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Chapter Text

Flashes of fear, pain, and longing echo from his mind. Unbearably bright lights bear down on him and murmurs of approval and twisted excitement reach his ears. 

One more test, one more appraisal, one more spar. Pushing forward until collapse, the welcoming void of unconsciousness wrapping around him. Waking up afraid, desperate for his family to be there. To be safe. 

The world turns on its head. Alarms blare and monsters scream as explosions echo through dim halls. 

Rain crashes into him as he stumbles forward, desperately gripping a hand of his family in each of his own as they half drag him along. Up ahead, two more of his family wait for them, joining him in a fearful race towards the light. 

One last wave of heat ripples through him, knocking him to the wet ground as his family disappears through the light. He scrambles forward, urgently reaching out as he dives and the light, gentle and soft, envelops him.

Midoriya Izuku’s eyes burst open as he laid still in bed. Morning light gently filtered through the dorm room’s windows, helping to chase the fear caused by the nightmare away. 

A comfortable weight rested on his chest, causing Izuku to release the last traces of his fear and smile softly at the sight of his two brothers. Ojiro Mashirao rested his head on Izuku’s chest as he curled into his brother’s side. Behind him, Shinso Hitoshi snuggled with Mashirao’s tail, eyes closed softly as a sign that he had a peaceful night for once. 

Turning away, Izuku slipped out of bed with practiced ease, leaving his brothers to their sleep as he prepared for the day. Taking a deep breath, he activated his quirk, taking in the sudden deluge of data with little effort. He looked over by the door and slowly examined the entire room.

The doorway itself was undisturbed and the windows had remained unopened. He relaxed when he saw that no one had been in or out of the room since he had gone to bed. 

Truth be told, he had figured as much. It had pretty much been the same every time he checked when he woke up. Not too many people had any business in the dorms and he trusted those who did well enough.

Either way, Izuku quickly and quietly used the bathroom and changed into a fresh pair of clothes, a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt reading ‘flannel shirt.’ He took one last look around his room, viewing the various hero posters lining the wall with some satisfaction, before moving to wake his brothers.

“Shira, Hito,” he called out softly, shaking the sleeping pair slightly. “It’s time to wake up.” 

Mashirao woke up almost immediately, coming alert as his black eyes locked on to Izuku. He relaxed considerably after realizing nothing was amiss and hopped out of bed, nearly dragging a barely-awake Hitoshi with him. 

Hitoshi grumbled blearily as he rolled back into the bed. “Come on, Izu. Just five more minutes,” he whined. 

Izuku and Mashirao just chuckled as the tailed teen disappeared into the bathroom. “No can do, Hito,” Izuku chirped. “You know what day it is. We’ve got important stuff to do.” 

Hitoshi groaned slightly as he sat up in bed. “Shit, it’s move-in day, isn’t it.” He definitely seemed less than pleased at the prospect, despite knowing it had been coming for months. 

Mashirao popped his head out of the bathroom. “Well, classes start tomorrow and no one’s moved in yet so I suppose that that’s the only option,” he replied cheekily. He liked to take advantage of Hitoshi’s aversion to mornings, the purple-haired teen normally too quick witted to verbally out play any other time. 

“Oh fuck you, Shira,” Hitoshi drawled, finally climbing out of bed and pushing past the satisfied blond to use the bathroom himself. Mashirao and Izuku waited for him to finish, the former patiently listening to the latter gush about the quirks their future classmates might have. 

Once Hitoshi emerged from the bathroom looking significantly more awake, the trio left Izuku’s dorm room and headed for the kitchen on the first floor to find breakfast and hopefully their sisters.

Sure enough, both of their sisters were already out of bed, though ‘awake’ might be stretching it for one of them. Kendo Itsuka stood at the stove, cooking bacon while the coffee pot worked away. She smiled at her brothers as they entered her line of sight, spirited as always. 

“Hey guys, can one of you guys get the eggs out of the fridge and get started on them,” she asked, returning her attention to the bacon. “Oh, and someone make sure Yumi hasn’t fallen asleep. She’s gonna get a crick in her neck.” Her comment elicited an ‘I heard that’ from the final member of their family, making them all laugh. 

Mashirao moved towards the fridge to assist with the cooking while Hitoshi moved to the dining area, where Suzuki Ayumi sat at one table resting her head on her crossed arms. The purple-haired teen kicked the legs of her chair, inciting a protest from the half-asleep girl.

“Oh no, if I have to be awake at this unholy hour, so do you,” he responded, his signature smirk on his face. 

Grumbling slightly, Ayumi sat upright in her seat, rubbing the sleep from her pale blue eyes. Neck-length light brown hair flopped into her face, causing another round of grumbling as she brushed it out of the way. Like Mashirao and Hitoshi, she still wore her pajamas, a tank-top with light sweatpants, meaning she spent the night in her sister’s room. The Lichtenberg scars littering her arms were as prominent as ever. 

Ayumi casted a glare at Hitoshi, who grinned broadly in response. “You seem happy with  yourself,” she jabbed dryly, reluctantly standing from her seat and moving towards the kitchen, where the smells of breakfast had begun to radiate from.

Grin unflinching, Hitoshi shrugged. “Of course I’m happy! Now I have someone to suffer alongside me.” He slung an arm around his sister’s shoulder, who huffed but didn’t push him off. 

Instead, Ayumi turned her attention to Izuku, who had been standing back and simply taking in the domestic scene before him. Something most definitely was off about him and she quickly voiced her thoughts. 

“Another nightmare, Izu?” She asked her brother, the question more of a statement of fact. The slight flinch Izuku made told her all she needed to know even as he answered. 

“It’s okay, Yumi,” he assured quickly, knowing it would be futile to deny. “It wasn’t too bad. Besides, it’s not like it was anything I haven’t seen before.” 

Hitoshi joined her in assessing him, carefully looking for any of Izuku’s usual tells that he might be hiding something. Finding none, Ayumi relented, slipping from Hitoshi’s grasp to join her siblings in the kitchen. 

Hitoshi himself lingered slightly longer. “Experiments and escape,” he guessed.

Izuku nodded tiredly. “Experiments and escape,” he confirmed. It was the most common nightmare he had: flashes of the experiments he had endured followed by their escape and the old fears that his siblings may leave him behind. 

Hitoshi nodded in understanding, expression turning serious as he clapped a hand on the greenette’s shoulder. “Just remember, Izu. We’ll always be here for you. For each other,” he stated, determination alight in his eyes. “After all, you can’t escape me that easily.” He smirked, back to sarcasm mode.

Izuku snorted as the brothers wordlessly joined their siblings in the kitchen, making a rather large breakfast for the day. Soon, the table was set for six people with a copious amount of fruit, bacon, eggs, toast, and cereal, not to mention a healthy selection of drinks. With a quick thanks, the siblings dived in, filling plates and bowls with their desired food.  

They ate ravenously, talking and joking all the while. It always felt right to be able to sit down and eat a good meal together, without having to worry about going hungry later or someone sneaking up on them while they all were distracted.  

Eventually, the final occupant of the dorm made an appearance. Aizawa Shota grunted as he dropped into the last seat, immediately pouring himself a cup of coffee and downing half the mug in a singular gulp. 

“Good morning, problem children,” he grunted out, refilling his mug as he spoke. “Nice to see you’ve at least decided to start following the dorm’s gender separation policy.” He referenced the countless previous nights where the teens had fallen asleep in one room, rather than returning to their own. 

How he knew that the teens had voluntarily separated to the correct sides of the dorm would be a mystery to most (except Izuku, who long since figured out the placement of the hidden cameras lining halls of the dorm). 

Izuku shrugged. “Better late than never, right sensei,” he replied with a sly grin. Hitoshi snorted into his cereal while both Ayumi and Mashirao chuckled at the comment. Itsuka merely sighed like the disappointed parent she was. 

“We thought it would be best to start getting used to sleeping separated, if at least by gender,” Itsuka spoke up. “It would raise a lot of questions if me and Yumi got spotted leaving one of the guys rooms in the morning, or the guys leaving one of ours.” 

Aizawa nodded lightly. “A logical decision. However,” he continued dryly. “It would’ve been more logical to start a few days before the rest of the class is scheduled to move in.” He punctuated his sentence with a bite of toast. 

Hitoshi couldn’t contain himself. “Oh would you look at that,” he exclaimed sarcastically. “The great Eraserhead eating something besides jelly packs and coffee! Someone get a camera!” 

“Be quiet, purple problem child,” Aizawa responded as he filled his plate with a proper breakfast. The exchange had quickly become normal between the pair. Just because Hitoshi started to like the erasure hero didn’t mean his sarcastic attitude was going anywhere. 

“Also, I’ve hope you all already figured out a plan of action for classes.” Tired eyes sweeped the table to eventually settle on Hitoshi and Itsuka. The pair nodded as Ayumi interjected. 

“We reviewed it over last night before going to bed. Don’t worry, Aizawa-san,” she responded calmly. Aizawa nodded, satisfied with the answer. 

Silence filled the room as the siblings and their teacher ate. Izuku felt relieved that all the others had finally trusted the hero-teachers of U.A. As he took another bite of eggs, he reminesnited on how far they’ve come. 

When Nedzu had first approached them with information that they were in danger, Izuku’s first gut instinct was to trust him. He had always known that someone would eventually come after them, just not who or when. Plus, Nedzu was like them, so he knew that the principal would be discrete with their information. If they had someone else looking out for them, they would at least have someone to come looking if they went missing. 

Itsuka and Mashirao only took mild convincing, both trusting Izuku’s judgement of the situation to know what was necessary. Ayumi questioned Nedzu for a while, wary of any strings a hero’s help always came with, before being satisfied and agreeing. Hitoshi took a lot more time, only agreeing since he trusted his siblings and their ability to escape if necessary.

Plus, he would get to say ‘I told you so’ if he turned out to be right. 

Since they had moved into the new built U.A. dorms, they had gained a lot. A steady source of food and shelter. Proper education. A safe place to experiment with their quirks. That’s not even mentioning the best part in Izuku’s opinion. 

Through an agreement with Nedzu, so long as they passed the written exams, the siblings would be admitted to a course of their choice as first years. Izuku couldn’t help but jump on the offer. While he might no longer practically worship heroes, he still longed to be one. 

To be able to save others from the fate his siblings suffered. 

Surprisingly, it took little effort to convince his family to do the same. They all agreed almost instantly, for one reason or another. A few months of studying and cramming flew by until the exams, where they all passed with at least above-average marks. Apparently, they didn’t need to take a practical exam. As Aizawa said, “We already know that you all have potential. Testing you further would be illogical.” 

So here they were, sitting in the 1-A dorms, waiting for their new classmates to move-in.

Once he had finished eating, Aizawa left the dorms, whether to handle official business or to avoid the inevitable chaos his future class would cause is anyone’s guess. Izuku helped Hitoshi and Ayumi clean up before settling on a couch near the dorm’s entrance, eager to gather any data he could about the new hero students. 

Itsuka joined him while Ayumi, Hitoshi, and Mashirao disappeared upstairs either to get changed or to hide from the sudden influx of people. 

Sure enough, the first students began to trickle in. A tall teen with six arms waved as he entered. Another followed with a raven’s head and dark clothing. A shorter girl that resembled a frog. A girl with vines for hair. A guy with pointed teeth and red hair walked in with a pink girl with horns. 

He continued to write notes on the potential quirks of each new person who came in. He technically didn’t need to write them down thanks to his quirk, but it made the process of storing the information easier. 

Totally engrossed in his note-taking, Izuku didn’t register how time passed by nor did he register Itsuka getting up, leaving him by himself. 

However, he did register the strangely familiar gait approaching him and the growling voice that accompanied it. 

“Deku…” 

Chapter Text

“Deku…” 

Bakugo Katsuki hadn’t changed much since Izuku had last seen him. He had put on more muscle and height, sure, but he still had his spiky blond hair and angry red eyes. 

Of course, that was just the surface. Izuku had spent a lot of time learning to truly read people. It was a necessity of survival, both as a lab rat and on the streets. 

Under the surface, his old friend looked uncertain, hesitant even. The Bakugo Izuku knew was always confident and aggressive. 

He had changed.

Izuku calmly closed his notebook and put it aside. “Hello, Bakugo,” he greeted neutrally. “It’s been a while.”

Various emotions flashed across the explosion user’s face at the use of his family name before settling into a light scowl. “‘A while’ my ass,” he scoffed, eyes downcast. “You disappeared for years, you stupid nerd. I thought you were…” He broke off before looking Izuku dead in the eye. “You and I need to talk. Now.” 

Izuku hummed, breaking eye contact as he swept his gaze over the common room. Mashirao was nowhere to be seen, likely hiding from the crowd of unfamiliar people. Itsuka sat talking with a tall blue-haired teen with glasses, Hitoshi stood silently near the six-armed and bird-headed teens, and Ayumi talked with a black-haired boy with a braid. Hitoshi noticed Izuku’s gaze, and quickly moved towards Ayumi. 

“What’s with those extras?” 

Bakugo’s gruff question brought Izuku’s attention back to him, a small bit of anger rising up. 

“Don’t call them ‘extras,’” Izuku replied sharply. “And we can talk, but you probably won’t get the answers you’re looking for.” Or any he would like, for that matter. He left that thought unspoken. 

Bakugo didn’t react to Izuku’s anger, merely grunting and turning towards the dorm’s main door. 

Izuku followed, casting one last glance back. He spotted Ayumi and Hitoshi, talking in quick tones and looking concerned. He smiled reassuringly at them, before following his old friend out the door. 

They didn’t go very far, just around the side of the dorm building where the trees would make it hard to be seen or distubed. Bakugo stopped, turning to face Izuku. He didn’t say anything, just stood there evaluating the emerald-haired teen. Izuku remained silent as well, patiently waiting for his first move. 

Bakugo huffed. “You’ve changed,” he stated shortly. 

Izuku nodded, resisting the temptation to roll his eyes at the observation. “Of course I have,” he replied neutrally. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. It would’ve been more strange if I hadn’t changed at all.” 

“No,” the explosive teen almost snarled. “You didn’t just grow up. You feel... different from that useless Deku that followed me around when we were kids. You… I…” He broke off, lost in thought.

Izuku remained silent again, waiting to see where this would lead. His quirk showed him that the agitated teen probably wouldn’t attack him, displaying no signs of aggression at the moment. While he had a pretty good idea of what Bakugo wanted to say, he had no intention of intervening.

Bakugo looked at him with a gleam in his eyes. “You have a quirk, don’t you,” he stated suddenly, already certain that he was right. He looked Izuku in the eyes. “Your eyes keep flashing. Inside, I thought it could just be the light but they’re definitely doing it on their own.” 

Ah, he remained observant as ever, it would seem. “I do,” Izuku stated calmly. “And no,” he quickly continued when Bakugo opened his mouth. “I didn’t have it before I left. I wasn’t hiding it from you.” 

The blond teen didn’t look convinced. “If you didn’t have one before, then where did you get it,” he growled, hands balling into fists. “People don’t just… get quirks!” 

Izuku let out a humorless laugh. “You’re right. I didn’t just ‘get’ it.” He regarded his old friend carefully. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how I got it.” 

Predictably, Bakugo exploded. “OI WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN, YOU SHITTY NERD?!” Sparks began to fly off the palms of his hands. “YOU CAN’T JUST DISAPPEAR AND COME BACK WITHOUT EXPLAINING A DAMN THING!” 

“ENOUGH,” Izuku snapped back at him, shocking Bakugo into silence. “I’m going to explain, but only after you understand that there are some things I’m not going to tell you about.” 

Bakugo sputtered, attempting to rally as Izuku pressed forwards. “Either you understand and I explain or you don’t and this conversation’s finished.” He delivered his ultimatum with a note of finality in his voice.

Bakugo glared silently, clearly calculating the odds of forcing the information out of him. Surprisingly, he slumped over, all fight and anger leaving him as he mumbled his acknowledgment. 

Huh, he really had changed, more than the old Izuku would’ve ever expected or hoped for. 

Taking a deep breath, he began. “When I disappeared, it was because I'd been kidnapped by an offshoot of a radical group. They held me for around two years until me and a few survivors got an opportunity to escape. The five of us lived on the streets together, keeping on the move since we had no idea if we were being hunted. A couple months ago, Nedzu managed to track us down, warning us that someone else had started searching for us. He offered us refuge here and we accepted." He paused, cracking a half-hearted smile. "We’re actually the reason why UA’s a boarding school now.” 

“The hell,” Bakugo growled, predictably displeased. “That didn’t explain jack shit! I… You… Argh!” He slammed a fist against a nearby tree, frustration obvious. “What do you fucking mean ‘survivors?!’ What the hell did those bastards do to you!?” Was that... concern in this voice?

Izuku pushed down the swell of painful emotions and memories at the question, not wanting to breakdown there. “I can’t tell you that, sorry,” he apologized, voice carefully measured. 

Bakugo bit back another growl. “Why the hell not,” he demanded. 

Something in Izuku snapped, emotion smashing through his carefully crafted neutral mask. “You want to know why? Fine, I’ll tell you why.” He practically spat the words at his old tormentor. “First off, I don’t trust you and I don’t owe you anything. You made my life hell for years just because I wanted to be a hero without a quirk,” he continued, talking over the blond’s protests. “Second, even if I did trust you or owe you something, these secrets don’t belong to just me. They’re my entire family’s. I’m never going to betray their trust. Understand,” he asked coldly. 

Bakugo stood silently for a moment. “Understood,” he finally responded, an odd look on his face. He suddenly fell back, leaning heavily against a nearby tree and sliding down so that he sat on the ground. He rested his arms on his knees, eyes down cast. 

Not entirely sure what had overcome him, Izuku carefully approached the other teen. He hesitated for a moment before slowly sitting down next to him, hugging his knees to his chest and waiting once more. 

Bakugo began to laugh humorlessly. “That right there,” he spoke slowly, like he was carefully considering each word and feeling their weight. “That’s how you’re different.” 

He leaned his head back, eyes closed and face strangely calm. “Before, you were just some infuriating idiot, who just desperately hoped that if he were smart enough or selfless enough, the world would make him a hero.”

He turned to face Izuku, an appraising light in his eye. “Now, though.” He laughed again. “You’ve got a fire in you. Like you’re finally putting in some fucking effort.” 

Izuku couldn’t help the look he gave Bakugo. “Is that why you bullied me? Because I wasn’t trying hard enough to become a hero,” he asked incredulously.

“Of course not,” he scoffed. “You were still just a quirkless nobody, aiming way too far above his place. Your lack of effort just made it even more fucking infuriating,” he stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  

Both teens feel silent, processing what had been said so far. 

Izuku broke the silence, voicing the thought he continuously had since the start of their encounter. “You know, Bakugo,” he began. “You’ve changed a lot too.”

The explosion user just laughed brokenly. “No I haven’t.” He sounded almost bitter. “You must think I’m the same asshole who spent all his free time kicking the shit out of you.”

“No really,” the greenette continued earnestly. “The Bakugo I knew never would have admitted to one of his faults. He wouldn’t have respected any of my boundaries or showed me concern either.” He smiled wistfully. “He was arrogant, brash, and strong: the image of victory. You seem-” He thought of the right way to put it. “-less so, on all accounts.” He turned to face him. “What happened?” 

Bakugo looked away, not responding immediately. He spent a minute simply sitting there, in a deafening silence. 

“You know what happened to Auntie Inko and Uncle Hisashi, right?” He asked suddenly, his voice fragile.

Izuku nodded sadly. “I do,” he replied softly. “After a while, me and the others went to a library to see what we could find, about our families.” His body sagged at the memory, remembering how the hope had drained from his siblings’ faces one by one. It hadn’t been a good day for any of them. 

“After you disappeared,” Bakugo started quietly. “Auntie Inko spent a lot of time with the hag. She would spend all day looking for you and then come back crying. Uncle Hisashi came back from the States to help, and he wasn’t much better.” 

His voice began to tighten. “Then one day, they didn’t come back. The police did.” He looked down at his hands, balling them into fists. “For a while, I blamed you. ‘If Deku hadn’t gone missing like an idiot, they would still be here,’ I thought. I told that to the hag, too.”

Izuku winced. “That couldn’t have been pretty.” Aunt Mitsuki and Bakugo’s relationship was explosive on a good day. He couldn’t imagine what throwing high emotions into the mix would cause. 

“That’s the thing,” the explosive teen countered. “She didn’t say anything, just stared at me with this look in her eye before walking away.” He chuckled darkly. “On the other hand, that was first time I’ve seen Dad actually fucking angry.” 

His chuckles quickly died off. “After that, I didn’t know what to think. No one else cared that you were gone. Not the stupid-fucking teachers. Not the shitty extras. Hell, some of them laughed about it.” Another scoff. “But Dad and the hag did. Auntie Inko and Uncle Hisashi did. Even the police and heroes did. It’s been years and I still don’t know how to feel.” 

Ah, that was it. After everything, Bakugo, the impressionable child that he was, had received mixed signals on how to feel and couldn’t sort through them all. The confusion affected him, making him less certain in the status quo, in Izuku’s seemingly inherent worthlessness. In the end, he had no idea how to move forward.

So he simply didn’t, remaining emotionally stagnated for years.  

With that revelation, Izuku made up his mind. “Bakugo, back then, you were an asshole and I don’t owe you anything,” he started slowly. 

“Yeah, you already said that, nerd.” The blond huffed, a little annoyed at the reminder. 

“But,” he pushed forward. “You’re changed now. Maybe you haven’t grown necessarily, but you could.” He took a deep breath, steadying himself. “So, if you want it, I’m willing to give you a chance.” 

“For what?” Bakugo didn’t sound angry or indignant, rather hesitant and wary. Izuku took that as a good sign. 

“Start over. Move forward. Be friends again.” Izuku shrugged. “It could be nice. We had a lot of fun together, way back then.” He smiled, remembering the days they spent wandering the forests and dreaming of being heroes. Before their quirk statuses drove them apart. 

Bakugo gave a small smile, a far off look in his eye as he too remembered. “Yeah,” he agreed roughly. “That could be… nice.” 

He snapped back to the present, scrowling. “But don’t think for a fucking second I’m gonna go easy on you in training just because you’ve got a secret tragic backstory,” he growled, competitive spirit alight in his eyes. His smile returned, though feral this time. “I’m here to be number one, so you better come at me full throttle too!” He pumped a fist, the challenge in his voice clear. 

Izuku ruefully shook his head as he stood back up. Really, what else should he have expected from him? “I wouldn’t dream of it, Bakugo.” He reached down, offering his old friend a hand. 

Bakugo stared at it for a long moment. Slowly, the blond teen accepted, letting Izuku help him to his feet. 

Izuku wasn’t exactly sure what he and Bakugo could be considered. They definitely weren’t strangers, and no longer enemies. Rivals might work.

Maybe, one day, friends could work as well. 

Either way, the two heroes-in-training headed back to the dorms, walking side by side. 

Chapter Text

As he rounded the corner with Bakugo, Izuku blinked when he spotted Ayumi and Hitoshi talking tensely on the dorm’s front porch. Once they spotted him, the pair stopped their conversation and turned to look at the approaching pair. While Hitoshi didn’t relax, he did see Ayumi loosen slightly, sighing in relief. 

Oh, he had worried them. He was such an idiot. His family knew how others treated him before he got taken. With Bakugo obviously being familiar with him, they must have panicked on what might happen and how to handle the situation. 

‘Stupid. Stupid. Stupid,’ he mentally berated himself as he and Bakugo drew closer to the pair. 

Izuku got so caught up in his guilt that he almost missed Bakugo stopping. He turned to look curiously at the explosion user, who eyed the pair warily as he slowly shifted into a loose combat stance. 

Looking back at his siblings, he saw that Hitoshi still hadn’t relaxed, looking ready to either brainwash Bakugo or just flat out punch him. 

Shit. He needed to do something fast. 

“Hito, Yumi,” Izuku desperately interjected. “This is Bakugo Katsuki.” He guestered to blond teen. “Bakugo, these are two of my siblings, Shinso Hitoshi and Suzuki Ayumi.” He gulped nervously, having done the equivalent of introducing two hair-triggered bombs to each other. 

Thankfully, nothing exploded, figuratively or literally. Bakugo grunted, easing from his combative stance marginally as he shoved his hands in his pockets. Izuku understood the meaning behind it. He wasn’t going to start a fight. 

Looking between the two, Ayumi sighed, quickly elbowing Hitoshi’s side none too gently, forcing her sibling to both wince and reluctantly relax. 

An awkward silence followed as they all stared at each other. Surprisingly, Bakugo was the first to break it, scoffing.  

“Nice to meet ya or whatever,” he grumbled, steadily meeting his childhood friend’s siblings’ eyes. Not wasting any time, he turned to Izuku. “And don’t call me ‘Bakugo.’ It just sounds wrong. Coming from you.” He scowled.

Izuku blinked, not expecting the sudden shift in conversation. “O-Oh… Well, w-what should I-,” he managed to stammer out before being cut off. 

“Just call me Katsuki,” he stated firmly. “Unless you still can’t fucking say it,” he half-joked with a smirk.

Oh, Bakugo just made a joke!

Shaking off his shock, Izuku nodded determinedly. “Of course, Katsuki.” He tested the name on his tongue. It felt strange calling his old friend that, but not as strange as it would be to call him ‘Kacchan.’ 

Bakugo nodded, evidently satisfied. “Good.” He turned away. “Anyways, see ya around, nerd.” He began walking away from the group. “Later, Eyebags, Scars.” 

Ayumi only snorted bemusedly at the nickname. Inversely, anger flared in Hitoshi’s eyes as he straightened from his slouched position. But, before he could respond, Bakugo had already made his way into the dorms.

A beat of silence passed before Hitoshi finally spoke, a bitter edge to his voice.

“What an asshole.”

Izuku’s head snapped from the doorway comically fast to stare wide-eyed at his brother. “Hito, don’t be rude! He’s improved a lot since-” He hesitated, suddenly uncertain of what to say to defend the blond teen.

“So you did know him before.” His sister’s observation cut through Izuku’s hesitation, his mouth closing with an audible ‘clop.’ 

Ayumi didn’t look as agitated as Hitoshi did. Rather, she seemed thoughtful, eyes carefully examining Izuku, as if searching for some unknown damage. “What did he want,” she asked, voice even. 

Izuku hesitated for just a moment longer. Would they listen? Could they understand why he wanted to give Bakugo a second chance? Or would they- 

No. He shook his head minutely, casting aside his anxieties. They've always listened to each other; it was how they survived together for so long. He could make them understand. 

He launched into an explanation of his former relationship with Bakugo and the basics of their conversation: their friendship, their fallout, the insistent bullying, what had happened after he disappeared. As he reached Bakugo’s near breakdown moments before, Hitoshi predictably didn’t look any less irritated and Ayumi was frowning thoughtfully. 

“So what,” Hitoshi exclaimed incredulously, throwing his hands up wildly. “The guy bullies you for years and you just want to give him a second chance!” 

Izuku felt a flicker of frustration bubble up. Did he even listen to anything he just said? He shoved that feeling back down. Hitoshi’s reaction was both expected and reasonable, all things considered. 

Still, he was missing the point. “He’s also improved since then! Everything he did was the result of society’s views on quirks,” Izuku reiterated. “Hito, you of all people should understand how toxic they are, for everyone involved!” He felt a little guilty for bringing up a sensitive part of Hitoshi’s past but it was the truth.  

Hitoshi flinched slightly at the reminder but backed down, at least considering Izuku’s words. 

Ayumi took the chance to speak up. “Izu does have a good point,” she said diplomatically, thumbs tracing the lightning-shaped scars that decorated her forearms. “If he believes that Bakugo deserves a chance, that’s between the two of them."

Izuku gave his sister a grateful smile, who just raised an eyebrow as she continued speaking with a shrug. 

“Still, I’m not comfortable with you telling him everything even if he does change. It’s one thing to be a good person; it’s another to be one we can actually trust.” 

Hastily, Izuku nodded his agreement. “Of course, I already told him he’s not getting everything unless we all agreed to tell him.”

Hitoshi huffed again. “That makes sense, I guess,” he agreed half heartedly. Looking away, he mumbled, “He’s still an asshole,” under his breath, earning himself another elbow from Ayumi. 

Ignoring Hitoshi’s protests at the rough treatment, she clapped her hands together. “Wonderful. With that matter settled, can we head inside please so that I no longer have to be the responsible one? Because last time I checked, that’s Suka’s job.” 

Their sister’s dry tone, a near-perfect imitation of Aizawa’s, caused both Izuku and Hitoshi to crack up laughing, their earlier annoyance dissipating. 

Izuku couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. When Nedzu had made his offer months ago, he knew that it was a chance that he and his siblings couldn’t afford to waste. Sure, it took some effort to convince them that but now look at them! 

They were gonna be heroes! 

The trio approached the dorm doors, ready to face their future.

As it turns out, they weren’t ready. 

Before the doors could even close behind them, a very pink person immediately threw herself into their faces. 

“Excuse you! Just where have you all been?” She half-asked half-demanded, hands on her hips. 

Oh! She was one of the students Izuku had noted earlier. Now that he got a closer look at her, he noticed that, in addition to her pink skin and hair, her eyes had black sclera with gold irises and she had horns protruding from her forehead. 

( How were her mutations related to her quirk? At least one of them had to be a primary mutation but which one? Could the horns act as an extra sensory organ? Did her skin have extra pigment to protect her from her quirk? Maybe her eyes… )

With Izuku being busy overanalyzing his classmate and Hitoshi being… Hitoshi, Ayumi took it upon herself to answer. “Outdoors. That’s what tends to be outside buildings,” she deadpanned in a way which would’ve made Aizawa proud. 

The pink girl puffed her checks in annoyance, glaring up at the taller girl. “Ha ha. Very funny. Now, can we please get started.” She gestured over at a circle of chairs and sofas, where it looked like the rest of class sat, quietly talking amongst themselves while not-so-subtly casting glances the trio’s way. 

“Oh,” Ayumi replied weakly, self-consciousness swiftly kicking in. “Sorry. Didn’t realize.”

The pink girl glared for just a moment longer, before annoyance abruptly gave away to cheeriness. “It’s fine! Just sit down all ready, I wanna meet everyone!” They blinked at her sudden mood shift. She quickly made use of the confusion she sowed to herd the trio to an empty couch in the circle.

Izuku sat down on the right end of the couch and Ayumi sat on the left, leaving Hitoshi comfortably between them. He glanced around the circle, excitement winning out over anxiety and fear of new people. 

He spotted Itsuka and Mashirao sitting together on a two-person couch a couple people to his left. Mashirao seemed to be doing mostly okay, managing a weak smile as their eyes met even as he anxiously scanned the room. His tail rested loosely wrapped around Ituska’s torso, the end resting in her lap as she gently ran her fingers through the hair at the end. 

Bakugo sat sullenly next to a cheery looking redhead. He nodded once as Izuku looked over at him before averting his gaze, giving the redhead a light glare. 

Izuku knew that he wasn’t too annoyed, given that he hadn’t cursed anyone out or stormed out of the room. He smiled softly. It was good to see that Bakugo was giving other people a chance. It would do him good to have an equal, rather than an ‘extra’ follower. 

A quick ‘ahem’ brought his attention back to the pink girl, who was now standing near the redhead teen. The room eventually quieted down, allowing her the chance to start talking. 

“Hello everyone,” she began seriously. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today.”

“It’s for introductions,” a black-haired teen sitting directly to Ayumi's left interrupted, his face perfectly neutral. 

The pink girl puffed out her cheeks again. “Killjoy,” she mumbled. Her cheery demeanor quickly returned. “Anyways, like he said, I figured since we’re gonna spend the next three years together, we might as well get to know each other now!” She smiled widely as she glanced around the room, seeing a good number of matching grins interspersed with a few students who definitely didn’t feel the same but at least stayed where they were. 

Satisfied with what she saw, she continued. “Anyways, I figured we’d just go around the room and give some basic info about ourselves. Sound good? Great!” She hardly waited for a reply as she carried on.

Izuku felt Hitoshi shift uncomfortably beside him. He leaned over and gently bumped shoulders with him. Hitoshi gave a thankful glance as he muttered under his breath. “She’s like some unholy fusion of Mic and Kayama.” Izuku snorted as he returned his attention to the pink girl.

“I’ll start us off!” She beamed at the assembled student. “I’m Ashido Mina! My quirk is called Acid. It lets me produce acid from anywhere on my body. Plus, I can control how strong and viscous it is.” She gave a helpless shrug. “I would demonstrate but, you know, acid. ” 

“Anyways, I love dancing and romance and hate bullies.” She paused for a moment. “I don’t really have a favorite hero, but Edgeshot’s pretty cool!” 

She spread her arms expectantly. “See. It’s not that bad!” Her grin somehow widened even further. “Who’s next?”

“Oh!” The redheaded teen besides her jumped to his feet. “I got it,” he called out eagerly, flashing a grin.  “Yo everyone, I’m Kirishima Eijiro! My quirk’s Hardening.”

His smile turned sheepish. “It’s not very flashy, but it lets me harden my skin.” He held up an arm, showing his classmates his arm’s newly jagged appearance.

He deactivated his quirk and his smile shifted back to his earlier eager one. “I like anything meat and anything manly! My favorite hero’s definitely Crimson Riot! He’s an older one but he’s the best!” He pumped a fist. “I look forward to training with you all!”

With that, he gave a small bow and sat back down. Surprisingly, Bakugo stood up without any prodding. “Y’all better listen cause I’m only saying this once,” he started gruffly, slouched over with his hands in his pockets. “The name’s Bakugo Katsuki. My quirk’s Explosion, it lets me use my sweat to create explosions from my hands.” He removed a hand from his pocket and let off a few small pops from his palm. 

He glared at the assembled students, straightening up. “I’m here to become the best, so you all better bring your best too. Otherwise it won’t mean anything.” With that, he sat back down, ignoring Kirishima’s whispered ‘so manly.’ 

The room shifted uncomfortably at the explosive teen’s introduction. Izuku couldn’t help but smile eagerly as the next person stood up. He had a feeling that this was gonna be fun!

Izuku had been right. The introductions were some of the best fun he’s had in awhile. Even after he and his siblings managed to escape, he had rarely been able to put his analysis skills to work just for the sake of it. 

No, he had used them to make plans and contingencies. To give his siblings the upper hand against whatever two-bit thug thought that children would be an easy target. To keep his siblings safe. 

The freedom to use them so freely was another boon that UA had given him. 

That aside, he would still be making ‘plans’ for his classmates later… For practice of course! 

(He ignored the small voice in the back of his head that said otherwise.) 

Even when he could use his skills for just fun, it was only making rough guesses based off what he could gleam from random passersby. He hadn’t been with so many people so willing to share their quirks since…. 

Memories of fear, pain, and long-dead faces flashed unbiddenly across Izuku’s mind. Recoiling slightly, he quickly pushed them away as Sero Hanta sat back down. He would not have a breakdown in front of his new classmates. It would raise far too many questions for his siblings. 

Sero (Quirk: Tape) had been the seventh person to go so far. Before him had been Awase Yotestsu (Quirk: Weld), Shoji Mezo (Quirk: Dupli-Arms), and Tokoyami Fumikage (Quirk: Dark Shadow). 

The next person in the circle stood up, a bubbly looking girl with short brown hair darker than Ayumi’s and a permanent blush to her cheeks. 

“Hi, everyone! I’m Uraraka Ochako!” she beamed at the assorted students. “My quirk’s called Zero Gravity. Anything I touch with all five fingers loses its weight.” She held up her hand, showing off the pads on her fingers, before turning around and placing all five fingers on her chair. Sure enough, with a brief flash of light, the chair began to floating upwards, stopped only by her hand. 

Izuku noted the assorted impressed whispers that the demonstration caused, agreeing with them. After all, the ability to negate a fundamental force of nature was nothing to scoff at. 

Pushing the chair back down, she quickly pressed the fingers of each hand together, causing the chair to drop the rest of the way to the floor. Uraraka turned back around. “Unfortunately, if I go over my weight limit or try to use it on myself, I get really nauseous,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. 

She blinked, suddenly aware of how long she spent on her quirk. She hastily moved on. “Oh, I like mochi and my favorite hero’s Thirteen!” She sat back down, apparently embarrassed by something. 

Izuku couldn’t help the spark of interest he felt watching Uraraka speak. Out of all the people who had gone so far, she was the only one to mention her quirk’s limits or drawback. She seemed to be incredibly earnest and just a little self-conscious. 

She also happened to be incredibly cute, a tratorious part of his mind supplied. The rest of his mind froze at the thought and he found himself fighting down a blush. 

When his mind finally managed to restart, he realized that he had been out of it for so long that he had missed someone’s turn: the frog-like girl from earlier that day. Already cringing at the future awkward interactions, he prayed that one of his siblings would be able to fill him in.

He dutifully listened as the next person introduced himself (Rin Hiyru), gave a brief description on his quirk (Scales), provided a few small tidbits about himself (Originally from China, likes sushi), and mentioned his favorite hero (Ryukyu).  

As Rin sat back down, Izuku realized with a start that he was up next. Jumping to his feet (and ignoring Hitoshi’s amused snort), he began his own introduction. 

“H-hello, my name is Midoriya Izuku,” he began with a small stutter. “And I call my quirk Overlay.” 

Izuku didn’t miss Bakugo shifting in his seat, becoming more attentive as he began to explain the basics of his quirk. 

“It gives me, well, an ‘overlay’ that provides me with various pieces of information: mainly basic environmental and directional data. However, that’s just the passive function.” He paused, an enthusiastic grin forming as he began to pick up speed. 

“Just to name just a few things, I can scan and analyze both living and non-living things for more detailed information, perform various types of calculations near-instantaneously, and actively store data in ‘files’ to call upon later,” he stated in a single breath, leaving his classmates blinking and his siblings muffling their laughter at sudden deluge of data. 

“Additionally,” He continued. “My favorite food is katsudon, I love to analyze quirks, and my favorite hero is Nedzu.” He smiled shyly at the class. “I look forward to learning with you all.” 

Without another word, he sat back down, smile still on his face. Hitoshi shook his head fondly as he stood up for his own turn. 

Glancing around the room, Izuku saw Ayumi, Mashirao, and Itsuka shared a look of fond exasperation on their faces. Meanwhile, Bakugo had one of appraisal, obviously considering what Izuku claimed his quirk could do. 

Looking away from the explosion user, he turned his attention towards his brother, whose fond expression had melted away to a neutral mask with tense shoulders. Of course, he had plenty of bad memories coming back to haunt him, even if he logically knew that everything would work out. 

Hitoshi waited for the room to settle before starting. “I’m Shinso Hitoshi,” he began without preamble, voice carefully devoid of emotion. “I call my quirk Smoke Surge.”

Chapter Text

“I call my quirk Smoke Surge.”  

Hitoshi held up a forearm and activated the quirk. From the elbow up, the arm promptly burst into a swirling mass of black smoke and burning orange embers, loosely holding the shape of an arm without any detail. 

Deactivating it, he shoved his hand into the pocket of his hoodie. “Basically, it lets me turn my body into smoke and increases my maneuverability,” he said shortly, letting out a harsh breath through his nose. “For interests, I like cats and coffee. For heroes, I’m not really a fan.” He gave Izuku a sidelong glare. “But I guess Eraserhead’s okay.” 

With that, he flopped back onto the couch, ignoring the apprehensive stares of the other students. But Izuku wasn’t about to let that lie. 

“You know,” he teased quietly. “Aizawa-san might just cry tears of joy if he heard all that praise you just gave him.” 

Hitoshi replied with his patented glare, which was sadly ruined by the upward twitch of his lips. “Bold of you to assume that man can feel anything besides exasperation and disappointment,” he shot back as Ayumi stood up for her own turn. 

Izuku snickered evilly at the flimsy rebuttal. Hitoshi just gave a lighthearted shove in response before turning his attention back to their youngest sibling. Izuku relented with a small satisfied smile and turned to listen in as well. 

Ayumi had already begun introducing her quirk. “For my quirk, I call it Static Conduit.” Holding her hands a few inches apart, she let a few strands of blue-white electricity arc between her palms. “I can absorb and release electromagnetic energy and manipulate it in various ways. I have pretty good fine control too,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I naturally generate some energy myself but I mainly rely on outside sources.” 

As his sister moved onto her interests, Izuku tuned her out in favor of watching his classmate’s reaction, not really expecting to see anything of note with the possible exception of Bakugo’s appraising look.

Unfortunately, the universe just loved to prove him wrong. 

Izuku quickly honed in on the other teen, taking note of the red-and-white hair split right down the middle and the scar over his left eye. 

He didn’t like the look he was giving Ayumi one bit. It wasn’t hostile per se, but it was hardly friendly either. However, it did feel familiar.  

Izuku’s breath hitched as realization struck. Of course the look in his eyes was familiar, it was one he recognized well from his own siblings.

It was the look of someone evaluating a threat.  

Izuku felt his breathing get caught up in his throat. Adrenaline shot through his veins while his heart raced while a deadly combination of anger and fear threatening to overwhelm him.

Breathe, Izuku. Breathe.  

He forcefully took a deep breath, battling against himself to remain calm. As much as his instincts screamed to... address the perceived threat to his sister immediately, he wouldn’t let them ruin everything they had built here. Taking another steadying breath, he glanced around at his siblings to see if they had picked up on what the teen was doing. 

They all definitely had, even if they didn’t realize the full implications. The hair on Mashirao’s tail was raised like it always did when he felt threatened or spooked, Itsuka kept glancing between her sister and the other teen, and Hitoshi glared like he was trying to drill a hole through the other teen’s skull. 

Opposingly, Ayumi herself gave no reaction to the staredown as she finished up her introduction. 

Of course, that in and of itself didn’t mean anything. Izuku knew that she had an excellent poker face. 

Sure enough, as she sat back down, Ayumi brought a hand forward in an innocuous motion, shaping it into a familiar form. 

SAFE. 

The sign was a subtle acknowledgment that she had noticed — but didn’t feel immediately threatened by — the staredown the other teen had given her. 

Izuku and Hitoshi exchanged a look with each other, and then with Mashirao and Itsuka, all of them perfectly falling into sync as they always did when they needed to.  

Despite the off-feeling he gave them, Ayumi herself believed she was safe. Additionally, there was little they could really do without causing a scene. Not to mention that the other teen hadn’t technically done anything. 

For the moment, they would follow Ayumi’s lead and leave the matter alone. 

Still, Izuku couldn’t bring himself to properly relax. He still dutifully created files for Kaibara Sen, Tokage Setsuna, and Shiozaki Ibara as they each went, but found himself only half-listening as he fought down the dread pooling in his gut. 

If only for moral support, he did manage to tune back in to listen as Mashirao’s turn to introduce himself arrived. After he finished, it would be Itsuka’s turn. Izuku found that a part of his dread shifted to worry about their introductions. 

Or rather, their quirk introductions. 

Their two covers had been the trickiest to come up with. Ayumi’s birth quirk was subtle enough she could get away with simply not mentioning it. Hitoshi had decided flat out to keep Brainwashing secret, blandly pointing out that instinctively turning into smoke would definitely be something someone with a mental quirk couldn’t do.

(Privately, Izuku thought his brother feared the same rejection and discrimation that he had faced before.)

Of course, all of them had spent most of last night reviewing each of their covers and making sure each of them understood what each ‘quirk’ could and couldn’t do. 

For Mashirao, they had come up with ‘Tail Pulse,’ an emitter type quirk that allowed him to store kinetic energy and release it in bursts from his tail. 

For Itsuka, they had been forced to settle for a modification to her birth quirk, Big Fist, with the addition that her hands get a large increase in durability when active.

Luckily, his fears were unfounded. Both of them managed to ease through their introductions without so much as a stumble and Izuku couldn’t help the tinge of pride that wormed its way through his worry. 

After Itsuka finished, the tall bespectacled teen that she had been talking to earlier stood up stiffly. 

“Hello, everyone!” He started sharply, back ramrod straight. “My name is Iida Tenya! It is a pleasure to meet all of you!” His arms chopped through the air swiftly. “My quirk is called Engine! It gives me engines in my legs, which allows me to reach incredible speeds and empower my kicks! 

“For my hobbies, I enjoy studying and long runs.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he continued. “My favorite hero is Ingenium!” His expression shifted to something prideful as he stated the hero’s name. “I would be proud to be half the hero he is! His leadership and decision-making skills are simply astounding! He's the epitome of what it means to be a hero and I strive to follow his example everyday!” 

For a moment, Izuku thought Iida might go on a tirade on how Ingenium was the shining example of heroism. Luckily for the assembled students, he managed to rein himself in. 

“Anyhow,” Iida continued looking marginally more relaxed. “I look forward to the opportunity to get to know each of you and to learn together at this prestigious institution!” He gave a sharp bow (back stiff once more) before sitting down. 

Hitoshi gave a light snort. “I’m almost impressed that he got a stick that size so far up his as- Oww!” He rubbed his side as he shot a glare at Ayumi, who simply glared right back at the protest. “Stop doing that,” he managed to hiss out. 

“Stop being a jackass for five seconds, then,” she replied tersely, some carefully hidden tension bleeding into her voice. “You do know we have to live with him, don’t you?” 

Hitoshi huffed. “Unless Aizawa expels him.” 

“Unlikely,” Izuku interjected as gears began to turn in his head. “Considering he’s from the Iida hero family.”

Which meant Iida would have a distinct advantage when it came to the basics of hero work, whether from personal observations, tips from family members, or even formal training. But given how stiff and formal he appeared to be, it would be far more likely for him to flunk out somewhere between the end of the first year and the middle of the second. As a hero, he would need to be able to adapt to whatever situation that he might encounter and- 

A gentle nudge from Hitoshi broke Izuku from his thoughts. “Muttering, Izu,” he pointed out softly, his earlier annoyance gone. 

Izuku flushed lightly at the slip. He had been trying to curve the habit for years only for it to rear its head whenever he got deep into thought. 

“You’ll probably want to pay attention to this anyways.” The tension in Ayumi’s voice was enough to draw his attention to the last member of their class. 

“Oh, the Peppermint actually wants to say something, does he,” Hitoshi muttered, voice scathing. The fact that Ayumi refrained from hitting him again made it clear that she didn’t disagree with the sentiment. 

The teen had stood from his seat but hadn’t begun speaking yet. Izuku noted the way his eyes flitted around the room, passing over most without a second thought but lingering for a few moments on a select few. 

Bakugo, Ayumi, Shiozaki, Tokoyami. 

Explosion, Static Conduit, Vines, Dark Shadow. 

So Ayumi wasn’t the only one he had deemed to be a threat.  

The few hushed conversations that had sprung up after the end of Iida’s turn slowly died down, as they realized that their last class member seemed to be waiting for his turn.

A few moments later, the teen spoke. “Todoroki Shoto,” he stated coolly. “My quirk is Half-Hot Half-Cold. I make ice from my right side and fire from my left.”

He didn’t bother demonstrating as he carried on. “However, I will never use my left side in combat.” Cold eyes sweeped the room once more, not lingering on anyone this time. “I will surpass All Might, only using my ice.” 

Without another word, Todoroki turned and left the circle, heading towards the elevator on the boy’s side of the dorm.

And with his exit, the room’s shocked silence quickly shifted to chaos.  

Izuku’s own mind devolved in a chaotic whirlwind as he took in his classmates' reactions. Some like Shoji or Tokoyami were quiet and unreadable. Others (Awase, Rin, Iida) were shouting protests at retreating teen’s back. Most looked a mix of angry, confused, or just annoyed at the dismissive attitude he had towards them. 

Bakugo in particular looked like he was a split second away from blowing away half the building in a rage. However, as Izuku watched on, he saw the explosion user let out a harsh breath, forcing his hands into his pockets as he traced Todoroki’s path towards the elevator.  

Izuku noted that Kirishima hesitated for only a moment before determination flashed in his eyes, quickly jogging to catch up with the blond teen.

With their introductions completed, albeit on a sour note, the circle of students broke apart. Some students formed small groups while other students chose to go off on their own. 

Naturally, Mashirao and Itsuka immediately rejoined their siblings’ sides, the latter crouching down at Ayumi’s side as the former situated himself near Izuku. 

“Yumi, you okay?” Itsuka asked gently, reaching out to rest a hand on her sister’s shoulder.

At the touch, Ayumi let out a long breath and slumped over, letting the carefully-hidden tension drain for her frame. “Fine, Suka. Or at least I will be,” she murmured softly.

Itsuka shifted her hand so that she could rub Ayumi’s back while Hitoshi scooted over in his seat so that he could touch shoulders with her. 

Izuku hesitated for half a second before looking towards Mashirao, leaving his sister in their capable hands. 

The tailed teen regarded him evenly, his face a mask. “What happened earlier,” he began carefully, using a voice that even Izuku had trouble reading between the lines. “With that Bakugo guy?” 

Right, he hadn’t gotten a chance to share what happened outside with Mashirao or Itsuka yet. 

“Nothing bad,” Izuku rushed to reassure his brother. “We just have a… history that needed to be addressed.” He tilted his head downwards, where his hands flitted anxiously in another familiar pattern. 

LATER. 

Afterall, this was hardly a good time or place to open that particular can of worms. 

Understanding flashed across Mashirao’s eyes as he received the message, dropping the subject for the time being. “Got it.” 

He hesitated a moment, watching as the trio of his siblings stood and walked away before returning his attention to Izuku. “Any idea what the deal is with Todoroki?”

Izuku could only shrug helplessly. “I need more time, too many unknown variables. All I know for sure is that he won’t use the fire aspect of his quirk, that he wants to beat the number one hero, and that he possibly marked a few people as threats.”

He pointedly ignored the frustration that bubbled up with the admission. 

Mashirao closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, letting each out carefully and deliberately. 

After a brief moment, he opened his eyes and gave a nod in acknowledgement. 

With everything settled for the moment, Mashirao turned and headed for the rest of their siblings, who had moved into the kitchen, with Izuku following close behind. 

The trio had already begun working on their dinner, pulling ingredients from their places and preparing them for cooking. Itsuka chopped slices of pork into more manageable pieces while Hitoshi and Ayumi cut up vegetables. A pot of water boiled on the stove. 

Izuku and Mashirao easily slipped into rhythm that their siblings established. Mashirao manned the stove, placing frozen udon noodles into the pot to reheat them while Izuku helped with preparing the vegetables. 

Truth be told, all five of them working at the same time was frankly overkill. Of course, that didn’t stop them in the slightest. In short order, all the ingredients found their way into an oversized frying pan, cooking under the watchful eye of Ayumi. 

This left the four other siblings standing by idly in the otherwise vacant kitchen, waiting in a comfortable silence. 

The smell of cooking meat and vegetables made Izuku’s mouth water as he belatedly realized that he had completely missed lunch earlier in the day. 

Oh well. At least he had a large breakfast. 

A few more minutes of content silence passed before a voice from the kitchen entrance broke it. “Hmm… that smells good. What’s going on here?” 

Izuku didn’t need to look in her direction to identify the speaker, but still spared a glance to where Ashido stood expectantly in the doorway. 

Hitoshi, however, didn’t even bother to look away from his phone as he responded. “Cooking. It’s what people tend to do in kitchens.” 

Ashido puffed out her cheeks in annoyance at the sarcastic tone. “Obviously. I meant what are you guys making?”

“Then you should have said that.” 

“Hito.” Itsuka’s chiding voice silenced her brother, the unsaid warning clear. She turned to Ashido, a friendly smile on her face. “Sorry about him. Sarcasm’s his default setting.” 

Ashido’s annoyance evaporated in an instance. “It’s fine! I’ve dealt with worse,” she chirped. She placed a finger on her check curiously. “Though I still wanna know what you’re making.” 

“Stir-fried udon,” Ayumi interjected from her spot at the stove. 

“Oh, that sounds good. There enough for me?” She asked, obviously teasing.

“Technically, yeah.” 

Blinking at the unexpected agreement, Ashido floundered. “Wait really?” 

Ayumi shrugged as she continued. “I mean, the recipe we’re using is for two people and we just scaled it up by three. So… yeah, there’s enough for another person.” 

Ashido stood in the doorway, taken back at the turn of events, before surging excitedly into the kitchen. “Oh, oh, oh! Can I have some?! Please? It smells really good!”

Ayumi hesitated for a moment, looking at her siblings for support. Hitoshi was predictably scowling while Mashirao just seemed unsettled at the acid user’s volume. 

Izuku personally thought it was a good idea. After all, they needed to start building a rapport with other members of their class.

(Yep, that was the only reason. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it would give him ample opportunity to learn more about her quirk.) 

“Sure thing,” Izuku agreed easily, . “But only if you help with the dishes afterwards.” 

Ashido’s excitement dimmed down, her expression shifting. “Ah, a soul for a soul.” She nodded, mock-serious. She stuck out a hand. “Very well, I accept your terms.”

Snickering, Izuku accepted the handshake. “The deal’s struck then, Ashido-san.” 

His response elicited a laugh from the pink-skinned teen. “No need to be so formal, Midori! Just call me Mina!” 

Izuku found himself sputtering at the very sudden informality. “Midori?!” 

At his brother’s reaction, Hitoshi’s attitude quickly shifted. A traitorously amused grin replaced his earlier scowl. Mashirao politely attempted to hide his laughter behind his tail. Ayumi’s shoulders shook as she attempted to contain her own laugh while Itsuka just laughed openly. 

“Yep! You call me Mina, I’ll call you Midori! A soul for a soul… again.” Ashi Mina’s cheshire grin somehow grew even larger. She quickly pivoted towards Ayumi, leaving Izuku to reboot. “Anyways, how much longer till the grub’s done?”

The brunette simply chuckled amusedly. “Almost there. That being said, can someone get the plates ready?”

The kitchen quickly dissolved into a flurry of motion as the group of siblings and their plus one finished their dinner preparations. Soon, the group sat at the same table that they had breakfast at, only with Mina taking the place of Aizawa. 

Mina gave a small moan of pleasure as she took her first bite. “Oh god, this is as good as it smelt!” She eagerly stuffed her face with more noodles, slurping happily . 

Ayumi gave the Acid user a thin smile. “Glad to hear it, even if the taste is still off,” she replied, mumbling the last part, though not low enough for anyone to miss it. 

“Oh? What do you mean by that?”

Ayumi blinked. “Ah, it’s just that I used to have this a lot when I was younger. I don’t have the recipe we used anymore so I’ve been trying to get the taste right, with… mixed results.” 

“That’s one way to say it,” Hitoshi grumbled, having been one of the victims of many such mixed results. 

“They weren’t that bad!” 

Mashirao patted his affronted sister on the shoulder. “Hate to break to you, Yumi, but some of them really were that bad.”

“On the brightside,” Izuku interjected cheerfully. “You haven’t given anyone food poisoning in months!” 

“That was one time!” 

“Three times actually.” Izuku’s teasing grin was scarily similar to Nedzu’s. Never argue with someone with near perfect memory recall. 

Ayumi groaned dramatically, dropping her head to the table beside her plate. “You guys are the worst.” 

“You love us,” Hitoshi shot back cheekily.

“Unfortunately.” 

From her seat, Mina hastily stuffed more food into her mouth, just barely managing to contain her delighted squeal at how absolutely adorable her new classmates were acting. ‘ Oh my god, they’re like a bunch of siblings,’ she thought as she smiled to herself, unaware of how close to the truth she was. 

As they all continued on with their meal, other students wandered into the dining area before heading into the kitchen as they realized that it was fully stocked with food. Soon enough, the new members of Class 1-A sat scattered around the dining room, eating their fill and chatting happily with one another.

Chapter Text

After they had finished dinner, Mina held up her end of the bargain by helping Izuku and Mashirao with the clean-up. The meal itself had been an interesting experience. Afterall, Izuku and the others hadn’t had many interactions with new people their own age in a long time. 

On the surface, Mina was a cheerful and carefree individual, if a little simplistic. Below that surface was a different story. Izuku could see genuine determination and a cleverness which wasn’t to be underestimated. She had taken his deluge of questions in stride, even if she couldn’t answer them. 

(Apparently, she’s never tried to make an alkaline solution with her quirk, her skin pigmentation does in fact offer her protection from her acid, and she’s never had a chance to measure the maximum acidity her quirk could produce.)

Once they were done, Izuku got a chance to interact with a couple of the other members of his new class. 

While still very formal, Iida wasn’t nearly as stiff as his introduction had made him seem. Izuku figured that the bespectacled teen simply acted that way when under some form of stress. Though, it was abundantly clear that he took any responsibility or task given to him seriously. 

The hulking Shoji easily proved to have a friendly and gentle demeanor. He patiently answered the few initial questions Izuku had about his quirk, the lips on the duplicated mouth curving upwards ever so slightly. 

Underneath Shiozaki’s warm and modest exterior hid something fierce. What that something was, Izuku couldn’t be certain of, but carefully honed instincts told him to avoid her ire, just to be safe.

Eventually, Iida stood and loudly announced that curfew was approaching and that, as Hero students, they needed to be in top condition for the first day of classes. He advised “retiring for the evening,” and that “socializing can continue once they’ve settled into a schedule.” 

His advice caused some grumbling from the gathered students. However, the accompanying excitement and anxieties that came with the imminent start of classes convinced them to do as such, much to his satisfaction.

This gave Izuku and his siblings a chance to finally gather in privacy, meeting in his dorm room. After the surprisingly eventful day, they all agreed that they needed to have a talk. 

Even if Izuku didn’t particularly look forward to sharing his life story from Before again. 

Hitoshi perched on the edge of Izuku’s desk, wearing a dark blue hoodie with a Nyan cat design and gray pajama pants. Mashirao and Ayumi had both changed into their pajamas before taking over the bed. Ayumi had wrapped herself in her favorite fluffy blanket as she leant up against Mashirao, who reciprocated by wrapping his tail around her. Itsuka leant against the foot of the bed, wearing a simple pair of shorts with a T-shirt.

Izuku anxiously paced back and forth as he tried to calm the storm raging in his mind. 

For someone with a quirk that let him literally catalog his thoughts, he could be ridiculously scatterbrained.

“Okay, stop. Just stop.” Izuku jerked his head towards Hitoshi, who was scowling in annoyance. “This isn’t rocket science, Izu. Stop digging yourself into a hole.”

Itsuka sighed, shaking her head in fond exasperation. “Seriously, whatever it is, we handle it together, Izu, like we always do,” she agreed gently. From their spot on the bed, Mashirao nodded in agreement while Ayumi hummed softly.

Right, okay. He could do this. He just needed to figure out where to start. 

“Maybe start with how you know Bakugo,” Mashirao suggested helpfully. 

Oh, mumbling. “Sor-,” he habitually began to apologize, only cutting himself off after earning four sharp glares in return. 

Shaking his head to clear it, Izuku decided to just stick to the important parts. “Basically, me and Bakugo grew up together. Our mothers were good friends so we had known each other essentially since we were born,” he explained, mentally bracing himself for the next part.

“Unfortunately, that means he knows I used to be Quirkless.” 

A moment of silence passed. “Well, shit,” Mashirao abruptly cursed, his usually calm demeanor vanishing as he straightened from his relaxed position at Ayumi’s side. Itsuka merely frowned, taking time to gather her own thoughts before voicing them. 

“Do you think he’s going to say anything,” she finally asked, voice deliberately even. 

Izuku’s answer came hastily. “No!” He paused a moment, forcing himself to calm down. “When he first saw me, he didn’t make a scene. And I’m pretty sure I’ve managed to…” He paused again, searching for the right words. “Temporarily satisfy his curiosity during our conversation.” 

Itsuka raised an eyebrow. “Just temporarily?” 

Izuku couldn’t hold back his wince. “Yeah. We got caught up in… other stuff.” He waved a hand half-heartedly, trying to keep himself on task. “But once we get into proper hero training, he’s definitely going to notice ‘things.’” If one could classify extensive combat and strategy training as just things . “And I don’t know if he’ll be able to stop himself from demanding answers.” 

“Ah yes, demanding answers,” Hitoshi drawled from his perch. “Exactly what that asshole has any right to do. But I guess no one’s ever told mister ‘heroic quirk’ that people have this thing called privacy.” 

Izuku winced again at the scathing sarcasm dripping from his brother’s voice. He started to regret only giving him and Ayumi the bare basics during their conversation earlier. 

But given that Hitoshi didn’t know anything other than ‘was a massive asshole before, seems like less of an asshole now,’ Izuku couldn’t find it in himself to fault his brother. 

Too bad for him that Ayumi didn’t have the same reservations. 

Hitoshi found himself hissing in pain as a thin, white-blue bolt of electricity arced across the room to zap him on the forehead. “Why the hell are you like this, Yumi,” he groaned out, rubbing his assaulted skin. 

“I-.” The sentence quickly died in her throat as her eyes glazed over and Brainwashing took its hold.

“Gotcha.” Hitoshi smirked victoriously, cackling lightly and earlier pain already forgotten. “Look who’s laughing now!” 

“Oh for the love of-” Itsuka abruptly stopped, giving up as she pinched the bridge of her nose tiredly. “Why are you two like this?”

“Come on, she deserves it,” argued Hitoshi. “She’s been hitting me all night. I’m just evening the score!” 

Mashirao sighed quietly, reaching over and sharply tugging on Ayumi’s earlobe. She jolted out of Hitoshi’s hold, blinking in confusion. Hitoshi’s smirk grew at her disorientation, and he gave her a sarcastic salute. 

Ayumi’s eyes narrowed and she attempted to lunge off the bed, only to be stopped by Mashirao’s tail snapping tighter around her waist. 

Her gaze flickered back to Mashirao momentarily before returning to Hitoshi. “Bitch.” 

Hitoshi’s smirk grew larger. “Say it to my face.” 

Rolling her eyes at the obvious bait, she used one hand to readjust her blanket and brought the other up to fingerspell. It moved with practiced ease as she spelt out her message. 

B - I - T - C - H. 

Mashirao snorted, hiding his grin behind his hand as Hitoshi half-heartedly glared at him. 

With another tired sigh, Itsuka sharply clapped her hands together, efficiently quieting the trio before it could snowball any further. “Can you three please control yourselves? I don’t think Izu was done talking yet.” She nodded at Izuku, who had been watching the chaos unfold with an exasperated expression of his own. 

The three of them settled down, expressions shifting as they remembered why they had been talking in the first place. 

“Right!” Izuku gave Itsuka a grateful nod, who nodded back tensely. He briefly gathered his thoughts even as he continued. “It’s like I told Yumi and Hito earlier. Bakugo won’t be getting anything out of me unless we all agree to it, and I made sure that he knows it.” 

“Well, that’s… good,” Mashirao replied lamely. He shifted uncomfortably, causing Ayumi to snuggle into him.  

Itsuka nodded her agreement. “That sounds fair to me.” Despite her words, she pursed her lips hesitantly. “What exactly did you already tell him? About all of us?” She waved a hand around the room, encompassing all five of them.

Oh right, that. “I might have mentioned ‘my family’ while I was, uh, ranting and I did introduce Hito and Yumi as my siblings.” Izuku shrugged. “I didn’t mention either of you two,” he continued. “But he’s smart enough to probably make that connection on his own.” 

Itsuka sighed defeatedly. “Yeah, it’s not like we're going to try hiding how close we are,” she conceded. “But…” She trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. 

Izuku caught on easily enough. “You don’t like how fast he’s learning so much.” His sister nodded silently in confirmation. “It’s a difficult situation. But if anything, it’s my fault.” He raised a hand, silencing his siblings’ protests before they could begin. “You all put your faith in me for things like this. I should’ve anticipated the possibility of something like this happening.” 

He allowed himself a ghost of a smile as a long forgotten memory flashed across his mind. “After all, Bakugo always said he would make it to UA one day.”

A tentative silence fell across the dorm room. 

“Well then, that’s it, isn’t it?” Ayumi spoke up softly. “We can’t exactly do anything about it now. He knows what he knows, and he’s allowed to make as many guesses as he wants to. We should move on. We do have classes tomorrow.” 

Itsuka reluctantly nodded her agreement. “Yumi’s right. Outside of telling Aizawa-san or one of the others, there’s nothing we can do. But…” 

“You can’t help but be a worrywart,” Hitoshi cut in jokingly with a smirk. 

Itsuka rolled her eyes. “Hey, someone has to worry about you idiots.” She attempted (and failed) to hide the fondness in her voice behind a thin-veil of annoyance.

Hitoshi picked up on that fondness and naturally took it as permission to carry on. With an overly-dramatic gasp, he put a hand to his chest in mock outrage. “Just who do you think you’re calling an idiot!?”

Itsuka merely raised an eyebrow at his antics. “I’m talking about the guy who regularly ran off to pet stray cats in dark alleyways.” Her eyes narrowed menacingly. “Without telling anyone where he was going.”   

“Hey, you weren’t there! You didn’t see what I saw!”

“Hitoshi, you got mugged! Seven times!”

“No, those were attempted muggings. I could handle myself against some two-bit thugs!”

“That’s not the problem!”

“Then what is?!” 

“That we found you petting cats surrounded by unconscious bodies! Do I really have to explain how bad it would be if someone else saw that?!” 

Izuku, along with Ayumi and Mashirao, continued to watch the two trade barbs and retorts, heads bobbing back and forth like it was a particularly intense tennis match. The three stopped to exchange a glance, laughing quietly amongst themselves as the other two were lost in their own little world. 

Finally, with a dramatic groan, Hitoshi slid off his perch on the desk and laid limply on the floor. “You don’t get it Itsuka! There were kittens! They were so-.” He waved his arms wildly above his head, unable to articulate what exactly the kittens were. 

 Unable to contain himself any longer, Mashirao burst out laughing, causing Ayumi and Izuku to quickly join in. Startled by the sudden laughter, Itsuka did a double-take before beginning to giggle herself. 

Hitoshi did his best to look affronted at the sudden laughter, but couldn’t keep the small smile from forming as he recognized the absurdity of the situation. 

Izuku let himself enjoy the lighter atmosphere for a few more moments before he had to destroy it. “Okay, okay. We’ve gotten off topic.” He waited until all eyes were focused on him. “We still have another topic to discuss.” 

“Ah yes, the peppermint.” Hitoshi’s mood soured as he pulled himself into a sitting position, remaining on the floor. “Any idea what he wants with Ayumi, Izu?” he asked, his voice serious and devoid of any earlier levity. 

Izuku nodded slowly. “I have part of a theory. Though, at this point, it’s really more of a guess.” 

Mashirao perked up at that. “A partial theory’s more than what you had earlier. Let’s hear it.” 

Izuku nodded again, more determinedly this time as he pushed down a flicker of frustration. “Alright,” he agreed even as he sorted through his thoughts, wanting to be as concise as possible. 

“All I’m certain of so far is what he has told us: he refuses to use his fire and he has some sort of fixation on All Might. Additionally, during the introductions earlier, he appeared to take note of a few people: Bakugo, Ayumi, Shiozaki-san, and Tokoyami-san.” 

“My current theory is that Todoroki-san has some sort of feud with his father. It would explain why he refuses to use his fire. And he marked the four of them as ‘threats’ since he perceives them as strong enough to present a challenge for him. In short, they’re stepping stones to get him closer to surpassing All Might.” 

“Um, who’s his father?” Ayumi asked. 

“Oh, the Number Two Hero, Endeavor.”

“Wait, if he has a problem with his father, why would he want to surpass All Might?” Itsuka pointed out. “Wouldn’t he just want to beat his father?” 

“Maybe it’s a pride thing?” Mashirao guessed. “Like anyone can be number two, but he wants to beat his father by doing what no one else has ever managed to?” 

That was an idea Izuku had already considered. “That’s probably it. I mean it's pretty much an open secret that Endeavor wants All Might’s spot. But then again, it could be...” He trailed off, theories forming and fading and shifting like sand in an hourglass. His brow furrowed as he fell deeper into thought, resting his chin on a hand. 

Unbeknownst to him, three of his siblings shifted as they waited patiently for their brother to finish. The final one waited as well, discontent flickering across his face. 

With a frustrated sigh, Izuku let his hand drop back to his side. “Still, like I said, this is more of an educated guess than a proper theory. Maybe he doesn’t want to use his fire because of an accident. Maybe All Might himself said something to him about his fire and that's why he won’t use it and why he wants his spot.” He felt a familiar mix of frustration and anger swell up in his gut.

He clenched his fists, nails biting into his palms. “I’m an analyst, not a miracle worker,” he spat out.  

‘ Damn it, ’ he thought bitterly. He hated not knowing, not understanding, not being in control. 

His irritation must have shown on his face. “It’s fine, Izu.” Itsuka sighed, lightly chopping the top of his head. “There’s no need to get worked up over it.” 

“He isn’t worth it.” 

Hitoshi’s voice, hostile and angry, cut through the somber atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. Izuku turned to his scowling brother, who merely glared back. 

“What, you know I’m right,” he argued, eyes narrowing. “The peppermint put his head up his ass; he can figure out how to pull it out himself.” He waved a hand dismissively. 

Izuku’s eyes widened before narrowing as well. “Hito…” 

“No, don’t you ‘Hito’ me, Izuku,” Hitoshi snapped back angrily. “We have enough of our own problems without sticking our noses into new ones.” He stood off the floor, crossing his arms. “Whatever problem he has, it isn’t ours and we shouldn’t make it ours.” 

Izuku stood his ground, not backing down from Hitoshi’s angry glare. He could understand where his brother was coming from but couldn't deny his instinctual disagreement. 

“I’m not trying to ‘stick my nose’ anywhere,” he tried to calmly explain. “I just think that if we understand where Todoroki-san is coming from, then-” 

“Bullshit!” Hitoshi cut him off. “You always say that but you never seem to mean it! Can we please just get through the year without any ‘situations.’”

“Those weren’t my fault! I was just-” 

“I know, I know! ‘At the wrong place at the wrong time.’ But I’m sorry that you make it really hard believe it, Izuku!”

“Oh, okay! That is rich coming from you, Hitoshi! Believe it or not, ‘kittens’ is not a good reason to-.”

A loud clap cut the two arguing siblings off. The pair turned to the source: an irritated Itsuka with enlarged hands. “That’s enough, you two.”

Seeing that she had their attention, Itsuka deactivated Big Fist and crossed her arms. “I understand how you’re both feeling but remember how we handle this sort of thing?” 

Izuku winced and nodded reluctantly. “We talk things out calmly, or we wait until we can talk things out calmly,” he responded sheepishly. 

His sister nodded before turning her attention to Hitoshi, his scowl deepening momentarily. Finally, unable to withstand Itsuka’s even gaze, he let out a harsh breath, relaxing marginally as he nodded curtly. 

Itsuka nodded to herself. “Okay then. So can we continue this now or do we have to finish up after classes tomorrow?” 

“Now.” Hitshi’s answer came instantly. “The less I have to think about this, the better. This whole thing rubs me the wrong way.” 

Izuku nodded in agreement. “I’d rather not have this hanging over my head tomorrow.” 

Itsuka relaxed, a small but satisfied smile on her face. “Good.” 

An uncomfortable silence fell across the room as Izuku and Hitoshi settled back into place, the latter reclaiming his perch on the desk.

“I think,” Mashirao began calmly. “That we shouldn’t seek anything out. Todoroki’s our only lead for anything concrete, and I doubt he would give anything up easily.” 

He shifted in his seat, gently nudging Ayumi off of him as he sat up straighter. “If we learn something, we learn something. In the meantime, we should focus on running interference if he tries to bother one of us.” 

Izuku allowed himself a half-smile. Leave it to Mashirao to find a middle ground amidst his and Hitoshi’s arguing. 

Itsuka gave the tailed teen a thumbs-up. “That sounds good to me.” 

Hitoshi huffed. “Sounds manageable, I guess,” he muttered, finding the rug on the floor very interesting. 

Izuku gave a relieved sigh. “Well, if Hitoshi can manage, I think I can too,” he half joked.  And he would too. If this is how his siblings wanted to play, he would support them to the best of his abilities. 

Even if he had to deny himself in the process. 

He turned towards Ayumi, who hadn’t said anything for a while. “Yumi?” 

Ayumi stared off into the distance, a pensive and slightly distressed look on her face.  Mashirao nudged her carefully, just enough to snap her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized quietly, managing a thin smile. “I’m fine with Shira’s idea. It’s probably the only viable one anyways.” 

Izuku stared worriedly at Ayumi, who ignored him as she pulled her blanket tighter around herself and hunched over. 

Naturally, Izuku wasn’t the only one to pick up on her behavior. “Yumi, you okay,” Itsuka asked gently. 

“Fine,” Ayumi replied shortly, slipping free from Mashirao’s tail and off the bed. “We should probably get to bed. Need to be well rested for whatever ‘logical ruses’ Aizawa-san throws at us.” 

That was a blatant change in subject if Izuku ever saw one. Still, they couldn’t force her to talk about something she didn’t want to. 

With a muttered goodnight, Ayumi slipped out of the dormroom, likely heading for her own room. The four remaining siblings let her go, giving her the space she obviously desired.

Hitoshi abruptly stood, following Ayumi’s path to the door. “I’m going to sleep in my room tonight,” he said without turning around. “I… I want some time alone.” Without waiting for a reply, he too slipped out of the room. 

Itsuka hesitated, eyes flickering between the doorway and her two siblings. In spite of  whatever internal dilemma she had, she dismissed it with a low sigh as she too left for the girl’s side of the dorm. “I guess I’ll see you two in the morning.” 

After she had left, Izuku turned to Mashirao who was sagged over, exhausted. “Are you going to…” Izuku waved a hand in the vague direction of the door. 

Mashirao managed a weak smile. “I think so. Today’s been… hectic. I need some time to process everything,” he explained softly. 

Izuku nodded. “You’re fine, Shira. Besides, we’re just down the hall from each other. It’s not the end of the world or anything,” he reassured. Though he wasn’t sure who he was trying to comfort. 

Mashirao nodded gratefully. “Right, right.” He cleared his throat. “Sleep well, Izu.” 

“Sleep well, Shira.” And just like that, Izuku was alone, with just his thoughts for company. 

He went through his nightly routine on autopilot, absently thankful for the parallel nature of Overlay that made it easy to multitask. 

In the span of one day, he had met Bakugo again, argued with and yelled at him, kept the peace between him and his siblings, met all of his new classmates, resisted the urge to fight one of them, ate dinner with another, and had an emotionally taxing argument with Hitoshi. 

He felt… drained, to say the least. Understandable, given the emotional ups and downs he went through. 

A part of him was glad to be alone for the night, to get the chance to recharge in peace. Another just wanted to hug all of his siblings and refuse to let go.

It’s not like they never slept on their own either. On the streets, someone was either keeping watch or scavenging or just couldn't sleep and didn’t want to disturb the others. 

That didn’t mean he didn’t feel their absence any less strongly. 

As Izuku crawled into the bed, he could only idly wonder about what other curveballs the future might throw at them before he drifted off into a blessedly dreamless sleep. 

Chapter Text

“How can you be so smart yet so bad at this?” 

Izuku coughed in an attempt to cover up his embarrassment, eyes sweeping the room, as he did his best to ignore the mixture of disbelief and awe in Itsuka’s voice. Eventually, he was forced to face her again as she examined the knot that was his attempt at a tie. 

“In my defense….” He paused as his sister glanced away from his tie, one eyebrow raised questioningly. “Okay, yeah. I’ve got nothing,” he admitted sheepishly.

He had read and watched (and reread and rewatched) countless different tutorials, to the point where he could recite them all start to finish without using his quirk. Too bad he still couldn’t replicate whatever witchcraft they used to tie the accursed thing the right way.

It had gotten to the point where he briefly entertained the idea of calling Aizawa to beg ask for help. However, he wisely decided that disturbing the man’s pre-class sleep would be a poor choice of action, to put it lightly. 

This left Izuku standing awkwardly in the dorm’s common room while his sister patiently untangled the mess of a knot that he had tied around his neck. 

“Don’t worry about it too much, Izu,” Mashirao said far too cheerfully to not be enjoying the situation. “After all, practice makes perfect!”  He turned to where his two fellow spectators sat at a table. “Right, guys?” 

Hitoshi, who still looked more asleep than awake at this point, grunted out his agreement before taking a gulp of the sludge that passed as coffee for him. 

Ayumi, looking significantly more awake than their brother, nodded as she sipped her specialized sports drink. “You’ll get there eventually,” she agreed before her tone shifted. “Besides, who would you be without your idiosyncrasies,” she laughed.

Hitoshi groaned loudly as he flopped forwards, resting his head on his arms. “For the love of God, Yumi,” he all but begged. “It’s too early for big words. Keep it simple.” 

Silence followed, as Mashirao and Ayumi exchanged a look before both donned near-identical grins. 

Hitoshi’s eyes widened as he realized his mistake a half moment too late. “Wai-.” 

“Penultimate.”

“Biostratigraphic.”

“Circumnavigation.” 

“Floccinaucinihilipilification.” 

Mashirao and Ayumi both stopped their assault on Hitoshi in favor of staring at Izuku, who stared back innocently, tilting his head. “What?” 

“Is that even a real word?” Mashirao asked, with no small amount of horror in his voice. 

“Yep,” Izuku replied simply, popping the ‘p.’ “It’s an English word meaning ‘the estimation of something as valueless.’ I read it once at a library and used my quirk to save it for later.”

Hitoshi could only gape in abject despair as Ayumi shook her head. “What the hell even is English,” she grumbled under her breath as she took another sip of her drink. 

Izuku’s delighted laugh turned into a startled yelp as Itsuka finished unknotting his tie and yanked it off in one smooth motion. 

With a chuckle and a fond shake of her head, Itsuka looped his tie loosely around her neck and began to tie it properly. “I swear, Izu, you memorize the weirdest things.” 

“It’s not weird; it’s interesting!” 

Izuku’s defense for his not-at-all weird habit of memorizing random facts fell on deaf ears. 

Sighing in defeat, he glanced at an analog clock ticking away on the far wall. Ten minutes till eight o’clock. That meant they still had around thirty-five minutes until the start of class. 

They all had gotten up far earlier than they needed to, whether it be from the nerves of actually attending school again or residual unrest from last night’s conversation. Either way, they had already eaten and changed into their uniforms without seeing a single one of their new dormmates. 

Mashirao’s uniform had obviously been modified to accommodate his tail. Hitoshi’s was surprisingly neat while his hair was naturally less so. Ayumi wore black tights in place of the standard socks and had her light brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Itsuka of course had her own hair in a side ponytail and wore her blazer open.  

Izuku jolted out his reverie at the sound of incoming heavy footsteps. He turned to see Iida with a messenger bag slung across his shoulders. The tall teen started at the sight of his classmates but quickly recovered as he walked over. 

“Good morning!” The spectacled teen greeted briskly, arms waving robotically. “It’s good to see that you all are already prepared for the day! Punctuality is essential for a hero, after all.” 

Izuku suddenly found himself very glad that Hitoshi was still half-asleep and therefore unwilling to put any serious effort into antagonizing anyone. 

He pushed that revelation out of his mind. “Good morning to you, Iida-kun,” he replied politely. “But honestly, we just happened to get up early. Nerves, you know?” 

Iida nodded stiffly. “Today is an important day for our futures as heroes! It’s only natural that you would face some anxiety!” He gestured stiffly to the nearby kitchen. “Would you please excuse me for a moment? I must retrieve something from the kitchen.”  

Izuku nodded idly and watched as Iida disappeared into the kitchen. He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the tall teen’s behavior. Was he seriously that nervous for the first day of classes, or was he just always like this?

“Jesus Christ, he is very awake right now.” 

And it would appear that Hitoshi had finally decided to join them in the land of the living. 

Itsuka paused her tie-tying to give Hitoshi a look while Izuku, Ayumi and Mashirao did their best to stifle their laughter. 

Without breaking eye contact with Itsuka, Hitoshi apathetically raised his coffee mug to his lips and shot back its remaining contents. Itsuka scrunched up her nose in disgust while Aymui and Mashirao roared with laughter.

A confused Iida reemerged from the kitchen. In his hands, he carried a large thermos and a pair of protein bars. “Did I miss something?” he asked earnestly with a cocked head.

Itsuka shook her head as she finished up Izuku’s tie. “No, they’re just being idiots. Oh, and Izu?” She pulled the extra tie off of her neck and tossed it at Izuku, who caught it deftly. “Please either keep it tied or figure out how to do it yourself. I’d rather not have to do this every morning,” she finished dryly. 

Izuku rolled his eyes as he tightened the tie around his neck, flipping his collar down once it was settled in place. “Whatever you say, Suka,” he said, knowing full well it was more likely he would ditch the damn thing all together if it came down to it. 

Iida opened his mouth to say something, but seemingly thought better of it. Shaking his head in confusion, he turned towards the door. “Anyhow, I am going to be heading to the classroom now. I will see you all there.” 

With a brief nod, he moved away, pausing at the door to slip on his shoes, and headed outside. 

Hitoshi yawned as he stood from his chair, coffee mug in hand. “Man, does he know how to tell time, or is he just that much of a prep?”

Izuku held back a sigh. “He’s probably just nervous, Hito.” 

Hitoshi snorted as he moved towards the kitchen. “That was a hypothetical question, Izu. I really don’t care.” 

“Of course, you don’t,” Itsuka sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly and followed him. “Move, I need coffee.” 

“You know, I did offer to make you some earlier.” 

“I meant real coffee, not that sludge that you make.” 

“Oh Suka, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

Izuku merely sighed as Hitoshi proceeded to rile Itsuka up over his choice in coffee. He turned back to Mashirao and Ayumi, who both watched amusedly as the argument disappeared into the kitchen.

Five minutes later, Itsuka had won the ‘argument’ when she threatened to knock Hitoshi out and just drag him to class. Hitoshi, knowing when to pick his battles, wisely backed down. 

He knew how far he could mess with Itsuka before incurring serious consequences. However, he also knew that, for one reason or another, Itsuka took personal offense whenever coffee was involved. 

Shortly after Itsuka had gotten her fill of—proper—coffee, the group of siblings grabbed their bags and prepared to leave the dorm. Izuku was the slowest to get ready, and by then, his siblings were waiting by the front door for him. Between the coffee dilemma and preparing to leave the dorm, a number of their classmates had made an appearance, all in various states of readiness. Izuku saw Shoji and Kaibara, dressed in their uniforms and at a table eating breakfast, as he sauntered towards the door. Mina, Sero, and Awase had been preparing their own breakfast in the kitchen, still in their pajamas and drowsy-looking.

Izuku softly fooled with his tie as he reached the door. Itsuka lightly swatted his head (don’t mess up your tie! ), and with one last look, the siblings were off to their first day of class.

After a short walk and a brief explanation to Hitoshi that they couldn’t release a bunch of stray cats on campus to have campus cats, they arrived at their homeroom, Class 1-A. Sliding open the oversized door (likely designed to accommodate those with enlarging mutation quirks), they found Iida already in his seat, Seat 4. The Engine user nodded in greeting but remained silent as they all moved towards their seats. 

Unfortunately, they could not all sit next to each other. Mashirao and Itsuka were both in the second row, in seats 6 and 7 respectively. Hitoshi, Izuku, and Ayumi were in seats 16, 18, and 19 located in the farthest row. The classroom may be small, but there was still a nagging feeling in the back of Izuku’s head.

Pushing the thought of being separated and alone out of his head, Izuku sat down at his desk, placing his backpack at his feet. Glancing at the clock, he saw that he still had about twenty minutes till class started. Perfect. Nodding to himself, he glanced back at Ayumi. 

“Do you mind if I…” he trailed off, tapping a finger on his temple. She nodded. 

“Go for it, not like you have anything better to do,” she replied, gesturing around the classroom. 

Izuku glanced around and agreed. Hitoshi had his head on his desk and was either napping or just wanted an excuse to ignore everyone. Itsuka and Mashirao were engrossed in a quiet conversation. Iida was organizing his desk, occasionally glancing at Hitoshi disapprovingly. 

“Good point.” Without further delay, he shifted into a relaxed position and got started. 

The classroom drifted out of focus as he sunk into the folds of his quirk, the stored files appearing one by one before him. 

‘Overlay really is a beautiful quirk ,’ Izuku thought as he shifted through the information almost reverently. Each file took the form of a ball of light. The more information in the file, the larger and brighter the light. The result was a breathtaking array, not unlike stars in the sky. 

It was almost a pity that only he could see them. 

He quickly found the files he was searching for. Fifteen smaller lights orbiting at the edge of a larger cluster, his own personal files for everything UA related. These particular ones were the files he started last night: the files on his new classmates. 

One by one, he went through the files, adding his speculations on their quirks’ limits and how they could be improved. He frowned at the smallest ball, the file of the frog-like girl. 

He was still annoyed with himself that he had gotten distracted during her introduction. Pushing that annoyance aside, he jotted down his speculations, which mostly revolved around how far her mutations went. 

(It didn’t seem to be as extreme of a mutation as a quirk like Gang Orca’s but it’s entirely possible for her to retain some form of secondary abilities or instincts. Of course, it could be a case similar to Miruko’s Rabbit, whose mutations were relatively non-intrusive.) 

He barely spared Bakugo’s file a glance. After all, Izuku already intimately knew how his quirk worked. His old analysis would just need an update once he got a chance to see how Explosion and Bakugo’s control had grown over the years. 

He finished up, going back to adjust a few things as they came to him, before releasing his hold on his quirk to check the time. 

Only about fifteen minutes had passed since he started, which wasn’t a surprise since Overlay did speed up his thought process.

Sighing quietly, he scanned the room, curious to see how his siblings would interact with their classmates. 

Hitoshi, naturally, still had his head laying on his desk, dead to the world.

Itsuka had started a conversation with Shiozaki and Sero while Mashirao listened idly from his seat. She has always had an easier time dealing with strangers. 

Behind him, Ayumi was talking to Tokoyami. Or rather, she was talking to Dark Shadow. Izuku couldn’t help but stare at the sight of the quirk gesturing wildly as it told a story to his amused sister. 

His gaze flickered over to Tokoyami, noting that the raven-headed teen seemed to be trying to ignore the conversation. 

Interesting. Either he was allowing the conversation to happen or he couldn’t stop Dark Shadow having it. If it was the latter case, that implied that Dark Shadow had a mind of its own. But how far did that mind go? After all, truly sapient quirks were astronomically rare. The last time he had seen a quirk like this had been… 

Izuku’s blood ran cold as he remembered that quirk’s user. He forcefully dismissed that train thought before it could go any further. For all the similarities Tokoyami had with that man, it was clear that Dark Shadow worked fundamentally differently than his quirk. It would be unfair to judge Tokoyami for something so incidental. 

His gaze slid from the quirk and ended up resting on Todoroki instead. The two-tone teen was staring impassively at the front of the room, ignoring the rest of the students entirely. 

A spark of interest and frustration shot through Izuku at the sight. Despite the agreement he and his siblings reached last night, he couldn’t help but wonder what Todoroki’s problem was. 

Suddenly, mismatched grey and blue met green as Todoroki turned to meet Izuku’s eyes, startling Izuku from his musings. 

The two stared at each other for a long moment. Izuku couldn’t help but feel incredibly awkward at the contact even as he kept his features carefully composed. 

Even so, Izuku had no intention of breaking first.

Eventually, Todoroki wordlessly looked away, resting his chin on a hand. Izuku released the breath he had unconsciously been holding. Pushing the subject of Todoroki aside, he turned to face the front of the room. 

Bakugo had shown up at some point, sitting at the desk in front of Izuku with his feet propped up. He seemed to notice Izuku’s attention on him, responding a passive glance backwards and a grunt of acknowledgement. 

‘I think that was the friendliest greeting he’s ever given me,’ Izuku quipped to himself. 

The door to the classroom suddenly slammed open, drawing the attention of students within and revealing a panting Awase and Mina. 

“Oh, thank fuck,” Awase managed between breaths, collapsing into his seat right by the door. “I thought we’re gonna be late for sure.” 

“Seriously, how big is this place,” Mina complained as she flopped into the chair behind Awase’s. “We made so many wrong turns.” 

“Ashido-san! Awase-san!” Iida stood from his desk, arms chopping at the two panting students. “Such behavior is unbecoming of UA students! You should always plan to arrive at least ten minutes early to wherever you are going!”

“We know, we know, okay” Awase groaned as he ran a hand down his face. “We didn’t mean to get lost, but we got turned around anyways. Damn.”

Iida frowned and pushed up his glasses, focusing on Awase. “Additionally, such foul language is inappropriate for heroes-in-training. A hero must strive to be a good example for others.” 

“Oh, come on man, what’s your deal?! Classes haven’t even started yet!” 

“That is no excuse to sully the legacy of the heroes who came before us!” 

As the arguing continued, Izuku spotted a flicker of movement behind the pair. He hid a smirk behind his hand. Time for the show to begin. 

“Quiet down. If you want to spend all day arguing, apply for the business course.” 

Aizawa strode in, a jelly pouch hanging from his mouth and a stack of papers tucked under one arm. He casted a sideways glare at Iida and Awase, the former of whom immediately retreated back to his seat. The rest of conversations in the room trailed off as all eyes shifted to focus on the tired Pro Hero. 

“It took you all five seconds to quiet down. Not terrible, but still inefficient. Time is a resource you can no longer afford to waste.” Aziawa punctuated the statement by draining the jelly pouch and tossing it into a nearby trash can. 

Dropping the papers onto the desk, he turned to face the class. “I’m your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota. Nice to meet you,” he greeted deadpan. 

Izuku heard the shocked and confused muttering that came from most of 1-A as they digested that statement and suppressed a chuckle. Aizawa certainly had a way of handling people, and his students were no exception.

Aizawa ignored the confusion he caused, as he reached beneath the desk at the front of the room, pulling out a basket full of gym uniforms. “For now, grab the uniform with your student number on it.” He placed the basket on the desk. “Once you've changed, meet me on the P.E. grounds outside. Don’t keep me waiting.” 

Without another word, Aizawa turned and walked out of the room. The room was left in a stunned silence as the students within attempted to process what just happened. 

Hitoshi, finally picking his head off of his desk, stood up amongst the silence, snatched up his uniform, and followed their new teacher out of the room. The rest of his siblings were close behind, with Izuku and Ayumi grabbing Itsuka’s and Mashirao’s uniforms for them. 

As the classroom door slid close behind them, Izuku could hear the exact moment the silence broke and the rest of class scrambled to follow them. Laughing openly now, he ran to catch up with Hitoshi, the others following close behind him. 

Hitoshi didn’t react as his siblings fell into step with him. “You know, if they keep reacting to Aizawa like that, I might actually enjoy this year,” he said, a smirk obvious in his voice.

Izuku rolled his eyes. “They’ll get used to him eventually. We did.” 

“You forget that he can’t expel us at the drop of a hat,” Ayumi replied.  

Mashirao nodded in agreement. “And he was trying to earn our trust. I’m not so sure he’ll go so far for them.”

Itsuka huffed lightly. “Either way, we should hurry up. I don’t think he’ll be amused if we take too long. Or if the others beat us there.” 

“What? You worry he’s gonna ground us,” Hitoshi teased. 

“I wouldn’t put it past him to try.”

Izuku laughed as he sped up, breaking into a light run. Whatever Aizawa had planned for them, he got the feeling that it would be extremely entertaining. 

“A Quirk apprehension test?!” 

Uraraka raised a hand nervously. “What about the entrance ceremony? Or orientation?” 

“A waste of time,” Aizawa replied flatly, keeping his back to the class. “If you’re serious about being a hero, you don’t have time for such formalities.” 

Izuku nodded. He could see the logic behind it, especially considering Nedzu’s personality. The principal had a reputation for drawing out his speeches with anecdotes and metaphors, sprinkling the relevant information throughout. Just frequently enough to keep people's attention and just scarcely enough to make them suffer for it. 

Nedzu is efficient like that. It was one of the reasons Izuku respected the strange mammal so much. 

“U.A.’s main selling point is its unconventional ‘free-style’ education system,” Aizawa continued. “That system naturally extends to the teachers.” The foreboding undertone in his voice caused most of class to shift nervously as their teacher turned to face them. 

He gestured to the field around them. “Physical fitness tests where you are not allowed to use quirks determine the national averages. However, it’s irrationally outdated.” 

He scanned the group of students, settling on one. “Bakugo, what was your record for the softball throw?” 

“68 meters.” 

Aizawa nodded, tossing him a softball with built-in sensors. “Step into that circle.” He nodded in its direction. “And try again using your quirk. Anything goes as long as you don’t leave the circle.”

Bakugo slowly walked into the circle, rolling the ball in his hands. Izuku watched in anticipation as he settled into place, stretching his arms out, and wound back for the throw. 

With a wordless snarl, he lurched forward, putting his whole body into the throw as he let loose a massive explosion. The ball shot through the air like a cannonball and it quickly disappeared from view. 

Aizawa glanced down at his handheld display. “You’ll never grow as a hero-” He flipped the screen around so that the assembled students could see it. “-if you don’t know your true limits.” 

744.8 meters. 

As the class went wild at the score, Izuku was busy digesting his observations. 

The difference from what he could remember was clear. Not only had the quirk grown stronger with time and training, Bakugo’s technique had improved by leaps and bounds. Before the explosion, he used all the muscles in his body to accelerate the ball as fast as possible, adding to the net velocity of the throw. 

Additionally, his ability to shape his explosions had improved as well. That explosion had been more focused, wasting less of the explosive force and putting more energy directly into the ball. 

Izuku smiled wistfully. After everything, at least Bakugo hadn’t slacked off in his training.

“This is going to be fun!” 

Izuku froze, eyes widening minutely at Mina’s words. ‘Oh no. ’  

“Fun, you say?” 

‘Mina, you absolute fool.’

“Then let’s increase the difficulty. Whoever comes last overall will be judged to have no potential and expelled.” 

Izuku sighed while the rest of the class erupted in protests. The threat was very real. He had seen the remnants of Aizawa’s former homeroom class during an ‘unauthorized field trip’ last year. 

Not only were half the students already expelled, the remainder always tensed up and settled down whenever one of them spotted Aizawa. Apparently, the entirety of the class had been expelled, with those who remained being reinstated shortly into the year and handed off to another homeroom teacher. 

He heard Hitoshi mumble, “I wonder what happens if one of us gets last,” only to be swiftly silenced by Itsuka. 

“Probably nothing,” Izuku responded quietly. “He would just say he was lying to get the best out of us. But he’ll definitely know we did it on purpose.” 

“Maybe then he’ll actually ground us,” Ayumi mused. 

Aizawa silenced the protesting class. “As I said before, us teachers have the freedom to handle classes however we deem fit. The life of a hero is always an uphill battle. If you break at the first sign of hardship, you’re better off somewhere else.” 

Aizawa smiled unsettlingly as he pushed back his hair. “So consider this your welcome to the hero course.” His gaze slid over to Izuku and his siblings. “Make sure to do your best.”

(Hitoshi, despite later denying it, definitely pouted at those pointed words.)

Aizawa turned away. “First up, 50-meter dash, two at a time by seat order. Awase and Ashido. You two are up first. Go beyond.” 

And with that, the Quirk apprehension test began. 

Chapter Text

After Awase and Mina, Iida and the frog girl, who Izuku finally learned was Asui Tsuyu, were the next pair up for the 50 meter dash. 

Mina’s barefooted acid skating had been an impressive show of balance and Iida’s time of 3.04 seconds meant he had an average speed of 57.3 kilometers per hour! 

And that wasn’t even his top speed if Izuku overheard him correctly! 

Mashirao was the first of their siblings to go, joining Uraraka at the starting line. As the robot counted down, his tail began to glow, a steady, pulsing red light. He was off with the starting gun, smacking his tail against the ground. He shot forwards in a shallow arc, gaining an easy lead over Uraraka and her lightened clothes. 

That first strike carried him the majority of the way to the finish. As he came back down, he tucked into a roll, releasing a second, smaller burst as he righted himself. It sent him soaring across the finish, with a final time of 4.08 seconds. 

Izuku cheered for his brother as he finished. Even under the artificial limitations of Tail Pulse , Mashirao had gotten an excellent score. 

“Good job, Shira,” Izuku congratulated as Mashirao rejoined them. 

“Eh, I could’ve done better. I went too high on my first jump, slowed me down.” Mashirao rubbed the back sheepishly. 

Izuku shook his head, unwilling to let him downplay himself. “You didn’t have anything to push off of to get proper horizontal force. You did do good considering the limitations.”

Mashirao seemed to realize it was pointless to argue, so he just nodded at Izuku and gave him a small smile. 

After Mashirao, it was Itsuka’s turn, running alongside Kirishima. Neither of her quirks were much help in a run, but she still managed a respectable time of 6.13 seconds.

The next heats passed by without any of his siblings going, giving Izuku ample time to observe his classmates’ quirk in action. 

Kaibara used his quirk Gyrate to earn one to the top scores by spinning his lower body; though Izuku noted how he seemed to struggle to keep going in a straight line.

‘So he naturally drifts in the direction of the spin. Could he avoid drifting if he rotated each leg individually in opposing directions? Either way, restraining the legs or trapping him in a narrow area would limit his mobility.’

Shoji surprised everyone with impressive speed despite his bulk. Shiozaki and Sero used similar strategies, using their quirks to haul themselves forward. They were limited by the lack of anything sturdy to grab onto and Shiozaki in particular had struggled to use her quirk while running. 

After Sero and Tokoyami, it was Hitoshi, who definitely looked annoyed to be paired up with Todoroki. Unlike the other students before them, neither settled into the starting blocks, both choosing to remain standing instead. Hitoshi had his hands in his pockets, yawning openly as he waited for the race to begin. 

As the starting gun went off, Todoroki stepped forward as a wave of ice began to form beneath his right foot, propelling himself forward. 

It was an impressive display of control and coordination. It was almost sad, Izuku thought, that Hitoshi’s own completely outclassed it. 

The moment the gun went off, Hitoshi didn’t even bother moving forward before activating Smoke Surge. His body immediately shifted into a thick, swirling mass of smoke and embers that rocketed forwards, leaving Todoroki in the dust and clearing the distance near instantaneously. 

Just as he passed the finishing line, he shifted back, feet digging into the ground for purchase. He leant backwards, fighting to remain upright, until he skidded to a stop.

“1.98 seconds,” the robot’s monotone voice announced. 

The assembled students screamed at the new fastest score, ignoring Todoroki’s own respectable score of just under 5 seconds. 

“Dude, 1.9!? That’s over 25 meters a second! It’s totally insane!” Awase exclaimed wide-eyed. 

Tokage nodded, impressed. “That’s some serious speed for someone who looks like he’s in serious need for a nap.”

Hitoshi appeared justifiably smug as he returned to his siblings’ side. Though, it was most likely because of how he just showed Todoroki up rather than from the reactions of the class. 

Izuku shot him a thumbs up as he headed towards the starting line, turning to watch as Todoroki sullenly heated up his left side just enough to remove the ice from his lane.

Bakugo joined him at the starting line, glaring at the retreating back of Todoroki. He gave Izuku a sidelong glare, saying nothing as he settled into the blocks.

Likewise, Izuku said nothing, focusing on the test ahead and activating Overlay.  

As his perception of time slowed to a crawl, he weighed his options. 

In a traditional 100-meter sprint, most of the run was spent either accelerating or decelerating. In truth, it was more of a test of how slowly someone decelerated rather than anything else. 

Of course, at 50 meters, that fact was less prominent, since pacing mattered less over the shorter term. The start would be the biggest influence on his time, with technique being a close second. 

Izuku briefly toyed with the idea of underperforming, letting the other students overlook (and therefore underestimate) him. But he quickly dismissed the idea. 

He had no qualms with tricking people, but that particular trick was simply boring and uncreative. Not to mention, it would only work once. Might as well do his best and get a better understanding of where he stands amongst his classmates.

Deactivating Overlay , he tensed in the starting blocks, muscles coiled like springs. Taking deep, even breathes, he let his mind empty and his gaze settle dead ahead, blocking out all else. 

He only acknowledged the starting gun by pushing hard out of the blocks. He surged away from the starting line, standing tall as he drove his legs down against the track. 

Every muscle in his body worked in sync. Arms and legs pumped and cycled in strong, smooth motions, pushing and pulling and hurling him towards his objective.

Izuku was barely aware as he passed the finish, instead focusing on carefully winding down from his dead sprint. 

Details of the world around him returned to him, including his siblings cheering for him on the sidelines and Aizawa’s vaguely proud expression (which quickly disappeared when Izuku smiled sunnily at him). 

Bakugo grunted as he passed Izuku. “Not bad, Nerd,” he smirked, rubbing his wrists. “Not as good as me, but not bad.”

Izuku sighed, shaking his head. Of course, Bakugo would manage to make a compliment sound egotistical. 

‘Still ,’ he thought as he turned away. ‘Getting a genuine compliment from Bakugo used to be impossible. ’ 

A small smile tugged at his lips as he trotted over to his siblings. 

Unbeknownst to Izuku, Bakugo continued to stare at his retreating back, mulling over his former friend’s time. ‘5.42 seconds. That’s faster than mine from last year. ’ Bakugo’s smirk widened, finally returning to his spot on the edge of the students. ‘I wonder what else you can do, Nerd. ’

The final pair of runners were Ayumi and Tokage. Ayumi adopted a strategy similar to Mina’s. Removing her shoes, she coated the soles of her feet with a layer of static, reducing friction to half skate-half run down the track for a final time of 4.89 seconds. 

Tokage (who removed her uniform jacket to reveal a skin-tight shirt the same shade of green as her hair) raced beside her, body split into over twenty pieces. 

Izuku noted that the larger pieces of her body appeared to lag behind the smaller ones. 

‘Could the speed of her parts be inversely proportionally to their size? Or does it only affect their acceleration and the top speed is the same regardless? Whichever it is, the best way to deal with her would be to directly destroy or entrap the split parts, since either way would limit her options and waste her energy. ’

After the first, the other events passed by quickly. Second was the grip strength, where Itsuka went head to head with Shoji for the top score. Kirishima and Rin both augmented their scores by using their quirks to reinforce their grips. And someone who did surprisingly well was Awase, who managed to weld the handle of the machine into place. 

The third test was the standing long jump. A few people managed to clear the pit entirely, including Bakugo, Hitoshi, and Mashirao. A couple of others got close to the end but most scored middling distances. 

Fourth was the repeated side steps. Bakugo used weaker, tightly controlled explosions to speed himself up. Ayumi did something similar with what Izuku could tell were polarized magnetic forces. 

Fifth was the softball throw. Uraraka secured first for the event with an insurmountable score of infinity, leaving everyone else to fight over second place. Mashirao promptly secured that spot with a well-timed burst from his tail, which he used like a baseball bat, and a distance of over 800 meters. Itsuka did well, flicking the ball down range with an enlarged hand. Hitoshi stood in the circle for a few seconds, letting smoke condense in his hand before he released it in a blast similar to Bakugo. 

Izuku himself did decently enough, using Overlay ’s trajectory calculations to maximize the distance. He walked away from the circle satisfied. While it was true that he wasn’t doing extraordinary, he still managed to place decently above those whose Quirks weren’t compatible within each event. 

So long as he kept that up, he would be far from last place. 

After Ayumi magnetized the ball and launched it across the sky and Tokage simply held the ball in her floating hand and carried it as far she could, the class moved on to the sixth and seventh tests: sit-ups and the seated toe-touch. 

No one particularly stood out in either of the events, except for Mina when she showed off her frankly inhuman flexibility during the toe-touch. 

The final event was a long-distance run, which everyone ran at once. Some people made the mistake of storming ahead of the pack with their quirks, undoubtedly hoping to beat everyone else out for a top spot. 

Unfortunately for them, the only of them to actually succeed was Iida, who most likely already has had plenty of practice with pacing himself. The rest found themselves eventually overtaken by their less rash classmates. 

With all the events finished, the students gathered by a waiting Aizawa, some still breathing heavily from their earlier ill-conceived efforts. 

“Okay, I’ll quickly go over the results,” Aizawa began, fiddling with a small device and ignoring the nervous looks of several students. “The total represents the combined marks you earn from each test.” 

He held the device up. “There’s no point in going over the results verbally, so I’ll just show you all at once.” And with that, he pressed a button on the device, bringing up a holographic display with the placements listed. 

1. Ojiro Mashirao
2. Bakugo Katsuki
3. Todoroki Shoto
4. Iida Tenya
5. Suzuki Ayumi
6. Kendo Itsuka
7. Shiozaki Ibara
8. Shinso Hitoshi
9. Tokage Setsuna
10. Tokoyami Fumikage
11. Shoji Mezo
12. Midoriya Izuku
13. Kirishima Eijiro
14. Ashido Mina
15. Asui Tsuyu
16. Kaibara Sen
17. Uraraka Ochako
18. Awase Yotestsu
19. Sero Hanta
20. Rin Hiryu 

A moment of silence passed before Awase let a victorious cry, collapsing to the ground in relief at avoiding last place. Opposing, Rin stared down silently at his feet, head bowed in a mixture of disappointment and shame. 

Mashirao was also silent, though his was caused by the shock at getting first. Ayumi grinned broadly at both her own placement and Mashirao’s, patting him on the back. “Look at us, Shira! Top five! And you got first!” She bounced excitedly on her toes, eyes sparking with pride.

Ayumi’s celebration snapped Mashirao out of his shock. “Yeah… we really did good, didn’t we?” A smile spread across his face and he stood up straighter as pride settled in. 

“Oh right,” Mashirao said bashfully, turning Izuku and the others. “You all did really good too! It’s not like-” 

“Shira, Shira,” Itsuka held up her hands calmingly, before he could be overly humble like always. “You did amazing. Take some pride in it.” 

Mashirao rubbed his neck embarrassedly, though his smile returned in force. He shared a look with Ayumi, who beamed back, still bouncing excitedly on her toes.

Izuku smiled, knowing exactly what they were thinking and sharing. Before, both of them had been teased for their ‘plain’ Quirks. It wasn’t like Hitoshi or himself, who had been bullied for being ‘freaks,’ or like Itsuka, who never had anyone decry her dreams. 

To them, doing so well on the test was proof they belonged here, even if they were no longer the same kids who were constantly teased and ‘playfully’ put down for something they couldn’t control. 

Afterall, Izuku felt the same way. Even if he only got twelfth place, he still got placed above eight other of the top hero students in the country. 

Even though he was no longer quirkless, he couldn’t help the happiness he felt at having achieved something no one ever truly believed he could’ve before . 

While Izuku got lost in his head, quiet conversations sprung up between the class, tension slowly leaving them as the looming threat of expulsion faded. 

Sero went over to where Awase sat, sharing their relief at avoiding expulsion together. Shiozaki did her best to console a disheartened Rin. 

“By the way,” Aizawa spoke out above the chatting students. “I was lying about the expulsion.” 

All conversations stopped as the students stared at their teacher in disbelief.

Aizawa’s face broke into what Hitoshi dubbed the ‘baby-eating grin.’ “It was a logical ruse to draw out the upper limits of your abilities.” 

“WHAT!” The majority of the class screamed as one, excluding Bakugo, Todoroki, and of course Izuku and his siblings. 

“You mean I didn’t have to be totally stressed out over this fucking test!” Awase exclaimed as he leapt to his feet, gripping his headband with both hands manically. 

Iida and Shiozaki simultaneously recovered from their surprise in order to scold Awase for his choice of language. Meanwhile, the other students were starting to relax, relieved that expulsion had never been truly on the table. 

(Of course, it had been. Izuku figured that Rin impressed Aizawa enough to keep him in class for the time being.) 

“With that, we’re done here. But first, a few announcements.” Aizawa clicked off the holo-projector and slid it into his front pocket. “Make sure to pick up the syllabus when you return to the classroom and go over it.” 

“Additionally,” Aizawa continued. “This is the first year that UA has a mandatory dorm system for the hero students, and a voluntary one for other courses. As such, several gyms and other resources are freely available for you to use and there are more available upon request. You’re free to leave the campus whenever classes are not in session but if you intend to leave overnight, please inform a teacher. Basic ingredients are provided in the dorm and are restocked weekly. Anything else you need to buy yourself, though funds will be provided. It will be up to you all to decide how chores and shopping works.”

Aizawa turned and began to walk away. “All this information and more is provided on a secondary document in the classroom. Please be rational about all of this. I understand this is a big change from what you’re used to, but remaining calm and collected is part of being a hero. If you have any questions, myself or any member of the staff would be able to answer them.”

He paused and waved a hand at them. “You’re dismissed. Take today to familiarize yourself with campus and prepare yourself.” He looked over his shoulder, leveling them all with a look that promised future suffering . “Classes begin in earnest tomorrow, so don’t start relaxing yet.” 

He started walking away again. “Your trials have only begun.” And with that terribly ominous statement, Aizawa was gone. 

Silence reigned, each student digesting the announcements and wondering what was to come. 

“Welp,” Hitoshi began, breaking the silence flippantly. “That happened. Anyways, I’m hungry. Who wants to hunt down the cafeteria with me?” 

Izuku straightened at the idea, eyes sparkling. “Sure! I wonder what the menu’s like? It’s run by Lunch Rush and he’s capable of making food for thousands extremely quickly, so would it just be limited by his budget or is there some unknown variable that affects his-” His rambling theorization was cut off by Mashirao’s tail, who was laughing as the five of them all headed towards the changing rooms.

“Easy there, Izu,” Mashirao managed between his laughter. “I’m sure you’ll have it all figured out by the time we get our food.” 

“There’s no point, Shira. Look at him. He’s already entranced by the logistics of a kitchen,” Itsuka teased gently, bumping shoulders with Ayumi, who just rolled her eyes amusedly. 

“A Pro Hero’s kitchen,” Izuku corrected, eyes glowing. “Though, I do wonder how that would be different than a regular kitchen.” 

As they begin to banter and bicker, the sibling’s first official day as U.A. students came to a close. 

From the shadows of the building, Aizawa Shota watched U.A.’s five wards talk and laugh as they headed inside. He was glad to see that they hadn’t been adversely affected by the sudden influx of strangers into what they had come to consider a safe environment.

They obviously haven’t opened themselves up even slightly to their new classmates, but they didn’t seem to have closed themselves off from them either. 

If Shota had it his way, the incoming first years would’ve come in gradually over the course of a couple days. His The kids would’ve had a chance to get used to new people over time rather than risk being overwhelmed.

But the kids themselves had made the call for move-in to happen all at once and at the last minute. It was illogical, but Shota knew that trauma rarely ever wasn’t. So if that was what they wished for, then that’s what happened. As simple as that. 

Not like he was particularly surprised, though. It had taken them all months before they willingly met a new person here at UA. Before that, they only ever interacted with him, Recovery Girl, and the rest of the group that had found them. 

And the only reason Recovery Girl was included in that list was because Nedzu was insistent that they all get checked over by some form of medical professional, which they obviously had an aversion to at that point.  

Shota sighed, burying his face tiredly into his capture weapon as he began to walk away. He wished that the kids would open up to someone, preferably Hound Dog or one of his staff. Everyone knew that they had trauma and issues that needed some sort of treatment, but their massive distrust of adults destroyed any hope of that for the moment. 

So far, the closest anyone has gotten has been Shota or one of the others, which was mostly due to sheer chance. 

He only hoped that when one of them eventually broke, they all wouldn't shatter together.

“Haha! Aizawa-kun, you lair!”

Shota groaned internally as he turned to impassively glare at the Number 1 hero, clad in a hideous yellow suit. 

Seriously, even Hizashi had better taste than the so-called Symbol of Peace, and his taste was terrible. 

“All Might,” Shota acknowledged in as dead of a voice as possible. “So you were watching. Don’t you have paperwork to handle?” 

Somehow, All Might’s grin managed to grow even larger. “That can wait! After all, I’m going to teach these zygotes tomorrow! It’s like you said, ‘know your limits.’ I need to know theirs if I’m going to teach them, don’t I?”

Shota’s eyes narrowed. What All Might said was logical, but everything Shota knew about the man, from his demeanor to how he handled his weakening body, was the opposite. 

Which meant All Might was up to something, which may be related to whatever the real reason why he suddenly wanted to work as a teacher was. 

After subtly checking his surroundings (and letting All Might stew awkwardly in silence), he turned back to the larger hero and abruptly activated Erasure , watching as the Number 1 hero suddenly shrank into his emaciated form in a puff of steam. 

The now smaller All Might coughed up blood, eyes darting around erratically in blind panic. “Aizawa-kun! What are you doing! Someone could’ve seen!” 

Shota scoffed at that, keeping Erasure active as he glared at the shrunken hero. “I’m not an idiot, All Might. I know no one else is around, and I know that you have ulterior motives for teaching here.” 

All Might coughed up even more blood, which Shota took as an admission of guilt. Shota sighed, already feeling a headache forming. “Listen, whatever you’re really here for, I don’t particularly care as long as Nedzu knows and approves of it.” 

(Shota trusted Nedzu. He was completely insane at times, but he would never put any one of his students in danger, let alone the wards.) 

“But what I do care about is you smashing your way into an already delicate situation. So whatever it is you’re up to, do not involve my kids.” 

All Might sputtered. “Your ki- you mean the young wards, correct?” 

“Right,” Shota responded, mind skipping over the slip up. “You know as well as any other teacher here about what they’ve been through, so don’t you dare do anything that would hurt them or else. ” 

All Might knew the bare basics of the situation: that the wards were victims of quirk experimentation and were at U.A. for their protection. But like most, he didn’t know the whole story.

Hell, Shota didn’t know the whole story either, even if he knew more than most. He knew that they all had engineered quirks, what those quirks were, and some details of what they had endured over the years and that was it. 

(Shota suspected that Nedzu knew more about them than he was letting on, but Nedzu always knew more than everyone else.) 

All Might nodded hastily at Shota’s blatant threat, holding his hands up in surrender. “Of course! I would never do anything to intentionally hurt them!” 

Shota exhaled harshly out of his nose, finally blinking and deactivating Erasure . “It’s not ‘intentionally’ I’m worried about.”

Without another word, he turned on his heel and strode away from the emaciated form of the Number 1 Hero, thoroughly tired and ready for a nap. 

“Hey, weren’t we going to talk to Aizawa about Bakugo and Todoroki?”

“....” 

“....”

“....Well, shit.”

Chapter Text

First off, I want to say that this fic is NOT abandoned (technically… I think). 

Second of all, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read this. This is my first real attempt at writing something long term and its been... kind of a mess, to be fair. I really had no clue what in the hell I was doing so having some much positive feedback was amazing.

However, as I just said, I had no idea what I was doing when I started this. Sure, I had plans and a general idea of where I wanted the story to go but there were so many smaller details that tripped me up. Not to mention I kept tweaking said small details, meaning I would have to go back and retcon earlier chapters. 

Needless to say, that got old fast. 

And that isn't to mention the absolute mess of pacing that were the first four or so chapters (especially chapter 2).  

So, I've made the decision that I'm going to wipe the slate clean and start again. Completely reworking the story and building up decent backlog so that anything that needs changing has time to be changed BEFORE being published.

I'll post an announcement here when that version goes live. 

In the meantime, I will not be deleting this version of the fic. It will remain up for anyone who wishes to read, even after I put up the new version. 

Also feel free to drop a comment on this note about your thoughts on the story. Anything goes: plot, pacing, characterization. Did you like it? hate it? Did something feel weird or off? Were any details confusing? Let me know and I'll do my best to address them in the rewrite. (It'll also let me know what I don't necessarily have to focus on if something works well). 

Once again, thank you all very much for reading. Stay safe out there y'all. 

-GrayPersona