Chapter Text
It was the end of the day and Shouta was ready to sleep. Well, he wished he could, but he had to grade papers and patrol that night, so sleep would have to wait. Oh well, it wasn't like he wasn't used to it.
He packed up all his things, which honestly wasn't much, when he spotted a notebook on a desk. Specifically Midoriya's desk. He walked over and saw it was one of his analysis notebooks. It was number 14. He must have forgotten to pack it. Shouta grabbed it and made his way towards the dorms to return it.
On his way, he met up with Hizashi, who was his usual energetic self.
"Shou! Whatcha got there?"
"Just one of Midoriya's analysis notebooks," he answered stoically.
Hizashi's eyes brightened up. "Really? Is the analysis good?"
Shouta shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't look inside."
"You didn't? C'mon, he's pretty shy when it comes to those notebooks," he said. "Aren't you curious to find out what's inside?"
"Analysis," he answered with an unimpressed look.
Hizashi sighed and grabbed the notebook from his hands. He flipped to a random page. "Look, here's a page on Kirishima! Wow, it even has a hand drawn picture." He flipped the page and kept reading.
Shouta rolled his eyes and held his hand out. "Give it back. That's his private stuff."
But he didn't give it back. Hizazhi kept reading and the smile slowly slipped off his face. Shouta narrowed his eyes. "Hizashi?"
"This is..." For once, he was at a loss for words. He handed the notebook back to Shouta. "You need to read this."
It was rare for Hizashi to be so serious. Shouta grabbed the book and started reading. Most of it was what he expected. How his quirk worked and all the specifics of durability, time, etc. Granted, it was far more detailed than Shouta thought it would be, but it wasn't anything bad. Shouta was about to scold Hizashi for scaring him when his eyes landed on the weakness section.
Now, he expected there to be a weakness section in Midoriya's notebooks. Acknowledging weakness allowed you to compensate for them and get stronger. It would be dumb not to consider them and Midoriya was far from dumb.
But this was extensive. It listed the obvious weaknesses, like if a villain had more endurance or if they were out of range, but it also listed weaknesses he was sure even Kirishima didn't consider. It even went as far as examining his personality and how to distract him or make him overly emotional.
He knew Midoriya loved to analyze quirks, but this was so much more than that. It scared Shouta how detailed this was. If this got into the wrong hands, it would be detrimental.
All of a sudden, the notebook seemed to weigh more than before.
"See?" Hizashi said. "That's... frightening."
Shouta simply nodded in agreement and flipped to another page. It was on Iida with the same depth as the last analysis. Shouta flipped through more and found out this notebook had all of Class 1-A in it, all the teachers, and even some students from Class 1-B and general studies.
"We need to tell him to code this or something," Shouta said after awhile. "This is dangerous."
Hizashi nodded and they started walking towards Heights Alliance with tension in their shoulders.
Shouta was glad they had found the notebook. As much as he didn't like the idea of going through one of his student's private things, letting this continue would have been bad. His class already had dealt with so much, not to mention they still didn't know who the traitor was and if he got his hands on this-
Shouta stopped short, causing Hizashi to give him a confused look. Shouta wanted to dismiss the idea entirely. It was so unlike Midoriya, but then again, it was unlike anyone in Class 1-A. But they hadn't had any leads so far and this could have been one.
"Shou? What's going on?" Hizashi asked.
Shouta glanced at his surroundings before pulling Hizashi aside. "You know how we talked about a traitor in U.A.?"
He nodded. "Yeah?"
"What if..." Shouta hesitated. What if he was jumping to conclusions? What if he was desperate to see anything leading to the traitor that he was grasping at straws? Midoriya had sacrificed so much for his classmates, how could he betray them? But then again, none of the students would ever betray them, in Shouta's mind.
Hizashi gave him an encouraging look. "Go on."
Shouta took a deep breath. "This is too much information for any student to want to know. What if Midoriya was..." He didn't finish his sentence, but he didn't need to.
Hizashi's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."
"I'm not saying he is for sure," Shouta replied quickly. "It's just... this notebook is far too detailed."
"You know he likes analyzing quirks," Hizashi argued.
He shook his head. "You saw what I saw. The weaknesses... there was so much there. It even went into personality. That's way more than quirks, Hizashi."
He sighed and thought for a moment. "But Midoriya? He's the nicest student. He would never!"
"Can you think of anyone in U.A. who would betray us?" Shouta challenged.
Hizashi thought for awhile, but eventually shook his head.
"Exactly. A spy isn't supposed to stick out."
"We have no way of knowing," Hizashi argued.
"I know," Shouta groaned. "I'm not saying we should do anything definite yet, but we've got to at least keep an eye on him."
Hizashi obviously looked against the idea, but he wanted to know who the traitor was too. If this was a clue, he didn't want to pass this up and regret it later.
"Alright, but we're not doing anything until there's concrete evidence."
"Obviously," Shouta replied.
Hizashi seemed to deflate and started walking off. Shouta grabbed his arm to add one last thing.
"I don't want this to be true any more than you do, but we need to look into this."
He nodded. "I know how much you care for your class, Shou. Just... be careful."
Shouta nodded and let go of his arm. Then he turned around and went to Nezu's office. He wasn't going to tell any of the teachers, just in case this was misplaced suspicion and it was actually one of the teachers. But that was another rabbit hole and he already had a headache from thinking about Midoriya.
He knocked on the principal's door and Nezu's squeaky voice came through.
"Come in."
Shouta walked inside and Nezu already had two cups of tea in front of him. How he knew, Shouta would never know. Nezu just knew things thanks to his quirk.
"This is about Midoriya," Shouta answered right after sitting down. No point in beating around the bush. "There's a possibility he might be the traitor."
Nezu nodded calmly. "And why do you think this?"
Shouta placed the notebook onto Nezu's desk. The principal opened it and read through it while Shouta continued explaining.
"It has a ridiculous amount of detail. I understand Midoriya has a hobby of analyzing quirks, but this is more than that. Why would he need to know all that?"
Nezu remained calm as he set down the notebook, but Shouta could see the gears turning in his head. "This is slightly troubling, but it's not evidence he is the traitor."
Shouta nodded. "I know. I just wanted permission to do further surveillance on him. If this turns out to be nothing, no harm done. But if he is..."
"Understandable." Nezu clasped his hands together. "Very well. You have my permission to do surveillance, but only that. Unless concrete evidence is found, take no further action."
"Got it."
~~~
Name: Midoriya Izuku
Age: 15
Relations: Midoriya Inko (mother), Midoriya Hisashi (father)
Quirk: strength enhancement (edited September 6, 2XXX. Previously diagnosed quirkless)
Shouta rubbed the bridge of his nose as he went through Midoriya's file. He was doing research on his background to see if there were any more clues. It was stunningly normal except for his quirk, which had come in the day of the entrance exams.
It was too convenient and too strange. No quirk had ever manifested past the age of seven, yet suddenly there was a student who got a quirk at fifteen. He even had the extra toe joint, but he still managed to get a quirk.
Shouta knew about All For One. After the events of Kamino Ward, Shouta had done his research. Being an underground hero had its perks, after all. Whispers and rumors on the streets went a long way. He had come across several villains who had been in contact with the League of Villains. They didn't know much, but there had been two cases when villains had a completely different quirks than what was registered in their files. They said "Sensei" had given it to them. After Kamino Ward, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. All For One could give quirks to people.
Shouta also knew how horrible quirkless people had it in society. They were looked down upon, like they were the scum of the earth. Midoriya would have been bullied his whole life.
The thought didn't settle well with Shouta, but he was focused on something else. Midoriya would have been in bad shape by the time he reached middle school. Probably even before that. And if he was somehow offered a way to gain a quirk? To get rid of all the bulling and ridicule? It probably wouldn't have even been a choice for him.
Still, Midoriya was one the most selfless people he had ever known. Too selfless, if Shouta was being specific, but then again, did that really matter? Maybe it was all used as a cover and to make sure no one suspected him.
Shouta groaned and rubbed his forehead. He had a headache thinking about all of this. He really didn't want it to be Midoriya, but he couldn't let his feelings get in the way just in case it was.
His phone pinged and he looked at the notification. Midoriya had just left campus in order to visit his mom. Shouta was going to tail him for the night to see if anything happened.
He sighed and stretched his back. Goodbye sleep.
~~~
Hizashi really didn't like doing this. It felt wrong to him, but he knew he had to do it.
He was currently snooping around Midoriya's room. While he was away visiting his mother, Hizashi was to examine his room and read the other 13 notebooks the student had written. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to get in. All teachers had a master key to the dorms in case of an emergency. Tricking the students hadn't been hard either. Shouta was gone for the night to tail Midoriya, so Hizashi gave the excuse of being there to make sure they stayed out of trouble. The class bought it easily enough.
Hizashi almost laughed at the amount of All Might posters and figurines in the room. He couldn't go one step without meeting the hero's eyes. Midoriya was certainly a fan boy.
Hizashi started off simple. He searched through drawers and the bathroom, making sure to put everything back in it's place, but nothing came up. He found the notebooks fairly easily, which he started to read.
The first one was a mess. It was done in crayon and the writing was almost illegible. The pictures were stick figures at best. It was obvious this was done when Midoriya was a kid. Hizashi quickly skipped that one.
Hizashi skipped the notebooks until number 4 because the ones before that were all in crayon. Number 4 was done in pencil and was much neater and more detailed. Still, it was nothing compared to number 14.
As Hizashi flipped through them, he could see how Midoriya slowly got better at analyzing and taking notes. Hizashi felt a sense of pride swell within him from how much time Midoriya put into this. It was quickly dampened when he reminded himself why he was doing this.
Hizashi went through all the notebooks until he got to number 13. It was charred and crinkled, like it had been soaked in water. What happened to it? He looked inside and saw a half finished notebook and a huge signature from All Might, but the rest of the pages were blank. This notebook seemed special, though Hizashi couldn't pin down why.
One thing was for certain. All 13 notebooks were from Midoriya's pre-U.A. days. They had no notes about anything from U.A. except the pro heroes, which was understandable. So if any notebook was going to be used to give information to the League, it would be number 14.
But what gave Hizashi a bad feeling was how Midoriya didn't have an entry of his own quirk in all 14 notebooks. Not even a footnote! He was always so curious about quirks, so why wouldn't he analyze it down as soon as he got it?
Hizashi shook his head and put the notebooks back in place. He really didn't like thinking that Midoriya might be the traitor, but it was looking like a possibility.
He shook those thoughts out of his head. No, he would treat Midoriya the same until it was proven he was the traitor. Innocent until proven guilty, after all.
~~~
"Shigaraki, our informant has some interesting news," Kurogiri said.
Shigaraki didn't lift his head from his handheld video game, but said, "Yes?"
"Apparently some of the teachers believe that Izuku Midoriya is the traitor," he stated. "It's because of his notebooks on hero analysis."
Mr. Compress perked up in interest. "Oh? They don't suspect the true traitor?"
"Not at all," Kurogiri answered.
Shigaraki chuckled. "They blame that cheater? Fine, let them. We can use this to weaken the heroes. They won't know who to trust."
"What do you want me to do?"
He thought for a moment before asking, "Where is he right now?"
~~~
Izuku took a deep breath of the evening air. He had visited his mom for far longer than he meant to, but felt nice. He hadn't seen her in awhile and having the chance to catch up with her was refreshing. It made him forget for awhile about all the responsibilities of being a hero.
Not that he didn't like being a hero! He did, but sometimes it just got overwhelming. The events of Kamino Ward still rang loud in his head.
Izuku was snapped out of his thoughts when something yanked the back of his shirt. He stumbled back into an alleyway and tried to turn to see what happened when a hand wrapped around his throat. A sickeningly familiar voice spoke next to his ear.
"How nice to see you again."
Izuku growled. It was Shigaraki. What did he want with him this time? Did he plan it this time? His mom! Was his mom safe?!
"Why are you here?" he asked sternly.
"Relax, I just want to keep up appearance. Besides, we wanted to thank you for the information."
"What? What are you talking about?" Izuku asked. There was no way he'd ever do something like that.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't try to deny it," Shigaraki replied, discreetly tightening his grip on Izuku's throat.
He was about to protest again when Shigaraki cut him off.
"We want information about All For One's whereabouts. Analyze the prison and the guards. Send it to us by next month."
"Wha-"
Suddenly, Izuku was thrown on the opposite side of the alley. He took a deep breath of air before turning around. Shigaraki smiled at him before stepping back into one of Kurogiri's warp gates. Before Izuku could blink, he was gone.
He almost thought it was his imagination, had it not been for the soreness of his throat. He knew it was real, but the question was why did he do that? Izuku wasn't going to give him any information, especially since Shigaraki didn't hold anything against him.
Still, it left an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He'd better tell someone at U.A. He dusted himself off before he started on his route to the school at a brisk pace.
~~~
Shouta couldn't believe it. No, he didn't want to believe it. Yet there it was. Proof that Midoriya was the traitor of U.A.
Shouta had been close enough to hear every word, but was hidden well enough that he wasn't seen by either person. He was shaking by the time the conversation ended.
He didn't think evidence would appear so fast. He had proposed the idea that Midoriya was the traitor, but a part of him still didn't want it to be true. The idea was still fresh and in his mind, Midoriya was still the sunshine child that everyone loved.
But he was the traitor! He sold out all of his classmates to the League of Villains. To All For One himself. The thought made his blood boil.
Shouta was stuck in between feelings remorseful and angry and he wasn't sure which to act on. Although the anger seemed to be the most useful emotion right now.
As soon as he was out of earshot from Midoriya, he let out a loud, "Fuck!" before he texted Hizashi and Nezu.
He's the traitor.
~~~
Toshinori took a big sip of water as he stopped to rest. He was having trouble sleeping ever since Kamino and taking nightly runs around campus helped him a little bit. It reminded him that everyone was safe and that he defeated All For One.
Everything was okay, so he didn't expect to see Midoriya, Aizawa, and Nezu by the gates of U.A. He ran over, curious as to what was happening.
Suddenly, a police car pulled up followed by a black, more mainstream car. Aizawa talked with Midoriya for a moment before guiding him inside the police car. Toshinori's heart did a flip as he ran the rest of the way towards the them.
"Aizawa, what happened?"
He gave Toshinori a halfhearted glare before shaking his head. "Nothing. You don't need to concern yourself with it right now. It's late, you should go to bed."
"You're one to talk," Toshinori replied. "Please, if it's about Young Midoriya, I need to know."
Aizawa gave him an odd look before sighing. "Alright, I'll tell you, but only after we get in the car."
Toshinori sat in the car to see Yamada was driving. Nezu sat in the other front seat while Aizawa sat in the back with Toshinori. As soon as the car was in motion, Toshinori turned to the underground hero.
"Please tell me what's going on."
Aizawa sighed and thought for a moment, deciding on the best way to break it to him. "Midoriya is the traitor of U.A. He's been feeding information to the League of Villains, probably since the beginning of the year."
Toshinori's jaw dropped and he immediately denied it. "Impossible. Young Midoriya would never-"
"There's proof, Yagi," he said tersely. "His notebooks are too detailed for a simple hobby. He's had contact with Shigaraki before and he just had another meet up tonight. He gained a quirk when he was fifteen which is impossible unless he got it from All For One. It all adds up."
"That's not true. I can explain later, but I know for certain that Midoriya didn't get his quirk from All For One." Aizawa gave him an odd look, but Toshinori moved forward. "But how could you think that about him? You've taught him, you know what he's like."
"It's probably all a front," Aizawa explained.
"It's not!" he exclaimed. "I met him ten months before the entrance exam and not once have I seen a slip in his character. He's sacrificed so much for-"
"Shigaraki thanked him for information. Thanked him and asked him for more information by next month. Information that will put my class in danger." Aizawa was gripped his capture weapon so hard his knuckles turned white. "I heard it loud and clear. Shigaraki didn't harm a hair on his head."
"There's just no way," Toshinori mumbled. "They're his friends."
"Are they?"
~~~
Izuku's anxiety was through the roof by the time they reached the police station. They put quirk suppressant cuffs on him, making him feel like he was back in middle school. The warm presence of One For All was barely there and all it did was buzz quietly under his skin.
The door opened and the police officer guided him out. He could see another car park behind them before Aizawa, Yamada, Nezu, and All Might stepped out. He looked at them for answers, but they didn't give him any. The only clues he had was All Might's long face and Aizawa's ticked off one. That fact that they were directed at him didn't make him feel any better.
He was guided into the police station where All Might asked for Detective Tsukauchi.
"Sorry, he's out of town investigating a lead," the officer at the desk said. "I can call him, but he won't be able to be back until tomorrow morning at best."
Aizawa cursed under his breath. "Fine. Tell him it's very important. We'll wait here until he comes back."
The officer nodded before they moved further into the station. They took a few twists and turns before entering an interrogation room. There, Izuku was handcuffed to the table. He looked at his teachers one more time for any answer, but they didn't grace him with anything. They shut the door and Izuku was pretty sure they went to the observation room behind the mirror.
He sat there, stewing in his own thoughts. He didn't really want to admit it, but he was scared. What the heck was happening? Why was he handcuffed in an interrogation room? Did he do something wrong? Then why didn't anyone tell him about it?
The seemingly never ending list of questions came to a stop when a police officer entered the room. He had a cold aura around him, like he meant business. He sat down in front of Izuku and simply stared at him. Izuku fidgeted around nervously under his gaze. The officer stared at him for a few moments before finally speaking.
"Midoriya Izuku, what do you know about the League of Villains?"
Izuku raised an eyebrow, but answered anyway. "They're a group of villains lead by Shigaraki. They've attacked my school multiple times. Why? What's going on?"
The officer didn't answer his question and simply moved on. "What happened at those attacks?"
"You should know. I've already told-"
The officer cut him off. "Just answer the question."
Izuku relented and retold his story of the U.S.J. attack, the attack at Hosu, the training camp, and Kamino Ward.
The officer narrowed his eyes. "And that's all that happened?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Izuku answered firmly.
He wrote something down on his notebook before looking back at up Izuku. "Have you had any contact from the League of Villains outside of those attacks?"
Izuku nodded. "Yes, one at the mall before the training camp and one just now. I was going to tell Aizawa, but then I was taken here. I still have no idea what's going on. Please, what's-"
"What happened during your most recent encounter?"
Izuku internally frowned. Why wouldn't he answer any of his questions? He might be more helpful if he knew what was going on. "He came out of nowhere and pulled me into an alleyway. He thanked me for information and..."
He trailed off, suddenly gaining an idea of what this might be about. "You think I've been giving information to the League?"
"Are you?"
"No! I would never!" Izuku shouted. "Why do you think that?"
The officer made gestured to the mirror and Aizawa came out with Izuku's notebook in hand. On any other day, Izuku would be relieved to see his teacher, but the look on his face made Izuku shrink into himself.
Aizawa dropped the notebook in front of Izuku. "Quirk analysis number 14. We looked inside."
Izuku shook his head. "You know it's just a hobby! I like analyzing quirks."
"It's too extensive for a simple hobby," he argued. "There are weaknesses in here that would cost pro heroes their lives. It would cost every single person's life in here, including Class 1-A."
Izuku wilted a little. He hadn't thought about that. He was always so engrossed in analyzing and satiating his curiosity that he never thought about how it might affect the people he was taking notes about.
"I didn't think about it that way," he replied. "I promise I'll be more careful in the future, but I swear I would never hand this over to anyone who would want to harm my friends."
Aizawa narrowed his eyes. "You've never let anyone else look in these notebooks. Why?"
"It's, uh..." Izuku fidgeting with his fingers. He wasn't exactly comfortable talking about this because it was from his past, when he was at the lowest in his life. It wasn't exactly a fun time to bring up. "It's a habit from middle school. People didn't like it when I took notes on them. Said it was... creepy. Anytime they saw what was inside, they usually destroyed them so... I'm just not comfortable letting anyone else look inside. But I swear, it's just a hobby and if someone really wanted to look inside, I'd let them."
"Fine, if this is just a hobby, why didn't you write anything about your own quirk?" Aizawa challenged.
Izuku paled. He did analyze his quirk, but it was all in his head or he talked about it with All Might. He would never write it down in case someone somehow found it and the secret about One For All would be revealed. But he couldn't tell Aizawa about it, could he? Then how could he explain not having his own quirk in his notebooks?
"I can't," was his answer. Wow, that totally wasn't suspicious at all.
The officer quirked an eyebrow. "And why not?"
"I just... can't," Izuku answered, knowing full well how it made him look. "It's not my secret to tell."
"What do you mean?" Aizawa snapped.
Izuku shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't."
Aizawa growled and ran his hand through his hair, frustration clear on his face. "Just tell us the truth."
"I am!" Izuku insisted. "I swear!"
"Okay, why did Shigaraki thank you for information? He asked you for information about Tartarus."
"I don't know!" Izuku exclaimed. "I promise, I'm not a traitor."
The officer shook his head. "Then why would he come out of hiding to just thank you? He didn't injure you at all. That doesn't line up."
Tears started building in Izuku's eyes from frustration and fear. "I don't know! Please, you have to believe me."
He looked up at their faces through blurry vision and saw nothing but disbelief. His stomach did a flip and a few tears fell. "You don't believe me."
"No," Aizawa responded honestly.
Suddenly, Izuku felt like he was back in middle school again. No matter what he said, none of the teachers believed him when he said he didn't cause trouble. No one believed him. Not even his own homeroom teacher.
The tears finally fell and he bowed his head so they didn't see his face. Sobs escaped from his lips, no matter how hard he tried to hold them in. He was shaking hard and he couldn't hear much over the blood rushing to his ears.
Finally, a voice spoke over a speaker, loud enough for Izuku to hear.
"Let's just wait until Tsukauchi gets here. Please."
It was All Might's voice. Izuku's heart broke even more. Did he think he was a traitor too? He couldn't find it in himself to look at his mentor as he left the room. The officer released him from the table and guided him to a nearby holding cell.
"Don't cause trouble. You will be questioned again tomorrow morning." Then he left without another word.
Izuku sluggishly walked over to the metal bench that was supposed to serve as a bed and sat down. More tears fell and he curled into himself, hugging his knees to his chest.
~~~
Hizashi watched as the officer escorted Midoriya out of the interrogation room with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. They brought that officer in to question him to see if they could get some answers before Tsukauchi arrived, but the interrogation didn't do anything except make Midoriya cry and Yagi leave the observation room. Said something about needing a breather. It made sense, there was always something more to his relationship with Midoriya, despite his efforts to hide it.
Midoriya's behavior did align up with someone who was guilty. The nervous fidgeting, not answering an important question, and crying at the end. All the evidence seemed to line up, but Hizashi couldn't help but feel like this wasn't right. Something was missing.
Shouta walked into the observation and groaned. "He's not saying anything. I'm not sure what to do."
Hizashi furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you think he's telling the truth?"
"I don't think so," he answered. "All the evidence is there and he acting guilty. He's fidgeting and he even cried at the end."
"Maybe he's just nervous?" Hizashi suggested.
Shouta shook his head. "You saw how he didn't answer anything about his quirk. I'm going to ask Yagi about that later since he seems to know something. Besides, even if he is just incredibly nervous, it doesn't explain why Shigaraki contacted him tonight."
Shouta started pacing around the small room. "He put my class in danger, Hizashi. How could he do that?! They're good kids! He can't just-"
Hizashi put his hands on his shoulders. "Calm down Shouta. We won't know anything for sure until Tsukauchi gets here."
"But what if-"
"Stop, you're going to pass out from all the thinking you're doing," he said sternly. "Get some rest, actual rest, and you'll feel better."
Under Hizashi's firm stare, Shouta finally relented. "Fine, but tell me if anything happens."
"Of course."
Then Shouta left to sleep on one of the couches. Nezu simply hummed in interest before followed Shouta out.
Hizashi wasn't quite sure how to feel about this, but he wanted to talk to the little listener himself. There was a theory that he had, but considering Shigaraki didn't harm or threaten Midoriya, it was unlikely. Still, he wanted to see for himself.
He walked over to the holding cell to see Midoriya was crying. It wasn't as strong as in the interrogation room, but it was still fairly obvious. Hizashi cleared his throat awkwardly to gain his attention.
Midoriya's head snapped up and he faced Hizashi. After realizing who it was, he quickly scrubbed the tears off his face.
"P-Present Mic."
He nodded and sat down on the floor to make himself look friendlier. "I wanted to ask you a few questions."
Midoriya deflated, but continued on. "What is it?"
"Is Shigaraki threatening you? Is he hurting you?" Hizashi asked softly.
He shook his head vehemently. "No! I swear, I'm not giving up information."
Hizashi tried again. "Listener, we can protect you, okay? You just need to trust us and tell us what's going on."
"I'm not!" Midoriya cried, his voice cracking at the end. "I-"
He broke off into sobs again and buried his head into his arms. Hizashi waited patiently until he tears subsided a little.
"You don't believe me."
Hizashi took a deep breath. "I wish I could, but the evidence is there. Tsukauchi will be here tomorrow to clear some things up."
"Right," Midoriya replied. His voice sounded different, more... resigned. "Is that all you need?"
Hizashi hesitated before saying, "Yes, that's it."
"Then can you leave, please?"
Hizashi sighed and stood up. "Alright. Let one of the officers know if you want to speak with us." Then he left with the feeling that something was still missing.
~~~
Toshinori took a deep breath of the night air. It was getting very late, almost midnight, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. No, not when his successor, his boy was being accused of being a traitor.
By a rational standpoint, all the evidence pointed to him being the traitor. The notebooks and the meeting with Shigaraki all lined up, but this was Midoriya they were talking about. He was the kindest, bravest, and brightest soul he had ever met and he refused to believe that kind of personality was simply faked this whole time. It was almost impossible, not to mention he was a fifteen-year-old boy. No, he couldn't be the traitor.
The door behind him opened and he turned to see Aizawa with a cup of coffee.
He wasn't sure how to feel about Aizawa. He understood he cared deeply for his class, no matter how strict or emotionless he may seem, but he was accusing Midoriya of leaking information to the League of Villains. Conflicting emotions surged within Toshinori, but he greeted him the same, if not with a little more exhaustion. "Aizawa."
He nodded. "Yagi."
"Aren't you supposed to be resting right now?"
Aizawa rolled his eyes. "I can't sleep right now."
Toshinori hummed in agreement. "How is he?"
"He's the same, more or less," he answered, frowning slightly. "Calmer, but still quiet and crying occasionally."
Toshinori sighed. "How can you be so sure it's him?"
"You weren't there," Aizawa replied. "Shigaraki thanked him for information and asked for more. There's too many things that add up... Though I still need an explanation about his quirk."
"Ah, yes." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "What I'm about to tell you is top secret. You can't share this with anyone."
"Obviously," Aizawa deadpanned.
Toshinori took some time to consider how to explain this. "His quirk is called One For All. It's my quirk that I passed down to him. That's why I trained him ten months before the entrance exam so he could prepare to take on the quirk."
Well that was a lot of information at once. Aizawa had to take a moment to absorb all that before saying, "You passed down your quirk? That's possible?"
"It's a derivative of All For One. It happened several generations ago and Young Midoriya is currently the ninth holder," Toshinori explained. "I gave it to him myself, so I know he didn't get it from All For One. It's also why he didn't write anything about it in his notebook. It's very classified."
Aizawa simply stared at him for a long time before letting out a deep sigh and downing the rest of his coffee. "Of course something like that happened to Midoriya," he mumbled. "It makes sense, in a weird way. That explains his quirk, but why Shigaraki contacted him is still a mystery."
"Are you sure you heard it right?" Toshinori asked.
He nodded. "I was close enough. I heard everything."
"I still don't understand how you could think-"
"I wish it wasn't him," Aizawa interrupted. "I really don't because it... breaks my heart. But I can't ignore all this evidence just because he's an amazing student. We're talking about my class- no, the whole school at risk."
Toshinori furrowed his eyebrows. He had a valid point, but everything just seemed to wrong. Or maybe that was just because he had such a personal relationship with the boy. Still... "What if you're wrong?"
Aizawa sighed. "Then I'll be relieved he's not the traitor. And I'll have to apologize a fuck ton."