Work Text:
Shouta watched as his student, his innocent student left the police station, a vacant look on his bruised face. Shouta was wrong.
Completely, utterly, devastatingly wrong.
His student would never trust him again.
His once bright, determined student, broken by the hands of his own teacher.
Shouta dropped his face into his hands, how did he mess things up so badly?
It started rather innocently.
Shouta knew that his Problem Child had a knack for trouble, considering all the villain encounters he’s had over the past months. That’s how he got the nickname, after all.
And because of him being a trouble-magnet, Shouta tended to keep a little bit of a closer eye on him. That’s how he noticed the inconsistencies in his behavior.
He was jumpy and nervous in class, and shy and stuttering around new people.
And yet, he is determined and absolutely fierce on the battlefield.
He often flinched if someone approached too fast, like he was expecting something bad to happen…
He muttered and wrote in his notebook constantly, but when people got too close when he was doing that, he would snap it shut and put a hand to his mouth to stop the mumbling.
It’s like he was hiding something. Something that has to do with that notebook.
Of course, that wasn’t enough to accuse Midoriya as a traitor, but it did warrant a little suspicion. So Shouta, logically, brought it up to Nedzu.
Shouta didn’t even think of the idea that Midoriya might be a traitor, that was all Nedzu.
But that’s no excuse.
Nedzu mentioned the possibility and it felt like something clicked in Shouta’s mind.
The nervousness around classmates and teachers that he tries to play off with a sunny smile. Like he’s worried about getting caught.
The fighting like he can’t afford to hesitate. Like he never knows when someone might attack.
There’s even the strangeness of his quirk. Like he has more than one, like someone gave it to him.
The caution around his journal… Like he’s hiding a dark secret within its pages.
Oh… His journal.
Shouta has never seen inside of it, considering Midoriya keeps it on his person at all times (which is also suspicious), but he’s heard a little from other students who’ve gotten a peek.
Uraraka looked a bit nervous at what she read.
Iida called it insightful, yet had a bit of wariness on his face.
And Bakugou straight-out called them ‘creepy stalker notebooks.’
If the rumors are true, then inside that journal is an in-depth analysis on many of his classmates.
And that… is dangerous.
Shouta needs to get that journal.
Shouta got permission from Nedzu to search Midoriya’s room.
He feels a little bad about invading his student’s privacy, albeit he feels it necessary.
He doesn’t want to believe that Midoriya- kind, selfless, determined Midoriya- could be the traitor, but he has to be sure. For the sake of his students’ safety, he needs to know.
So, a room search. Midoriya is at home with his mother this weekend, so it is the perfect opportunity. And lucky for him, when Shouta unlocks the door with a master key, he sees the notebook sitting on his student’s desk.
Seems like he forgot it this weekend. Or maybe he doesn’t take it home and risk his mother.
Shouta bounds over to the desk and grabs the notebook before something catches his eye.
He almost drops the book in his hand.
Thirteen other notebooks, stacked neatly on a shelf above his desk.
Thirteen.
This seems like more than just a hobby. It seems like a job.
Shouta blinks a couple times before focusing back on the most recent one, inconspicuously labelled ‘Hero Analysis No. 14.’
Shouta flips it open and is greeted with a scarily well-drawn image of himself.
As Shouta reads, his eyes grow wider.
There’s information on his quirk, his strengths, his schedule, his weaknesses....
The weakness section is honestly frightening.
Weaknesses he never thought about before laid emotionless and cold in the analysis before him:
Go for the eyes. Without them, his quirk is useless. His hair is a tell, if it’s floating up, his quirk is activated. The goggles are a problem, they prevent you from seeing where he’s looking, so in group battles, there’s no clue as to who’s quirk he’s cancelling. He can only cancel one at a time, though, and it doesn’t work on mutation type. If you can distract with a mutation type enemy, then incapacitate a few of his limbs, it would be easy to take him out. Aim for the face, try to break the goggles, they have to be pretty strong, though, since they’re part of his hero costume. His scarf and agility is a problem when fighting him. Bring strong blades to cut the scart. Aim for his joints if you can’t get his eyes. He relies on his quirk solely to level the playing field, he is an exceptionally talented fighter. Remain close, avoid his capture weapon.
And this went on. There was even an emotional manipulation section on how to cause him to break down, and it was scarily accurate.
There was a page on every single teacher Midoriya has, as well as each of his classmates, unequal detail. If this got into a villain's hands…
He has to be the traitor.
He must be the traitor.
Why else would he be gathering information like this? There was enough in this book to take down everyone at UA with quick efficiency.
Shouta glanced at the other books. Who else has he written about?
Shouta grabbed the 13th one, the cover had scorch marks and was warped like it got wet, for some reason.
He flipped it open. Just as detailed analysis on a multitude of heroes lay in the pages. Then… All Might’s signature? Huge and scrawled across two pages. Shouta flipped to the next page and…
It was blank. The rest of the notebook was blank.
Almost like something happened after he met All Might.
What if the hero wasn’t who he thought? He’s an obvious fanboy, so what if he met his idol and got let down? Would it be enough to turn to villainy? Sure, him and All Might seem close now, but what if it’s all an act to get his weaknesses?
He needs to tell Nedzu.
Shouta snaps a few pictures of the analysis notebook’s pages, then sets it back where it was.
He leaves the room, locking it behind him.
Ochako walks into class Monday with fervor.
Deku went home the past weekend, and she was lonely without her friend (who she may or may not have a teensy crush on).
She bounded into class ready to see him, but he wasn’t there yet.
It was a little weird, he always seemed to get to class before her, after all.
Shrugging she made her way over to Iida and made light conversation before class. Aizawa-Sensei was already standing at the podium, which was also weird. He usually walked in right at the bell, or was in his sleeping bag until class started.
Huh.
The bell rang and Deku still wasn’t in his seat.
Aizawa-Sensei began immediately saying he had an announcement to make before class.
Iida raised his hand, chopping it down as he spoke, “Shouldn’t we wait for Midoriya-Kun, Sensei? I’m sure he won’t be much longer.” Ochako turned back to Sensei, who looked stressed.
“The announcement is about Midoriya. He’s already here, I just sent him on an errand to get him out of the room.”
Ochako felt her brows furrow at this. What was wrong with Deku? She hopes that he’s okay.
Ochako could hear a few other classmates asking the same questions to their neighbors quietly.
Sensei activated his quirk, “Quiet down,” he hissed out.
They quieted down.
He glanced across the room, Ochako could feel his eyes meet hers. “We have reason to believe that Midoriya is the UA traitor.” The room erupted in noise,
“What? Midobro? No way. He’s too manly for that!”
“He’s saved, like, all of us.”
“He’s way too nice and helpful!”
Ochako could feel herself almost chime into the protest.
Almost.
She then remembered asking to see his journal and he shied away, snapping it shut and mumbling something she doesn’t remember.
She remembered him working on it another time, drawing a picture of her and muttering about breaking her hands .
She feels sick.
Aizawa-Sensei confirms her worst fears, stating that he has 14 of such notebooks, all filled with dangerous analysis, outlining each and every one of their weaknesses.
Suddenly the class is silent.
She doesn’t want to believe it, but every time she’s around Deku after that, she can't help but hear him muttering break her hands break her hands break her hands …
She stops hanging out with him.
Tenya doesn’t believe it at first. His good friend, Midoriya, would never stoop to such lows as working with a villain.
After all, he saved him from Stain when Tenya so foolishly sought him out.
Though he does wonder how Midoriya managed to find him in that huge city, overrun by Nomu .
The notebooks are quite questionable.
Tenya has only gotten one glimpse of his page before Midoriya pulled out of his view.
All he saw was the diagram of his engines, and a list of ways to stall them.
He often talked with Uraraka, alone, after Aizawa-Sensei’s announcement. Sensei had told them not to act differently, but just to be cautious of Midoriya.
Uraraka expressed her fears.
Break her hands.
Tenya was wary, of course. But Midoriya was kind and helpful almost all of the time.
But still, he noticed people stopped talking to Midoriya. They began giving him quiet, suspicious looks, especially when he murmured under his breath in class, scribbling into that notebook.
The muttering began to annoy him, too.
He could feel himself instinctually lean away from his friend classmate whenever he muttered or wrote in that notebook.
If he was a villain, it’s better to be careful, right?
Plus all his other classmates were avoiding Midoriya at this point, he doesn’t want anyone to this he’s in kahoots with a traitor.
Eventually Uraraka stopped hanging out with Midoriya.
Eventually Tenya did too.
Shouto is furious, though you can’t tell that by looking at him.
After Aizawa-Sensei’s announcement, everyone is acting like Midoriya has already been condemned.
Like Midoriya hasn’t personally helped each and every person in his class.
It’s frustrating.
It’s just as frustrating as people blindly believing Endeavor could do no wrong just because he was a hero.
It’s like his teachers’ suspicions are the unadulterated truth, to which there is no question.
Shouto cannot believe that someone who’s helped him so much could possibly be a villain.
Midoriya literally broke himself for him.
You don’t go that far if you’re a villain.
It seems like everyone forgot that.
People began to avoid Midoriya. In class, in the lunchroom, in the dorms. Teachers began giving him cold glares and not calling on him in class. Even the two people who were constants since the beginning of the year left him.
Shouto could see it was affecting him negatively.
Shouto knows what it is like, to retreat into a shell in order to protect yourself from harm.
And that is what Midoriya was doing now.
He starts talking less. Especially around others.
He avoids looking directly at people.
He stops writing in his notebooks in public.
He becomes so insecure at asking for anything, or expressing his opinions.
Shouto had become used to the endless flow of knowledge that used to fill the silence. But now it is just that. Silent.
Shouto tries to reassure him that he can speak his mind and not be judged (at least around him), but Midoriya was still skeptical.
Eventually, after about a week of everyone avoiding him, Midoriya broke down.
It was around 2 am when Shouto heard a hesitant knock at his door. He crawled out of bed and, wiping the sleep from his eyes, opened the door. Midoriya was standing there, wringing his hands anxiously.
“Hi,” he whispered
“Hi,” Shouto responded.
A moment passed.
“Do you want to come in?” Shouto asked, opening the door wider.
Midoriya hesitated, “...yes please.” He slipped inside and Shouto shut the door.
Shouto sat on his bed and gestured for Midoriya too as well. He sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, glancing around and still twisting his hands together nervously.
“Are you okay?” Shouto asks. He’s not really the type to start discussions, but ever since everything happened, more often than not he had to lead the conversation.
Midoriya looked at him, eyes wide and so, startlingly empty. Like he was devoid of all emotion but despair, and even that was so deep that he couldn’t even cry.
“A-am I…” He started, looking back down at his hands, “...creepy?” Midoriya sounded too earnest, too meek, it was honestly surprising.
“What? No. What makes you think that?” Shouto questioned.
Midoriya fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. “Well, everyone’s b-been avoiding me, and t-they act all nervous when I-I have my notebook out or when I start mumbling, and t-the teachers all don’t like it when I talk and…” He trailed off, sniffling a little. He glanced up at Shouto with now-watering eyes. “It reminds me a lot of middle school, a-and everyone said I was creepy and useless then.”
Shouto furrows his brow. He wishes desperately he could tell his friend what was going on, but Aizawa-Sensei threatened expulsion if anyone did. “You’re not creepy, and you’re definitely not useless. Why would they say that to you in middle school? You’re like the nicest person I know.”
Midoriya blinked, a few tears escaping. “T-thank you, Todoroki-kun.” He gave him a small, watery smile, before it fell. “I-I was bullied pretty b-bad in middle school.” He sniffed, “I-I haven’t told anyone this, well Kacchan knows only because we grew up together, but I-I got my quirk late, like, when I was 14. Before that I was q-quirkless.”
Shouto blinks, taking in all the new information. He didn’t know any quirkless people, but apparently they were treated pretty badly. And for Midoriya, the absolute kindest most self-sacrificing person he knows to have been bullied for something he couldn’t control… that is just cruel. And now he was being reminded of a time when he was told he was useless. Shouto fumes. His classmates don’t understand what all this is doing to their friend.
Or, maybe ex-friend now. He’s not sure if Midoriya will forgive him. If he should.
“Being quirkless doesn’t mean useless, Izuku.” He blinks at the sudden use of his given name. “Even if you were quirkless now, you would not be worthless. You are smart and determined and you help people. If our classmates and teachers can’t see that, then that’s on them.”
Midoriya gives him a bright smile, tears falling rapidly from his eyes.
“Thank you, Shouto.” He whispers, pulling him into a soft embrace.
The day Izuku was arrested, Shouto was really pissed off.
How could they arrest him with such little evidence? How was anyone okay with this?
His classmates were blind if they couldn’t see how everything affected him so much. Sure, they didn’t know his past, but being ignored was bound to have negative reactions to anyone , regardless of if they were bullied for a decade.
Shouto sat angrily in the common room after class. Aizawa-Sensei informed them of Izuku’s planned arrest that afternoon, and they’d left about an hour ago.
His classmates were all acting completely normal, like their friend wasn’t just arrested for something he so obviously didn’t do.
Shouto’s jaw clenched as he overheard some of their conversations.
“I wonder if he’ll go to Tartarus, since he is a minor.”
“No way they’d let him go just because of his age. He sold us all out to villains!”
“I guess. I just hope he gets what he deserves.”
Shouto couldn’t take it. He stood abruptly, leveling a dark glare at the group having the conversation.
“Izuku is not a criminal. I don’t know how you all could turn your backs on him so quickly when he’s been nothing but kind to you all.” His classmates blink stupidly at him.
“Why are you defending him?”
“Yeah, we all heard what Aizawa-Sensei said. Some of us have even seen the notebook.”
Shouto scoffed, “That notebook was meant to help all of you. He wrote weaknesses so you could learn how to conquer them.”
“That’s not proof he’s not a villain.”
“And his notebook is?” Shouto spit venomously, “What’s going to happen when Izuku walks back in here after being proven innocent?”
“I doubt that will happen. But if it did, everything would just go back to normal, yeah?” This got many nods of agreement.
Shouto could not believe his ears. Did they seriously think that after isolating someone and betraying their trust, things can just ‘go back to normal?’ Shouto’s cold side began to frost over with his emotions.
“You seriously have no idea the damage you’ve caused, do you? You all have broken Izuku’s trust after he just built himself back up.” Shouto’s gaze darkened the room. “He was bullied in middle school, you know. He already thought he was worthless, and you’re all just reaffirming his fears! He thinks he is worth nothing because everyone decided to turn their backs on him because a teacher said so.” Shouto huffs, glancing at everyone’s faces. They all either look indifferent or a tiny bit guilty.
“But there’s no way he’s not the traitor? So that doesn’t matter.”
Shouto could scream in frustration. Instead, he fixed a toxic stare at every single person in the room. “Izuku is going to come back to the dorm, proven innocent. Maybe then you’ll see how your words and actions have broken him. ” Shouto storms out the front of the building, drinking in the cool evening air. He hopes Izuku comes back soon.
It’s not until hours later, does Shouto see a car pull up to the gates.
Izuku steps out, and Shouto freezes in place.
Izuku’s eyes are glassy and vacant, tears threatening to spill. There’s a dark bruise on one cheek, marred with flecks of dried blood. He stumbles forward and Shouto gently cups his face, looking into empty green eyes, no longer the flickering forest of determination.
“What did they do to you?” Shouto asks himself, pulling Izuku into a tight hug. He sobs in his arms, stuttering out about them thinking he was the traitor. Shouto says nothing in return, just softly shushes his friend and leads him inside with an arm around his shoulder.
His classmates, informed by a mass text that Izuku was not the traitor, have stayed true to their word and act like everything is normal.
It’s not normal. Far from it.
Izuku says nothing, just hides his face in Shouto’s side.
They broke him.
Shouto hates describing someone with that word. But his classmates and teachers managed to break the brightest thing in their lives.
Shouto looks at his classmates with a glare that says ‘I told you this would happen.’ Before saying icily, “Don’t pretend like nothing’s changed. This is your fault.” And leading Izuku to his room, away from any word of protest.
Izuku asks him to stay for the night.
And Shouto can’t say no.
Not when Izuku’s eyes look like shattered glass, already fragile trust completely demolished by the people who were supposed to take care of him. He can’t do anything to fix that, that’s up to the ones who broke it.
The only thing he can do now is hold Izuku tightly as he cries himself to sleep.