Chapter Text
It’s been a not-so-typical week for UA’s, now infamous, Class 1-A. While most other classes are content to have normal, quiet class days, where the students don’t get TOO rowdy, and villains aren’t attacking them every other month, and students aren’t getting kidnapped or assaulted whenever they step off campus, and bones don’t get broken every other day, this is not necessarily the case for this particular class. It’s not that they ASK for things to happen to them, they just kind of, DO. Unfortunately, the reality is that they happen often enough that it’s become the norm for them, and as such, their already exhausted teacher, gets more and more exhausted by the day just trying to keep his entire classroom full of Problem Children occupied, lest they tempt whatever god they seem to have offended into creating even more trouble at their expense. This week though, he’s run out of ideas. Usually if Aizawa has a case of “teacher’s block”, he fills the time with impromptu drills and evaluations, but his increased number of patrols since the retirement of All Might, combined with teaching and taking care of Eri, he just wants a break, he has finally reached the point where he was willing to do the one thing he’d already sworn he’d NEVER do with this class. Study Halls… Aizawa started the week, hoping beyond reason, that he wouldn’t regret this decision while he caught up on some much needed sleep. He could not have been more wrong.
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“Ok, does anybody else think it’s totally weird that we’re having Study Halls for this period all week, or is it just me?” questions Ashido, to nobody in particular after Aizawa leaves the classroom. “I mean, I know other classes get Study Halls, but since when do WE get one?”
“You’re right. This is weird. But in like a normal way? Does that make sense?” replies Hagakure.
“I wonder if Aizawa-sensei is feeling okay,” Uraraka points out, concern lacing her usually cheery voice. “He seemed more tired than usual, didn’t he?”
“Yeah. Normally he’d be running us into the ground, or threatening to expel somebody. But hey, if he wants to give us time off, I’ll take it!” exclaims Kaminari enthusiastically, now that it’s evident their teacher won’t be coming back to the room. “So, what should we do with our free period?”
“I don’t know, study? It IS a Study Hall,” Shinso says from his seat behind Midoriya. Ever since Mineta got expelled for having way too many complaints of sexual harassment filed against him, along with ample video evidence to corroborate, the seat in the heroics course that had already been offered to the former Gen Ed student was able to be processed much quicker since they could keep their numbers. However, despite being there for a couple of weeks already, he still was really only comfortable with Midoriya, the only person, besides Aizawa-sensei, who never seemed afraid to talk to him even after learning his Quirk and having it used on him, even if it was in an approved setting like the Sports Festival. He’d even come up and tried to talk to him several times after the festival, completely undeterred by Shinso trying his best to snub him. He even offered to help him train his Quirk after he was accepted into the class! Midoriya was almost annoyingly persistent, and as much as he hated to admit it, the boy was growing on him. The rest of the class though, was yet to be determined, so the fact that he’d spoken to them at all aside from what was necessary for training, drew open-mouthed stares from most of his classmates. “What?”
Choruses of, “You CAN talk!” and, “Yay! He’s speaking to us now!” and other similar statements from the more excitable members of the class exploded as some of them jumped from their seats, ran up to him and tried to strike up conversations with him while they had the chance. Ugh, he really should’ve kept his mouth shut… “Look, I don’t care if you don’t mind your grades tanking, but I have a lot of catching up to do since I’m a transfer, and my time to study the hero classes is already limited since I train with Aizawa-sensei after school whenever he doesn’t have patrol. So if you don’t mind…” and smirking, he lets the end of that statement trail off, with the silent threat of brainwashing them all into letting him study loom over their heads. He’d never actually do it to them of course, but they didn’t need to know that. Midoriya had given him a very good copy of notes that covered everything in that class from the beginning of the school year that he’d missed, so he was actually not as behind as he thought he’d be at this point before the transfer became official, but that didn’t mean he could start slacking off either. Behind was still behind after all, and he had no intention of giving anybody a chance to criticize him for being ignorant. “Aw man, but you’re already ahead of us in the other classes. And you’re always training with sensei! We live in the same dorm, but it’s like we almost never see you outside of class! You can’t really blame us for wanting to take this prime chance to get to know you,” Kaminari says with a full blown pout on his lips.
“Come on guys, leave him alone. He’s busy and wants to take advantage of the time does have. He’ll let us know when he’s ready to hang out with us, right Shinso-kun?” Midoriya says, flashing him his usual sunshine smile. Shinso has to work to hold back a laugh, “You of all people can’t say that. You’re the pushiest one of all of you! But you’re helping me train, so you’re partially forgiven,” he teased, much to Midoriya’s embarrassment. “And yes, you’re right,” he adds, offering the tiniest of appreciative smiles to let him know that they’re good before the green boy has a chance to start an endless spews of apologies, which, thankfully, he catches. Turning back to the rest of their classmates, Midoriya says, “See? We should just study. That way we can have time to train more later too! I actually also have a training session after school, so I’d be nice if I didn’t have to worry about finishing my homework when I’m tired. I really wanted to work some more on my long range attacks. Maybe I should try…,” and that’s all anybody caught before Class 1-A’s resident Quirk analyzer devolved into mumbling, which most of them no longer found creepy, and a few actually started finding cute. His accuracy and imaginativeness with his analysis would be scary if it hadn’t helped many of them improve their own control of their Quirks, some of them even discovering new things they could do thanks to him, so they were very appreciative of his Quirk obsession.
Bakugo, having had enough of the chatter behind him as he tried to work, turned around and almost literally exploded. “Oi! Deku! Quit your stupid mumbling! All the rest of you extras need to fuck off and stop distracting me if you don’t want your faces blown off!”
Startled out of his stream of consciousness, Midoriya blushes and meekly smiles at his childhood friend, “Hehe, sorry Kacchan.” This earns him an eye roll from the blonde in front of him, who calmed down after the others begrudgingly returned to their seats to talk amongst themselves, “You training with All Might again?” he asks after a few seconds. “Yeah! He’s helping me figure out different ranged attacks so I can have more versatility! I’ve already got air bullets that I can shoot using my fingers, but I want something that packs a bit more of a punch for larger opponents,” the green haired boy beams back “Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have a back-up in case my fingers break again,” he jokes, earning himself a sharp warning glare from the blonde in front of him. “I-it’s not that I’m going to purposely break them again! I’m just saying, it’s probably a good idea to have options?” Bakugo’s face relaxes, “Well, no matter what you come up with, you still won’t be stronger than me, shitty Deku,” he smirks, voice competitive, but with less bite to his tone than he would’ve had a few months back. Now fired up, Midoriya retorts with a declaration that he’ll surpass him and be Number One, before they both get back to their work. Shinso can’t help but wonder how exactly their friendship works, but pushes the thought aside for another time. For now, he needed to focus.
While the class settled into its usual dynamic, some studying, some chatting away, and some trying and failing to do both, one student’s mind was turning. He’d only ever voiced one of his suspicions one time, during the Sports Festival, and was met with a very definitive denial. Not that he was ever one to take things that were told to him at face value. Unless there was proof to the contrary, he would not be deterred, and unfortunately for the people in question in his mind, ever since moving into the dorms, the only proof he was finding was in his favor. His classmates had no idea that he loved a good conspiracy theory. In fact, a lot of the theories floating around the internet about pro-heroes were started by him. What else could he do to unwind that could be disguised as “training research” while he was at home so that he wouldn’t get in trouble? Probably a lot of other things, if he was going to be completely honest with himself, but as someone who’d had his entire life planned out for him, he relished in the little bits of chaos he accidentally caused. He never actually meant to start things, that’s just how they ended up. He just wanted to know. Shoto had three people in particular that he had theories about in his class, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. But first, he needed to finish his work quickly so he could take advantage of his, now increased, investigation time in the dorms.