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It all started with Mina stomping up to their table and shoving her phone in his face.
He had to lean back to see what it was, but the moment his own face registered in his mind, every drop of color drained from his skin.
Izuku angled the camera so it would get the full view of him wrapped in his shock blanket as he sat by the ambulance. “Worst day of my life so far,” he chirped. “Never meet your heroes, kids!”
The video abruptly cut off, the whole thing overlayed by a horrible, mildly annoying sound from some kids show backing the sirens around him.
It was the video he'd posted directly after he'd saved Kacchan from the slime villain.
Then, the girl stitching it started talking, hand on her chest and looking around as if she was confused. “Um, excuse me? I just saw a picture on the news, and- was anyone going to tell me that IzukuTheAnalyst is that crazy kid from UA that keeps going around beating the fuck out of villains? The kid that went batshit in the Sports Festival?”
She grabbed her phone off of its stand and brought it close to her face. “This man is multitalented, okay? When he fortnite-danced on top of a hospital bed with two casts on his arms a few months ago and said he got his ass beat in a fistfight- that he did win, by the way- I didn't realize it was because villains had just attacked the UA training camp! How does one man do it all? He can have a twinkie-induced mental breakdown at four and kick ass at five. Sir. Sir, this is my formal proposal of marriage-”
Her clip cut, and with it, Izuku could feel his world begin to come crashing down. Mina was still holding her phone in his face, so he pulled out his own and immediately blocked her account to prevent her from seeing anymore. He was going to have to change his usernames and put his account on private.
Before he could stop himself, he found the duet she'd just shown him and typed out a comment.
‘xoxo thx bestie my classmate just showed me this and now everyone at ua knows about my tikok my life is over ♥️♥️💙💚💛💚 also that breakdown was bc of ding-dongs not twinkies <3’
Then he left the classroom, stubbornly refusing to talk to anyone on his way out.
He started filming the second he got to his room, sinking down against the door. “My life is over. Thank you to the person who exposed me and went viral because every student at this school now knows about this account! Love you!” He blew a kiss. “I really don't need All Might finding out that I twerked to Material Girl at three in the morning the night before mid-terms. But Present Mic and my homeroom teacher are really close and he's on everything so I'm assuming they already know.” He pushed up off the floor and set his phone on the desk, flopping down on the bed. Then, he screamed.
Cathartic.
The timer ran out just as he started. He posted it immediately, deciding not to think too hard. Then he started a new draft.
“So… making this about two seconds after my last one, and st this point… do I even really care? I'm already dead. I can't come back from this. It took way too many broken bones to get my homeroom teacher's respect as it is. I just don't have enough bones left in my body to get it back. Do I give up? I was going to put my account on private- I can't delete it, I've come too far- but what would be the point? I know my videos get reposted. It's not like they can't be found by a bunch of pro heroes-in-training. I think I just don't care. I'll probably post something new tomorrow. I might not.” He laughed, a little hysterically. “Who cares, right?! I girlbossed a little too close to the sun and now that my life has come crashing down around my stupidly big ears, I finally have the clarity to see one important thing.” He threw his hands into the air. “Nothing matters!”
The timer cut out at the perfect time, and he posted that too.
He moved to go back to class, overwhelming dread taking over and forcing him to sit back down.
Then he had a new idea.
He opened up his messages app and then pulled up the number he never thought he'd have. It had been provided on a necessary information handout given to all the students in his class at the beginning of the year.
You: Hi Present Mic-Sensei!!!!! I'm really having a bad mental health moment and I remember you saying at the beginning of the year that you would give each student one day off of classes if they weren't feeling up to it?? And I promise I'll never use it again as long as I live and it's only half a day not a full day but I'm willing to do anything to make up for missing classes!!!
You: Feel free to say no, Sensei!! It was actually probably a bad idea to ask anyway!! See you in a few minutes!
PRESENT MIC SENSEI GAVE ME HIS NUMBER: Midoriya, kiddo, just stay in for the day, alright? Don't worry about it. I'll have Iida bring you your assignments for the day. It's no problem, and I offer mental health days for a reason! Why come to class if you won't be participating anyway?
PRESENT MIC SENSEI GAVE ME HIS NUMBER: I'm also assuming this is because of the thousands of @s I've been getting all morning on TikTok, and I understand. Your first PR scandal’s always a big one 😂😂😂😂 Just don't let it faze you, keep doing what you've been doing, and you'll be fine.
Izuku’s shoulders rose up to encompass his head, shame hitting him harder than All Might had in their final exam.
You: Thank you sir!!!! I'll get started on my other work as soon as possible!!
You: And thank you for the advice!!!!!!!!
PRESENT MIC SENSEI GAVE ME HIS NUMBER: 👍
With that out of the way, Izuku flopped back down onto his bed, reopening the recorder for the third time in fifteen minutes.
He cleared his throat dramatically and changed the timer to three minutes. “So, I now have confirmed proof that Present Mic-Sensei knows about my account, so talking about him is probably not the best idea, but I just thought I'd let you know that as of right now, my favorite pro has switched from All Might to him because he's the literal best.” He rolled over, propping his chin up on the back of his hands and kicking his feet in the air like a schoolgirl in every anime ever. “Should I elaborate? No, but I will anyway. So! First of all, sir, if you're watching this, and I hope to God you're not, I need you to know that I love you. Second of all, Present Mic is one of those unicorn teachers that a) doesn't hate my guts just because I exist, and b) offers one mental health day a year, no questions asked. He gets you off all your classes for the day, excused absence, the works. All you have to do is text him.”
Izuku sighed and scooted forward until his head was hanging off his bed. “So anyway, my next class starts in roughly ten minutes? And when I got up to go back, a wave of existential dread decided to come for me harder than the League ever has, so I sit back down. Yes, I was about ready to cry. School was not going to happen for me.” He held up a hand. “And yes, to everybody in the comments that's gonna call me a pussy, I've been through much worse in way worse mental states. I would have dealt with it if I had to. So shut up. But yeah, I texted him and then immediately talked myself out of it. I texted him again and asked him to forget about it, but he texted me back instantly and told me to take the rest of the day off, that he'd have one of my friends bring me my homework, all that.
“And then he told me he knew it was because of Tiktok. Yeah. Mortifying. I've listened to his show since I was three years old and here he is, telling me thousands of people have tagged him in the Video That Shall Not Be Named. He tells me it’s not a big deal and to not freak out about it.”
Izuku zoomed in on his own face. “Guys. Guys. He was so nice about it. It felt like a hug, but a text.” He coughed. “Anyway, I know a lot of you are in Japan, and there's somehow five million of you, so let's see if we can push him up a little higher in the hero polls this year, yeah? Let's get a tag going for the vote; #NumberOnePresentMic! I'm so sorry, All Might, but you can barely figure out how to swap from picture to video in your camera so I know you'll never see this.” He put up a peace sign. “Also, you're retired so you're not in the polls anymore. I still love you but you've been my favorite hero since I was four. It's time to give up your spot.”
Izuku slid forward until he was so far off the bed that his head was holding him up. “Anyway, I'll probably be pretty active for the rest of today because for some reason talking to strangers on the internet is calming me. So stay tuned if you'd like to see what I do when I lock myself in my room and go steal snacks from the kitchen to last me through the night.”