Chapter Text
Ever since Kyoka Jiro had made it past the outer walls of U.A, her thoughts had been almost entirely focused on the people around her. As she travelled from street to street, she kept her face pointed to the ground with her hood pulled over her head to hide it, moving at a faster pace to avoid drawing any attention to herself. When she did have to look up to see where she was going, she did it fast to make sure she wasn’t noticed.
She never had any issues with leaving the school dorms to go shopping before, but now that she and the rest of her class were now in their third years of education, the very act of leaving the premises had become one giant hassle. Thanks to the efforts of the three powerhouses in class 1-A, combined with the utter chaos and peril that had surrounded the school for almost their entire school life, her class had become a major topic on the internet.
Within weeks it had felt like there was an entirely new bounty on their heads, not from any new villain group, but from the paparazzi. No one was able to even take a few steps outside before a group appeared and swarmed them with cameras and questions. A few of the boys had enjoyed the attention at first, but even they quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the attention and became just as sick of it as the rest of the class.
It was moments like these where Kyoka envied her classmates' quirks. If she had something like her friend Toru’s invisibility or Ojiro’s hidden ability to avoid screen time, then going out for a few pieces of food and snacks wouldn’t be an issue for her. Regardless, the class did eventually come to an agreement on making sure to always disguise themselves before they left the dorms.
She admittedly had yet to see any of her friends when she went out to the shops, which she could see as the plan working, but knowing most of the boys and how often the girls stood out in the crowd, she would have at least noticed them as well. She didn’t have much to hide her face in comparison, so on the occasion where she had to go out, she simply zipped up her small hoodie and hoped for the best.
The girl finally did make it to the shop, she gave a sigh of relief as she raised her head up to look up at the store name. She strolled in past the automatic door like she normally would, turning her attention to the metal baskets beside her and taking one from the pile. When she began to pull it away however, she suddenly felt the sensation that she was being watched.
Kyoka shot a glance to the row in front of her, where she found three separate faces looking back at her with a now unobstructed view of her face. She could see the realisation begin to dawn on them as she looked back in shock. Before they had the chance to connect the dots in front of her, she quickly snatched the top basket and escaped into the closest aisle.
Even after she left their view, she refused to bring her head up for fear of being noticed and getting bombarded with questions. Her focus became split between scanning through the shelves, occasionally grabbing something of interest, and making sure that her easily identifiable earphone jacks were tucked away and out of sight.
With her quick pace and distracted attention, the young hero was completely unprepared when she ran straight into something soft, but also completely unwavering. She easily fell back in shock and landed on her behind along with her basket, finding herself in a daze trying to collect herself again after suddenly bouncing backwards.
“Oh I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” She heard a man’s voice from in front of her while she winced over her fall. Despite clearly being the immovable object that she had run into, his voice was still filled with only concern as she began to sit up on the floor.
When Kyoka opened her eyes again, she was given a good look at who she had just bumped into. The man sported a casual look of jeans with a plain shirt and hoodie, along with a pair of glasses and a beanie covering most of his green hair. The only other thing that came to mind was the sheer size and bulk on him, even with him crouched down in front of her he still had almost two feet over her.
She had no idea why, but the stranger’s face seemed oddly familiar to her, even down to the slight look of concern in his tone. Her confusion fell to the wayside when she noticed the extended hand he was offering her, eventually taking hold of it after she recovered and allowed him to help pull her up.
Kyoka was soon on her feet again after the male stranger helped her in a surprisingly gentle fashion, considering his size. She quickly turned her head away to try and recover her anonymity while she reached down for her dropped basket. “Thanks for that. Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”
“Don’t worry about it Jiro. I understand.” The man responded with a casual voice that she could have sworn she heard before at a slightly lighter tone. She had no time to process that thought further however as she instead froze in place the moment she heard him say her name without hesitation.
The student’s head shot upwards immediately to look straight back in a panic, no longer bothering to hide her face after she had already been spotted by someone she had never met before. “H-how do you know who I am?!”
The stranger looked genuinely confused at her question. He took a moment to think before shrugging his shoulders after trying to respond with his now puzzled tone. “Well, why wouldn’t I know who you are? You’re one of-”
“ Ssshhhhh! ” Kyoka darted in front of the man, tilting her head back almost completely to meet his face with a finger over her lips. She didn’t take any time to notice her surprise to look behind her at the rest of the aisle, making sure no one had found out as well. After turning back, she did her best to push the man further towards the back of the store, but only succeeded in moving him a few inches. “ Don’t talk out loud! I’m trying to not make myself known! ”
Despite now being completely confused by the girl’s actions, the stranger gave in and simply walked towards the back after she had given up on trying to move his much heavier form. Just as he was about to turn towards her again, he was met with a pair of earphone jacks pointed at his face and a dead serious voice instead. “ Also, don’t call me Jiro. I don’t know you or trust you at all. ”
His look of bewilderment easily turned into shock and fear as the sharp points kept themselves aimed at him. Seconds later however, his agitated expression suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a new look of realisation, as if he had just understood the point she was trying to drive. “Oh, of course. Sorry miss, I understand now.”
“It’s fine. Just act natural and answer the question already. How did you already know?” Kyoka simply sighed to herself after the man had finally understood her, turning herself away to look through the next shelf of groceries, occasionally looking over her shoulder to turn her attention to the man.
With his form relaxing after the jacks finally pulled away from him, allowing him to sort through his own side of the products and began to move a few into his own basket. From the awkward pause, it seemed to the student that he was trying to put together an excuse. “Well, I recognised you from that concert you did back in U.A’s culture festival. I think you called it ‘Hero Too’?”
Kyoka was surprised to hear her own song suddenly enter the conversation. She was aware that a few rough recordings had made it onto the internet, which quickly became the focus of the first few times she was cornered by journalists, but for the most part, it had thankfully begun to trickle away from everyone’s attention.
Kyoka paused from picking out a few bags of food for herself and dropping them in her basket and turned to look over her shoulder, not attempting to hide the surprise clear to see on her face and in her tone. “Wait, really? But that was all the way back in the first semester. I didn’t think anyone was still listening to that. At least, nobody’s been bothering me over it nowadays”
The man closed the fridge door in front of him after pulling out a few energy drinks before returning a similar incredulous look back at her. “Of course I’m still listening to it, it’s one of my favorites! I can’t seem to get it out of my head, so I’ve been using it sometimes as my workout music.”
As they continued to face each other, Kyoka’s eyes slowly began to move down to the rest of his body. Even with her facing just his back and the slightly baggy jacket he was wearing, his incredibly built body was still blatantly obvious from his size and figure alone. She didn’t notice her face beginning to heat up slightly as she looked over the rest of him. “...I guess that means you listen to it pretty often then...”
The young hero only became aware of what slipped out of her mouth after she had finished and could only slam a hand over her mouth and dart her head away in response, trying to understand what made her say that. On the other side of the aisle, the larger civilian seemed completely unfazed by her retort and simply gave a cheerful smile at her.
“Yeah. I can’t help but feel inspired by it too. Everyone put so much passion into it after all, how could I not love it so much.” He turned himself around completely to face the girl, who had begun to turn her attention back to the shelves and refuse to show her face to him.
Kyoka paused for a moment, making sure she knew what she was actually going to say before speaking without thinking. When she did take her hand away from her face, she couldn’t stop her tone from sounding a tiny bit sheepish. “That’s true. If it wasn’t for the rest of my class, it probably would have never gotten off the ground to begin with.”
“Really? I’m pretty sure they all agree that you were the one who held the entire operation together. I mean, you were the musician, the singer, and the planner. It’s thanks to you that everyone had so much fun with it.” She couldn’t see his face, but he could hear the strange mix of assurance and friendliness that she would never expect from a man she accidentally and literally bumped into in the middle of a marketplace.
She couldn’t begin to understand what was going on behind the stranger’s tone, but she never felt at all like it was intrusive or creepy at all. His voice and character felt familiar and kind in a way she had no way of explaining, but it continued to make the compliments he was giving her seem completely genuine.
The man behind her noticed her head begin to drop in the middle of her long pause, causing his smile to drop slightly and turn into a more concerned look. “Hey, are you alright?”
“Yep. Just making sure no one notices me.” Kyoka kept her face aimed almost directly at the floor as she waved off the man. To her, the threat of being spotted by paparazzi fell to the wayside, and the matter of hiding her blush became far more important.
The two of them finished their now conjoined shopping trip rather quickly as the two continued throughout their walk through the store as Kyoka most kept her face pointed away from the man. She could still spot a few people looking over at the two of them from the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were picturing them in a completely different light now.
They swiftly left the shop together after paying, holding onto one bag of groceries each and finally leaving the shop full of watching eyes. The girl gave a sigh of relief to herself before she pulled out her phone and checked her clock, speaking up to the man beside her once she noted how far into midday it was getting. “Well, it was nice meeting you, I guess. Thanks for the help.”
“Oh, are you heading back already?” She heard the strange civilian’s voice answer as she tucked away her phone again. When she looked up at him, she could see the soft curiosity on his face, almost entirely drowning out the intimidation from his sheer size.
“Yeah, I only wanted to get a few things. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay out for long and get spotted anyway.” The student shrugged her shoulder back at him, almost instinctively giving him a small smile she usually reserved for new friends.
“Makes sense. I’ve still got some places I want to visit, so I guess I’ll see you around, miss.” The man gave her a thumbs up and another one of his kind expressions before he turned on his heel and strolled away.
Kyoka found herself staring at him walking away for longer than she realised, watching the bizarre yet interesting individual leave for good, considering her limited time outside and her chances of finding the same man again in the mess of the city. She took a deep breath before she prepared herself to say something out of nowhere willingly this time.
“Hey!” The man paused midway through his next step the moment he heard the hero in training call out to him. When he turned around, his eyes quickly landed on the young lady, now appearing noticeably timider than before as she twirled one of her earphone jacks around her finger. “Just to let you know, you can call me Jiro...if you want.”
“Huh? Didn’t you say before that…” He raised an eyebrow in response, seemingly unfazed by her change in expression as he pointed to himself and then the store they had both left.
“Yeah yeah, I know but...at least I have an idea of who you are now. At the very least, you seem like a pretty okay guy.” Kyoka had to raise her voice slightly to stop the man, but afterwards her tone quickly began to lower again when she was forced to explain it to the man, ending with her looking back at him with a sheepish smile and blush.
This time the reaction from the man was near-instant and far more unfitting for his tall muscular build, darting his face towards the sidewalk as a deep red covered most of his face. “I-if you say so, Jiro.”
Seeing the hulking man react brought a smile to her face, while the sound of him using her name again brought on a pleasant feeling inside. But that didn’t stop her from crossing her arms and staring expectantly at him despite her blush. “Well? If you’re going to use my name then isn’t it only fair if I know yours?”
The man paused from trying to hide his flustered expression and looked back at her with an unsure and almost completely puzzled face. He remained in that clueless state for another moment before his tone suddenly lightened up, as if he had understood everything completely now and flashed a cheerful grin after the fact.
“Oh yeah, you’re right. It’s Midoriya.”
Kyoka froze almost immediately after the far too familiar name left him, immediately causing the blush and smile to drain out of her face and be swiftly replaced with utter shock. The newly revealed Midoriya didn’t seem to pay it any mind as he turned to walk away once again as he waved a hand at her. “Well, I should get going. I’ve got some other shops to visit. I’ll see you around Jiro.”
As Kyoka waved back absentmindedly in disbelief, she was spending what little of her thought process that wasn’t completely dazed to try and save her from her completely disorientated worldview. Thinking back on his features, from the visible tufts of his green hair to the freckles on his cheeks, and even the warm smile he always gave her, it was clear they were similar, but she would never have known to connect the two of them together like that.
Since when did Midoriya have an older brother?!
It had taken Kyoka a while to snap out of her blank state, and even longer to walk back home to the school dorms. When she did eventually back it back to the safety of inside the school, she couldn’t seem to find the strength to walk up to her room. She dropped her shopping bag on the living room table and slumped back on the couch, returning to her dumbfounded and unfocused stare.
“Oh! There you are Kyoka. I didn’t hear you come back in. Did you have any troubles?” The student was too lost in her own thoughts to notice the footsteps behind her until she heard the voice of her close friend Momo Yaoyorozu beside her as she leaned over the back of the couch.
The girl turned her head slowly to meet with her calm expression, only to return back to staring back ahead of her. There were far too many conflicting feelings and ideas floating around for her to say anything back without a dull tone. “No...I was just...surprised by something…”
“Surprised? What do you mean? You look exhausted. Did something happen?” Momo immediately shifted into a look of concern for her friend’s state, knowing full well how often they were targeted by villains and the media alike.
“It’s nothing...I’m just trying to wrap my head around something.” The other hero in training raised her hand up to interrupt her classmate, while her face lowered itself to rub her eyelids with a groan. She was beginning to come to terms after such a jarring reveal and put the meeting behind herself.
Both of their attention was shifted onto the front door opening and closing quickly. When they looked up, they found the green-haired boy who was now on Kyoka’s mind, Izuku Midoriya. “Hey guys. I’m back.”
The seated girl stopped completely the moment her eyes landed on him as he moved across the room towards her. Momo meanwhile happily greeted the other returning classmate with her unanswered questions already prepared for him. “Hello Midoriya. You didn’t run into any trouble either, did you?”
“Not at all. Why do you ask.” Izuku shrugged his shoulders after unloading his three different shopping bags onto the table and turning to look between the two of them. His focus shifted however when he noticed Kyoka’s wide-eyed and slightly red face locked solely onto him. “Uhhh, hey Jiro. Is everything okay?”
Kyoka couldn’t deny the proof right before her eyes now. The resemblance between the two Midoriyas was uncanny, with the only exception between them being their size and Izuku’s cearly baggier clothing. Coupled with that realisation and such a similar face placed so much closer caused the blush to return before she could stop it.
“Actually, I’ve got some guitars to string! I’ll see you guys later! Bye!” The girl practically jumped out of her seat, snatching her bag from in front of her and dashing away towards the stairs before either of the two classmates could even get a word in.
Momo and Izuku watched her leave them to their own confusion. The female student eventually turned her bewilderment to the boy next to her, now left with even less comprehension than before. “Any idea what might be going on with her Midoriya? You both were out of the dorms today.”
Izuku was stuck with his own look of confusion as he held his chin and tried to grasp an understanding for himself, clearly seeing how he had missed seeing something important. “Not that I can think of. She seemed fine when-”
The green-haired student paused when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. After pulling it out and checking the first message on the screen, he had already turned himself back towards the door. “Oh, that’s right! I wanted to meet with All Might for some notes on something. I’ll be back in a second.”
Before Momo could stop him, he had already opened the door and disappeared back outside, leaving his shopping behind on the table. She gave a sigh after trying and failing to understand either of his classmates before they disappeared and turned to the staircase herself, hoping to find out at least a better understanding than nothing at all.
Toshinori Yagi, formerly the Number One Hero All Might, passed a glance at the clock on the break room wall as he waited for his successor. When the door did finally slide open and Izuku poked his head in, he swiftly turned to face him and gave his already prepared smile to the boy as he walked closer. “Ah, hello young Midoriya. You wanted to see me for something?”
“Yeah, actually. It’s about One For All, so I figured you should know about this.” Izuku sat down on the couch opposite his secret teacher, rubbing the back of his head as he prepared to reveal his latest discovery.
Tosinori raised an eyebrow at first before he crossed his arms and gave a slightly more serious look at the boy. “I see. And does this have something to do with you leaving the school dorms more often now?”
The successor lost his train of thought after hearing Toshinori surprise him with his retort of new information. “Huh? Have you been paying attention to that?”
“All of the teachers have, ever since the paparazzi turned even more feral for info than usual and the extra levels of surveillance got added.” The blond teacher gave a sigh after he answered, shaking his head slightly before meeting the boy’s gaze with a worried look. “I don’t want to be pushy about it, but I am hoping that you’re aware of the risk and making sure you go out with something to hide yourself.”
“Oh, of course I am! In fact, that’s what I wanted to show you actually. Here, let me show you.” Rather than the usual flustered reaction Izuku used to give previously, his surprise gave way for a wide smile instead as he waved off his worry before enthusiastically leaping out of his seat and into the open space.
Toshinori remained silent despite his newfound curiosity and watched his successor prepare himself for something. Izuku closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, while a few lines of steam began to rise from his shoulders. The moment the retired hero saw it, his eyes shot wide open and he flinched backwards in his seat. “Is that...what I think it is?”
The student did not answer and instead took in another sharp inhale as his body began to change. In less than a second, his muscles bulged and expanded into a far more toned figure, his once loose clothes became much more form-fitting, and his size increased by almost two whole feet. It looked as though the five-foot tall boy from before had spent years of exercise and growth in but a moment.
While Toshinori was left in slack-jawed awe, Izuku fished out a pair of fake glasses from his pocket and placed them on his face to finish his disguise and presentation to his hero. With an excited smile he threw his arms out wide as if gesturing to his new figure. “Surprise! What do you think?”
It took the teacher several long seconds to recover from the shock. When he did come back to reality, he leapt off the couch in jubilation, not bothering at all with the blood gushing out of his mouth. “That’s incredible! You almost look like a completely different person! It’s the perfect disguise!”
Izuku shared in the elation with his teacher, neither of them bothered that his giddiness was suddenly unfitting for his new body. After the surprise of the moment ended, Toshinori dropped back onto the couch with just his smile and enthusiasm remaining. “But...how is this even possible? The only quirk I ever had was One For All.”
“I’ve been thinking about that too, but I believe I have a strong working theory over it.” The now hulking student let himself relax as well in his new form and moved back to his own seat. He took a moment to collect his thoughts, while his teacher first acknowledged the sudden similarity in their sitting height.
“So back in the first semester we discovered that One For All carries over the soul, memories, and quirk of all the previous users. And at the same time you had to transform into your muscle form to use it after you got that serious injury from All For One, right?” Toshinori nodded along, remembering the sheer chaos jammed into the very first year of education. “Well, what I think happened was that when you passed it onto me, it had remembered how you had recently used it and transformed it into some kind of... pseudo-quirk .”
After a long moment spent processing the boy’s thought process, Toshinori gave a sigh as he slumped back into his seat and made his arms go lax with his exasperation. Despite his exhaustion, however, Izuku could still see the small impressed smile on his face. “I want to say that sounds impossible, but can I really say that after everything else we’ve found out about One For All?”
Izuku chuckled back before his teacher’s gaze returned to him with a new rational tone. “I do have one question though. If it does follow the same concept as my own muscle form, then does that mean your physical abilities have improved as well? Maybe this could be a good stopgap for you to handle the last thirty percent that you’ve been having difficulty with.”
The green-haired hero paused for a moment before looking down at his hand while his other scratched his cheek. “I don’t know actually, I haven’t used it in a fight yet. I’ve just been using it to go out without anyone noticing.”
Izuku’s explanation quickly caught Toshinori’s attention, causing his slightly concerned look to return with a raised eyebrow. “Hold on. Does the rest of your class not know about this new ability then? There is such a thing as a disguise being too good , you know.”
“No, but I don’t think it’s a problem at all anymore. I actually ran into Jiro while I was out shopping today.” His successor did not share the same kind of worry, as he happily shared the moment with his mentor, almost finding himself blushing at the thought for no reason that he could understand.
“I see. And are you sure she knew it was you?”
“I’m sure it was obvious to her. At this point, it’s only a matter of time before she tells the rest of the class about it.”