Chapter Text
Shinso wouldn't reveal it under torture, but he was excited to see Himiko again. An actual friend? The concept was foreign to him. What did friends actually do? Did they, like, talk? Well, obviously, they'd talk. You can talk to people even if you're not friends with them. But talking wasn't really something Shinso had much practice with. Most people didn't ever really want to hear him speak once they learned how his quirk worked.
He should probably keep that to himself, then. Well, should he? She didn't seem to really care that much about his quirk anyway. Still, he didn't want to take any chances.
He waited in the classroom, tapping his foot on the ground in anticipation. As Himiko walked into the classroom, Shinso had to fight to keep his expression composed. He didn't want her thinking he was a freak. Since when had he become such a nervous wreck?
“Hey!” She greeted him as she took her seat.
“Yo.” He cringed inside. Yo? Was he some aspiring rapper? Why couldn't he have just said hey back?
Unaware of Shinso's internal battle, Himiko (who found literally nothing wrong with ‘Yo’) smiled. But here was the hard part. She never was much good at guiding conversations to a specific conclusion, so she decided to just come out and talk about it. She took a deep breath. “I know you probably have things that you think people in the hero course are like, but please at least meet Izuku. I swear he's not at all like the people you're thinking about.”
Shinso was quiet for a few moments. “Alright,” He muttered. “It's not fair to the guy if I don't at least meet him. That slap was pretty badass too, so maybe he's not all that bad. Don't expect me to get all friendly with him, though.”
Himiko tilted her head, just realizing something. “Shinso? Are you actually a tsundere?”
“…Huh?”
***
Izuku had extensively studied how UA worked from the information that was available, so he wasn't too shocked about much when he'd actually enrolled and started classes. Of course, the classes themselves were all new because UA's curriculum changed and adapted to the current state of the hero world, but Izuku also knew that. But he'd been expecting the level of the regular classes to be quite high, so he was surprised when his classmates were surprised.
It seemed that most of them didn't know too much about how UA was actually run as a regular high school for the most part. And a very high level one, at that. One look at their acceptance rate and average test scores should have been enough to tell you that, but a lot of them had been too blinded by the heroics course that it apparently didn't occur to them. Izuku had heard Kaminari, in particular, complaining how he didn't think UA's regular courses would be this hard.
It was easy to then say, for every single student, even the more academically inclined ones, the actual courses related to hero training were easily the favorites. All Might being the teacher for these courses was just overkill.
Izuku was definitely not complaining. He was surprised when All Might had told him to stay behind while the others all went to change into their hero costumes, but he could imagine what he wanted to talk about. It was probably related to Himiko, since he hadn't seen All Might since he'd met her.
“Sorry for the late meeting, Young Midoriya. I would have talked to you yesterday, but there were some… circumstances regarding you and Young Mineta, so I didn't want to keep you from returning home.”
Izuku hung his head. He didn't regret doing what he had done, that would never change, but that didn't mean he didn't feel shame when All Might brought it up to him. “I'm sorry, All Might.”
All Might sighed. “You don't have to apologize to me. I heard the situation from Aizawa, and it seems like you had every right to hit him. Still, that doesn't mean you can let your emotions get the better of you. I understand actions speak louder than words, but maybe let your actual words do the talking first next time, alright?” Izuku nodded furiously. All Might cleared his throat. “That being said, there's something I have to say, that I probably should have said first.” He put his hand on Izuku's shoulder, and he immediately tensed. “I'm proud of you. You acted like a true hero, making great snap judgments in the heat of the moment, with no one directing you.”
Izuku felt the tears starting to prick the sides of his eyes. “I just did what I thought I should do. And I'm not even officially a hero yet.”
All Might smiled. “And that, my boy, is what makes you a great hero. In training or not, license or not, you have already saved someone. You didn’t do it because someone told you, or because you wanted an award. What else would you call that, if not a hero?”
Even as the tears ran down his face, Izuku smiled, puffing out his chest. His idol, his mentor, and his hero was acknowledging him once again. He was brought back to that day nearly a year ago. “You too can become a hero.” The sentence that changed his life. He had a very long way still left to go, but if he could truly accept All Might's words, then he could stand with pride.
“Still, I would definitely like to meet this Toga Himiko. Would you mind introducing me to her?”
***
Himiko liked to think that she could learn from her mistakes, so she didn’t try bringing Shinso over to meet Izuku during lunch this time. It was still stressful, regardless, as she was definitely the center of attention, especially with what happened yesterday. But it wasn’t in a negative way, with many of Izuku’s classmates being nice and supportive. This only reinforced her idea that they had a bad reputation because of jealousy and a couple outspoken students that ruined the whole group’s image.
She glared at Bakugou, who returned it when he noticed. She really did not like him. Even after just one conversation, she knew she would probably never get along with him.
Everyone else was really nice, though. Except for Mineta, who kept silent the whole time. None of his classmates made any attempt to talk to him either, so he remained essentially isolated the entire duration of lunch.
It was only fair. He had said some pretty nasty things yesterday, so Himiko wasn't exactly keen on becoming friends with him either.
It was during a lull in the constant barrage of questions and answers that Izuku leaned close to her and whispered into her ear, “All Might wants to meet you. Is after school good?”
She stared at him blankly, bewilderment clouding her features. That couldn't be right. All Might wanted to see her? Why? How would Izuku even know that? Nothing made sense.
Izuku smiled at her confusion. “I'll explain it later.”
***
Toshinori was… perplexed. It appeared that some event had recently taken place that was causing big changes in his pupil.
It wasn't until just the other day he had been informed of the situation. It was sickening, and it filled him with a familiar sense of anger. His hero work was generally very flashy and public, with the exception of matters relating to All For One. His mere presence was enough to deter crime, but there often wasn't much he could do for the evil hiding behind closed doors. The horrible crimes inflicted that didn't often cause outright fatal peril or the destruction of property or the acquisition of stolen goods. Ones that left lasting mental and physical scars, where a simple punch wasn't going to save the day.
It was something that always ate away at him. He understood he mainly focused on larger scale, more immanent issues. As much as he hated it, he had come to terms with the fact that he could never save everyone. But the fact that despicable crimes like what had happened to Young Toga were occurring everywhere, and there was absolutely nothing he could do, tore him up.
So he was very happy to hear that Young Toga had been saved by Young Midoriya. He was filled with pride at how heroic his student had already become. He had been heroic before, obviously, but it was really coming to fruition now.
He wanted to meet the young lady who his pupil had saved. They’d apparently become fast friends, and he was sure that Young Midoriya wouldn’t ever warm up to someone that wasn’t up to his standards. It was on his mind the whole day, and there were a few times he’d had to hurriedly act like he’d been paying attention after becoming lost in thought.
After what seemed like a lifetime, Toshinori finally heard the last bell of the day ring. It was time to meet her.