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Midoriya Izuku walked into the teacher’s lounge with a nervous expression. Aizawa had asked him to meet him there after classes were over, and although Izuku couldn’t think of anything he had done wrong, he knew better than to underestimate his teacher. When he walked into the lounge, the only teachers inside were Aizawa, Present Mic and Midnight.
“Hello, Midoriya!” Midnight chirped as he passed her desk. He greeted her back and approached the couches toward the back of the room, where Aizawa and Mic were sitting together. It was a little known fact that the two were married, although the entirety of 2-A knew due to their close relationship with their homeroom teacher. Aizawa had volunteered to be their homeroom teacher until the class graduated, because despite his uncaring demeanor, everyone knew he had the urge to protect the kids as much as he could. With all of the bullshit they had gone through in their first year, Izuku couldn’t blame him.
“Midoriya,” Eraserhead said, nodding to him. “Sit down.”
Izuku took his seat on the couch across from his teachers, twisting his gnarled fingers together anxiously. “You wanted to talk to me about something?” he asked.
“That’s correct. I have a proposition for you,” the black haired man said. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, dropping his voice conspiratorially. “I want to test some training with your class, and I want you to help me with it.”
Izuku leaned forward as well, his nerves fading to intrigue. “Training? What kind of training?”
Aizawa smirked deviously. “Have you ever met the first year hero student, Takamura?”
(x)
Aizawa Shouta sat at his desk at the front of the room the next day, watching his students mingle and chatter before class began. Nearly all of them were present, save for Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, and Midoriya’s closest friend group. He assumed that Midoriya and Bakugou were running late after training together that morning, whereas Midoriya’s friends had all waited for him before they walked from the dorms to the main building. Shouta checked his watch, frowning. They had six minutes to get to class before he would have to mark them as tardy.
Just as he thought this, the door to the classroom slid open, revealing five giggling teenagers. Midoriya was in the middle of the pack, being the center of attention. Aizawa watched him closely, taking him in from the top of his unruly curls to the bottom of his bright red sneakers. With that look alone, he felt quite satisfied with the beginning of his training plan.
“Cutting it close, are we?” he asked the group. All of them turned to face him, although it was Iida Tenya that spoke up first.
“We apologize for nearly being tardy, Sensei!” The boy chopped his arm like a robot. “Midoriya-kun and Bakugou-kun’s morning run ran long, and we did not wish to leave Midoriya-kun behind!”
“Then where’s Bakugou?”
“Ah, B- um, Kacchan told us to go ahead,” Midoriya stuttered. Aizawa caught the slip-up of Bakugou’s name, but it appeared no one else had. “I met my friends on the path after I took a shower.” He gave Aizawa a meaningful look that no one else would have been able to decipher. Shouta took it to mean that Izuku had been the one to train with Bakugou that morning, but “Midoriya” was the one who walked with his friends and now stood in front of him.
Shouta watched the four other students closely, but didn’t find any hint of suspicion in their eyes. He mentally marked them down for the training exercise before he swept his eyes over the rest of the classroom. “Alright Problem Child and friends. Go sit down.”
They did so, and immediately after sitting down, Sero turned to chat with Midoriya. After a few moments, Aizawa looked away from them. He mentally marked Sero down, too.
The door to the classroom slid open again with a bang, revealing the last of his students. Bakugou’s spiky hair was still damp from his shower, but the rest of him was as put together as always- well, if one counted a baggy and untidy uniform as “put together.” Aizawa nodded at him to take his seat, to which Bakugou shoved his hands in his pockets and grumbled. He approached his seat on the other side of the room, but the moment his eyes fixed on Midoriya, he froze in his tracks.
Uh oh.
(x)
Bakugou Katsuki liked to think of himself as observant. He was a certified genius after all, so he tended to take in situations and assess problems quickly. That was why the moment he laid eyes on Deku, he knew something was wrong. He stuttered to a halt at the front of his row of desks, right in front of Invisi-bitch. Deku must have seen him out of the corner of his eye, because he turned and smiled at him. “Hi, Kacchan!”
Katsuki narrowed his eyes. In the next moment, he made it across the room and grabbed Deku by the throat, yanking him out of his seat. He twisted and slammed him to the wall of windows next to their desks, tightening his grip on the boy’s neck when he reached up to scramble at the hands cutting off his air supply. The rest of the extras gasped, a few of them crying out at the violence, but Katsuki ignored them in favor of glaring at the boy.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Bakugou, what the hell!” Sero yelled, standing up. The rest of the extras did as well, some of them getting into fighting positions. Katsuki realized a bit belatedly that this must have looked really fucking strange to them, especially considering he and Deku hadn’t been at each other’s throats like this in a long time (pun intended). Still, he didn’t dare to take his eyes off of the Deku imposter.
“K-Kacchan-” he choked out, digging his fingernails into the hand around his neck. Katsuki eased the pressure a bit, but only so the bastard could speak more freely. “What are you-”
“Get off of him!” Uraraka cried, running up to them to try and break “Deku” out of Katsuki’s hold. The blond turned his head to glare at her, sneering.
“This is not Deku,” he spat out. He looked back at the boy. “So I’ll ask again. Who. The fuck . Are you?”
The greenet’s eyes turned to the front of the room nervously, where Aizawa was standing. Bakugou heard the man sigh heavily before his capture weapon wrapped around his waist and yanked him back. Bakugou began wriggling around to try and escape, although he knew better than to think he could get out of it if Aizawa really wanted him to stay. The Deku imposter gasped and clawed at his neck, coughing and choking. Uraraka fluttered anxiously at his side, unsure what to do to help the boy.
“Good job, Bakugou,” Aizawa said. Just like that, the panic in the room ceased, and everyone turned to stare at Aizawa. Bakugou himself was just as confused as the rest of them when he looked at his teacher.
“Huh?”
Aizawa released his capture weapon and looked at the Deku imposter. “Takamura, come over here and stand at the front of the room.”
The boy did so, completely side-stepping Bakugou on his way over. Bakugou snapped his teeth at him threateningly, which caused him to jump and scurry to Aizawa quicker. Katsuki snorted and crossed his arms. The real Deku wouldn’t have reacted like that; he probably would have laughed in Katsuki’s face, the little fucker.
“What’s going on?” Ashido yelled, clearly stressed. Aizawa smirked at them all, clapping Deku’s imposter on the shoulder.
“Takamura, you can change back now.”
Deku’s imposter closed his eyes, and suddenly his body began to melt away. A few of the students yelped in shock, and suddenly a lanky black-haired boy stood in the imposter’s place. He opened his eyes again and grinned at the class, clasping his hands in front of him. “My name is Takamura Seijo, and my quirk is called ‘ Shapeshift. ’”
Iida pointed at him with his jaw hanging open. “Where is Midoriya-kun?!”
“He’s safe in the downstairs training room,” Aizawa replied. “He and I agreed yesterday that he would help all of you participate in a training exercise, which many of you failed. Bakugou, congratulations on ruining it so early.”
Bakugou huffed, looking away. “Whatever.”
“I’m super bummed that it ended so early, but it was fun while it lasted!” Takamura said cheerily. He turned to Katsuki and cocked his head to the side. “I have to know, what gave me away? His best friends didn’t even realize, but you did. Aren’t you two like, enemies or something?”
“We’re rivals, ” Bakugou spat. “And everything about you was wrong! You were sitting too fucking weird, you said my name all wrong, and your hair looks fucking stupid! Deku at least tries to make it look neat, but you didn’t try at all. You’re missing his darkest freckle under his right eye, and you don’t fucking smell like him.” Too late, Katsuki realized how weird that sounded. Ashido hooted and clapped her hands, and a few of the other girls in class giggled.
“You smelled me?” Takamura wrinkled his nose.
“When I shoved you against the wall! It’s not fucking weird!”
“It’s kind of weird,” Kaminari muttered to Kirishima. Bakugou lifted a hand to send a fucking AP shot right at his goddamn skull, but Aizawa used his capture weapon to force Katsuki’s hand back down to his side.
“I suppose that’s a signifier of more training for you, Takamura,” Aizawa told the extra. “Since your quirk relies on visual changing rather than DNA, make sure you take note of things like… ahem, specific freckles. ” He side-eyed Katsuki with a knowing look. Katsuki wondered if it would be too obvious if he exploded himself right in the face.
“Right!” Takamura said. “I'll do that next time!”
“I can’t believe we didn’t notice,” Uraraka lamented, shaking her head. “We’re terrible friends!”
“He was quite convincing,” Todoroki nodded, having already sat back down in his seat.
Iida looked more than a little flustered, because despite all appearances, he didn’t like to lose. Asui was just staring at the new kid with those wide, creepy eyes, not saying anything.
“He totally was,” Sero told Todoroki, nodding. “Good job on the rambling! You had me!”
“Bakugou, since you won this exercise, how about you go and retrieve Midoriya,” Aizawa instructed. “Everyone else, sit back in your seats. Takamura and I will explain how to notice imposters. Since Toga Himiko from the League of Villains is still on the loose, it would benefit you and your survival to learn.”
“Tch,” Bakugou clicked his tongue. “Whatever, I’m going.” He ignored the burning of his ears the entire way down to the gym.
(x)
Izuku landed a hard punch to the punching bag in front of him at the same moment the door to the gym opened. Kacchan stepped inside with a scrunched expression, surprising Izuku.
“K-Kacchan! Why aren’t you in class?” Izuku asked, blinking rapidly at him.
“I found out about the imposter,” Kacchan said, shocking his hands in his pockets. “Sensei wants you back in the classroom.”
“ Already ?” Izuku asked. “Wow! Kacchan is amazing!”
“Of fucking course I am!” Katsuki said, preening a bit. “You think I don’t know you on sight? We fucking grew up together!”
“I should have known,” Izuku smiled, reaching down to grab his gym bag. “Let me change back into my uniform and then we can go.” Katsuki nodded and followed Izuku to the locker room, apparently not wanting to wait for him alone. “So, how did you figure it out?”
Katsuki frowned, like he was trying to pick his words. “...I don’t know, okay? He just- he wasn’t you .”
Izuku’s heart fluttered a bit in his chest, but he pushed the feeling down. “Whatever you say, Kacchan.”
He went the rest of the day with a beaming smile on his face.