “Totally. And by the way, what are you going to do about Todoroki and his “master plan”?” 

Midoriya’s eyes glint that toxic green that very clearly screams mischief and excitement. 

“You’ll see”

Chapter Text

“I’m just saying he’s our best bet!” 

“Seriously Kirishima? You really think Bakugou’s actually going to help us? What fantasy world do you live in—“

“I agree with Kirishima. Bakugou has known Midoriya for the longest, so he would be a very helpful ally for the plan.”

“While that might be true… are you sure it’s even worth it to try? This is Bakugou we are talking about...” 

“I say we try it! What’s the worst that could happen?”

The little huddle of the “Midoriya Mystery Detective Squad™” collectively goes silent as Kirishima's fist bump freezes in place with the weight of what he just said. 

“ I shouldn’t have said that— “

“No, you shouldn’t have”

Kirishima slowly lowers his fist before sighing.

“Look— I understand Baku-bro has a bit of a temper, but he’s our best chance at figuring Mido-bro out right now!” Kirishima reasons, almost pleading. 

The group glances around at each other apprehensively for a few moments before they all collectively sigh— resigning to their fate.

Uraraka peeks into 1-A classroom at Bakugou who’s already at his seat. He’s always been an early riser, but for some reason he’s been coming to school a lot earlier recently. 

Not that it matters much— for a greater challenge awaits them.

After a few more moments the group collectively shuffles inside the classroom— Kirishima leading a conga line of Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Asui. Iida was already present in the room, so he remains blissfully ignorant of the possible awaiting doom .

“Yo Baku-bro! How’ve ya been?” Kirishima bounds up to Bakugou.

“Ha? What do you want Shittyhair?” Katsuki lazily drawls.

“Soooo— you know how Mido-Bro’s been acting super weird recently? Well, me and some others in our class really want to figure out why. So we thought you might want to help us?” Kirishima explains, leaving the end open as a question.

Bakugou freezes for a second before forcing himself to relax in his seat again. Bakugou lifts a questioning eyebrow.

“And how exactly are you going to figure it out…?” Bakugou asks— remarkably not exploding yet.

“Well… Todoroki over here has apparently figured it out but won’t tell us a straight answer, but that doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that we have a plan to get Mido-bro to use his quirk again— and it’s through a duel! Like the one-on-one fights from the sports festival!” Kirishima explains excitedly.

Bakugou just stares up at Kirishima in silence— his face blank. 

The silence only continues to grow as the lack of response starts to weigh the group down. They expected a light show or loud yelling at this point— not awkward silence. 

Before anyone has a chance to break the silence, Bakugou leaned over on his desk and— is he shaking? 

“H-Hey Baku-Bro are you—“

Kirishima gets cut off by the howling laughter of Bakugou.

“HAHAHHAHAHHAhhhhhhh What ?!” Bakugou weezes out.

The group is collectively stunned into silence— the sound of Bakugou’s near cackles of laughter filling the room.

“ Are you all actually dumbasses ?!” Bakugou manages to choke out.

This is when Uraraka steps in.

“If you didn’t want to help you could have just said so! Or do you have a better plan mr. king-explosion-murder ?” Uraraka asks— pointing an accusing finger at Bakugou.

This is when Bakugou seems to sober up.

“Look. If you think a fucking “duel” will solve this you obviously don’t know what the fucking problem is . I want no part in your shit plan, and when it doesn't work out the way you want— let me be the first to say to you dumbasses ‘I told you so’” Bakugou concludes as he takes out his phone and starts messing with it. When Todoroki tried to interject, Bakugou flipped him the middle finger. 

Well… That’s that.

Unfortunately more people had started coming in during the talk which was a pretty good indicator homeroom would be starting soon, so the group disbanded to their individual seats with the silent promise of talking about this later.

‘ What did Bakugou mean by we don’t know what the problem is?’ was the question on all of the members of the “Midoriya Mystery Detective Squad™’s” minds as homeroom finally started. 

/

“Welcome to hell Midoriya Izuku, where your dreams and fears come to life. A world of wondrous creations beyond your wildest dreams disguised as unpredictable time bombs of the pink creator demon’s personal design. I only hope you don’t lose your head. ” Hitoshi dramatically narrated as he opened the door to the support course’s workshop. 

That got a nice chuckle out of Midoriya, so really— Hitoshi counted it as a win in his book. 

“SIREN-KUN!” someone yelled from the other side of the workshop before a pink blur ran up to both Hitoshi and Midoriya.

“Siren-kun!!! I’ve been working on your voice changer mask non-stop since you gave me the project and It should be done before you can say Hatsume Industries!” a girl with goggles sitting on her pink-haired head and crosshair yellow eyes exclaimed excitedly— her focus only on Hitoshi. 

“ Hatsume Indestries ” Hitoshi said with a smirk— which earned him a half-hearted glare from Hatume before she took notice of Midoriya’s presence. When she did she gasped loudly.

“Are you Mystery-kun?!? The one with the notebook for the Siren-Song baby designs?!?” Hatsume asked loudly before zooming up to Midoriya.

‘ Mystery-kun? ’

“UHhhhhhhhh—- Yes?” Midoriya said it like a question— not like it deterred Hatsume any. 

Hitoshi nudged the confused Midoriya lightly with his elbow.

“She’s calling you that because I refused to tell Hatsume who wrote your journal so she wouldn’t try to hunt you down— guess that precaution is kinda useless now though...” Hitoshi said quietly with an amused, but no less defeated tone.

Midoriya just nodded dumbly as Hatsume gushed over Midoriya’s notebook and concept designs.

“So what brings you here Mystery-kun?” Hatsume suddenly asked, seemingly snapping Midoriya out of his surprised state.

“Oh! I wanted to get some support items for myself! I actually have some concept de—” Midoriya gets cut off while he was taking his notebook out by Hatsume who snatched the notebook away as soon as it made an appearance. 

Hatsume flipped through the book at record speed— stars twinkling in her eyes. 

“There’s so many amazing ideas in here Mystery-kun!! They’re so simple, yet so diverse in a way where anyone could use them!” Hatsume gushed.

“I mean— just look !!!” Hatsume urges as she shoves the notebook in Hitoshi’s face. 

Hitoshi comes face-to-face with a rough, but no less detailed illustration of some gloves designed to act as dynamic tasers.

“While I would love to come back to these ideas later, was there anything that I could get at least by the heroics class today?” Midoriya carefully interjects. Neither of them actually knew when “The Showdown™” would happen yet, but it was very likely to happen very soon , and unfortunately “very soon” could mean either in the next few days or hours . 

That stops Hatsume in her tracks, seemingly screeching her mind to a halt as she thought it over. After a couple tense moments of silence Hatsume starts to speed through the notebook again. 

“What did you need them for?” Hatsume distractedly asks as she looks over the concept designs. 

“An entirely quirkless fight with Todoroki; Quirk is Half-cold Half-hot. You might know him from the sports festival” Midoriya informs. 

Hatsume suddenly snaps the notebook shut. 

“Well Mystery-kun, you’ve come to the right place! I would personally lov e to try out some of the more fun designs, but I know I could get some of these to you come last period today!”  Hatsume declares proudly. 

Hatsume’s yellow cross-haired eyes glint as she stares Midoriya and Hitoshi down.

“So Mystery-kun, how do you feel about fighting fire with fire extinguishers? ” 

/ 

Momo was a little on edge, to put it lightly.

When she had approached Jiro earlier that day to go with the rest of the “Midoriya Mystery Detective Squad™”, she was greeted with the same odd behavior Jiro had expressed the night before. And while Momo respected the need to not be disturbed when “having something to do”, the way Jiro quickly brushed her off was making Momo think Jiro was avoiding her.

Momo of course wasn’t opposed to giving Jiro space for whatever reason there may be, but it still stung just a bit that one of her best friends was actively avoiding her for a reason she was unaware of.

She tried to push it out of her mind as she ate her lunch, surrounded by all of the members of the “Midoriya Mystery Detective Squad™” (minus Jiro) as they talked amongst themselves; trying to put together last minute plans for “The duel”— which Kirishima took to calling. 

Speaking of The Duel — Todoroki had yet to give anything but a vague answer for why this was the best course of action. While Momo trusted Todoroki’s judgement (especially with how well it worked out in the Sports festival— minus the whole breaking bones part—), she was still a little apprehensive going about the problem in this manner. 

She wished Jiro was here to be that blunt voice of reason.  

Lightly shaking herself out of her thoughts, Momo mentally tuned back into the conversation once more.

“Do we even know when we will be able to do this Todoroki?” Uraraka inquired— absentmindedly taking a bite out of her lunch.

Todoroki took a large bite out of his Cold Soba before responding. “I was originally thinking I would confront him after school— but that is more likely to be stopped by a teacher quickly. So instead, we should disguise it as regular sparring during these sparring sessions we have been having recently during class.” 

“Ah— I get it! That way the teachers would be more likely to pass it off as just really intense sparring!!” Kirishima concluded.

“And sense 1-B should be coming in sometime soon— that will just add more distractions! It’s genius!” Uraraka cheered.

Todoroki merely nodded, digging back into his Cold Soba. 

There was a lull in the conversation where everyone dug into their lunches before Tsu suddenly raised a hand to her chin in thought. 

“Does anyone know where Jiro is? Kero ” Tsu suddenly piped up. 

“I have been wondering about that myself as well Tsu! Wasn’t she here for the meeting yesterday?” Iida pointed out— bringing his hand up to his chin in thought as well. 

“You’re right! Didn’t you try to get her to come with us this morning?” Uraraka asked Momo. 

“Oh! I did actually! But she seemed to be a bit busy and I couldn't spot her on our way to lunch…” Momo stated slightly forlornly— pittering off a bit at the end; unsure. 

Everyone else seemingly realized this too— the group quickly glancing around at their neighboring tables; not seeing Jiro anywhere.

“If she was busy this morning and not around for lunch…”

“where is she?”

/

“I'm just saying— coat tails are classy and a great costume choice— “ 

“But wouldn’t the coat tails just get caught on shit all the time? Shorter jackets are much more versatile and easier to wear—“ 

“—doesn’t that sparkle kid from your class have a legit fucking cape? ”

“Hey don’t dis Aoyama like that! It’s basically his entire brand —“ 

Jiro and Monoma are suddenly cut off by the classroom door opening— revealing an exhausted Midoriya and Shinsou. 

“I’m glad to see both of you are getting acquainted well” Midoriya sighs out as he trudged into the room— Shinsou close behind. 

Jiro takes the opportunity to turn away from Monoma and towards Midoriya.

“You alright there? You seem a little… tired.” Jiro bluntly points out.

“As helpful as Hatsume is… She’s really excitable” Midoriya explained as he unceremoniously plopped down in one of the classroom's chairs— leaning his head down onto the table in front of him.

With almost no hesitation, the other exhausted teen— Shinsou— reached out to card his fingers through Midoriya’s fluffy hair to help relax him. It seems neither even realize what’s happening until Shinsou suddenly gets mentally smacked bsck into clarity. Realizing what he’s doing, Shinsou jerks his hand back like it was burned— 

“A-Ah— I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking—“ Shinsou stammers out— trying to defend himself as his face steadily starts turning into a nice shade of pink. 

Midoriya just lets out a small mournful sigh at the loss of contact before mumbling out a quiet “it’s fine”— seemingly too tired to care. 

Jiro and Monoma just watch the exchange unfold— slowly turning their expressions from slightly shocked to devious . Despite this seemingly newfound teasing tactic— the two seem to silently agree to stay quiet for the time being. it’s simply too early .

Seemingly trying to distract himself by any means necessary— Shinsou turns towards both Jiro and Monoma.

“S-So… did both of you make a decision?” Shinsou asks— coughing into his hand slightly to hide his slowly dissapaiting blush.

Jiro and Monoma look at each other— taking a second to remember what they were even there for before getting into their heated argument about fashion choices. 

Despite this— they both eventually nod to each other.

“We solemnly swear that we will not use our quirks unless it’s for a last resort or emergencies” they both recite scarily in-sync. 

Midoriya let out a little snort before lifting his head up off the table— opting to rest it on a propped up arm instead.

“You guys do realize you don’t have to keep this up longer than some choice times... right?” Midoriya asks, his tone suddenly turning slightly apprehensive in the middle of his sentence. 

“Of course— but what good would that do if we just stopped there?” Jiro points out, Monoma nodding in agreement off to the side.

“This situation only solidifies my belief that 1-B is superior to 1-A, I can’t simply pass up the opportunity to teach them a lesson or two now can I?” Monoma states firmly— fire burning in his eyes.

Midoriya smiles a bit— standing up from his chair and walking right in front of Jiro and Monoma.

“I suppose I should formally welcome you into the group then” Midoriya states as he holds out a crooked hand. They both take it without hesitation.

“It’s time we go on strike... properly”

Chapter Text

“…”

“…”

“So… It’s come to this” 

It’s quiet.

The air is still and no one dares move a muscle.

The purest of serenity— most tranquil of feelings.

The calm before the storm.

“Yes… I suppose—“

A towering wall of ice looms ahead— a beast only comparable to the ice age’s great glaciers of pure Hellish chill.

“— It has ”

/

Fumikage felt a pit in his gut that only grew more with each passing day.

The sensation was not new to him— but right now it was starting to feel suffocating . 

What most people didn't know was that he had an inherent ability to “sense” things, if you will. It’s a very vague description for an equally vague ability, but it was an ability he’s always had. 

Sometimes he just knows when something will go wrong, or if someone is experiencing a spike in emotional state like anger or sadness to give an example. 

When there is an abundance of things he “senses”, the pit will grow. A similar thing will happen if he, too, is experiencing excessive mental distress— and right now he’s been feeling a combination of both.

Mainly— the unresolved tension his class has been exhibiting, and his own internal conflict.

Fumikage is sure everyone else has come to this same conclusion, but the origin of such conflict started with that damned glass cup.

Sometimes he’ll think back on that day in bewilderment. He almost didn’t want to believe that it had even happened to begin with— but alas, the truth is the truth no matter how much irrelevance you drown it in. 

The conversation unsettled him to his very core, and he had to actively talk down his companion— DarkShadow— from lashing out at them all. 

The thick cloud of pure confusion he felt that day still weighed down on him, and he couldn’t help but think ‘why?’. 

“I know right?! You’d think that some of them wouldn’t think that way! I mean— it just doesn’t make any sense!! ” DarkShadow cried from inside Fumikage’s mind. 

Ahh, seems his mental musings have been interrupted. 

“ Isn’t Ashido extremely against bullying? And what about Koda? He’s so gentle and kind— you’d think he would see right through all that pure bullshit!! ” DarkShadow wailed. Fumikage couldn't help but share the sentiment. 

‘Why’ is a very good question. 

The betrayal he’d felt was very similar to Jiro’s— he remembers vaguely feeling— when he noticed Shouji was a part of the “quirkless are weak and must be protected” group. 

Yeah. ‘Why’ indeed.

He never did get an answer to that question— however. 

Part of Fumikage recognizes his classmates probably didn’t mean anything by it, and it could be resolved with a simple conversation—but the larger and more dominant part of himself also recognizes how obvious it should have been. 

And it only became louder the more he subtly asked ‘why’. 

“Could Midoriya be upset because of the things you said about the girl on the news?” Fumikage casually inquired. 

“Of course not! Why would he be?” Mina confusedly replied. 

It was honestly becoming a bit irritating in how perplexing the situation was. 

“ Have you perhaps thought that what you said about the girl was callous? I wouldn’t say quirkless people are any weaker than someone with a quirk” Fumikage suggested. 

“Aren’t they a little underdeveloped though? Maybe that also means they have weaker mental resistance. I wish I could have helped her though…” Shouji said sadly. 

That one particularly stung. 

It was like a mass hysteria, but more centered around seemingly common belief than non-threats. 

It was like these “concerns” were about issues someone— anyone— could have, but directly putting them on quirkless people. 

How was that any different from discrimination and bias against mutant type quirks? Against villainous type quirks? Weak quirks? Heroic quirks?

All things Fumikage has seen a lot of his classmates are aware of and actively dislike. 

“What’s the difference?” DarkShadow bemoaned.

Fumikage didn’t know. 

But he sure wished he did.

Because the pit in his gut won’t stop growing, and he doubts he’ll be able to hold DarkShadow back a second time.

/

Monoma Neito was a little on edge.

Could you really blame him though? The icy Zuko clone and his band of well-meaning subordinates were planning on re-enacting the goddamn sports festival who knows when (and though they don’t officially know, Neito’s drama heart can sense the looming storm clouds from a mile away), and he knew very well how well that went the first time—

Pure terrified awe at the sheer display of power— two Demi-gods walking amongst man and fighting for some vague reason with biased watchers as their overwhelming witness. Bones were broken, dark bruises mimicking space nebula made, and all for what? He didn’t know— and he questioned if he did want to and what it would mean for him if he ever found out. 

He’s always wanted to be more than the side character in the drama play that was his life, but somewhere during that fight, he started questioning whether it was worth it if it meant tangling with the likes of them.  

—Neito shivers at the memory.

But, Nieto supposed, it wasn’t actually going to be the sports festival. 

His fellow classmates in 1-B that were currently not in the know would call today’s training “ a simple joint training exercise ” and he’d scoff quietly to himself and internally cackle deep inside his cold, dead heart.

But— Despite the looming promise of almost definite doom sooner or later, he does recognize it’s still a training exercise on training grounds, and not in a stadium with thousands watching— waiting for a showing of gods.

So with this knowledge held close to his chest, he steels his nerves and marches towards the training fields with his beloved classmates in-tow. 

As Vlad-Sensei goes off to mingle with the other teachers, he spies his partners in crime already grouped together. 

He smirks when Jiro catches his eye and she smirks back.

“Oh look— a blond weasel” Jiro fake sneers at him.

“Oh look— an emo with no taste in fashion” Neito snipes back. 

“Oh look— a walking superiority complex” Jiro hums.

“Oh look—“

“Are you done?” Shinsou said with his own smirk as he cut Neito off. 

Jiro and Neito share a look before snorting in unison. 

“I suppose we could withhold this battle for later…” Neito relents— albeit reluctantly. He had some good ones thought up and he was just warming up! 

“Yo” Midoriya says, giving a lazy wave as he strolls up next to Shinosu. 

Neito makes a show of looking Midoriya up and down “You seem rather calm and confident for what’s bound to be happening in the next couple-ish minutes…” Neito assesses before looking over at the teachers; Smirking to himself. “But I suppose that’s just to be expected from 1-A’s resident delinquent” he snarks.

Midoriya obnoxiously snorts in surprise as he questions “ Delinquent? ” in an amused tone.

Shinosu lightly bumps Midoriya’s shoulder. “I mean… he’s got a point ” Shinsou helpfully points out.

“You are the one who’s most actively broken the most laws and attracted the most problems” Jiro muses, bringing her hand up to her chin in faux thought.

Midoriya glares at them, but Neito can tell it’s all playful and holds no malice. 

Just as Neito is about to snark out something else, the teachers call to attention.

“As you’ve all probably already guessed, we will be doing a joint training exercise today. You’ve all been steadily polishing and working out your fighting styles with your individual classes, so it’s likely come as no surprise to many of you that we would bring both freshman heroics classes together to assess each other. You can still partner up with whoever you’d like, but do try to observe your other classmates in between spars to get more outside perspectives for more ideas to help yourselves out.” Vlad-Sensei rattled off as both Aizawa-Sensei and AllMight stood next to him. Neito honestly wasn’t paying too much attention as he was currently vibrating with nerves for how this Showdown™ was going to go.

“And with that out of the way, you may all go find your sparring partners and get started” Vlad-Sensei dismissed.

Neito didn’t try to spare even a little subtlety as he shamelessly whipped his head over to the approaching remnants of the “Deku Squad” and some new stragglers. 

At the front of the pack is, as expected, Todoroki Shouto himself. He looks like a walking candy cane on a mission and everyone “In the know” knew exactly what that mission was. Neito could barely keep the grin threatening to split open on his face as he saw how serious Todoroki seemed about this whole situation.

Part of Neito also wanted to take this seriously— but another, more larger part of himself also saw the sheer comedic nature of this entire situation— so really, Neito should be given an award for being able to keep his trademark smirk off his face. 

“Midoriya” Todoroki says, voice steely and determined— yet still stoic by Todoroki trademark. 

“Yes Todoroki?” Midoriya asks in faux cluelessness. Neito has to hand it to the guy— if he didn’t know about the sheer chaos that was coming, he himself wouldn’t have known Midoriya was playing an acting game at all.

“Would you like to be my sparring partner? I would actually like to talk to you about something as well” Todoroki states— to the point, but not obviously giving anything away. Neito inwardly scoffs.

“Sure! We haven’t sparred in a while… It’ll be nice to have one again” Midoriya replies joyfully, walking off with Todoroki for a “sparring match”.

Funnily enough, Midoriya’s trademark bouncy nature seems to slightly put off the “Deku Squad”— almost like the way he is “supposed” to act was exactly what was making them uneasy.

There was an awkward bout of silence between the two opposing groups as Todoroki and Midoriya both walked away. Neito, however, didn’t miss the subtle way Midorya turned around and winked at them with a small, but no less impish smirk. 

‘God I loved this Strike Squad. You know… that actually has a nice ring to it—‘ Neito thought to himself as he turned to both Jiro and Shinsou.

Neito was not disappointed when both of them showed clear mirth and amusement in their mere eyeballs. He was also pleasantly surprised with the subtle blush also decorating Shinsou’s face.

‘ I’m surrounded by a bunch of nerds ’ Neito cackled inwardly.

“ Hey ” 

Neito’s internal evil laugh was suddenly interrupted by… Uraraka?

Neito is ashamed to admit… he’d completely forgotten the large group of people that was standing right next to him. 

Now that the two protagonists of the hour were off to go duke it out, Neito had the time to actually take stock of how the “Skeptic Squad” or, more accurately, the “Oblivious Squad” is faring. 

Here’s a hint— the answer was fucking hilarious .

Most of the group shared a healthy amount of anticipation, but also sprinkles of premature relief founded by false confidence in Todoroki’s accuracy in assessing the “situation” and his promise to “fix it”. Uraraka herself looks to have ditched the whole confidence thing and seems to have gotten spiked with a dash of arrogance. 

Neito knows exactly how to deal with people like this. 

Sparing Uraraka a sideways glance, Neito puts on a cocky look— one eyebrow raised and sharp sideways smirk — the perfect blend of acknowledging the call-out and still holding an ‘ I dare you to continue ’ edge that Uraraka best be careful not to get cut on. 

Taking this as a challenge, Uraraka states her piece. 

“You guys seem to have gotten awfully close… How'd that happen? No— I’m going right to the point— you’ve all got a hand in the way Deku-Kun’s been acting, don’t you ?” Uraraka says dangerously close to a spat; pointing an accusing finger their way. 

Funnily, the rest of the “Oblivious Squad” recoiled in surprise at the sudden spike in hostility. However, interestingly enough, some of the members actually seem to be going through a sort of revelation of their own. 

Nobody, however, actually gets the chance to either refute or agree with Uraraka’s claim as Neito bursts out into hysterical laughter. 

“PFFFTHAHahahaha— this can’t get any better— I fucking swear to the gods above and all that is righteous that if you all are actually serious I will throw either Shinsou or Jiro at you— whoever’s closest—“ 

Both Shinsou and Jiro noticeably shuffle a bit away, slowly . 

Uraraka actually sputters at that. 

“W-what? Of course I’m serious! Deku-Kun’s only gotten worse ever since he’s been hanging out with Shinsou and now you guys! You’re doing something— I know it—“ Uraraka rattled off, trying desperately to make a point. 

“Get to your groups!” A shout from

one of the teachers was heard in the distance, mercifully cutting Uraraka off.

This left the two groups at a standstill.

That is… until Shinsou stepped up— eyes hard and voice cold .

“ What are you implying? ” Shinosu hisses out. 

“W-well—“ 

“GROUPS. NOW.” A teacher yells again. 

It’s clear to both parties that this conversation is over as Momo calmly puts a hand on Uraraka’s shoulder. Momo doesn’t look mad, but she does send sad eyes towards Jiro as the group hesitantly breaks apart and pairs off for the exercise. 

Neito takes stock of his own group, his manic eyes going soft with what he finds.

Jiro is standing stalk still— staring at where Momo was, her face trying desperately to remain stoic and calm. Whereas Shinsou is visibly shaking— his fists and jaw clenched tight . 

Neito lightly bumps Shinsou’s arm before asking “Oi, you alright?”. 

Shinsou just looks down at the ground “I thought the hero course would be different… Obviously it’s not, I already knew this through Izuku, but— “ Shinsou mumbles quietly, almost too quiet to hear.

Sighing loudly, Neito claps both Jiro and Shinsou on the shoulder. 

“Look, the whole reason this group started in the first place was so we could fix this. I was fine just antagonizing 1-A in the past, but now I recognize it’s better to share my wisdom from 1-B to help fix each other for the better— as fucking cheesy as that sounds— “ Neito mutters quickly at the end, but the message still gets across. 

Shinsou and Jiro both noticeably relax. Not fully— never fully— but still enough. 

At least enough for Jiro to split a grin and come back with a “yeah that was pretty cheesy— didn’t know you would stoop so low Monoma— “ 

“Just take my fucking knowledge with silence and appreciation” Neito hisses like a stray cat. 

Both Shinsou  and Jiro laugh loudly at that— Both of them pointedly pairing off while Neito is left to go find his own partner somewhere else. 

Neito gives himself a mental pat on the back for a job well done .

Looking over at Canadian-flag-McGee and Chaos-Lord-Midoriya, Neito smirks to himself and whispers a quick “ May the plot be ever in your favor ” before walking off to go find a partner. 

/

The time has come.

The stage is set and the scene is ready to commence at any moment. 

Many would say it all started at shattered glass shards and water puddles, but the truth of the matter is the story has only just begun. 

Power . Such an interesting concept. 

A thing that can mean so many different things and Influence many in such different ways. 

Is it the illusion of power that gives people the ability to do things, or is it power itself that gets things done? 

Is a tick as powerful as a giant if it brings it down with a disease, or is the giant more powerful because of its size and strength? 

Though, I suppose the real question I should be asking is… does it matter? 

…

Let’s find out, shall we?

/

“Midoriya” Shouto said as he stared Midoriya down.

“We’ve all noticed you’ve been acting off recently, and I believe I know why…” Shouto claims as he searches Midoriya’s face for any expression. Weirdly enough, it looks calm— and if Shouto squints— he can almost see a hint of boredom . 

Despite that though, Shouto continues anyway. 

“And because of that… I will help you like you helped me ”

It’s silent. Neither dares move a muscle as a tense air settles over the two of them. 

Then, Midoriya does something even more unexpected. 

He sighs . 

Long, and disappointed . 

“So… It’s come to this” Midoriya finally says. It sounds like it should be a question, but it’s stated so flatly it’s hard for Shouto to even figure out what he means by that. 

Shouto merely stares at Midoriya again, a question resting on his lips, but Shouto stays close mouthed and silent. 

The beginnings of sparring from everyone else on the P.E. field fills the deafening silence with background noise— muted by the intensity roiling off both Shouto and Midoriya in waves. 

“Yes…” Shouto finally decides on the appropriate response. 

Both parties tense their muscles, ready for a fight— a duel— a battle . 

“I suppose— it has ”

Shouto says no more. Wanting to get this over and done with— He sends out a giant ice-glacier to intercept any attack Midoriya might have tried to send his way. Shouto knows Midoriya has a competitive streak as wide as Bakugo’s when it comes to winning, so hopefully the threat of getting encased in a giant stream of ice would do the trick and get Midoriya to use his quirk. 

Shouto remembers the Sport’s Festival clearly, how Midoriya ruthlessly kept coming no matter what Shouto threw at him. How Midoriya blasted apart his very fingers to get Shouto to see reason.

Now Midoriya’s the one claiming he “doesn’t need his quirk” and has already shown he will not be using it anytime soon, so compared to the Sports Festival, Midoriya is powerless to stop the sheer amount of Ice. 

Shouto just hopes he will be able to at least help half as well as Midoriya did…

… 

It’s silent again. 

The air is blasted with cold and the entire field feels suddenly chilly. People abruptly stopped in their sparring to gaze in awe at the large spikes of ice comparable to a demented wave from the 9th circle of hell. 

They say silence is deafening— and this moment just further proves that saying more . 

However, Just as Shouto huffs in dissatisfaction at not being able to get Midoriya to use his quirk to, at the very least, get out of the way— there’s finally some sound that cuts— quite literally— through the silence.

Literal— as in Midorya himself was chilling at the very top of the glacier by holding himself up on the side of one of the ice spikes with a fucking knife . 

It was comparable to fucking Spider-Man casually sticking to the side of a building looking out over the city. 

Nobody even has the time to be surprised, however, before Midoriya is using the Ice as a ramp— sliding down the wave and avoiding spikes at high speeds as he makes his way down towards Shouto.

Still no green sparks of lightning .

Scrambling to find something— anything to do— Shouto contemplated sending more ice, but he quite quickly realizes that’s probably a stupid idea. So instead when Midoriya rockets towards the bottom and almost flies at Shouto with the built up momentum, Shouto opts to just send a blast of fire in Midoriya’s direction.

…Which immediately gets annihilated by a stream of fluffy foam from— is that a mini fire extinguisher?  

In sheer surprise Shouto stumbles back awkwardly, at a loss for what to even do as Midoriya goes in to fight close combat. 

By sheer luck Shouto is able to send out a small stream of ice that forces Midoriya to jump out of the way— taking Shouto out of the immediate danger zone for a split second that lets him sablize himself once more. 

Turning quickly to face Midoriya once more, Shouto’s newly gained balance is almost immediately destroyed as Midoriya throws the knife he had from earlier at Shouto — forcing him to throw himself out of the way and lose balance again .

Shouto has just about had enough when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stand on end. 

Shouto quickly looks behind him— running on pure instinct— before he’s frozen in place by what he sees.

Midoriya is mere inches away from Shouto— his eyes glowing an eerie toxic green accompanied by a sharp grin splitting his face. 

Shouto didn’t stand a chance as the back of his neck was sharply hit and his entire world went dark.

“I win”

Chapter Text

Shouta really should have stopped that fight…

But he didn’t.

A normal teacher would have stepped in right when the icy spikes from the land of over dramatic had started protruding from the ground at such a high speed and density.

A normal teacher wouldn’t have conspired with a feral green gremlin child and joined them in their plans of “education”. 

A normal teacher wouldn’t be sitting off to the side, grinning into their capture scarf like a maniac, watching their co-works gawk at the ice behemoth only previously seen from the sports festival. 

Aizawa Shouta is not a normal teacher. And in true not-normal teacher fashion, he sat by and watched as Midoriya absolutely creamed Todoroki in barely a minute of spar-time.

He’s so goddamn proud .

And even from a distance, he can tell Midorya is proud too. 

It makes Shouta wonder why Midoriya had originally tried so hard to be someone he wasn’t, when he stood there with his head held high with eyes shining as brightly and lively as a supernova. 

Shouta supposed that comparison was sort of poetic. Midoriya was often compared to the sun, but as brightly as suns shine— they are ultimately condensed and confined to themselves until they die and explode out in a series of beautiful colors beyond our wildest dreams. 

Of course there won’t be mass amounts of death and destruction as a result, but instead something new would be born. 

‘ God, when have I gotten so poetic? I need to stop hanging around Hizashi ’

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Shouta takes the time to simply be happy for his problem child. Even in a “simple spar”, doing something like that takes a lot of skill and adaptability to get right. Todoroki is no easy opponent, and to take him down in maybe a couple of minutes at tops quirkless — 

Well, Midoriya definitely has a right to be proud. 

Shouta waltzes past the still frozen Yagi and Kan to go check on Todoroki— though even from where he was, Shouta could tell Todoroki would be fine. He might wake up with a minor headache, but that should be as bad as it gets— Shouta taught his Problem Child well. 

“Problem Child, go take Todoroki up to Recovery Girl. You can join another group to spar with when you get back.” Shouta instructs as he looks over at Midoriya. Midoriya gives a lazy salute and goes to carefully pick Todoroki up.

“Oh— and Midoriya?” Shouta asks before the kid can start walking away. Said kid turns towards him questioningly.

“I’m proud of you” Shouta states. Simple and true.

A brief bit of surprise flashes across Midoriya’s face before his expression morphs into a small smile. It’s oddly fragile— like it’s made of porcelain and could be shattered at the slightest tap. Despite this, it had to have been one of the most genuine smiles Shouta’s ever seen from the kid. 

It’s not dripping with determination, or purposefully pleasant and bright. It’s not wide and certainly not something seen often. But it’s a small little thing that actually reaches Midoriya’s eyes— something true. 

In the spirit of genuine smiles, Shouta lets one of his own slip onto his face in return. 

Midoriya gives a small nod as he walks off to go take Todoroki up to Recovery Girl.

Shouta let his smile stay on his face a bit longer even after Midoriya left. Shouta didn’t miss the way Midoriya sent his friends (which has seemingly grown to 2 more members— Jirou, and oddly enough, Monoma) a subtle thumbs up, which said friends returned in kind enthusiastically. 

But then, out of seemingly nowhere, Shouta remembered something. 

It wasn’t a slap to the face like remembering having to do something important— it was a creeping, gnawing, dread . 

‘ “ Not only do I not want to have to rely on my quirk when fighting in the future, but I’ve also got something I need to prove. ” Midoriya’s hands clench at that, eyes hardening even more with silent resolve. ‘

It was thought Shouta had— something he’d forgotten to look into after the USJ. A creeping suspicion. Looming dread.

Midoriya had made a lot of progress this school year. He was making leaps and bounds in training. He was exhibiting intelligence he would for some reason hide when it wasn’t important. He was showing a resourcefulness that should’ve had to have been taught when he possessed a quirk like the one he has.

‘ “I need to prove that I can fight just as well without my quirk as I could with it. That my quirk is nothing but a tool in my Arsenal for heroics. Show that it wouldn’t matter if I had it or not— that it isn’t the determining factor that makes me a hero.” ‘

The entire reason Midoriya was going on a sort of “quirk strike” to begin with was because of the callous thoughts of his classmates; Shouta’s students . Callous thoughts towards a quirkless girl, one who had taken her own life. 

Shouta wouldn't be feeling the way he is though without reason— and normally Midoriya’s reasoning to stop using his quirk would have been good enough to satisfy Shouta’s drama loving heart. 

And it was.

But there was more to it then that. 

Midoriya had come to UA the first day on shaky legs and, quite frankly, shitty and reckless quirk use. 

That is not even remotely a reflection of who Midoriya is now. Someone who had rangled in a dangerous quirk like it was a newly captured wild animal. Someone who had the smarts and wit to figure out such a quirk almost all on their own in such a short amount of time. 

Traits like those don’t come from nowhere— so why didn’t Midoriya figure it out before he got to UA? Figure it out when he was younger; Through trial and error like what he was doing originally?

And, perhaps more darkly, why hadn’t Midoriya blown up by now for having such a self destructive quirk? A quirk he should have gotten around the age of 4?

It would be reasonable to assume it was because Midoroya was scared to use it in fear of destroying himself. However, Shouta knows better— he knows something like breaking bones wouldn’t be enough to deter Midoriya. 

Shouta suspected Midoriya might’ve gotten his quirk later than usual— maybe around 8 or 9 years old. Something reasonable like that. He was going to look into it, but then the USJ and the League of Villains happened and… well… 

Like the idiot he was, he forgot . 

Shouta might be grasping at straws, but he’s starting to think Midoriya got his quirk much later than usual. 

That’s… not a very fun thought and makes a lot of things that were originally fuzzy become clear. 

‘ Bad Shouta. You can have a crisis later when it’s not the middle of class. Enjoy the fact your student is doing well and thriving.’ Shouta thought to himself, his inner voice sounding suspiciously like Hizashi. 

Sighing heavily, Shouta turns back to all of the other students. Most of them have started awkwardly going back to sparring— and some are still trying to process what even happened . 

And some… well—

“AHHAHHHAHAH!!! WHAT’D I TELL YOU? WHAT DID I FUCKING TELL YOU!!” The loud, abrasively mocking voice of Bakugou suddenly breaks out.

“Hey man, that’s not cool—“ Kirishima tries to mediate, but fails spectacularly as Bakugou steam rolls over the attempt.

“You fuckwads didn’t fucking listen to me, and look where THAT got you!! I hope you can take this as a lesson to ALWAYS listen to ME —“ 

“Fuck off Bakugou!!!” Uraraka screams out, voice shaking slightly.

‘ For fuck’s sake — when did they even congregate?’ Shouta mentally sighs as he starts walking over to deal with the fallout.

“If you’re so fucking smart WHY DON’T YOU TELL US HOW TO GET DEKU-KUN BACK TO NORMAL!” Uraraka yells loudly— openly expressing her obvious frustration. 

That makes the air go heavy with silence as the students openly stare wide-eyed at the sudden conflict.

“That’s your problem. Right there.” Another voice cuts through. 

At some point Shinsou had walked up to the group, staring down at Uraraka with a blank expression and cold eyes. Jiro was close behind, and it seemed Monoma had started jogging up to them as well. 

Uraraka openly glares up at Shinsou. 

“It’s true that Midoriya is acting differently from how you’re used to. So what? Personally I don’t see a problem with it.” Shinsou drawls, voice level and seemingly devoid of emotion. 

Uraraka looks like she’s about to interject before Shinsou smoothly cuts her off. 

“Another thing you forgot to consider is that it’s not up to you to decide how Midoriya should act. He’s the most confident and relaxed I’ve ever seen him. Why is that a bad thing?” Shouta can almost feel the bitterness dripping out of Shinsou’s mouth. 

Uraraka looks like she’s at a loss for words. Iida walks up and puts a hand on her shoulder, but doesn’t say anything. Momo is looking to the side, rubbing her arm awkwardly. Tsu’s brows are furrowed in concern, and Kirishima just looks lost. 

“It’s— it’s not… but that doesn’t explain why he keeps avoiding us! We’re his friends and he doesn’t even talk to us anymore!! He’s— he’s always hanging around you guys now and— and it all started with you ” Uraraka points a finger at Shinsou. 

That actually has Shouta stop in his tracks.

‘ What? ’

Shinsou is still unwavering, especially now that his friends have caught up to him and are there as an emotional support. 

“It’s all your fault! You’re a bad influence and you’re keeping Deku-Kun away from his friends! You probably made him hate us! You have the quirk to do it!“

Bakugou, who had been mostly silent after his mock-fest, let off some explosions in his palms. Jiro looks 2 seconds away from punching Uraraka and Monoma is glaring so hard— if looks could kill— Uraraka’s entire family lineage would’ve disintegrated .  

“ Enough ” Shouta commands as he lets his quirk flare. He doesn’t yell, but that doesn’t take away from the pure anger that’s roiling off of him. 

Everyone looks over at Shouta and freezes in place. 

“Uraraka, you’re out of line. That is quirk discrimination. You’ve been at UA long enough to know that we don’t tolerate that.” Shouta states firmly. 

“But—“ Uraraka tries to refute. 

“What’s going on?” 

It was like watching an intense ball game with how much people’s heads are turning— but as it was— everyone looked towards the sudden interruption.

Midoriya Izuku.

‘Truly impeccable timing problem child’ Shouta exasperatedly thinks to himself. 

Jiro scowls and looks over at Midoriya— clear disgust written all over her face.

“ Uraraka‘s insinuating that Shinsou used his quirk on you to make you hate them ” Jiro growls out. 

It takes only a moment for the words to register, but when they do Midoriya’s entire demeanor changes. His eyes harden to that of stone cold ice and glow unnaturally.

“ It seems that I’m going to have to speed up my lesson plan ” 

Everyone visibly reels from the weird declaration. 

“Let’s have a test shall we? Question 1) Did I need to use my quirk at all when fighting Iida?” Midoriya questions.

“What?” Uraraka confusedly questions nothing in particular. 

Midoriya tsks. 

“No. I didn’t. The entire time I sparred with him, I didn’t activate my quirk once. Points deduction” Midoriya curtly answers. 

“Question 2) did I need to use my quirk at all when I took down Bakugou shortly after?”

Funnily, despite the situation, Bakugou answers with a grumbled “No”. 

Midoriya sends a sharp smile Bakugou’s way. 

“Congratulations, you’re correct. Too bad you’re not the one taking this test. Points deduction”

Bakugou tsks.

“Question 3) did I need to use my quirk at all when I just took down Todoroki?” 

Some of the 1-B students in the growing crowd whisper “ no way ” and “seriously?” incredulously.

“No… you didn’t” Tsuyu answers softly.

Midoriya looks over at her.

“Correct. Now, last question. Why am I mad at you? At all of you? Here’s a hint, the answer involves the answers from the other questions” Midoriya states, making a point to look all of his on-looking classmates in the eyes. 

Nobody says anything; too stunned. 

Midoriya sighs. Disappointed. 

“I’m not going to answer this question for you. You need to understand why I’m upset, and why you made them upset” Midoriya gestures at Monoma, Jiro, and Shinsou for emphasis. 

“You have all the tools, all the hints, all the information necessary already. You don’t technically need my help to answer this question at all — but this is exactly why I’m asking it.” 

“Real Heroes don’t accuse people of things that have no merit other than their own bias . Real Heroes don’t think less of others because of something they can’t control. Real Heroes try to help everyone they can and do their fucking job to make the world just that little bit better.”

Midoriya finally looks directly at Uraraka.

“Recently, you’ve done nothing of the sort.”

Uraraka looks down— avoiding eye contact. 

“A person should only be held accountable for their own decisions and actions. Not of what they were born with, of what they have to deal with, or of the decisions of others that affect them” 

Midoriya walks over to Shinsou and the rest of his friends. Shinsou— who was currently trying his hardest to keep any weaknesses emotions out of his face— visibly relaxed a bit in Midoriya’s presence. 

“Shinsou has done absolutely nothing wrong. Shinsou is someone who’s kind, but not nice. That’s not a bad thing and something that I look up to personally” 

Midoriya holds Shinsou’s shaking hands tenderly. 

“Nobody’s perfect, I understand, I’m not accusing anyone of murder when I say this— but you fucked up” 

Midoriya glares at his classmates once again. 

“The path to hell is paved with good intentions. You’d best get off that fucking path before someone gets hurt ”

Midoriya looks up to Shouta with a silent question and Shouta nods softly. After that Midoriya wastes no time in gently dragging Shinsou away from the field and everyone’s prying eyes. Monoma and Jiro follow after— acting as a sort of shield. 

Shouta watches them go.

“My boy…” Came the sudden whispered voice of Yagi— who, at some point, had walked up next to Shouta and was holding his hand out as if to stop Midoriya, but not having the heart to do so. 

Shouta looks over at him and raises an eyebrow.

If Shouta had to describe AllMight in that moment it would be downcast. Like he’d just seen a ghost, but feels self loathing because of it. 

“ I’m sorry ” 

Chapter Text

Breath in 

…

“You’re used to it”

…

Breath out

…

“This is nothing you haven’t seen before”

…

Breath in

…

“Nothing you haven’t heard before”

…

Breath out

… 

“It should be easy”

…

Breath out

… 

“The easiest thing in the world—”

…

Breath out

… 

“—So why— “ “ Shinsou ”

…

Breath out

… 

“—Despite everything—“ “ Shinsou ”

…

Breath out

… 

“ —Do my hands still shake? ”

…

Breath in

…

Breath out

“ Hitoshi!! ”

Hitoshi inhaled sharply— like he just woke up from a bad dream. A nightmare.

“Huh…?” Hitoshi softly breathes out before looking up at the voice that so kindly woke him up. 

There’s a warmth on the side of Hitoshi’s face, a pleasant sort of warmth comparable to the feeling of cuddling up under warm blankets on a cold winter’s day. 

It’s nice

Hitoshi wants it to stay forever 

“You back with us?” The voice asks— and it’s so kind, so soft. Hitoshi, for a brief moment, wonders if it would be possible to cuddle up to a voice before the world starts slowly coming back.

The first color Hitoshi registers is the color green and suddenly it’s like the world came rushing back. 

“Midoriya…?” Hitoshi looks up properly this time and, lo and behold, Midoriya is crouched right in front of him— when did he get on the ground?— with a scarred hand resting gently on his cheek. 

Midoriya’s expression is one, Hitoshi would describe, as intensely worried. Midoriya’s forest green eyebrows are furrowed a bit and his striking green eyes shine with clear concern.

Hitoshi wants nothing more than to make Midoriya’s stress go away. To get closer to that radiant warmth. So, he does the first thing he could think of. 

Hitoshi leans forward and hugs Midoriya as tight as he can and doesn’t let go. 

“Hito—“ Midoriya is cut off mid sentence by the sudden embrace and freezes a bit in surprise, but very quickly reciprocates with a sigh. 

“…Wanted a hug, huh?” Midoriya questions seemingly no one in particular. 

Hitoshi just nods into the crook of Midoriya’s neck; content. 

Hitoshi could be smited from the heavens right then and there and he would still be happy. 

However— the moment is, sadly , interrupted with a snort coming from beside Hitoshi. 

“You’re all a bunch of nerds ” The distinct voice of Monoma piped up followed by a harsh smacking sound. 

“ Shut up” The half-whispered voice of Jiro hisses and she smacks Monoma upside the head. 

In any other situation, at any other time, this would have startled Hitoshi so bad he would have jumped 5 feet in the air.

Instead— Hitoshi just turns his head to stare at the two bastards that interrupted his peace and delivers the most withering deadpanned stare he’s ever made. 

Aizawa-Sensei would be proud.

And it seems to do the trick, as both Jiro and Monoma freeze in place from their spots on the ground— the color very quickly draining from their face and leaving them as white as sheets. 

(Little did Hitoshi know, Midoriya was making the exact same face as Hitoshi) 

The silence is deafening .

“Haha…… sorry about that—“ Monoma chokes out; coughing into his hand. 

Jiro just sends Monoma a glare of her own that screams ‘you dragged yourself into this mess, you’re dragging yourself out’ . 

Hitoshi would laugh if he wasn’t currently occupied with hugging the shit out of Midoriya. 

Instead, Hitoshi opts to just smoosh his face back into Midoriya’s neck. 

The chuckle Midoriya lets out is a god send; Hitoshi swears it. 

“I’m glad you’re okay” Midoriya says oh so softly. 

And oh— Hitoshi thinks.

He could stay like this forever .

/

“my boy…”

Toshinori could only watch on helplessly as young-Midoriya walked away with his friends; Heart a heavy block of lead sitting in his chest. 

And, for a moment, the training field is no longer a training field. The cold, breezy air is no longer because of the fight that just happened only moments ago.

For a moment, Toshinori is standing on a rooftop. 

“ I’m sorry ”

Toshinori is vaguely aware Aizawa is sending him a questioning look, but he barely registers it.  

‘ “Can someone like me, someone quirkless, be a hero?” ‘

Toshinori takes a shuddering breath. He can feel the blood pooling in his mouth. 

‘ “No. I’m afraid not.” ‘

Toshinori has carried a lot of things in his life. 

He’s carried the burden of being quirkless.

He’s carried the death of his mentor. 

He’s carried the world on his shoulders.

Despite all of that though, the crushing weight of Guilt weighs the heaviest of them all. 

Truthfully, he’d never thought much of that day. 

It was unimportant. It was something of the past. Just like him, young-Midoriya was given a chance to become something greater . 

And he took it, just like Toshinori himself. 

And yet… 

The air is chilly. Chilly enough, that if Toshinori squints, he could see thin air vapor puffing out of his mouth in a cloudy steam.

There’s a giant glacier still standing tall and proud. It was a structure made from someone who knew exactly what they were doing and with the confidence only someone truly capable could have. 

And yet… 

Despite all of that,

Despite all of the odds,

Something as small and simple as a knife was able to overcome such a giant beast of a glacier that only the 9th circle of hell could produce. 

All of the odds should have been against young-Midoriya, so how—

“The first rule of a battle is, if you don’t get hit, you don’t get hurt.” Aizawa suddenly states. 

Toshinori startles so bad he literally spit-takes his own blood.

Aizawa merely gives Toshinori an unimpressed look.

“It’s not rocket science. It’s a basic rule,” Aizawa sighs. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Toshinori croaks out while wiping the blood from his mouth. 

“Because someone like you could learn a thing or two from that rule” Aizawa says pointedly.

Toshinori is painfully reminded of his own fighting style and yeah… Maybe Aizawa had a point there.

Aizawa looks back at the Ice Glacier. 

“It doesn’t matter how big or how dangerous an attack is. If you can avoid it, the entire attack becomes obsolete. Of course a fight is never so simple, but at the end of the day… the rule still rings true.”

Aizawa looks back at Toshinori. 

“So, why don’t you tell me why it looks like you’ve just been punched in the gut and spat on by a long dead relative. Is it really so surprising someone could defeat Todoroki without using a quirk?” Aizawa snipes, his tone getting slightly colder towards the end.

Yeah. Yeah it is, actually.

And yet… it happened anyway. 

‘ “Can someone like me, someone quirkless, be a hero?” ‘

Toshinori looks down at the ground, staying silent. 

Aizawa sighs loudly.

“Well, if you’re not going to talk you might as well make yourself useful and go help deal with the rest of the students. They still have plenty of sparring they could be doing right about now.” Aizawa instructs— pointing his thumb to Vlad who’s trying to do just that as the students just awkwardly stand around. 

Toshinori nods dumbly. 

Turning to the rest of the class, Toshinori made one last mental note. 

‘ I should really go talk to young-Midoriya ’

/

The air was chilly.

Which was strange— it was supposed to be a relatively warm day out today.

It shouldn’t have been so cold .

And yet…

When Denki breathes, a puff of misty vapor comes out of his mouth. 

And yeah, the reason is obvious. There’s a glacier of all things standing not all that far away.

The reason is obvious.

The reason… Is obvious.

“Aizawa-Sensei?”

“Uraraka, Principal Nedzu. Now.” 

“But why ?”

“You know why—“ 

“ It’s not discrimination if it’s the truth— “

“Under what pretence?” 

“It’s—“ 

Yeah… obvious .

Truthfully, Denki didn’t really know what this whole debacle was about. 

Maybe he should have paid more attention. Maybe he should have tried harder to understand.

He knew there was a problem— that much was obvious, what with the class dividing up. What wasn’t obvious to him was why . 

Truthfully he didn’t understand why Uraraka was so mad— Todoroki and Midoriya’s fight was actually really cool ( heh )— and sure, it was surprising seeing Midoriya acting so differently, but Denki really didn’t see what the big fuss was about.

Wasn’t Shinosu’s Quirk response based anyway? Denki himself has been under Shinsou’s brainwashing a few times now, but there was only so long it would hold for— kinda like when he short circuits.

(Useless quirk— can’t do anything if you’re always blasting your brain out all the time)

“Hey dude— you okay?” Sero suddenly asks; concerned.

“Huh?” Denki responds distractedly, not really paying attention. 

Sero squints his eyes at him.

“…are you okay?” Sero repeats.

“Oh yeah— totally! I’m just thinking about Midoriya and Todoroki’s fight! It was really awesome how Midoriya just slid down the flipping wall of ice like it was nothing ,” Denki gushes a bit— it really was really cool .

“Uh, yeah… it was,” Sero says with much less enthusiasm and a little confusedly. 

And yeah, maybe Denki was avoiding the whole talk Midoriya had with everyone, but he didn’t really want to think about that right now. 

Of course now he was thinking about not wanting to think about it, so as a rule he was thinking about it now. 

Damn .

He really didn’t want to think about it .

“Hey Sero— Should we get back to sparring?” Denki asks, a little quickly and desperately, but nobody needs to know that .

“Uhh… sure,” Seems it was Sero’s turn to be distracted. 

And so they do— Sero shooting some tape while Denki does his best to doge and try not to short circuit. 

It looked like Uraraka was sent off by Aizawa to the principal, but at least everyone else was getting back into the sparring groove.

That was good.

That meant nobody was talking about what happened—- 

Damnit. He was thinking about it .

Unfortunately, Denki’s brief bout of mental turmoil was what gave Sero the opening he needed and in a few short seconds Denki was tied up like a moth caught in a spider’s nest. 

“Are you sure you’re okay dude?” Sero asks for the 3rd time as he goes to untie Denki from his tape cocoon. 

Denki makes sure to give Sero the brightest smile he can make. 

“Yeah— just a little distracted I guess, you really don’t need to worry about it,” Denki insists.

Fortunately, Sero seems to understand— or at least get the hint— and doesn’t bring it up again.

Nobody brings it up again for the rest of the day and Denki couldn’t be happier . 

Not even when Uraraka doesn’t show back up when class is over.

Not even when Midoriya, Shinsou, and Jiro don’t show up when class is over. 

Denki doesn’t know if anyone will bring it up at all the rest of today, but it’s a sure good thing he won’t get to know— because he's currently in his dorm room away from everyone else with his silenced phone on his desk and the door locked. 

Ah yes. No one will bring it up here! 

No one .

‘ “A person should only be held accountable for their own decisions and actions. Not of what they were born with, of what they have to deal with, or of the decisions of others that affect them” ‘ 

Damn it all . 

Denki flopped onto his bed and groaned obnoxiously into his pillow— trying fruitlessly to drown out his own thoughts swirling around in his head.

Okay— he really needed to lift his head or else he was going to smother himself.

Resting his chin on his pillow, Denki stares at the wall right in front of him, blowing his bangs out of his face. 

‘ “Real Heroes don’t accuse people of things that have no merit other than their own bias . Real Heroes don’t think less of others because of something they can’t control. Real Heroes try to help everyone they can and do their fucking job to make the world just that little bit better.” ‘

He… didn’t understand.

Well no— he did! He thinks he does at least—

But… he also doesn’t.

Everyone around him always told him how weak and unmanageable his quirk was— and they were right! 

His quirk is constantly putting him out of commission. It’s only good for a couple rounds of sharp-shooters or one big attack that puts him and everyone else out of commission.

It was annoying and wayward and… and weak .

He was destined to just be some low-ranking hero’s side-kick and he knew it.

Everyone always said he was anyway— 

It was the truth. The unbridled truth. 

He was just a dumbass with dreams too big and a luck-streak that was as wide as the 93 million miles from the earth to the sun. 

Yeah… he can’t do anything. Not a lot anyway.

What can he even do anyway ? 

‘ “Let’s have a test shall we? Question 1) Did I need to use my quirk at all when fighting Iida?” ‘

Denki froze . 

‘ “No. I didn’t. The entire time I sparred with him, I didn’t activate my quirk once.” ‘ 

Denki… really didn’t want to think about this anymore .

Denki smooshed his face back into his pillow only to recoil a bit when he realized it had wet spots on it.

Why?

It took Denki a couple seconds too long to realize he was crying.

Ahh…

For some reason, Denki is reminded of that news story a little bit ago. 

‘ “Yeah! I’ve personally never met one, but if you think about it, they’re just kinda… there? Like- what can they even do?” ‘ 

That was the truth, right? If he was barely making it— what hope did someone quirkless have? 

Yeah, he felt bad afterwards for talking so casually about a dead person like that— like really bad , but…

He wasn’t really talking about the news, was he…

Denki grabs his pillow and hugs if close.

If today had taught him anything, it was that Midoriya could go up against Todoroki without using his quirk at all. 

He learned that Midoriya was angry. He was angry at all of them.

If even somebody quirkless could defeat someone with the likes of Todoroki and come out without even a scratch — 

What did that make him?

Was he really just that incompetent? 

Was he just not trying hard enough?

Was he really just so weak he could barely last 5 minutes in a fight? 

Denki should know this by now.

Everyone at his old school had always said it. 

Denki should know this by now .

So—

Why do my hands still shake ?

Denki takes in a gasping breath, tears streaming down his face. His hands are shaking.

“ I’m sorry ”

Denki didn’t really know who he was apologizing to. Maybe it was to Midoriya, maybe to the girl from the news, or maybe it was himself. 

All he knew was that he had really really messed up somewhere. 

And he… didn’t really know how to fix it.

He didn’t even really think he knew where to start.

…

Maybe… 

Maybe he should go ask Midoriya .

Chapter Text

Ochako sat on the almost too comfortable couch in silence— looking anywhere but at who was in front of her.

She was intimately aware of the tight-lipped grimace she was currently sporting, of how petulant she must look, but at the same time she couldn’t really bring herself to care .

The only way she knew how to be heard was when she declared her words loud and clear. Backing down from something she’s said will only make the foundations of her point weak and laughable.

Ochako stood by what she said. What she believed. Of that much she was sure. 

She knew why she was in the principal’s office. She said something someone didn’t like and was about to be told she shouldn’t do things like that if she wanted to avoid trouble. 

But that whole song-and-dance could go punt itself into the sun for all she cared. She was fully prepared to go off— yell— scream her beliefs at the top of her lungs. 

So she waited.

And waited. 

And waited.

And waited…

The longer Ochako sat, the more she heard a phantom clock ticking incessantly in the background. Which was weird, because she could have sworn that sound wasn’t there when she first arrived. 

Now that she thought about it, silence was becoming a common theme as of late— silence at a broken glass, silence at a surprising show, silence after a battle— honestly she was getting pretty tired of it. 

She felt a desperate need to fill it— she couldn’t stand it. 

Here Ochako was, sitting in the principal’s office in utter silence with nothing happening at all. 

It was frustrating her to no end— she wondered why the goddamned rat didn’t just say something already. 

She’d lost count of how many seams she’d counted on the couch— of how many floor tiles— of how many seconds . 

And to top it all off, she couldn’t seem to stop the nonexistent clock that just kept ticking louder and louder and louder .

She couldn’t take it.

“ Damn it— JUST SAY SOMETHING ALREADY!” Ochako bellowed. 

And finally— finally — Ochako gave in and looked Nedzu straight in the eyes.

What she found was utterly…

disappointing .

Nedzu— the current bane of her existence— the rat bastard that was supposed to ask “do you know what you did wrong?”, a question that would then progress into a one-sided argument that would go nowhere , and would end with her leaving having learned nothing . 

Nedzu—  who was currently smiling with his ever-present, polite smile that portrayed absolutely zilch just staring at her . 

Ochako’s jaw was starting to hurt with how hard she was clenching it. 

“Just— Just say something,” Ochako gritted out, voice strained and harsh.

And that’s when she saw it— when Nedzu finally leaned forward a bit and opened his mouth to speak. 

“And what do you want me to say?” he asked— sounding weirdly genuine.

Ochako’s brain stutters to an abrupt halt. 

“Huh?” Ochako questioned.

“What do you want me to say?” Nedzu repeated— infinitely patient and a bit more clear. 

Ochako scanned the being in front of her— trying to find even a hint of mockery in his tone. 

There was none. 

“W-What kind of question is that ?” Ochako spat— confusion evident.

“Well, you clearly want me to say something. I’m just wondering what that is.” That sneaky fuck —

“That’s just your previous question but reworded —“ 

“Why can’t you answer it?” Nedzu interrupted, perfectly pleasant as always. 

It shouldn’t be going this way— she should be the one constantly questioning the principal's logic— not the other way around! 

“W-Well— then I want you to get on with it!” Ochako shouted.  

“Get on with what?” Nedzu shot back. 

“UGHHHH!!” Ochako exclaimed, slumping further into the couch and crossing her arms. 

“ I swear you’re acting like a child ” Ochako grumbled— almost a whisper, but not quite.

“Am I? Well, I’d say that’s a good thing. Always questioning the world,” Nedzu responded almost whimsically and also infuriatingly off topic. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be— I don’t know— doing your job and punishing me or something? ” Ochako stated, like it was obvious and a fact of life. 

“What kind of punishment do you think you deserve?” Nedzu asked, tilting his head.

Ochako was about to bite out another retort before she stopped— her brows furrowing and looking at Nedzu like he was the most confusing thing she’d ever encountered.

Nedzu sighed.

“I can tell you’ve been doing a lot of thinking since you’ve entered my office, Uraraka. But, interestingly, you still haven’t actually gotten anywhere.” Nedzu explained.

“ What do you mean? ” Ochako grumbled.

“You haven’t actually thought about why you’re here.”

Ochako gived Nedzu the most incredulous look she could muster.

“Don’t get me wrong— I’m sure you’ve thoroughly thought about the cause and effect that has led you here to this very moment. You feel very strongly about your beliefs, don’t you?” Nedzu asked, like the mind reader he is.

It wasn’t asked negatively, it wasn’t asked sarcastically, it wasn’t even asked condescendingly! It was just a simple, genuine question.

Ochako didn't say anything.

“Personally, I think that it’s a good thing. It’s one of your greatest strengths. But, it’s also your greatest weakness.” 

Ochako raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

Nedzu continued. 

“You’re unwilling to think any differently. If things don’t go how you expect them to, your entire world falls apart. Here, I believe you let your worry towards someone you care about blind you into thinking something was wrong, that there was something you had to fix, which you then started projecting onto the outside influences around you to try and figure it out. That influence being, Shinsou.”

Ochacko narrowed her eyes. 

“I know you care about Midoriya—“ 

“Of course I care about him! Deku only started acting weird when Shinsou showed up! Shinsou’s clearly got a roll in all of this— and not a good one if it’s making Deku hate us!” Ochako argued vehemently, panting a bit at the outburst. 

Nedzu’s smile didn’t fall. 

“There’s your problem.” he said simply.

Ochako let’s out a harsh ‘ Tsk’

“What? Can’t handle UA housing a villa— “ Ochako got cut off before she could finish her sentence. 

“You haven’t actually talked to Midoriya, have you?” 

Not for the first time, and definitely not the last, Ochako’s mind stutters to a stop. 

Nedzu just shakes his head marginally. 

“The problem here lies in the fact that you won’t actually listen to the person you’re trying to help.” Nedzu concludes.

Ochako’s eyes widened. 

“Have you ever once actually tried talking to Midoriya? Have you actually tried to understand why he’s acting differently? Have you considered that, maybe, his behavior it’s not a bad thing and is instead him just changing and adapting like all humans do?” Nedzu asked.

Ochako tried to think of a time— any time— where she actually tried to just talk . 

She couldn’t. 

Because she never did . 

“You’re viewing Midorya like someone you need to fix. Like a failed science project you need to correct. You’re not actually thinking about Midoriya at all. You’re thinking about your prescribed perception of him and nothing more. That can be a dangerous thing to act upon, and can cause more problems than solutions.” 

“N-no— I’m not —“ Ochako whispered quietly, the denial pathetic even to her own ears. 

“I’m going to be blunt with you Uraraka. What you are doing right now isn’t helping anyone. Especially not Midoriya. In fact, you’re actually hurting others in the crossfire because of it.” The words should be scathing, but there was not a hint of detestment or anger in Nedzu’s tone. Only brutal honesty.

Ochako just stared — wide eyed and open jawed. 

“B-But Shinsou—“ 

“Is an accomplice in helping Midoriya gain some self confidence, yes. I can agree he is guilty as charged there.” Nedzu admitted.

“ You don’t think I know what I’m talking about ” Ochako grit you— she hated not being taken seriously— she hated —

“Because you don’t.” 

Ochako felt her face heat up with rage and embarrassment. 

“You don’t have any actual evidence for your claims. All you have is a theory and coincidences that line up neatly. Coincidence and correlation are not one and the same. And, honestly, if you can’t even understand the basics of how Shinsou’s quirk works, even after having multiple training sessions with him, I’ll have to see to it that there are more classes specifically for quirk analysis set into motion.” Nedzu remarked; steady and cool. 

“There’s an old saying, ‘None so deaf as those who do not hear’, do you know what it means?” 

Ochako just grimaced— refusing to open her mouth.

“It means that it’s impossible for someone to listen if they do not want to. I think you just want someone to blame for all of the changes happening. I think you are scared of the answers you might find if you actually went and talked about it. And even then, with how you are acting now, I find it hard to believe you would even listen to Midoriya if you did. The fact of the matter is Shinsou didn’t do anything . He did not use his quirk to brainwash Midoriya into acting as he saw fit, he is not a villain, and you hurt him and Midoriya with what you said.” 

Nedzu stared Ochako down.

“Nothing more. Nothing less.” 

/ 

“Are you sure we should be doing this?”  

Fumikage stopped mid-stride upon hearing that from Dark Shadow of all people. 

“I don’t see why not,” Fumikage responded quietly. Normally he would have just thought his response, but currently the dorm hall he was walking down was very much empty, so he wasn’t at risk of looking crazy for ‘talking to himself’.

“I’m just pointing out that Midoriya and Shinsou left early for a reason.”  

“Though that might be true— have you forgotten what also happened today? This incessant pit in my gut can only get so deep before you start feeding from its void.” Fumikage sighed back. He understood Dark Shadow’s concern, but they both knew that this had been slowly eating away at both of them. 

They had been discussing this for a good while now. At first it was just a brief mental musing, then an idea, then a plan, and finally a mission. 

If anyone understood this quite frankly ludicrous situation, it would be Midoriya. 

The speech Midoriya gave earlier only set their belief in stone.

And maybe, just maybe, Fumikage could figure out a way to make this void-like gut feeling finally lighten up on its internal load. 

“I get it, I get it. I just don’t see why we can’t do this— I don’t know— tomorrow?” Dark Shadow proposed.

“I don’t trust we’ll last another day. It must be done.” Tokoyami stated firmly, leaving little room for argument. 

“Whatever. If this explodes in your face, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Dark Shadow huffed, before going silent.

The closer Fumikage and Dark Shadow got to reaching Midoriya’s dorm, the more anticipation and almost nervous Fumikage felt. 

He really hoped this would work out in their favor. 

“Yo, is that Kaminari?” Dark Shadow suddenly piped up. 

It seems Fumikage was more distracted than he thought, as when his head snapped up to look down the hall more thoroughly, Dark Shadow’s declaration proved correct.

There, standing in front of Midoriya’s dorm room rigidly, was none other than Kaminari. 

Even from where Fumikage was, he could make out Kaminari was visibly nervous. Not to mention the anxiety seemed to roll off of Kaminari like a thick storm cloud. 

Well, this was certainly surprising, to say the least. 

Walking on silent feet, Fumikage got right next to Kaminari without him realizing anyone was even there.

Nervous indeed. 

“Salutations.” Fumikage breaks the silence after a minute of just standing there, waiting for Kaminari to notice his presence. 

Kaminari visibly jumped in surprise— actually hopping a bit off the ground and stumbling a couple steps back as if a ghost had just popped up out of the ground.

“GAH— what— Tokoyami? What are you doing here?” Kaminari asked, breathless. 

Dark Shadow cackled inwardly.

“I could ask you the same, my friend.” Fumikage  shot back. 

“Ahh— well…” Kaminari stuttered a bit, as he stumbled over his words for a response before he took a noticeably deep breath to compose himself. 

“I was kinda hoping I could ask Midoriya for some help with… something…” Kaminari admitted, as he twiddled his thumbs. 

“Oh really?” Fumikage mused. “Me and Dark Shadow are here for much the same reason.”

Kaminari blinked in surprise. “Really…?” He asked quietly. 

“That is what I said,” Fumikage assured him, not unkindly. 

Kaminari visibly deflated. 

“Well— if that’s the case, then I guess I can come back later…” Kaminari mumbled defeatedly. He turned to walk off, but a shadowy hand on his shoulder stopped him. 

“You, Fumi, and I could go together!” Dark Shadow offered. 

“Really?” Kaminari whipped his head around— looking between Dark Shadow and Fumikage so fast that Fumikage feared he might get whiplash. 

“It’s only fair. You were here first, after all.” Fumikage nodded his head in assurance. 

Kaminari slumped in relief. 

“Oh thank god— I really didn’t want to wait for tomorrow…” He admitted warily, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“The sentiment is returned, so worry not.” Fumikage reassured. 

In response, Kaminari gave a small, but genuine smile. 

“Thank you.” 

After that they both turned to stare down at the looming dorm room door in front of them. All three of them silently glad for the others' company. 

“Let us proceed, then.”

Chapter Text

“This is a game of concentration, no repeats or hesitation, I go first, you go second, the category is… Everything that’s wrong with Endeavor— firstly, his face. ” 

Hitoshi snorted at Midoriya’s declaration, a smirk pulling at his lips when Jirou and Monoma didn’t even blink. 

“His disregard of those around him,” Jirou drawled. 

“His monumental civilian casualty rates,” Monoma sneered. 

“His obvious abuse of power,” Hitoshi stated, like the fact it is.

“The Todoroki Touya and Rei cases, enough said,” Midoriya sniffed, voice deadpanned. 

“Alright, alright!  Midoriya— this one’s too easy— we’ll be here forever. Someone pick a harder one,” Monoma demanded, pointing an accusing finger in Midoriya's direction while looking at everyone else in the little circle they’d made of themselves on Midoriya’s dorm room floor. 

“Uhhh… whatever Nedzu is?” Hitoshi weakly suggested while he squinted his eyes. He couldn’t really think of anything, as they’d all already exhausted the easier questions like types of dogs, periodic elements, types of heroes, etc, etc.

“…Would that even work?” Jirou asked, genuinely interested. 

“I don’t think so? There’s only one right answer after all,” Monoma pointed out.

“Well yippee for me! Because he’s a stoat . Boom. Mic drop. I win ,” Midoriya said in a jokingly serious manner, like it was common knowledge. 

“What? No— he’s totally a rat!” Monoma said— incredulous. 

“I would point out that neither of those are the ‘mouse, dog, or bear’ options Nedzu usually lists, but now that I think about it, he probably wouldn’t just say it” Jirou mused. 

Midoriya turns to look at Hitoshi, nudging him gently with his elbow. 

“What do you think?“ Midoriya asked.

“Mmmmm… no comment,” Hitoshi said— deadpanned and short. 

“Boooooooooo— for shame Shinsou. For shame,” Monoma called out from the other side of the circle. 

“What? I’m quitting while I’m ahead. It’s a solid strategy,” Hitoshi said, trying to defend himself. 

“Come on Shinsou! You need to be prepared if you ever meet Nedzu face to face,” Midoriya reasoned. 

“You know what? No. I cannot take all this scrutiny and abuse right now,” Hitoshi droned in a dismissive tone— clearly joking, but still trying to keep a serious face regardless. 

“I don’t know about you guys, but I think I have the 100%, infallibly, correct answer,” Jirou declared with crossed arms, complete with a self-assured smirk. 

“Wha— what is it? Tell me your secrets, ” Monoma, honest to god, whined . 

Jirou looks at each of them in the eye, a smirk still on her face. She was clearly dragging this out for all that it was worth. 

“He’s the principal, obviously,” Jirou said bluntly with raised eyebrows. 

Hitoshi blinked dumbly. Silence reigned over the group for what had to have been at least a minute before Monoma groaned obnoxiously and Midoriya threw his hands up in frustration. 

“ Damn it all, ” Monoma whispered to himself with a clenched fist— his eyes screwed shut. Hitoshi swore he could almost feel how much weight was in that declaration and he was honestly at a loss on whether Monoma was being serious or not. 

Midorya slumped himself against Monoma and brought the back of his hand up to rest on his forehead in the imitation of a dramatic swoon. “We’ll never recover from this utter humiliation , you and I! We’ll forever be credited as 1 IQ, unreliable half-wits !” Midoriya bemoaned. 

“ Oi— the overtop dramatics is my trademark— I will sue! Don’t think I won’t, ” Monoma growled, pushing Midorya off of himself and onto Hitoshi instead.  

Hitoshi snickered quietly to himself, wrapping an arm around the boneless Midoriya to keep him up while Jirou cackled manically. 

Everyone instantly went silent, however, when there was the distinct knock, knock, knock, on Midoriya’s dorm room door. 

Midoriya sighed deeply against Hitoshi, seemingly debating on if it was worth it to get up at all , before he hauled himself up and trudged over to answer the door.

Midoriya stared at the door for a while and Hitoshi was about to say that he didn't have to answer it if he didn’t want to before Midoriya let out another heavy sigh and turned the door knob. 

/

Denki swore he almost jumped out of his skin when Midoriya opened the door. 

“H-heyyy Midoriya, How’zit been?” Denki said in a very strained attempt at a casual voice— trying and utterly failing to suppress his nerves. 

Dark Shadow moved his glowy yellow eye in what Denki was sure was a raised eyebrow while Tokoyami continued to look ahead at Midoriya. 

Midoriya squinted his eyes at all three of them, looking them over with an indescribable look on his face. Denki couldn’t decide whether or not that was a good or bad thing.

After what felt like an eternity, Midoriya’s eyes softened into a neutral look. Again— Denki couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing. But, he wagered, neutral was probably better than bad. 

“You all need something?” Midoriya finally spoke when he leaned against the door frame— hands crossed over his chest. 

Clearly, either Tokoyami realized how nervous Denki was, or Dark Shadow— who clearly already did if that eyebrow raise was anything to go by— tattled to Tokoyami, as they both opted to go first. 

“We’ve come seeking aid with some problems involving our empathy issues. It’s become increasingly difficult to bear as time has gone by since that truly abysmal day,” Tokoyami expressed. “We apologize if we interrupted something, but I do not believe we both will last much longer before it gets to be too much.” 

“I might just go crazy and start bashing people’s heads in, is what Fumi is saying!” Dark Shadow declared a bit too enthusiastically in Denki’s opinion. 

Midoriya’s eyes visibly widened a bit, but he kept a calm, neutral air. He looked down at the ground as he brought a hand up to rest on his chin— deep in thought. 

“Hmm… alright, first things first, how does your empathy feel and how does it work ?” Midoriya asked after a moment looking up at Dark Shadow and Tokoyami. 

“We both do not understand all of the complexities of it as of now, but I can describe it just fine. It feels like a growing pit in my gut, like a dark abyss that only grows deeper the longer negative emotions are present. Usually, we have very little problems with this, but the negative energy has become so constant, it’s difficult to ignore,” Tokoyami concluded. 

“I also start feeling really really restless — kinda like when it’s night and everything’s dark,” Dark Shadow described— his shadowy claws moving around vaguely. 

“Okay… and you said this all started the day everyone was talking shit about quirkless people?” Midoriya said bluntly. 

So blunt, in fact, Denki very clearly flinched at the wording.

Tokoyami nodded solemnly. If any of them caught it, they didn’t acknowledge it.

Midoriya sighed and closed his eyes for a moment— clearly resigned. 

“I apologize, this is partly my fault for dragging this out. But, unfortunately, I don’t think the negativity is going to go away any time soon— even after everything is said and done. Do you have any techniques that have worked in the past for you both? Maybe if I knew what has worked before, It can give me some more ideas to work with,” Midoriya prompted. 

Tokoyami nodded as Dark Shadow piped up. 

“Fumi usually meditates, but that hasn’t really worked out recently,” Dark Shadow said. 

“Distractions like reading or music also help, but that has not been working much either,” Tokoyami sighed, shaking his head. 

“Ah! Okay— I think I have an idea,” Midoriya declared suddenly. The metaphorical light bulb turning on over Midoriya’s head was clear. 

“Tokoyami, have you tried letting go? Like— both you and Dark Shadow letting loose and running rampant, getting all those bottled up emotions out. I find, sometimes, violence and screaming as loud as you can is very effective stress relief,” Midoriya revealed. 

Tokoyami and Dark Shadow blinked in unison.

“I can even call up Aizawa-sensei right now to get you some private gym time after school if either of you want. That way, you have free reign to do whatever the hell you want without risk of hurting someone, or something,” Izuku said as he pulled out his phone to emphasize his point, holding it up. 

Tokoyami and Dark Shadow seemed frozen in place. 

“We’ve… we’ve definitely never considered that before…” Tokoyami said a bit warily. 

“Every time Fumi’s let his emotions get the better of him, I’ve gone wacko. I always feel crazy bad about it afterwards, but… you know,” Dark Shadow puttered off a bit. 

“The damage is already done,” Tokoyami finished for him. 

Midoriya nodded his head, a small smile ghosting on his face. 

“I understand, maybe not exactly— but I get it,” Midoriya assured. “The circumstances might not be the greatest, but they’re the reason I’ve been ‘letting myself go’ recently. And honestly, I think it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. There’s a certain freedom in letting myself— just— feel stuff. It makes breathing easier, more bearable.” 

If Denki had to describe Tokoyami and Dark Shadow’s expressions, He’d say they were at a complete loss for words. 

And honestly, even though he wasn’t the one talking, he did too. 

“Let’s do it,” Dark Shadow said softly, voice serious. 

It was silent again for a moment, Midoriya looking infinitely patient while Tokoyami still stood stiffly. 

Tokoyami took in an audible breath. 

“Okay. We will try it,” Tokoyami stated. He was obviously still unsure, but the declaration might as well have been written in stone with how it was said. 

“Alright. We can discuss it with Aizawa-Sensei tomorrow if that’s what you want,” Midoriya promised. 

Tokoyami merely nodded his response, Dark Shadow sitting his head on his shoulder. 

“Thank you, Midoriya,” Tokoyami muttered. 

“You’re the best!” Dark Shadow crowed. “If that’s it, I’m gonna drag Fumi back to our room. I can feel his exasution in my nonexistent bones.”

Midoriya chuckled a bit. “No problem, sleep well you two,” Midoriya said, waving them farewell when Dark Shadow started pushing Tokoyami back towards their dorm. 

“So,” Midoriya said after he turned back to face Denki, his face a neutral that betrayed absolutely nothing about what he might be feeling. 

Suddenly, reality crashed back down on Denki like a tidal wave. 

Up until this point he was merely a 3rd wheel spectator, watching the conversation like a wallflower. 

But now— well…

“Soooooo…” Denki drawled, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck— trying desperately to not make eye contact. 

It was then that Denki noticed there were people sitting around in Midoriya’s room. They appeared to be talking quietly to themselves, so Denki let his eyes wander to the floor. 

Wow, wasn’t the floor such a great color? Great color choice, honestly.  

Denki had the feeling one of Midoriya’s eyebrows were raised. He swallowed thickly. 

“I— uh… I messed up okay!! ” Denki almost squeaked, much to his internal horror. 

“I messed up real bad, Alright?! It’s been— it’s been eating me up inside and I— I don’t know how to fix it!” Denki said quickly, a desperate edge in his words. 

“I— I don’t know what to do— I—“ wow, that’s a lot of I’s there Denki. Good job. 10/10 performance.  

Denki’s eyes felt like they were burning, but he refused to let any tears fall. He refused . 

“I— I don’t… I don’t—“ 

Suddenly, Denki felt a gentle tap on his forehead. 

Midoriya was right Infront of him, pulling his hand back from where he just tapped Denki’s head. 

“What’s your opinion on being quirkless?” Midorya asked, voice level. 

Denki felt thrown through a loop. 

“Uh.. huh?” Denki fumbled. 

“You said before that quirkless people have no purpose, that they can’t do much, or accomplish much,” Midoriya recited. They weren’t the exact words Denki used, but the meaning still held true. 

“I did say that, didn’t I?” Denki affirmed for no real reason. 

Midoriya just nodded. 

“You did,” Midoriya said plainly. 

“Uh, well— I said that at first because I’m pretty weak, right? And I at least have a quirk, so I can only imagine what it must be like being quirkless…” Denki trailed off a bit, trying to collect his thoughts. 

Midoriya said nothing, just waited patiently. 

“But… But then you had that fight with Todoroki earlier— which was really awesome by the way— uh..” Denki cleared his throat. 

“You did all of that— took out Todoroki without using your quirk at all. I… I was gobsmacked! I didn’t know what to think…” Denki slumped a bit. 

“Then I thought that, if you could do it without a quirk, then obviously anyone could y’know? And I—“ Denki faltered a bit, taking a deep breath and continuing. 

“Honestly— I realized I sounded a lot like all the other people who told me I couldn’t be a hero or do anything, or whatever,” Denki visibly slumped. 

“And it— it doesn’t feel nice, at all. So, I want— need— to fix what I said, but I’m not sure how,” Denki concluded finally looking Midoriya in the eyes. 

His eyes were soft. 

“You know you’re not weak, right?” Midoriya said. It was phrased like a question, but it felt more like a statement. 

“What? No… what? Of course I am! I short circuit all the time— I can barely control my quirk without it taking me out! Of course I’m weak!” Denki said vehemently. 

Midoriya just shook his head, “Not weak.”

“I am—“

“Nope”

“I—“

“Nada”

“But—“ 

“ You’re not weak, ” Midoriya said firmly, his gaze intense and unbreaking. 

Denki groaned while Midoriya let out something that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. 

“I’m… I’m sorry— really— for what I said and all.” 

Midoriya stared at him for a second, before he sighed a short sigh. 

“I’m not going to say what you said was okay, because it’s not. But you’re also here, right now, apologizing and working to fix it. That’s all that’s important to me,” Midoriya said. 

“We all make mistakes, alright? We all somehow, someway, hurt people sometimes. It’s inevitable. But for me, personally, it’s my decision on if I want to forgive or not. Forgiveness is something only for you to decide on— no one else. The same can be said that it’s also my responsibility to acknowledge when I’ve messed up and work to do better next time— whether that be fixing my mistakes to the best of my ability, or working to never make the same mistake again,” Midoriya stressed, making sure to look at Denki straight in the eye when he uttered his next words. 

“ I forgive you .”

Chapter Text

“Oh— you sly dogs, you,” Nedzu said, sipping some tea while he typed away on his computer at an almost unnatural speed. The moon shined eerily behind him as he worked. 

Nedzu went on like that for a while, not even stopping for a second when taking arbitrary sips of his tea. He looked almost leisurely, despite the almost erratic speed in which he typed at his keyboard. 

“ My my, they really do continue to get more and more desperate every year, don’t they?” Nedzu sighed and shook his head in a clear display of disappointment. He tapped the 

keyboard one last time with flourish and clear finality. 

Nedzu leaned back in his chair, while his tail swished a bit in obvious annoyance. It seemed their manpower had only increased and evolved as the months went on. It was becoming exceedingly obnoxious . 

Not that it mattered. No matter what the bastards threw at him, Nedzu wouldn’t let any of their attempts succeed at getting through if he had any say about it.

It was par for the course— being the principal of such an esteemed Hero school as UA. What kind of principal would he be if he didn’t ward off threats to his students’ well being? Threats they honestly shouldn’t ever need to worry about? 

It saddens Nedzu to no end when graduation days come around. He couldn’t protect them as easily or readily. He didn’t have that kind of power, no matter how many firewalls he routinely put up, or iron doors he welded shut. 

It didn’t matter. It never did, in the end. 

Regardless, Nedzu endeavored to keep his students safe for at least as long as they stayed at UA. Being a school was the singular official safeguard that he had. Everything else was up to Nedzu, and Nedzu alone. 

The recent up-tick in villain and criminal activity certainly didn’t help— especially the League of Villains. It made choosing between priorities tremendously more difficult, and work that much more exhausting. 

Despite how he’s often jokingly portrayed, Nedzu is no omnipotent deity that can do nothing wrong and make no mistakes. He does not know, and never will know everything, all the time, always. 

Nedzu has never despised himself more for not being so. 

In the end, all Nedzu can really do is work, and work some more. The pesky snakes that continuously try to scrounge for things that didn’t, and never should belong to them were pests Nedzu would continue to try his best to ward off. 

After he double and triple checked his firewalls, failsafes, anti-viruses, and everything else he meticulously put in place, Nedzu turned off his computer and let himself have a moment of reprieve. 

He was… tired.  

Nedzu honestly didn’t know what to feel about that. Being exhausted didn’t stop the world from turning. Resting didn’t suddenly mean everything would pause just for him. 

No rest for the weary, Nedzu supposed. 

Nedzu sighed, long and deep. 

Weary.  

He could feel his eyes droop. They stung with fatigue and continued strain. 

He didn’t even notice when he passed out for almost an hour. All he knew was that one second he closed his eyes, and the next it’s been 57 minutes passed and gone. 

He was happy to know there were no alerts on his computer screen. So happy, infact, he let himself fall completely asleep from where he sat. 

He was tired. 

So tired, infact, that he didn’t— couldn’t notice his computer screen flickering on oh so silently. 

No familiar alarm to be heard. 

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Access accepted__

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Progress Report

Log number : 16

Attempts at infiltrating Nedzu’s firewalls have once again resulted in failure. We tried a different approach, but were shot down almost instantaneously. Further pursuit would have only let his code infect and override ours. It was strategically beneficial for retreat. We will be trying again very soon. 

/

Progress Report

Log number : 41

Nothing we’ve tried so far has succeeded. Every time we enter Nedzu’s servers, we get overwhelmed immediately and urgently need to fall back. One of our hires almost got caught by an overwrite virus. They will be dealt with accordingly. 

/

Progress Report

Log number : 69 

Operations have momentarily completely ceased. All efforts have instead been directed towards setting our servers back up after a new recruit got hacked into. This resulted in all servers getting overrun and shut down. Attempts at fixing this mistake have all activated a planted sequence that covers our screens in photos of the domestic species of a small carnivorous mammal known as Felis Catus. The date in which operations will continue is not known as of this time. 

/

Progress Report

Log number : 135 

We’ve gotten farther than ever before. We got past and successfully dismantled numerous firewalls before eventually getting flushed out. The luck quirk user certainly came in handy, but unfortunately will no longer be of any use to us. We can only learn from what we’ve gathered in this experience and try again. I should remind that continuing to fire and dispose of workers will not get the job done any quicker. 

/

Progress Report

Log number : 878

We got so close. I should have known to never let my guard down for even one moment. It was strangely easier today. Everyone was waiting for something to go wrong, but it never did until we all abruptly got kicked out faster than anyone could have ever reacted. 

Edit: I now see the reason. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint (USJ) was attacked. How tragic. 

/

Progress Report

Log number : -9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Never try messing with my students again. I know full well how you work, and what you do. I know you all wait so eagerly for the day when our best and brightest graduate. You could stand to continue to exercise that patience, or better yet, cease trying all together.  

/

Progress Report

Log number : 899

We couldn’t make it past even a few firewalls today. Nedzu was obviously present for the entire attempted raid. Though, I do have a confession. I’ve somehow stayed undetected. I honestly have no idea as to how, but I’ve remained hidden when everyone else was kicked and blocked out. At the time of writing this log, everyone has succumbed to their fatigue, and have fallen asleep. I don’t blame them, I can feel myself drifting too. 

I’ve decided to stay up, though. It’s a mere hunch, not reliable in the slightest logical sense, but I have a feeling I’m going to be making history tonight. I’ll wait for a little bit, maybe an hour. 60 minutes at most. 

I hope luck is on my side tonight. 

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Would you like to download all student training plans? 

Processing…

Processing…

Processing…

Download complete!

Would you like to download all student files?

Processing…

Processing…

Processing…

Download complete!

Would you like to— 

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Progress Report 

Log number : 900

I’m in. 

Chapter Text

Shouta stared blankly at the papers and laptop in front of him— the soft glow of the screen reflecting almost eerily in his dark black eyes. His fingers were clasped, propping up his chin as his elbows rested on the coffee table. 

This was… much worse than Shouta originally thought. 

In front of him, there were two files. One that Shouta recognized as UA’s— one that he himself has contributed to— the other from Aldera Junior High.

Both were for one specific Problem Child with forest green hair, enough determination to fill an ocean, questionable self preservation at best, who went by the name Midoriya Izuku.  

And in a true demonstration and reflection of the Problem Child brand, both files were night and day in comparison. 

And definitely not in a good way. 

Normally, UA’s teachers never get the chance to review a Junior High file of a student. It’s an unwritten rule set in place to prevent bias and leave judgment of character strictly for the teachers so no preconceived notions can form from the opinions of previous teachers. Nedzu is usually the only one who even touches these files. 

In a way, this rule lets students have a chance at a ‘fresh start.’ 

That doesn’t necessarily mean that a UA teacher cannot look through a file, it’s just something that doesn’t happen very often, especially for students doing particularly well. 

There’s usually never a need to. 

And this—  

This is exactly why. 

In Midoriya’s Aldera file, he is described as a trouble maker. That in itself is not exactly inaccurate… He is a Problem Child by definition and trouble is just par for the course. 

That being said, this file paints Midoriya as a disruptive, attention craving, antagonistic, liar. 

What even.  

Shouta can picture the first day like it was yesterday . He can see in almost perfect clarity the way Midoriya was constantly wracked with nervous jitters, the way he shrank back from attention like it would smite him down, the way his eyes would light up with pure determination to succeed despite all the odds stacked against him with his wayward, destructive quirk. 

Shouta would describe Midoriya as fawn legged— shaky, nervous, unconfident, skittish, and generally the opposite of what he was expecting. 

Before, Shouta figured that Midoriya hadn’t trained a lick of his quirk. He thought that Midoriya was someone who believed he could skirt by with just his strong quirk that splintered his bones to smithereens and nothing else. 

Of course, Shouta couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Truthfully, at the time, he just couldn’t look over how quickly Midoriya’s quirk put him out of commission. Kaminari had a similar problem, but at least he wasn’t irreparably destroying himself each time he activated his quirk. 

Shouta had thought to himself ‘this kid is going to die, and he is going to die fast,’ and decided to give Midoriya an ultimatum at the ball throw.

Get that quirk under control, or get expelled before the world of heroics destroys you.  

And in true Problem Child fashion, Midoriya made himself a third option by still destroying himself— but only slightly.  

And by god , of course Shouta would give him a chance, just for that crazy ass showing. 

And like one big, fucked up cirlce, Shouta comes back to the Aldera file and is baffled all over again. 

Not once in that first day impression, would Shouta describe Midoriya as someone who was disruptive, attention craving, antagonistic, or, most of all, a liar.  

Unprepared? Definitely. Nervous? Totally. Antagonistic? Fuck no.  

Shouta let out a deep, slightly trembling sigh— bringing a hand up to rub at his temples as he tried to put his scattered thoughts together. 

In that file, there were accounts of times where Midoriya had supposedly cheated on tests, “disrupted class”— whatever the hell that actually meant, it’s not like it ever said how — antagonized students, and instigated fights of all things. 

It was all a bunch of pure, unadulterated, bullshit . 

How does Shouta know this? 

If, for some reason, his own personal account of Midoriya’s character wasn’t enough, then the cherry on top is one important little fact that has slipped by Shouta for so long. 

Midoriya Izuku’s quirk was never registered until the day of the fucking entrance exam.  

What the actual fucking shit?  

And It somehow gets just that slight bit worse when Shouta realized that technically Midoriya’s quirk wasn’t even registered that day. It was just accepted as so when in all actuality, the date the quirk registry was officially updated was almost a week after the exams had taken place. 

Nedzu fucking knew. 

Chiyo probably fucking knew . 

And for some ungodly reason, fucking nobody told Shouta? 

Did it never cross their minds that this was important fucking information that Shouta— Midoriya’s goddamned teacher— should know? 

If Shouta had known, he would have started Midoriya on after school training a whole lot sooner instead of just recently. 

He would have forced Midoriya into a quirk councilor’s office immediately, because guess what? Midoriya’s never been to one of those either. 

Midoriya didn’t even get one solitary day to figure out his quirk before the exam when everyone else had around 11 years on him. 

He didn’t get a chance to figure it out. He didn’t get a chance at all.  

And yet… 

Midoriya figured it out anyway. 

If that isn’t a testament to the kid’s resourcefulness, smarts, wit, will, and sheer determination— Shouta doesn’t know what is. 

And despite himself, Shouta found himself grinning. 

Yes, the situation was fucked beyond belief— he will definitely be having words and quite possibly throwing hands— but at least it didn’t deter Midoriya as much as it probably should have. 

Shouta couldn’t be more proud.

Leaning back, Shouta let himself sink into his fondly named Crisis Couch™ , and just breathed.  

There were probably still some things he missed that will slap him upside the head later— he doesn’t doubt that for a second. If anything, this feels more like a beginning . To what exactly, Shouta couldn’t tell you— but the feeling’s still there. 

For now though, Shouta was content plotting the thousands of ways he was going to wreak certain people’s shit. 

It was going to be great.

/ 

Suspension.

Ochako can’t say she’s ever experienced it, but she supposed UA was a bit more harsh on some things— or maybe it was just a Nedzu thing. 

Nedzu had told her that— “because of the LOV and recent uptick in villain activity”— they couldn’t do a traditional suspension where she would be sent home for a couple of days, so instead she would be essentially grounded to the dorms. 

She couldn’t train, or get any notes, homework, or recounts of any lessons from anyone— which was something Ochako wasn’t expecting and honestly couldn’t understand at all. All it would do would hold her back in the end! 

This entire situation was bullshit.  

It was all complete and utter bullshit.  

Her visit to the principal hadn’t been anything like she was expecting and she couldn’t understand why. There was no shouting, no disappointed faces, no condescending tones, and no patronizing words. 

Just brutal reasoning. 

Of course, It still frustrated her to no end that nobody was listening to her— If they could just see how Deku’s new “friends” had been influencing him—

—But… Nedzu also, infuriatingly, had a point.  

‘ “You haven’t actually talked to Midoriya, have you?” ‘

Nedzu was right. She hadn’t talked to Deku. Not even a little bit. 

She’d just been hiding away with Iida, Tsu, and everyone else she’d been hanging out with recently. 

Ochako just left everything to Todoroki— thinking that maybe he might be able to slap some sense into Deku— not even considering for a second Todoroki might fail.  

That’s a coward's way out, and there was no way around that, that’s for sure. 

Ochako huffed a bit to herself and looked over at her crappy dorm fan— watching it spin fast enough that she could barely make out the individual blades. The white noise it made was a welcome distraction. 

She didn’t want to be a coward— she wasn’t one. She wasn’t.  

But she’d still done the easy, cowardly thing and practically hid from the person she was trying to help. 

Maybe she was expecting Deku to come around on his own at some point. Maybe she hoped the problem would solve itself. 

Clearly, it didn’t. 

Clearly, no amount of accusations would solve the problem. 

Clearly, no amount of yelling would bring Deku back. 

Ochako’s mouth felt dry. It was starting to bug her, and it only got worse the more she thought about it. 

It bugged her almost enough to drown out the whispered doubts that maybe she was wrong.  

Sitting up abruptly, Ochako quietly made her way out of her dorm and down towards the kitchen. It was dark out, probably way past the time she should be asleep. 

On the way, Ochako made an empty promise to herself that she would fall asleep after getting some water. 

Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she made it almost all the way down the stairs before something caught her eye when she reached the last step. She squinted a bit at the unexpected light coming from the common room— one that didn’t illuminate the whole floor, just the kitchen area. 

Guess she wasn’t the only one out on a midnight adventure.  

Sighing, she continued on— keeping her steps light as she finally reached the kitchen. 

What she found had her freezing right then and there. 

Deku. 

Deku was here.

Ochako could feel the breath leaving her lungs as she took in the sight in front of her. 

Deku was leaning up against the kitchen counter, looking at his phone with what looked like a bored expression— sipping periodically at some water without a care. 

He looked tired. 

Ochako didn’t know how long she stood there, just staring. It could have been a couple seconds, or even a couple hours. She would honestly believe either. 

All she knew is that when Deku finally looked up from his phone, she found herself unable to breathe properly. 

Deku’s expression held no surprise or shock at Ochako’s presence. In fact, he seemed indifferent— Apathetic, almost .  

Like he just wouldn’t— couldn’t find the will to give a single shit.  

It was a difficult expression to try and process. Ochako didn’t understand what it meant.  

It internally frustrated her to no end, but when she looked into those dark green eyes that seemed to stare right into her— yet finding nothing— it’s like her voice just decided to abandon ship and leave her for dead. 

So instead of saying anything, Ochako numbly walked into the kitchen. She quickly found a cup, filled it with water, and just kinda stood there dumbly— watching as the water rippled marginally in her grasp. 

She took a sip of her water, using the action as an excuse to look up at Deku again. 

She almost wished she hadn’t when she saw that Deku just went back to his phone— like whatever obviously boring thing he was looking at was more interesting than anything else at the moment. 

That seemed to help Ochako finally find her voice again. 

“H-hey, Deku—“ Ochako started before getting cut off with a quiet “Hm.” from Deku. 

Just like Deku’s expression, his acknowledgment was just as lackluster and indifferent. Part of Ochako wondered if it was even a prompt to continue at all. 

She did anyway. 

“About earlier… look, I just want you to give me a chance to hear me out.” Ochako said firmly. 

She got nothing but a blank look as a response. 

“I— I just want you to consider that—“ Ochako hesitated. 

She thought back to what Nedzu said, about how Deku was changing— adapting— whatever.  

He definitely was, Ochako could see it— clear as day. 

But… 

What if it wasn’t for the better?  

“I don’t think— Deku, you’ve changed. A lot. You seem a lot more bitter and completely unlike yourself! Just consider that maybe your friends—“  

Deku sighed. It was so sharp Ochako almost flinched at the sound. 

Suddenly, Deku looked so much more exhausted. It was a weariness that looked bone deep— a kind of tiredness that couldn’t be fixed by just sleep or rest. 

He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was. 

Ochako could only watch as Deku downed the rest of his water— quickly slipping his phone into his pocket before he started making his way out of the kitchen. 

He walked right by Ochako without even sparing her a second glance. 

“W-wait—” Ochako exclaimed— whipping around in an attempt to stop Deku before getting shot down with the unimpressed stare she received. 

“You don’t have the right to talk shit about them like that.” Deku said with a soft whisper that was somehow so tangibly strained and heavy with an unimaginable weight.  

The words themselves were scathing and harsh, but under it all, Deku sounded more hurt than anything. 

“Wha— b-but I’m your friend! I have a right to be concerned about you ,” Ochako tried to reason desperately. 

“This isn’t concern, Uraraka— You might not remember it, but you hurt me, and you’ve only continued to,” Deku said tiredly, turning his back to Ochako once more, 

“Do you remember what you said? Do you remember the name of that girl you dismissed as weaker and beneath everyone else on the news? Maybe it’s not fair of me to have not talked about it properly, but what you and everyone else said wasn’t fair either. ” Deku said with so much bitterness, yet so much conviction Ochako was taken aback. 

“It doesn’t matter that she was quirkless— it doesn’t matter if she was weak willed or strong willed— It doesn’t matter if this was better or worse for her— none of that matters when, at the end of the day, she still felt like death was the better option, ” Deku said with a strong, yet shaky voice— bringing up a hand to card roughly through his hair. 

“You can be the strongest, smartest, most capable— and still reach that point. You don’t have the right to essentially say it was her own fault— that she had it coming because of something she couldn’t control. You don’t have the right to accuse Shinsou of something he can’t even physically do,” Deku whipped his head around again— making direct eye contact with a frozen Ochako. 

She swore his eyes glowed with an intensity that rivaled any sun. 

Deku took in a shuddering breath that seemed to wrack through his whole body, before he let it out slowly, and walked away. 

He lingered at the exit of the kitchen for a moment, before whispering so quietly Ochako almost didn’t hear. 

“You don’t have the right to try and fix what’s not broken.”  

/ 

“Hey Toshinori, how’zit been?” Naomasa asked conversationally, as he nursed a warm cup of coffee in his hand. Fitting— he was in a coffee shop, after all. 

“Thank you for meeting with me, my old friend. And, as for how I’ve been, it’s been… going,” Toshinori said almost airily as he sat himself in front of Naomasa. 

“Oh come on, please don’t call me old. You’ll only make me stress about my impending mortality more than I already do,” Naomasa said with a joking air, but still truthfully. 

Being unable to lie is certainly a… challenging quirk side effect sometimes. 

Toshinori laughed heartily, before abruptly falling into a coughing fit. 

Naomasa frowned, silently offering a napkin that Toshinori took gratefully. 

“So, what did you want to talk about? Is it about All For One , your hero-ing career, or something else?” Naomasa gently prompted, taking a sip of his coffee. It was a rare thing for Toshinori to plan a casual little get together— especially recently. So it was kind of obvious he was after some kind of advice for something or another. 

Wouldn’t be the first time. 

“Am I that obvious?” Toshinori asked sheepishly— rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. 

“Yes,” Naomasa said without remorse. It was the truth, after all. 

“Ahh, well— I was hoping you could give me some advice for… mentorship?” Toshinori asked like it was a question. 

“Mentorship… is it something about your successor?” Naomasa asked. 

“Yeah, a little bit. He’s doing this exercise, I think, with Aizawa? I don’t know— he just hasn’t really been using his quirk… at all,” Toshinori admitted. 

Huh. Well then. 

“Really? I’m honestly surprised Shouta didn’t have him do something like this sooner— Shouta’s usually really good at building from the ground up and all that,” Naomasa commented offhandedly. Naomasa found it odd for Shouta to let Midoriya use his quirk like that for so long— 

“What do you mean?” Toshinori asked, confusion painting his features. 

Naomasa paused. 

“Well, you gave Midoriya One For All pretty close to the entrance exams right? Wayyy too close in my personal opinion,” Naomasa grumbled a bit pointedly at the end. 

Toshinori nodded. 

“Well, then it only makes logical sense Shouta would start by teaching him quirkless fighting while safely developing his quirk more on the side so he doesn’t fall as far behind. I mean— he does know Midoriya didn’t get his quirk until recently, right?” Naomasa questioned, just to make sure. Toshinori couldn’t be that dumb right? 

Right?  

“Uh…” Toshinori looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. 

Really.  

“Toshinori,” Naomasa needed an answer. 

“No…?” Toshinori conceded after a moment's hesitation. 

Truth.

Seriously?

“Why? Why didn’t you tell him? If not about One For All, then just some BS excuse about being a late bloomer or something! It’s not that hard,” Naomasa stressed, his voice coming out a bit strained. 

“I didn’t think I needed to! You know the less people know about One For All the better,” Toshinori said, trying to defend himself a bit. 

“That’s not an excuse, Toshinori,” Naomasa sighed, bringing his forehead down to rest in his hand. 

“Midoriya needs his own circle ‘in the know’ too, so he doesn’t go batshit insane. You should know how heavy the burden of One For All is— especially for someone as young as Midoriya,” Naomasa said, trying hard to hit his point home. 

“He seems to be doing fine…” Toshinori mumbled. 

Hell no.  

“Toshinori. You told me yourself that Midoriya didn't stop breaking his bones all the time until after you sent him off to Torino— that’s way too many bones broken. You’re the class A Heroics teacher, Shouta can only figure out so much without being told shit like this!” Naomasa could feel his voice slowly rising the more frustrated he got. 

“Do you know what Shouta probably thought when Midoriya came in on the first day? He probably thought Midoriya was someone who believed he could make it as a hero with a quirk that seemed to only destroy himself without anything else. He was probably under the impression he’s visited countless quirk councilors, tried every trick in the book, and after 11 years his quirk still destroys his bones. I remember you clearly ranting to me about how he originally tried to fight Midoriya’s placement in the hero course after the exams, and this is probably why! Yes, maybe he could have started to try working with Midoriya sooner on his own accord, but— again— that’s also your job as his main heroics teacher and mentor,” Naomasa was panting a bit after finishing his piece— coming down from his high of emotion and exertion. 

Naomasa looked up at Toshinori with a sad disappointment. Toshinori looked like a kicked puppy, but Naomasa couldn’t find it in himself to feel sorry for it this time. 

They both sat in silence for a while. Toshinori looked like he didn’t quite know what to say, and Naomasa was honestly done saying anything.

Naomasa closed his eyes. 

“I want you to consider telling Shouta about One For All. Because if you don’t, I will,” Naomasa said quietly, before getting up from his seat. 

Naomasa’s coffee sat cold and forgotten. 

Chapter Text

“Hey…Kyouka? Would it be alright if I talked to you for a second?”

Kyouka looked up from her phone to find Momo standing awkwardly beside her— a spoon of breakfast cereal held up to her mouth, frozen mid bite. 

Some milk dripped back down into her bowl.

“You don’t have to, of course, but if you want to humor me…” Momo trailed off, rubbing her arm while she endeavored to not make eye contact. 

Kyouka dropped her spoon back into the bowl. 

Blinking slowly, Kyouka took in a deep breath, and sighed a resigned sort of sigh that could only be made at the beginning of a day, only to figure out that oh, it’s one of those days, huh?

“ Sure , shoot,” Kyouka said, trying to keep from yawning. 

She ignored the sudden heaviness in her chest. 

“Oh, thank you,” Momo said, pulling out a chair right next to Kyouka, “well, I’ll start off by saying that, and everyone else was wondering… what happened?”  

Kyouka played with her spoon, moving bits of her cereal around with it. 

“Gonna have to be more specific than that, Momo,” Kyouka said in her normal dry tone— though it lacked much else in the way of emotion. 

Momo cleared her throat, blushing slightly, “Sorry, I guess I meant… What happened with you and Midoriya? We all thought you were trying to figure him out just like the rest of us, but then you stopped talking to us, to me , and suddenly you were basically right beside him,” Momo recounted— her brows furrowed slightly. 

After a moment, Kyouka ate some of her cereal. 

It was soggy. 

“You’re right, I was trying to figure it out— but not like the rest of you”, Kyouka said, looking Momo right in the eyes. 

“I wanted more information, confirmation, and I was right. That’s all.” Kyouka answered simply. 

“And… and what were you right about?“ Momo asked hesitantly, meeting Kyouk’s eyes directly for the first time that morning. 

Kyouka was too tired for this. 

“I don’t know, Momo, you’re smart, what do you think?” Kyouka asked back in a tired voice, no bite coming through despite there definitely being room for it.  

Momo was silent for a minute, pondering. 

“I think Midoriya is mad, that much is clear. And, I think you’re mad, too,” Momo said, looking sad, “Truth be told, I don’t remember much of what everyone was doing when Midoriya broke his glass that one day. We were all just watching TV like we always do in the evenings. I think I was more shocked about how mad Midoriya appeared at the time to really remember much else,” Momo admitted. 

“It was a suicide story, Momo. The suicide of a quirkless girl,” Kyouka grit out weakly. 

Momo looked even more sad at that, before brightening up a bit in recognition. 

“Oh yes! I remember now! It sparked a debate about the quirkless, and evolutionarily how they differ from the quirked. Apparently, they’re born with a bunch of extra, useless parts, including but not limited to the famous extra toe joint. I’ve noticed people who are quirkless are much more likely to have mental problems and commit suicide. And, I know I’m no brain specialist, but I thought that maybe it was some mental weakness similar to the extra parts— as it’s thought that most animals aside from humans can’t even commit suicide despite animals sometimes exibiting behavior like it, so maybe quirked—“ 

“Momo— Momo just— just stop. Please,” Kyouka pleaded. Normally, Kyouka didn’t mind Momo’s information and theory vomit, but not now. 

Not now. 

Momo blinked owlishly, before shrinking back slightly. 

“Oh… Oh do you think Midoriya is mad that we turned that tragedy around into a discussion? Now that I think about it, that was probably incredibly careless—“ 

“Momo…” Kyouka said quietly as she tried desperately to ignore the burning behind her eyes. 

Momo stopped talking, just looking at Kyouka with what looked like withering confidence. 

“…Did you know my cousin is quirkless? He’s real nice— a bit quirky, and sometimes purposefully annoying— but nice company regardless,” Kyouka suddenly said, getting up to empty her cereal bowl, and keeping herself turned away from the lingering gaze of Momo. 

She didn’t really feel hungry, anymore. 

“He’s waxed poetic about how he was gonna be a famous rock star one day, and y’know, the way he said it made me believe it,” Kyouka said, leaning her elbows against the counter by the sink. 

“But no one wants to work with someone quirkless. The show bizz is just “too hard” for him. It would “eat him alive”, and “he’ll never be good enough for the big stage”,” Kyouka said, making air quotes with her fingers. 

“He’s been rejected more times than I can count. Been spat on and kicked till he was down, sometimes literally. By all accounts his dream should’ve stayed a dream— and he would’ve been lucky to find some run down office that barely paid workers a legal wage, or been smart enough to go completely illegal and deal in drugs, or weapons, or literally anything that would get him money to live,” Kyouka said, voice getting harsher and harsher with her emotions. 

“But he made it. Eventually, he realized a physical stage with bright lights wasn’t cutting it for him, so instead he looked at it differently. He made an anonymous account on HeroTube— made his identity invisible— put on a costume— a mask— and made the music he wanted to make all by himself. And eventually, he made it that way,” Kyouka said, voice lightening up slightly. 

Kyouka glanced back at Momo, but didn’t turn fully around. 

“Now why, Momo, should he have to do that? Clearly he is good enough— he not only works hard, but he also works smart. He has the skills. He has the drive. The desire. Even the people, now. Was he just unlucky? Is there some genetic weakness that made those agents blow him off without a second thought?” Kyouka challenged— voice hard and eyes bright. 

“It’s prejudice, Momo. Not much else to it. Same with how some people don’t get jobs or opportunities because of obvious physical mutations, or scary “villainous” quirks,” Kyouka sighed, glancing away from Momo once more before she looked at her phone and made a face after seeing what time it was. 

“It’s almost time for class. Gotta go get ready,” Kyouka muttered before trotting off— not looking back, “You should go get ready too.” 

Kyouka didn’t see the heartbroken look on Momo’s face. 

/ 

“Midoriya” 

“Todoroki”

Midoriya and Todoroki stared each other down— made slightly comedic by the fact they both held lunch trays while they did it. 

Or, at least, Neito thought so. 

Neito himself had already dropped his tray down and had started to dig in when Mr. Canadian Flag decided to grace them with his presence. 

Neito can still picture Todoroki falling flat on his face after getting his ass thoroughly whooped in perfect clarity, and he will never be ashamed of how he made it a core memory to be kept forever and always. 

The thought made him smirk to himself— before he shoved more food into his face. 

Then suddenly, completely out of left field, Todoroki slammed his food tray on the table and bent himself into a perfect 180 degree bow reminiscent of one of Iida’s trademarks. 

Idly, Neito thought Todoroki ought to be more careful, lest he get copyrighted. 

“Midoriya, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, if there’s anything—“ 

“Todoroki— stand down, this isn’t about AllMight,” Midoriya said— face weirdly amused. 

Todoroki slowly stood back up.

“What.” 

Neito almost choked on his food at the face Todoroki made— it look like his brain had ceased.  

Todoroki exe. Has stopped working.  

“But— secret love child—“  

“Todoroki, I am not AllMight’s secret love child. I was never AllMight’s secret love child. And I won’t ever be AllMight’s secret love child,” Midoriya said— voice dry. 

“That’s exactly what a secret love child would say,” Todoroki said almost petulantly. 

What the actual fuck. 

“Todoroki— it doesn’t matter— I’m not using my quirk because of anything like that anyway. I’m doing this for myself, and to make a point. Find the point Todoroki,” Midoriya said— voice getting dryer by the minute. 

Todoroki looked about ready to have a crisis right then and there. 

Right in front of Neito’s fucking meal.  

“I didn’t use my fire because I wanted to make a point too…” Todoroki mumbled, scuffing his foot on the ground. 

“It was a stupid point, Todoroki,” Midoriya said without mercy. 

Todoroki glared at nothing. 

“Todoroki, were you even paying attention to anything that was going on the day I broke my glass cup?” 

“Which time? You’ve done that many times.” Shouto said, eyeing Midoriya’s crooked hands.

Midoriya sighed, “The most recent time.”

Todoroki squinted his eyes “No…?” 

“Todoroki, what’s your thoughts on the quirkless?” 

“Uh…” Todoroki looked like a vaguely confused cat, “I dunno… Can’t say I’ve thought about it much except that I sometimes wished I was quirkless when I was younger,” Todoroki said blandly, “You should ask my brother Natsuo, he’s a whole conspiracy that my idiot father put together.” 

Midoriya shook his head— grinning in an almost awestruck, exasperated way. 

“Well, It’s about that, so, no secret love children here,” Midoriya clarified. 

Todoroki cast a dubious look towards Shinsou— who was sitting there looking like he was losing brain cells by the second— before looking back at Midoriya with a raised eyebrow. 

“About quirklessness? What— oh,” Todoroki said slowly, blank-faced. 

Todoroki just stood there for a few seconds. Silently, like he was rebooting. Jirou looked half a second away from defenestration. 

“I think I get it now,” Todoroki suddenly said, “I’m gonna go bother Natsuo later over the phone. He might like this, who knows,” Todoroki said with a lazy shrug before gently picking his tray back up, and waltzing off. 

Neito’s food fell out of his agape mouth. 

“Um, excuse my french, but what the fuck?” Neito said after clearing his throat. 

Midorya just shook his head again with a grin, before setting his tray down around where Todoroki’s was previously, finally taking a seat himself. 

“ Midoriya,” Neito said in a strained— begging voice. 

“I don't… what?” Shinsou mumbled weakly to himself. 

Jirou’s face was planted in her hands. She let out a long, pain-filled groan. 

Neito very much shared the sentiment. 

“To make a long story short— Todoroki has this long running conspiracy that I am AllMight’s secret love child, which is false ,” Midoriya said, almost a little desperately, “and he compared that theory with his own experience with his shitty father, which lead to the whole “showdown” fiasco yesterday. If you want any more details, ask Todoroki himself as it is not my story, but that's the basic gist of it.” Midoriya said, grabbing his chopsticks and taking a bite of his food. 

Shinsou looked like he was at a loss for words— staring blankly at nothing with a slight furrow to his brows. 

“He also has a habit of just agreeing with the people around him when he’s not really paying attention, so—“ Midoriya just shrugged, “—you can imagine how much shenanigans involving miscommunication he gets into. He once accidentally joined a cult because of this, but we don’t talk about that,” He said cryptically, before taking another bite. 

“So, you basically just let him continue on with his ridiculous plan just so you could use him as an example?” Jirou asked slowly, saying every word carefully as if she was scared of being misunderstood. 

“Yep,”  Midoriya said shortly, but truthfully. 

Neito slammed his hand on the table, rattling his tray and everything on it slightly.

“You know what? No. Being a Dramatic Ass is my trademark, and I am suing you and Todoroki for copyright infringement. This is unacceptable, and I refuse to just let this tomfoolery slide. Where is the Justice?“ Neito started prattling off to cope with whatever the hell that conversation just was. 

Shinsou just sighed loudly right beside him, seemingly coming back to reality, “Y’know what? I don’t even care that much,” Shinosu muttered to himself, before he picked up his chopsticks and started digging into his now probably lukewarm meal. 

Jirou just nodded slowly to herself and followed Shinosu’s lead, both of them completely ignoring Neito’s plight. 

Midoriya just looked smug, before also committing himself fully to finishing his food. 

Rude. Neito made a pouty face in protest. 

“Hey, Monoma, think about it this way,” Jirou said after a minute, still keeping her eyes on her food, “At least you’ll always be the Bastard Weasel.”  

Neito hates it here. 

/ 

“I’m just saying, maybe you should reconsider—“ 

“No, Toshinori, I’ve given you a night and almost another full day to think about it, that’s more than enough time for something that should not be held off any longer.” Naomasa said, pulling on his trench coat and rummaging around his pockets to find his car keys. 

“You could be putting a lot of people in danger, Naomasa—“ 

“I don’t know if you got the memo, AllMight, but they’re already in danger. The LOV is only going to get stronger despite AFO being arrested, and their grudge against UA likely will never end. Shouta knowing will not change that.” Naomasa clipped in an annoyed tone. Grumbling when he had to check multiple pockets just to finally find his keys. 

“Just let me handle it— please. I know I can—“  

“Knowing and doing are two different things. Just by the fact that you called me and tried to convince me otherwise is proof that you’ll only shove the entire problem off to the side and hope people eventually forget about it like you always do. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this is not an issue where you can just do that without people getting even more hurt in the long run— specifically Midoriya,” Naomasa lectured while he walked out toward his car, “This is non-negotiable. In fact— I might try to find Midoriya himself to convince him to pick some good, trustworthy friends to make in the know as well so the weight of the entire fucking world doesn’t crush him like it did you.”  

Naomasa might have let too much bitterness about how careless Toshinori was with his own life— leading to his famous career ending injury. While he might have opinions about how Toshinori essentially making himself a diet Atlas was pretty stupid, there’s really not much that could be done about it now, except letting society repair itself over time. 

With luck, it wouldn’t completely collapse. 

Toshinori made a wounded sound— coughing harshly for a second— before going completely silent. Naomasa could almost picture the sad face Toshinori was probably making. 

“I’m sorry, Toshinori, but this is for the best,” Naomasa said in a deflated tone, before hanging up and unlocking his car. 

Destination, UA. 

Chapter Text

Toshinori was, for lack of a better word, quaking in his boots. 

He could not risk the secret of OFA getting out, even if it were just to another person. While he might respect Aizawa as a hero and fellow teacher teaching the new generations of heroes, this secret was simply too large, too important to risk even on someone as logical as him. Toshinori had Nedzu for that– Naomasa for that. 

He never thought the day would come where his dear friend would betray him like this. Naomasa should know it’s not his secret to tell. 

Naomasa should know how dangerous of a secret it was. How you can’t exactly come back from it once you know. 

He was essentially going to air out a generational secret that not even the Commision knew of, and to who? A homeroom teacher that occasionally helped out with heroics lessons? 

It was too risky. 

And with these thoughts running circles around his head, Toshinori came to a decision. 

He’d go to Nedzu, explain the situation, and hopefully Naomasa wouldn’t be able to step even a single foot on campus. 

Nedzu would understand. He was smart like that. 

It also didn’t help that Nedzu had to sign what was the equivalent to an NDA sanctioned by the Hero Commision and his agency when Toshinoi first got the job, stating he’d keep all secretive matters relating to All Might as that, a secret. 

So, legally speaking, he had to understand… right? 

Right. He’d understand. 

And so, Toshinori went on a mission. A mission to Principal Nedzu’s office with a plan at the ready. 

He’d understand.  

/ 

“I apologize, Yagi, but I simply do not have the time for you right now,” Nedzu said sharply, typing erratically and quickly on his keyboard. 

Nearly a full pot of tea sat beside him, hours cold. 

He didn’t have the time for anything except this, at the moment. 

“But Nedzu, surely you can spare even a minute of your time? I’d argue this matter is rather important,” The Buffoon prattled off, looking a little desperate. 

Nedzu didn’t even look up. 

“If it’s anything less than AFO escaping Tartarus to wreak havoc, the LOV or any other dangerous villains attacking, or a student dying on the ground, then no. I cannot spare you even a minute of time,” Nedzu replied curtly, Internally screaming at the top of his lungs when The Buffoon opened his mouth to speak again. 

Then, something momentarily surprising happened in the form of Aizawa, of all people, barging into his office much in a similar manner to that of The Buffoon. 

“Nedzu– You rat-ass-bitch– you have some explaining to do–” Aizawa said darkly, a clear, angry aura surrounding his person. 

Why did the universe decide now , of all times, was the perfect time for him to be interrupted?

Nedzu loudly banged once on the table with his paw as a series of codes he was trying to get through started getting jumbled up, the tea pot shuddering as a result. 

“I do NOT have the TIME!” Nedzu said with a raised voice, a growl slipping out to accompany it as he quickly pulled up another backdoor he noticed earlier, and started digging through that instead. 

That seemed to do the trick and shut the both of them up quickly. Nedzu was vaguely aware of the shocked expressions they must be wearing, but he didn’t have the capacity to care about that at the moment.

Blissfully, Aizawa seemed to quickly get the message– swiftly turning around and dragging the stalk still Buffoon out with him. 

This, right here, was why Aizawa was his favorite. 

With the distractions finally gone, Nedzu cranked up his speed typing ten-fold– destroying digital walls faster than they could be put up and repaired. 

He was not going to let stolen information remain in the files of those who it didn't belong to. 

He’d destroy it all before it even had the chance to be properly used. 

You didn’t fuck with Nedzu and to this extent and expect to get away with it scott free. 

No way in hell. 

Time flew by as quickly as Nedzu typed. He didn’t stop for a second— going for as long as his paws would allow. And finally, after what seemed like forever, Nedzu breached their servers and let loose a virus that fucked them all up in seconds . He plowed through it all, any file remaining getting metaphorically burned at the stake. 

He hoped their computers caught fire with how much he was going to overrun their servers with complete shit.  

He knew this wasn’t foolproof, however. If they had copied the info onto a hard drive or even physically copied it onto paper, he was, quite simply, fucked . He’d have to find some way to either destroy the physical copies, or remain on the overwhelming defensive for the foreseeable future. 

Annoying . 

How could he let something like this happen? 

Nedzu found only slight enjoyment in watching them desperately try to save what little was left uncorrupted and undestroyed, it not nearly being as satisfying as it should have been. 

How could he let something like this happen? 

Nedzu let out a breath, leaning back in his chair as he took a moment to just breathe.

He really did hate the Hero Commision with a burning passion that rivaled that of the largest Red Giants. 

He wished he could just destroy them already.

But no, that would leave everything in a terrible disarray. There was nothing and no one to replace them fast enough, especially not with the LOV and other unsavory groups still running around.  

The long game was best, even if it felt worst. 

Unfortunate, but true. 

After letting out a long sigh, Nedzu leaned back forward– pulling up the security cameras placed just outside his office.

Unsurprisingly, Aizawa and The Buffoon were still there. Waiting. 

Surprisingly, The Good Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa had joined their ranks, seemingly ignoring The Buffoon’s existence, and instead was sharing awkward glances with Aizawa. 

Not for the first time, Nedzu wished the day could just end when he wanted it to and without anything to worry about. 

Unfortunately that wasn't reality. Unfortunately, he still had things he needed to address and deal with.

And so, Nedzu clicked a button under his desk, and re-opened the doors to his office. 

Time to face the music. 

/

When Naomasa first stepped foot past the UA gates, he knew instantly something was off.

The first red flag was the fact Nedzu didn’t greet him over the coms at the front like he usually did— his “The Good Detective Pass” silently letting him through and on his way. 

The second red flag was the fact he didn’t see Toshinori anywhere. He was positive Toshinori would try and stop him every step of the way, so the fact he remained nowhere to be seen was suspicious. 

The third and final red flag was finding Toshinori and Shouta squatting outside Nedzu’s office— both looking more than a little unsettled and disgruntled all at the same time. 

Weird. 

“…What’s going on here?” Naomasa asked cautiously, doing the trick at bringing attention to himself. 

Toshinori’s eyes blew wide as he jumped up to a stand. 

“Aizawa, you need to leave—“ Toshinori said quickly, glancing back and forth between the annoyed expressions on Shouta’s and Naomasa’s face, “I… called Naomasa here to discuss something important— it’s a private matter—”

Lie

“All Might, you know full well that’s a blatant lie ,” Naomasa said, cutting that excuse into tiny little pieces before it even had the chance to work. 

“…And what’s going on here?” Shouta shot blandly, his voice as dry as a dessert. 

“I need to talk with you, Shouta, about Midoriya and his quirk,” Naomasa said, not beating around the bush. 

Toshinori looked panicked. 

Shouta’s eyes widened slightly as he raised an eyebrow, “What a coincidence, that’s actually what I wanted to yell at Nedzu about,” Shouta admitted darkly. 

Truth

Huh. Well then. 

“So you already know about his quirk?” Naomasa asked to clarify. 

Shouta gave him a weird look— glaring quickly at Toshinori when he weakly tried to interject. 

“I know he was quirkless right up until the entrance exam, or at least I do now,” Shouta said— bitterness leaking out of his words, “Is that what this is about?” 

“Not quite,” Naomasa said, “but partially”. 

Naomasa earned himself another weird look. 

Shouta looked back over at Toshinori, seemingly assessing his almost defeated expression, before glancing back at Naomasa. 

“If this conversation requires Nedzu, then you’re out of luck. He’s busy right now,” Shouta informed— lazily gesturing with his head to the closed door, “Judging by how ruffled he was, UA is likely having a security issue, so I suggest we wait until he’s done with that so we have a definitive secure place where we can all have a nice long chat, ” Shouta said in a sort of drawl. On the surface it was a suggestion, but in reality it was closer to an order. 

Naomasa sighed, squatting down by Shouta. 

“Sounds like a plan,” Naomasa said quietly, glancing up at Toshinori who was still standing awkwardly. 

Toshinori averted his gaze, going back to lean on the wall instead of sitting back on the ground. 

And so that’s what they all did. 

They sat there in complete and utter silence. 

Awkward silence.

Fun times. All around.  

At some point, Naomasa had brought his phone out to mindlessly scroll through, before eventually giving up on that— going back to just sitting there doing nothing. 

Sometimes, he’d glance at Shouta, Shouta would glance back, and then they’d both glance away again. 

Again. Fun times. 

After what felt like an eternity and a half, the door to Nedzu’s office finally opened, startling Toshinori slightly. Naomasa felt bad about bothering Nedzu after what was probably just a stressful digital tower defense, but Toshinori was proving himself to be difficult about this matter, so it was better to get it done now than later. 

Plus there was the whole ‘Shouta wanting to scream at Nedzu’ thing— and he can’t really do much about that, so—

“Hello Yagi, Tsukauchi, Aizawa, what is it you wanted to discuss?” Nedzu asked, his voice coming out slightly flatter than usual. 

Understandable, honestly.

“Is the security of UA safe right now?” Aizawa asked, beating Naomasa to the punch. 

Nedzu took in a breath. 

“The short answer is yes. Fortunately. The long answer, however, is the Hero Commision now has a bunch of student Info that I have destroyed digitally, but has also possibly been copied physically. And yes, I know what you're going to say, Yagi, but they don’t care that this is illegal,” Nedzu said, slightly exasperated, “They couldn’t get any further than that, fortunately, but that’s still a major break, and puts me in a predicament where my desire to burn their facilities has grown exponentially . And no, Yagi, the police nor the government will do anything about it in the stage that I am currently at.” 

Truth

“Are there any concerns about the students' safety because of this, and will we be able to handle whatever comes?” Aizawa asked, once again beating out Naomasa. 

Nedzu smiled a bit, thinking about it for a moment. 

“I am confident we can keep everyone safe, and  handle this going forward. I just might have to speed things up a bit,” Nedzu said confidently.

Truth

Naomasa let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shouta relax slightly as well. 

“Good. Now I can ask about why the fuck you didn’t tell me Midorya’s quirk didn’t come in until around the time of the fucking entrance exams?” Shouta exclaimed, his voice tight. 

“Ah, yes, that— “ Nedzu said, turning towards Naomasa, who had unconsciously raised his hand. 

Naomasa straightened slightly when everyone in the room turned to him— Shouta looking more than a little annoyed at what probably looked like a deflect. 

“Was it because of One For All?” Naomasa asked. 

Nedzu shook his head ‘no’ while Shouta just looked confused. 

Toshinori took a step forward suddenly, throwing a hand out to the side. 

“Nedzu— You can’t seriously— You signed—“ Toshinori started, before getting cut off. 

“I didn’t say anything, Yagi. The Good Detective did,” Nedzu said, if a bit smugly, “And regarding that— No. I could have just said he was a late bloomer as a warning, and left it at that,” Nedzu admitted.

Truth

“Disregarding whatever the hell this One For All is—“ Shouta cut in, “—why didn’t you just do that?” 

“To explain that properly I first need Tsukauchi here to state his piece,” Nedzu explained, still not looking away from Naomasa, “if you could?”

Naomasa could see Toshinori looking at him from the corner of his eye. One last desperate call to keep quiet. 

A warning. 

Naomasa took a deep breath, and let it out sharply. Eyes hard, and conviction strong. 

“All Might gave Midoriya his quirk, which is called One For All, or OFA. It’s a generational quirk, originating from All For One, that has had 7 holders before All Might, making Midoriya the ninth. It gets stronger with each holder, stockpiling their power to be used, even after death— all to fight and hopefully defeat All For One. That’s why Midoriya’s quirk came in so late. He never had one. He was given it the day of the exam and was set to be trained by All Might to be the next symbol of peace. His successor,” Naomasa spewed out— trying not to leave any important details out in one big info-dump. 

After he was done, Naomasa looked over at Shouta. 

To say he was fuming would be an understatement. 

“ And why did nobody tell me this?” Shouta repeated for what had to have been the hundredth time, “Midoriya has broken so many bones, I’ve lost count. If I’d have known—“  

“Would that really have changed anything, though? I can imagine quite vividly a scenario where you would have fought even harder for Midoriya’s expulsion because of this. You wouldn’t have even given him a chance, and when I would have overruled your decision for the first time, you would have gone digging for an answer I couldn’t actually give without All Might and the Commision getting on my back. Why do you think I asked Tsukauchi to explain it, and not me?” Nedzu questioned sharply, “And even if I dragged The Good Detective here to explain it all, the scenario remains the same because everyone thought All For One dead and gone. That just leaves a quirkless child no one knows or understands fully yet who has been given a power that can destroy mountains, cities— the only thing I had to go on was the good word of All Might that this child was not going to become a full fledged megalomaniac. I can see now that’s not that case, but only because I left him be. Of course, when he only continued to break bones, and you continued to not help him despite that, I called up Gran Torino to do what apparently All Might could not. Teach him something. ” Nedzu ranted, before freezing still.