Chapter Text
The common room is, as usual, filled with loud chatter and music. As usual, Yaoyorozu leads her study group, and as usual, Kaminari whines and complains that he doesn’t understand. Jirou whacks him with her earphone jack, and from his spot on the couch, Tokoyami sighs at how loud everyone is. The music comes from Ashido as she dances, teaching Asui and Kirishima a few moves.
Satou and Aoyama are in the kitchen, baking, as Kouda watches from the side. Sero and Mineta play video games, and Iida speaks with Uraraka about a book he’s been reading.
It’s a typical day for class 1-A, everyone is their usual selves, except for one; Midoriya Izuku...
Yet, it seems like Shouto’s the only one who’s noticed this.
Let’s backtrack a bit.
It’s been a few days since the school’s cultural festival. Midoriya had been considerably late after having gone out to buy a rope for the class’ performance. Shouto remembers Midoriya being normal that morning, but when he returned, something had been off. Very off. He was cold with All Might, whom Shouto knows is Midoriya’s favorite hero in the whole world, and he was also rather cold with Eri, who Shouto also knows Midoriya had really connected with. There’s also what he said to Shouto...Midoriya would never brush him off like that. Sure, he’s been brushed off by Midoriya in the past, but not like that. The words were never followed by a chilling smile.
So it doesn’t make any sense. The Midoriya he knows wouldn’t act so distant with everyone (even though he had been like that before, but for different reasons). This Midoriya gives Shouto a bad vibe. There’s almost something sinister in the way that Midoriya smiles.
His smiles are usually full of warmth, and a reassurance that things would work out. These smiles don’t quite meet his eyes, and it’s as if they’re a warning of something much darker. They send shivers down his spine.
Shouto doesn’t like it. He’s also the only one who’s noticed it. At least, he’s pretty sure he is.
“Ribbit, is Midoriya not joining us again?” Asui questions, her eyes darting around to look for the familiar head of forest green hair.
“He said he had some work for Present Mic’s class to do…” Uraraka answers, a small frown tugging at her lips. “He’s been doing a lot of work lately,” She presses a finger to her cheek, “It feels like he’s kinda been avoiding us I think,” She adds, worry written in her features.
“I’m sure Midori is fine.” Ashido cuts in, nonchalantly stretching her arms over her head.
“He’s been acting weirdly though.” Uraraka protests, her frown deepening. “I mean, he’s barely been taking as many notes as he usually does, and his grades have been dropping!”
“Maybe he’s just having a hard time in class.” Jirou suggests.
“Sure, but it’s Deku-kun , guys. He’s one of the smartest guys in our class! It isn’t like him to just suddenly have a hard time with a topic we’ve been learning for a few days.” Uraraka tries to explain, but neither girls look concerned.
They assure Uraraka that there’s a reasonable explanation, but from Shouto’s position on the couch he can clearly see their reassurances aren’t doing much to curb her worry. Closing the book he hadn’t really been reading, he makes up his mind to approach her about their similar concerns when the opportunity presents itself.
Sitting at her table, Ochako’s pencil slides across the pages as she goes through the motions of homework. As she works, her mind is elsewhere and she isn’t really paying attention to what she’s writing.
She’s distracted by Deku’s weird behavior, and for that matter Todoroki’s. Her gut feeling tells her that there’s something going on with Todoroki, and it’s usually never wrong. Throughout the course of the day, it appeared Todoroki had been trying to approach her. Ochako only noticed him about three times, but knowing Todoroki, it was probably more than that.
Thinking back on it, Todoroki’s odd behavior had started earlier that day. She had had the intention of going to her room to do some homework when her attention had first been caught by the intensity of Todoroki’s stare. Not one to make initial eye contact, she hadn’t realized he was walking in her direction at that time. It was the growing intensity of his stare that made her realize that she was his intent.
She had been so focused on the intensity of Todoroki’s stare and uneasy that she hadn’t noticed Mina appear in front of her. “Ochako-chan!” Mina’s sudden appearance startled Ochako, causing her to yelp in surprise. “Thank goodness I found you! I need some help with homework, can you help me please ?!” The girl practically begged.
Ochako put a hand on her chest, willing her racing heart to relax, “Sure, Mina-chan.” She responded and then remembered about Todoroki. Looking around she caught sight of him turning a corner and leaving. She blinked in confusion, ‘What was that all about?’
The third time around, it was only because of Todoroki’s annoyance that the first two times even stood out to her. It was when she felt the chilly air around him and saw the slight pout on his face, she knew that there was definitely something on his mind. She had seen him annoyed before and recognized the signs.
Ochako’s pencil finds a place against her cheek as she stops writing, and tilts her head. ‘Maybe I should go find him and talk to him, it might be serious…’ She thinks.
Leaving her book and pencil on her desk, Ochako gets up to go to the door, homework forgotten and mind made up. With her hand hovering above the doorknob she stops to think about different areas of the dorm to check. ‘First stop is his room and if he’s not there I’ll check the common room,’
With her plan in mind, Ochako opens her door. “Eek!” She shrieks and jumps back from the blast of cold air. However, she stumbles as she can’t release the doorknob as her hand is frozen to it. Standing in her doorway is the very person she’s looking for.
Todoroki with his arm partially covered in a sheet of ice and raised, ready to knock, stares at her with surprised confusion. “Oh heeey , Todoroki-kun,” She says, leaning against the door as casually as possible. “What’s up?” She asks, as if she wasn’t about to go looking for him.
Shouto, not realizing the predicament Uraraka is in, replies without hesitation, “I’d like to speak with you about Midoriya, if it’s alright.”
With a whimsical smile on her face, she goes to invite him into her room, “Um..before we discuss Deku-kun, could you do me a favor,” She points to the doorknob, “Could you maybe um...thaw this?”
Looking down at the doorknob and seeing her hand frozen to it, he realizes it’s probably his fault. In an awkward fashion, Shouto reaches for the knob and thaws it while apologizing.
Uraraka invites him to sit at her table and Shouto plops down across from her. She reaches for a package of mochi and offers him one. Shouto declines her offer and she takes one for herself before putting it away. “So,” She begins as she munches on the mochi in her hand, “What about Deku-kun did you want to talk about?”
“I overheard what you were saying earlier, about Midoriya’s grades and how he’s been in his room a lot recently,” Shouto starts, “And I’ve been concerned about him as well.”
He sees Uraraka’s shoulders relax as she takes a final bite of her mochi, “Phew, I thought it was just me.” She sighs in relief. “At first I thought I was just looking into it too much, but then I’d bring up something that happened and Deku-kun would have no recollection of it happening. On top of that, his falling grades are really starting to worry me.”
Leaning forward, “He doesn’t even get all excited about seeing All Might anymore!” She points a finger at Shouto as she speaks, getting more animated as she goes on, “I mean, I understand the whole amazement of being taught by the number one hero will wear off eventually, but this is Deku-kun! He’s a total hero fanboy, and he loves All Might! Up until a few weeks ago, he still got excited about having lunch with the man!”
“If it were anyone else I wouldn’t really be concerned…” Shouto agrees.
“Right!” Uraraka hums, clearly happy that he agrees with her.
“It’s not just All Might he’s been weird with, it’s Aizawa-sensei too,” Shouto tells her, “I’ve noticed that Midoriya seems to stay away from him when he can.” Uraraka hums again, but this time in curiosity. Shouto continues, “There was also the Cultural Festival, he was weird with Eri.” Then, as an afterthought he adds, “And me.”
Ochako’s eyes widen almost comically as she can hardly believe what she’s hearing from him. “You?! Deku-kun was weird with you ?!” She exclaims. Deku was rarely ever weird with Todoroki. Those two had an unspoken understanding between them, that Deku never seemed to have with anyone else. So the idea that Deku was acting odd with even Todoroki is highly concerning. “What’d he do?”
Shouto recounts what Midoriya said to him, and the way the other smiled at him that day. “Even now, his smile still bothers me.” He grimaces at the memory.
“That is odd.” Uraraka says. “I’ve never seen a smile like that from him.” She adds on. Uraraka then sighs, leaning forward on the table so her arms rest on it. She then puts her chin in her hands. “Y’know, I thought it was only me who noticed how weird Deku-kun’s been. I mean, his whole personality is off and it seemed like I was the only one aware!” She tells Shouto. “I know not everyone is super close with him like we are, but I was sure someone would’ve noticed too, even Bakugou-kun , but he hasn’t said a word.”
“Maybe he has noticed,” Shouto says.
Uraraka nods, “What should we do about Deku-kun? Should we even do anything ?” She questions.
Shouto hums in contemplation. Should they do anything? What if all of this was just Midoriya having a bad couple of days or so? What if they were reading too much into things and overreacting? It’s certainly possible. However, Shouto would rather spend time looking out for Midoriya and have it turn out to be nothing than have it turn into a serious problem when they could’ve prevented it.
Mind made up, he looks at Uraraka, “We have off tomorrow, so I’ll keep an eye on him. If I find anything worrying I’ll let Aizawa-sensei know.”
“Okay,” Uraraka says, looking pleased with his decision. “Ah, wait! Don’t you and Bakugou-kun have remedial lessons tomorrow?”
“Oh,” Shouto pauses, realization dawning on him. “We do, yes.” He eventually says, “I’ll still be sure to look after Midoriya though.” Uraraka nods in response, and Shouto figures it’s time to leave.
Shouto stands up and heads to her door.
“Todoroki-kun?” He pauses and turns to look at her. He’s met with a gentle smile and warm eyes, “I’m really happy that Deku-kun has someone like you to look after him. It’s really sweet how much you still like him.” Uraraka tells him, and Shouto feels a sense of déjà vu.
“Oh my god you do . It’s all in your eyes! I always suspected you and Deku-kun liked each other, especially after the Sports Festival, but I wasn’t so sure, now I totally am.”
“Is it...that obvious? Do you think Midoriya knows?”
“Not quite, like I said, it’s all in your eyes. I don’t think Deku-kun’s aware of it, your reaction is sweet though. It shows how much you care about him.”
The memory makes his lips quirk upwards just a fraction. The smile on his face is barely there, but Ochako can see it, along with the slight tint to his cheeks. She simply giggles as he leaves the room.
Shouta types away on his computer while Yagi sits beside him, filling out some sort of report for Nezu. On what, Shouta has no idea. As usual, he doesn’t have the energy to care enough to ask. At the moment, he’s just glad that the teacher’s lounge is quiet for once. The usual sources of all the noise are out at the moment. He pauses in his typing, rolling a shoulder, trying to get rid of the stiffness in it.
Shouta finds himself as tired as he has been for the past several days. Dealing with a bunch of rambunctious hero students on a daily basis does that to some, Shouta is not excluded from this. From dealing with misfiring quirks during training, to students with attention deficits.
And then...there’s Midoriya. A student who the best of teachers would find exasperating. A student who can make even Shouta question his qualifications as a teacher. From his million and one questions, questions requiring a detail level that would challenge even a scientist to a thought process that takes engineers years to develop. There’s even his tactical strategies, ones that rival that of a pro hero’s. Midoriya may be inexperienced, but his mind makes up for it. Midoriya may be young, but sometimes Shouta gets the impression that his mind is older. Midoriya is a student that challenges the teacher’s own knowledge. It’s exhausting, but also thrilling. At least, it would be, if Shouta wasn’t so tired.
The annoying thing is, though the office may not be noisy now, Shouta’s gut feeling is that it won’t be that way for long. Unlike his usual gut feelings, this feeling comes from the result of his experiences with class 1-A over the past year. Of all his years of teaching, Shouta has never had a class that attracts as much trouble as a certain overzealous pro hero he knows. Though, his class does have quite a bit in common with the hero. It’s as if All Might gave a piece of himself to each student, especially his favorite. After all, this group of first years have already faced situations equivalent to those of pro heroes.
Completing his work, Shouta grabs his stack of papers and decides to ignore his gut for now. “I’ll be back.” Shouta tells Yagi as he heads to the records room to file his papers. Yagi continues humming to himself, as usual, in his own little world. Usually, Shouta would find Yagi’s lack of reaction annoying, but for some reason, he finds it comforting.
Shouta heads to the records room, where they have way too many papers if he’s being honest. The room is only there because it’s where they keep extensive files on the students. It’s a short walk to the room, and as he gets closer to it, Shouta notices the door is slightly ajar. His brow quirks as it’s followed by his frown. His first thought is of Present Mic, who has a habit of leaving the door open a crack.
Reaching for the door and pushing his annoyance aside, Shouta’s gut suddenly clenches. Opening this door feels more like opening Pandora's box, than opening the door to the records room. Cautiously, he approaches the door and begins to open it, half expecting All for One to jump out. He exhales, “Midoriya, what are you doing here?” as he spots a messy head of green hair, floating above a filing cabinet that he’s standing behind.
Carefully closing the drawer to the filing cabinet, Midoriya starts to turn around to see who had called his name.
As the boy turns around, Shouta catches a split second of murderous intent and it makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand. Midoriya meets his eyes with the usual nervousness written on his face, but as he makes eye contact with him, Shouta finds no hint of anxiety.
Instead, there was the slightest hint of panic. “Ah, Aizawa-sensei! Sorry, guess I got lost.” Midoriya apologizes, scratching the back of his head. To Shouta, the action feels empty without the usual nervousness behind it.
“You...got lost.” Shouta reiterates.
“Mhm! All Might said he wanted to speak with me, but he wasn’t very clear about where ,” Midoriya replies quickly, as if he was trying to rush the conversation.
Shouta hums, a bit wary, “I see. Well, students aren’t permitted here, so I suggest you try a different room. You’re lucky it was me and not another teacher.”
“Right! Thanks, Aizawa-sensei!” Midoriya says cheerfully before hastily leaving.
Shouta watches him leave, frowning, that gut feeling still bothering him.
He can feel something soft and cushiony beneath him, it’s the first thing he feels, really. He keeps his eyes closed while taking a mental inventory of how he feels. One by one, feeling comes back to him. His legs and feet feel numb, while his arms feel achy and worn out. On instinct, he goes to swallow, but he finds that his mouth feels dry and his tongue feels swollen. His body feels heavy like lead, and his head hurts.
Slowly, his eyes open and with a slight tilt of his head, he looks around at his surroundings. His hands are unrestricted so he moves them around a bit, clutching the soft cushion beneath him. Feeling puzzled, he looks down and sees that he’s laying on a mattress. He goes back to looking around the room and sees a dresser and a familiar desk with papers on it. He squints at the desk, trying to figure out why it looks so familiar. Then, it clicks.
‘That’s the desk from father’s house...what’s it doing here?’
With all of this in mind, he guesses that he’s in a bedroom, but why? He feels as if this place isn’t where he originally passed out. ‘Who’s room is this?’ He wonders, looking around. ‘And why am I here? Who brought me here?’
Overall, the room is rather plain and simplistic. The walls are painted a deep red, the curtains cover the windows. Besides the bed, dresser, and desk, there’s no decor in the room at all. It seems like whoever owns this room is a minimalist. However, these observations don’t really help him in figuring out where he is or how he got here.
He goes to push himself up, but his arms feel wobbly and weak. He pushes himself up from the bed and plants both feet on the floor. He does one last check over his body before he stands. He wobbles a little bit, but eventually he goes over to the desk, making sure his footsteps are as silent as possible. He stands in front of the desk, looking at the papers. For some reason, the papers are blank. That’s odd. He then spots the pen next to the papers, and finds it even weirder.
He looks over at the door, unsure if he should leave the room or not. Is it safe? Is he in any sort of danger outside of this room?
Pursing his lips, he walks over to the door. He pauses and for a second, he waits. He presses his ear against the door, quieting his breathing as much as possible so he can hear. There’s no noise coming from outside the door, no sounds of footsteps or even talking. Upon opening it, he pokes his head out into the hallway before him. Just like the walls of the room, the walls of the hallway are blank and deep red. The lights are on, so it makes it easier for him to see. However, there’s nothing else. He sees no one, but unlike before, he hears the soft murmurs of voices, and he tenses.
Taking note of the quiet voices he hears, he cautiously exits the room. He tiptoes down the hallway, his heart thudding quite loudly in his ears. He’s on guard, in case anyone happens to cross paths with him. He finds it odd that since waking up in that room and leaving, he hasn’t come into contact with a single person.
He reaches the end of the hallway, which opens up into a large room. He spots someone engulfed by purple mist standing behind a counter, dressed in a suit. ‘Kurogiri.’
He then spots one person standing by the brick wallpaper of the room. They wear an all black suit, with a white stripe going down the middle, and a mask that is half black up until the eyes. From there on, the color matches the stripe. ‘Twice.’
Standing next to Twice is a man who looks like he’s been burnt to a crisp, and is being held together by nothing but stitches. ‘Dabi.’
Sitting at the bar is someone he’s quite familiar with. He has shaggy blue hair and in front of him is a cup full of what looks like water. ‘Shigaraki…’
The first to notice him is Kurogiri. Then slowly, the rest turn to look at him.
He feels his body tense up, ready for a fight. He feels like prey being circled by its predators before they go in for the kill. His quirk buzzes beneath his skin as he clenches his fists.
Shigaraki hops off the stool he was sitting in, and approaches him. He stops directly in front of him, and he has to look up to meet ruby red eyes. Shigaraki grins at him, “Welcome back, little brother. Sorry it took so long to get you.”
“Shigaraki…” He says, eyes narrowing.
It hits him all at once.
The school cultural festival.
Buying rope for the class and ingredients to make candy apples for Eri.
The fight with Gentle.
He passed out, or did he? He doesn’t remember feeling tired enough to faint. What he does remember is feeling a slight prick in his neck.
Staring at Shigaraki, and the League of Villains surrounding him, he realizes something dreadful.
He, Midoriya Izuku, has been kidnapped by villains.