Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku's neck cramped from slumping for too long, but he felt that his current position--chin on his desk, arms splayed on either side of his keyboard, and feet pulled up and squeezed onto his computer chair--was justified. It's not every day that someone has the reason they get up every morning torn away from them and spat on. Plus, his throat was still a little clogged up from the sludge monster (which was absolutely disgusting) and made him feel ill. Or maybe he was getting sick. Didn't All Might say something about the sewer system? That's certainly one way to get sick quick.

he scrolled down his second favorite hero forum, which was currently filled stories about All Might's capture of the sludge monster. Unfortunately, based on how his first favorite hero forum was only talking about All Might, it looked like there was no avoiding the news stories and comments on the latest story. Some of the commenters were sympathizing with Kacchan, analyzing his quirk and coming up with ways he could use it for heroics in the future, or freaking out over All Might's punch that literally changed the weather, but Izuku skipped over those. He was there. He knew that Kacchan would be a great hero and he witnessed All Might's strength first hand. Instead, his attention was drawn by the comments about himself.

HiroAnalysis:  I saw the kid who charged in to save the explosion quirk kid getting lectured by heroes afterward. According to the heroes, he's quirkless. 

AllNight87 : No way! And he still went after the villain? What an idiot. I can't wait for natural selection to come his way.

There were more comments, but Izuku scrolled to the next story immediately. The articles didn't tell the public about how Kamui woods could've smacked the sludge monster with the debris Kacchan dislodged and allowed Kacchan to escape. Nor did they mention that Mount Lady could've shrunk down, slip into the alley, and then re-enlarge herself in the alley that was mostly free of civilians. 

If Deku hadn't been so empty, he probably would've been pissed at the biased articles. Luckily for the authors, Deku had learned his lesson. Even All Might didn't believe in Izuku. If All Might, the man whose tag line right next to "I am here!" was "You too can be a hero!" didn't think a stubborn quirkless kid could make it, then that was that. Looks like Midoryia was destined to be a quirkless nobody and all of his years spent in hero analysis were actually a naive waste of time and energy.

Yay.

He looked away from his screen. Looking at any more hero forums would just be torturing himself. There was nothing Izuku could do. It wasn't like he had a quirk to go back in time and redo the day or anything. 

Sticky notes littered the desk next to his computer, filled with haphazard notes that hadn't made it into his journal yet and reminders. He picked up the nearest one and read it:

"Ask mom about self-defense classes!"

Izuku crumpled the note and threw it in the garbage where his hopes and dreams lay abandoned. Right, a quirkless kid having the power to defend himself? That's hilarious. In hindsight, he wondered if the instructors would even let him in their class or if they'd be worried he was too fragile even though quirkless kids had the same bone density and pain tolerance as anyone with a non-mutant quirk. It was dumb. It was bs.

It was Midoryia's entire life. 

He moped in his room until his mom knocked on his door and announced that dinner was ready. Izuku dragged himself out of his computer chair and tried to smile. This was nothing to worry his mom over. After all, she'd been silently encouraging him to give up his dream for years. She never said  he should give up of course, but what she didn't say made her hopes clear. She just wanted what was best for him. She just wanted to save him from this miserable feeling, like he'd had a rug pulled out from under him and fell into a half-frozen shark-infested pool, except instead of sharks tearing him apart it was his beloved hero forums he spent countless hours pouring over.

Maybe his mom had had the right idea. This feeling sucked.

But of course, right when Izuku thought his day couldn't get worse, it did. His mom was his best friend (and only friend, barring whatever he had going on with Kacchan). She knew when he was excited over the newest All Might merch, frustrated with homework, and she listened to all of his rants. He was an idiot for even thinking he could fool her for half a second.

What an idiot. I can't wait for natural selection to come his way.

It took one glance for her to realize something was wrong, "Izuku? What's wrong honey?"

"I uh..." What was Midoryia supposed to say? His hero told him he was useless. Kacchan told him he was useless. He never even had a chance of being a hero and saving people with a smile on his face. He wanted to help people, make them feel safe, and give them a purpose, and give everyone everything Izuku never had, but he couldn't. 

Izuku cleared his throat so his voice wouldn't crack, "I had a rough day," he murmured.

"Oh honey!" his mom soothed, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a tight squeeze, "I'm so sorry!"

You and everyone   else,  Izuku thought to himself. It's always,  "Oh you're quirkless? I'm so sorry!" "I'm sorry Midoryia, but you're quirkless,' "I'm sorry dude, but this is better suited towards those that have... an advantage."  If he never heard the word "quirkless" again in his entire life it would be too soon.

He didn't say any of this aloud. His mom didn't have to worry about that, "It's okay, mom. I'm fine, I've just been... thinking, and--" his voice cracked and he cursed himself. Why is he getting so worked up about this? He was an idiot for thinking he could even try to be a hero, "I don't think heroism is for me," he confessed.

His mom clutched him tighter and he heard the telltale sniffling that let him know she was too, "Oh Izuku, I know this is hard for you. I'm so sorry you have to go through this."

He hugged her back and held back a hiccup, "Yeah, but there's nothing I can do without it."

Chapter Text

"Alright, I'll let you guys go, but remember!" Midoryia's teacher shouted over the post-bell rumble of conversation and the sound of books being stuffed in backpacks, "Your high school applications are due Friday!"

Midoryia held in a groan. Of course they are. Why can't the multiverse take pity on him? He has two days to decide his entire future since he came to terms with his quirklessness. Maybe he could skip high school and just get a job at a grocery store or something? That would be easiest. He wouldn't have to worry about getting rejected from a school because of his quirklessness, and hey! No more math tests! He could wake up at a decent time, not stay up until midnight studying for tests, and go about his life without student debt. Besides, like 90% of quirkless adults worked at minimum wage, so it wouldn't be anything for Midoryia to be ashamed of. He would just become one of many to go down that route.

But Midoryia was never one for taking the easy route, and he actually  enjoyed  math class to a degree. His grades were good: he was ranked top ten in his year, despite Sensei Takahashi giving him a few zeroes for "cheating." He probably had a chance of getting into a high school if he tried hard enough. All he had to do was decide his entire future. Maybe he could go into some science--

"HEY DEKU!"

Midoryia jumped at the sudden bellow. He had been so deep in thought he didn't even notice Kacchan approaching him until it was too late. "Hi Kacchan,' he mumbled. He went through his usual don't-piss-off-Kacchan checklist: Drop his gaze, slump his shoulders, speak just loud enough for him to clearly hear you. Act small, become invisible--

"Pft. Look at you," Kacchan scoffed, leaning against a nearby desk, "Can't even look your classmate in the eye, you fucking useless wimp. What were you thinking, attacking a fucking villain when you can't even defend yourself, you idiot?"

What an idiot. I can't wait for natural selection to come his way.

"I know," Midoryia admitted, "It was dumb and stupid, and I almost got hurt. All Might was on his way nobody needed a quirkless kid to get involved."

Bakugou was silent, then snarled, "HA?"

One of his goons pretended to cover his mouth in shock, "Wow, would you look at that? Little Deku's finally learned his place?"

The other members of Kacchan's part jeered at mocked him, but the ringleader stayed silent and studied him with his permanent snarl, "I don't believe it," Kacchan decided, "You think you can just lie to me? What, do you think you're better than me, you useless piece of shit?"

Well that backfired,  Izuku noted as he raised his hands in surrender, "What? No! I swear it's the truth! The heroes said I just got in the way and made things worse! They... they said that there's no way a quirkless kid could be a hero and I should..." Midoryia grimaced, "I should just stop before I get myself killed," and wow that hurt to say, even if it was true. He may have already given up on his dream, but that didn't mean the pain in his chest would go away any time soon. He rubbed his eyes before they could start tearing up, "and well... they're heroes. If anyone knows anything about heroism, it's them."

He snuck a glance at Kacchan and was surprised to see him so taken back by his announcement. The other boy's surprise wasn't obvious, but Midoryia had years to memorize the way his mouth hung slightly ajar and his brow furrowed less than usual. Did he think Midoryia was too hard-headed to listen to logic? Was he disappointed that he wouldn't have a go-to reason to justify his bullying?

Deku sighed and squeezed his backpack's straps closer to his chest, "Just... leave me alone for a bit, Kacchan. I need to go home and figure out what I want to do with my life now that I can't be a hero."

"Jumping's always an option," One of Kacchan's goons snarked, but Kacchan hit him over the head before Midoryia could even process the other's words.

"You don't say that to a kid who's lost his purpose in life!" Kacchan snapped, "They might actually do it, and then you can be put on trial for murder or some shit. He's quirkless, so you might still get off, but your parents will have to pay the court fees and it'll go on your record."

"You literally told me to jump off a roof yesterday," Midoryia reminded him before he could stop himself.

Kacchan's anger, thankfully, didn't turn on him, "Yeah, because I thought you were too stubborn to actually do it, but I guess I was wrong."

------------------

Midoryia sat at his computer again, his hands hovering over his keyboard. A blank notebook sat to his right, ready for any notes he'll decide to take, and one of his favorite pencils sat next to it.

At least this part would be fun. Deku  loved  researching like nothing else. Whether it was researching the latest All Might Merch or trying to track down footage of elusive underground heroes, nothing could get his brain racing like making connections between multiple sources and discovering new things. He knew all of Google's shortcuts, how to find a reputable source, what websites and VPNs would allow him to access academic studies ,  and even browsed the surface of the dark web (just out of curiosity). Finding a future career would be a piece of cake. 

Midoryia clicked on the search bar.

Career Decision   Guide

Midoryia clicked on the first link--some link to a blog-- and began reading. It wasn't the most reputable source, but it was a good place to start. He picked up his pencil and began taking notes.

Step 1) determine your skillset? What do enjoy? What benefits may your quirk bring to a workplace? You need to consider how your quirk may affect your work environment. Those with electrical quirks, for instance, don't always make very good chemists because they may accidentally trigger explosions left and right. Someone with a gigantification quirk may be poorly suited to office work (unless your office is willing to make accommodations).

Ah yes, Izuku's quirk did cause him lots of discomfort in public spaces, seeing how it didn't  exist . His excitement at the reminder of everything that happened yesterday. He was half-tempted to turn off his computer and leave, but he had to get this over with. He had a deadline.

Midoryia spun in his chair and looked around his room. Hero posters--more reminders of yesterday's events--stared back at him. Limited editions, birthday presents, things he saw randomly at the store took up every inch of space on his walls because he loved heroes that much. It was almost like his past self had hoped he could get a heroic quirk through osmosis, but now it just hurt to look at All Might's beaming smile that was missing when he told him that Izuku never stood a chance.  

He made eye contact with one of his hero posters, "So All Might, what skills do I have?"

All Might didn't answer, but he almost doubted the real one would either at this point.

So, skills. Izuku did okay in math, but really excelled in quirk-related science. Maybe a quirk therapist? Yes, people would  definitely  want to see a quirkless quirk therapist. He might as well eliminate most science branches since no one would take him seriously. Maybe he could do something with quirks? He had all of his notebooks, research skills, and years of quirk analysis. Something not overly competitive (because discrimination already made getting a job hard enough) but would still allow him to support himself.

His mom knocked on the door, startling Izuku out of his focus. She peeked her head in through the crack, "How's it going? Do you need any help?"

He opened a new tab and typed  quirk analysis-related careers as he  considered his mom's question, "I'm still just starting, but I've already started marking things off," he admitted and explained his current train of thought.

His mom hummed, "I think you should look more into science and business," she suggested, "You're good at figuring out how quirks work, so maybe you can apply that skill elsewhere and figure out, oh I don't know, how quantum physics works.

"Science would be cool," he agreed, "But to do research I would need funding and grants, and no one's gonna give me a fair chance to test my hypothesis."

She mentioned a few other career choices, bouncing ideas around until she suggested, "Oh, what about... uh... Management! UA has a management program, don't they? I know you have notes on hero's brands in your notebook, so you might still be able to apply your hero analysis and everything!"

Izuku considered her proposition. He wasn't fond of Hero Society's obsession with brands and marketing, but if he could continue his hero analysis, make a living, and maybe even meet heroes... that wouldn't suck. Being quirkless might actually give him an advantage too since he would know how to appeal to quirkless audiences or suggest public donations to quirkless foundations to give his agency an extra reputation boost. Actually, hiring him on could be used to the agency's advantage because he would be a diversity hire. 

"I'm writing that down."

---------

He finished his list of applications the morning it was due and turned it in at the beginning of class, ignoring Kacchan's jeers about how he was too much of a coward for the hero course because  he already knew that . At the top of his application list, right under "school and program" read three words

UA Management Course

Chapter Text

"NONONONONONONONONO--" A voice screamed over Izuku's headset, making the speakers gargle. Deku cackled as he pulled his headphones away from his ears to prevent permanent hearing loss. His evil laughter made his eyes light up with a cold, malevolent light. He did it. He won. He showed his enemies what happens when they get on his bad side and mess with the powerful force of nature that is Deku715.

"FUCK YOU!" The same voice screamed back, "HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MANAGE TO SET UP A TRAP IN FUCKING SMASH BROTHERS?"

Midoryia laughed so hard he almost dropped his remote until another user aimed at his avatar and he had to dodge, "I'm just that good," he teased, and immediately ate his words when he was swallowed by Kirby, "Well, Frick."

Now it was Kirby's player turn to laugh, "It is time for Icarus to fall," she murmured and spat Izuku's flightless character off the playable map, winning the game.

"Hey Sho, no swearing in front of the baby!" Akit0 scolded, "I don't want his mom to learn how to hack our IP addresses, track us down, and murder us for ruining her precious child."

"Nah, she doesn't care about language," Deku assured Akit0, "And I am not a baby!"

"Shhh, yes you are," Akit0 insisted, "You're a small innocent child who shouldn't even be playing resident evil."

"I died half as much as you did in Resident Evil, and you know it,"

"Yeah, but I wasn't as bad as that time Sho accidentally made his spawning area over a pit of lava in Minecraft," Akit0 taunted, causing Sho to launch into another screaming fit.

Despite Kacchan's bullying and general quirkless discrimination, Izuku  did  have friends. They were exclusively online and didn't know he was quirkless, but he still considered them his friends.

It's not like he was  lying  to them or anything. They just too busy discussing the newest combo in smash and beating each other's butts to really talk about that stuff. He never asked about their quirks; they never asked about his. It was that simple. 

Izuku had the youngest sounding voice and wasn't fond of swearing, so his gaming friends dubbed him the baby of the chat, not that they ever shared personal information. They knew each other's usernames, their preferred battle strategies, their favorite videogames, and their least favorite coworkers and classmates, but the real stuff was swept under the rug. This worked perfectly for Izuku, who was a plain-looking quirkless kid with social anxiety. He showed up on the chat, left when he wanted, and got his daily dose of social interaction.

They were cool though. They were into the same games as Izuku, so he got a lot of game recs and advice for how to beat certain bosses when playing single-player. Akito, short for FrutzBasketAkit0169 was a bit of a parental friend and served as the mod on their server. They were a huge anime fan with an itemized list of things they wanted to make Izuku watch. Kirb was an amazing fanartist who would randomly send cursed pictures to the chat, and her Spotify was perfect for studying to. Even Sho was fun, despite his hot head and rampant sarcasm. Or maybe he was fun  because  of it. His reactions were always the funniest reactions when he was pissed. 

"Alright I'm gonna go on a pee and snack break," Kirb declared, and there was a shuffling sound on her end as she stood up, "be back in ten. You can play without me or wait, either works."

"Oh man, snacks sound good," Akit0 agreed, "I think we still have some microwave popcorn."

They left the call, leaving only Izuku and Sho left. Izuku didn't have anything worthwhile to say, so he opened his quirk analysis discord on his phone.

Izuku really had two main discords: a gaming one for social reasons, and a quirk analysis one he found on a hero forum. Technically the discord was open to the public, but these days only five or six people were regulars.

MetAl41 must've posted a link to an article while he was playing Smash because the others were deep into a discussion, and Izuku had to scroll back quite aways to get enough context for the conversation. Looks like he posted an article... about the sludge villain. Yay. Of course he couldn't have one hour without his failure being shoved in his face.

MetAl41 : Okay, but are we ignoring the fact that a quirkless child did more to help the victim than the actual heroes who are paid to do so?

Analysister:  I--

Analysister:  You're kinda right?

Analysister:  I mean they were rescuing civilians and stuff, but from what I've heard they didn't do much to actually de-escalate the situation and there was a literal life on the line. I'm a big Kamui Woods fan, and yeah the kid had an explosion quirk, but it seems kinda dumb that literally no one was willing to help out a  suffocating child .

MountMelady:  don't you dare disrespect our queen

MetAl41:  your "queen" got outclassed by an untrained child.

MetAl41:  I have to admit, I'm alarmed at how UA is teaching their students these days. Not every problem must be solved by a suitable quirk. I understand that the school is worried about their alumni being too reckless and getting themselves killed or seriously injured (a reasonable stance in such a dangerous field), and it is reasonable for them to hand over a fight to someone with a better-suited quirk when that person is present, but these heroes had no guarantee All Might would show up and save them. They took an unnecessary gamble out of laziness and a middle schooler almost paid the price.

Analysister:  I don't think it was out of laziness? Kamui woods took down a particularly powerful villain this morning and got slammed into a gas station. He probably still had some gasoline soaked into his clothes, so going and rescuing civilians was  extra risky . Mount Lady legitimately didn't have the room to intervene due to her quirk. Death Arms also needs to have leverage for his combat style and was rendered useless against the sludge villain. I'm not saying there weren't ways out of that situation, but I can understand why they couldn't think of one.

MetAl41:  but shouldn't hero schools prepare students for any possible villain? There are many villains like the sludge villain out there that Death Arms is not suited for, and yet he had no idea what to do other than wait for someone else. I know for a fact that we as a group could come up with at least three ways to beat the sludge villain using the resources the heroes had available. A kid without any special offensive or defensive abilities knew how to overcome the situation, and yet the heroes who were literally trained for that very situation were useless. 

MountMelady:  Okay yeah, but that's not laziness. That's a poorly written syllabus.

Izuku never liked it when people bashed UA, but his mild discomfort was outclassed by positive recognition. MetAl41 ,  one of the best analysts in the discord, said he did a good thing. He didn't say he could be a hero or that he was impressive, but he thought Izuku did the right thing. That was the first time Deku had heard  anyone  say that. He did a good job. He helped someone. He had a dopey grin on his face as he typed his own input.

SmallMight715:  I have to admit I'm not the biggest Mount Lady fan (her brand doesn't appeal to me and it seems like her massive size would be more suited to a city with wider streets, fewer alleys, etc. if she doesn't want to have widespread property damage (like last year where the infrastructure's damage was 5x that of the villains) but there was definitely more that she could do. If she'll shrink down for interviews, then she can shrink to get into narrow spaces and reduce damage. She definitely isn't using her quirk very efficiently and really needs to look for professional advice if she doesn't want to rely on stealing other people's villains at the last second and taking credit for what would've been someone else's takedown. 

SmallMight715:  and there was debris at the scene caused by the victim's quirk that could've made suitable projectiles for long-distance attacks. Or the heroes could've gone for his eyes and at least disoriented the villain enough to rescue to hostage. I do agree with the statement you made about heroes being too reliant on their quirks, but I think that's just an aspect of society in general. I mean, the quirkless have the lowest employment rate of any minority because people who rely too much on their quirks think they'd be incapable of anything without one. With quirkless discrimination on the rise, I'm not exactly shocked that school systems are overlooking non-quirked solutions to difficult problems.

SmallMight715 : However, you have to admit that Death Arms, Kamui Woods, and Mount Lady make a strong team-up. Since they'd teamed up, the casualty rate due to villain attacks has gone down significantly (like 4% if I remember correctly) because woods can focus on rescue and Mount Lady can use her quirk to the fullest extent and take her time to observe her surrounding and minimize property damage. This was just one error they've made out of many, many wins.

MountMelady:  Damn SmallMight. 

MountMelady:  Maybe there's a reason she never shrinks in battle? Maybe it takes too long/too much energy for her to rapidly change size? Maybe that's why she tends to show up toward the end of battles; maximizes profit and energy? Gotta admit it would be really cool if she could change her size so that it suited the situation and would allow her to handle a wider variety of situations.

SmallMight715:  Yeah I don't think that's something I could pick up via observation very easily. That's something someone would have to directly ask her.

Deku exited the hero analysis channel and opened their quirk theory one. There was no active conversation there, but he had thought of something earlier that morning and thought it was worth mentioning.

SmallMight715 : speaking of quirkless, you know how the 1% rule where the percentage of the earth's quirked population grew steadily until somewhere in the 3rd/4th generation? I was bored in class and was thinking about general mutation vs quirk mutation and now I'm wondering if there are people with mutations out there without a quirk factor.

SmallMight715:  Like had their parents had emitter quirks they would've been traditionally quirkless, but whatever made their parents have a visible mutation also affected genes other than the chromosomes responsible for quirks, and then the parents failed to pass down the quirk genes but passed out the other mutations.

Quirkney:  Holy shit

Quirkney:  That would be really fucking cool and, if you're right, could have massive repercussions in the medical field and in quirkless restrictions

SmallMight715:  Ikr? It would be really hard to prove since you need a very specific subset of people. And quirkless populations are so small these days that you'd need a massive sample size to find enough data points.

SmallMight715 : Or any data points, really

Quirkney:  Fuck, now I wanna know.

Quirkney: ... how mad would you be if I started looking into making this a formal study? I can add you and stuff.

SmallMight715:  That would be really cool! But I'm not in college for quirk studies or anything. Could you even include me if I don't have a title or whatever? I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for plagiarism.

Quirkney:  I wouldn't be the first to plagiarize and certainly not the last

SmallMight715:  Watson and Crick can go screw themselves. And Edison. And Einstein, while we're at it

Quirkney:  Einstein too, huh? Who did he plagiarize?

SmallMight715:  He didn't credit his wife for her contributions to his works

Quirkney:  Fuck him.

Izuku laughed at that, which caused Sho to startle on the other end of the voice chat. The series of scuffles only made Izuku laugh harder as he hunched over from laughing so hard.

"Holy shit NPC! You scared me!" Sho wheezed like an old man having a heart attack.

"Sorry, my other discord is bashing on old white dudes again," he elaborated.

"That is an acceptable reason to scare the ever-living shit out of me," Sho conceded, "I am always up for attacking the reputations of shifty public figures."

"Hey guys!" a feminine voice interrupted as Kirb rejoined the chat and her incessant chatter brought back the liveliness that had died out after she left. She told them about her snack, managing to make microwaving ramen sound like an epic tale worthy of a ballad. Once Akit0 rejoined, they all picked up their remotes and resumed their game.

Izuku may not have any friends to go shopping with or to hang out with during lunch, but he treasured the ones he did have.

Chapter Text

Izuku was not shaking as he stepped through UA's dramatic doorway, surrounded by fellow exam takers. He was just...

Yeah no, he was terrified. He wondered how many quirkless people had walked the path to this school, only to fail to get in. There hadn't been any quirkless students at UA as far as Izuku could tell, but the school was so selective and the quirkless population was so low that might not be outright discrimination. He just hoped they wouldn't turn him away at the door or something. Or maybe they would sabotage his test like Ishigawa-sensei did once. That would be fun.

He scanned his surroundings, taking in the people around him. Right, people. He and Analysister had started a game of trying to figure out as much about random people's quirks as possible without drawing attention. She had a hypothesis that people's personalities were shaped by biological and environmental circumstances related to their quirk factors and asked the discord to come up with more data points so she could make more accurate statistics. Essentially, if Izuku could look at someone's verbal and physical behavior and guess their quirk correctly based on the weak profile, he marked a tally on his left arm. If he couldn't, he marked it on his right.

If he was going to fail the entrance exam anyway, he might as well get something out of it.

He let his eyes fall to a tall boy with a blue undercut and intense eyes who was... directing traffic? He looked Izuku's age, so why would he be in a position where UA would trust him to get test takers where they needed to be? Maybe he was a test taker, but just really uptight and serious. 

Okay, what kind of quirk would like to do things as quickly and efficiently as possible--

Izuku yelped as he went to take another step but his foot got caught on his heel. He observed at the ground's rapid approach and accepted his fate. He was going to embarrass himself before he even entered UA. Everyone was going to laugh him out of the exam and he wouldn't even get to enter the prestigious school. This was it for him.

He blinked as the ground stopped moving closer. A pressure he didn't even realize was there removed itself from his head and... Wait, his feet weren't touching the ground. Was he floating?

Uh...

"I'm so sorry! I should've asked before using my quirk on you!" A girl's voice apologized as small hands lowered him to the ground, "I just saw you start to trip, and well, I could've asked, but you would've been on the ground by then and it obviously would've been too late. I just figured you'd like to avoid going head to head a brick path."

Izuku couldn't help the smile that wormed itself onto his face, "Yeah, that was a good assumption," he agreed, "What is your quirk, if you don't mind me asking? I was just hovering in the air and I think I did feel something touch me, and based on the discoloration of your fingers you have a 5-point activation quirk so that would make sense. The hovering... No, it isn't hovering, because then I would've felt an opposing force on my feet. Instead, you made me reach equilibrium from the top, and WHOA do you have an anti-gravity quirk?"

"Zero gravity," the girl corrected automatically, "but otherwise you're right! Wow, you're observant!"

"Thank you, I have a slight obsession with quirk analysis," Izuku explained, "but wow, I take it you're going for heroics with a quirk like that. It would be perfect for search and rescue, especially if you can remove gravity from yourself. I wonder how it can be used in a combat environment--" Deku realized he was mumbling, "I'm so sorry! That's weird, isn't it? It's a bad habit of mine. I'll stop now."

The girl blinked before a new smile brightened her face, "You're weird."

Wow Deku, she doesn't even know you're quirkless yet and she already thinks you're a weirdo

"I hope we both get into UA! It would be cool to see you again!" the girl announced before offering him a short wave and running off toward the entrance.

Midoryia had no idea how to process that interaction. He verbally analyzed her quirk without her asking, she was weirded out, she left, and then said she can't wait to see him again... What? Did Izuku creep her out maybe and make her feel unsafe so she lied? Was she mocking him? Even more unlikely, was she being genuine? 

Deku got about 5 meters closer to the entrance before he heard another voice.

"Hey Deku! I thought you gave up on heroics!" 

Izuku repressed a sigh. He turned around and was immediately face to face with Bakugou Katsuki, "I-I did," he agreed, "I'm here for the management course exam," Izuku explained.

Kacchan scoffed, "Management? You really think I'm gonna believe that you applied to the  management  course? That is the last class I would expect you to apply for."

Is that an insult? The way he said it kinda made it sound like it, but Kacchan's face lacked some of its usual...intensity. For some reason, Kacchan's been...not nicer, but kinda stuck on the fact that Izuku isn't shooting for heroics anymore. The way he talks is like he's expecting Izuku to snap out of his trance any second and confess to pulling a trick on him.

No matter how many circles Izuku ran in his head, he couldn't make sense of it. Kacchan had been telling him he couldn't be a hero for years. He was one of the first people to tell him he was worthless and had said it a million times since, so obviously it wasn't out of the goodness of his heart. Yet, it wasn't malevolent either because his face lacked some of its usual malice. 

Izuku shrugged, hoping the incoming snark wouldn't backfire, "Well, I'm on my way to the exam right now. Because I'm applying. Literally walking there at the moment. Don't know what else you want to hear."

Bakugou smirked and took a step back, giving Izuku his space once again, "Good. You've still got it," he observed with a curt nod before walking away, leaving Izuku even more confused.

This was certainly not a good omen. If he got this lost just talking to people, clearly his brain was not working. 

Deku was going to bomb this exam.

---------

By some miracle, he did NOT bomb the exam and was accepted to UA high school's management course.

-------- change in pov ---------

Midnight fingered through her stack of papers half-mindedly, skimming them for anything particularly notable. She was on her lunch break, so she technically wasn't going to grade anything quite yet, but she was curious to get to know her new students. UA doesn't like to waste time on pleasantries, but Midnight was no Aizawa and waited to give her students their pretests until after the orientation ceremony.

She skimmed another packet, making note of the student's use of diction when detailing instructions. Being able to give clear and detailed instructions like that would definitely benefit them in the future. That makes Midnight's life just a little bit easier.

Hizashi dropped his ramen on the other side of the staff room's coffee table and leaned across the table just enough to read her papers, "Looking over pretests?" he observed.

Midnight nodded, "So far they're not bad, but I've known them for like three hours and still need to make personality assessments," she admitted.

Hizashi hummed, "Yeah, I might move our lesson back to give us time for some better ice breakers. My homeroom seems particularly quiet this year. No idea why."

"Everyone's quiet compared to you," Midnight pointed out before she slipped a ball of rice into her mouth and swallowed, "I think you're still too used to your last class."

Hizashi shrugged, "You're probably right, but that's exactly why I need the extra time. I probably scare my students a bit, and I already had one with a sound quirk ask to switch to class 1D to minimize... conflicts."

Midnight winced. It always hurt to have a student transfer out of your class, but she knew the student made the right decision. If she was getting bothered by his barely-controlled volume on their first day, it was only going to get worse from here. She expressed her sympathy as she ran through her next test and paused.

Did she read that right?

She snatched the paper in both hands and reread the student's short answer on the pros and cons of various agency sizes, this time slower and more carefully.

Hizashi raised his eyebrows at her, "That good?"

Midnight pursed her lips as she considered her coworker's question. There were definitely better answers, but it wasn't the answer itself that she was interested in so much as the process. Most management students picked a goal, found the problem, and then came up with a solution. This student-- Midoryia Izuku-- approached this completely differently, focused on maximizing the result from the problem and trying to pick the most advantageous path. It was an interesting approach. Not nearly as efficient or straightforward as the others, but he still stumbled upon an acceptable conclusion and his position was well-argued.

"New," Midnight decided. She set the test aside in case she was able to place why the written answer felt both new and familiar.

She, Hizashi, and Shouta chatted for a bit about their students for a few minutes until they were interrupted by the break room's door being slammed open.

"I'm resigning!" Power Loader declared the same way he did at the beginning of every year. To be fair, he did look more exhausted than usual.

Yagi, being the newbie and unaccustomed to Power Loader's annual plight, was far more alarmed than any other staff member. He immediately straightened and ran to the teacher's side, ready to provide any support, "What happened? Are you alright?"

Power Loader rubbed his temples and collapsed on Midnight's couch with a heavy sigh, "Her name is Hatsume Mei and I am  not  alright."

Midnight half-heartedly patted his back, holding back a laugh, "I take it you have some promising students?" she teased, "Did someone try to hack into UA's security system and override the firewalls just to see if they can again?"

Hizashi shook his head, "Nah, he looks more like the day when a student purposefully made a bomb and we had to evacuate the entire school on the first day."

"I'm still fond of the kid who made an android so he didn't have to get out of bed in the morning," Shouta agreed, suddenly deciding to join the conversation. Hizashi thought he had been napping this whole time, but judging by the lack of his voice's usual morning gruffness, he must've just been ignoring them, "He may not have been in heroics, but he had potential."

Yagi's posture softened as he realized Power Loader was just being dramatic, "Ah, I see. I take it support students can be... difficult?"

Power Loader stared at him, "Uh, yeah. Understatement of the century. She got bored while waiting for the rest of the class to find the classroom and managed to make an explosion from a  pen ."

"Like one of those fancy ones with the lasers or whatever?" Yagi used his hands to mime out... something. Midnight had no idea what those gestures were supposed to be.

"No. A cheap 50 yen one made of nothing but plastic."

Midnight was no scientist, but judging by the lost expressions on her other coworkers' faces, she wasn't the only one who was confused.

Apparently, the topic was interesting enough to interest Aizawa because he sat up in his sleeping bag, "Does she have an explosion quirk?"

Power Loader waved his hand dismissively, "No, it's something to do with her vision I think," he recalled, "She just... exploded it."

Ectoplasm put his chopsticks down so he could properly give Power Loader a suspicious look, " How?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Power Loader cried, slumping back into the couch, "My best guess is that she managed to find a heat source and managed to heat it until the pressure became too much and exploded, which is... probably possible? I'd have to figure out the coefficient of expansion for ink--which would probably be roughly equal to that of water, I think-- or no wait, I would just look at the one stress coefficient and determine whether the amount of pressure in a sealed ballpoint pen--" Power Loader cut himself off, "but anyway, she exploded it and sent ink  everywhere , and of course I don't have anything to clean up ink in my workshop because I don't even  allow  pens most days. I just hope her parents don't get mad when she gets home still covered in the stuff."

Midnight took a moment to thank whatever deities might be in charge of their universe that she didn't get stuck with her, "Huh."

"We were supposed to just go over the syllabus and lab safety today and yet she  already  violated those rules. I just..." Power Loader shook his head and buried it in his hands, "Every year I adjust the curriculum to minimize the amount of rampant chaos created by students like her, but it's never enough."

"Is she the only one this year?" Snipe asked with an optimistic tilt in his voice, probably trying to soothe the distressed teacher.

"I think so? It's still too early to tell," Power Loader confessed, "But I think all of my students are in here explicitly for the excuse to build complex things and give them to heroes. None of them seem to realize this is the support  course and we're supposed to help heroes be their best, not show off by making intricate designs. I'll have to move a few lessons around so I can put extra emphasis on the service aspect. They pick a goal and accomplish it, but sometimes you need to just look at what you're dealt and make the most of it, you know?"

Midnight's eyes fell to paper she set aside, "Huh, that's funny." Isn't that exactly what she just noted about Midoryia Izuku? That he had a weird way of approaching problems?

She picked up the test she put aside and flipped through it, examining the kid's answers from a new perspective. In the question where her students were supposed to detail what kind of image is popular these days (gruff vs sweet, that sort of thing), this kid first identified the quirk she used as an example, listed ways it could be used, and then picked the image he thought would suit that particular quirk's potential based on his hypotheticals. It required so many extra steps to answer a simple question, but his propositions were incredibly insightful and could seriously allow a hero to save many lives if applied.

"You just had a realization," Hizashi stated because there was no doubting that Midnight's furious speed was anything but inspired.

"Yeah," she agreed, holding the test out to Power Loader, "I've got a first-year, Midoryia Izuku, who got into management, but his test seemed kinda weird to me. It would be interesting to see him in the support course."

Power Loader accepted the test and began to leaf through it. He started slowly, but his pace increased the more excited he got, "That's... a good approach," he noted, "and right there, he literally suggested having the support team make a device to limit a quirk's drawback," Power Loader's mouth was hidden by his suit, but the pitch of his observations increased with his joy. When he made it through, he looked Midnight in the eyes, more determined than she'd seen him in a while, "I need him."

Midnight laughed.

"Why is this kid applying to management? Holy fuck! I don't even care if he knows nothing about engineering. I will  personally  give him private lessons if I need to," Power Loader decided, waving the paper around furiously as he did so, "Give him to me."

"I can't just hand him over because the kid has a will of his own, but I can, "Midnight held up her hands to air quote "'forget' something in your classroom and send a student who just  happens  to be Midoryia," she offered.

"Fine, but you're not getting him back if I can help it," Power Loader declared, holding the test closer to his chest.

"That's not how our scheduling system works," Aizawa deadpanned from his sleeping bag.

"We can make an exception."

Chapter Text

Walking through UA High School felt like Izuku was walking through the girl's bathroom; every step Deku took, he felt more awkward and more sure he shouldn't be here. The logical part of his brain reminded him that he deserved to be here as much as the other students. He passed the exam. He got accepted. He's even met some of his classmates now, who are nice enough (even if they don't know that Izuku is quirkless yet). Miss Midnight knows that he is quirkless and still smiled at him just like her other students (which was  weird,  Izuku's still not sure how to react to that).

It was probably his own contentment that put him on edge. This is how the first day of school usually went. Everything would go smoothly and Izuku would get a taste--just a glimpse--of a normal life, and then everything would go wrong. Any second now, someone was going to jump out and put him in his place. Kacchan was waiting around every blind corner, ready to demand,  "what the hell is this quirkless piece of shit doing here?  " and announce Izuku's quirklessness to the entire school. Every introduction to a classmate, he held his breath, hoping they wouldn't ask the dreaded , "And what's your quirk?"  question. Izuku's quirklessness was a balloon stretched to its breaking point on his back, about to break any second, but Izuku didn't know which second. 

The actual building was Gorgeous. Clean, bright, and inclusive with towering doors to accommodate those with larger quirks while students and teacher welcomed him with excitement (for now). The campus lived up to its elite reputation among Japan as the best hero school in the country. Right now, the future number one hero could be a classroom away, ready to put their quirk to the test for the first time. If Izuku didn't know better, he would be on cloud nine right now.

Instead, Izuku was waiting for everyone to settle down at various lunch tables. Years of practice made him adept at recognizing the way his fellow outsiders held themselves. A student with some sort of corvid quirk (A raven, perhaps?) had quickly found a table, likely intending to isolate himself from his classmates, shortly followed by a six-armed mutant quirk. Mutants generally tended to be left out of the more "popular" friend groups, so it was likely that if Izuku sat down at that table they would recognize him as their kin and they would all stew in half-awkward silence. With that many muscular arms, the six-armed guy would serve as a bully deterrent and allow Izuku a breath of safety while he ate. Plus, the table was as close to the corner as you could get in UA, meaning that it was perfect for getting in and out of the lunchroom quickly to avoid bullies. Those two students might not be in his school, but--

"Oh hey, I know you!" A girl's voice cried, "You're the weirdo!"

Izuku whipped around to find the speaker. The brunette with the zero gravity quirk waving at him, a wide smile on her face and her eyes warm. That was... not what he expected. Normally when people called him a weirdo, it was with a smirk or a scowl. Her smile, on the other hand, looked completely genuine and Izuku once again had no idea how to respond. 

"Uh... sure?" Deku tried, hoping that was the right response.

He was immediately rewarded as the girl laughed and made her way toward him. She shifted her bento box to her left hand and stuck out the other one, "I'm Uraraka Ochako! It's good to see that we both got in! What class are you?"

Izuku wished he wasn't so soft. The nicest thing to do here would be to brush her off and chase her away before she managed to hang out with the quirkless kid, but he knew he wouldn't be able to stand the look on her face if he hurt her feelings, "Uh. hi," he mumbled, "I'm Midoryia Izuku and I'm in management."

"Oh really? I thought you had to be in support or heroics!" Uraraka mused. At Izuku's surprised face, she explained, "You pretty much figured out my quirk the second I used it, which is super impressive! And then you started talking about the practical applications and combat use and so I figured you knew a lot about quirk theory and heroics, which would be useful in heroics or in support. I guess it could potentially be helpful in management, but you have this smart vibe that just doesn't quite fit."

Ah, someone telling him he doesn't fit in. It wasn't an outright jeer at him, but he did find some of the tension seeping from his shoulders. Here it is. The balloon was popping and he didn't have to fear it anymore--

"If you don't have anyone to sit with today, I bet you could sit with Iida and me!" she offered with enough pure happiness energy to the power of all Japan for a day.

Huh ?

Uraraka waved her hands in front of her, as if shielding herself from his confusion, "You don't have to if you don't want to! You just seem like a cool dude, and uh..." she scratched the back of her head, her smile returning, "You do look a little lost."

"I uh--" Izuku's head swam. She didn't know he was quirkless yet, did she? So there wasn't a big chance she wasn't about to lead him into a trap. Still, he didn't want to hurt her reputation so he should say no. How did he say decline without offending her?

"Are we allowed to?" he asked, "We're in different classes and everything."

"Pfft. Maybe Iida and I need someone to stop us from getting into trouble and to  manage us ," she suggested, elbowing at the pun, "So what do you say?"

Izuku almost said no, but one day wouldn't hurt, would it? 

He shrugged and kept his voice purposely level so it wouldn't shake, "Sounds good to me," jokingly, he added, "As long as a blonde kid with an explosion quirk isn't at the table."

Uraraka led him through the maze of tables and sent a knowing smile back at him, "I take it you know Bakugou too?"

"Oh, you're in 1-A?" Izuku found himself saying before he could stop himself. He knew better than to be friendly, but...

Uraraka didn't make sense to him. She called him weird and still welcomed him. She listened to his creepy rants and thought that he was a cool guy. Part of him wondered if she'd respond equally strangely to his quirklessness. What if she even managed to accept him? Even just having a group of friends he could hide behind and pretend he was a part of would be revolutionary. He wouldn't hope because then that hope would be crushed, but he could try at the very least.

"Oh, yeah!" Uraraka replied, "How do you know Bakugou?" she asked before slipping into a booth across from a tall boy with a blue undercut.

Izuku hesitated to sit down and decided to wait for an invitation from the boy, "We grew up in the same neighborhood. This is the first time since pre-school I'm not in his class."

The boy raised his eyebrows, now intrigued, "I must know, has he always been..."

"An asshole?" supplied Uraraka with more optimism than Izuku's ever heard swear someone with. As she finished, she reached out for Izuku's sleeve and pulled him into the booth next to her.

The blue-haired boy spluttered at the curse, almost dropping his orange juice, "Uraraka! I never expected this kind of language from you!"

Uraraka waved her chopsticks in the air half-heartedly, "Yeah, but am I wrong?"

"No, but that is very unheroic! It is not the behavior expected of a UA student!" The boy declared, chopping his hands through the air with robotic precision.

Uraraka blushed and lowered her face a bit, ashamed, so Izuku decided to save her from her embarrassment.

"He was okay until he got his quirk," Izuku confessed, indulging her question. If she had the kindness and goodwill to take him in, he might as well make it well worth her time, "Then Kacchan's personality got even more uh... explosive."

Uraraka stifled her laugh into her hand, and even the uptight boy snickered. 

"Did you just call him  Kacchan?"  Uraraka giggled.

Izuku slammed his hand over his mouth. Fuck. If Kacchan heard that he uttered that childhood nickname, Izuku was screwed.

Unfortunately, Uraraka took his lack of subtlety as confirmation and lost it, "No way! That's so cute! It makes it seem like he's capable of kindness!"

"It is unexpected," the boy agreed as he picked at his food. Izuku had to admit it was kinda funny that even the rule-abiding student had nothing good to say about Bakugou on the first day of school. He really was that bad, wasn't he?

"Don't tell Kacchan I said that!" Izuku cautioned them, "He'll kill me if he hears anyone say that."

Uraraka mimed zipping her lips, "Stays secret. Right, Iida?"

"What stays secret?" a girl with a frog quirk asked, slipping into the seat right next to Iida without any hesitation.

Iida shrugged, "I don't even know our guest's name, so I couldn't even if I wanted to," he assured them.

Uraraka slapped her forehead, "I completely forgot to introduce everyone!" she cried indignantly, offended by her own actions, "Iida Tenya, Midoryia Izuku. Midoryia Izuku, Iida Tenya. The girl who just sat down is Tsuyu Asui--"

"Call me Tsu," the girl corrected.

"Tsu," Uraraka amended, "I met Midoryia right before the exam and he made it into the management course. The rest of us are all in 1-A, which Izuku already knows is heroics," she paused, "Am I forgetting anything?"

"What's the secret we're keeping?" Tsu wondered.

Uraraka looked to Izuku for permission before divulging the secret to their newest member, "Midoryia's known Bakugou since diapers and calls him Kacchan."

Tsu pursed her lips, holding back a laugh, "Has he always been..." she trailed off, but that was more than enough for everyone else at the table.

"Yeah" Izuku assured her. 

Tsu shook her head, "I just don't understand how he can act without taking others into consideration like that. It's one thing to be hot-headed, but--"

"Actually, a friend of mine has a theory about that," Izuku found himself saying and  no no no he should stop right now he's about to ramble , "She's trying to start a study on the effects of quirks on their owners' personalities to determine the factors that determine the decisions that make their personality and it's really fascinating! Her theory is based on the idea that one's personality is ordained by both their environment and their genetics, but since the environment is defined as 'how the area around you interacts with you' she thinks that somebody's quirk changes the way people interact with them and that treatment results in crucial moments that define the quirk user's personality. She's hoping to use her study to prove that people with 'villainous' quirks are not inherently villainous but are made that way by the people around them to encourage people to invest in our future by treating everyone equally, but the study also applies to Kacchan because nitroglycerin is an extremely volatile explosion. When we were kids, he would forget that his hands were sweaty and then grab something too hard and explode it. He has to be constantly aware of his own motions to prevent harming himself and others which prevents him from focusing on the things he wants to, which may play a role in his easy irritation. Additionally, because of his quirk's strength, everyone decided that he himself is strong, but he feels--"

Izuku finally managed to cut himself off and hide his face, ignoring the other three's wide eyes.  Ohfuckohfuck  Izuku already ruined it. He finally met someone who had a chance of not treating him differently due to his quirklessness and he immediately weirded everyone within listening range out. 

"Huh, I never thought about that," Iida hummed next to him, "That's an interesting study. I wonder if my quirk has affected my personality."

Izuku's heart stopped. Iida didn't call him a nerd. He didn't call him an idiot or say he can't wait for Darwinism to kick in. He... agreed?

"I've been told my head's up in the clouds on occasion," Uraraka enthused, "Maybe that's because of my zero gravity!"

Izuku looked up in time to see Tsu nod in agreement, "I've had a lot of people give me weird looks for my tongue," Tsu agreed, "I still have a bit of a lisp sometimes too because of my tongue's size, but I don't mind. I can't think of a way that my environment might have influenced," she finished with a shrug, "How would you conduct the experiment? Maybe use a quirkless group as a control?"

Izuku realized Tsu was looking at him, "Uh... She hasn't decided yet. She's still in the drafting stages."

"You'll have to keep us updated," Iida decided, "I would like to know what her conclusion is."

The rest of the table continued the conversation casually, otherwise ignoring Izuku's lecture. Instead, they practically grilled him for information. Uraraka stared him down as if his very soul held the conclusion; Iida was calm and respectful, but no less inquisitive; Tsu, on the other hand, posed her questions bluntly and without sugar coating.

It was the best lunch Izuku had ever had.

------------

 Izuku had a stupid smile on his face as he waved goodbye to the hero kids. He knew their friendship wouldn't last long, but they were good people. Uraraka was fun and uplifting to be with, Tsu had a lot of interesting input that brought the other girl back down to earth, and Iida's uptightness was both hilarious and reassuring. Together, the four of them never ran out of topics and the conversation never grew dull. For their 45 minute lunch period, Izuku found himself strangely light. It wouldn't be forever, but that moment was enough.

Miss Midnight's class wasn't particularly far from the lunchroom--only down the hall and to the right--so Izuku got to class especially early and found his seat. He began Iida's journal entry, starting with names and data for now. Odds are, he already had a hero costume that Izuku would have to draw later, so he made sure to leave a blank spot for future entries. He hadn't really talked to any of his classmates yet, which was okay because he had his journal. It was only a matter of time until his classmates turned on him, but his journal would always be there. 

The rest of his classes went quickly from there. Since today was the first day, they were just going over UA's expectations and spending time with their homeroom teacher. Honestly, Izuku could've tuned out the entire time and not missed anything important, but he aimed to enjoy the secrecy of his quirk status. How many days in the future would be able to sit in class fearlessly, bubbling from a stimulating conversation and ready to take on the world? 

Miss Midnight noticed her class glazing over and gave them half an hour of free time at the end of the day, letting her students wander and gossip and get to know each other. Izuku, on the other hand, immediately tore open his backpack and pulled his journal out once again.

I should make a questions page for each of  them, Izuku decided,  Then I can--

A girl's voice interrupted his thoughts, "Hey Midoryia, can you do me a favor?"

Izuku looked up and immediately that was  not  a girl's voice but Midnight-Sensei's. He felt his face heat up. A hero is speaking to him one on one. He's talking to Midnight one on one! How could this day get any better?

Izuku closed his notebook, "Sure! What is it?"

The corner of Midnight's lips quirked up, "First, always ask 'What is it?' before you agree to anything," she scolded and Izuku's face grew even hotter because  he embarrassed himself in front of THE MIDNIGHT.

"And second, can you drop something off over at Power Loader's room for me real quick?"

"Power Loader!" Izuku practically squealed. He cleared his throat, "I mean, uh, yeah, of course. Power Loader who? What room is that?"

Midnight's cocky smile turned into something a little bit more knowing as she told him the room number, "And he won't mind if you ask him a few questions while you're over there, either. He likes curious kids."

This was the third-worst day of Izuku's life. Was it really that obvious? He tried to tone himself down constantly, but his mouth and brain just ran ahead of him before he could stop himself. No matter how much he tried to shove it down, the words would just explode out of his mouth. Maybe he could find a class to teach him how to stop so he wouldn't embarrass himself in front of more heroes.

Izuku took a deep breath to cool down his heated cheeks, "What am I dropping off?"

Midnight scanned the room and her arm snapped out to the nearest object, "This."

Izuku took the pen in his hand, "One singular pen?" he wondered aloud. Did they not have pens in the support course? That didn't make sense. It's not like they were an explosive substance. There's no reason for them to be banned from the classroom. Why would they need  one  pen?

Midnight's face didn't move other than the glance at the pen in her student's hand, "Yeah. He asked me to have you drop it off in his room."

Oh. Midnight was probably trying to get him out of the room so she could explain his quirklessness or something. It would probably be easiest to just play along. There's no point in fighting it. It was going to happen eventually.

Goddamnit  Izuku thought to himself. The sinking feeling in his chest meant that he allowed himself to hope. So what if Midnight didn't give him the pitying smiles his other teachers did? That didn't mean she would take him seriously. He knew this was coming and the pain he was feeling was his fault because Izuku knew better. 

Izuku tightened his grip around the pen, squeezing it so hard his knuckles turned white, and forced a smile, "Alright, I'll head over there now!"

Midnight grinned, "Thanks, kid!"

Izuku pushed open the door and shuffled down the hallway, pen in hand.

He knew better He knew better He knew better.

Stupid, worthless Deku.

What an idiot. I can't wait for natural selection to come his way.

How could he have been such an idiot? Did he seriously think that everything would magically be okay now that he was at UA? Because a couple of kids his age talked to him? He was pathetic.

Hot, wet tears bubbled up in his eyes and Izuku tilted his head up to stop them from falling on his cheeks. He made it to UA, which was more than he ever thought he could realistically do. That was enough. He didn't need friends or acceptance. He's gotten this far already and he hasn't let Kacchan or his goons stop him, so he wasn't going to let the debilitating pity of people who think they're better than him beat him now. He gave up his chance to give up when he decided to keep going after All Might destroyed his dreams. He was going to keep going. He was going to survive.

It took him longer to calm down than to reach Power Loader's classroom, so he stood outside the door while he calmed down. When he was ready, he took one final deep breath and pushed open the door.

Izuku's hands whipped up to protect his face too late. Something light and sharp smacked him in the face and held sadly into his hands. Was that... a paper airplane?

Izuku looked up to find a legion of paper airplanes flying around the room and students working furiously folding and throwing the planes. Some of them had to be held together by tape and glue based on their elaborate structure. The one in Izuku's hand was more of a traditional take, but there were some planes the size of a desk with all sorts of loops and curves flying around the room.

A student with lab goggles and spiky black hair ran up to him, apologies already rolling off his lips, "I'm so sorry! I didn't see you! I didn't think my plane was going to run into and--MY PLANE! Is it okay? Did it survive? Approximately how fast was it traveling at the time of the collision?"

Izuku held out the plane so its constructor could study the damage, "I think it's okay? I'm sorry for walking into it."

The student laughed, "What, it's not like you walked into it on purpose," his eyes darkened as he glared at one of his classmates, " Unlike someone."

He felt the same confusion he did around Uraraka, but ignored it in favor of his mission, "Well, Midnight sent me so I can give Power Loader one singular pen--"

The student exploded into laughter, grabbing his stomach and doubling over, "OH MY GOD Midnight-Sensei is my new hero!"

Is this some new popular meme Izuku didn't know yet? What was so funny about a pen? Izuku ignored his questions and focused on his missions, "Uh, do you know where Power Loader is?"

Through his laughter, he managed to point to where some support course students were gathered and testing their airplanes. Sure enough, Power Loader's iconic helmet was buried in the group as he helped a student with their plane. 

Izuku smiled, "Thanks!" before dodging an airplane and making his way over to the hero. At least most of his energy had been sapped by his tears and anxiety. If he had any more energy, he would be mumbling a storm right now.

Izuku waited for Power Loader to finish instructing his student before speaking up, "Excuse me, Power Loader sir?"

Power Loader's eyes surveyed the room as he let out a non-committal, "Hm?"

"I'm--uh, I'm a student in Miss Midnight's homeroom and she told me to give you this," Izuku explained, handing over the pen. 

Power Loader's face was impossible to see through his mask, but Izuku didn't need to see it to know that he was currently dying inside as he moaned in pain, "I hate her. She knows I just banned pens from this room as of three hours ago."

Izuku squeaked. Midnight just sent him to Power Loader's room with a banned object. That's what her plan was. Her plan was to get him in trouble by doing what she asked. That's how she planned to kick him out of her class--

Power Loader didn't seem to mind too much though. He waved his hand dismissively and put up an amicable front, "You're not in trouble. She's just using you for petty revenge and it'll be fine as long as you don't let a specific girl with pink hair get her hands on it."

Why one specific girl? Did she have a quirk that made her react badly to pens maybe? It seemed unlikely, but everything was possible with quirks. If it's pens in general, pens are made out of multiple materials so it can't be an aversion to one specific metal or plastic. The most consistent component in a pen was probably the springs or the ink--

"Nah, she just got bored and managed to explode a pen  in class ," Power Loader explained, his attention now fully locked onto Izuku, "There are worse guesses though. What's your name kid?"

"Oh no, did I just say that out loud? Sorry, that's a habit I've been trying to kick for ages!" Izuku apologized frantically, "I'm, uh, Midoryia Izuku."

"Ah, okay, Midnight was talking about your pretest during lunch. You've got a good brain up there," Power Loader poked Izuku in the forehead teasingly, "If you want, you can join our competition for the rest of class."

ERROR 404

file not found

Izuku.exe has stopped working

to reboot, press any key

Midnight was talking about him? Midnight, a teacher, said he was  smart?  She complimented him enough to make Power Loader offer to let him join in their competition even though he was quirkless? Maybe--just maybe--this year could be different. Today was a weird day.

"Competition?" Izuku asked after recovering from his shock.

Power Loader nodded, "Yeah, the goal is to make a paper airplane using nothing but the materials currently at your disposal--paper, glue, tape, staples, and some cardboard mostly-- to make an airplane. Whoever gets theirs the farthest wins."

That actually sounded really fun. Everything Izuku knew about flight originated from his research for Hawk's journal entry where he researched the physics of bird flight a few years ago and probably couldn't compare to the actual support students, but paper airplanes also required a suitable throw as well, so sheer luck might play a role in not getting last place. 

Izuku shrugged, "Miss Midnight said we're done for the day, so that sounds fun," he admitted, "but I would want a pen and paper to write stuff down because I'm incapable of mental thought. I need to write stuff down."

Power Loader laughed, "Fair enough. You can take this pen," he offered.

Izuku accepted the pen, found a spare sheet of paper, sat at a random desk, and set to work. He only knew how to make a basic paper airplane and somewhat remembered something called Bournelli's law, but he didn't actually remember anything besides the name. That meant he had pretty much no understanding of physics or engineering to give him the upper hand. That meant he probably had to think about the things that wouldn't be obvious to engineers if he wanted to make something unique...

Izuku looked up, "Hey Power Loader? How do you feel about loopholes?"

"As long as no one gets hurt and there's no widespread property damage, I'll take it."

'And just to clarify, we're allowed to use all of the materials at our disposal? Like, let's say... Anything within this room?"

"Yes?" Power Loader decided, "But I made sure there isn't so much as a spare screw loose in here after what happened three years ago. You won't find any machinery or anything."

"And sabotage?"

Izuku could hear the grin in Power Loader's voice, "It's a valid strategy, so it's allowed."

Izuku studied his opponents as he began to fold his paper airplane. For his plan to work, he had to find a suitable opponent. The one who had hit him with his plane earlier was testing his plane again, and this time Izuku was able to see a glint of metal on his hand as he threw the plane in the air. Maybe some sort of fireproof/metal hand sort of thing? That would be advantageous for a support student, but Deku couldn't see a way for it to be used in a paper airplane competition. A pink-haired girl with what he suspected might be a distance-related quirk wrote her data before going to pick up her plane, as if she could see the exact measurements from thirty meters away. It's too bad Uraraka wasn't in this room right now because he would love the chance to see her quirk in action.

He threw a short practice throw to get a feel for how hard he could throw his plane without it dive-bombing toward the ground and continued studying his competition before he found the perfect target.

This is such a dumb idea  Izuku thought as he dragged a desk behind his target--a twelve-foot tall teenager with some sort of rock-based mutation. He got the desk perfectly aligned, grabbed his paper airplane gingerly, and crouched low to the ground. He had to pace himself perfectly: fast enough not to miss his shot, but slow enough that he wouldn't overdo the paper airplane's throw. This could easily end up really bad if he did this wrong.

One of the support students noticed him crouched down and gave him a weird look, "What are you--"

Nothing like social awkwardness to encourage Izuku to run away from his problems. Izuku broke into a sprint, jumped on the desk (Which was closer to a heavy-duty workstation and easily held his weight) before using the desk to launch himself onto his target. His target stumbled with the force of Izuku's impact on the top of his shoulder, but Izuku still managed to push himself straight up and went well beyond anyone's reach before delicately releasing his airplane. 

Deku landed in a crouch, never letting his eyes leave his airplane. Thankfully, his release was soft enough to allow the plane to glide peacefully in the air. The airplanes around Izuku died off as people watched his plane's slow descent until...

His plane hit the wall on the far side of the room before crumpling to the ground.

Max distance.

Izuku looked back at Power Loader for confirmation, and the teacher nodded. Izuku pumped his fist, "Yes!"

"Hey!" The person with the giant quirk complained behind him, "Power Loader-Sensei! He literally used me as a jungle gym? How is that allowed?"

The support student who had noticed Izuku before he took off running rolled her eyes, "I feel dumb for not making the connection. It's basic trajectories. Everyone knows that most objects have the same x component to their velocity throughout their path because there's no factor other than air resistance to change it. While paper airplanes are certainly an exception to the rule due to their low pass that makes them vulnerable to rapid acceleration due to otherwise negligible forces. That means that while we could geometrically calculate various ways to shape our planes to increase the x speed upon launch or buy ourselves time with loop de loops, we could also just increase our initial y and increase its air time, so naturally, it covers a larger distance."

Izuku did not know "basic trajectories" but he understood about half what the girl said. Basically: he was really high up so it took longer to hit the ground, so it could go farther. He rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, my initial plan was to figure out all of your quirks through the observation of your behavioral and physical patterns and then trick you into using your quirks on my airplane because Sensei said we're allowed to use any and all resources in the room to our advantage and our opponents count as a resource, but I didn't see anything I could think of using so I just... used someone's height quirk instead."

"Wait, we're allowed to use our quirks!" someone cried from the other side of the room.

"You can't figure out someone's quirk without them actually using it. That's bs!"

"You jumped on me!"

Power Loader waved his hand to calm them down, "Quirks are allowed, so is jumping on your opponents. He's technically not in this class, so the top grade is still up for grabs. I certainly wasn't expecting his actions, but they were fairly clever and, if he managed to identify quirks without their usage, that skill could be instrumental to recruiting, making a client base, or diagnosing problems with your tech in the future."

The was some mumbling at that, but Power Loader ignored it in favor of turning to face Izuku, "And you, What are you doing in management of all places if you're that into quirk theory?"

"I uh..." Should Izuku confess that he was quirkless and knew he would get rejected immediately if he applied? Or that he had no construction experience? Most of his scientific knowledge is owed to google and various pro heroes he did research on, "It's just a hobby."

Power Loader remained unimpressed, but let Izuku hang out with the nerds for the rest of the day. After his stunt, the creativity in the room skyrocketed. His opponents used quirks, stacked desks, and one of them even went through the room opening and closing various vents to maximize the room's airflow to make the most efficient flight. If he hadn't sat with the hero students at lunch, it would've been the most fun he'd had in a year. Voices screamed back and forth, arguing whether closing the vent in the top right corner would have a negative or positive impact on the plane's flight. Izuku himself got drawn into an argument about the validity of quirk stereotyping and the flaws of the current quirk classification system.

By the time the bell rang, Izuku was exhausted. He'd had more social interaction today than he'd had in his life, but he was smiling nonetheless. That was... fun. For thirty minutes, he was the kid who hit the back wall first (though certainly not the last one). He wasn't the weird kid who knew too much about people; he was the kid with crazy observational skills that others wanted to learn. It was a new experience, but certainly not an unwelcome one.

He hoped they wouldn't hate him when they found out he was quirkless. He'd really miss this class's energy when he was in management class and hoped he'd get to join one of their lessons again.

As everyone shuffled out the door, Power Loader pulled Izuku aside for one last conversation, "Hey, that was some pretty dang good thinking out there for a management student."

"I'm just really into quirk analysis," Izuku explained with more ease than he'd ever had in his life. Something about hanging out with slightly-unhinged scientists made opening up a little easier, "I've got like fourteen notebooks of pure hero analysis based on observation and the occasional internet stat. I've got everyone from All Might to you to Eraserhead. I picked up some other stuff while researching the science behind how their quirks operate."

"Quirk analysis is a great skill for a support hero to have. If you can figure out how someone's quirk works, you can maximize its efficiency, neutralize its flaws, and make the most of it," Power Loader pointed out, "You know, if you wanna try to transfer to the Support Course, we'd be lucky to have you."

"I'm quirkless," Izuku blurted before he could stop himself. He must've tricked Power Loader into thinking he could handle the support course when he obviously couldn't. He was just a quirkless nobody--

"Hi quirkless, I'm Power Loader. What's your point?"

Izuku hesitated, ignoring the fuzzy feeling in his chest, "I've never built anything in my life, I know nothing about engineering--"

"My job would be to teach you. You'd have to stay after school every once in awhile, but between me and the upperclassmen, you'd catch up eventually."

"Well, I'm still quirkless so teaching me would be a waste of time because no one would hire me--"

"I can name five companies off the top of my head that currently employ quirkless support heroes from schools less prestigious than UA."

"I'm in management--"

"You're already bored out of your mind there and we both know it," Power Loader pointed out, "Look, I'd need to talk to Nedzu and stuff, but Midnight and I were looking at your pretest from earlier and your problem-solving skills are perfectly designed for support. Most kids I see are here for the engineering course with extra publicity. It's rare to see someone who would actually approach it from a supporting role. We were both super impressed and want to see how you'd do in the program. It won't be easy by any means, but I think that extra work will be well worth it."

Izuku didn't need to touch his face to recognize the warmth of the tears dripping down his face.

"How's this? You can join us for one of our projects. I think our next one is where you have to find a UA hero student and design some sort of support gear for them and then give a presentation on the gear's possible uses. You do awful? You don't even have to present. You do great? We look into transferring you into my class. I would love seeing what you can do with that big brain of yours."

Deku dabbed at his eyes and nodded reluctantly, pretending as if Power Loader wasn't just handing him his dreams on a platter. He wouldn't be a hero, but he'd be using his quirk analysis to actually help people. He could make things that could save lives while learning about mind-blowing scientific processes and have a teacher who made a  dad joke  when he told him he was quirkless. 

UA had always been the school of his dreams, but he couldn't have ever dreamed this.

Chapter Text

Izuku's discords missed him during lunch and he fills them in on Power Loader's offer, Inko Midoryia is a proud Momma, and Uraraka and Bakugou have a chat.

I just realized in the shower that I totally should've made Izuku sit with Shinso during lunch so that Shinso sees himself in him so they have a bond for later, but I erred and honestly, there's too much other stuff going on right now anyway. The lunchroom scene is important to establish how awkward he is and how much self-hate he has, but I could've just waited a day. Alas, the true problem of coming up with the plot to a story in the shower and constantly changing it every few days!

What else? Unfortunately, Hatsume is going to have to wait for a few more chapters cuz we probably need to see Izuku process stuff and I need to build on his discord friends' personalities so that people'll care later. My writing style might change a little bit because we just started our Shakespeare unit and I pick up behaviors ridiculously quickly (I unconsciously bowed to a self-checkout machine and yelled, "I'm so sorry!" when I accidentally bumped it on Sunday).

oH WAIT! Today's the 5 year anniversary of my house burning down (My neighbor took 420 blazin it to a whole new level) and I currently have a 69% (D) in my 1st hour so I've got all of the fun numbers today.

“Hey Deku!” A gruff, growly voice barked, “You okay? You’ve been quiet today,” Sho observed as they massacred a league of grey monsters.

It was just them right now, Izuku having agreed to help Sho out with a multiplayer level that had been giving him trouble. Honestly, the level itself was fairly easy—not hard enough to give Sho trouble, so Izuku suspected that he remembered today was Izuku’s first day of school and wanted to check in.

Sho was weird like that. For some reason, he didn’t express affection through teasing, laughter, and jokes but through anger (or at least Izuku was pretty sure it was affection. It was hard to tell over voice calls). It took Izuku nearly a year to realize that Sho didn’t hate him, and even then, some of Sho’s kindness went right over his head. At least he eventually realized that Sho would conveniently need someone to help him get past a boss level whenever he told that chat he was having a rough day. One time he even jokingly threatened to murder every kid at Izuku’s school in surprisingly gruesome detail.

Sho was a bit weird, but as Izuku spent time with him and grew familiar with his mannerisms, he grew on him. The guy was a decent player 1, even if he could get a little too caught up in his own glory sometimes (Izuku had to hit his character to get him out of his tunnel vision on multiple occasions), but when they worked together there was very little they couldn’t overcome (Only that one level with the super OP boss that they had spent hours trying to beat to no avail. They didn’t mention that level).

“Deku?” Sho tried again, bringing Izuku’s attention back to the game.

Izuku shot up and almost got hit by one of the boss’s minions, “Oh, yeah, sorry! I just had a weird day and… I don’t think I know how to process it?”

Sho hummed as his avatar three-shotted some minions, “Weird how? I noticed you didn’t message during lunch.”

There were many answers to that question and it took Izuku a while to sift through them, “Well for one, I ran into this girl not too long ago and went into a huge quirk rant—you know how I get—and I was ready to be called a creep or whatever, but she just called me weird and left. Then, she waved me over today, invited me to sit with her at lunch, introduced me to her classmates, and asked me about quirks and stuff. She even invited me to sit with them tomorrow.”

“Huh,” Sho paused, processing the information, “Yeah, I don’t understand girls at all—one of the girls who stops by every once in a while just makes absolutely no sense to me—but movies have led me to one of two conclusions: either she wants to be your friend, or she wants to earn your trust and then humiliate you.”

“And normally it’s the latter for me,” Izuku agreed, “but she almost looked… genuine? Anyway, it gets weirder. I took an exam to get into a specific course with a focus and everything, and then the support course teacher sees one of my tests and watches me throw a paper airplane and says, ‘hey, you should totally be in my class instead.’”

“Support? Isn’t that engineering stuff for quirks?” Sho recalled.

“Yeah, and I know nothing about engineering!” Izuku exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, “I don’t get it! Apparently, he talked to my current teacher and they thought it over. They want me to transfer I think, but I’m completely underqualified!”

Sho, sensing an incoming rant, paused the game before they could die.

“All the science I know has been from quirk theory or for hero analysis. The most complicated thing I’ve ever built was IKEA furniture. How am I supposed to construct cutting-edge technology? How I am supposed to construct innovative technology and actually compete with my classmates who have been working towards support their whole life?” Izuku took a deep breath and prepared to launch into another rant, but Sho interrupted him.

“Do you want me to get Giri?” Sho offered.

Izuku considered the offer. He wasn’t sure who Giri was, other than he looked after Sho and always had some wise sagely advice when the boy needed it, “No, I’m probably not going to do it because I’m completely under-qualified and—“

Sho scoffed, “Bullshit.”

Izuku froze, startled at the sudden declaration, “Huh?”

“Bullshit,” Sho repeated, “You said support is engineering for quirks, right?” he recalled, and there was some shuffling from his end. He must be getting really into this lecture, “You know more about quirk theory than almost anyone I know,” his voice shifted to something almost… admiring, “Actually, you might almost be like… one or two leagues under Sensei, but he’s been around since the dawn of quirks and has been researching them this entire time, so no one else could possibly be in his league,” he conceded, “but that quirk stuff will give you an edge. It doesn’t matter if your classmates can make quantum toothbrushes if your audience doesn’t even have normal teeth.”

“It’s quirk theory,” Izuku reminded him, “it’s just common sense. That doesn’t give me an ‘edge’ or anything.”

“No, it’s common sense to you because you’re a nerd who’s spent half of his life researching it,” Sho snapped, getting legitimately angry now. He growled, “I’m getting Giri. Stay on the line.”

Izuku heard Sho shout for Giri on the other end of the line and ignored the static left in Sho’s place. He honestly didn’t think Sho would feel that strongly about the transfer opportunity. Sure, being in support would be really cool--Power Loader’s class seemed like a ton of fun and it would be a thrilling application of his research--but Izuku was quirkless. He spent too long thinking he could have it all and it hurt to have that be torn away. He’d cried for days after his encounter with All Might and he wouldn’t be able to handle another put down like that.

If Izuku transferred, he’d be known as the quirkless one or the dumb one who hasn’t even used a soldering iron. If he stayed in marketing, he could throw around his weight by being a diversity hire and maybe actually get something done. Marketing itself would suck, but it was the only way for Izuku to make a difference without getting shut down. Marketing was the closest Izuku would ever get to his dream.

A deep, calming voice finally pierced the static, “Hello, Sho’s friend. How can I help you?”

Izuku could barely hear Sho something along the lines of no it’s not a phone call you idiot!

“Ah, pardon me. I am unfamiliar with Discoursing etiquette,” Giri apologized and Izuku had to hold back a laugh at the man’s awkwardness.

“No, it really doesn’t matter. Sho’s just being picky,” Izuku assured him, “You’re fine.”
Giri’s voice was far away as he muttered, “What am I supposed to tell him again?” off to the side.

Silence.

“Ah okay, the importance of quirk theory in a support career,” Giri repeated sagely. He paused, “Wait, are you the one who suggested Sho cut off the thumb, pointer, and index fingers on a pair of gloves and wear them to prevent activating his quirk by accident?”

Izuku had completely forgotten about that. He and Sho had been frustrated when he disintegrated his controller right as they almost finished the unbeatable level (that they swore to never discuss again) and Izuku made him promise to modify gloves so it wouldn’t happen in the future, “Yes?”

“I must thank you for that. You saved me hundreds. Maybe even thousands. It also serves as a good example as to why having an emphasis on quirk theory could make you a fantastic support engineer. While many think of the more technical aspects of support, the more complex something is, the more things can go wrong and the more expensive it is. We’d tried all sorts of so-called ‘invincible’ controllers and the like, and yet they never managed to withstand Sho’s quirk. We never stopped to consider that we could stop the problem at its source, which turned out to be an infinitely cheaper and more simple alternative. Perhaps a support engineer could make a glove that specifically counters however Sho’s quirk works--”

“My theory is that a quick burst of radiation breaks the bonds between molecules and breaks down or decays a material in seconds,” Izuku murmured. When he realized that he’d spoken out loud, he clapped his hand over his mouth, “Sorry!”

Giri considered Izuku’s addition, “That’s an interesting theory. Maybe we could perform an experiment of sorts and test that out. Anyway, from that observation we could also come up with alternative uses of Sho’s ability.”

“Like if we figured out the exact type of radiation, we could determine if he could use it in a medical environment, or maybe learn how to counteract the quirk from a distance in case the gloves get irritating,” Izuku muttered.

“Exactly. My point is, engineering knowledge is important to support because it allows for the production of the item, but quirk theory allows you to find more apt solutions suited to the individual. I for one would have never guessed radiation had anything to do with Sho’s power, but if you’re able to correctly guess the details of ones’ quirk, then that would give you a massive edge in the field. The engineering skills can be learned, but your method of thinking is harder to change.”

He...may have a point. After all, Akit0 was into programming and didn’t even trust his printer, much less a complex support device. It was just like what Izuku did to win the airplane competition: he made a simple airplane but thought outside the box for how to use it. He’d have to work overdrive learning a lot of the ideas and he would have to have a lot of help in the lab for a while, but if he could catch up he would be able to produce simple and efficient products. Maybe Sho was right…

What an idiot. I can't wait for natural selection to come his way.

Even if he’s right and I can think abnormally, it’s not like anyone would want to hire me if I’m not in marketing

“Why not?” Giri asked with a perfect amount of curiosity, ever the epitome of politeness.

“Heck,” Izuku cursed, “Did I say that aloud? I meant, uh…”

Sho scoffed, “Why would people only hire you for marketing? What, are you secretly annoying or something? Or do you have a really stupid quirk?”

“It’s nothing--”

“If it’s enough to make you throw away a career perfectly suited for you, then it’s not nothing,” Sho snapped, the anger starting to come back.

That was another weird thing about Sho. For the first time, someone wasn’t angry at him but for him.

“I swear, it’s not a big deal,” he assured them, trying to keep the shaking in his voice to a minimum. He would only be good in marketing because he was quirkless, but if Sho found out he was quirkless then he would tell the whole discord and they’d treat him differently. They’d be too gentle, apologize too much, start a new discord so they could talk about him behind his back…

“Are you sure?” Giri asked, the concern in his voice making Izuku’s skin crawl.

How many times had he heard that same concern in someone’s voice when they left him out because well, we can’t risk you getting hurt? How many times had he been shoved away and terrorized with good intentions by people using that same tone? How many times? How many times?”

“Fine!” Izuku growled as something inside him snapped, “I’m quirkless, okay?! No one wants to hire a quirkless kid who could get hurt unless it's a diversity hire. Statistically, my only real shot is something public so people can use me to feel better about themselves.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.
Izuku gave in to the tears and buried his face in his hands. His heart sank. He just snapped at one of his friends (Although, a little voice reminded him, he wouldn’t be his friend for much longer). Guilt, shame, and desperation made him sick. He once read that people cry because they had too much of an emotional chemical and their body needed to release it, but he felt like there was so much of that chemical he’d have to throw up to reach that balanced state.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell,” he whispered so quietly he wondered if the mic would even pick it up, “Well, I did, it’s just--” he hiccuped, “I really, really hate it when people use that tone because I hear it all the time and I know you’ll hate me now but--”

“That’s rough buddy,” Sho interrupted without an ounce of concern in his voice.

The shock was enough for Izuku’s sobbing to halt. He wiped the tears from his eyes and would’ve laughed if he wasn’t so miserable, “Did you just quote ATLA at me?”

“Tomura!” Giri scolded, followed by what Izuku assumed was a whack, “Have some sympathy--”

“He just said he didn’t want our sympathy, didn’t he? He’s quirkless and that sucks, but that doesn’t mean he can’t help me beat Final Fantasy 4, does it?”

“You still wanna play games with me?” Izuku realized, breathless. His heart pounded as he managed a, “Why? I’m quirkless, I’m useless, I’m--”

“In need of therapy?” Sho finished, “Being quirkless doesn’t change the fact that you’re a freaking nerd who would be great in support.”

Izuku laughed at that, feeling a little lighter, “You’re not joking, are you? That’s happened a few times when I told people I’m quirkless and--”

“Give me their names and addresses,” Sho deadpanned.

Izuku protested, “Sho--”

“Names. Addresses.”

Izuku giggled, “Giri! Tell him he can’t murder anyone that makes him mad!”

“Workplaces or locations of loved ones used for ransoming would also be acceptable,” Giri decided, revealing exactly where Sho got his sense of humor, “I could have him there within the hour.”

Deku threw his hands up in exasperation, “No! No murder!” he cried as a ding alerted them to someone else joining the call.

“Who are we murdering?” Kirby asked, not bothering to greet them.

“People who terrorize Deku for being quirkless,” Sho replied automatically.

No no no now Kirby was going to--

“Deku’s quirkless?” Kirby asked, but it was hard to tell what she was thinking over the call. Izuku held his breath, preparing himself for the worst--

“Huh, I thought he had an analysis or quirk identification quirk,” Kirby admitted, before completely changing tactics, “I’m hopping on board the murder train because Deku’s too nice to do it himself,” she informed them, “That’s probably for the best though. Feral Deku would be terrifying. I don’t think the world would survive that, especially now that I know he has motivation.”

Deku was too alarmed to appreciate the warm, comfortable feeling in his chest, “Kirby no! Not you too!” A secondary bloop alerted them to Akit0’s presence, but Izuku ignored it, “You can’t just go around murdering people!”

“...What the fuck happened while I was gone?” Akito wondered in horror.

“Deku’s quirkless. People have told him the only way he’ll ever get a job is if he’s a diversity hire so he doesn’t think that he could do well in the support course his teachers pushing him towards. More importantly, people have pretended to be his friends only to humiliate them, so,” there was a pause as Sho probably shrugged, “murder.”

Deku let out a long whine, “No one’s murdering anyone!” he ordered.

“No they have a point,” Akit0 agreed, much to Deku’s horror.

“No not you too!”

“We got dad!” Kirby exclaimed. “Alright, operation murder all of Deku’s bullies is a go. Deku, give us the names.”

“No!”

“Names, now,” Akit0 ordered.

“I trusted you Akit0!” Deku protested, but he was laughing too hard to be truly indignant.

“And that’s exactly why we have to do this Deku. You’ll thank us one day,” Akit0 promised.

“Stop!”

They didn’t. Even hours later when they finished their gaming and began to log off, they kept pushing for names. Izuku was half tempted to give them fake names so they’d stop but didn’t solely out of principle.

They took Deku’s revelation well though. Kirby even said that Deku with a quirk would be too overpowered, and he’d never even considered thinking about it that way.

He left his room for a glass of water and let his thoughts flow through his head.

Deku being overpowered? A year ago he would’ve laughed but… Didn’t Giri and Power Loader say he was good at problem-solving? And his quirk discord seemed to enjoy his analysis. What if Kirby was on to something? What if Izuku wasn’t powerless because he didn’t have a quirk but he didn’t have a quirk because he was powerful?

Deku dismissed the thought. No, that was ridiculous. Everyone except his discord told him he was useless. Could so many people (including All Might!) be wrong?

Izuku waved at his mom, who was sitting on the couch, winding down for the night, “Hey mom!”

His mom gave him a warm smile and opened her arms for a hug, “Hi Izuku! Did you have fun with your friends?”

Izuku brought himself into her hug and felt metric tons worth of tension leave his body, “Yeah. Today was a stressful day but… I think things might get better.”

“Oh, was school rough today? I know you were so excited to go to UA and--’
Izuku shook his head, “Nah, the whole day was surprisingly good. I made a couple of friends at school, I think. At least, Kirby told me they’re my friends now. Oh, and Power Loader said I should look into the Support Course because he wants to see how I would apply my quirk analysis to real-life problems. Plus, I accidentally told my gaming friends I’m quirkless today and they took it really well. Better than anyone, really.”

His mom hugged him tighter, “Wow Izuku! That is a lot, but it’s all good, right?”

Izuku nodded because it’s hard to be pessimistic with his mom’s arms around him, “Yeah, I think that maybe things might start to go up at UA.”

“Good. You deserve it, honey.”

Izuku didn’t feel like he did, but he let himself enjoy the peace.

----------

Bakugou: BTW Deku’s quirkless

Bakugou: *Midoryia

Bakugou: If you don’t wanna be seen with a quirkless piece of shit, I suggest you avoid him like the plague and never speak to him again, Infinity girl

Chapter Text

Uraraka stared at her phone, frozen.

Bakugou: BTW Deku’s quirkless

Bakugou: *Midoryia

Bakugou: If you don’t wanna be seen with a quirkless piece of shit, I suggest you avoid him like the plague and never speak to him again, Infinity girl

Quirkless? Uraraka could hardly believe it. She had never met a quirkless person before, but Midoryia didn’t resemble the stories she’d heard. Quirkless people were defenseless and needed help at every corner, but Midoryia had put up with Bakugou his whole life (meaning he definitely had decent defenses) and he was not in need of help in the mental department. He was probably one of the smartest people she knew.

It explained some things, sure, like how he looked like he expected Uraraka, Iida, and Tsu to kick him out any second during lunch, but that much could be explained by the new environment, right? He talked like he didn’t think anyone wanted to listen to him, which could be explained by everyone thinking he was… you know, but people like that were supposed to struggle with depression and have… weaker mental states, right?

Uraraka shook the thoughts out of her head and reread the texts. Even if Midoryia is quirkless, it's not Bakugou’s business. Who does Bakugou think he is, sharing someone else’s secret on the first day of school? That was a dick move. 

Uraraka’s disbelief was rapidly replaced by anger and her hands trembled. What kind of asshole juts into someone else’s business like that?! Midoryia was a good guy from what she’d seen, and he didn’t deserve it! And did Bakugou think so low of her that she thought she would scorn someone for being quirkless? 

Uraraka crashed down on her used computer chair with a slam and slid into her desk. It took a couple of seconds to boot up her outdated computer, and she used those seconds glaring at the screen, hoping her sheer amount of rage would find a way to text itself to Bakugou.

I am going to befriend the shit out of that kid if it’s the last thing I do, she promised herself, typing, “tips for befriending a quirkless person” into the search bar. She was going to be the best goddamn friend Izuku Midoryia would ever have and no one was going to stop her. Maybe she could ask her parents if they knew someone who was quirkless? And then she could get advice from that person?

She clicked on the first link and read the entire site, taking notes the entire time. Then a second page. A third page.

An hour later, she sent a text to Bakugou with her notes and a middle finger emoji.

Uraraka: What, you think a missing quirk is gonna stop me from befriending the 

life out of the nicest, smartest boy I know, Kacchan?

Bakugou: Meet me at the Cafe across the street from UA @7 tomorrow morning

-----------

Bakugou was already there when she walked in. She immediately spotted him sitting at a table and glaring at her with a hot drink in his hands.

Uraraka prepared herself. She’d seen Bakugou’s anger over an off-handed comment, and she just challenged Bakugou’s judgment. There was no way she was going to get out of this unscathed.

but... Uraraka found that she didn’t care about Bakugou's imminent anger. Part of it was because he was a jerk and pissing him off would be satisfying, but most of it was because she legitimately thought Midoryia was an interesting guy and didn’t want to see him put up with Bakugou for the rest of his life.

To her surprise, Bakugou only gave her a nod of acknowledgement when they locked eyes. There wasn’t even a scowl on his face.

Uraraka… wasn’t expecting that? Maybe she had pegged him wrong yesterday? What if he had a sibling who put itching powder in his uniform yesterday or something, so he was just irritable?

“Hey round face, sit down,” Bakugou ordered.

Nope, he was just an asshole. Well, now it was time to show him that she meant business, “Who the fuck do you think you are?!” she demanded as she pulled out a chair and plopped herself down in it.

“Bakugou Katsuki, the future number one hero,” he murmured as he took a sip of his drink.

“Clearly you don’t have too many friends judging by all of,” she gestured to his face, “That, but I think everyone knows that you don’t fucking tell other people’s secrets without their damn permission!”

He raised his eyebrows, “Wow, infinity girl. You’ve got a filthy mouth outside of school.”

Uraraka’s face flushed with anger. He texted her, told her something her friend probably didn’t want her to know, and then had the gall to mock her? 

“Actually, I get a filthy mouth when people go out of their way to make a nice person’s life miserable,” she corrected sharply, “If the next thing out of your mouth isn’t an apology and a promise you’ll apologize to Midoryia, then I’m leaving right now.”

Bakugou had the guts to smirk and take another sip of his drink, “Good. You pass.”

She what?

Bakugou noted her confusion and elaborated, “The kid has it rough. The second everyone found out he was quirkless, he went from being the cool kid who knew all of the All Might trivia to the victim of every bully. Then he had to go make things worse for himself by standing up to other bullies even though he didn’t have a quirk. The last time he tried friends, they lured him into the woods and stomped him until they got too tired to keep going and scared the life out of Auntie Inko. I may be an asshole and a bully, but I’m not gonna let that happen again.”

Uraraka stared at him and let that information sink in. It felt weird to be told so much information about a kid that she (admittedly) barely knew, but the person delivering it didn’t help her shock. Bakugou’s smirk was gone now, replaced with a frown, and part of her wondered how much of that frown was his resting expression and how much was guilt.

I may be an asshole and a bully, but I’m not gonna let that happen again

Did he actually want to help him? 

“Why not?” she found herself asking, “you just admitted to bullying him, so it’s not like you care about him. What do you get out of this?”

Bakugou huffed, “That’s none of your business.”

“And my friends aren’t your business either, yet here we are,” Uraraka snapped, “I don’t even know why I showed up, honestly. If you’re just gonna keep spilling other people’s secrets--” Uraraka pushed her chair out,

“Wait,” Bakugou interrupted with so much force she froze. He sighed, “Alright, fine. Yeah, I bullied him, but…” Bakugou frowned harder, probably in thought, “It started out because I was..."

Bakugou studied his hands, flexing them with a little too much tension, "scared, I guess," he admitted, "I had a powerful quirk, but Deku was smarter and I was threatened by that. Then we found out he was a quirkless nerd and everyone said quirkless kids were at the bottom of the food chain. If Deku was smarter than me--better than me... How long 'til I joined him at the bottom?"

Bakugou's hands were still now as he rested them back on his drink, "I was so scared of ending up on the bottom that I did everything I could to get me to the top and become the number one, so,” Bakugou shrugged, “I used him as a stepping stone. And that kid… I thought he was unbreakable, honestly. No matter how hard I kicked or how much I burned him, he would look me in the eye and tell me to stop. I thought I was actually motivating him, because that steely look in his eye got harder with every hit.”

“Thought?” Uraraka echoed as she sat back in her chair, not sure what else to do. Maybe it was bad to get someone's tragic backstory from somewhere else but... Bakugou clearly wasn't used to being vulnerable and she didn't want to kick him while he's down.

Katsuki licked his lips and leaned back in his chair, tipping it back a bit, “I think I went too far. Well actually I went too far a long time ago, but…” he trailed off and restarted, “Deku and I wanted to be heroes when we were kids. When I got my quirk, I knew that’s what I was going to be. Then… Deku may not have gotten his, but every person who told him he couldn’t be a hero was ignored. He started analyzing heroes and quirks, which I thought was creepy at the time, but I used some of his tricks yesterday in the hero training exercise. I told Deku he’d never be a hero because I watched his determination grow with every person who told him he couldn’t. For some reason, I thought I was encouraging him. He might not have passed the exam if he had tried it, but if anyone could do it quirkless, it would be Deku. I wanted to see if he could do it. He can be a fucking badass sometimes and I could definitely work with him if he got his shit together. I wanted him to show everyone that quirks aren't everything and that I didn't become number one because I was born with a good quirk; I'll become number one because I work my ass off.” Bakugou paused, and was that remorse on his face? Uraraka wondered how many people had seen this kind of pain in his eyes, “But then one day after a villain attack, Deku just…” Bakugou looked down, “gave up, I guess. That look in his eyes was gone and I got scared again because… He was empty. I tried to tell people off when they baited him because honestly, the kid was probably a suicide risk, but the damage was done. Apparently, his determination had a limit, and it broke after those eleven years of constant bullying and it’s my fault, so I’m cleaning up my mess.”

Bakugou's sour expression remained for a beat. Then two. Uraraka began to get her thoughts together to ask questions, but Bakugou beat her to it, and threw his hands up in the air, “Now he’s got it in his head that the only way he’ll ever get a job is he’s a diversity hire, even if he hasn’t said it out loud. Frankly, I don’t care what he does, but seeing him like this is just wrong. Deku is the most stubborn person you’ll ever meet. He’s stupidly creative and has probably stood up for complete strangers hundreds of times, and he needs a friend. An actual friend who won’t run off because he’s quirkless. That’s why I told you. Better to have you leave before he gets too attached so he won’t get caught off guard,”

Uraraka squinted at him, “A random kid in class texting me randomly at 9:00pm isn’t catching me off guard?”

“Off guard in front of him,” Bakugou amended, raising an eyebrow a bit at her skepticism, “And then I told you to meet me here because your notes are complete trash.”

Uraraka crossed her arms, “Hey! I spent time on those!” she protested.

“They dehumanize him,” Bakugou deadpanned, “he may be quirkless but he’s tough as shit and very human. Just forget he’s quirkless and treat him normally.”

“Yeah, but I have to friend the mother-loving fuck out of him,” Uraraka reminded him, “I keep my promises.”

Bakugou whacked the back of her head, “Hey bouncy, the bar literally couldn’t get any lower! I’m the closest thing he’s ever had to a real-life friend.”

Uraraka rubbed the spot on her head where he hit her, “Yeah, but if he’s had to put up with you your whole life then he deserves it. The kid must be a saint,” she joked before remembering her audience, “Honestly, you’re probably right. I think I just got too excited. You can’t force friendships and I got way ahead of myself.”

Bakugou tssked, “I know I’m right. I’m always right,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning back.

Uraraka looked at her watch, “We literally just had a twenty-minute conversation on how much you fucked up and how wrong you are.”

“DID I ASK?”

Uraraka shrugged, “Kinda.”

Bakugou glowered at her, but it shifted into something a little warmer as he scoffed, “Good. Make my life hell for him. I deserve it if I managed to break the unbreakable. I wanted to beat him, but there’s nothing left to beat right now.”

Chapter Text

One of the students sitting next to Izuku--a purple-haired intelligence-type quirk with bangs that covered her eyes--grabbed Izuku’s bouncing leg and locked eyes with him, the message clear: stop fidgeting

Izuku kept his mouth shut, trying not to interrupt Midnight-sensei’s lesson, but he did grimace in understanding and mouthed,  “Sorry!”  while using his hands to forcefully clamp his legs down. He managed to lessen the bouncing, which probably didn’t satisfy his poor neighbor, but he couldn’t help it. He was just too… nervous? Excited?

He’d messaged his quirk discord last night and they had the same arguments as Giri. Coincidentally, Analysister was actually a support designer and she was thrilled at the idea of Deku looking deeper into the scientific aspect of quirk observation. She even private messaged him, asking for more details. Izuku’s mom had always said not to give his information to strangers, but he’d known Analysister for well over a year (Probably longer) and she knew things about a field he was interested in, so Izuku filled her in on everything (except his quirklessness). When he told her he was going into his first year at UA, the tone of the conversation took a complete 180 and she promised him that he would adore the program, even if it took a bit of extra work.

At her encouragement, Deku kept giving her details. He told her about the paper airplane competition and the gloves he recommended for Sho and she applauded him for his ingenuity. She promised him that, with a lot of extra studying and some workshop hours, he would be able to seriously help a lot of people.

Something about the way she described support took Deku’s breath away. He loved heroics because he would help people and make them feel safe, but support could do that too, just differently. Instead of having to learn combat, Deku could come up with strategies for heroes to use to save the most people or devices that could save even more. His quirk analysis skills would apparently make him a great “guy in the chair” like Analysis’s mentor and allow him to provide valuable input on any villains his agency encountered. His mom wouldn’t have to worry about him coming home with bruises. No would say he was too fragile. Izuku wouldn’t be a hero helping random civilians on the street, but he’d be the one helping them.

In short, it was heroism, but 1000x nerdier and Power Loader didn’t care if he was quirkless.

At his Discords’ insistence, he emailed Power Loader asking for more details, and the teacher immediately shot back an email asking to meet up after school today.

Izuku glanced at the clock.

11:33

Only four more hours until he could talk to Power Loader and about two minutes until he had to do the other thing he was worried about: eating lunch. Would the hero students invite him to sit with them again? Or would he have to sulk to the outsider’s table extra awkwardly because he kinda had friends but kinda didn’t? He should’ve thought Uraraka’s offer through before he agreed to sit with her yesterday.

There was nothing Izuku could do except worry and listen to the clock's second hand tick (or hope his quirk would miraculously manifest and allow him to rewind time), so worry he did. His fingers frantically danced to a ridiculously high-tempo song on his arm, careful not to be loud enough to make noise and become a distraction. 

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and looked at the clock again.

11:33

He resisted the urge to groan and slam his face on his desk.

------------

Uraraka was a woman on a mission. If anything good came out of the encounter with Bakugou, it was the knowledge that Midoryia was just too anxious to invite himself to their table. She was going to have to seek him out before he ran off and hid from Bakugou in some dark, shadowy corner. Uraraka will have to be hypervigilant and stay on her toes so she can strike before Midoryia's nerves could get the better of him.

She ignored Iida and Tsu’s weird looks when she told them to run through the lunchline without her. Luckily, her new friends didn’t know her well enough to determine if her actions were unusual, so the other two’s unfamiliarity probably played to her advantage because they shrugged it off and left without her.

Uraraka scanned the lunchroom to make sure she wasn’t too late, but she didn’t find that bush of curly green hair anywhere, so that was a good sign. That means that if she just stayed by the door…

Movement out of the corner of her eye made Uraraka’s head snap back towards the door. Before Midoryia could put up a defense, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the flow of the students flowing into the cafeteria. The boy yelped, but didn’t pull away as she dragged him to a slightly quieter corner.

“Sorry if I startled you!” she apologized immediately, “It’s just that I uh… “ and wow this is a lot harder now that she actually had to say it in person. Part of her brain immediately defaulted to the notes she took last night and mentally began scanning the lists she made, but… Bakugou did have a point. Midoryia was human, and treating him any other way would just be an insult, “talked to Bakugou this morning.”

Midoryia’s face fell, “Oh,” he whispered, studying the brilliant red of his shoes, “I guess I should’ve told you--”

“What? No!” Uraraka cried before she could stop herself. Midoryia jumped back and stared at her, eyes wide and she cursed herself. Well, this befriending operation of hers was going fabulously, “No, wait, not like that! I was just going to tell you that if anyone gives you a hard time, you have a friend with… admittedly limited combat skills that's ready to jump into a fight with a jerk,” she promised, flexing her right arm to show off her lean muscle.

Midoryia studied her for a second, and she wondered if he was filing away more knowledge for some behavioral profile he was constructing in his head, “Why?”

Uraraka waved her hand dismissively, “We’ve accidentally run into each other twice, so either one of us is secretly a villain and will become the other’s rival/antagonist, or we should be friends. Those are just the laws of anime.”

Midoryia laughed, loud and genuine, meaning that she said something right, “Well dang, I guess you’re right,” he conceded, studying her one last time before he settled on a decision, “you’re weird.”

Uraraka shrugged, “I’ve been told I’m rather bubbly,” she agreed, “But unless you turn out to secretly be a villain, you’re always welcome at our lunch table. If you do become a villain… I guess you’ll have to ask for permission first.”

Midoryia cocked his head, “How would I even get into the school if I was a villain?”

Uraraka pointed at him and frowned, “Okay, yeah, that’s a good point. Uh…” she crossed her arms in thought and lit up, “You’ve got a big brain on that head. Maybe you’ll track someone with a transformation quirk down and have them smuggle you in!”

Midoryia considered the problem, “I mean, I do have an online friend who used to dissolve his keyboard on accident. Personally, I’d have him sneak in with the press and dissolve the front UA gate as a distraction so I could sneak in--”

He was interrupted by alarms blaring overhead.

Midoryia stared up at the alarms, horrified, “I was joking!”

Uraraka had to hold back a laugh at that. Laughing seemed inappropriate, but the timing was spectacular, “Huh, it looks like the upperclassmen are trying to get everyone evacuated through that hallway. We should probably do that.”

The two of them rejoined Uraraka’s class, who were squished in the back of the huddle as students pushed and shoved past each other. Warm bodies pushed against them, squeezing the students uncomfortably close.

“Hey, wait, it’s just the media!” Someone shouted, “They must’ve accidentally triggered the alarm.”

Midoryia’s head shot up as his eyes widened in alarm, “I swear it was just a joke!” he promised Uraraka.

Uraraka laughed despite herself.

“Uraraka!” A deep voice shouted as Iida pushed past the crowd, “Give me a boost! We must appease this crowd and assure them there’s nothing to worry about!”

Midoryia’s eyes lit up, “Whoa, that’s such a good idea! Are you going to use the engines in your legs to propel yourself through the air and go airborne? That would be a very efficient way to grab everyone’s attention, and your rule-abiding attitude will let everyone know that you’re telling the truth and just trying to calm everyone down! Be careful when you launch yourself though, and try to keep the laws of rotational inertia in mind when you move through the air to maximize your maneuverability!”

Iida cocked his head, “What do you mean?”

“Like how when you’re spinning in a wheely chair and you bring in your legs, you go faster, but if you stick your legs out you slow down!” Izuku beamed, “It’s also used a lot by divers and figure skaters. There’s a whole mathematical law, but I really only know theoretical physics, not applied.”

Iida nodded and held up his hand for Ochako to high-five him.

Ochako obliged, feeling the familiar sensation of her quirk as she removed his gravity. Iida launched himself in the air. It took him a second for him to balance himself out, but she watched him spread out his arms and legs to maximize whatever Midoryia was talking about. Sure enough, he stabilized enough to smoothly and used his quirk as a rocket to push himself to the emergency exit sign without knocking into anyone.

“May I have your attention, everyone!” He cried, “It’s just the press! Please calm down and continue in an orderly fashion. Now if you will…”

Iida began shouting out directions, helping crowd the hallway and give everyone some breathing room.

Uraraka sighed, “Well that was loud,” she complained, turning to Midoryia, “Are you sure you don’t secretly have an everything-I-jokingly-say-comes-true quirk?” she teased, and then immediately froze. Oh shit. That was not the right thing to say to a quirkless person! How could she be so stupid? Okay, she had to come up with a good apology quick--

To her surprise, Midoryia just laughed, “Oh man, if I did, I’d have at least a dozen quirks and Kacchan’s not-evil twin would’ve definitely shown up by now.”

Uraraka glances around to make sure no one was listening, “Sorry if that was out of line, I--”

Midoryia’s laughter died. The twinkle in his eyes was gone, sucking out of the warmth and leaving an icy hardness to them, “Don’t apologize.”

Uraraka almost startled at the sudden change. And in her moment of confusion, she understood what Bakugou meant about how wrong seeing the light leave his eyes like that was: It gave her whiplash that made her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach.

Why would he be so particular about her apologizing over something? She had said something insensitive and didn’t want to hurt his feelings--

Hurt his feelings.

While Uraraka knew Midoryia wasn’t emotionally weak (he had a breaking point, sure, but he wasn’t weak), other people probably just treated him like they would your typical quirkless person. Getting babied over the smallest slip-up would be endlessly irritating. Maybe Midoryia was… sick of excessive kindness? 

Uraraka thought back to her notes, where she had a whole page on etiquette and making sure to take care of all of a quirkless person’s whims so they didn’t strain themselves. It was a good thing Bakugou warned her--

Oh NO

Was she going to have to thank that piece of shit?

Chapter Text

Izuku reached over to his nightstand and blindly flopped his hand around until he located his phone. His thumb immediately muted his morning alarm out of habit, silencing it before his mom could be disturbed by the ringing. His eyes stung in protest as he opened them, attempting to punish him for even thinking of waking up. It was too early for this.

Izuku squinted at the clock. Why was he up at 5:30 am? School didn’t start until 7:50 and he only took about half an hour to get ready in the morning. 

Then the realization slammed into him in the way it can only in mornings:  his support entrance exam!  

Deku threw the blankets he hadn’t already kicked off in his sleep onto the floor and leaped out of bed. Logically, he still had plenty of time, but his anxiety didn’t agree. It screamed at him, adrenaline making his heartbeat erratic and breathing difficult as he shoved a toothbrush in his mouth. The average person brushes their teeth for two minutes, which is two minutes Izuku will not be preparing for the test. Is there anything else he can do while still brushing his teeth? Power Loader didn’t tell him exactly what the exam would be on, and they only agreed to the exam yesterday, so it must not require a lot of studying, right? He’d outright told Power Loader that his science classes were limited, so what else could he be tested on?

He unlocked his phone and opened his browser. For once, he didn’t know what to search for.  Things on the UA support exam? Support course content?

He was so focused on his search he almost swiped up as a discord notification dropped down from the top of his screen without reading it. He stopped himself at the last second and froze.

Kirby:  Your exam is super early today, right? Good luck! You can do it!

Deku stared at her words, his chest warm and tight at the same time. Right, Kirby was three hours ahead of him. He’d forgotten. That meant she took time out of her day to think about and that she wanted him to get in too. Despite being quirkless, despite being annoying, she remembered and--

Izuku’s chest swelled, the emotions becoming too much for words. He swiped on the notification, opening his discord to see a handful of notifications from his quirk discord as well.

Quirkney:  You are passing this exam SmallMight. If you’re a support student then I can officially put you on my study and I will not be the next Thomas Edison or Elon Musk. 

Deku laughed at that, ignoring the warm tears trickling down his cheeks. He wasn't crying. His eyes were just dry and watering as a reflex.

Bosslady:  I’m not on here that often, but even I know this is Deku we’re talking about. The dude’s a madman when it comes to quirks and their applications. He’ll be fine.

Analysister:  Deku’s timezone is a little behind mine so he might not be up yet, but I’ll be busy when he does wake up so here are my words of encouragement:

Deku. I am a support engineer. I know the industry, and I know you can do this. I’ve literally used some of your advice at work before. Sure, construction is important, but with a backpack full of textbooks and references, you can do anything. If they don’t accept you I WILL show up at their door with my first prototype of quirk-suppressing handcuffs in hand

Bosslady:  Fill me in? I missed that.

Analysister:  They exploded the second the user’s quirk was activated

Bosslady:  I admire your thinking, but I feel like a traditional sucker punch would be far more satisfying.

Analysister:  I weigh like 90 lbs and have a weak wood manipulation quirk

MountmeLady: No that's assault and can be easily traced. There are definitely better ways to get back at them.

(Deku briefly wondered why his friends always resort to violence)

MetAl41:  You’ll get in. Let me know when you graduate. I can definitely help you get a job in the field. I can’t wait to see what you do with actual classes and a degree.

MetAl41  was saying he could do this? That man was the smartest man Deku had ever met! His analyses were always shoved full of perfectly relevant evidence, his conclusions spot on and ridiculously insightful. If he believed in Izuku, then… Izuku’s heart skipped a beat and he remembered he was supposed to be brushing his teeth, not locked onto his phone. 

He finished brushing his teeth and spit out the toothpaste, letting their words sit for a while. The discord didn’t exactly know him--as far as he could tell, they figured he was a competent, quirked, college student with a bright future--but they had read his rants. He knew Quirkney was a quirk researcher at some big university and MountmeLady worked at some big facility, which meant that the two were very qualified. If they think that Izuku can do this… 

Deku looked into the mirror, making eye contact with himself. Sometimes when something shrinks it becomes insignificant or weaker; its small size makes it less of a threat, less jarring. Now as Deku narrowed his eyes, the solid steel only became stronger.

He was going to bullshit the hell out of this test and then he would learn. He would learn of the scientific processes he knew nothing about, gain the soldering and power tool skills he needed to excel, and show the hero kids at lunch that he would never be worthless again. He had his brain, his desperation, and access to Khan Academy. No one could stop him now.

----------

Izuku was stopped by Power Loader at UA’s entrance. The teacher had clearly beaten him to the school and stood with his arms crossed, half-leaning on the pillars supporting the UA letters that hovered over the bricked path.

Some of Izuku’s anxiety started to seep back in now that he was actually here, but what was the worst that could happen? If he didn’t get in, he still had a plan. He would go back to the business course, work hard, graduate, get a job, and live his life. That would already be better than what most people like him got. He had nothing to lose if this didn’t work out.

Or, Izuku glanced at his phone one last time, maybe he did. The people he texted every day thought he would thrive as a support designer. His mom was thrilled at the idea of Izuku doing something he truly loved. Even Izuku himself was starting to get a little excited. 

With a start, he realized that he was genuinely hoping for this to work out. The support students he’d met were chaotic and brilliant and wondrously creative in comparison to his quieter, more direct business classmates. Power Loader seemed really nice and, like Midnight-Sensei, didn’t seem to care that he was quirkless. He’d be able to work with heroes and help them in a way a business major never could. His quirk theory would be more than a hobby: it would be his life, and… Izuku wanted that. He wanted to be himself and do what he loved— really loved— more than anything.

Izuku pushed his crisis away for later as Power Loader nodded to acknowledge him. Izuku couldn’t imagine any of his old teachers being so casual.

Izuku put on a bright grin and waved back, “Hey Power Loader-sensei! I’m not late, am I?”

Power Loader tilted his helmet up just enough for Izuku to see his eyes and rolled them, “Kid, you’re fifteen minutes early. I was actually hoping to run into another teacher before I ran into you, which is why I’m here.”

“Oh,” Izuku let some of the false cheer fall from his shoulders, “Uh… Do you want me to wait for you in your classroom or…”

Power Loader shrugged, “I definitely do not want that. If you want a head start I can tell you about the exam I had Nedzu approve of while we’re waiting, but I can count the people I would trust with my classroom’s keys on one hand.”

Izuku shrugged, trying to act like his heart wasn’t racing at the idea. Getting debriefed about an exam outside and standing on the sidewalk? Izuku, against many efforts, was an external thinker. If he couldn’t write something down or hear himself mutter, he would never remember it. There was always too much going on inside his brain to remember something from the coral reef he called his brain.

“Am I allowed to take notes?” Izuku asked, trying to keep his shaky tone under control. Play it cool. Don’t embarrass yourself in front of the teacher.

“It might be kinda hard without really being able to sit down,” Power Loader drummed his fingers against his helmet and Izuku wondered if that was his equivalent of scratching his head. Power Loader wore a helmet constantly and probably couldn't emote using face-reliant gestures. Over the years, he’d probably learned to compensate for the helmet by modifying some habits.

Izuku shook his head and refocused on the topic at hand, “Oh, don’t worry about that. I take notes standing up all the time!” he assured his teacher and slumped his backpack off one shoulder so he could dig through it. It was an awkward angle, so he’d have to settle for blind fumbling and hoped he grabbed the right notebook

Power Loader cocked his head, “Huh?”

Izuku paused as his face grew unbearably hot. He took notes standing up all of the time because of his hero analysis journals. Kacchan always his journals were creepy and stalkerish! Would Izuku would have to tell Power Loader that he does hero analysis and if the hero asked to see his journals full of self-taught mediocre scribbles--

Power Loader laughed, “You kids never fail to surprise me. I know only the best of the best get into UA, but some of you guys are just ridiculous.”

Izuku wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he let out an awkward laugh and snatched the first notebook he felt to prevent the awkwardness from spreading, “Alright, got it,” he alerted Power Loader before opening the notebook.

His heart stopped.

Oh no

He’d grabbed  Hero Analysis for the Future No. 14.

Izuku squeaked and nearly dropped the notebook, “Oh! uh, whoops!” he said an octave too high as he fumbled to catch it, “Wrong notebook!”

Power Loader leaned over, glancing at the notebook out of curiosity before his entire demeanor changed, “Is that an analysis journal?”

“Nope!” Izuku lied as he snapped the journal shut before Power Loader could see more of it.

“Hero Analysis for the Future, Number fourteen,” Power Loader read aloud, and Izuku found himself suddenly remember that of course his journal had a title what kind of idiot was he--

“You have fourteen journals worth of hero analysis? And those are the seventy-page ones too. That’s what? Fourteen is seven times two, but your fourteenth isn’t full yet so I’ll go to thirteen, so that’s…” Power Loader paused, “over 910 pages worth of analysis?”

“Uh…” There was no point in denying it anymore. It was time for Izuku to just own up to it and accept the consequences, “It’s kinda stalkerish, but It’s been a hobby of mine for years. I started before I was diagnosed as quirkless and wanted to be a hero, trying to help my friends figure out their quirks, you know? And then when I didn’t have friends anymore…” Izuku shifted his feet and inspected the brick pathway, “Well, heroes are allowed to use their quirks publicly and I wasn’t very good at soccer.”

Power Loader stared at him.

Izuku shifted again. He knew it was creepy, but he didn’t think Power Loader would react like this. Was Izuku supposed to say something?

Thankfully, Power Loader laughed and shook his head before Izuku had to panic too much, “Holy frick kid. That’s impressive. Do you watch them in person?”

Okay, he was asking questions and encouraging stalker-ish behavior. UA was weird, “Uh, sometimes? I try to watch the fights in person, but that doesn't always work. Like…” Izuku flipped through his notebook and picked the first suitable hero he saw, “Take Eraserhead, for example! He’s an undercover hero with sight-based quirk cancellation and fights quirkless against people with mutant quirks and all that. He doesn’t operate out of a traditional hero agency, his patrol times vary, and he goes undercover a lot so he’s impossible to watch in person. Footage of him is immediately deleted from popular websites because he’s an undercover hero and he loses a few advantages if people know who he is. I had to dabble in the dark web and some obscure forums to find the footage that I did, but his fighting style and quirk are amazing .”

Izuku pointed to the man’s capture weapon and went into a rant about how well the unique weapon worked for undercover work. It was a rare weapon, so few people knew how to defend against it. It was strong, non-lethal, perfect for capture, but could also be hidden easily or mistaken as a scarf. Izuku was halfway into an explanation on how the lenses of his goggles likely have a convex lens to increase his range of view when Izuku came to his senses.

“I’m so sorry Power Loader-sensei! I didn’t mean to go into a tangent and creep you out!” he apologized frantically, “I just get really excited about this sometimes, and then my mouth moves--”

Power Loader was looking intently over his shoulder, “Holy fuck kid. I figured you had to be good, but this is amazing. Your organization could use some work in some places, but considering that this is your scribble book… This is better than some of my third years’. No one ever notices the benefit of the shape of his goggles. Keep going. What else do you have?”

Butterflies fluttered in Izuku’s stomach. He impressed Power Loader! Power Loader liked his analysis and someone told him to keep ranting about quirks.

This was the best day of Izuku’s life.

Deku went on. And on. He’d gone into rants like this on his quirk analysis discord, but this was completely different. Power Loader would interrupt him with questions, and Deku was shaking with excitement as he replied with an answer and launched into another tangent. His voice was starting to get a little tired by the time he was critiquing the color of Eraserhead’s sunglasses (he should be drawing attention away from his eyes! It’s easy to protect against a sight-activated quirk when you know what it is!), but he didn’t have a single regret. He only stopped when he heard someone speak.

“So if you have a problem with the design, how would you change it?” A new voice asked, and Deku looked up.

Black robe. White “scarf” and dry eyes.

Izuku jumped away, “ERASERHEAD!”

“Answer the question,”  ERASERHEAD  ordered. That was Eraserhead!

“I--uh--” Izuku stammered, “I would switch them out for sunglasses! They would still have the one-way glass so that your enemies can’t see who you’re looking at, but they’re less obvious. Sunglasses are common enough, and some people have quirks that make their vision weird and need glasses at night, so it might not raise any questions. If you get them custom made you can probably even still have the lens shape. Then I would put the yellow in another part of your body--gloves especially since there are so many contact quirks-- so that your enemy thinks that your quirk has something to do with contact or voice or something. You’re underground, so unless someone really does their research, most villains don’t know your quirk and you can mislead them into defending against the wrong quirk with a few costume changes. Well, I guess there are flaws because sunglasses wouldn’t stay on as well as goggles in a large fight, but it would be less suspicious in undercover operations and might save you some other work.”

Eraserhead’s grin was terrifying. Deku may have nightmares from that.

“I take it this is Kayama’s problem child?”

Was Kayama Midnight-sensei’s first name? What made Midoryia a problem child?! He tried to be as helpful as possible in class!

Power Loader nodded, “Yeah, we got here early and you got here late, so we got distracted. I know you wanted to talk about Bakugou’s grenades but I now have a question for you.”

Eraserhead raised an eyebrow.

“I was gonna make this kid take a legit exam, but I kinda wanna see more of this hero analysis and I think I can make this work,” Power Loader crossed his arms, “Right now we’re doing a pretest-like project where the students have to come up with a support item and present it. Do you think I can have Midoryia watch your hero kids and make him come up with two additions to their hero costume? The analysis is clearly his area of expertise and it might be mutually beneficial for all three students involved.”

Watch Eraser head work with hero students in action and come up with support items? Best. Day. Ever.

Eraser thought the offer over, “We could probably do it today, even. I’m introducing them to rescue operations and I think the facility has an onsite computer room with access to all sorts of cameras. He can watch them safely from there without my kids ever knowing. We’d have to get Nedzu to approve, of course, but I don’t see why not.”

Power Loader turned to Izuku with a knowing smile, “So, how do you feel about ditching your first few classes for the USJ?”

“This is the best day of my life!” Izuku cried with a quick punch to the air. This was going to be the best exam Izuku’s ever taken and he was ready to show off.

Chapter Text

So sorry y'all, but this fic is gonna have to officially go on hiatus for a bit because my tendinitis is getting I-lost-the-ability-to-move-my-fingers-for-a-day bad. For now I'll just plan out future arcs in more detail and come up with more content because I DO INTEND ON CONTINUING THE STORY WHEN I PHYSICALLY CAN. I have even thought of a new arc to build Deku's confidence and provide a new meaning to "support hero"

Also, if you guys wanna see any ships, I had my bi awakening this year and I am currently crushing hard on my best friend, so I am considering including some of the stupidest things I've done around her because oh my god I'm a fucking mess. If you want more content relating to a specific person (Uraraka, Shigaraki, Deku, Bakugou, or any side characters you think I should include {other than Momo, Kaminari, Jiro, and Todoroki because boy do I have plans}) just comment below. The requests should be me busy for a while and stop me from getting too bored!

I welcome any input and plan to get back to writing as soon as I can safely type for more than five minutes. I'm very sorry for the false update and hope y'all will be more patient with my stupid hands than I am

Chapter Text

Momo’s innate intuition rarely failed her. She always knew when it was taco night, who tapped her in heads-up-seven-up, and when to bring her chemistry textbook to school for a surprise lecture. If she were to graph the statistical probability of her intuition’s success on a bell chart, she had no doubt it would be screwed right. Her father used to tease her and claim it was because she was observant enough to subconsciously pick up on her surroundings and clever enough to interpret them without her realizing. It made sense in a roundabout way, but there were times where Momo kinda doubted her father’s theory and instead believed it was a coincidence.

This is one of those times.

She could  not  get rid of the suffocating anxiety that something was about to go very wrong. Momo had been unable to stop tearing apart the inside of her already-heavily bleeding cheek for at least a day now and she didn’t even know  why . Perhaps the press incident had put her on edge? Or that time of the month was coming? 

There were none of her father’s “hints” to pick up on, no reason to feel unsafe, and no opportunity for something to go bad while at UA. (At least, nothing a pro hero couldn’t handle). Why couldn’t she shake the feeling but something was about to go wrong?

She reached out to pull on the end of her ponytail—a nervous tick she hasn’t been able to eradicate—And caught the corner of Todoroki’s mouth twitch briefly into a scowl in response to her movement.

Todoroki wasn’t the nicest person Momo had ever met, but he was familiar. Besides having met before at the recommendation student exam, his presence was strangely reassuring. Todoroki was cold and empty, but his familiar calm disposition was Momo’s safe haven when their overwhelmingly chaotic classmates. Until she became accustomed to the angry blonde boy and the gravity girl's exclamations, she couldn’t risk getting on Todoroki’’s bad side. Without him, Momo would likely be floundering for familiarity.

Momo’s hand immediately darted back down to her side, “apologies,” she murmured, “I suppose my anxiety is getting the better of me.”

Todoroki let a dismissive puff of air out through his nose. It wasn’t a scoff, but it wasn’t a laugh either. Momo doubted she would ever hear the boy laugh.

She whispered to herself the next part, unsure if she even wanted Todoroki to hear her, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Todoroki raised an eyebrow before turning his attention to where the gravity girl enthused about thirteen. He had the right idea. Momo was just being ridiculous. There’s nothing to worry about and her imagination was running wild. That was all.

Momo took a deep breath, forced her shoulders to relax, and let it out. It was time to calm down, relax, and focus on the task ahead of them. Today was a milestone for their class; the day they learned the importance of search and rescue. She would need to devote all of her brainpower toward helping others and taking her next step to becoming a hero. Anxiety was not going to get in her way. She let out her breath and her insecurities with it.

It did absolutely nothing. Her hands still shook as she twirled her ponytail between her fingers.

A purple-haired girl Momo should know the name of  but didn’t  laughed half-heartedly and gave her a small smile, “And I thought I was nervous for today.”

Momo gave the girl a polite smile to stall the conversation as her brain launched into overdrive. Momo knew very little about talking to people like her. She had a punk vibe and a nonchalant approach to their school work from what she could tell. It was ridiculously different from what she had grown familiar with at her former schools and her parents’ friends. What do people her age talk about? Memes? Are vines still a thing? No, that has to be outdated by now.

Her short purple hair suited her vibe, but it was nothing Momo could use as a conversation starter. Maybe her quirk? She was the one with audio jacks dangling from her earlobes like earrings, but Momo probably couldn’t tell her anything she didn’t know.

Wait, didn’t she ask her a question?

All of those thoughts took place over the course of a second, so her reply wasn’t as awkward as it could’ve been when she finally spoke, “I suppose I’m just excited,” Momo lied, trying to convince herself, “I want to be a rescue hero, so this is a big step for me.”

The girl’s smile widened into something a little more genuine and the tension in Momo’s shoulders lessened. That was clearly the right thing to say.

“Oh really? I do too!” she agreed with a bit more enthusiasm than Momo expected to come from the girl. The girl seemed a little surprised at her own outburst and immediately schooled herself back into her calm persona, “That’s probably a bit obvious though,” she relented and fiddled with one of her ear jacks, “with a quirk like mine. I’m good at finding people and threats. Locating people after an earthquake, trying to evaluate the safest route, stuff like that.”

Right, she had used her quirk for surveillance during their battle simulation with All Might. Alright, now what? Does she agree with Jirou? Talk about her own quirk?

Momo was rescued from her indecision by Aizawa-sensei’s introduction of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. Momo had a considerable amount of experience with large rooms, having attended many fundraiser events and visited quite a few wealthy establishments, but the USJ was truly a goliath building. Even though the disaster zones looked relatively tiny from their vantage point, she suspected the buildings in the fire zone were full-sized. She had seen  stadiums  smaller than the Unforeseen Simulation Joint.

Judging by the purple-haired girl’s wicked unregulated smile (what was her name?), she shared Momo’s awe.

Momo was surprised by the smile she found on her face as suddenly realized the bad feeling was finally gone. Nothing happened, but the part of her brain responsible for her fight or flight instincts, the amygdala, had finally listened to her sound logic. Now she would be able to focus on her school work and--

“Everybody stay back!” Aizawa-sensei ordered, moving in front of the group and planting his feet protectively.

-------------------------------------

Izuku never thought he would be  grateful  to be chased down by bullies every other day, but life was full of surprises. It was great cardio, and he highly doubted it would’ve taken him this long to get out of breath without the added exercise, “Hey Power Loader, where are we going?” he panted as he nearly stumbled over a gnarled root overgrowing the dirt path.

“On a bit of a tangent, but I think you’ll have fun,” Power Loader explained unhelpfully.

Izuku was so winded he wasn’t able to hold his small whine back. His heart skipped a beat as he realized what he just did. Power Loader was going out of his way to give Izuku this opportunity and he was whining? Forget being outright rude! There was no way any teacher would let that go without a lecture!

He tensed his shoulders, unable to properly curl up on himself when he still had to keep up with the hero, and prepared for the inevitable.

Power Loader laughed, “Don’t worry, I’m just teasing. This is a decent hike. Even the hero kiddos get to take a bus to the USJ most of the time,” he abdicated and dodged a particularly low tree branch, “this was just a spontaneous decision on my part so we can’t get a bus in time.”

“The USJ?” Midoryia echoed, “I think Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Iida brought that up during lunch. Something about a permission slip?”

“Oh I was going to straight-up tell you but this is more fun,” Power Loader decided and looked back at him. It was hard to see his face through his helmet, but Midoryia would put down money that he currently looked like a  little shit , “You figure out what the test is.”

Midoryia managed to turn his groan into an, “uhhh,” and pretend to be in deep thought. Did they have to do this when they were in the middle of the woods and hiking to some destination some undetermined distance away? He studied for a test, not this!

But he told Sho and Giri that he would do his best. Analysister, Boss Bitch, and even  MetAl41  thought this would be an amazing opportunity. He couldn’t let them down, even if it meant going ridiculously far out of his comfort zone. Just because he’d never be a hero didn’t mean he could be a bad person. Heroes don’t have a monopoly on accountability, dependability, and the ability to save someone’s day with a smile. If Deku could stop whining, get over himself, and smile, then everyone else’s day will get better.

So Deku entertained him and began listing everything he knew, “The hero kids were talking about going on a trip to the USJ, but you didn’t have a bus scheduled for your class and the business course isn’t going there either. The only other course left unspoken for is General studies so there is a chance it’s general academic stuff, but odds are it’s a hero-training facility. You seem to think my journal was interesting, so…” Midoryia looked back up at Power Loader for confirmation but that dang mask didn’t let him get a read on him. He resumed his hypothesis again, more careful this time. This was more conjecture than analysis at this point so he had to be careful, “You said you wanted to change my test after you say my hero analysis journal and my more recent journal has been directed more towards the business aspect of heroes rather than general hero analysis. Then I went on the rant of the application of Eraserhead’s quirk and that’s when you asked Eraserhead for permission for whatever we’re doing. I’m not sure how it all comes togeth--” his eyes widened as it clicked mid-sentence and he struggled to finish his sentence, “--er.”

It took all of Izuku’s willpower to stop him from getting his hopes, “Wait! You’re taking me to a hero facility to test my quirk analysis in real-time? Or having me come up with scenarios or strategies for the hero course? Something along those lines?”

Power Loader shrugged, “Close enough. I want you to watch the students and come up with gear that could help them later. Watch class 1-A at the USJ, and then meet me after school so I can give you some reference books and a push or two in the right direction. I want at least two gadgets.”

Holy heck this was going to be the best day of Izuku’s life , Izuku thought to himself as his heart accelerated.

 “No way! This is practically a dream of mine! Helping people with my analysis, helping them save people with a smile--” Izuku ignored the voice reminding him that, in the said dream, he was the one who saved them, “--making others feel safer and more secure in their skin--” because he couldn’t be, “--and just quirk analysis in general. It’s really fun to take apart the different strategies and figure out what makes them effective, you know? It’s not just how powerful their quirk is, otherwise, pro hero Wash wouldn’t be projected to be in the top ten! It’s how you use your quirk in combat and rescue, how you market yourself, your connections, and so much more!”

“Take Ingenium for example. He hires on a lot of sidekicks who aren’t even necessarily licensed pros and uses numbers to overwhelm his villains which is a valid strategy, but not all of his sidekicks are given the opportunity to be taught how to use their potential. There’s so much wasted potential in team Ingenium and I think that if they hired a personal trainer or two Ingenium could start trusting them with more solo work, rest up, and become even more formidable. They aren’t maximizing the efficiency of their--”

Izuku's face burned as he remembered his audience, “oh my god I’m so sorry for rambling!” he apologized furiously, waving his hands and bowing while still attempting to walk. In his mortification, he forgot to watch his step, slipped on a rock, and faceplanted with a THUD.

Power Loader immediately stopped and broke out laughing, but before Izuku could spiral and make connections to the bullies that used to do the same, Power Loader held out a hand for Izuku to grab, “You good, kid?”

Izuku’s face flushed and he accepted the hand. Power Loader’s hand was bigger and tougher than he was expecting, but more than strong enough to pull him to his feet without a problem. The man didn’t let go when Izuku was off-balance, didn’t shove him back to the ground, and didn’t go into a tirade about how fragile quirkless people are. Instead of being mocking, his laugh was warm and genuine. Izuku kept forgetting just how strange UA was, but he certainly wasn’t about to start complaining as Power Loader patted his back.

Power Loader glanced over Izuku’s form, looking for injuries, “Are you good to keep going?”

Izuku nodded, face unbearably hot.

Power Loader nodded, pleased, “Good, and Midoryia? Don’t apologize for your rant; don’t apologize for being excited. Support students--” Power Loader laughed fondly at some memory, “Actually, just support people in general kinda have to be excited about their work. They can spend hours, days, or even weeks on one project, and that excitement is what gives them their determination. I’ve seen a lot of kids throughout the years, but the best support heroes are the ones that never give up. Their desire to help people and their excitement to prove themselves are what make them so exceptional. And what you just said about wanting to use all of the skills at your disposal to help others be their best self? That’s exactly what support is at its core. That’s why my kids didn’t go to a fancy engineering school or decide to try to win some Nobel prizes. They’re here because they want to be heroes in a way that doesn’t require destructive quirks or the ability to benchpress 300 kilograms.”

From what Deku had read and what his discords told him, everything Power Loader had just said was correct, but Deku had never thought of it that way. The way Power Loader put it was ground shaking. If Izuku pulled this off, he could be a hero. He could put his love of research and analysis to good use while still helping others and Power Loader wouldn’t care he was quirkless. Finding a job after graduation would be difficult without depending on a diversity hire, so he’d just have to work harder than the others. It would take a while to catch up to his classmates--learning countless scientific processes and developing the skills necessary to apply and manufacture them--but if he could…

Deku grabbed the straps of his backpack and set out with a new determination.

-------------------------

Deku was only slightly out of breath when they arrived at the USJ. Even from the outside Deku could tell the building was remarkable. It was so big he could barely see where the facility ended, but it couldn’t be cheap. It resembled an indoor amusement park more than a training gym, but he knew that the hero kids would quickly think otherwise. Rescue was not an easy task.

Power Loader found a maintenance entrance protected by a thick metal door and shooed him through it quickly. The hallway they found themselves in was metallic and dark despite the plentiful lighting hanging from the ceiling, “This is where our janitors and maintenance staff store the equipment necessary to keep the USJ running. They’re incredibly talented and they’re the ones in charge making sure the fire zone doesn’t get too structurally unsafe or the boat we have students rescue doesn’t have a leak after we sink it.”

Deku looked at one of the closets’ wide open doors and studied the gear inside them, “This place must be a fortune to keep functional. How do you manage to sink a boat or keep things on fire that long without significant long-term damage?”

“By not damaging it,” Power Loader explained, “every item in the USJ is doing exactly what it’s supposed to, but it’s like…” Power Loader paused and crossed his arms in deep thought, “One of those American futon things that turn from a couch to a bed. The fire zone has a cement, fire-resistant structure, and our maintenance crew just adds fresh long-lasting flooring and walls to fuel the fires when we need it. The earthquake zone has minuscule tracks that allow our crew to clean it up with the press of a button. Even the boat that we sink is  designed  to sink because of its manufactured cracks, but it’s got that rubbery seal like a refrigerator so it can seal itself and float again and a pump to clear itself out,” Power Loader shook his head in disbelief, “Yeah, If we had to replace the stuff in here every time, even UA might not be able to afford this facility.”

In hindsight, that was kind of obvious. It would be idiotic to make a disaster zone that couldn’t be put back together, “Oh.”

Power Loader didn’t respond, instead knocking on a metal door. His knock echoed down the halls and the cold walls did nothing to lessen the volume. Izuku found himself wishing there weren’t so many cold, empty hallways in horror movies because at least then the echoes would be far less ominous.

Power Loader waited a few seconds for a response, and when there was none, he opened the door and gestured for Izuku to walk in.

Inside was an even darker room stuffed with desks full of small, old-fashioned, yellowing monitors that arced around a single rolling chair and displayed various scenes. A fire, a storm, a plaza built with similar brick and the same airy feel, as if they were designed by the same architect. Was this what the inside of the USJ looked like?

“This is where you’re going to be watching from. This monitor right here--” Power Loader patted the top of a monitor, “Is fair game. Teachers use it to look up stuff about their students when grading, usually, so you’re free to use it for whatever you need. The others show various zones in the USJ, but I’ll warn you that the frame rate is absolutely atrocious.”

Izuku squinted at the nearest monitor, but nothing was moving in the earthquake zone and he couldn’t judge the frame rate for himself, “I’m sure it can’t be  that  bad,” he murmured.

“They can’t even pick up wi-fi very well. Suzuki Haruki, one of our maintenance crew people, personally ran ethernet here because the teachers complained too much of the research computer’s connectivity problems. It needs  ethernet  to run internet explorer because it can barely handle chrome or firefox.”

Midoryia winced, “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Power Loader responded in a smooth, robotic voice, “Sorry, Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage. What you can try: diagnose connection problems.”

Midoryia laughed, “What if I turn it off and back on again?”

He could just make out Power Loader’s smirk, “See, you’re a pro,” Power Loader assured him, “but I’ve gotta hike back before my class starts, so can I leave you here? If anything goes wrong, find Aizawa--” Power Loader frowned, “er, Eraserhead for you--and ask him for help. When they’re done, he or thirteen should remember to have the bus wait for you so you can take it back and rejoin Midnight’s class.”

Deku nodded and bowed, “Thank you so much for this opportunity! I’ve got room in my notebook, pencils, and these monitors. I’ll be fine. Please don’t let me interfere in your teaching.”

Power Loader reached out but stopped himself, “How do you feel about physical touch?”

“I mean, it’s okay I guess--”

Power Loader finished reaching out and ruffled his hair, his surprisingly big hands easily able to cup the boy’s entire head, “Good luck. I know you can do it, so prove me right.”

Chapter Text

A flicker of movement caught Deku’s eye and he glanced at the security monitor responsible. It was probably just another leaf or something, considering how many gusts of wind had made Deku shoot up, convinced it was class 1-A finally arriving. After a half-hour of familiarizing himself with the software and the quirks of such an old system (what even  was  that skinny, square font they used? Has it even been used since the 1990s?) Midoryia grew bored and settled for watching the cameras for the class he would be analyzing. Twenty minutes later he tired of watching the grainy movement of leaves blowing in the wind and pulled up youtube on his phone. Twenty minutes after  that  he was out of new content and bored out of his mind.

Maybe that was the real exam.  How long can Midoryia Izuku sit patiently waiting for a class that will never come? 

Or, more likely, this entire thing was a prank. Midnight and Power Loader wanted to mess with the quirkless kid and get his hopes up. They’d show up at the end of school wiping tears of laughter out of their eyes and Izuku wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Another movement that was  not  the repetitive oscillations of leaves in the wind made Midoriya tear his eyes from his phone’s screen. He immediately straightened himself at the sight of an actual, real bus in the bus loop!

“Oh thank All Might!” Midoryia slumped against the security station with a heavy sigh of relief, throwing his arms haphazardly on the desk. He let out a little laugh to release some muscle tension and relax. His exam would be starting any second now!

Midoryia pushed himself off the desk and got to work, changing his youtube video to a playlist (for the background noise) and pulling up a better camera to study the class. He felt his face split into a smile as he spotted Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Iida get off the bus. Midoryia would get to see his friends in action! Well, okay, he already knew that from Power Loader and Eraserhead, but his friends had the coolest quirks! Uraraka’s anti-gravity was perfect for rescue work and this would be her time to---

Midoryia’s excitement died at the sight of blonde spiky hair. He remembered the trepidation on Uraraka’s face as she murmured,  “I talked to Bakugou this morning,”  yesterday. In the end, everything turned out fine--amazing, actually-- but Midoryia couldn’t help the disgusting feeling in his throat. He couldn’t let Bakugou know he was here. If Bakugou had no qualms about telling his new friends all about his quirklessness, then Izuku had no doubt he’d tell the whole school if he could. God, if Izuku could go  three seconds without Bakugou--

No. He was overreacting. If Soma-sensei was here he would give Izuku detention for thinking something like that. He was lucky so many amazing people were willing to be in the same room as a quirkless kid like him. Bakugou wasn’t nearly as bad as some of his other classmates. Actually, Bakugou really wasn’t that bad at all. As Soma-sensei said, that was just Izuku’s jealousy acting up and jealousy was bad. 

Izuku bit his cheek and forced his attention back to the class. Judging by Thirteen’s expressive movements, they were addressing the class, but the lack of audio confirmed that Deku wouldn’t be able to hear them. If he wanted to know what was happening, he had to settle for good old-fashioned body language-based guesstimation. This would not be an easy task.

He could tell the lecture would go on for a while, so he picked up his pen and began making outlines based on class 1-As appearance. He knew his friends' quirks well enough that he could save them until later, but some of the students had ridiculously hard to decipher quirks. The blonde kid with a tail’s quirk was rather obvious, but other quirks like the pink girl and the black-haired girl’s were impossible to decipher based on their costume. At least the blonde kid’s costume made his electricity quirk obvious. That would save Deku time.

He wrote down the more obvious ones first and was trying to extrapolate the red hair guy’s quirk based on his costume (the similarities between his costume and crimson riot’s had to be a coincidence, there was no way he had a hardening quirk!) when his music just...stopped.

The sudden silence was enough to make Midoriya lookup.

“Huh? What happened to my…” he mumbled and picked up his phone.

No Connection. Tap to retry

Deku blinked. His data was working fine a second ago. He had four bar LTE and everything. Why did he lose signal randomly? 

Deku shrugged. He didn’t have time to deal with this. There were still half a dozen students he hadn’t even started a page for yet. Music was going to have to wait.

He returned his attention back to the screens and blinked. Why did Eraserhead activate his quirk in the direction of the central plaza? There was no there, right? There was no reason for Eraserhead to look so on guard.

Deku pulled up the central plaza on another monitor.

His pencil clattered on the floor.

Purple clouds swirled in front of the fountain. Dozens of villains were marching toward the students, quirks sparking menacingly. The resolution of the monitors sucked, but Izuku could almost see the bloodlust in their eyes. These were real villains. This wasn’t part of the simulation. 

Villains broke into UA! And they were marching toward Eraserhead, Thirteen, and his friends! 

Deku scrambled for his phone. He had to call for help. Someone had to answer and come. There was no way Eraserhead and Thirteen could take on an army! Eraserhead was more suited to one on one combat, and even Thirteen’s AOE quirk would struggle. Maybe if Eraserhead stayed with the students and protected them from any villains that slipped past Thirteen’s attacks they could hold their own, but they would need help apprehending that many villains! 

Deku floundered for the on button and his bones chilled at the words on his screen.

No Connection. Tap to retry

One of the villains must have a signal-jamming quirk. That’s why Izuku’s phone stopped working. 

Izuku could only watch as the purple clouds swirled around Tsu. He was quirkless. Even if he charged out there, there was nothing to do to help them. He couldn’t even call other people to help. 

Even after a lifetime of being quirkless, Izuku had never felt so useless. All he could do was sit there. And watch through a screen that wouldn’t have been considered decent-quality in the 21st century. 

Wait.

The cameras were still working. Their signal wasn’t being jammed. They were wired!

Izuku tore his eyes away from Iida and Uraraka and stared at the taskbar on the monitor. Sure enough, it signaled a full internet connection.

Izuku’s heartbeat in his throat. He had never been so thankful for ethernet in his entire life.

Whipping to the monitor Power Loader gave him permission to connect to the internet, Deku’s hands scrambled across the clunky keyboard. If he had internet, he could contact someone. Could he email All Might? Or Nedzu? 

No, no one checks their email in the middle of a school day. He needed a Wi-Fi dependent website that would allow him to send multiple people notifications--

Oh.

Deku almost laughed as inspiration struck him, but he knew it would work. Analysister always had notifications on, and he  knew  that MetAl41 had nothing better to do. Someone would see his panic and would be able to call for help for him!

His hands darted across the keyboard so fast he would make Sho proud. He typed  Discord  into the search bar and slammed the enter key so hard he half expected to break the old keyboard.

A bright colorful circle appeared and swirled on the screen.

YES! It was loading!

Deku’s shoulders remained tense and his eyes were locked on the swirling mouse. Any second… Any second…

It continued to swirl.

Was the Wi-Fi not working? He double-checked the taskbar and confirmed it was still at 100%.

He leaned back, not looking away from the swirling indicator. Holy  shit  this computer was slow. He waited and watched the loading bar under the search bar inch--no, not inch,  freaking nanometer --across the screen.

One of the monitors caught the corner of his eye and he watched as a villain launched itself at the boy with the electricity quirk. At this rate, the computer wouldn’t load until it was too late! He needed a new plan.

He let his head dangle over the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling, desperately trying to remember what Power Loader had said when he introduced Izuku to the USJ. There was a janitor’s closet down the hall from him, but he doubted there would be a flare or a satellite phone. Would a satellite phone even work with the jamming quirk? How else could he let people know there was a crisis? What did people use before phones? Most of his knowledge of history, so naturally he found himself remembering a side mission from a video game where he and Sho had to hit a certain amount of bells in a specific succession to alert the townsfolk of an attack. Yeah, like he had a siren--

Movement in the mountain zone caught his attention. The purple slammed her foot against the ground and the 6-pixel caricatures of villains up against her raised their hands and… gripped their heads?

Deku grinned. They were covering their ears. She had a sound quirk. If he could get her out of the facility, she could get someone’s attention!

But there were villains in the way. And they probably locked the doors to make sure they couldn’t escape…

Deku bit his cheek and tasted iron. His eyes fell on the screen where Uraraka and Iida were gathered, trying to defend their classmates. With the terrible frame rate, he could barely even see his friend dart past the shadowy villain and--

Get through the door. The villains didn’t lock the doors, meaning that the service doors might be unlocked and unguarded.

Midoryia looked back at the girl with the sound quirk.

This was such a bad idea.

Midoryia checked Internet Explorer’s progress. Halfway done loading.

 He was going to get himself killed.

He stood up from his chair and took a deep breath. If he was going to die, at least he would get points for creativity.

--------------------------

After the year 2020, a saying emerged into the average person’s lexicon: Hindsight is 20/20. Literally interpreted, it meant, “events of the past are easy to interpret,” and that is how people use it today, but it also has a more subtle meaning. The year 2020 was an election year and the year a global pandemic emerged, meaning it was a chaotic series of horrible events happening all at once. Momo’s class was in fits for weeks after hearing the year described as, “a shit show,” in an official textbook, but Momo had to admit it was an apt description.

If Momo was cruder and wanted to follow the textbook’s example, she would say the secondary interpretation could be stated as, “Hindsight’s a bitch.”

At the moment, Momo found herself wholly agreeing with the sentiment. In hindsight, she realized that her constant anxiety was caused by confusion on why reporters would break the law and try to trespass at their school when there are non-consenting minors involved. The number of lawsuits and court fees that would follow would not be worth a fluff article about All Might as a teacher. Momo unconsciously suspected that there was more going on than a simple trespasser, which is why she’d been on edge for so long.

If only she didn’t come to this conclusion until she was surrounded by villains with only two other classmates to help her apprehend them.

She summoned weapons for her and Jirou, who gladly accepted the sword and began barking orders to Kaminari. Momo didn’t have much combat training, so she was happy to leave the planning to Jirou, who quickly proved her creativity by turning their classmate into a human stun gun.

Even better, Momo was quickly able to catch on to Jirou’s plan and make a sheet of insulation to hide under, allowing him to utilize his AOE attack to its fullest. She ended up losing her shirt in her haste to produce the insulation, but that wasn’t the first time she accidentally flashed a classmate and wouldn’t be the last; a girl does not wear the hero costume she does while fearing a wardrobe malfunction. She was more flustered by the purple-haired girl’s reaction.

The other girl, face tomato red, didn’t hesitate to use the insulation to shield her front from the others’ eyes and averted her own, “That is not a quirk I would like to have,” Jirou muttered. Her face was firm, but Momo could sense an apologetic undertone that warmed her (admittedly exposed) chest.

“All quirks have drawbacks,” Momo replied sagely, wishing Jirou was tall enough to cover her face too.

Kaminari gave her a double thumbs-up, snot dripping out of his nose.

Jirou caught her line of sight, “Oh yeah, I guess his is frying his brain.”

Momo daintily laughed as she clipped the front of her costume back in place. Her hands darted to cover her mouth, “No, wait, I’m sorry, that was rude of me--”

Jirou let out a wild, loud, and unapologetic laugh at her humiliation.

Momo opened her mouth to scold the other girl when a flash of green caught her attention. Kaminari must have missed a villain!

Momo scooped her staff off the ground and  ran , pushing Jirou aside and slipping into a fighting stance in front of Kaminari. 

The villain was surprisingly short. And young. He looked about their age and gripped a broom in both hands like a staff.

His shoulders fell at the sight of Momo, “Oh thank god. I managed to get here before you changed locations.”

Momo gripped her staff even tighter, ignoring how her entire body was screaming at her that he was safe, “Who are you?”

The green-haired kid took a step back and raised his hands in surrender, “I swear I’m not a villain! My name is Izuku Midoryia and I’m in… somewhere between the business course and the support course. Well, okay, I’m in the business course but my teachers--”

Jirou, now at Momo’s side, brandished the sword Momo gave her.

Izuku Midoryia paled swallowed, “You’re right. That doesn’t matter. I’m a friend of Iida, Tsu, and Uraraka! I sit with them at lunch.”

Jirou squinted at him, “How did you get here so fast? The villains just showed up.”

Midoryia scratched the back of his head, “I was kinda here the entire time. I was in the security room thing and I was supposed to analyze you guys for Power Loader, but then villains showed up and they teleported you here. They didn’t have anyone guard the maintenance exit which is right over the other side of the mountain zone, so I was hoping you could use your sound quirk and call for help. I think Iida’s already--”

Momo let her staff fall to her side, “One thing at a time, Midoryia. Is help coming?”

“I’m not getting any service because of the jamming quirk and the computers are awful, so I wanted to get you guys evacuated while they loaded,” he explained, “I was going to try to discord for help via the ethernet.”

Jirou groaned, “ Ethernet?   Really?  This is a top-of-the-line facility and they’re using  ethernet?”

“Don’t complain about a blessing,” Momo scolded, “If it was wireless we wouldn’t have any way to contact UA.”

“Actually, I think Iida managed to escape. Knowing him, he’s on his way to contact the heroes right now!” Midoryia informed them, “But we’re a long distance away and he didn’t use Power Loader’s shortcut from earlier, so it’ll take him at least ten minutes. Hence my plan.”

Momo studied the small, freckled boy and his broom. It was a risk to trust a complete stranger, but he  did  look significantly younger than the other villains. Her gut told her to trust him, and last time she didn’t trust it she ended up here, so…

Despite logic, Momo nodded, “Alright, Izuku Midoryia. Let’s go get help.”

--------------------------

Midoryia wasn’t dead yet, which was a bit of a surprise. He couldn’t believe he managed to get three complete strangers to trust him enough to evacuate, but it worked. He led them to the maintenance exit and shut the door before a villain could see them.

“Okay, I’m going to go check on the computer,” Midoryia notified them, “The exit is that door down there. It’s unlocked, I checked. If you use your speakers, you might be able to act as a siren to notify the teachers that we need help.”

The girl in question twirled her headphone-jack-ear-thing, “The most I can do is amplify my heartbeat. I don’t know if anyone will necessarily think of that as a call for help…”

“Try it anyway. There’s only one way to know for sure,” Deku ordered.

The girl wasn’t convinced, but she nodded and ran out the exit.

“Wattaboutus?” The boy with the electricity quirk slurred, throwing his arm around Deku.

“Uh… Wait for help?” he suggested, letting the other hang off him while he made his way to the computer room, “Or here, you can try to identify the villains so we can figure out who’s in charge for when the heroes get here.”

The black-haired girl nodded, “That seems to be the best course of action. How is your end coming?”

Deku plopped himself down in his chair, “Okay, it looks like I’m logged in now. I just need to type in the SOS and hopefully, someone will be online.”

Black hair brushed against Deku’s shoulder as the girl studied the screen, “What is that? An emergency chat room?”

Deku’s face heated, “Uh… my discord. There are always people on, and if I sent an email we have no guarantee anyone would check it.”

The girl looked down at him, “Isn’t that basically just a group chat?”

Deku had no defense to that.

Momo turned her attention to the cameras while Deku typed out his message and hit send:

Deku:  THIS IS NOT A JOKE! SOS! I need someone to call principal Nedzu at UA and tell him the USJ is under attack by an army of villains! There’s someone with a jamming quirk who is blocking all means of communication except this!

If Nedzu doesn’t pick up call the cops. My transfer exam was to analyze first years who are now being attacked by villains! WE NEED HELP CALL SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!

Midoryia was starting to hate that spinny ball of death.

The girl huffed, “I hope your friends are efficient.”

“At least two of them have doctorates?” Deku offered

“Hory shit!” the blonde guy exclaimed in slurred Engrish pointing at the screen, “Aizawa-sensei!” 

Midoryia looked over at the screen he was pointing at and his blood turned cold. Eraserhead was fighting in the plaza, and it was hard to tell since he was at most 20 pixels, but he was being attacked by something very big and the pixels making up his body were blood red. Whatever injuries he’d sustained were not light.

Midoryia’s stomach turned at the sight. 

The girl covered her mouth in shock, eyes shining with tears, “Sensei!”

“I cahnt jus sand here!” the blond guy declared, pushing his limp self out of his seat, “‘m a ‘ero and m’ sensei ‘eeds help!”

Izuku steadied the blond, “No, you can’t! You probably have a concussion or something! And even if you didn’t, look at the white-haired guy watching the thing attack him! He’s standing still and not going after anyone. He has to be the one in charge. If you go after him you’re  actually  going to die!”

“Who’s gonna die?” the purple girl asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“Aizawa-sensei!” The blonde exclaimed.

“Kaminari,” Momo replied.

The new girl studied the monitors with pursed lips, “the idiot’s right,” she looked at Midoriya, “Has your message been sent yet?”

Midoryia glanced at the loading bar, “halfway.”

“I did my thing, but I don’t think it’s loud enough to be heard by the school. I’m no Present Mic,” the girl tugged on her headphones ears, “We’ve got Iida and whatever you’re doing to contact the heroes, but we’re still going to need time for them to show up. I can use my speakers as much as you want, but if all of my classmates are injured or worse it won’t matter.”

Deku stared at her, “You want to go out and fight the villains?! Your friend there can’t do what he did at the mountain zone again!”

The other girl was chewing her lip, “But some of our classmates are in dangerous zones as well as being surrounded by villains. If we could just help get them out of the disaster zones… Actually, if we can evacuate them, maybe Aizawa-sensei could retreat and get some first aid.”

“That would be the right thing to do if you were full-fledged heroes, but that’s a bad idea in our current state!” Deku snapped, “Between the four of us we have three quirks, another with quirk overuse, a staff, a sword, a broom, some impressive speakers, and like three days of hero classes. On the other hand, they have a management system based on the white-haired guy with the teleporting quirk as his right hand. If something goes wrong, the teleporter can give them instant communication abilities and white-hair can redirect his forces towards problematic zones.”

He made eye contact with Jirou and shook his head hopelessly, “We’d need a miracle,” he informed them, “would need someone to distract those two and buy the others sometime before they get tired of Eraserhead. Then you’d have to figure out how to lead your classmates out of their disaster zones--maybe recruit some of your less injured classmates to help evacuate, and have a way to block off the door if some villains figure out where you’re going. The number of things that could go wrong…”

The concussed one gave him a thumbs up, “Sounds like a plan!”

The punk nodded, “If we split up we can get more people evacuated at once.”

“I can make emergency flares so the others will know if you need help,” the black-haired girl suggested.

“No, it’s still a bad idea! What about your classmates in the water zone? How are you going to get to a boat? What happens if quirk exhaustion sets in? What happens if you get caught? None of you have mobility quirks, electricity quirk over here has a limited defense, and you had very little idea how to use that staff,” Izuku reminded them, “Believe me, I tried to save my friend once and all I got was a lecture for getting in the heroes’ way. I know you’re trying to help, but make sure you’re not causing more problems by doing so.”

Deku felt bad about the way all of the energy left their bodies but… if it kept them alive it was worth it. The reason he pulled them out of the USJ was to make sure they would live, and he was going to do his best to keep them that way.

Electricity quirk grimaced, “Sorry man, I just… I’m supposed to be a hero. I’m supposed to help them.”

Sound quirk plopped herself on the cement floor, “We all are, aren’t we?”

“And there isn’t any way to… I don’t know, make things less dangerous for our classmates without leaving this safe zone?” the black-haired girl tried. It was feeble even as she said it. A final attempt to help.

Deku opened his mouth to assure them there was nothing they could do before he remembered something Power Loader said.

He shut his mouth and launched himself at the nearest filing cabinet. 

If this was the security room, they had to have some sort of blueprints, right? Or a manual? It would only make sense. No one could remember every feature of something. A manual was a necessity. 

The first drawer didn’t have anything of relevance, but he struck gold in the second.

USJ Cheat Sheet

It was a ripped-out page of a lined notebook, written in sloppy handwriting, but legible, “Yes! Thank All Might for bad memories!”

The punk girl stood up and studied the page, “What is it?”

“Something Power Loader kinda told me about,” Midoryia explained.

--------------------------

Shouto blinked as he felt the ground around him tremble again, which was strange. Could  another  landslide happen in the landslide zone? One of the villains must have compromised the integrity of the USJ’s mechanics and now it was glitching beyond repair. That wasn’t good. 

Shouto looked down. He might be able to slide down out of the zone, but if that took too long he was screwed. It would be safer to go up--

A whirring sound interrupted his train of thought. The rock underneath him shifted and he watched as the ground below him grew farther away.

He scanned his surroundings only to find the rocks around him zooming in every direction and locking on with one another. If he didn’t know better, he would think that the USJ was  reassembling itself.

----------------------------------

Mineta frowned at the shore, “Hey, is it just me, or are those slide things getting taller?”

Tsu shook her head, “No, look Kero. The lake is draining itself and shoving all of the villains into one place.”

Mineta sniggered, “Yeah, well they should eat my balls for what they put us through!”

-------------------

“Hey Tokoyami, follow me! I can show you to the nearest exit!”

-----------------------

“You want me to run away like a little pussy? No fucking way.”

“Come on dude, if there’s no one for the villains to attack--”

“I’m not a fucking coward! I’m gonna kill all of these assholes!”

“Fine! Then at least help us getting everyone else out!”

----------------------------

“My quirk might be strong enough to hold off that black monster thing if needed. I’ll stay and ensure everyone else can be evacuated safely.”

-----------------------------

Objectively, Izuku knew why he agreed to this. His rants made him great at taking up time, and he was kinda the person who came up with the plan. 

The problem was, it was a bad plan. It was a very bad plan that should never have been put into action and--

“Midoriya!” Yaoyorozu called as she pushed the door to the security room open, “Todoroki volunteered to stay behind and act as your bodyguard if something goes wrong. Just in time too, because I think the man in charge is starting to get bored. We’re going to need a distraction ASAP.”

“Todoroki?” Izuku echoed.

A tall chimera--split between red and white--appeared behind Momo and nodded in acknowledgment.

Todoroki. That was Endeavor’s family name. This had to be Endeavor’s son, “Are you sure--” Izuku swallowed, “Has Momo filled you in on the plan?”

Todoroki tilted his head, “Make sure no one kills you while you stall for time. What else would I do?”

If there was a god in the afterlife and rated the ridiculousness of people’s deaths, they were going to have a field day. How often does a quirkless kid accidentally get himself to be taken seriously and die from it? It can’t happen often. Maybe he’ll get a posthumous medal for " the most unexpected way to die.”

Midoryia let out a shaky breath and pushed himself out of the seat, “Okay, so we still have two zones to go, including the group by the entrance, and--”

A student with multiple arms gave him a thumbs up, letting him know he was ready to take over the surveillance from here.

“Whelp. Might as well get this over with then,” Midoryia muttered to himself before gesturing to Todoroki. Todoroki obliged and obediently followed him out of the maintenance hall. His impromptu bodyguard was silent until they came around the mountain zone.

“What is your quirk?”

Midoryia startled and tried to pretend his heart rate hadn’t sped up 10 bpm at the question, “Huh?”

“What is your quirk?” Todoroki repeated, “I want to be prepared if something goes wrong.”

“I uh… I don’t have one,” Midoryia confessed and held his breath.

A spark of something glint in Todoroki’s eyes, “Huh. If you ever became my friend my father would be pissed.”

Ooooh boy  Midoryia was dead. He was about to be killed by a hero-in-training.

Todoroki wasn’t making eye contact with him, instead deciding to stare off into the distance, “He thinks I shouldn’t associate with people weaker than me.”

Midoryia would much rather be killed by the villain’s boss than a pretty boy with an  undoubtedly  cool quirk. (He hadn’t seen the quirk yet, but if he’s Endeavor’s son AND a chimera it  has  to be cool).

“Good thing I hate my father. You should join my table at lunch tomorrow. I hear that’s what friends do.” Todoroki offered before taking off in a silent sprint.

The people at UA were so weird. How do they keep surprising him?

Midoryia didn’t even have time to recover before he forced himself to confront the boss villain.

The villain’s pale blue hair was his most distinguishable feature, other than the hands decorating his body. Who wears  hands  as part of their costume? It was kind of bizarre, but at least it was a hint. They likely had a five-point quirk, so as long as he didn’t touch Izuku he should be okay. 

Their second most distinguishable feat was the red, irritated dry skin that covered his body. His neck was particularly bad, and Izuku was surprised it wasn’t bleeding from the vigor he was scratching it with.

Their third most distinguishable feature was his voice. His throat must be as dry as his skin and every word was a whine as he growled, “Noumu, end him before the heroes get here. If we can’t kill All Might, we can at least kill his spirit!”

Izuku’s problem was that he instantly recognized the voice, despite it not coming over a mic,  “ What the actual fuck, Sho?”

Sho’s head whipped in his direction and his eyes grew wide,  “Deku? What the fuck are you doing here? And why are you so young?”

Chapter Text

Sho’s head whipped in his direction and his eyes grew wide,  “Deku? What the fuck are you doing here? And why are you so young?”

“God Sho, you can’t just ask people why they’re young!” Deku quipped back instinctively. He regretted the words before they even left his mouth, “No wait--”

Sho stared at him in disbelief, “Did you just  Mean Girls  me?”

“I…” Deku trailed off as his brain finally caught up. He was currently talking to his best friend. In-person. For the first time. And his friend was a supervillain who apparently wants to kill All Might.

“YOU’RE A VILLAIN! WHY ARE YOU A VILLAIN?” Deku demanded. Okay, maybe his brain wasn’t quite caught up yet.

Sho rubbed his temples through the gaps in his face hand's fingers, “I literally have a disintegration quirk. I am destruction incarnate. Of course I’m a supervillain! what else would I be?”

Izuku counted on his fingers, “A garbage man. A landscaper. A demolitions specialist. A rescue hero. Literally anything.”

“Get out of here with your logic,” Sho scowled, “What are you even doing here? This is a hero course-only facility.”

“You’ll never guess what my support course transfer exam was,” Deku deadpanned, “You know, the thing you said I should take?”

The dark shadowy villain beside Sho was intrigued by that, turning to Sho, “Oh, is this your friend? What’s his internet name again? Dekiru?”

Sho’s full-body groan--something Deku’s easily heard hundreds of times--now had an eerie tint to it. How long had Sho been planning this? How long had Deku been best friends with a villain? Wait, could Deku get arrested for accidentally befriending a supervillain online? Were any of their calls recorded?

What if Deku made a joke that could be misinterpreted! Forget being a hero, he might be arrested! 

He was mentally scanning through all of his discord’s running jokes when a realization hit him. Deku grabbed his head and turned his focus to taking deep, even breaths.  He was not going to have a panic attack hewasnotgoingtohaveapanicattack , “No no no no no, please don’t tell me this is what you meant when you asked for names and addresses! Would you have actually hurt my bullies if I let their names slip?!”

Sho straightened, “Wait, are any of them here? I could kill two birds with one stone--”

“NO KILLING!” Deku pleaded, “NO KILLING ANYONE!”

Sho snorted, “Come on Deku, you’re not being very manly. It’s just some light murder,” Sho insisted, “This is real life. It isn’t like that one political game you like where if you kill the wrong person there will be repercussions.”

“YES, IT IS!”

Sho scoffed, “Please, Mr. ‘perfect UA student,’ riddle me this: which one of us has more experience with murder and villainy?”

Deku opened his mouth to argue but closed it again. With a heavy sigh, he relented, “You got me there.”

There was a beat of silence before.

“Are we still on for Genshin with Akit0 later tonight, or do I have an excuse to get out of it?”

A villain laying on the ground with a leg bent at a weird angle--probably broken--and a bruise already forming on his temple let out a quiet, “bruh.”

Deku agreed.

Wait, the villain! Eraserhead!

Midoryia scanned the plaza until he spotted a red and black crumpled heap of cloth and hair. His friends’ teacher laid on the ground, unresponsive and bleeding. That much blood loss couldn’t be good. The average adult man has more blood than an adult woman and considering Eraser's muscle mass and height, Midoryia could guesstimate he has a little over 12 pints of blood in his body. Eraserhead is passed out, indicating that he’s lost at least 30-40% of his blood and you’re practically dead once you lose 50%--unless he was knocked out by a concussion. That would be a whole new set of numbers.

50% of 12 is 6, so that would be 6 pints of blood on the ground. An orange juice carton is a quart, which is two pints, so Eraser would have to lose a little under two orange juice cartons worth of blood to pass out and… Midoryia squinted. That didn’t necessarily look like two orange juice cartons worth, right? Eraserhead had to have a concussion. He hadn’t died of blood loss  yet , so Izuku had some time, but… Not much. 

Izuku ignored the anxiety making every cell in his body tremble (it’s not like it was anything new). Eraserhead’s life depended on how well he could keep Sho distracted. His classmates' lives might depend on him too, depending on how well the others can get them evacuated. He was going to pull this off. He just needed a new plan.

What resources did he have? An unconscious pro hero on his deathbed. The majority of the hero trainees were stationed just outside the exit waiting to greet an entire staff of pro heroes. There was a small team waiting in the security room. He only knew a handful of the students' quirks: explosion, engine, frog, float, an electrical discharge (but not control), creation, ear jack, and maybe half-hot/half-cold. Jirou, Kirishima, and Bakugou were preparing to evacuate the group by the doors and were currently hiding halfway across the USJ.

He could work with this. Deku felt some of the tension fade away. He had a plan. He could do something about this. Everything would be fine.

Step 1: get Sho to focus on him. Considering how they were mid-conversation and Deku knew Sho like the back of his hand, he could do that pretty easily. 

Now he had to tell someone his plan in case something went wrong. Two people in UA excelled in intelligence-gathering and had the hearing capabilities to hear him and one of them was in the security room. He just had to get the attention of one.

He had no idea how to do that yet, so he would have to stall until he did, “Did you just seriously ask if I’d play Genshin with you while you are having your--your  goons  attack my-my-my friends?”

“They’re not goons!” Sho corrected, “They’re henchmen.”

“How is that any different?” Izuku demanded.

“It’s really not,” Sho admitted, “I just prefer henchmen. Or NPC.”

“I’m telling Akit0 you call your henchmen NPCs. We’ve been telling you for years that that’s so dehumanizing,” Midoryia threatened, “and it doesn’t change the fact that you’re threatening  JIROU  and my friends!”

“These kids are gonna be heroes. They have perfect quirks and rich families and only care about their reputation. They aren’t the kind of people who would be a good friend for...”

For a quirkless person like me , Midoryia finished in his head. He shook his head, “No, remember the girl who invited me to sit with her even after my rants? Even after Kacchan told her I was quirkless? And another friend who told me to send links of hero ethics studies that I was interested in? Heck, I even met someone who invited me to spend time with him  because  I’m quirkless! Even  JIROU,  who   I’d never met before today, was willing to  listen to my ideas  before this went down.”

--------------------------

Jirou’s eyes widened, “Guys, get ready,” she hissed in a whisper, “I think we’re gonna get the signal to evacuate soon.”

Kirishima nodded in understanding, a hard look in his eye.

Bakugou scowled, “Whose plan was this anyway? I hate sneaking around like this. Give me two good reasons why--”

Jirou shushed him as she heard Midoryia resume talking, “Okay, he’s talking to the boss so it’s encoded, but he wants us to… tell Todoroki to get Eraserhead out of here? Who the fuck is  Eraserhead? ”

“A pro with quirk erasure” Bakugou blinked, “They must mean Aizawa-sensei.”

Jirou nodded. That made sense. What didn’t make sense was the next thing the support course kid said, “I think… he wants us to send a specific person to tell Todoroki, but I have no idea who  Kacchan  fucking is--”

“DEKU!”

Chapter Text

USJ continued….

The good news: Kacchan was coming, judging by the bellow and the subsequent explosions.

The bad news: Kacchan was coming.

The worse news: Kacchan’s explosion might have given away the others’ position and made Sho and Giri look at where Uraraka and the others were gathered at the USJ’s entrance. He could only hope that the other boy’s presence would be enough for the villains to overlook that small mistake.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE DEKU?!” Kacchan demanded as he sped through the air.

Deku spared a glance at Sho, Giri, and the silent black guy with the strength quirk. While strength quirk hadn’t even flinched at the new development, Sho and Giri’s eyes were locked on the incoming hero student.

“Kacchan! Stay away!” Deku pleaded, not taking his eyes off the villains. He knew full well that his childhood friend was not going to be discouraged by a simple plea. Instead, he focused on gauging his friend’s reaction to his most iconic bully’s name.

Sure enough, Sho’s expression immediately soured. He let out a growl before turning to Izuku, “That’s him, isn’t it? That’s your  Kacchan ?” the villain hissed, disgust dripping from every syllable. He didn’t even wait for Izuku’s response before turning to the black villain, “NOUMU, KILL THAT FUCKING BASTARD!”

Sho’s eyes were locked on Kacchan as he landed between the central plaza and the fire zone, putting the Villains between him and the rest of their class. The malice in Sho’s eyes hardened as he sized up his friend’s former tormenter. Even Kurogiri was enraptured by Deku’s distraction. 

Deku’s plan was actually working! Step two was a success!

Kacchan glanced at Deku, a question in his eyes. Ah, Deku should probably explain the plan to him, but he had something else to do first.

Deku flashed him a thumbs up, followed by a finger to his lips--to let him know he was okay, that Kacchan acted according to plan, and to keep his mouth shut--and then took off in a full sprint in the opposite direction. Hopefully, Kacchan wouldn’t think he was running away out of cowardice and call him out.

Deku definitely wasn’t going to wait around to find out. Kacchan was a capable student who could handle himself for thirty seconds. He hoped. 

But right now he had to do step three: get Eraserhead to safety.

“Jirou, go NOW!” Midoryia stage-whispered as his legs shoved him closer and closer to the mountain zone. He had no way of knowing whether or not she heard him, but the girl was smart enough to take advantage of Kacchan’s distraction. Probably. Deku had only known her for about ten minutes. 

Deku slipped into the cover of the mountain zone and saw a familiar splash of red and white hair.

Todoroki grabbed Deku’s collar and hoisted him up in the air, feet dangling above the ground, “You wanna tell me what just happened out there?”

“No time!” Deku squeaked breathlessly, “Can you use your ice to aid your mobility?”

Todoroki wasn’t too pleased by Deku’s lack of an explanation. The taller, much stronger boy pushed him against the mountain. Uneven rocks dug into Deku’s back and fire danced in Todoroki’s eyes, “And why should I tell someone who consorts with villains like  them ?”

“You think I have time to explain now?” Deku snapped because  Eraserhead was dying,  “I got them to look away from Eraserhead. Your teacher is in hypovolemic shock and has a nasty concussion. I know you’re not supposed to move an injured person but if he stays there he  will  die. Kacchan and I are risking our lives to give him a chance, so put me down  and go get your freaking teacher .”

Todoroki’s eyes widened. Deku slipped to the ground. The other boy let out a heavy breath and tightened his jaw. Then…

He nodded, “Fine, but you  will  be telling me what just happened later.”

“Later,” Deku agreed, “Just go save your teacher before they notice I’m gone!”

To Deku’s surprise, he found himself thrown over Todoroki’s shoulder. He squeaked very manly...ly. 

Todoroki was already sprinting before he got an explanation, “Might as well give you a ride before they catch you.”

His feet hit the ground before he could respond and Todoroki was already gone, identifying the worst of Eraserhead’s wounds and providing extra support before he zoomed off, a path of half-melted ice under his feet leading back to the mountains. 

So he did have a heat quirk then.

Meanwhile, Kacchan was vigorously evading the black villain, dirt and scratches already prominent on his forehead. In the seconds it had taken Deku to get Todoroki, he must’ve taken a heavy hit. Time for step 4.

Deku moved in front of Sho and waved his hands desperately, “Sho! No! Please don’t kill him!”

Sho looked away from the battle and made eye contact with Deku, disbelief showing through his face-hand, “Don’t lie to me Deku,” he growled, “You’ve let his name slip before. I know who this is and what he’s done. You may be able to forgive him for the suicide-baiting and the scars, but that’s because you’re too soft to do what needs to be done.”

A shudder ran down Deku’s spine. When he and Sho first started playing together, the older man’s harsh tone and violent language terrified Deku, but this was something new altogether. He was used to Sho’s desire to hurt and inflict pain, but that was on fake, inanimate video game characters. Hearing him talk this way about a real person, about  Kacchan .

“No, please, stop Sho!” Deku pleaded, “Kacchan hasn’t told me to jump off a roof since the villain incident!” he lied before remembering, “Actually, he’s told people off for it! He’s not all bad!”

Sho didn’t react at Deku’s pleas or when Kacchan was thrown against the ground.

Deku bit his lip. Screw step 4, he just needed Kacchan to be okay. 

Changing tactics, Deku turned away from Sho and planted himself between the black beast and Kacchan. The villain towered over him, well over two or three times his height. His dull eyes, empty and devoid of life, locked on their new target.

Deku’s heart skipped a beat.

Step 1 was to distract the villains. Step 2 was to get Jirou’s attention so he could tell her his plan. Step 3 was to use Sho’s protectiveness against him so Deku could contact Todoroki and get Eraserhead to safety. Next, he was going to get who was supposed to figure out who was really behind this and keep him talking until the heroes showed up. It was supposed to be  talking,  not this.

But Kacchan was going to be a hero. He would save people with a yell that would freeze villains in their tracks. How could a quirkless kid without the guts to try out for the support course the first time let a hero die for him? Deku couldn’t do nearly as much good in the world as Kacchan, so…

He looked the villain dead in the eyes and held out his hands, forming a human shield.

“Deku, what are you  doing?”  Sho demanded, “Get out of the way!”

Izuku couldn’t help the whine that escaped him, but he stayed his ground. His loud, declarative “No” came out as a mumble.

Sho’s voice was not happy, “You’re not an idiot, so why are you acting like it?”

The black villain took a step closer.

“One--one of my friends has a theory,” Izuku whimpered, “That quirks influence their owner’s personalities. People with fire quirks can be hot-headed and greedy. People with healing quirks want everything to be perfect. You have a disintegrating quirk, so of course you want society to crumble. Your destructive tendencies are a side effect of your quirk.”

Was Deku just stalling for time? Absolutely, but every second he could buy was another second Kacchan could use.

 “I--I don’t know if you picked up those traits because it’s biological, you made yourself fit the stereotype, or because others said you had to be this way,” The black villain took another step closer. Deku was going to die.

“But--” his voice cracked and paused, "Being quirkless has taught me that there’s always another choice. There are productive ways to destroy, so you don’t have to use me as an excuse to kill someone.”

“I’m not using you as an excuse, I’m getting revenge for you!” Sho snapped, and Deku could hear his footsteps approaching, “Now get out of Noumu’s way!”

“It’s not revenge for me if it’s revenge I don’t want. You just want an excuse to kill and feel good about it, meaning that the act of destruction isn’t completely satisfying for you,” Deku found himself saying, and  wow that was complete bs , “And this raid isn’t satisfying to you either. Someone put you up to this.”

Keep stalling keep stalling keep stalling

“YOU FUCKING IDIOT DEKU I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP!”

A blast of heat threw Deku backward, and he landed on his side. His hands and arm burned from sliding against the brick ground, but none of his injuries felt too serious.

Now it was Kacchan’s turn to stand in front of Noumu, but he wasn’t the only one. Jirou, Uraraka, Kirishima, Todoroki, a fluffy pink girl, and a guy with weird elbows flew through the air. Quirks flying.

Todoroki’s ice locked the monster’s feet in place while elbow-quirk wrapped his upper body in tape, confining his arms. Kirishima, full-body hardened, launched himself at Noumu just as one of Bakugou’s explosions slammed into him. The force was enough to knock the Noumu out of Todoroki’s ice, fly a couple feet, and slam against the ground. With lightning speed, a pink blur consisting of two girls was at the Noumu’s side: one girl holding another that grabbed the Noumu’s shoulder and tossed him in the air. 

Jirou threw her hands up to her mouth, “RUN!”

Deku almost laughed as he obliged. Jirou and Kirishima must have grabbed the team by the entrance and come back to put the Noumu out of commission! It wasn’t the smartest evacuation plan, since it meant that a few of their classmates would have to wait to be evacuated, but Izuku wasn’t about to complain. With its arms bound to its side and feet unable to reach the ground, the Noumu had no way to chase after them! It was a completely foolproof plan to make sure he and Kacchan didn’t die!

Except… Deku glanced back at Kurogiri, “WATCH OUT!”

A portal opened under their feet and deposited them back at the central plaza. Another portal appeared in time for the Noumu to fly through it and land on the ground. Uraraka scrambled to her feet just in time to avoid puking on the other students and was forced to release her quirk.

“Well, that was fun while it lasted,” Tape elbows sighed next to him, resigned.

Sho, meanwhile, had a splitting grin, “Sensei’s gonna pleased to hear that the first-year hero’s class is about to be a lot smaller. You guys will be a great warm-up for All Might. I’m sorry about this Deku, but I tried to spare you.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it,”  a new voice replied before Midoryia could snark back,  “That’ll make my job much easier! Why, because I AM HERE!”

No. 

Flipping. 

Way.

In the blink of an eye, All Might stood between the students and the villains, hands on his hips and chest swelled with pride. He turned his head and gave his students a quick peace sign,  “Go join your classmates at the entrance while I deal with these guys! I’ll just be a moment.”

Another voice, too low to be any of their classmates but still feminine let out a short groan, “We get it old man, you get the witty one-liner because you’re overpowered, but don’t steal my thunder either.

Dark skin. Rabbit ears. A white leotard.

Deku’s jaw dropped, “MIRUKO?”

“Whoa, Miruko?” Mina echoed, “What are you doing here? How’d you get here before the other teachers?”

“Cuz I’m a boss bitch. Not very many people are faster than me, especially when I have a head start thanks to SmallMight.”

Deku almost flat-lined.  “I’m a boss bitch”  could not be a coincidence.

Jirou made the same connection and made eye contact with Deku, who was going to have a very long conversation with his discords tonight.

At least Kirishima was paying enough attention to raise the alarm, “All Might! We still haven’t gotten confirmation if Ojiro, Tsu, and Mineta are safe!”

Miruko nodded and gestured to All Might, “You can fly and shit. You go get them while I take care of these guys. It’s more important to make sure the brats are safe.”

All Might nodded,  “Does anyone know where they are?”

Jirou raised her hand, “Ojiro’s in the fire zone, and Mineta and Tsu are in the Water Rescue Training Area!”

All Might flashed them a smile and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Miruko cracked her knuckles, “Oh man, this will be fun.”

Sho tried to recover the mission, “Stay out of our way, rabbit girl, and no one else will get hurt!”

Miruko launched into action. She was too fast for Deku to keep track of, but it was still a sight to see. She opened with a foot spiraling at Sho’s head, but the Noumu was already there. 

Sho didn’t even flinch, “I’ve got nothing against girl power, but this beast was made to kill All Might himself!” he boasted, “Not even you can kill him! I guess we’ll just have to wait for All Might to come back to take him out, and we’ll get you out of the way while we’re at it.”

Miruko laughed and switched targets, “Not even I can take him? We’ll see about that!” In another blur, the Noumu almost landed a hit on her.

“He has multiple quirks!” Kacchan warned, “Shock absorption, healing, and whatever mutant quirk made him look like that!”

“And blue hair has a 5-point disintegration quirk!” Midoryia added, “And black has a non-sight warping quirk, but there’s definitely a body where his metal armor is!”

“Thanks, now get out of here before you get hurt and watch the pros work!”

--------------------------------------------

By the time the students evacuated to the entrance, Miruko was making headway and All Might had already carried Ojiro to safety. The others who were in the security room were already gathered with the rest of class 1-A, with Momo already making bandages and administering all the first aid she knew.

Midoryia’s first aid knowledge was limited and he had nothing else to do, so he watched All Might and Miruko hard at work. Even though All Might had crushed him after the villain incident, a familiar sense of awe bloomed in his chest as he saw him at work. Miruko was an exceptional hero--a well-placed kick from her could topple a 20-foot tall building--but even she was dwarfed by the number one hero’s sheer power. In the end, even Miruko stood to the side and watched as All Might overwhelmed the Noumu’s shock absorption and practically launched him into orbit.

Midoryia could’ve sworn her heard Todoroki tell Uraraka, “Huh, it’s a shame you didn’t still have your anti-gravity activated,”

Kurogiri and Sho warped away right as the rest of the teachers showed up, weapons ready. Once assured the threat had passed, Ectoplasm and Recovery girl didn’t waste a second treating Eraserhead while the rest of the teachers apprehended the villains the students handled. In no time the only thing left to do was wait for the police to arrive. Unfortunately, Izuku Midoryia was already being questioned.

The pink fluffy girl with the acid quirk leaned into his face with a frown, “Hey, wait! you’re not in our class!”

Midoryia laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, “No, I’m not, I’m actually--”

“DEKU!”

Kacchan, no longer distracted by the pro heroes, was now turning his attention to Izuku. He wasted no time marching to his side and pressing him against the nearest wall, “What are you doing here, Deku?”

Iida didn’t hesitate to pull his classmate off of Deku, “Bakugou! It is very unheroic to--”

“Shut up four-eyes! The quirkless bastard is in the business course, and yet he’s here, getting friendly with the villains? What did you call the blue-haired one? Shi?”

“Don’t call him quirkless!” Iida scorned, a perfectly flat hand pointed at Kacchan’s face, “That’s very offensive to those who can’t stand up for themselves and a very villainous thing to call someone!”

“Thanks, Iida, but it’s okay,” Midoryia assured him, “I can handle Kacchan.”

“LIKE HELL YOU CAN!”

Kaminari stepped between Bakugou and Midoryia, arms held in surrender “Hey, Bakugou, back off! Midoriya just managed to evacuate almost the whole class safely, was willing to distract the villains on his own, and somehow managed to call in  fucking Miruko . He just saved our butts. I think we owe him our thanks, not an interrogation.”

“Yeah, I know!” Kacchan snapped, “The little shit thinks he’s better than me even though he doesn’t even have a quirk. He’s a goddamn idiot--”

Iida glared at him, “Midoryia is an extremely capable student--”

“Iida, it’s fine,” Midoryia assured him, rubbing his arm. Huh, his shoelace was starting to fray. He should probably take care of that soon, “I mean…” Izuku grimaced, preparing himself for the incoming wake of awkwardness, “I  am  quirkless, so it’s really not an insult.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Oh,” Kaminari’s shoulders fell and he gave him  that  look. The surprised expression of pity and disgust, warning Izuku that they would only see him as a pile of eggshells to toe around from now on.

Uraraka, completely unsurprised by the news, didn’t hesitate. She took a step forward and flashed Midoryia a nervous smile “I can’t imagine going to face a villain without my quirk! The fact that you didn’t just hide and instead tried to help was incredibly brave! You managed to stay calm and get Aizawa-sensei to safety while being quirkless?”

Kirishima’s former frown changed into a forced grin, “That’s so manly!” he declared, pumping his fist.

“Fucking badass,” Jirou agreed.

Midoryia’s face grew warm. The last time he did something like this was the sludge incident, and then the heroes lectured him for hours about how foolhardy he was. Even the commenters on articles couldn’t “wait for natural selection” and the like. He wasn’t expecting the praise, but it warmed his chest anyway.

Tsu placed a finger on her lip thoughtfully, “Not the best idea though, Kero. Fighting villains is no joke.”

“I appreciate the thought and the intentions of your actions, but you could’ve gotten seriously hurt without a quirk!” Iida scolded, hands chopping through the air, “It was a foolish idea and you should not have run into a villain fight! You had no offensive or defensive ability, no route of escape, nothing to give you a benefit--”

Oh . This made more sense.

Momo shifted from side to side before interrupting Iida’s rant, “While I might have agreed with you an hour ago Iida, I really don’t think that’s the case,” she murmured under her breath. Iida stared at her in horror. She continued, “You didn’t see Midoryia in action. He approached every plan with the safest route possible, and only took the risk of confronting the villains when Jirou, Kaminari, and I pressured him into doing so because we knew he was the most capable planner available.”

“I’m aware that Midoryia is an intelligent individual, but--”

“Hey, SmallMight! Come here!”

Midoryia let out a sigh of relief, glad to escape his classmate’s debate, “Sorry, gotta go! Miruko’s calling.”

He felt a little bad for his classmates as he brushed them aside, but he was too tired to care. It wasn’t even noon yet and Deku was ready to drop. Between waking up early, the attack, and the shock of meeting Sho, Giri, and Boss Bitch (Miruko!!!!), he didn’t have much energy left. As much as he appreciated Uraraka, Kirishima, and Momo’s support, listening to his classmates argue over whether he had the right to help them was not something he wanted to waste his energy on. Miruko (FREAKING MIRUKO), on the other hand, was most certainly worth every millisecond of his time.

He found Miruko standing at the base of the stairs dragging a handcuffed villain in each hand. When she caught sight of Izuku coming her way, she gave him a once over. Izuku wondered what she was thinking at this moment. She didn’t know he was quirkless, right? Was she planning on apprehending him too since he got so familiar with Sho? 

“I am so pissed at you,” Miruko said, her low voice giving away nothing.

Izuku accepted his fate. He didn’t know what he did to anger her, but there was no escape from Miruko herself. If he did anything that would piss her off, he probably deserved the painful repercussions of that action. He closed his eyes and braced himself for whatever came next.

“You’re one of the best fucking quirk analysts I know--the most enthusiastic for sure--and you’re fucking twelve.”

Was she...mad at him for being young, “Uh… sorry?”

Her scowl morphed into a smirk and she ruffled Izuku’s hair, “Don’t apologize, ya zygote. Fucking brag about it. I hate you humble types.”

Uh… Izuku had no idea how to reply to that, so he settled for a question, “How did you get here so fast? When I messaged the discord, I was expecting--oh I don’t know--a couple of scientists to call Nedzu or the police. I certainly wasn’t expecting you!”

“I was actually in the middle of a HPSC meeting,” Miruko admitted, kneeling down to tie the villains she was dragging onto a chain of half-conscious villains, “Thanks for getting me out of that by the way. Those things are boring as hell. Anyway, I got your message, left, called Nedzu on my way, and I was on campus by the time All Might ran into Iida.”

“Oh,” Izuku mumbled to himself. At least she was in the area, otherwise, this could’ve been really bad. Especially with All Might’s injury being like it is, Izuku had no idea how it had affected his power output. If it wasn’t for Miruko, the other students would’ve had to finish evacuating the others and if something went wrong and the Noumu had been a match for the number one hero… The pros might’ve been too late.

Izuku flinched as he felt Miruko grip his arm. Tight. She yanked him in front of him and leaned in so her face was level with his, “What did you just say?”

Izuku's heart stopped as he looked into her defensive, dangerous eyes. He had to remind himself to breathe. She probably wouldn’t hurt him, “Sorry! I didn’t even realize I was talking out loud! I don’t know what I said!”

Miruko pinched the bridge of her nose, “Of course you don’t. I can’t say I’m surprised. You seem like the type. How do you know about All Might’s injury?”

“I saw him detransform after a villain fight,” he explained, rushed and breathless, “I haven’t told anyone and I know this looks bad but I swear I didn’t even know Sho was a villain and--”

Miruko released her grip on him and took a step back, “Whoa, slow down kid. You’re not in trouble, you just caught me off guard. Not even I’m supposed to know about that injury. What’s this about not knowing someone was a villain? And you were supposed to be testing into support today, right? What are you doing here?”

Deku launched into a summary of his day, starting with Power Loader introducing him to Eraserhead, his notebooks, the security room, and his history with the man leading the attack. The explanation took a while, so he followed Miruko as she dragged villains from one side of the USJ to another. 

Miruko listened carefully, ears twitching and asking questions when it became relevant. She wasn’t at all surprised by the notebooks, but Izuku was pretty sure everyone in the quirk discord had at least one analysis journal ever since Analysister mentioned hers. She did laugh when Deku explained the process of realizing that his best friend was a supervillain, which was even weirder to say now that the shock had worn off.

“I’m supposed to play a game with Akit0 tonight!” Izuku complained, “What do I do? Not show up? Kick Sho out of the chat and anger a villain?”

“You’ll have to ask a detective,” she advised, “If it was someone in our discord it would be fine since I’m there to oversee everything, but I’m not sure about your gaming one. It really depends on what the people in charge of Sho’s case want to do.”

“Oh yeah, the cops. I guess I’m going to have to talk to them, aren’t I?”

Miruko scoffed, “‘Course, kid. You went face to face with a villain that you know better than anyone else. They’ll appreciate all the information you can give them.”

“But what if I forget something? Would I be charged with perjury or withholding evidence? I already got charged for vigilantism once and I don’t want to have that happen again. Should I contact Akit0 and Kirby for their input too?”

“Cut it out Small Might and shut your trap! You’ll be fine!” Miruko barked.

Izuku buried his face in his hands to hide his embarrassment, “All Might, I should have changed my name on that discord years ago.”

Miruko snorted, a loud, ugly snort, “You are absolutely not allowed to change it. It’s fucking hilarious.”

“I am absolutely changing it. I got over my All Might obsession like a year ago anyway.”

Miruko dropped the villain she was dragging and pulled out her phone, “I’m telling the mods to lock your name right now.”

Izuku’s head snapped up, “MIRUKO!”

“Yes?” she asked innocently (as if she was ever innocent).

He reached for her phone, but she simply held it above her head, “Nuh-uh, it’s an iconic name. One day when you’re famous I’m gonna send so many screenshots of your encyclopedic knowledge of All Might and solely refer to you by your discord name.”

“No! Miruko! Stop!” he begged, jumping in an attempt to reach her phone.

She brushed his arms aside, “But it’s so fitting!” she insisted, “It’s the perfect name for you.”

“You’re dropping down on my weekly hero ranking list,” he warned her, “You’re at least number 34 now.”

“Hey! I thought I was number 6!”

“40!”

“It’s too late. They’ve locked it and they’re very glad I’ve informed you that you’re safe.”

“Number 53, right under Death Arms.”

Miruko rolled her eyes, “Where’s your notebook? Go write an entry for the police. Stop annoying the number 6 hero.”

“Your official ranking is in the 20s!” he reminded her.

“Those are bs. Yours are the only ones that are ranked reasonably.

“Then you’re number 53!”

“Nah. Go start your analysis, nerd.”

“You’re the one who wrote a twenty-page essay on the downsides of using quirks in our infrastructure and technology!”

“You wrote 50,000 words--including information from reports I kinda doubt you got legally--on why Endeavor is a sucky hero and doesn’t deserve his ranking! Don’t go around calling me the nerd.”

“Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. I need to add a new section to that.”

“Oh my god, how are you like this?”

Chapter Text

“Hey Small Might--”

   Midoryia buried his face in his hands, “Please Miruko, my name is Midoryia. Use it, please!” he begged.

   Miruko’s expression was flat and serious, “Hey Small Might,” she repeated, the glee in her tone contradicting her face. Then, more serious, “Keep my hero identity on the down-low in the discord, will ya? I’m not sure how the others would react to the fact that a pro hero is on the discord and I don’t want them to hold anything back to risk offending me. The best part about the discord is that I can hear real, educated opinions on heroes and villains and apply the knowledge I learn to fight and villain apprehension. I can talk to real quirk analysts whenever I want, but not ones that aren’t trying to please me with every word. I’m so sick of it and I don’t want you y’all to start acting like pussies.”

   Midoryia nodded immediately. He understood the appeal of anonymity. He joined his discords for similar reasons, after all. After being treated as an inferior, fragile object all day and being tiptoed around or abused, it was a nice reprieve from the two extremes. He was just another person; a person who people enjoyed being around, in fact.

   “Alright, now give me something I can blackmail you with to make sure you don’t spill the beans,” Miruko ordered, “Collateral information.”

   “Uh…” Midoryia blinked, “But blackmail is illegal and you could get your hero license--”

   “It’s a joke, Might-doryia,” Miruko assured him, “I won’t extort you. I just want insurance.”

   Well, insurance was important for heroes. Having Hero Insurance was expensive, but it was reasonably priced considering the hefty rebuilding costs after villain attacks. And some companies also provided lawsuit coverage. While some victims sued the villains for damages, others were more willing to blame the heroes. Having insurance and a fund to rebuild everything was a surefire way to avoid lawsuits and the like. It makes sense that Miruko would want--

   Miruko huffed, “I wasn’t expecting you to be such a nerd in person,” she grumbled, “I should’ve known better. You’re dodging the question.”

   Midoryia jumped, “Gah, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to say that out loud! I’m an external thinker--I like to write things down or say them aloud--and so sometimes when I’m thinking really hard I’ll just mumble for ages and it annoys everyone and I’ve been trying to kick that habit for ages, but nothing I find online works--”

“Tch. That could be bad when you go pro,” Miruko admitted, but she didn’t seem too worried about it, “Good thing you’ve got that support kid brain of yours to figure something out after you give me some collateral.”

“Uh…” Midoryia thought back to Class 1-A’s reaction to his quirklessness. Kirishima and Momo had been supportive but… Iida and Tsu…

Iida and Tsu were supposed to be his friends. He knew there was a chance they’d react like this but Uraraka had given him hope. She had taken the revelation in stride, standing up for him against Bakugou multiple times without being condescending or harming him. 

“I’m quirkless?”

Miruko’s eyes widened and she leaned back, “For real?”

He nodded.

“You don’t have an analysis quirk? Or a quirk identification quirk?”

“Nope. Just an obsession with heroes,” he confessed.

“No wonder why Power Loader wants you so bad!” Miruko slapped his back hard enough for him to stumble, but her eyes danced and she broke out into a grin, “You’re a badass!”  

Izuku flatlined.

Miruko… Miruko called him a badass? Miruko, the rabbit hero who took on any challenge head-on and used to sneak into underground fighting rings… thinks he’s a badass? He must’ve misunderstood her. That’s it. Izuku was an idiot who was going to fall victim to Darwinism. There was no way someone like Miruko could think—

“Hey, kid, snap out of it. I don’t say things I don’t mean,” Miruko grumbled, eyes locked on the main entrance, “And heads up: I’m going to have the police talk to you first. I know you’re not a villain, but you’re familiar with your attackers and spoke to them the most anyway. If you give them enough information and your classmates' stories’ agree with yours, then that’s less work for everyone.”

Oh no, Izuku was dead, “Can you just tell them what I told you?”

Miruko tore her eyes away from the entrance, turning back to him with one bewildered eyebrow raised, “Is that a joke?”

Izuku groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Miruko crossed her arms, “Kid, talking to the police isn’t fun, but you should enough about investigations to know that a first-hand source is always a thousand times better. You just need to bite the bullet and get it over with.”

“No! It’s not that!” Izuku assured her. His hand darted to his neck, already rubbing out the budding tension, “It’s just—“

“Oh, perfect timing,” Miruko grabbed his wrist and yanked. Izuku stumbled forward, barely able to catch himself as Miruko marched him toward the entrance. His wrist burned from the sheer force of her grip—a reminder of the hero’s sheer strength—and he accepted his fate. There was going to be no escape. He had no choice but to accept his ineffable fate.

Izuku struggled to keep pace with her while also not tripping over the irrationally tall staircase. Miruko was kind enough to not take three steps at a time like she usually did, but Izuku’s feet still got caught a handful of times. Only Miruko’s unshakable core stopped him from faceplanting or falling down the stairs.

They weren’t even up the stairs when Miruko bellowed, “Yamaha!”

A scrawny police officer with no visible quirk looked over, “Miruko? What are you doing at UA?”

“Got a distress signal from a quirk analyst of mine,” Miruko explained, nodding toward Midoryia.

One day. One day where Midoryia wasn’t forced to question the validity of society’s expectations and treatment of him. That’s all he wanted. Unfortunately, the world never seems to care about what Izuku wants.

“I’m barely 15! I’m not even in the support course! I’m not an analyst!’ He cried. Why was Miruko lying to a police officer? Wasn’t that a punishable offense?!

“You’ve helped me catch at least five villains. You’re one of my analysts whether you like it or not,” Miruko assured him, “Anyway,” she turned her attention back to Yamaha, “This is Small Might—“

“Midoryia,” Izuku corrected.

“This is Small Might and he has a history with the villain’s leader as well as quirk analysis skills to help with identification. He also helped evacuate class 1-A and held off the villain, so don’t give him too hard of a time. He’s gonna be your most important witness.”

Midoryia buried his face in his hands so he wouldn’t have to see the officer’s reaction, “Miruko, please stop. We’re gonna get in trouble!”

“Trouble is my middle name.”

Izuku raised his head out of his hands just enough to let her see his tired expression, “We’re Japanese. Neither of us has a middle name.”

“That we know of.”

“What? Why would we have names we don’t even know of? What kind of YA/Shonen protagonist fanfiction are we living in?”

“Maybe the found family kind? That could be fun. Can I call your mom and ask for permission to adopt you?” 

“NO!”

“…Can I be adopted?’

“Miru-kun!”

“Come on, we have to do it for the fandom. You know this.”

Izuku took a deep breath, preparing a lengthy retort, but was rescued by Yamaha’s tired plea, “Can I please start my investigation?”

“After Small Might’s mom adopts me.”

“MIRU-KUN!”

The officer was able to pull Midoryia away from Miruko, despite the fortunate scarcity of adoption papers. He led him outside of the USJ, where a few ambulances and a handful of police cars wailed and sat Izuku down on the hood of a cop car.

Izuku watched him pull out his notebook and remembered the notebook Miruko had him (very, very roughly) fill out when she first showed up. It was still clutched in his hands, very much intact and present.

“I uh… wrote down some of the important things about the quirks earlier,” Izuku informed the officer, holding out said notebook, “It’s not very thorough and I don’t know if it’ll be important, but it’s information.”

The officer raised his eyebrow but accepted the notebook and opened it to the first page, “Is this… a step-by-step breakdown of All Might’s fight against some petty villain?”

Izuku flushed, “Quirk Analysis is a hobby of mine. That’s how I know Miruko. We’re on a quirk analysis discord server together,” he explained, then hesitated, “Wait, do you know what discord is?”

The officer skimmed a few pages, “Huh, so this is more or less legit then?”

Izuku shrugged, “I have no formal training and it’s just a hobby, but a handful of support engineers, quirk researchers, and a pro hero like to encourage me so it’s probably not horrible.”

Yamaha nodded and flagged down a CSI to take the notebook, “I’ll have someone look into it back at the precinct then. We’ll put it in evidence for now. Now, do you want to tell me what went down today? As much as you can remember.”

Izuku obliged, explaining how he woke up early for his transfer test and the outline of his transfer exam. Then, how everything went wrong and he used his half-functioning Ethernet connection to call for help. The officer was patient as Izuku detailed the process of evacuating Class 1-A, distracting Shigaraki, and the realization that Shigaraki was Izuku’s gaming buddy. The mention of their friendship raised a few more questions.

Yamaha (who was apparently a detective, actually) jotted something down, “And what kind of games would you play together?”

“A bit of everything, to be honest,” Izuku admitted, “As a whole group, we play a lot of super smash bros, but Sho and I will two-player a lot of shooter games, mainly. I tend to like survival and puzzle games a bit more, but Sho’s one of my best friends so I’ll play whatever he wants. We do like the Black Ops survival mode though.”

Another scribble on Yamaha’s notebook, “So the attacker of the USJ is one of your best friends? You do understand how this could sound incriminating?”

This is the first part that made Izuku nervous about a police interview, “Yes, but it also means I’m familiar with his strategies and temperament, so I can assure you this won’t be the only attack on UA. He’s rash, hot-headed, and has next to no planning skills, but he makes up for it with raw bullheadedness. That’s why the two of us play so well together. I’m good at the long-term stuff, but I get too anxious to act on my plans.”

“You think he’s dangerous?”

Izuku almost laughed at that. How many times had Sho offered to murder his bullies and classmates? Even before he knew that Sho’s threats might have some truth behind them, Sho preferred the messiest, most destructive tactics. He struggled on missions where he had to have limited damage. His defense was destruction.

Izuku settled for a shorter explanation, “I know he’s dangerous. He has a 5 point disintegration quirk. He turns gaming systems to dust on accident and I know for a fact that his quirk works on organic material too because he’s dissolved food.”

“If you’re so scared of him, then why are you friends with him?”

“I don’t exactly have IRL friends lining up,” Izuku admitted, “Most of the time, I can usually talk to people for the first few days of school, but after…” he trailed.

Command Z. Undo. He needed to back up fifteen seconds. He said too much. Nononononono.

Detective Yamaha looked intrigued, “Oh really? And why is that?”

Deku had read enough articles to know that he was about to lose all credibility in the law’s eyes. Maybe there’s a way around saying it? Maybe he could say he was such a nerd even the nerds didn’t want to be friends with him? Is that believable? 

“Hey, kid, can you tell me why that would be?’

Izuku needed more time! He needed a way around it. If he said those two words now, he wouldn’t be able to tell the officer about Sho’s impatience and the imminence of his next attack! Or about Kurogiri’s warping ability! 

“Kid?”

His mind floundered for a feasible plan, but he couldn’t even grasp the slightest idea. With a defeated sigh, he muttered the two words.

“Can you say that louder?”

“…I’m quirkless.”

The officer blinked, “Oh, so you don’t have an analysis quirk? You said—“

“I don’t have any quirks, sir. I only said quirk analysis was a hobby,” Izuku clarified, “I have not lied this entire interview.” 

The officer closed his notebook, “No, but you were withholding information and misleading me. You do realize that’s a punishable offense? You can get jail time for that. I’m going to need to take you to the station.”

Izuku shot up, “But it wasn’t relevant!”

“Yes, it was. No quirkless kid would do half the things you claimed to do. This means that you not only withheld information but lied about the entire encounter. Plus, it’s awfully suspicious that you’re friends with the villain and just happened to be at the USJ, isn’t it?” Detective Yamaha reached to his belt and pulled out a set of handcuffs, “You’re under arrest under the suspicion of aiding and abetting a terrorist as well as interrupting an investigation—“

“What?!” Izuku whimpered. He wasn’t expecting this. Having his notebook tossed in the garbage and discredited, sure. Having his entire testimony ignored was just part of being quirkless. Being arrested on suspicion of aiding a terrorist? That meant that the officer at least thought he was capable of something, he supposed.

Oh man, his mom was going to be so pissed! How was he going to explain this? His eyes burned as he looked at the officer, “What if you talk to Miruko? She can confirm—“

“—Adding one count of resisting arrest—“

“WHAT?!”

“-for uncooperativeness,” detective Yamaha continued.

Tears escaped his eyes, “Please sir! I swear I’m not involved in the attack!“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say…” the officer continued.

Izuku gave in to the tears.

Chapter Text

Tsukauchi was regretting taking his lunch break so early. How was he supposed to know that UA would be under attack and he would miss the opportunity to get first-hand interviews himself? A public case like this one needed all of the brains they needed and he didn’t even get a call from Yamaha?
“I did see him make an arrest,” one of the fresh-faced officers offered. Tsukauchi didn’t know her name yet, but at least she was smart enough to call him in, “but sir, the kid’s fifteen and sobbing his eyes out. He looks genuinely remorseful and most of the charges are based on alleged lies that I would bet my hat were sincere. I know you weren’t assigned the case, but your quirk would be instrumental to proving this kid’s innocence.”
That didn’t sound like Yamaha’s MO, but if Tsukauchi could get an in on a case All Might was interested in, all the better. He’d take any excuse he could get, “Do we have a file yet?”
“It’s in progress, sir. From what I’ve put together, he’s a first-year by the name of Izuku Midoriya. UA’s Class 1-A confirmed that he is not in their class, but others at the scene saw him fraternizing with pro-hero Miruko and the kid distracted the villain to give some kids who aren’t even his classmates a chance to evacuate the facility. That’s not something a villain would do.”
Izuku Midoryia. Why did that name sound familiar? “Does the kid have a record?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look yet, sir. I just saw the look on his face and knew something wasn’t right. I got his name from Class 1-A and Eraserhead. He’s friends with Ingenium’s little brother and three others in the class and Miruko is pissed but knows she can’t do anything until UA can copy over the footage and Midoryia’s interview is finished.”
“Do we have any of his effects?”
“I saw a CSI take a notebook from Yamaha when they started the interview.”
“Send for it,” Tsukauchi ordered, rubbing his temples. This was going to be a long day.
His informant nodded and vanished from his office.
Tsukauchi sat down in his chair with a heavy sigh. Izuku Midoryia. Why was that familiar? He didn’t forget one of his own arrests very often, so it must’ve been a case he heard about secondhand.
Unable to recall the origin of the name, he dialed his coworker’s number. Yamaha picked up after three rings.
“Detective Yamaha speaking.”
“I hear you made an arrest on the USJ attack already?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, the little brat wanted attention so bad he didn’t even bother with a good lie. Honestly, what kind of person thinks a quirkless person running headlong into danger to protect his friends is feasible? Everyone knows—“
“WAIT!” Tsukauchi realized, launching himself across his desk, “IT’S YAGI’S KID!”
“Huh?”
Tsukauchi swiped a pile of Manila folders aside, “I have it here somewhere. Hold on,” Tsukauchi ordered, picking up a file so he could read the name easier, “There was a kid a contact of mine was seriously impressed by,” he tossed the folder and reached for another, “Wanted to offer him an internship of sorts. Gah, I was just looking at the case the other day. Where…”
His eyes locked on a folder sitting on the chair in the corner of his office, “There! I’ll be down in five!”
Tsukauchi snatched the folder off the chair and threw his coat on the ground of his office. He was definitely going to work up a sweat doing this.

He made it down in three minutes. It took another minute to find Yamaha in the CSI lab.
Yamaha didn’t bother to hide his amusement when he crossed his arms, “You forgot to ask where I was.”
“Sh!” Tsukauchi panted, out of breath from sprinting down the halls. He shoved the file in Yamaha’s hands, “Is this the kid?”
Yamaha opened the file too slowly. Years passed as he studied the picture, “Huh, so I take it the kid has a record?”
“Of borderline vigilantism? Yeah. The story goes that he saw his childhood bully struggling and none of the heroes were helping, so he snapped and decided to do something about himself. My contact saw everything go down, including the kid being rescued from the villain just a few minutes prior, and couldn’t find him afterward. From what I’ve heard, he’s a real hero nerd and All Might fan. I don’t think he’d purposely break the law except for some light vigilantism.”
The CSI Yamaha had been conversing with noted, “Ah, I too like to go about my day with a bit of light vigilantism. It’s low-calorie.”
Evidence. Evidence is a thing. Tsukauchi crossed his arms, “What are you doing in the CSI lab and not interviewing the kid?”
“He gave me a quirk analysis notebook with notes on the perps. I wanted to know how legit it is,” Yamaha explained.
The CSI nodded, “I don’t have a handwriting sample to match, but from what I’ve read, he has some good ideas in his earlier pages. A decent amount of All Might fight analysis in the beginning, a couple of breakdowns of robberies, and the like,” she pulled up a specific page to show the detectives, “A couple of illustrated spreads where he discusses the strengths and weaknesses of heroes and how to improve. He’s got some good ideas in here.’
Tsukauchi leaned in to inspect the notebook. Admittedly, he didn’t know much about quirk analysis and the kid’s handwriting was atrocious, but the illustrations weren’t half bad. Or were they sketches? Whatever the technical term was, this page was filled with graphite pencil drawings of what Tsukauchi assumed were Death Arms’ special moves, with pen-lined arrows and barely comprehensible scribbles annotating the various poses.
Tsukauchi squinted, trying to make out the commentary in the margins“How can you read this?”
The CSI pinched the bridge of her nose, “With immense difficulty. Also, he took extra time on the last few pages where he describes the main villains involved in the attack,” she flipped through a few pages until she reached the middle of the journal and held it out to Tsukauchi again, “Looks like the two that got away are the leaders of The League of Villains. Shigaraki Tomura and Kurogiri; Disintegration and warping quirk. Kurogiri is patient and subservient to Shigaraki; probably forced into a life of crime and doesn’t believe in the cause. Shigaraki’s in his early twenties, feels that heroes provide a false sense of security and should be eliminated, but Midoryia speculates that might be a psychological effect of his quirk. Claims he’s Impatient, struggles with planning, has few people he considers equals. Midoryia says we should use his immaturity to our advantage and set up a trap for when he inevitably makes a second attempt. Probably a public attack of sorts featuring more powerful allies because he sees himself as a commander, not an actual agent himself and—“
Yamaha snorted, “See what I mean about not even bothering to come up with a good lie? There’s no way a quirkless kid would come up with that on his own or be so stupid as to use himself as bait. This kid said he went up to distract the villain alone and admitted to being BFFs with the dude. He’s a decoy trying to throw us off the trail.”
Tsukauchi frowned, “So you have no proof he’s lying then?” He wondered, “This entire accusation is based on your doubt that a quirkless person can’t be good at a hobby?”
Yamaha scowled, “Don’t put it like that. That makes me sound bad,” he crossed his arms, “I’m not saying they can’t have hobbies, I’m just saying that this is something I would expect from somebody with an analysis quirk or experience in the force. Not from a fifteen-year-old without a quirk to give him an edge. It has to be faked.”
Tsukauchi shifted so he could study his coworker’s defensive stance. He did not like this. Yamaha’s argument completely contradicted Yagi’s rendition of the kid’s acts, countered the pre-existing reports, and were based on speculation. Yamaha was a good detective, but something wasn’t right here.
“I can interview him,” Tsukauchi offered, “If he’s a serial liar like you say, then I can confirm his lies and point your investigation in the right direction. Either way, you’ll need physical evidence of the kid’s involvement.”
He was careful to keep his disagreement out of his tone. It was best to approach this from an unbiased angle. Even if this was All Might’s kid, a lot can change in a year. Tsukauchi was only trying to aid an investigation. Any other ulterior motives would be dismissed in favor of finding the truth (to the best of his ability).
Yamaha shrugged, “give it a shot. He’s in investigation room C.”
Tsukauchi felt his pocket to ensure his recorder was in there, “I’ll head right over. Anything I need to know?”
“Might still be a bit hysterical,” Yamaha shrugged, “he did not take getting arrested very well. I’m slapping on a count of resisting arrest. He did everything in his power to fight it.”
Tsukauchi wondered if it was his quirk or his gut insisting that his coworker’s statement did not ring true.

Chapter Text

Tsukauchi thought Midoryia would look more impressive. Between All Might’s description, the case file, and Yamaha’s explanation, he expected a taller, more muscular teen with a confident twinkle in his eye. To him, Izuku Midoryia was the name of one of the few teens that had it together and knew what he wanted in life.

The reality was… mildly disappointing and overwhelmingly depressing.

Even for his age, Midoryia was small. He couldn’t judge his exact height since he was sitting down, hunched over the metal table he was cuffed to, and sobbing his eyes out, but he was so small. 

The second thing he noticed was how quiet he was. His eyes—locked on his hands—gushed tears. Snot ran down his lips, unable to be wiped by his cuffed, shaking hands. His shoulders shook from the intensity of his sobs, but it wasn’t even loud enough for the room’s microphone to pick up. Tsukauchi could’ve walked right by without even noticing the distressed child.

Tsukauchi glanced at the clock in the interrogation room’s viewing room. The kid had been there for fifteen minutes and his mother wouldn’t be present for another ten. Legally he wasn’t allowed to question the kid until his mother was present, but even his apathy-worn heart refused to leave him like this.

Tsukauchi took a deep breath. This was going to be rough. He clipped the cuff’s keys to his belt loop, grabbed a cup of water, a tissue box, a crayon, and a few sheets of printer paper.

He was careful to knock on the door first.

The goal of most interrogations was to make the suspect feel vulnerable. Physical torture methods might have been banned, but not all torture is physical. The absence of clocks and windows removes the acknowledgment of time, not even letting the suspect entertain themselves with the ticking of an analog clock. Most sensory changes are removed from the room as well, to prevent them from using physical grounding techniques. The room had a faint, damp smell that was far from pleasant. Without a grounding device, a semblance of control, or a way to pass the time, most suspects were left with only their thoughts reminding them of their worst regrets. 

The knock would give the boy the smallest sliver of control over who could enter the room. The crayon was no pencil, but it would physically stimulate him, allow him to provide any more analyses, and couldn’t be used as a weapon. The water would combat dehydration.

If this were an adult, Tsukauchi’s next actions could get him in trouble, but every instinct cried out at the sight of the boy. This was not the face of a criminal.

Tsukauchi opened the door so just enough for his voice to carry, “Can I come in?”

The boy jumped and stared at the door with wide eyes.

“You’re allowed to tell me no,” Tsukauchi promised, “I can’t legally interrogate you without a guardian present. I just don’t want you to die of dehydration.”

The boy nodded.

Tsukauchi hesitated, “Can I get a verbal confirmation for legal purposes?”

The boy wiped his mouth on his shoulder before speaking with a quiet, cracked voice, “You—you can come in.”

A little part of Tsukauchi’s heart died at the misery of his voice.

Tsukauchi opened the door the rest of the way and sat his supplies on the table, “I’m not allowed to give you any sharp objects, but I did my best.”

Midoryia pinched his eyebrows, studying the plastic cup.

Tsukauchi put two and two together, “Yeah, sorry about the cup. We keep them around back to collect DNA for a case if it comes up. It’s all I had. Don’t worry though, we can’t collect any of your DNA without your guardian’s permission. You have rights and don’t let anyone else make you think differently.”

Another cacophony of tears began to fall.

“And if you promise to behave, I can uncuff you so you can draw or something,” Tsukauchi added.

The boy gasped for breath through the fresh tears, “Th-Thanks, Mr…?”

“Tsukauchi. I’m one of the detectives,” Tsukauchi supplied.

Midoryia nodded, “But.. Why offer to un—uncuff me? What if I a-attack you or- or…” 

Tsukauchi grabbed the keys from his belt, “I highly doubt it. If I go into too much detail we might end up in interrogation territory, but I processed the sludge villain’s case. I know that’s not your MO. Plus I saw a bit of that analysis notebook you gave Yamaha and this could a good opportunity to tell us a bit more about the actual attackers if you feel up for it.”

Midoryia was not thrilled by that offer, but his body language suggested he would comply.

Tsukauchi tried again, “Or if you want to, I can let you guess my quirk.”

Midoryia’s eyes instantly lit up.

Green crayon and mumbled words raced each other to some undetermined finish line, leaving Tsukauchi scrambling to catch up, “—so operating under the assumption that it is some sort of truth-detecting quirk, that raises the question of what is a lie? Does it get deactivated by fictional stories? If it doesn’t, what’s stopping suspects from telling you a fictional story about themselves and not necessarily lying? Well, I guess that would depend on how the quirk functions, wouldn’t it? Would it detect heartbeats, or would it be able to sense some sort of unexplored brain wave pattern? If two people told you a lie and a truth at the same time, would it register for just one or both? I would need to see it in action to be sure, I guess, but I feel like it’s not the heartbeat one since you don’t have any mutated traits to suggest an ancestry of hearing quirks.”

The door to their investigation room busted open, revealing a red-faced Yamaha, “YOU IDIOT! YOU TOLD HIM YOUR QUIRK?”

Tsukauchi reluctantly abandoned his scramble to catch up with the smaller boy, “No, I told him nothing. This is all just guesswork.”

Midoryia’s face broke out into a grin, “Oh! So I was right then?”

“Lie detecting, not truth detecting,” Tsukauchi corrected, absolutely not taking pleasure in his coworker’s outrage, “But you weren’t too far off,” he turned to Yamaha, “I honestly didn’t mean to prove this, but I think we can confirm the notebook is his. We should put him into contact with some legit heroes. I think they’d benefit from some of his ideas.”

Yamaha set his jaw.

Tsukauchi looked up, “Do you have something you’d like to tell me?”

Yamaha scowled, “Miruko did call him her analyst, but the boy refuted the claim himself,” he confessed, “But she’s just attached to him.”

 It took all of Tsukauchi’s willpower to not slap Yamaha as he added, “but the mom’s just behind me, so we start getting the truth out of him soon.”

Sure enough, a plump, rosy-faced woman with red eyes emerged from the door, “Izuku!” She cried, “What happened?!”

Tsukauchi had his mind on other things, “Great, Mrs. Midoryia is here. Izuku Midoryia, have you ever intended to harm your classmates in any way?”

“Well, no—“

“Truth,” Tsukauchi confirmed. Then he turned to Yamaha, “You’re telling me that you arrested one of Miruko’s analysts, someone a very unsentimental hero is attached to, under the claim that he was lying about being an analyst and inconveniencing an investigation, despite having multiple sources and physical evidence proving his excellence?”

“Yes because—“

“What, because you didn’t believe a UA kid could be brave enough to confront a villain?” Tsukauchi finished, face heating from his anger.

Yamaha raised his hands in surrender, “I hate to say it, but everyone knows quirkless people are useless in villain situations! They don’t have the advantages normal people have! It’s just facts!”

Tsukauchi slammed his palm on the table, “And you didn’t change your mind after you read a file in which this very kid observed a villain’s weaknesses and acted because none of the pros would?! Buying precious time for a suffocating classmate? I went out of my way to inform you of his track record!”

Yamaha stepped forward and jabbed a finger at him, “Hey, we’re here to investigate the suspect, not me. This is incredibly unprofessional!”

Tsukauchi turned to Mrs. Midoryia, “I am so sorry for my coworker’s behavior. I’ll send someone to get your son’s discharge papers after I straighten this out,” he apologized before rounding back, “Are any of the charges you put against him valid?”

“He’s best friends with one of the terrorists and resisted arrest!”

Tsukauchi looked to Midoryia, “Midoryia-shonen, would you like to explain?”

“I didn’t know he was a villain!” Midoryia promised as the tears started again, “Sho—er Shigaraki—and I play video games together online every evening. I knew he wasn’t fond of heroes, but I didn’t think he was going to try to kill my friends or attack UA! He didn’t know I was going to UA, I didn’t know he was a villain. He encouraged me to take the transfer test that put me in the USJ because I’ve given him the advice to help him manage his quirk.”

“True,” Tsukauchi confirmed, “and the resisting arrest allegation?”

Midoryia fidgeted with the crayon, returning to his quiet self. “I admit I didn’t want to tell him I was quirkless because I knew all of my testimony would be dismissed, but he arrested me right after I admitted to not having a quirk and I wasn’t expecting it. I guess I was surprised, but—“

Tsukauchi cut to the point, “Did you physically resist him or aim to injure officer Yamaha?”

Midoryia was horrified, “No! Of course not!”

Tsukauchi glared at Yamaha, “So you’re telling me Miruko herself offered you an amateur analyst with a detailed, informed account of the potentially traumatizing events this literal child just experienced, and you arrested him because you didn’t believe a quirkless UA student could have a skill?”

Yamaha was silent.

Tsukauchi fought to keep his voice calm, “Detective Yamaha, I would like you to leave this room so the Midoryias and I can decide how to continue from here. I will be suggesting that they press charges because your actions are a complete and utter humiliation to the police force. If I had a legal right to, I would sue you for humiliating me, interrupting an investigation due to quirkless discrimination, and wasting my goddamn time.” Naomasa stood up and yanked the door open for his coworker, “Now, would you mind getting the discharge papers so I can apologize for your mistake?”

At least Yamaha knew when he was beaten because he didn’t say a word as he left the room.

Tsukauchi had to catch his breath once he was gone, “the officer who brought this to my attention deserves a promotion,” he noted to himself, “Ma’am, I cannot express—“

He stumbled as he was tackled with a suffocating hug.

“Thank you, detective! When I got the call I knew it had happened again. Izu always has the worst luck and—“

Ah, the crying and mumbling must be hereditary, “I take it this isn’t the first time something like this has happened?”

Mrs. Midoryia hugged him tighter.

“I uh… at school the teachers would assume that I always started fights because I was jealous, no matter who was more injured,” Midoryia-Shonen explained quietly. 

Whelp. Now Tsukauchi was morally obligated to fix that, “And what school was this?”

“UA‘s the only school that doesn’t do that so far. I have a friend that knows I’m quirkless and stayed my friend. For a second I thought—“ he wiped the tears out of his face, “I thought it was over, you know? And Miruko said everything would be okay, more or less. In her own way, so I thought…”

Mrs. Midoryia took a step toward her son, but caught herself and brought her arms into her body. She gave Tsukauchi an imploring glance.

Tsukauchi nodded, “Your son is no longer a suspect. You can leave after we discharge him.”

Mrs. Midoryia launched herself at her son and tackled him with a hug, “Oh Izuku!”

Midoriya hugged his mother back and buried his face in her hair, “It’s okay, Mom.”

Mrs. Midoryia humphed, “No it’s not. I know people give you a hard time, but you don’t deserve it! And you’re not useless! You got into UA and somehow know Miruko. Since when do you know Miruko?”

“Turns out, she’s on my quirk discord and she’s used some of my villain analyses to catch real villains!” Midoryia explained, “Miruko wished me good luck on my exam this morning!”

Tsukauchi didn’t like interrupting such an intimate moment, but there was something that needed to be discussed, “You’ve got one cool kid there, Mrs. Midoriya. I hate to bring up such a dark topic after my coworker’s actions, but the fact is that your son is an instrumental witness to the attack on his school that took place this morning. If you want to leave immediately and do not consent to any further discussion, the station won’t fault you. That is your decision. But any information your son is willing to give us could prevent further attacks or save lives. Also, I want to add that if you want to take legal action against Detective Yamaha I am more than willing to give you a copy of this recording so you can make sure this mistake doesn’t happen again.”

Mrs. Midoryia pulled away from her son, but didn’t look back at Naomasa. 

“Either way, I’m going to insist you take my card in case something similar happens again. What happened today was not remotely okay and I can pin Midoryia on our new system so I get an alert when he comes up on a case if you consent to it.”

Mrs. Midoryia’s silence raised the hairs ok the back of his neck. Despite his years of being a detective and being involved in everything from shoot-outs to court battles to the fight with All for One, Naomasa was scared. For a moment, he was 18 again, just starting his first job as a waiter and preparing himself for his customer’s outrage. When he was protecting the people, Naomasa was the hero. If he got himself killed, he would be fondly remembered. 

But now he was one of the villains. He was part of a system that had been poorly represented and hurt an innocent child. Even worse, this was the kid that reinspired Yagi. 

“Please, mom?” Izuku’s voice, far less broken and small than it was twenty minutes ago, pleaded, “Detective Tsukauchi was really nice! And if I can help Kacchan and Uraraka…” he trailed off and tried a new angle, “I’ll have to tell you what happened anyway.”

Mrs. Midoryia wrung her hands but still didn’t look at Tsukauchi.

Midoryia broke out the puppy dog eyes, “Please?”

Her shoulders slumped, “You’re too good, Zuku,” she sighed, “We’ll get it over with now. That way it’s done and over with and Izuku can give me an explanation.”

Tsukauchi regained the ability to breathe.

—————————

The second Midoryia’s phone was back in his hands, a sense of relief washed over him. He was done. No more legal talk, no more accusations. He could just go home and…

His phone buzzed, indicating a new discord notification.

Oh no

Chapter Text

Midoryia’s phone had become a cursed object straight out of a horror movie. There was no other explanation for why its weight increased exponentially in his pocket or why a sudden bout of nausea would wash over him every time the device came to mind. It was cursed to bring anxiety to the owner. That was a fact.

Midoryia refused to make contact with the demon possessing his communication device until he was sitting on his bed, relatively calm, and emotionally prepared for anything that came his way. Even now, a nap and a good meal later, he hesitated to truly unlock it. He could open it tomorrow. Or the day after. Or never. Never was a great option!

His mom had told him to add Detective Tsukauchi’s contact information to his phone. The unfortunately intelligent idea was the right thing to do, logically. If Detective Tsukauchi was willing to use his power as a police officer to get Izuku out of tight situations, that was wonderful! Tsukauchi was definitely someone he should be able to contact at any point in time! But what logic failed to acknowledge was that there were people on his phone. People that would say weird things and throw him for a loop and people who would want to check up on him. Then he’d have to come up with explanations and actually deal with things. 

Yeah, his phone should have its own horror movie. 10/10 would be terrified. 

His phone vibrated from a text and Izuku nearly threw it across the room in his panic.

Okay, he was being ridiculous. It was a phone. He was a UA student. He could handle—

His phone vibrated again and Izuku yelped.

No. He had to get this over with. Maybe if he did one thing at a time? Yeah, he could check his texts first, then his gaming discord... That had a literal villain who attacked him today. 

Okay, he was going to save that one for last. Right now, he had to do text messages. 

He picked up his phone and his UA schedule stared back up at him. Looks like he had 10 text messages, which wouldn’t have been so surprising if he had more than five contacts. He took a deep breath. It was just a text message. He’d be fine.

Unlocking his phone, Midoryia prepared himself for what would happen next.

From Mom:

Mom: Are you okay Izuku? I just heard UA got attacked! Good thing you’re not in the hero course, I guess

Mom: Zuku? Why did I just get a call saying you’ve been arrested?!!!!

Mom: oh wait, you probably don’t have your phone. We’ll talk when I get to the station, okay?

Okay, that wasn’t too bad. Just a couple of texts and Midoryia didn’t even need to reply! Sure, the next texts were from Kacchan, but they couldn’t be too bad, right?

From Kacchan: 

Kacchan : Hey nerd, how tf do you know Miruko?

Kacchan : Just gave Uraraka your phone number. She’s pissed

Me : We’re on a quirk analysis server together

 I just didn’t realize he was Miruko until now

Kacchan : btw the dumbass extras think you’re an extra. It’s fucking hilarious

…What was that supposed to mean? The idea of Uraraka asking for his number wasn’t horrible, at least. She already knew he was quirkless so he didn’t have to worry about that. What confused him were Kacchan’s last two texts. “Dumbass extras” usually translated into “my classmates” in Kacchan’s language, but Deku thought Kacchan considered him an extra? Is this implying that he is not an extra, or that Kacchan’s classmates think he’s useless now that they know he’s quirkless? What part of this is he supposed to be more stressed about?

vCFrom Unknown:

Unknown : Hey, this is Ochako Uraraka! 

Unknown :  Is this Midoryia?

Unknown : Bakugou gave me your number 

Unknown: Sorry if that wasn’t okay! I just wanted to check up on you, since we didn’t see you after Miruko handed you over to the cops

Unknown : AND YOU KNOW MIRUKO??? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT’S SO COOL?!!!

Me: Hi Uraraka! This is Midoryia. I just got

 around to looking at my phone and thanks

For checking up on me! You know those

Quirk researchers I mentioned during lunch?

She’s one of them!

Uraraka: That’s so cool!

Uraraka: But how are you? Last I saw you, we weren’t exactly having a pleasant discussion

Uraraka:  And having that reveal on top of the USJ and talking to police can’t be fun

Me: Probably not great. One of the detectives

Arrested me because he thought I was lying

For attention but another detective came in and

 straightened everything out!

Uraraka: OH MY GOD

Uraraka : THAT’S BS

Uraraka: ARE YOU OKAY?

Me : yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve been accused

Of lying for attention. I’m over it for the most part

Me : But you know the main attacker guy? He’s one

Of my online friends and I have no idea what to do

Uraraka: Your life is kinda messed up dude

Me : Thanks, I try. How are you though? You 

Actually had to fight real villains?!

Uraraka: Nah, it’s nothing compared to GETTING ARRESTED (!!!)

Uraraka : On one hand, I know that fighting villains is a part of being a hero

Uraraka: but I have to admit it was startling to have to do it so soon.

Uraraka: and my parents live super far from UA so it’s just me at the apartment and the solitude is not doing me any favors

There was a simple solution to this. Midoryia could help her out, and maybe Uraraka can use her actually-existent social skills to help him out with his discords! 

…Or she could take one room at his All Might shrine of a room (that, admittedly, wasn’t as bad as it used to be now that he’s sold some of his collector’s items) and he would lose the only person willing to be friends with him.

Midoryia worked his lip. The USJ attack was terrifying. His veins were made of adrenaline and fear the entire time, even if some of it was overshadowed by shock and surprise. Midoryia had his mom to cheer him up and make him feel better, but Uraraka was alone. If he wanted to be a support engineer and support heroes, he had to start now.

Me: I would not want to be alone after that

Me: You know, if you wanted (but only if

You want!) I could ask my mom to see if 

you can hang out for a little bit so you’re 

not alone

Uraraka : Are you sure?

Uraraka : because I’d probably take you up on that offer

Uraraka : a gust of wind closed my door and I thought it was a villain so I threw my couch at itnh

Me : You don’t have to be a hero to not like it 

when people are scared.

Me : and I kinda have no social skills, but I 

have to figure out what to do about Shigaraki

 and any input would be appreciated

Uraraka: boi

Uraraka: what even is your life

Me: exhausting

Uraraka: XD

Uraraka: so uh

Uraraka: do you wanna ask your mom or???

Midoryia couldn’t remember the last time he asked his mom to have a friend over. It had to be… Kacchan was the only friend who had ever been to his house, so it had to be before Izuku’s diagnosis. How did one go about asking their mother to have a friend over? Should he look it up?

Whatever, this was his mom . If he did it wrong, she knew him well enough to figure it out. He should just…ask.

But then he’d have to explain that his friend is a girl! What if his mom thought he had a crush on her and teased her and made Uraraka uncomfortable? He knew that was a thing people complained about, and it’s not like Midoryia felt that way about her!

Midoryia jumped to his feet, turning his back to the gay pride flag hanging above his bed in the process. His mom wouldn’t tease someone who’s just been traumatized, right? That would just be a sucky thing to do and his mom wasn’t like that. No, Izuku was overthinking this. Everything would be fine.

Decision made, he reached over his bed, intent on picking up his phone, and ended up staring at the gay pride flag hanging above his bed in the process. 

Ah, yes. The gay pride flag hanging above his bed. Izuku resisted the urge to fall back into this bed to hide his humiliation, “I’m an idiot.”

After Izuku recovered from his embarrassment, he shuffled to his mother’s room. He knocked gently on her bedroom door, “Hey mom?

He heard her voice warble through the door, indistinct but probably something along the lines of, “Hold on Mitsuki, Zuku’s at my door. I’ll call you back later.”

A few thumps and rustles later, his mom opened the door, “What’s up, Zuku?”

“Uh…”

Ah, one thing Izuku forgot to prepare himself for: the horror of communicating his desires. After having the instinct to be independent and deal with his own problems instilled in him by quirkist teachers, he lost the ability to swiftly express himself to other people and acknowledge his own wants and needs.

His mother, very familiar with his antics, waited patiently (Has Izuku mentioned how much he loves his mom yet? He should. His mom is the ideal human being and he loves her for it).

‘So Bakugou gave my number to one of the girls I sit with at lunch,” okay, this was looking promising. Your average mom would probably tease their son about that, but Izuku could pull the gay card, “and we were texting about the attack today,” use pathos to appeal to her emotions, “and it came up that she lives by herself, and well..” he trailed off.

His mom put her hands on Izuku’s shoulders, “Izuku,” she said, eyes narrowed and expression deadly, “Invite this girl over at once. And see how far she is. If we have enough time we can run to the store and get ice cream.”

Izuku immediately unlocked his phone, “I love you so much.”

_____________

It turns out, he and Uraraka lived really close to each other! It was a five minute walk from building to building, but they both lived on high floors so it turned into a ten to fifteen minute ordeal. His mom mourned the opportunity to get that Mochi ice cream Aunt Mitsuki had been raving about, but was excited nonetheless. She wasted no time ordering Izuku to clean around the house, putting away the pens, loose-leaf paper and dirty laundry scattered throughout the house.

 The busy work was welcomed, as it stopped Midoryia’s mind from panicking.  All thoughts about everything that could go wrong were overpowered by the need to remove all of his dirty socks from sight. He barely had enough time to finish  straightening up the living room before there was a knock at his door.

Izuku raced to the door and wasted no time turning the knob. He yanked the door open, revealing Uraraka’s bright smile as she waved at him.

“Hi Midoryia, thanks for having me!”

Midoryia nodded, “Yeah, it was really no problem!  And also, I don’t think my mom would’ve let me not invite you over after I said you were home alone. She was very insistent.”

His mom’s voice came from the kitchen, “He’s right. My son is a very smart boy and he knows exactly what would’ve happened if he let someone be alone after something like that!”

Uraraka laughed, but her eyes darkened at the reminder of the earlier attack, “Thank you Mrs. Midoryia.”

“Izuku said you live on your own, so feel free to stay here as long as you like. This is not a time to be alone and we have a guest bedroom. You won’t be imposing at all, I promise.”

Uraraka’s face turned red, “Mrs. Midoryia, I couldn’t possibly—“

Izuku sighed, “There’s no point. She’s best friends with Mitsuki Bakugou. I’ve never seen someone out-stubborn her.”

“But—“

“My son is a very smart boy.”

Uraraka shut her mouth, but she clearly wasn’t happy about it.

Ah, this was an awkward situation. Midoryia took the chance to use his phenomenally in-tune social skills to ease the tension in the room, “So…”

“So…” Uraraka echoed helpfully, “You said you needed help with class 1-A’s favorite villain?” she offered.

Midoryia’s headshot up. Right. That. Midoryia nodded his head toward his room. Most people usually hung out in each other’s room, right? That made sense--

Oh no.

OH NO

Midoryia groaned, “Yeah, my stuff is in my room but uh… I really need to redo it.”

Uraraka cocked her head to the side, “What do you mean?”

Midoryia rubbed his neck, “Well, uh, the last time I decorated, I was in the middle of a really intense All Might phase--”

“Phase?” Mrs. Midoryia repeated, “It’s not a phase when it’s fourteen years long.”

“MOM!” Midoryia buried his face in his hands to hide the building heat, “Stop!”

“If anything--”

“Mom!” Izuku tore his hands away from his face to glare in his mom’s direction. Uraraka cackled with glee at his expense.

At least Uraraka was nice enough to give him the benefit of the doubt by giggling and saying, “It can’t be that bad,”

“It is.”

“Well then I have to see it.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes--” Uraraka interrupted herself, “No wait! I should respect your boundaries and not force anything. Sorry, I guess I got carried away and wanted to tease you but if you’re not okay with it--”

Nope. If Midoryia wanted pity there were a million other people to talk to. The reason why he liked Uraraka was because she didn’t treat him like a stack of eggshells. She even made a joke about him having a quirk! Something like that would have never happened at Aldera! Midoryia just needed to find a way for her to feel like she didn’t have to go out of her way to be polite…

“Fine,” Midoryia sighed, “but only come in if you want All Might’s eyes staring into your soul from every angle.”

Uraraka snorted, “I really think you’re exaggerating. I mean, I’ve been to those hero merch stores a couple times and nothing can be as bad as that.”

Midoryia gestured for her to follow him to his room, “Oh those are nothing.” He pushed his bedroom door open to reveal All Might galore. All Might posters framed in All Might picture frames were hung up on his All-Might themed walls. Next to them were bookshelves (one of All Might’s favorite American furniture brands according to AllMightHobbist.com) filled with collectors’ editions of All Might figurines. Everywhere you looked was All Might.

Uraraka covered her mouth as stepped into the room, “Oh my god.”

Midoryia closed his bedroom door. The All Might mirror hanging over the back of his door served as a nice picture frame for the sheer amount of All Might on the opposing wall, “I told you.”

“That’s an excessive amount of All Might,” she agreed, “I didn’t have you pegged as an All Might Superfan,” she gave Midoryia an incredulous look as she cried, “You haven’t even mentioned him!”

Midoryia shrugged, “I’m not anymore. I grew out of it.” he lied. Or maybe it was the truth. After all, every other quirkless kid gave up their dreams of being a hero at a much, much younger age. Maybe All Might’s rejection just broke the last thread and he was already getting too old for obsessing over heroes in the first place (and yes that was different than obsessing over quirks).

Uraraka mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Oh, sorry!” she exclaimed, brushing her hair behind her ears after inspecting a particular figurine, “It’s uh…” she looked up and gave him a slightly-off smile, “It’s nothing! Just talking to myself. You said that you wanted help with something?”

Midoryia filled her in on his promise to Akit0 and Sho’s role in the discord. He also went over Detective Tsukauchi’s “incredibly detailed” instructions when it came to interacting with Shigarki: ghost him if he did not want to aid the investigation. If he did want to help Sho and the police, Midoryia could not give Sho important information, he had to keep his guard on high, and it would be best if all calls were recorded. Uraraka waited patiently for him to finish his explanations.

Uraraka hummed and crossed her arms, “Okay, so what I’m getting from this is that you’re not ready to face Shigaraki yet because you don’t know whether to treat him like a friend or a villain and you don’t want to sacrifice your mutual friends. You made a promise to someone and you’d feel bad breaking it, but you’d also feel bad keeping it.”

Midoryia blinked, “It’s not that I’m not ready, it’s just that I… I don’t know what to do and I feel like I don’t have enough information about intelligence gathering to even—Oh,” his ears reddened, “So maybe I am not ready and I’m scared to lose our mutual friends.” Midoryia shook his head in disbelief, “How did you do that?”

“I’m an outside perspective that can view the situation without your inherent biases,” Uraraka reminded him, “Plus I’ve dealt with a lot of second-hand drama in my time, which is more experience than you have.”

 “I have zero experience, so that’s not hard,” Midoryia relented, “That’s why I called in the big guns.”

Uraraka nodded and began to think. Midodyia could practically hear the gears turning in her head as she pressed her palms together. It didn’t take long for her face to light up.

“I have an idea!” she declared.

Midoryia cocked his head, ready to hear her out.

“I’ll play for you and absolutely destroy Sho to get my revenge while you message your quirk discord. That way you get to buy time, keep your promise to Akit0, and get the quirk thing done and over with.”

Midoryia studied Uraraka’s maniacal grin. They’d only known each other for a few days, but he’d already heard a few teachers and peers talk about how sweet and wholesome she was. Midoryia, in his social ineptitude, had believed them because it’s not like he had very much social experience to become an expert. He briefly wondered to himself whether they had ever seen this dark glint in Uraraka’s eye and if they were still call her sweet afterward. Judging by the malevolence in her smile alone, Uraraka was going to tear his friends into pieces. On the other hand, if he accepted Uraraka’s proposal then he could avoid a significant amount of his responsibilities.

Midoryia shrugged, “I mean, if you want to. Have you played smash before?”

Uraraka leaned forward and grabbed his controller “It’s a fighting game. I’ll just button mash.”

Midoryia hated it when people button mashed. He always put so much effort into catching people off guard and luring them into a false sense of security; Button mashing was both lazy and hard for him to profile. He and Sho had gone on countless rants—

Wait. Sho.

Midoryia face heated as he was struck by a realization, ”I gotta see this! Sho would hate that!”

——————-

After a brief round of introductions, Uraraka was set on “wreaking that motherfucking dust bunny’s ass.” That left Midoryia with only one job: apologize to his quirk discord.

He held his breath as he opened the app on his computer.

Deku: THIS IS NOT A JOKE! SOS! I need someone to call principal Nedzu at UA and tell him the USJ is under attack by an army of villains! There’s someone with a jamming quirk who is blocking all means of communication except this!

If Nedzu doesn’t pick up call the cops. My transfer exam was to analyze first years who are now being attacked by villains! WE NEED HELP CALL SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!

Analysister: WHAT THE FUCK SMALLMIGHT DISCORD IS NOT THE COPS

Analysister: JUST BECAUSE MY BOSS HAS A DIRECT LINE TO PRINCIPAL NEDZU DOESN’T MEAN I DO

MetAl41: I thought you were taking your exam? 

MountMeLady: ARE YOU OKAY SMALLMIGHT???

DeathLegs: HOLY SHIT I LOOK AT THE DISCORD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A FEW WEEKS AND WHAT THE FUCK HAVE Y’ALL BEEN UP TO?

BossBitch: Shit. I got this and I will handle this, but shit. 

BossBitch: are you still there Smallmight? Back up’s been called

BossBitch: @Admin lock Small Might’s name ASAP

DeathLegs has locked SmallMight715’s username

Midoryia chewed his lip as he read even more messages of his friends worrying about him.

Two hours later

BossBitch: Smallmight’s fine. An incredibly small ball of anxiety, but he handled it.

BossBitch: which, I did not realize how small he was. I thought the kid was in college or some shit.

Quirkney: I saw the attack on the news! I don’t know what smallmight was doing with a bunch of first year UA students, but I’m glad they already arrested a higher-up.

BossBitch: Our little guy was fine. He actually managed to evacuate all of the students and faced off with the head villain and made it out unscathed.

Analysister: HOLY SHIT! THAT’S OUR SMALL MIGHT!

MountMeLady: FUCK YEAH! GO SMALL MIGHT! 

Quirkney: 5 bucks says that Deku just “distracted” the 

Okay, that actually wasn’t too bad. Midoryia worried for nothing. 

SmallMight: Haha sorry guys! I didn’t really have a choice and this was the only solution I could think of, so thanks for your help! I know I’ve been vague about where I go to school so I’m uh…

SmallMight: technically a first year at UA?

SmallMight: and my support test was to analyze a certain class’s quirks and come up with hypothetical aids for them

SmallMight: which, as you could guess, went south rather quickly

“Done!” Midoryia declared, “I got over myself and messaged the chat.”

“Heck yeah!” Uraraka declared. She let go of the controller in one hand–probably going for a high-five–but immediately yelped and was tugged back into the game, “Fuck off, Akit0! I was trying to give Midoryia a high-five!”

Akit0’s replied with a vicious laugh, “Hey, that’s what happens when you take your eyes off the game.”

Uraraka turned to Midoryia, “How do I do the power up thingy again?”

Midoryia told her.

Uraraka turned around, refocused on the screen, and targeted Akit0’s Solid Snake. In the press of a few buttons, she sent his character flying off screen and he didn’t have time to react.

Akit0 let out a heavy sigh, “You know what? That’s fair. I deserved that.”

“Really?” Sho growled, “You’ve known how to do that move the entire time and yet you’re still keysmashing? I can’t even begin to explain–”

“So don’t,” Uraraka suggested, the pettiness showing in her eyes. Midoryia took a mental note that Uraraka could become brutal when she was pissed.

Sho took a breath to say something else, but was immediately interrupted by Kirby, “Hey! Don’t scare her off! I don’t wanna be the only girl in this chat if I can help it!”

“But–”

“No buts!” Kirby ordered.

“You should’ve thought about that before you attacked my school and sent literal supervillains after my friends,” Uraraka mumbled to Midoryia, who snickered at the bitterness in his voice. It was so weird to see such a bright and peppy girl be so violent and he was enjoying every second of it.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Kirby demanded, “Is that why Deku’s acting so weird and Sho’s so tense!”

“Huh? What did she say?” Akit0 wondered, “I missed it.”

“Uh…” Uraraka looked back to Deku for help.

“Look, I didn’t know Deku went to UA!” Sho said defensively, “I wouldn’t have attacked it when he was there if I had known! What were you even doing there?”

Deku stood up and picked up his phone so he could speak directly into the speaker, “That was part of my support exam, which I now have to retake.”

There was a moment of silence.

Akit0 was the first to react, “Are we just going to ignore the fact that Sho is apparently a villain? And that Deku is smart enough to get into U-fucking-A despite his teachers failing him whenever he scored too high?”

Uraraka looked at Midoriya for confirmation. Midoryia shrugged, “It happened once or twice. Being quirkless sucks.”

“In my defense, Midoryia made a mean girls reference while I was commanding a bunch of henchmen to attack his classmates.”

“HOW IS THAT A DEFENSE?”

“It’s not but I thought they needed to know.”

Uraraka had to cover her mouth to hold back her laughter.

“Oh yeah? Well, you literally wear hands as part of your villain costume! What the fuck is up with that? Why hands?”

    “Hey, those hands are all that’s left of my family.”

    All characters on the screen stopped moving.

    Akit0 was, once again, the first one to speak, “As dark as that is, that’s a mood.”

    “What the fuck Akit0 your family has to be so twisted–”

    “The hands are WHAT?”

    “What the fuck Sho?”

    “What happened?”

    “My quirk manifested and I did an oopsie. I don’t really wanna talk about it cuz it’ll distract you guys from smash when I need to whip some sense into this NPC.”

    Uraraka frowned.

    Deku shot her a look, “He means you.”

    “What’s with people who have been your friend at some point in your life and referring to anyone not their friend as side characters?”

    Deku opened his mouth, and then closed it. He was saved from answering by a buzz on his phone. He opened up the new notification from discord. It looked like he’d missed a few.

Quirkney: Nope. I refuse.

Quirkney: That would mean that multiple sections of my latest research program (which I have too goddamn many of) would be inspired by a middle schooler (at the time).

Quirkney: I would have to credit you with your contribution and then explain to my editors that, ‘yes, this person is a middle schooler and a very trustworthy source’.

MountMeLady: ^^^I goddamn refuse to be out-analyzed by a middle schooler

MountMeLady: Fuck should I have been watching my language?

“Oh! Looks like I have some messages from my other discord!” Deku announced, glad to have an excuse to escape the awkward situation, “Igottadropouthavefuneveryone!”

SmallMight: Well good thing I’m not a middle schooler

SmallMight: and also keep the messages coming. I’m technically on a call with the dude who attacked UA because he’s one of my gaming buddies and it just got really awkward

BossBitch:That’s fucking hilarious. Dm me specifics later (for legal reasons of course)

SmallMight: >.<

Analysister: I’m so glad you’re okay and I am more than willing to keep you occupied if necessary. I can make you give me the deets on the villain’s quirks so I can properly make fun of villains for attacking a bunch of middle schoolers.

SmallMight: I’m in High School! UA is a high school!

MetAl41: How do you know Shigaraki?

Deku’s heart stopped. He scrolled back up to see if he ever said Sho’s full name in the chat, but didn’t find a single instance. Maybe MetAl41 read it in an article? Yeah, that had to be why he knew the exact name of the villain that attacked UA. 

Uraraka looked back, “Are you okay Deku?”

Deku took a deep breath. His anxiety was just getting away from him! He nodded, “Yeah, I just wildly misinterpreted a message.”

MetAl41: I can’t think of any time Tomura had the opportunity to make any friends

Izuku squeaked , “NOPE I DID NOT MISINTERPRET THAT!”

“Ooh what happened!” Kirby’s voice cooed from the phone.

Uraraka leaned over, “Let me see!”

Izuku handed her the phone.

You could see the moment realization and horror dawned on Uraraka’s face, “What the– Hey Sho? Do you know any dude named…” She squinted at the screen, “Al, maybe? The Al is capitalized in their username so that’s probably it.”

    Sho growled, “No. Why?”

    “One of my quirk analysis friends, Metal forty-one just called you by your given name.”

    “Metal41 but the A is capitalized?” Sho echoed, “I’ve definitely never played with them.”

    “Maybe they have a metal quirk?” Akit0 offered.

    “Ha, it reads like met-Al for one,” Kirby pointed out. She point on a weird voice, “I, have met Al, for one.”

    “What?!” Sho choked and broke out into a coughing fit

    Izuku’s heart raced, “Wait! You recognize it!” WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

    A series of scrapes came from the phone and Kirby’s mic lit up, “Come on Sho! Tell us! Tell us!”

    Sho cleared his throat and announced in a particularly gravelly voice “It’s All for One! That’s Sensei!”

    Deku froze, “Not like… The All for One though, right? Cuz I read up on that guy and even did a practice analysis that didn’t end up adding to my portfolio and he’s…” Deku trailed off, searching for words that would describe the awful acts the man was accused of. Deku had to look hard to find him. It started out with a series of fairy tales and ghost stories about a man who ran in the shadows of the underground criminal network, and then escalated. He had to look at specific sites recommended to him by his other analysts, and they barely put together a profile after sifting through all the ghost stories that couldn’t be true.

    No, stories of that All for One went back as far as quirks. He couldn’t be alive now unless he had some sort of longevity quirk–

    Which was listed as a possibility on his profile.

    “No, believe me when I say: Sensei is the All for One. There’s a reason we thought we could kill All Might.”

    “Because you almost did.”

Chapter Text

Uraraka was in the 1-A classroom twenty minutes early, which was unusual for her. In middle school, she was infamous for always showing up to class at the last second or showing up to practices ten minutes late, but today was the exception. The constant hum of anxiety she’d felt since the UA attack lessened while she was with Deku—no, Midoryia— but it immediately surged back on her walk home. Isolation was not a good thing for an extrovert like her, so when she woke up in the morning, she immediately rushed off to school so she would at least feel like she was not alone.

And she wasn’t, thanks to Iida’s chronic earliness. Even showing up twenty minutes early, she failed to beat their resident speedster. 

It was good to see her friend. His uptight attitude was a reassuring structure after her usual routine had been demolished. He greeted her with the same formal greeting. They compared notes on the attack, but Iida told his story in a direct, factual manner that didn’t dive into the darker, horrifying aspects. It created a nice distance between the events that took place yesterday and now, letting her know that she was still safe.

“What about you, Uraraka? No major injuries, I presume?”

“No, not really,” she assured him with a dismissive wave, “I got a little spooked, and then when Midoryia got whipped away, I was a little worried about him,” she looked down and debated whether she should mention that she lives alone and was terrified, “but it actually turned out pretty good! We got to hang out after school yesterday and he and his mom are really fun!”

Iida pushed up his glasses as his expression hardened, “I too was worried about him,” he agreed, “he’s a very over-confident individual and took risks he should not have yesterday. I’m glad that you were there and hopefully talked some sense into him.”

A little piece of Uraraka’s chest died. Iida couldn’t actually think… she tried again, “Actually, I think he did something really cool! I mean, imagine having the bravery to stand up against a supervillain with no quirk or failsafe plan?! I mean, he grew up with Bakugou, so he clearly isn’t completely defenseless. After all, he told me that his orginal plan was to pick them and the quirks apart and stall for time so Todoroki could get Aizawa-sensei to safety! How badass is that?”

Iida frowned, “Uraraka, please don’t condone this kind of reckless behavior. Heroes exist to protect the weaker members of society that can’t protect themselves. Midoryia should’ve been the last person going against those villains.”

No no no. This was all wrong. Maybe Uraraka could forgive Iida if he hadn’t met Midoryia, but this was just… disgusting! Midoryia might not have much in the way of combat skills, but he definitely had the brain for it! According to his friends (which included apparently included two supervillains) his strategies were insanely effective and his environmental assessment skills were through the roof. If someone spent the time to teach his actual combat moves… Well, Uraraka would currently love to see him kick Iida’s ass.

“Heroes exist so that citizens can go about their lives without being inconvienced or living in fear,” Uraraka corrected, “And no offense, but you clearly don’t know Deku very well if you think that he’s weak or needs special treatment. I can’t believe a good person like you could say something like that!”

“I’m only being realistic—“

Uraraka stood up and slammed her hands against her desk, “No, you’re being an insecure a bigoted jerk! Midoryia accomplished way more at the USJ than you ever could and the fact that you can’t see it through your bs and prejudice is shameful!” she let out the rest of her breath and her hands ached to lash out. She wanted to punch Iida in the face, hit him with a chair, use some unknown telepathic quirk to show him what she knew and have him understand. 

She kicked her backpack aside with her foot and scowled at him, “I’m going to go sit outside until class starts because I don’t want Aizawa-sensei to expel me for fighting. Don’t join me until you get some human decency.”

“Uraraka—“

“NO!” She snapped, closing her eyes and holding up her hands to stop him from saying anything else, “Just stop, okay? I’m too pissed right now to have a civil conversation and I can’t beat you up until heroics,” she took in a deep breath to calm herself, “staying here is just a bad idea,” she tore her gaze from Iida and locked her eyes on the exit, trying to convince herself as much as she convince him, “See you when class starts, Iida.”

She walked out the door and distracted herself from her guilt and fury by locking on to her next task. She should go find a place to sit and get a couple problems on her worksheet done. That would be productive. 

Except… She resisted the uge to look back at the classroom. She left her backpack at her desk. 

She sighed and looked down at her shuffling feet. Okay, so that idea was out. 

“It’s not that hard to treat someone with goddamn human decency,” she muttered to herself as she moved to shove her hands in her pockets, only to remember she didn’t have any.

Uraraka took another deep breath, forcing herself to contain her rage. She couldn’t explode at school. Nothing good would come out of it. Maybe she could try to find a teacher so they could help her diffuse her anger? Yeah, that was smart. She wasn’t sure if the teachers would necessarily be up for it, but if the alternative option was to have her hurt a classmate, the solution was obvious, right?

A feminine voice interrupted her thoughts and made her adrenaline spike, “Uraraka? What are you—“

    She was going to scream she was going to cry she was going to snap she was going to—

    “—class is that way!”

    Uraraka took another deep breath, containing her rage by small margin, “Don’t. Please,” she pleaded, tears in her eyes. She needed the girl to leave. It was too much. Any more and she would break and… oh god, what if she hurt her? Uraraka was a walking time bomb and this girl was about to be gasoline and god Uraraka didn’t want to hurt her and she was trying so goddamn hard but—

    Arms wrapped around her from behind, pressing her arms to her side so she was relatively defenseless. Uraraka flinched instinctively, her adrenaline too high to accept the hug. The arms only tightened and brought her closer to her hugger’s chest.

    Something in Uraraka’s chest loosened as her rage melted into misery. Tears bubbled up on her face as her hugger—who she now dimly recognized as Ashido—turned her around so Uraraka could bury her face in the crook of her neck. Uraraka melted into the other girl’s touch and gave in to the sobs, feeling safer for the first time since she was at Midoryia’s.

    “Oh my god is she okay?” A guy’s voice asked, but Mina shushed him and nothing else was said.

    “Are you okay?” Mina asked, loosening her grip on her to rub her back, “Are you hurt at all? Do we need to take you to recovery girl?”

    Uraraka shook her head, Mina’s short hair tingling the back of her neck as she did so, “No, I just—“ she hiccuped, “I just—“ another bout of frustration had her snap, “GAH!”

    Mina grabbed her tighter again, holding her back. 

    A voice that she instantly recognized scoffed, “I take it Iida didn’t take the whole Deku thing well.”

    Of course Bakugou was here to see her as she was a pathetic lump of misery. Every time she felt vulnerable, that asshole was right goddamn there to ruin her day. The worst part? She was actually thankful for him at the moment. 

    Uraraka shook her head in confirmation.

    There was a loud WHAM as Uraraka assumed Bakugou punched a wall, “Of course. Four-eyes is from a family with powerful quirks and more rigid than goddamn diamond. It only makes sense.”

    “Huh? What’s going on?” Mina asked, but there was no bite to her tone, “Bakugou, you actually look—“

    Bakugou huffed, “Remember that green haired kid at the USJ? The one Miruko was teasing?”

    “The quirkless one?” Mina recalled. Uraraka tensed in her arms. She didn’t sense any hostility towards Deku, but…

    “We grew up together,” Bakugou explained, “The kid’s a genius that got beat by every couple days and never gave up on his dreams. Fucking Deku was too goddamn stubborn to give in to things like ‘logic’,” there was a pause, “He’s a fucking badass.”

    “I heard!” Ashido agreed, and Uraraka relaxed into her arms once again, “Didn’t he distract the villain so Aizawa-sensei could get away? I saw him afterwards and if he sustained a few more hits…” she trailed off and leaned a bit more into the hug.

    Bakugou grunted his agreement, but then his voice became a little less gravelly, “I told you so. This is why I told you ahead of time.”

    Uraraka sniffed and thought back to when she got that text from Bakugou. At the time, she thought he was being an unrepentable asshole. What kind of person spills someone else’s secret like that?

    But now she understood. Without Bakugou’s warning, she probably would’ve fucked up by now. If she had found out like everyone else, she would’ve done all that research and came back to school with a pile of dehumanizing and condescending notes in an attempt to make up with Midoryia. Or maybe, even worse, she’d be in agreement with Iida right now and try to protect Midoryia at all costs. She could already picture the rage on Midoryia’s face if she told him she was going to protect him.

    “He’s a goddamn human,” Uraraka murmured into Ashido’s shoulder, “Why is it so hard to treat him like one?” she wondered, well-aware she wasn’t leaving herself out of her own question.

    “Because of years and years of conditioning,” Bakugou replied automatically, “and it fucking pisses me off. I’ve spent the last fucking decade watching that kid get beaten half to death and I…” There was another WHACK, “I fucking thought it would be better this time. These shitty bastards are supposed to be motherfucking goddamn heroes and not even they can pull their heads out of their motherfucking asses long enough to admit they might be wrong for two GODDAMN SECONDS—“

    Ashido’s hand found its way to Uraraka’s head, “Is it… is it that bad?”

    There was a pause before Bakugou responded, “It’s just a goddamn cycle of gaslighting and violence and I was too much of a fucking coward to stand up for anyone. Fuck, I participated in it for the ego boost,” Bakugou sighed, “Everything you know about quirkless people is just a side effect of what they’ve had to put up with their entire life.”

    “Holy shit! And Iida—“

    Uraraka’s hands balled into fists behind Ashido’s back, “Said that Midoryia was stupid to try to protect us and that he was too weak to accomplish anything.”

    Bakugou growled Uraraka heard footsteps, “Alright, Four eyes is going to—“

    Uraraka ripped herself out of Ashido’s arms and grabbed his wrist, “No. You know Aizawa-sensei. He’ll expel both of us,” she warned him, the tears bubbling back up, “because if you’re going after Iida then I’ll be right there with you!”

Bakugou hesitated and looked back at her. Uraraka glared right back.

“You’ve known him for a few days.”

Uraraka rolled her eyes, “You know Deku. That’s enough.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes too, but let out a small laugh and looked up at the ceiling, “Yeah… you’re right. It is.”

———————-

Class was… tense. Even Aizawa-sensei was shooting them looks as he went over their lessons, sensing the tension between his students. Uraraka simply counted the seconds until heroics, when she could finally channel her anger and frustration into something productive.

When time came, she was the first one in the locker room and the first one out, leaving even before some of her classmates had arrived. Aizawa shot her a look when he saw her walk out of the lockeroom so early, but didn’t say anything.

A question slipped out of Uraraka’s mouth before she could say anything, “What’s your opinion on Midoryia?”

Aizawa frowned, “Who?”

“The quirkless student who’s transferring to the support course. The one who distracted Shigaraki so Todoroki could…” she trailed off, unsure how to word Todoroki’s rescue of their teacher.

Aizawa sat on the question for a moment, “At first I thought he was an idiot, but he’s got potential.”

“Iida said…” she debated whether she should throw her friend under the bus, but decided it was too late, “Iida said that Midoryia was ‘overconfident’ and should’ve hid and done nothing because he’s quirkless.”

Aizawa face didn’t change, but he slouched so more of it was hidden by his capture weapon, “Somebody’s quirk doesn’t confirm their potential. To some, your quirk would only be well suited for moving boxes and construction, but we both know you’re capable of far more than that. Sure, Midoryia’s at a disadvantage because of society’s expectations of weak quirks and the quirkless, but he’s got spunk. Plus, his quirk analysis is somewhat of a quirk of his own, albiet a self-made one. He’s got more potential than a good amount of pros.”

Even though Aizawa only said things Uraraka already knew, she felt some of her insecurities about the situation fade away. Hearing an adult corroborate her opinion was reassuring.

“Oh, and you and Bakugou are doing two extra laps today. I need you clear-headed for today’s exercise,” Aizawa informed her, eyes locked on Bakugou’s figure emerging from the locker rooms, “No quirks.”

Uraraka didn’t even feel the urge to groan. Instead, she was just thankful for the added opportunity to get stronger and work off her anger.

Bakugou cracked his knuckles, “You gonna keep up, mochi-face?”

Uraraka scoffed, “You’re the one who’ll have to keep up, Kacchan .”

Bakugou’s face split into a sneer and he gave her a look of Oh, you’re on . Uraraka snorted, but accepted the challenge. Poor Iida wasn’t going to stand a chance.

Chapter Text

“I would like to start off by saying I am so sorry, Midoryia,” Powerloader said first thing in the morning after tracking Izuku down and dragging him to his office, “Obviously none of us knew that would happen, but you being involved in the attack is even worse than the hero students being involved. At least they signed up for it.”

Powerloader’s office was surprisingly neat. Midoryia was expecting nuts and spare parts to be thrown about, but the surfaces were almost entirely clear except for one metal frame surrounded by metal sheets on a workbench tucked in a corner. 

Powerloader’s actual desk took up the center of the room, with papers meticulously organized in plastic shelves, a monitor seated on an adjustable stand that was fit for viewing from a sitting angle and a standing one. Seemingly every writing utensil except a pen sat in disorganized cups in front of Midoryia, who sat in Powerloader’s desk chair while the other paced his office.

“Powerloader-sensei, don’t worry!” Izuku protested from his spinny chair, “It turned out okay. Detective Tsukauchi said that no students were injured and that Thirteen and Eraserhead are going to be okay!” He forced a grin, “Not even the quirkless kid managed to get himself hurt.”

Powerloader studied him for a moment, “I’m apologizing for my failure to keep you safe. As a teacher, it is my duty to keep all students safe.  I unknowingly threw you into a villain attack because I was excited about your potential and acted too hastily.”

Midoryia jumped to his feet with protests already on his tongue, but Powerloader held up a hand to stop him, “That being said,” Powerloader grinned, “You were a fucking badass and I’m so proud. You proved that not all phenomenal abilities come from genetics. You stayed cool under pressure, recognized when the standard protocol would fail, adapted, and demonstrated incredible courage. Only a UA student could pull that off.”

Midoryia chest swelled. It was one thing to hear it from Miruko and Ururaka, but hearing it from an actual teacher who had experience with villains was completely different. Here he was, having a teacher tell him was doing great and they were proud of him. Had that ever happened before?

“Unfortunately, the school board says being a badass isn’t enough to let you transfer into the support course and you still have to take an exam, so we’re back to square one,” Powerloader sighed and readjusted his helmet, “So if you still want to pursue support, we’ll go back to the original exam I was going to have you take.”

“I want to be a support engineer,” Deku assured him, more confident than he expected. It was an incontrovertible truth he only just realized.

“While I was watching the hero course face off against villains, I actually got kinda frustrated,” he admitted. He glanced at Powerloader, not wanting to waste the teacher’s time, but Powerloader motioned for him to continue, “I know that the students are all fairly new to combat, but they were so inefficient. They’ll be able to do incredible things, but they’re not using their quirks to their fullest extent.”

Another glance at Powerloader was rewarded with an encouraging nod, so he continued, “Take Kaminari for example: super powerful quirk with a devastating drawback. He knows next to nothing about electricity despite that being his quirk. I don’t know the actual terms, but...When you rub a balloon on your hair and it sticks to a wall, that’s static electricity, right?”

Power Loader nodded, “Electrical induction, to be exact. It’s hard to explain without visuals, but to keep in short, the hair’s electrons transfer to the balloon when they’re rubbed together. The transferred electrons are negative so the balloon gains a negative charge. Then when you hold the balloon against a wall with a neutral charge, The negative charges repel each other like two north magnets. The electrons—the ones that hold the negative charge—go to the other side of the wall, and since there are no more negatives on the closer side, it becomes positive. Then, like north and south magnets, they attract each other and the wall holds the balloon.”

“Okay, so I’m not onto nothing then,” Midoryia confirmed, “What if Kaminari spent time learning about electrical induction and could essentially become a magnet? Or what about electromagnets? I don't actually know what those are either but that might be a thing.”

Powerloader laughed and waved his hand dismissively, “Physics is not biology. In physics, the terms actually make sense. Usually if you know what each part means individually, then you can guess what it actually is. An electromagnet is a magnet that works because of electricity. You’re right though. If we slapped a solenoid on Kaminari and he practiced enough, he could probably redirect metal bullets and the like,” Powerloader grinned broadly, “That would be so cool.”

“And then Jirou—“

“Okay okay pause before we get too distracted,” Powerloader ordered, waving his hands in the air, “I don’t wanna stop your flow, but we can do this after we get to business, okay? This could go on for hours, even if I really want to know your thoughts.”

“Exam,” Midoryia agreed with a sheepish smile as he put a stop to his thoughts.

Powerloader strode to where the light switch sat by the door and flipped it off, “The original exam—the one we’ll fall back to—was going to be a more labor-intensive version of my students’ first project. I think you’ll love it.”

He used his foot to sweep a square step stool out from an ikea cubby, stepped on it, and reached for the ceiling. He pressed his hand against the ceiling until he found what he was looking for. With a grunt, he stepped off the step stool and a white projector sheet spanning the entire office wall lowered itself to the floor.

He motioned for Izuku to get out of chair and Izuku obliged. With the press of a couple keys, a rubric was displayed on his office wall.

Midoryia’s eyes widened, “That was so cool!”

“I’m just glad the program hasn’t bugged up yet,” Powerloader muttered as he knocked on his wooden desk, “Anyway, this project has three aspects—ideation, construction, and application—and each is worth 20 points.”

Powerloader took a laser pointer and circled the first section of the rubric, “Ideation is the process of coming up with the idea. I want thumbnail sketches that detail every idea you had, a more thought out sketch with all the math necessary, and then a final blueprint that you would submit to a company for mass production. You’ll see that I split this into three sections that are ten points each: the aesthetic, the detail of your sketches, and your application of scientific ideas. Basically, if you have detailed plans that look nice but you say the sun revolves around the Earth, you’ll get a 10 in ideation.

Midoryia had no idea how to do any of that.

“Construction is the execution of the idea. It basically rates the quality of your build. That’s all you need to know there.”

That would most certainly be a problem, considering Midoryia had no trade skills.

“Application is whether or not it’s useful to someone. If you make a particle accelerator, that’s great, but I don’t think your average hero necessarily needs experimental elements, you know? This is actually where a lot of students struggle. They get excited about a project and want to show off their potential, but it can’t do anything and it’s a waste of time. This is where I think you’re going to kill it.”

Midoryia raised his hand, “Uh... Powerloader-sensei? I don’t actually know how to construct things, and I’ve only taken basic earth science.

“One of my students has been begging to stay after school to work on her projects, so I’m going to make you one of her projects. She’ll probably help you out,” Powerloader promised, “Besides, I haven’t gotten to the prompt yet.”

“The prompt?” Midoryia cocked his head, “Like a writing prompt?”

“Kinda,” Powerloader pressed a button on his computer and a new piece of paper showed up on the screen, “I can’t just have you make anything you want, otherwise we will experience far too many explosions. This first prompt is fairly vague. You have to design something for a first year hero student to use. Meaning you have to analyze their quirk, identify a weakness, and come up with something helpful.”

Midoryia’s brain struggled to catch up, “That’s a lot of stuff to do.”

Powerloader shrugged, “Don’t worry, it’s a pre-test so you’re not supposed to do perfect. It’s my way of introducing the general process before we go into the details. Since it’s a pre-test, if you get above 40% then you pass. You only have two weeks, but I know you already have ideas. It’ll be a lot of work, but if you talk to Hatsumei she can push you in the right direction. I should also be available before school if you want my help, but I have non-UA stuff after school, hence Hatsumei.”

Midoryia frowned. He did not have the advantage here. Sure, he felt okay in the application area, but the other two? “What if I have an idea that’s focused on quirk application or a technique rather than a mechanical application? Is there any way I can avoid the construction aspect?”

“Not for this project, sorry. It really isn’t a great one for you, but it’s what the school board approved and you’ll learn a lot in those two weeks,” Powerloader assured him, “I think you can do it.”

Midoryia didn’t think so, but he found it difficult to say no. After all, Powerloader was the first teacher to ever say he actually could do something. Powerloader thought he was cool and liked his analysis. He knew about Midoryia’s worst traits and was still offering him a spot in his class. He couldn’t make a fool out of himself in front of Powerloader, but not even trying would be worse.

Midoryia swallowed, “So, when can I start?”

“Now, if you want. I’ll talk to Hatsumei and let her know she can stay after class,” Powerloader gave him two thumbs up, “I know you can do it!”

UA was so weird.

Midoryia felt himself returning the smile as something coursed through his veins. It was similar to the feeling he felt in the USJ when he decided to venture out of the security room; to the feeling he got when analyzing quirks. It was a rush that made his entire body buzz with anticipation and permanently locked his face into a smile.

He returned the thumbs up, suddenly feeling invincible, “If not, I’ll win an award for the most creative way to fail.”

Powerloader held his hand out and raised an eyebrow questioningly at Midoryia, asking for permission. He nodded and let Powerloader ruffle his hair, “That’s all you gotta aim for.”

————-

Izuku waved at Midnight as he sat down in his seat and immediately pulled out a notebook. PowerLifter’s assignment was absolutely terrifying and he had no idea how to do anything, so he might as well get started now.

Midnight had other plans, “Hey Midoryia! I heard you had a fun day yesterday.”

A couple of his classmates looked over curiously and Izuku hesitated. His instinct was to be snarky, but what if Midnight didn’t like snark? What if—

Midnight didn’t wait for his response, “There’s no need to be modest! You did good. Using Ethernet to message a third party when you can’t get a cellular signal?” She winked, “That’s how you turn on all the hotties.”

Midoryia leaned forward and buried his face in his notebook, “It’s really not. It’s the nerdiest thing possible.”

“Hey, don’t underestimate the sex appeal of nerds,” Midnight scolded, “Why, I—“

Izuku whimpered, “Please stop.”

“Sorry, the worst part about the beginning of the school year is figuring out how heavy to go on my persona,” Midnight apologized, “but seriously, you managed to impress Aizawa! That’s not easy. I mean, when Nedzu got a call from Miruko, we were all shocked! But you stayed calm and ingenuitive. You’re definitely a UA student.”

Izuku hesitated, unsure of how much to include in his response, “Well I mean... I knew the head villain so it wasn’t too scary. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.”

Midnight nodded, “Bakugou said you used Yourself as a human shield because you knew the villain wouldn’t hurt you. That’s some serious bravery. Any kid that brave doesn’t deserve to be treated like that detective treated you.”

“You know about that?”

“Not officially, no. All Might’s best friends with Tsukauchi and he told me,” Midnight explained, “But if anyone, and I mean anyone ” Midnight looked him dead in the eyes, “gives you that kind of trouble again, come to me. Especially if they’re one of those hero course kids who know about your little problem. No hero should tolerate that behavior and I know any teacher in this school would be more than willing to stand up for you when the time comes.”

“It’s...” it’s fine. It’s okay “not a big deal,” Midoryia decided, “It’s just part of being quirkless. I’m going to be treated unfairly wherever I go. Well... actually, UA has been insane. You’re here, checking up on me while still knowing I can take care of myself. Power Loader is encouraging my hobbies and pushing me so outside of my comfort zone it’s terrifying because I’ve never had a teacher think I could handle that before. I have a friend who knows I’m quirkless and still hangs out with me. It’s so weird. I’ve never been in a school like this before.”

“I’m glad to hear it, and if you want to be pushed, then you’re at the right school.”

Deku looked down at the blank page of his new notebook, now titled, “Support Course Entrance Exam. A surge of excitement warmed his bones. He was going to do it. He was going to become a support engineer so other heroes could save people with a smile on their face and so people like Sho with destructive quirks didn’t suffer the same fate he did. They didn’t get into it last night because so much had already happened, but Deku knew that Sho’s family was dead and it was his fault. If Sho had known the glove trick, it would’ve been fine. If his parents had some way of predicting their child’s quirk, it would’ve been fine. The story was a tragedy because it was an easily-prevented worst case scenario that someone like Izuku could stop. 

He was going to help people, and not just the innocent ones either.

 “I know this sounds weird, but even though I only knew half the words coming out of Powerloader’s mouth and I know that I’ll be at the bottom of the class if I get in… I can’t wait.”

———————-

Midoryia’s heart was buzzing as the clock ticked closer to lunch. The anxiety over his daunting assignment was turning into some sort of sadistic excitement! Uraraka was a hero student, and he had already met a significant number of 1-A students, so theoretically he could spend all of lunch interviewing them until he got ideas for his project! Of course, he already had an idea of what a few students’ quirks were— he had seen Kaminari, Jirou, Momo, Uraraka, Bakugou, and Todoroki’s quirks in action, but there were still so many others! While he was probably going to stick to what he knew, what if an idea struck him while he was begging Uraraka, Iida, and Tsu for quirk info?

His phone buzzed and a text notification lit up his screen. He didn’t hesitate to click on it.

Uraraka : meet me outside the cafeteria before lunch. Some of the others aren’t taking the “quirkless” thing very well but I’ve got a plan

Uraraka : no nvm what classroom are you in?

Oh. Yeah. Reality.

Midoryia : uhh class 1-F

Midoryia : how bad is it?

Uraraka : Momo, Ashido, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Jirou are for sure on your side. Same with Bakugou but he’s too emotionally stunted to say anything to you. Todoroki likes you atm because you piss off his dad. Aizawa thinks you have spunk

Uraraka : you’ll have to watch out for Iida, Tsu, and Mineta for sure

Uraraka : beyond that idk

Midoryia looked back at his notebook, where he was pretending to take notes but actually jotting down everything he knew about Tsu’s quirk. He’d known this was coming, so why did it hurt so much?

The class was dismissed for lunch, and Izuku didn’t bother to rush to put away his books like everyone else. By the time he shuffled out the door, Uraraka was already there waiting with a big smile on her face. She waved and dragged another student Midoryia recognized from her class behind her.

“Hey Midoryia!” Uraraka bounced up to him, her hand still on the pink girl’s wrist, “This is Ashido!”

Ashido flashed Midoryia a peace sign, “Mina Ashido, acid quirk. I’ve heard a lot about you!”

“Uh...” Midoryia looked to Uraraka for help, “Nice to meet you?”

Midoryia expected something about his quirklessness, or maybe the USJ attack. What he wasn’t expecting was, “I love how fluffy your hair is! It’s kinda like mine, except on the opposite side of the color wheel!”

Midoryia blinked, “Uh... thanks?” He sent another look to Uraraka, hoping she would get his look of what-is-happening-help .

Uraraka shrugged, “Iida said some stuff this morning and I honestly don’t know if I can sit with him. Mina offered to let us sit with her, if you want to?”

Ashido scoffed and turned to Midoryia, “You should’ve seen her today. Glaring at Iida, teaming up on him with Bakugou of all people. I didn’t know she had that in her. I had to hold her back at least once.”

While Midoryia had learned about Uraraka’s violent streak yesterday, he hesitated, “If you’re just doing this just so that I don’t have to—“

Mina put her hands on his shoulders and locked eyes with him, “I think she scared Bakugou . She called him Kacchan and knocked him on his ass with a streetlight.”

A little smile made its way on Uraraka’s face, “Meh, he deserved it. He wasn’t listening to my plan and needed to cooperate with someone for once in his life.”

“He sent you to recovery girl.”

Uraraka’s smile widened with pride, “And I him,” she turned to Midoryia, “I mean, if you wanna sit with Iida today I won’t stop you, but it’ll just end in Aizawa-sensei making me run more cool-down laps and just maybe another trip to recovery girl.”

Midoryia frowned, “Are you okay?”

“He would have had the crap beaten out of him multiple times had it not been for the threat of expulsion,” Uraraka admitted, “but my hands are tied, so I’ll leave it up to the people who can currently control their temper,” she turned to Midoryia and offered up a smile, “So? Is Ashido cool enough for you?”

Ashido pouted, “Please? I wanna meet the kid that makes mean girls references at villains! And according to everyone you’re crazy good with quirks and might even be able to give me some advice to get stronger!”

“If you don’t mind sitting with a quirkless kid—“

“Are you kidding? Kirishima is dying to meet you! And Kaminari hasn’t stopped talking about you since yesterday! And—“ Ashido continued talking, filling the silence. Midoryia found himself liking her. She had a lot of positive energy and a way of making it feel like they’d known each other for years. By the time they made it to the lunch room, Midoryia was smiling again. The second they walked through the door, chaos exploded.

A kid with bright red hair was the first to notice them walk in, “You actually found him!”

Kaminari punched the air, “Yeah! We got Midoryia!”

Midoryia fought the urge to hide behind Uraraka and scratched the back of his head awkwardly, “Uh... hi?”

“Thanks for your whole man-in-the-chair thing yesterday! We would’ve been toast without you!” Kaminari stood up and met Midoryia halfway, hand up for a high-five.

Midoryia hesitated, surprised by the gesture, and slapped Kaminari’s hand. Much to his surprise, Kaminari grabbed his hand after slapping it and tugged before stopping himself, “Oh, sorry! That’s muscle memory. Whenever I high-five people I always do a thing and oh! I’ll just show you!”

Kaminari walked him through the “handshake”, started with a high-five that slid back until their fingertips met and they pulled each other into a bro-hug.

The others left them alone long enough to go get their food from lunch rush, but when they got back to their table more familiar faces had joined. Midoryia sat down next to Momo and Uraraka, since he at least knew their names and felt relatively comfortable around them.

Everyone went around the table and introduced themselves. Momo, Jirou, and Kaminari he had a moment to talk to, but getting a proper introduction for Todoroki, Kirishima, Sero, Ojiro, and Tokoyami was nice. Midoryia was honestly surprised the table managed to fit so many people, despite pushing a few together. 

“I’m sorry for pressuring you to rescue everyone,” Momo apologized after her introduction, “I didn’t realize it would cause so many issues for you.”

Midoryia shook his head and waved his hand dismissively, trying to ignore all the eyes on him, “Nah, it’s okay. Honestly. The quirklessness was going to get out sooner or later, and the weirdest part is that I actually knew the villain who attacked us, which meant sending me was the safest option. The only thing I regret is not telling the cops I was quirkless sooner. That was a mess.”

Kirishima gaped at him, “Wait, you knew the villain?”

Uraraka took the opportunity to leap in and alleviate some of the attention on him, “That’s the weird part!” She explained Midoryia’s discord and went over their day of getting their digital revenge on the attacker of the USJ.

Kaminari went on his phone and started typing vigorously halfway through her explanation. When Jirou noticed and pointed it out, he only typed faster, “Now I have to make sure none of my online friends are secretly supervillains.”

That got a few laughs.

“So wait,” Ojiro frowned, “What were you doing at the USJ?”

“Oh, that’s a long story,” Midoryia rubbed the back of his neck again, “Basically,?Powerloader offered me the opportunity to analyze your rescue techniques in order to get into the support program, but it looks like I’m gonna have to take a different exam since I got distracted.”

Ashido cocked her head, “Why are you going for support if you’re already in business?”

Midoryia really needed to stop scratching the back of his neck, “I applied to management because I thought the only way I would get hired in any high-level job was if I was hired as a publicity stunt, but then somehow Powerloader hunted me down and pointed out that I might be better suited for support because I’m obsessed with quirk theory and analysis.”

“You certainly have an impressive mind for strategy and situational awareness,” Momo observed, “Your plans were very thorough.”

“He’s insane when it comes to quirk analysis,” Uraraka agreed, “He accurately guessed my quirk when we first met and keeps talking about his friends’ research—“

“I also have a quirk analysis discord, which coincidentally also had a villain in it. Don’t ask me how stuff like this happens. It’s how I met Miruko, and there are a couple legit analysts on there that bounce ideas off of each other,” Midoryia explained.

Kaminari slammed his hands on the table, “You do quirk analysis for fun ,”

“Uh... yes?”

“That’s kinda ironic, since you’re quirkless,” Todoroki observed.

The table went silent at the word.

Shit. If he reacted to this wrong, the others will tip toe around the topic of quirklessness and act like he’s fragile. What should he do?!

In his moment of panic, he shot back, “Oh man, I completely forgot. Can I borrow your fire quirk since you aren’t using it?”

“Only if you don’t give it back,” Todoroki agreed.

“Sounds perfect,” Midoriya agreed sarcastically.

“Just to clear the air: Is quirklessness a sensitive point for you?” Ojiro wondered, “My quirk is a little on the weaker side and I’ve been given some trouble for it.”

Midoryia’s quirk analysis brain was already whirring, “Well, the fact is that I’m quirkless. I only mind when people are condescending about it,” he rushed out, “Now, more importantly, what’s your quirk? How does it work?”

“My quirk is tail. I essentially have a tail I can use as a 5th limb, but I’ve combined it with various martial arts I’ve been studying for years. I’m good at fighting and I do pretty well, but...”

Quirk mode: activated. 

“That’s so cool! How does it affect your balance? Can you do the thing that cats do to make it so you land upright after you fall? Since most martial arts are made for 4-limbed people, how do you incorporate the tail into those kinds of moves? I’m assuming that the tail is more for bludgeoning, considering that you look like a heavy hitter. I can only imagine the potential it has for feints!”

Uraraka snorted, “I’m surprised you lasted this long before going into a quirk tangent.”

Midoryia blushed.

Ojiro shrugged, “Honestly, my tail doesn’t do much. My mom has the same thing except hers shoots spikes, and my dad has a completely unrelated quirk. I just have a muscular tail.”

A shot of adrenaline jolted Midoryia, “No way.”

Ojiro tensed, “Does that mean something?”

“I—“ Midoryia’s heart was racing, “My friend and I—“ no that was too direct. He didn’t have enough evidence, “How do you feel about shoes?”

Ojiro blinked, “What?”

Midoryia realized just how weird his question is, “Look, functionally, it’s nothing. My friend and I just have a theory to explain mathematical inconsistencies in the quirk population. We haven’t collected any actual evidence and we have no proof for it.”

“Is it a well-known equation like the quirkless decline one? I did a project on that in middle school!” Kirishima recalled, seeming to be happy just to know what was happening.

“Well, when it comes to quirk things, it’s usually better not to say unless you’re sure, you know?” Midoryia lied, “I mean, if your chest hurts, sure you could be having a heart attack, but there are a hundred other reasons why it could be hurting. You just excited me because it sounded similar.”

Ojiro didn’t sound convinced, so Midoryia changed the topic, “Although, speaking of quirks: Kaminari, I talked to Powerloader about yours earlier today and more or less confirmed one of my ideas. You struggle with long-distance attacks, right?”

This got the hero kids’ attention.

Kaminari rubbed his wrist, “Yeah, it’s hard to use it with a ground right there and super unpredictable, you know? I might end up having to rely on a support item for that stuff.”

“How much have you experimented with static electricity and electromagnetism?”

Kaminari blinked, “Not really? And doesn’t electromagnetism require a ton of—“

“I’m weaker on the engineering side so I’d have to look into it,” Midoryia admitted, “but there’s one idea I really want you to try. Or, okay, two, but one of them is easy.”

Midoryia grinned, “Number one: human taser. Taser punches. Taser kicks. Taser sword . If long-distance doesn’t work, then eliminate the ground. There’s actually a possibility your quirk can’t really do long-range. You’ve been acting as an AOE user when you might be better suited for combat.”

Kaminari’s eyes widened and he pointed at Midoryia, “Yes! Yes, that is what I’m talking about! How did I not think of that before?” He paused for a moment, “It would be way outside of my comfort zone, and I’d probably have to stock up a bit, but it’s definitely worth a shot.”

Midoryia held up two fingers, “The second one I’m less sure about, but that’s why I mention it. Sure, if you can charge phones you can power electromagnets, but those are limited by materials.” 

Midoryia started typing away on his phone, pulling up a chart Powerloader had showed him earlier, “It would require a lot of experimentation and practice, but instantly boost your mobility,” he handed his phone to Kaminari, “To keep it simple, you know how when you rub a balloon in your hair it’ll stick to a wall? That’s because the electrons get separated from their atoms when you rub them together. You can probably use negative charges easiest, so everything at the top of the Triboelectric series should be fair game for you to climb around on: human bodies, glass, nylon, wool, lead, whatever. While this is completely theoretical, there’s a small chance you could stick to windows and certain walls.”

Kaminari’s jaw dropped.

Momo’s eyes widened, “No, that’s a solid theory. Of course, it depends on the nature of Kaminari’s quirk, but I could see that working.”

Kaminari shook his head vigorously, “Did I mishear that? Are you saying I could become an electric spider-man?!”

Midoryia shrugged, “I’m saying that your quirk is a heavily researched scientific area because it’s versatile, and there are a lot of applications you could look into if you had the time.”

Jirou’s mouth was agape, “And you got this just by meeting us yesterday? You barely even saw us fight!”

Midoryia was on a roll, “Oh, and Jirou! While I’m already embarrassing myself, do you have any way of sensing natural frequencies or any knowledge about impact tests? If not, I would definitely suggest doing research and talking to a support engineer about adding frequency meters to your suit as a special move! Of course, you’d have to find a way to adjust your heartbeat, but with technological assistance, it’s definitely doable!

Jirou looked to the side as her brain made the right connections, “So I can cause objects to vibrate out of their control and destroy them? Like the Tacoma bridge?”

“Yep! Oh, and Momo? Have you considered using a smartwatch or something containing the blueprints for complex structures you can’t make on the fly? Or guns? Considering that you would never run out of bullets? Especially specialized guns like the stuff the support course comes up with? That way if you have a moment to yourself to plan then you can come up with the best means to an end.”

Kirishima waved his hands in a gesture for Izuku to stop, “Okay, pause. How many of these do you have?”

“Except for Kaminari?” Midoryia shrugged, “I’m coming up with these on the fly.”

Uraraka tossed a rice ball in her mouth as she looked at their astonished faces, “I told you he was cool.”

“Haha, uh...” Midoryia stopped himself from rubbing the back of his neck again, “Not really? It’s an old hobby of mine. It’s a little creepy, but I just get excited about the potential of quirks, and support is about maximizing the potential of quirks, so if I can manage to get in...”

Midoryia blinked, realizing he had just come up with countless possibilities for his exam. It looked like coming up with ideas wouldn’t be nearly as hard as narrowing them down.

Ashido leaned across the table and took his hand in hers, “Midori, you’re officially the coolest person I’ve ever met, but what the fuck?”

“A mad scientist,” Tokoyami agreed.

“How are those villains still alive?” Sero agreed, staring off into space, “Do me next!”

“No! do me!” Ashido pleaded.

The table exploded into chaos, and Midoryia didn’t know what to do. There were too many people, and he didn’t know how people worked. What was he going to—

Uraraka elbowed him and gave him a reassuring smile, and Midoryia felt himself relaxing. Well, if Uraraka said the noise was okay...

Snooty laughter jarred Midoryia back to attention, “Ah, I see class 1-A has once again decided they’re better than us! You see—“

“No, we decided Midoryia is better than us,” Jirou deadpanned.

Midoryia blushed and covered his face with his hands.

The student looked at Midoryia, “You’re not class 1-A.”

“Nope,” Uraraka agreed for him, as he was too busy trying to fade out of existence, “Management.”

The blonde fell silent, clearly having planned a whole speech that got thrown out the window. He frowned,, “Uh... Well, remember that...”

A redhead showed up and simply grabbed his arm, shaking her head in defeat, “Just give up, Monoma.”

That seemed to break him out of his hesitancy, “Someone needs to show these idiots their place! Just because they all have powerful quirks doesn’t mean they’re better than everyone!” He screeched, “Like you! Management! What’s your quirk?

“Crying,” Uraraka responded before Midoryia could even panic, “I think I’ve seen him cry so hard he’s—“

Midoryia face was hot as he slammed his hand over her mouth, but it was hard to fight against her when he was laughing so hard, “Uraraka!”

She easily maneuvered out of his wrestling hold, “Am I wrong?

Midoryia fumbled for a response, but Kaminari beat him to it, “Yeah, stop joking around, Uraraka. We all know his quirk is Crisis , the quirk that makes you question everything you know.”

Kaminari’s grin widened when Midoryia and Uraraka snorted in response. Their reaction seemed to encourage everyone else to join in.

“His quirk is actually on par with All Might’s—“

“Madness: the quirk that will slowly allow him to drive his opponents insane”

“An analysis quirk that gives him a boost when analyzing quirks—“

Monoma growled, leaned forward, and tapped Midoryia’s shoulder. Midoryia watched as he blinked and this time grabbed his shoulder, “What?”

Midoryia straightened in his seat, “No way! Do you have a quirk-identification quirk? No wait, you’re probably a hero student and that wouldn’t be enough, and Lampbert’s law states that there cannot be any permanent alteration of quirks, so then... NO WAY! Can you mimic other people’s quirks?”

Monoma blinked, “You guessed right, but your reasoning was shit. Lampbert’s law was disproven—“

“A few years after it was published, but the point still stands. Considering the rarity of permanent quirk-alternations and the probability of you passing the entrance exam with one, odds said quirk mimicry,” Midoryia pointed out.

The two stared at each other in silence.

“You’re a quirk nerd,” Monoma realized.

“Arguably one of the biggest I know,” Midoryia agreed.

“What’s your quirk?”

“Don’t have one.”

Monoma’s maniac grin returned, “And yet you’re sitting with the hero students? How’d you wing that?”

“They kidnapped me, more or less,” Midoryia admitted.

“Why?”

“Because he’s cool!” Ashido interjected.

“He’s already given me a hundred ideas on how to improve my quirk!” Kaminari agreed.

Jirou elbowed him, “And saved our butts at the USJ.”

Sero leaned forward in his seat, “Are we forgetting the fact that he managed to call in fucking Miruko?

Monoma studied the others’ faces, looking for deceit. He froze.

The red-haired girl grabbed his arm and began dragging him away, “Sorry about him! He’s just kinda like this!”

Midoryia stood up and gave her a thumbs-up, “He’s welcome to talk quirk theory with me anytime!”

He sat down and turned to Uraraka, “A crying quirk? Really?”

——————

Bonus : 

Uraraka texting in the lunch line

Uraraka: hey Bakugou

Uraraka: How come you’re always yelling about how shitty Deku is and how he’ll never amount to anything if you supposedly care so much?

Bakugou: because the idiot’s brain is backwards and does the exact opposite of what I tell him.

Uraraka: No??? You just end up bullying him!

Bakugou: watch this

Bakugou looked down at Deku with his trademarked cocky sneer, “Hey! Shitty Deku!”

Deku flinched and looked back up at him, “What is it, Kacchan?” He murmured back.

“I heard you were planning on getting Katsudon today,” he snarled, “Shitty Deku can’t even change up his routine,” he scoffed, “Whatever you do, don’t take the soba!”

“You know what Kacchan? I’m done listening to you!” Midoryia reached forward and snatched the soba before storming away.

“He doesn’t even like soba,” Bakugou muttered to Uraraka under his breath.

Uraraka hummed, “Okay, I see your point.”

Chapter Text

Yasuda Masuyo existed. on occasion. Unfortunately, that was a crime. 

Like any other rule-following citizen, she did her best to avoid crime—she never shoplifted, jaywalked, started a fight, etc.—and yet she was one of the most villainous students in Aldera. The other students competing for the title may have assault charges under their belt or destruction of property charges that were waived to protect their future, but they had nothing on Masuyo. She shattered society with every breath, suffered another criminal charge with every step, and committed felonies with every blink.

Maybe she should stop doing track. Less breaths, less steps, less crimes. It was a simple solution. Sure, it would suck to give up sports, but if it meant less people suffered because of her then it wasn’t much of a choice.

But would that negatively effect her team? Right now, as the only quirkless person on the track team, she was given no handicaps or “equalizers” to slow her down, making her one of the better scoring athletes. Better scores meant she could take her team to high-ranking competitions, win awards, and earn more funding. Even as a first year she had PRs (personal records) that beat one or two of the competitors in their league’s final showdown from two years ago. Then if she gave up volleyball, her team would need to get a new libero, and those can be difficult to find. Even if the school managed to find one, then the team would have to teach them 5-1, 6-2, and 4-2, as well as their setter’s preferred signals. Other teams that don’t have new members would demolish her former teammates, and then that would be her fault too. Sports were the only thing she could do right. Not even she was dumb enough to throw away the only thing that gave her value. 

A stabbing sensation on her back made her blink. What was she doing on the ground? Judging by the tiny gravel imbedded in her calf, shoulder, and forearms, she was curled up on a bed of asphalt. Huh. She thought she was sitting in Soma-sensei’s class.

There were voices. Someone was laughing. A boy was yelling. Another hand tazzed her armpit and her elbow spasmed at the contact. Something soft grabbed her other hand and *pulled*. More words were said but their meanings were lost to the static over Masuyo’s brain. Heh, maybe her brain was in that hard plastic packaging that comes on those “seen on TV!” things. The ones that always scratched up her skin when she struggled to cut them open. That was a good metaphor. That made sense. Probably.

Oh, was she walking now? Her arm was resting on something and tense, like it was holding up something heavy. She must’ve gotten hurt during a game and someone was helping her walk off the field. She should walk and help them out. If the others thought she was a broken quirkless girl then that would be bad. She wouldn’t want a bad thing to happen.

Wait, did she just say she need to be walked off a field during a game? She didn’t play soccer. Or football, for that matter. Nothing she played had fields. Wait, was that statement redundant—

Something was shaking her shoulder. She swatted at it, hoping it would go away. It didn’t. Huh.

“Heahk” a voice said.

“Hsjak” she mumbled back.

“Haeh ya Udon, luk et mie” the same voice repeated, the distress evident in the...Pronunciation? No, that wasn’t the word. What was the word? Anuncition? Multiplication? Articulation? And why would he be talking bout Udon?

Wait. The voice said, “Hey Yasuda, look at me!”

With that realization, the world snapped back into existence. A kid she had seen around a handful of times—short, green, anxious— had his hands resting together, having finished a clap for her attention.

Big green eyes stared back at her, “You with me, Yasuda?”

“Oh, yeah!” Masuyo straightened up and gave him a smile. For some reason, the sudden movement made her cheeks hurt.

They were sitting in a restaurant in some sort of booth. Menus and waters were sitting in front of them, but the outside wasn’t wet with condensation yet. They must’ve just sat down, “Sorry about that. It happens a lot. Nothing to worry about.”

The boy on the other side of the table frowned, but didn’t protest, “Drink some water at least. I’ve got some ointment stuff in my backpack and Shou-kun— that’s the owner— said he’ll get us some ice for the bruises.”

A pang of fear shot down her spine, “Bruises?” 

The boy across from her held up his arms, which were starting to shift colors already, “I’ve got a few,” he admitted, “and there’s no way your ribs aren’t bruised. I didn’t look, of course, but those two are nasty kickers. I’ve been on the receiving end a few too many times.”

Masuyo blinked. Her ribs *were* sore, but they usually were. She guessed she wouldn’t be shocked if they weren’t bruised. She looked back at the boy, who was studying her with a sad look on his face, “And who are you again?”

“Oh I’m so sorry! I’m Midoryia. Midoryia Izuku. I’m one of the quirkless kids in the grade above you. I know there’s the unspoken rule not to help each other out because it only makes bullies escalate, but they were going way too far and...” his mouth opened, ready to continue. Yasuda waited. When it became apparent that he couldn’t figure out how to explain himself, she took the opportunity to speak.

“Huh. I didn’t realize I had quirkless upperclassmen,” she admitted. Only she could be dumb enough to think she was special.

“There’s maybe five of us in the school right now, I think,” Midoryia touched his knuckle to his lips, “At least, by my estimations. Usually the people who target me will try to target other quirkless people, so I can figure out who’s at the bottom of the food chain based on that. I’ve pulled at least two out of some tougher situations or at least gave them an opportunity to get away when it got really bad,” he lowered his hand, letting his hollow smile show, “You know how it is. It’s just name calling and most of the time, but after someone’s had a bad day, they decide to pass their bad day to us.”

She did know how it is, but it was weird to hear someone else say it. It made sense that another quirkless person would know what it’s like to be quirkless.

After a moment of silence, Midoryia put his elbows on the table and leaned in, “You okay?”

Oh fuck he was getting worried. She straightened and slapped a big old smile on her face, “Yep! I’m good! No need to worry about me!”

That only made him frown harder. Fuck, she must’ve messed up. That smile was supposed to stop making her a burden and have him move on. People weren’t supposed to feel bad because of her. She was a criminal. Any suffering she experienced was just atonement for her wrongdoings, and it’s her job to make sure no one feels guilt over her reparations.

Midoryia was pursing his lips. He was going to protest because she messed up. Her parents were going to be so mad tonight.

He opened his mouth.

If only she was smart enough to find a way out of this. Or if she was suddenly blessed with a “get out of jail free” quirk, she could be done with all of this.

Midoryia took a deep breath.

She could practically hear her poor mother’s frustration with her.

 “Do you want some fries?”

Masuyo blinked, “Huh?”

“Yeah, the owner’s more than willing to help out on bad days, but the trade off is that I have to order something,” Midoryia explained, eyes locked on the menu. He hunched so much that his poofy green hair hung over his eyes, “I’m thinking French fries today, but he has a really good vegetables too. I don’t know if he steams it or roasts it but the broccoli is to die for.”

“Isn’t that cannibalism?” Masuyo blurted before she could stop herself. She gasped as soon as the words left her lips. What kind of person accused another of cannibalism? She just couldn’t help herself, could she?

Her anxiety disappeared when Midoryia choked so hard he dropped the menu. He banged on his chest, trying to dislodge the spit he was choking on, “Oh my god!” He wheezed, “I know it’s true, but you caught me off guard!”

Masuyo had to take a second to think that over, “Wait, you know it’s true? How is that possible?”

Midoryia let out an ugly snort.

She pounded her first against her thigh, “Hey! Cut it out and tell me!” she demanded, ignoring the laughs bubbling up in her chest. She was a criminal who did only wrong. She didn’t deserve to—

Midoryia clutched his stomach and doubled over so hard he smacked his head against the table. He came back up laughing even harder and rubbing his forehead.

Her ribs protested as laughter exploded out of her, but she didn’t care. She’d dealt with worse and Midoryia’s laugh was just too infectious.

“I leave you alone for five minutes and you give yourself a concussion!” A large man exclaimed. Masuyo whipped her head in the direction of the voice, only to see a handful of ice packs flying their way. Not wasting a second, she grabbed the two flying at her face. Midoryia did the same except with his face.

“Really?!” Midoryia protested as he picked an ice pack off of his lap and glared at their assailant.

Their assailant was a heavy man, built for wrestling, with a Green Day T-shirt poking out from behind his apron. His arms were already crossed, despite having literally just thrown ice packs at them. Maybe he was just committed to the aesthetic? 

The man shrugged, “I wasn’t aiming for your face, but you did say you needed to ice it.”

Midoryia’s glare was impossibly unintimidating. It was more of a child’s pout, really, “I don’t think throwing an ice pack at my blooming bruise will help.”

“Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you try it. Besides, from what it looks like, you’re making the bullies’ jobs even easier by yourself,” the man teased. He smirked, “And you actually brought someone today. Who’s this? Your girlfriend?”

Masuyo’s face grew incredibly hot all the sudden.

Midoryia’s scowl resembled a week old kitten’s, “I’m literally gay. No, she’s my quirkless kohai. They got a bit too rough today and if anyone has a concussion, it’s her. Well, it’s probably either a concussion or a dissociative disorder of some sorts. They’re pretty common among the quirkless.”

The man’s face fell with a huff, “Your lives suck.”

Midoryia shrugged, “They could be worse.”

The man raised his eyebrows, “Can they though?”

Masuyo took the opportunity to jump in, “Actually, yes! I’m really lucky! I’m not given any handicaps in sports, so even though I’m not that good, I appear to be in comparison to my teammates. I do volleyball, gymnastics, and track, and each of my teams got in the top three in our league because of my privilege. And then my parents are wonderful people who are doing everything in their power to make sure I make up for my transgressions and trust me with a lot of freedom and responsibilities! Being quirkless may be a curse, but my family is really helping!”

The man whistled, “That’s a lot to unpack, so we’re gonna leave that alone for now. What are your main events in track?”

Masuyo lit up, “I do a bit of everything, but I love the 400m hurdles and high jump! I actually just PR’d in high jump and broke 1.8 meters!”

“And you’re in what year?”

“Second year in middle. I know it sounds high, but it’s only because everyone else is so used to using their quirks they haven’t adapted to be able to jump without them yet.” she explained.

Midoryia looked between the man and Yasuda, “translation for us non-athletes?”

“She could cleanly jump over you if she wanted,” the man summarized.

“Whoa, really?!” Midoryia pulled a full-sized notebook out of *nowhere*. Seriously, where had he been keeping that thing? 

 Midoryia’s pencil hovered over the notebook, “How high would you say someone else your age could jump using a similar method?”

The man finally uncrossed her arms to pinch the bridge of his nose, “Midoryia, no.”

“Midoryia, yes,” he deadpanned, “Now—“ Midoryia gasped as a new idea hit him, “Many scientists theorize that the removal of the extra pinky toe joint was because humans no longer needed the extra balance and stability it provided and I want to know if being quirkless actually gives Yasuda an extra advantage in track. I don’t think you necessarily need balance to jump high, but—“

“Actually, you do,” Masuyo interrupted. All the stuff about scientists and blah blah blah went over her head, but she knew how to jump, “High jumping actually has a weird technique. I think it like...lowers your center of balance and maximizes your air time. You have to get a running start, pivot on your dominant foot, and jump backwards over the bar. A lot of people mess up because they rotate too much on the pivot, get the timing of the snap wrong, or mess up counting their steps.”

Midoryia scribbled down a few notes, “I understood about half of that, but I think I get the gist. Theoretically though, your additional pinky toe joints should improve your balance and give you advantages in those sports, while maybe taking away some of your natural speed. If you could find someone willing to compete against you while using their quirk, I’d be interested how your more flexible stance and balance would compare. My hypothesis would certainly predict your success.”

Masuyo took a second to sort through the information Midoryia was throwing at her, “You’re saying that being quirkless... might actually give me an athletic advantage?”

Midoryia blinked, “Wait, am I saying that? That doesn’t seem right.”

“No it doesn’t,” Masuyo agreed, “the whole quirk thing happened and made quirked people superior in every way.”

“I mean, you’re right,” Midoryia thumbed his lip, “Maybe I can ask MetAl41 where the gap in my logic is later. He seems to know a lot about quirkless people.”

“I looked it up and Google says the extra joint was meant to help with balance and long-distance running,” the man offered, “So yeah, you should try your hand at the mile I guess.”

Midoryia pressed his fingers to his temples, “Wait, what?”

Masuyo shook her head, “Google’s wrong,” she agreed.

The man rolled his eyes, “Come on, is it really that hard to believe that you might be capable of something cool?”

Neither of them responded.

“You know what? Fries are on the house if your friend here agrees to try the mile,” the man declared.

“What? No! We couldn’t possibly—“

“You don’t need to—“

The man held up his hand, “You’ll be paying me back by proving Midoryia right.

———————

Masuyo did prove Midoryia right. Her coach made her run the mile all throughout second year. She beat her competitors at least a minute every time. 

She also became a regular at the man’s restaurant. Turns out his name was Ryuji, and he met Midoryia when he let Midoryia hide from his bullies in his restaurant. Because the man was built like tank, he was his own personal bouncer and made sure their restaurant stayed a safe place. 

Midoryia stopped showing up to the restaurant about halfway through the year. Ryuji asked where he was, but neither of them could contact him because Masuyo rarely saw him at school. The only times she did see him was when he used himself as a human shield to help victims escape. Oftentimes while that was going on, she was too busy learning Midoryia’s escape routes and escorting the victim to safe zones to try to start a conversation.

But her memory gaps did start to decrease once she started helping people. Ryuji said it was because she had a reason to pay attention now, which she didn’t really believe. Either way, she knew every quirkless kid in the school by the end of the year, and each of them had introduced themselves to Ryuji with a tentative handshake and a short statement:

“Hi, I’m Yasuda Masuyo I’m a friend of Midoryia’s.”

And then Ryuji would know.

Chapter Text

Come on…

Midoryia’s finger drummed against his leg. His eyes pleaded at the clock hanging above Midnight’s desk, begging for the second hand to move faster. His entire body buzzed with nervous energy and he couldn’t hold still. They always had a bit of free time for the last few minutes of class until the bell rang, but these few minutes were beginning to feel like hours.

Midnight looked up from her grading to raise an eyebrow at him.

Midoryia lifted his support exam notebook just enough for her to read the cover.

She waved her hand dismissively towards the door, the meaning obvious: just go

Midoryia’s heart soared. He didn’t even bother to shove his notebook back into his bag. Instead, he clutched it to his chest and broke into a sprint. After a few days, he already knew the way to Powerloader’s room better than he knew the way any other place in the school. His heart pounded so hard his notebook was visibling moving. This was it. This was the first day of his project.

He slowed to a stop in front of Powerloader’s door and took a second to catch his breath. The door was already propped open as machines hummed and students chattered.

Should he go in now? He wasn’t sure if Powerloader would be okay with him just walking in at the end of his class, and technically the students weren’t dismissed yet. He’d have to ask if it was okay later. 

A pink-haired girl carrying a box of scraps caught his eye through the door. Her eyes flickered with recognition and she immediately ran up to him. The box of scraps was just barely brushing his shirt as she leaned into his face, “You’re wall-kun, aren’t you?”

Midoryia did not yelp as he took a step back and raised his hands to protect his face, “What? No,” he denied, because he had no idea what she was talking about and “no” seemed like a safe bet.

“Wall-kun?” She repeated, as if it should mean something to him, “the kid who was the first to hit the wall.”

Midoryia took another step back, “I have no idea—“ something clicked in his brain, “Oh, you mean the airplane contest?”

Midoryia’s heart stopped at the evil glint in her yellow eyes. He immediately regretted answering. A part of his brain dimly recalled Powerloader had said on the day they met. Something about a pink-haired girl and banning pens? Maybe he should’ve played dumb.

It was too late to doubt his life decisions because the girl grabbed his wrist and yanked . Midoryia wanted to struggle, but he was too off-balance and her grip was too strong for it to matter as Hatsume dragged him into the classroom. Even when he did manage to get enough leverage to struggle, he couldn’t get her strong arms to budge.

“Hey everybody!” The girl raised her arm up to display the newcomer to the entire room, literally lifting Deku off the ground in the process. Her arms didn’t even tremble while supporting his dead weight, “Look! Wall-kun’s back!”

Deku knew there was no escape, but his fight or flight instincts burned for him to take action as mostly-unfamiliar voices exclaimed their excitement around him.

His savior announced himself with a familiar sigh, “Hatsume, will you please put Midoryia down?” Powerloader groaned, his hand reaching through his mask to rub his temples.

Hatsume lowered her hand so Midoryia’s feet were at least touching the ground, “But then he’ll go back to his classroom and we can’t kidnap him!”

“Hatsume,” Powerloader warned.

Hatsume let go of his wrist with a groan, “But he said he could analyze quirks and wanted his opinion on my project! And our class needs a mascot!”

Midoryia, not willing to give Hatsume the opportunity to capture him again, scrambled to Powerloader’s desk and stood behind him. There was no shame in admitting he was hiding from the madwoman in front of him. Even Bakugou would admit she was an admirable threat.

“Then use your words and don’t harass your poor classmate,” Powerloader scolded, the pain in his tone evident.

“But he’s a mystery!” Hatsume protested, “And he’s—“

“Hatsume,” Powerloader repeated, an edge in his voice this time.

Hatsume gave in this time, but she was not happy as picked up her box of scraps and went back to her work table with a huff. The clinking, chatter, and sound of scratching pencils resumed.

With that ordeal over, Izuku allowed himself to let down his guard, “I’m sorry Powerloader, I didn’t mean—“

Powerloader raised his hand, “You’re fine, Midoryia. Support students tend to be a little bit on the high-energy side. If insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then it takes an insane person to make some of the best tech. Plus, you’re a mystery to them, and these kids don’t like unanswered questions.”

Midoryia scanned the room, studying students in various stages of clean up, creation, and destruction. While his dramatic entrance had caused quite a few students to pause, he could still get an idea of what they were doing before his interruption. A group of students was surrounding a row of sinks, probably cleaning the last bit of grime off their projects. Others were sketching, using CAD programs on the computers, sawing pieces, and welding bits together.

Midoryia offered a shy wave, which was immediately returned by a few other students with a bright smile or a grunt.

“There’s only—“ Midoryia reached into his pocket, grabbed his phone, unlocked it just long enough to look at the time, “A minute until the bell rings. Shouldn’t everyone be cleaning up?”

“I allow anyone still working on their projects an extra half hour to finish after school,” Powerloader explained, “It sucks when you’re in the middle of a complex wire system and can barely keep all of your circuits straight, and then you’re just suddenly forced to stop. It’s Newton’s second: once the creativity ball is rolling, it’s hard to stop and restart.”

Midoryia nodded, “Like when you’re in the middle of a hero analysis and your mom calls you for dinner but if you don’t write down all of your ideas—“

“You’ll forget them and have to restart completely,” Powerloader finished, “Man, I’ve been there so many times.”

Midoryia glanced back at the class, many of whom were watching him out of the corner of their eye. The bell rang, and the students who had finished cleaning left the classroom. One of the students sketching closed their sketchbook and left.

Powerloader caught Midoryia studying the students and shooed him away, “just talk to them and get it over with. They won’t stop bugging us until they get answers.”

One of the students blushed. Another shot out of their seat with a gleam in her eye. Hatsume’s head snapped up.

With one last glance at Powerloader, Midoryia took an empty seat by the others and prepared himself for an onslaught of questions.

The one who had jumped out of her seat turned around, abandoning her project. As she did so, Midoryia caught a glint of metal on her left hand. She, a boy with black spiky hair, Hatsume, and a few others took turns rapid-firing questions at him.

“Who are you?”

“What’s your name?”

“What class are you in?”

“What year are you?” 

And so forth. Midoryia carefully answered each question 

“What are you doing here this time?” The boy with the giganticification quirk wondered, joining in the conversation.

Wait. Midoryia remembered him, “Wait! You’re the person I jumped on for the contest! I’m so sorry about that! I got so caught up in my idea that–”

The boy waved his hand dismissively, “I get it. Getting so excited about an idea you forget about ethics and morals is a total science/creative type thing. I’ve been there a hundred times. I just wasn’t expecting to see you here again, and especially not so soon.”

Midoryia glanced at Powerloader, for help, and the teacher motioned for him to get on with it, “Uh, so, apparently, Powerloader thinks I might be better suited in support than business, despite me having no practical background, so he’s having me do a project or two. I’m honestly kinda excited because it sounds way more fun than I was expecting.

At the word project, their eyes gleamed. The girl with the metal hand leaned forward, “What’s your project?”

“I have to analyze some of the hero students’ quirks, come up with support items for them, and construct the items, but I’ve never built anything in my life.”

The boy with the spiky hair winced, “How much time do you have?”

“Two weeks.”

The girl patted Midoryia’s shoulder with her metal hand, “I hate to say it, but you’re fucked. That’s an insane deadline. I mean, you’d probably need a week to analyze all of them alone—“

“Actually,” Midoryia gestured to his notebook, “I’m running out of room in this notebook because I have so many ideas. I mean, their quirks are just so cool that there are so many possibilities! And I sat with some of class 1-A at lunch and I got some really good info from that.”

The girl’s metal hand was already halfway to grabbing his notebook before she stopped herself, “Can we see?”

Fear made Midoryia’s heart freeze, “I guess? I mean, I’ve been told my notebooks are really creepy and not a lot of the ideas are good, and some of them are combat techniques instead of support items—“

“Creepy just means it’s detailed,” Hatsume muttered as she snatched the notebook out of his hands and held it open on a free desk for the others to see.

The spiky boy was the first to speak, “Are these...psychographics and quirk breakdowns? As well as... additional quirk-related predictions based on said psychographics?”

“Psychographics?” Midoryia wondered aloud.

“Yeah, psychographics?” the boy repeated, surprised, ”You know, they’re like a major part of your standard creative brief?”

Midoryia blinked and cocked his head.

“Analysis of how your audience thinks and what influences their behavior. Favorite activities, interests, opinions– that sort of thing,” the metal-handed girl explained.

Oh, that made sense .

“An online friend of mine is a graduate student who’s looking for a new research project, and she’s looking at the relationship between quirks, personalities, and whether the correlation between the two is caused by environmental or biological factors,” Midoryia explained, “Well, actually, she’s stuck on a couple different theses and how to narrow them down into something that’s more investigatable. Some of her topics would be almost impossible to look into. I mean, getting a large enough sample group together to see whether or not having mutations and being quirkless are mutually exclusive would take a lot of work and screening. Even if you only look into people who report that they may fall under that category and you prove that there is at least one quirkless person with a mutation, coming up with statistics and information that would make the study relevant would be ridiculously difficult and time-consuming.”

Midoryia paused, taking the surprised look on the others’ faces. Right. He was mumbling again, “Oh, sorry, that was too complicated, wasn’t it? I—“

The giant shook his head, “That’s not why we’re surprised! Those are fascinating hypotheses and I can’t believe I never even considered them! But for the first one, technically, as long as her studies establish that there is a relationship between personalities and quirks...”

“Then you can learn about the quirks by learning about their personalities,” the girl finished, “But even then, it would take a lot of skillful observation to get it down to a science.”

“I doubt that’s a problem for you,” Hatsume picked up the notebook and flipped through a few pages, “You’re outright obsessed with analysis, so I doubt that’s an issue and—“ she stopped at a page, “Is this an outline of how someone can safely turn themselves into a living bomb?”

Midoryia leaned over, “Oh, are you looking at the Todoroki page? I don’t actually know how pressure works or anything because well, we didn’t cover that in class, but heats expands things, right? So theoretically, rapidly freezing and then heating an object would mean...”

“Kaboom,” Hatsume agreed, “There are equations to figure it out, but that’s the idea. And your gun ideas for the creation-quirk-girl are clever, but they’re complicated and would be hard for her to memorize, and if she messes up...”

Midoryia nodded, “Yeah, I don’t actually know how to design them either because, again, no background here. The ideal version of it would be a way for her to not have to memorize the components, so she could have a library of potential weapons she can access at all times and a few convenient ones memorized. I’d talk to her to find out what materials are the easiest to produce—“

“Most like the ones with the lowest density,” Hatsume mused.

“But then what if those break too easily or have too much kickback?” Midoryia shot back, “but then I would probably just simply pre-existing contraptions to compensate for my limited experience. Then, she could have an entire arsenal at her disposal for stakeouts, or really anything she can plan ahead for. It could probably include rescue supplies to protect herself, victims, and other heroes in non-combat situations too.”

“Like a recipe book except for heroism?” the giant summarized.

Midoryia blinked. He hasn’t thought about it like that, “Yeah, pretty much.”

“So make an app then,” the spiky-haired boy suggested, “make a basic app, upload a bunch of blueprints that you can probably find on UA’s support database, modify them, and then have her download the app. It would limit the number of devices you have to construct and get you familiar with UI/UX, which is a good project for someone like you who has no idea what they’re doing. ”

Midoryia snapped his fingers and pointed at him, “I don’t know what UI/UX is but I’m writing that down, even if that still doesn’t help me with my future project. The rubric says I have to construct something.”

“No, I got into UA specifically on coding and software engineering, and that counts as construction. You can double-check with Powerloader, but an app would totally work.”

“Well,” Midoryia scratched the back of his head and frowned. The others had helped him think of the perfect solution to his problem, but... “I probably can’t use it if you guys helped me come up with it, right?”

“No, it’s called using your resources,” Hatsume insisted, “It’s still your idea, Wall-Kun. You’re just using us as your rubber ducks.”

“My...” Midoriya trailed off, “Rubber ducks?”

Spiky hair cracked up at Midoryia’s confused expression, and even a few students who were focusing on their projects chuckled.

“Yeah, you know, rubber duck programming. When big programmers hit a wall or can’t find the bug in their code, they explain it to a rubber duck. Saying it out loud and re-examining their logic helps them find their errors,” Hatsume explained.

Midoryia looked to the other three for confirmation, and their serious faces reassured him Hatsume wasn’t joking.

“Now,” metal girl turned her attention away from Izuku, “Hatsume! Stopping hogging the notebook! I wanna see!”

They went back to the beginning of the notebook and rapidly flipped through various pages, occasionally exclaiming their surprise or arguing with one of Midoryia’s ideas. They challenged him, agreed with him, and at one point had an argument over inertia, gravity, and calculating forces in the vacuum of space that the entire room got involved in

And, when Powerloader kicked them out and shoved all the students out the door, the debates continued. Ideas flowed out one by one, each person contributing and building on top of another’s. By the time they got to the train, Midoryia had learned five different terms and was currently struggling to understand what the fuck an RC circuit was using only Google and whatever words his new friends were yelling at him.

They split up to go their separate ways, and Midoryia and Hatsume were the only ones who lived in the same direction and needed to ride the same train. Hatsume, though, was a few stops ahead of him, so he had a few minutes to himself to check his phone.

Uraraka : today was your first day working on your project, right?

Midoryia: yeah! I ended up talking to some support students the whole time, but I think I know what I’m gonna do now! I have 13 days to figure out how to do it and learn the actual science words.

Midoryia took a few minutes to catch Uraraka up on his day before he got off at his stop. He was surprised to see so many students in his old Aldera uniform around the station, but a glance at time time showed he had been out a lot longer than he thought. Aldera must’ve gotten out by now.

If he rushed a bit getting out of the train station, that was because it was simply the sanest option. He didn’t want to tempt fate by running into any of his old bullies. He was a UA student now, so they probably wouldn’t mess with him, but “probably” wasn’t reassuring.

He was about a minute from the bus station before he heard familiar sounds.

A grunt of pain. The awful thump of skin against skin as a victim cried out.

There was nothing Midoriya could do. He was quirkless. He was powerless. If he got involved it would just get worse. He just had to keep walking.

“Haha look at you, you quirkless piece of shit! You think you can actually—“

Midoryia’s vision went red. His legs turned him around before he could think about what he was about to do.

Chapter Text

Deku stepped into the alley and immediately took in his surroundings. Four bullies stood over an Aldera student curled up on the ground. There was definitely blood on the victim’s face. The ground was a rough asphalt, and Deku winced in sympathy for the poor kid that was being pounded into the rough ground. Brick buildings with fire escapes and dumpsters on either side. Good. Even better, a camera with a blinking light was pointed at the scene, meaning this entire thing was going to be recorded. Just in case, Midoriya opened the camera on his phone and pressed record.

One of the bullies spotted him almost immediately, “Hey! You! What are you doing?”

“Recording you beat some random kid so I can send it to your principal and defend him,” Midoryia bluffed, knowing how quickly the principal of Aldera was to ignore evidence.

The bullies were smart enough to at least stop beating their victim, who remained limp on the ground. One of the bullies stepped forward, but another pulled him back and gestured to Deku’s uniform.

“No way dude. That’s a UA student,” the other kid muttered.

“And as a UA student, I can’t overlook innocent victims being attacked. Back off and leave the kid alone.”

A third bully nudged the leader, “Wait, isn’t that the quirkless kid from Aldera who got into UA? I bet he just wants to save his quirkless girlfriend.”

“Yeah!” The fourth bully agreed, “He and Bakugou were featured in the yearbook last year!”

“Ah shit,” Midoriya muttered and shoved his phone in his pocket. He turned to the quirkless kid, who was just picking himself off the ground, “RUN!”

The kid looked back with fear in his expression and stumbled back on the ground. Even Midoryia could tell they were not in a position to run any time soon

Midoryia took off and ran right between the bullies, ducking under one punch, side-stepping around an attempt to knee him, and jumping back just in time for the fourth bully trying to shove him to instead land on his friend.

Midoriya pulled their victim off the ground and slung their arm around his shoulder, “Can you run for a minute if I help you stand?”

The girl gritted her teeth, “Probably. Let‘s just go.”

Midoryia led her in an aggressively tense three-legged around a corner. Then another. When he was confident they had a lead, he turned back to her, “Can I give you a piggyback ride? Fire escapes or public places are usually the best bet, and While I doubt I can jump with someone on my back, you might not make it to the nearest diner.”

The girl nodded, and Midoryia helped her shift onto his back. Every second she hobbled and tried to climb on him, his heart beat faster and the bullies got closer. It took far too long. The bullies were well within sight by the time she was finally secured. Midoryia took off again, going around another corner when he saw a familiar flash of hair.

“Hey, Todoroki!” Midoryia greeted as he dashed by with a bleeding girl and four bullies in pursuit.

Todoroki grabbed his arm and stopped him. Midoryia wobbled and struggled to gain his balance.

“There’s a bleeding girl on your back,” Todoroki deadpanned, looking dead into his eyes.

“And I’ll be a bleeding boy if I can’t run soon,” Midoryia agreed.

Todoroki frowned, “How’d you piss them off that bad?”

“I saw them go too far beating her so I stepped in. She likely pissed them off by existing. Quirklessness is fun. Can we go now?”

Todoroki huffed, “just stay behind me.”

Midoryia looked at Todoroki’s scar, the cold look in his eyes, his height, and recalled his parentage. Even without using his quirks, Todoroki was definitely someone a coward who picks on quirkless kids wouldn’t cross. Plus... Todoroki had invited him to sit with him at lunch, so... Midoryia decided to play along for now.

Todoroki was a fortress that stared down the bullies that tried to move around them. Todoroki put his hand out to the side to stop the leader from moving around him.

“Hey,” Todoroki growled, “What are you doing?”

“Oh thank god! This guy has kidnapped my sister—“

“This guy is my friend who has saved my classmates, and one of Miruko’s analysts, so I’d be careful about why you say next.”

One of the bullies with less sense laughed at that, “Your friend is a serial liar then, because he’s quirkless. What would a hero want with some quirkless weakling?”

Todoroki took a step forward and Midoryia reached out, “Todoroki, come on. If you get into a fight like this you could get into some serious trouble. The court always rules on the side of the quirked.”

One of the bully’s eyes widened, “Todoroki? Like the UA recommendation student.”

“Yes, and I would very much recommend you leave my friends alone, or otherwise we can take this to a less public place.”

Their faces paled.

“I’m sorry!”

“We didn’t mean—“

“It’s her fault!”

Todoroki turned around and sent them one last glare over his shoulder. The bullies were set running in the opposite direction.

Midoryia shifted his grip on the poor girl, “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.”

About 1% of Todoroki’s rigid iciness left his expression as he turned to Midoryia, “Do I need to call the cops?”

“No!” The girl squeaked before Midoryia could say anything.

Midoryia shook his head, “Nah, that’ll just get us in trouble. The cops aren’t for quirkless people and we usually end up worse when they’re involved. I told you that I got arrested for the USJ, right?”

Todoroki frowned, “No, you didn’t. That’s...”

“Not right?” Midoryia finished. He sent a glance back to the girl on his back, “How are you? Anything broken?”

He felt her shake her head, “It doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. The soft part of my left side is bruising and my ankle might be a bit sprained, but my nose should stop bleeding relatively soon.”

Midoryia considered the severity of her wounds, “I’ve got a friend who runs a diner near here and always has some extra first aid supplies. Will that do it?”

“Ryuji‘s diner? I know it,” the girl agreed, “Yasuda showed it to me.”

Midoryia let out a sigh of relief, “That’s good. I’m glad she’s talking to someone. The last time I saw her...” he shook the image of the girl out of his head, “Let’s just say I only ever intervene when it gets bad,” he turned to Todoroki, “Wanna come with? Food’s on me.” 

Todoroki hesitated before shrugging, “If it keeps me out of the house and pisses off my dad... sure.”

“Yeah! That’s the spirit!”

———

Midoryia stumbled into the restaurant first and waved at the hostess. She looked them over with a tired expression, “I take it you’re a,” she raised her hands and air quoted, “‘friend of Midoryia.’”

Midoryia blinked, “Uh... I am Midoryia? And I don’t really have too many friends? What?”

The girl on his back stiffened, “Wait, you’re the Midoryia? I thought Todoroki was called you a Midoryia.”

Midoryia didn’t even know how to react to that, “A what now?”

“A Midoryia?” The hostess repeated, “As in a friend of Midoryia? It’s this thing a couple of businesses have started implementing. It’s where— never mind, I’ll make Ryuji explain. You guys can go to the staff room. Sakamoto knows the way.

Ah, so that’s what her name was . Midoryia vaguely recalled hearing about a quirkless first year with that name, meaning that the girl on his back must be a second-year now.

Sakamoto pointed down a hallway and led them to the back. She held her arm out to push open the door before wincing.

Todoroki reached out and opened the door for her without a word.

The door apparently led to the kitchen, where the diner’s chefs were hard at work. When the door opened, one looked up, “Again?”

Sakamoto gave him a thumbs up, “We had the first math test of the semester today, so I guess everyone had a lot of stress built up.”

Midoryia felt himself groaning in sympathy, “Yikes. Well, another week and you’re over the hump until exams. The first test is always the worst.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sakamoto whined dismissively, lowering her chin on Midoryia’s shoulder, “Ryuji is in the back?”

“Yep!" One of the chefs confirmed, "Go take care of yourself!"

"I'll do that when my parents do!" Sakamoto shot back. She turned her attention back to navigating Midoryia and Todoroki. She pointed toward the back and led them to another room with a few chairs and an overflowing first aid kit. A large but familiar man had their back to them but turned at the sound of the door opening.

“Ryuji!” Sakamoto yelled in triumph.

“Hey, Ryuji!” Midoryia echoed in greeting.

Todoroki raised his hand in a half-hearted wave.

Ryuji’s didn’t say a word as he jogged across the room to help Sakamoto down on a chair. He spent a few seconds making sure she was comfortable before turning to Midoryia and crushing him in a hug.

Midoryia laughed, surprised at the sudden contact, “It hasn’t been that long!”

“No, it’s been months since I heard from you!” Ryuji scolded, “I worry about you kids! I kept sending Yasuda and Genji after you but you just disappeared in your third year!”

Midoryia took a step back from the hug, “How the fuck do you know Genji?”

Ryuji rolled his eyes, “You literally brought them here covered in bruises, remember?”

“I did?” Midoryia rubbed the back of his neck, “I genuinely don’t remember that,” he apologized, “and I didn’t even realize it had been that long. I’m sorry to worry you. I guess I got so focused on exams and figuring out what field to go into that I lost track.”

Ryuji grabbed some gauze and knelt down by Sakamoto to get to work, “Are you telling me that you, Izuku Midoryia, gave up on heroism?” the man scoffed, “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Todoroki raised an eyebrow at Midoryia, whose face was getting hotter and hotter, “I wanted to be a hero for a while before I realized that it wasn’t gonna happen,” he explained, “So I still got into UA, but I’m in management for now. I’ll probably try to transfer to support.”

Todoroki nodded, “and your transfer was why you were at the USJ,” he recalled.

Sakamoto’s eyes widened, “You were at the USJ!”

“He stalled the villain and gave me an opening to save my teacher,” Todoroki recalled sagely.

Sakamoto’s eyes were wide with shock, “YOU WHAT?”

Midoryia gave them a brief summary of the events at the USJ.

Sakamoto’s eyes were wide, but she was grinning, “I see why the friends of Midoryia are named after you.”

“The what is named after me? You still haven’t explained that.”

Ryuji rolled his eyes, “And he says he could never be a hero,” he murmured, “It’s a thing you and Yasuda started. Basically, you’re pretty well-known among the business owners around here, right? You’ve got a couple of places to go when you or someone else get hurt and you know who treats quirkless people right and who doesn’t.”

Midoryia thought that over, “I know a few places, sure. I’ve kinda kept track of good samaritans who’ve helped me out, but I do not remember starting anything with Yasuda. We’ve talked for like... An hour or two total, and she’s usually dissociating most of the time. It’s honestly kinda terrifying.”

“She’s a lot better now,” Ryuji assured him, “But then you rescued other quirkless kids and showed them how to minimize attacks and treat injuries, and you showed them who to go to. But, since these people knew you best, everybody introduced themselves as Friends of Midoryia . Then Yasuda went on a campaign and kids at other schools started doing it even if they didn’t know who you were. It’s pretty much a network now.”

“It’s a what ?” 

Sakamoto leaned forward, “So wait, you didn’t know?”

Midoryia buried his head in his hands, “No!”

Sakamoto sniggered.

“You...” Todoroki hesitated, “You have to memorize who to go to? Why not go to a hospital? It’s not like your parents will stop you.”

Sakamoto’s good mood melted from her face, “Remember what I said about cops? The same goes for most hospitals. Apparently, we break so easily there’s ‘nothing they can do’ or some bullshit. Plus, knowing my parents...”

Todoroki’s hand brushed against his scar, “Parents suck,” 

“Dads in particular,” Midoryia agreed.

Todoroki raised an eyebrow.

“My dad went to America after my diagnosis so he didn’t have to look at me,” Midoryia explained.

“Mine gave me this,” Sakamoto agreed, pointing to the bruise she was icing on her shoulder.

Todoroki fidgeted with the collar of his shirt, “So for you... it’s like this at home and school? Do you ever...”

“Not for me, personally. My mom’s great,” Midoryia admitted, “and while we quirkless people don’t talk much to avoid being targeted, but it’s common. Personally, I really only had to worry about a few people, and even then it only got bad around finals. Even then, it’s mostly just your standard name-calling.” 

Midoryia pulled up another chair and sat down in it so he could lean his arms against the back of the seat, “It’s not being beat behind the school day. It’s walking down the hall by yourself, knowing how to not look at anyone wrong. It’s being taunted every day, but knowing you’ll be punished if you defend yourself because the school care more about your bullies than you. A lot of stories get it wrong.”

He huffed and rested his chin on his hands, “They think that if the suicide rate isn’t about 50% and that if someone isn’t beaten every day then it’s not bad, but... it’s still bad. When quirkless people are on the news, it’s because they’re victims. I’ve been told I’m going to be raped or killed my entire life. I’ve never had a role model like me. It’s not the couple-times-a-year beating that hurts so much as the inevitability of suffering.”

Midoryia looked down, “It’s also the knowledge that other people have it worse, so you can’t complain.”

Sakamoto leaned back in her chair, “Oh man, and then when people think you’re made of glass?”

“I actually have a friend right now and I love her. She asked if I had a secret crying quirk today and came to my house yesterday so she could rage at one of my online friends,” Midoryia bragged, “She’s literally so badass.”

“Uraraka?” Todoroki wondered before nodding, “She did end up punching Iida in the face, by the way.”

“That’s not a surprise,” Midoryia relented, recalling her fury from earlier, “But honestly, UA is so weird. I’ve met like... five people who think that the quirkless are fragile and need to be protected. No one’s outright insulted or taunted me.”

Sakamoto straightened, “What the fuck?”

Warmth bloomed in Midoryia’s chest as he truly comprehended the fact that Sakamoto was like him , “No, for real! I’ve had teachers compliment me! Eraserhead said I was cool! I actually had a teacher recommend me to another teacher. And had another scout me.”

Sakamoto leaned forward, only to wince, “No wait, what the actual fuck. That’s so goddamn weird.”

“Powerloader has met me before school on multiple days in a row so he can let me take an exam to get into his class.”

Midoryia looked over at Todoroki and observed his friend’s(?) awkward stance, “Here, can I just have your number? That way we can rant about the woes of quirklessness and stuff later? I’m kinda hungry and I wanna order something.” Midoryia held out his phone so Sakamoto could take it.

Sakamoto nodded, “Fuck yeah. I can brag that I have THE Midoryia’s phone number.”

“God that’s weird,” Midoryia muttered.

“If Yasuda and Genji ask, can I give it to them too?”

Midoryia shrugged, “Sure, why not? It’ll be good to catch up with them,” he glanced back over at Todoroki to make sure the hero student didn’t feel too out of place, and was surprised to see him fidgeting with his phone with a frown on his face.

“Todoroki?”

Todoroki jumped and cleared his throat, “If you need an intimidating hero student, you could have my number too. I don’t... like...people like that.”

Sakamoto eyes widened, reached into her pocket, and held out her phone, “Fuck yeah! I’ll take a UA student by my side any day, as long as they aren’t condescending about it.”

Todoroki “What if I’m condescending towards everyone?”

“Equality for all, I see,” she joked, winking at Midoryia, “How do you find these people?”

“I guess I’m just luckier than most.”