Chapter 1: The Beginning (The End)
Chapter Text
It all started when a teenager approached Shouta in a Starbucks, but he hadn’t yet had the faintest clue of what was going to happen.
All he knew was that a random kid walked up to him just as he was about to enter, and handed him a receipt for a coffee done perfectly to his specifications.
A coffee the barista has just called out.
Of course, Shouta was not about to just leave the poor man hanging, especially since it didn’t seem like the kid was going to go pick it up.
He just watched him with a small, weirdly sad-looking smile.
Offering barely a few words, - “Have a good day, and thank you!” - he left the coffee shop without a second glance back.
Shouta had to hurry to get the coffee before the second call.
It was confusing, troubling and frankly, frustrating. Shouta had no idea who the kid was, and no clue how he could have known Shout’s coffee order so well. Not even Hizashi knew that particular guilty pleasure of his!
He could just hope it was the sibling of a too-observant student he taught at some point, and not an incredibly well-informed stalker.
For now, he pushed the thought out of his mind, focusing on his current case as he drank the perfectly made drink.
Chapter 2: The First Class (The Last Of His Friends)
Summary:
The first meeting with his class brings some interesting information.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Shouta saw the kid in his class on Monday. Obviously, he had to confront him.
“Midoriya,” he called, during the roll call. “Stay after class.”
The kid merely nodded, clearly nervous. One more indication it was really him back in the coffee shop and not just a look-alike.
Shouta needed some answers, and by god, he was going to get them.
He took the class outside, instead of to the orientation, doing what he always did: quirk evaluation.
Midoriya seemed entirely unconcerned that entire time, more interested in chatting with all his classmates than paying proper attention.
And yet, when reprimanded, when threatened with expulsion… He just looked at another student, expectant.
Yes, Shouta would freely admit he hoped for the grapestain to come last, just so that he could expel him and avoid the mess of a sexual harassment case. Still, it didn’t justify Midoriya’s behaviour.
Shouta found out exactly why he was so blase about the entire test soon enough.
The kid was a menace.
Faster than Iida. Stronger than Shouji. The only reason he didn’t score higher on the ball throw than Uraraka was the fact you can’t compare infinities.
He absolutely obliterated every category. All the while taunting Bakugou, urging Todoroki to use his “left side! It’s your fire!”, and showering everyone else in praise, encouragement and advice as if he was afraid he wouldn’t get another chance to say any of it.
Predictably, he ended up at the top of the scoreboard.
Shouta was considering backing out of the threat he made to teach the kids to expect logical ruses from him, but…
“Mineta,” he said. “You’re expelled.”
The boy’s bawling covered up the relieved sighs, but it couldn’t hide the expressions on the girls’ faces. This was definitely worth the expulsion paperwork.
Shouta planned to fill it in during the lunch break, but Midoriya decided to come seek him out.
“Is it okay to talk now, sensei?” He asked, fidgeting with his sleeves, and yet his eyes were nothing but pure steel. “I already have plans for this afternoon.”
Putting the half-filled paperwork away, Shouta acquiesced. He dug out the receipt from his pocket, showing it off to Midoriya.
“What was that all about?” he asked as the kid nearly went cross eyed, trying to read the tiny paper in front of his face.
“Uh, sensei?” The kid dared to sound confused.
Well if Shouta had to spell it out, he would. “You approached me yesterday, at six in the morning in the nearby Starbucks, handed me this, and left. Care to explain?”
“I…” The kid trailed off, breaking into a mumbling storm, allowing Shouta to catch only wisps of his words. “That’s a... really... good idea... actually... and probably the last chance-”
“Midoriya,” Shouta interrupted. This was going to become a problem, wasn’t it? “Speak up, please.”
“Sorry, sensei,” Midoriya straightened up. “I, uh, I did some research? Before coming to the UA? I already knew you as Eraserhead, so when I found out you were going to be one of my teachers I was really excited, and then I saw you in that shop and-”
“Somehow managed to order a perfect cup of coffee,” Shouta finished, deadpan.
“...Yes.”
Shouta sighed. In the grand scheme of things… It didn’t really matter that much, did it?
“Just… Don’t do it again,” he said, turning back to the paperwork.
“Don’t worry, sensei,” the kid’s smile was curiously sad. “It won’t happen again.”
Notes:
(Update, 14th October 2022)
There's fanart for this chapter! There's been art for it since last october, I just never realized that, hey, I can link it straight in here! xD The art was made by @blellblow on twitter, I'm linking it right here and I shall attempt to copy it in below - lemme know if anything goes wrong with it
Chapter 3: The USJ (The Last Stand)
Summary:
Taking the kids to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint had a little too much unforeseen consequences and too little simulation.
Notes:
This is the longest chapter by a fair margin, rip
Chapter Text
Shouta didn’t think much about the weirdness of Midoriya’s behaviour. He’s hardly a paragon of normal, himself. He was occupied with the paperwork littering his desk, a frankly worrying amount of it after merely a few days of classes.
He barely got through half of it before it was time to gather up the kids and leave for the USJ.
The way the kid kept twitching, however, was worrying. Midoriya’s eyes trailed across his classmates’ faces all throughout boarding the bus, and the kid barely bothered hiding his pain.
“Midoriya,” Shouta decided to address it. “Are you feeling well? You won’t be forced to participate if you’re sick.”
“No,” Midoriya shook his head sharply, his eyes wide. “I have to be there. It won’t be- I can’t miss out on it. I’m just… I’m just nervous.”
He bolted inside of the bus, elbowing between Kaminari and Kirishima, before Shouta could say a word in response.
Shouta thought nothing of it. If that’s what the kid wanted to do, he wasn’t going to stop him.
Obviously, he assumed the kid to have meant the USJ. It never crossed his mind to wonder how the kid knew the trip was this important.
And once they were inside, well.
He was a little too busy being concerned about the villains to be concerned about one student’s weird behaviour.
“No,” Midoriya grabbed him by the sleeve just before he was about to drop into the masses. “You have a group of powerful students and they have a warper.”
Shouta had to admit, that was a fair point.
And the kid knew what he was doing. He ordered his classmates around like it was the most natural thing in the world, all the while Shouta kept his gaze unwaveringly on the mist-covered warper.
Ashido and Iida were sent to gather reinforcements. Ashido seemed a bit surprised at the idea of using her acid to skate on - which in turn made Midoriya look surprised, - but she quickly decided copying Todoroki’s ice skate might just work for her and skated away.
Todoroki himself was delegated to long-range ice attacks, supported by Sero with his tape and Yaoyorozu with her cannons.
Aoyama and Tokoyami supported them at a closer range, and Hagakure was told to stick close to Shouta, thanks to being unable to get into his sight line… While all the others were told to evacuate.
Bakugou, predictably, did not enjoy that order at all.
He enjoyed being responsible for the wellbeing of all his classmates just a little bit more.
Shouta didn’t pay much attention beyond that, not with the warper slipping through one of his blinks, separating the kids immediately.
At least half of them were already outside, and the rest, from what he could see, kept in groups.
Hagakure and Midoriya were the only ones left with Shouta, and he knew they wouldn’t leave even if he ordered them to.
The best he could do was keep them close to himself as they made their way through the area towards the leader of the enemy, hoping to incapacitate him quickly.
Hagakure was handling herself well; with the element of surprise and whatever training helped her rip the bots apart during the entrance exam, the random thugs stood no chance.
Midoriya… Shouta could barely catch glances of him, zooming around with his quirk like a ping pong ball let loose in a room full of springboards, leaving piles of unconscious villains in his wake.
Admittedly, Shouta might have let himself become a little too distracted. The voice of the man with hands covering his face and arms - the Leader? - broke him out of the stupor.
“Where’s All Might!” He was screaming. “I don’t want some stupid minibosses!”
Shouta focused on the man as he made his way over, his capture weapon sailing through the air. The man grabbed at it with his hand, expectant, only the slightest of surprise showing up on what was visible of his face as he noted the grand big nothing that happened.
“You’ve always been pretty cool, Eraserhead,” the man rasped, an ugly smile on his face as he simply tugged on the capture weapon, trying and failing to pull Shouta towards himself.
“Nomu!” the man called, annoyed, and Shouta tensed. “Deal with him!”
A black, massive form appeared out of nowhere, punching Shouta straight in the guts before he could as much as blink.
He tried to get up from the ground, but he only managed as far as leaning up on his elbow before the beast was on him again.
Watching the approaching fist, he activated his quirk, hoping it would make a difference. He couldn’t die yet - not when his kids were still out there, in danger.
Green lighting sparked at the edges of his vision as he was lifted in the air, carried to the nearest safe spot.
Shouta watched the crater the beast’s punch made in the concrete, exactly where he was laying just moments earlier.
“That was… Well timed… Midoriya,” Shouta managed, relief audible in his voice, dropping his quirk as he took the chance to rest his eyes just a little bit.
“Well, just before the Nomu throws the deadly punch is a bit more specific than at the last second,” Midoriya shrugged.
Shouta suspected either he or the boy might have a concussion, as that sentence did not make the slightest lick of sense.
Midoriya looked like he was preparing to jump back into the chaos, which was a further proof of not being in his right mind.
“Midoriya,” Shouta rasped out, the warning clear in his voice.
“Rest, sensei,” the kid turned to look at him, a small smile on his lips. “I’ve got this handled.”
Shouta could just barely catch him yeeting the Nomu like he was Japan's representative for the Olympics hammer throw before he passed out.
Chapter 4: The Hospital (Intelligence Gathering)
Summary:
Shouta receives a visit from his favourite Problem Child while recuperating in the hospital.
Chapter Text
Shouta came back to it in the hospital.
There were bandages all around his midsection, but all things considered… Once the memories all filtered back in, he decided it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
And in the chair next to his bed, nearly dozing off…
“Problem Child,” Shouta tried to say, but his throat was too dry.
The kid still woke up at the small noise, immediately grabbing the glass of water standing on the bedside table, pressing the straw to Shouta’s mouth.
Not having much of a choice, Shouta drank.
“Are you feeling alright, Sensei?” Midoriya said, returning the cup to the table and his hand to his lap. The other did not move throughout all of this, sitting in a sling.
Shouta couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“I should be the one asking that,” he said. “I’m not the one who went to play skipping stones with a killing machine.”
Midoriya just laughed at that, though it was a bit strained.
“Is everyone alright?” He asked, because he couldn’t not know.
Sobering up, Midoriya just stared at his hands.
“Just some scrapes,” Midoriya said. “I’m the worst one off, really. The other teachers came to the rescue not long after you passed out, so it was mostly fine.”
“And the villains?”
“Mostly captured,” Midoriya looked down, his shoulders hitching up, looking sheepish. “I- the leader and the warper managed to escape, and last I’ve heard, the police are still trying to locate the Nomu.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Shouta blamed the painkillers for the immediate reassurance. “You’ve done everything you could, and you did it well.”
“Really?” The boy looked up at him, surprised.
“What you did was reckless,” Shouta told him, firmly. “But… You were right to do so. If the Nomu landed that punch… If you hesitated just a second more… I wouldn’t be here right now. And if you didn’t yeet that Nomu… Who knows how many of your classmates it could’ve hurt?”
Tears welled up in Midoriya’s eyes, but at this point Shouta was already aware this was pretty much the kid’s natural state.
“Could you-” he tried, but cut himself off. Shota waited, patiently. There was no rush. “Is there anything… You think I should have done better?”
“You’re asking me… for an evaluation,” Shouta blinked, surprised.
“I suppose I am, yes.”
Well, the kid did save his life. Least he could do was offer some actual learning opportunity from the entire disaster. Shouta took a moment to think.
“I don’t remember anything after you left me on that roof,” he warned. “But… The way you immediately sent Ashido and Iida out to get help was inspired. Mobilizing the others to go on the defense while sticking together was smart, too, even if the warper eventually separated them. And sending out the short-range combatants with Bakugou, giving him a responsibility to shoulder, that was done like a proper hero should have handled it.”
Like a proper hero. Like Shouta never was.
“Thank you, Aizawa-sensei,” Midoriya said, something visibly sticking at the end of his tongue, but he swallowed it down, never voicing that thought. “I have to go now - I’m not supposed to be here, technically - but I’ll let Yamada-sensei know you’re awake.”
Shouta does not question why the kid would tell Hisashi specifically until Midoriya is long gone.
Chapter 5: The Sports Festival (Let's Have Fun, One Last Time)
Summary:
The Sports Festival goes a little... Differently, this year
Notes:
I forgot to count this chapter's wc on the doc, rip. turns out, it's only 50 words shorter than the USJ one!
Chapter Text
Principal Nedzu, of course, decides to keep the Sports Festival running without a change beyond increasing the security.
It’s not like all that technology helped prevent the reporters from getting inside the school or stop the villains from warping straight inside the USJ; Shouta didn’t see how adding even more of it was going to change anything.
And to top it all off, he was the one to draw the short straw this year, tasked with covering the event from the commentator’s booth alongside Hisashi (well, more like Hisashi was the one commentating and Shouta simply sat grumpily on the chair) instead of patrolling the stadium like he wanted to.
At least he would be able to keep an eye on his kids for most of the time.
Bakugou’s pledge was… Different from what he had expected from him. The grumpily offered, “Let’s do our best. Plus Ultra.” was certainly far more considerate than the “die extras I’m going to win” Shouta was already preparing himself to hear.
Though, judging by the thumbs-up Midoriya offered once Bakugou was off the stage and the resulting eye-roll from Bakugou, the kid had something to do with that uncharacteristic pledge.
The first event was, as he already knew it would be, an obstacle race.
Nemuri was counting down to the start, and Shouta took a moment to survey his kids.
His attention was, admittedly, straying towards his Problem Child.
And as Nemuri called out the “one”, Midoriya had his hand up, having Uraraka high-five him on pure reflex.
The moment Nemuri called out the start of the event, Midoriya kicked himself off of the floor, gravity cancelled for him for the moment. He floated towards the roof of the tunnel, disappearing inside just as Todoroki decided to ice everyone to the floor.
Uraraka cancelled her quirk, the brief surprise, ironically, giving her an advantage over the frozen crowd. But Izuku was already on the other side, zipping past the zero-pointers like they posed no threat whatsoever, picking up a random piece of metal on his way past.
He hadn’t even used his quirk once yet.
The pit with the lines thrown over it gave him a bit of a pause, and then he stopped by the edge of the minefield. He kept digging in the ground for some inexplicable reason, letting others pass him without a single glance.
Even Hisashi commented on that weird behaviour. Shouta could have sworn he heard Principal Nedzu’s cackling somewhere off in the distance.
And then the kid was flying through the air after deliberately setting off an enormous explosion and Shouta was a little too busy having his heart stop in his chest to worry about any auditory hallucinations he might have been having.
Seeing the kid land straight on top of Bakugou and Todoroki, setting off yet another explosion which propelled him straight towards the tunnel was quite satisfying, Shouta wasn’t going to lie.
He wasn’t sure the kid was as happy about it, especially considering he’d be now worth ten million points and absolutely everyone would run after him.
And yet, Midoriya seemed unconcerned, waiting by the gate to immediately team up with some pink-haired Support menace, Monoma and Uraraka.
Shouta was honestly surprised to see Monoma agree to that.
Whatever Midoriya told him, it must’ve been the right thing. The pompous blonde who had gone out of his way to harass his class mere days before now stood side by side with two of his kids-
Or, well, he was, before walking off. He exchanged a few words with some of his classmates, patting them on the shoulders or shaking their hands and Shouta-
Shouta very abruptly remembered what his quirk was.
Seems like the Problem Child decided to play to his strengths.
The following team match was… Not as much of a match as a complete and utter disaster.
The Support menace brought them up into the air while Uraraka provided a lighter load. Midoriya had Monoma use what Shouta assumed to be Kodai’s quirk to make their bands much, much bigger, and was using them just like Shouta was using his capture weapon.
Somehow.
He shouldn’t have technically been able to do this, considering the capture weapon was made out of a special, quirk-treated alloy, but of course, normal rules such as the laws of physics never quite dared to apply to Midoriya.
And then there were the other quirks he was using - Yanagi’s spectral hands, stealing the other teams’ headbands before they even noticed, which Midoriya snagged back towards them with his improvised capture weapon as soon as they were free, and…
Todoroki’s quirk.
Shouta could barely stop himself from cackling when Todoroki’s team got stuck in the ice, the boy forced to use his fire if he wanted to have any chance at progressing in the competition.
There was always going to be a huge, ten million points disparity between the winners and the losers… But Shouta had never expected the second place to only manage 70 points.
After such a display in the first and second part, Shouta was pretty much expecting Midoriya to win.
He did not expect the boy to put up a show of hand-to-hand against the lone Gen Ed student, Shinsou, allowing himself to lose against the other boy.
Who then went on to place third overall, his opponents inexplicably deciding to forfeit. How much of it was his quirk, Brainwashing, and how much the students not willing to fight against someone Midoriya refused to fight against was up to interpretation.
Chapter 6: Time For The Internships! (What The Heck Happened At The Sports Festival?)
Summary:
The kids pick through their internship offers.
Chapter Text
Predictably, the kid received a fair few thousand offers. Shouta, already prepared for such an occasion, took a small wheeled cart with him to school, not keen on carrying that much paper.
After Shouta slammed the pile on the kid’s desk, Midoriya stared at the thick stack of papers, his gaze thick with incomprehension.
“Um,” he said, vaguely motioning towards the rest of the class. “Sensei, am I supposed to distribute it to the others?”
“No,” Shouta offered him a grimace that might just barely pass for a smile. “Those are all for you. Congratulations, you brought everyone’s attention to yourself.”
The kid gulped, aware of how that might not have been the best thing, while the rest of his classmates either cheered or complained at their much lower numbers of offers.
Good.
Still, Shouta hadn’t expected Midoriya to approach the desk mere moments after he sat down, a single sheet of paper clutched in his hands.
“Already?” He wondered out-loud. Kami, did the kid simply pick out the first offer he saw?
“I already,” the kid stuttered. “I already knew who I wanted to intern with.”
Shouta accepted the paper, staring at the name curiously.
Who the fuck was “Gran Torino”?
He didn’t get a chance to ask, not with Midoriya immediately leaving to talk with Iida. He’s been a little off ever since the Sports Festival; Shouta was meaning to ask what was that all about, but he hadn’t yet thought of a non-weird way to do that.
Chapter 7: The Kids Went Against WHO? (I Did WHAT?)
Summary:
The Hosu,,, could have gone better. Could have gone worse.
Chapter Text
After the kids returned from their internships, he really regretted not digging into the case of Iida’s peculiar behaviour, awkwardness be damned.
“The Hero Killer.” Was all he said to the three of them: Midoriya, Iida, and, somewhat surprisingly, Todoroki, once he had them sat down in the office.
The students remained silent as Shouta rubbed at his forehead.
“Look, I’m not mad, I’m just- Why?”
“The Hero Killer had been targeting my brother,” Iida offered, his usual chopping motions absent. “He had sent a threatening letter and I was not going to let him hurt Tensei.”
Midoriya shifted at that, immediately arousing Shouta’s suspicion. But it wasn’t the time yet; first, he would marinate the kid slightly more.
“Iida, your brother is a hero,” Shouta reminded the student dryly. “He can handle himself. Todoroki, what were you doing there?”
“Midoriya came running and asked me to help him protect Iida,” Todoroki said in his usual monotone. “We’ve received my father’s permission for an emergency use of our quirks before we left.”
It all came back to Midoriya again, didn’t it? Midoriya and his almost precognitive plotting.
“Midoriya, then,” Shouta turned to face the boy in the middle. “What were you doing in Hosu?”
“Gran Torino took me along for a patrol before we realized there was trouble,” Midoriya offered. “The train got hit so Gran had to leave to help with the evacuation. I knew Iida was here and the news mentioned the Hero Killer before and I… I had a bad feeling.”
Something wasn’t adding up there.
“So you ran around a burning city to find the Hero Killer and/or your classmate,” Shouta summarized slowly. “And, once you did, you went to find yet another classmate to bring as a backup, ignoring the pro hero who was right there?”
“I grabbed Todoroki before I found Iida,” Midoriya admitted, fiddling with his sleeve.
“And you found him… How?”
“Luck?”
Shouta was a master of unimpressed silences, forcing the children to elaborate.
Midoriya sighed. “We’ve arrived at the alley shortly before midnight,” he offered, as if that cleared anything up.
Shouta decided to just drop that line of questioning.
“And the three of you just managed to defeat the serial killer who avoided capture for years?”
Silence met him, asking to show some mercy for the boys.
“Fine,” Shouta sighed. “You’re all dismissed. Todoroki, your father is coming to get you, please stay behind.”
Todoroki didn’t look too happy at that - and wasn’t that another can of worms Shouta had yet to open? - but the other two left obediently.
“Was it really luck?” Shouta asked, almost absently, as he filled out some old paperwork that didn’t matter anymore but worked perfectly well to make it appear as if he was busy. “Did you go straight to Iida? No detours, no dead ends?”
Todoroki remained silent for a moment.
“I couldn’t say,” he said eventually. “It’s a bit of a blur, I don’t remember much of the way.”
That was a yes
Chapter 8: The Day Before The Exams (Well, It Clearly Worked Before, So Why Not...?)
Summary:
Midoriya comes to him with an unexpected request regarding the exams
Chapter Text
Out of everything he had been expecting, Midoriya asking for a change of his exam partner was nowhere near the options.
Especially not when neither the pair-ups nor the exact nature of the exams had been announced yet.
“You don’t know who your partner is, yet,” Shouta pointed out. He knew, of course, since he was the one responsible for creating the pairings. But how would the kid-
“I know I’m going to get paired up with Kacchan,” Midoriya said, already resigned. “Because every teacher here seems to think we’re rivals and if you throw us at each other often enough, we’ll get over the animosity or something.”
Something about the kid’s tone…
“Is that not true?”
Midoriya laughed bitterly.
“Kacchan thinks I’m a pebble in his path,” he offered. “Our mothers know each other, so we’ve been together a lot when we were younger… And ever since my quirk- uh, manifested late… I mean between when I was four and the actual manifestation, Kacchan really hated how much of a useless Deku I was, so he- uh. Tried really hard to stop me from becoming a hero?”
Midoriya winced at that last bit, a few times even, clearly not having intended to share that much.
“I see,” Shouta said. “You can go, Midoriya, you’ll receive your assignment shortly before the exam tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir,” the kid smiled - or at least tried to, through his tears, - and left.
This was… Far worse than Shouta’s assumption, and he couldn’t stop but beat himself up for missing something that obvious.
Chapter 9: The Exams (That's New)
Summary:
The day of exams
Chapter Text
Shouta was not one to take valid concerns lightly. Therefore, for the exam, Shouta paired Midoriya with Yaoyorozu, fighting against All Might. It was not entirely ideal, but it was the simplest solution he could find at the short notice.
Midoriya was the only one with the power necessary to handle All Might, and Yaoyorozu had a better strategic mind - her plans tended to be a little more precise than just “jump in and hope for the best” - but she was often too shy to voice them.
Together… Well, Shouta was expecting great things from them.
As for himself… He had to keep Todoroki. The whole point of this pairing was to make Todoroki unable to rely on his quirk. He didn’t seem to be able to even consider fighting quirkless.
And Bakugou, while slightly better at quirkless sparring, was far too proud of his quirk not to use it, even if he knew it would hinder him.
Shouta was looking forward to that match-up.
“Sensei?” Midoriya’s voice broke him out of his train of thought, the boy looking up at him, startled, from where he had already been inching towards Bakugou.
...Did the kid really expect him to just dismiss his worries out of hand?
“You came to me with a valid issue and you spoke to me honestly,” Shota told him bluntly. “There was no reason for me not to make the changes you’ve requested.”
Midoriya was looking at him like Shota was a particularly complex math problem, his eyes assessing. He smiled, moments later, going to find Yaoyorozu.
Shouta felt as if he had just passed an exam of his own.
Bakugou, for his part, seemed surprised to be assigned to Shouta along with Todoroki, staring after Midoriya with a frown on his face.
Shouta would have to deal with him at some point, too, even if he stopped being as violent towards Midoriya ever since the Sports Festival, interestingly enough.
He suspected it might have had something to do with the bento box Midoriya kept leaving on Bakugou’s desk, but he had no proof just yet.
And for now, he would have to focus on the exam rather than that. He had two overpowered teenage boys to handle and he was going to make them cooperate if that’s the last thing he did.
Chapter 10: The Mall Disaster (How Do These Things Keep Happening To Me)
Summary:
y'know what i'll skip the summary, the chapter names are pretty self-explanatory imo
Chapter Text
Of course, nothing could ever be simple when it came to his class, not when it was full of trouble-makers.
One trip to the mall! One! And somehow, Midoriya managed to get a private visit from Shigaraki just as he was alone for a few minutes.
Shouta now had a terrified child in his office, stuttering out all the details of that encounter with Detective Tsukauchi and All Might also in the room.
“He said… Shigaraki said I gave him a lot to think about?” Midoriya told them, as if unsure. “During the USJ, that the way I spoke about the hero society made him realize All Might wasn’t the root, but the fruit of the problem…”
“I remember that,” All Might nodded, in his skeleton form to conserve energy and also, Shota suspected, to avoid getting forcibly deflated if he activated his quirk. “You were yelling it out rather loudly.”
“I do, too,” Detective Tsukauchi nodded, flipping a number of pages in his notebook. Was he still using the same one throughout all that time, or did he bring it specifically because of Midoriya? “I believe the exact quote I was given was, How can you call yourself a gamer when you can’t even see it’s the programming that’s wrong with the world? It’s the HSPC that produces all those hero NPCs, All Might included! He’s a product of society just as much as you are!.”
“Huh,” Midoriya said, looking thoughtful. “Guess he’s really into gaming terminology.”
“Did he say anything else, today?” Shouta questioned, seeing as the others got distracted.
Midoriya took a moment to think.
“Just that he wouldn’t be going after us, or the UA anymore,” he offered. “That he would focus on the Commission or whichever higher power he picks, instead.”
“As long as you kids are safe, I don’t care if the HPSC burns,” Shouta shrugged, the topic finished as far as he was concerned.
Midoriya didn’t seem to think so. “But… Shouldn’t we do something to help? Or, warn them, at least?”
Shouta contemplated the choice between the honest answer and the kind answer.
“The HPSC trained Hawks,” he had settled on. “And they’ve got many more heroes from lower ranks constantly milling about their headquarters. Though I’m certain Detective Tsukauchi will let them know to expect the League.”
“I will,” Detective Tsukauchi nodded at that. “Even if they’re… Unlikely to believe that. Or take it as a valid threat.”
“See, kid?” Shouta smiled, but there was no mirth in his expression. “There’s no need to worry about HPSC. They’ve got it handled, as far as they’re concerned.”
Midoriya accepted that, though Shouta wondered why had he asked in the first place. He’d overheard the kid cursing out the HPSC - as much as Midoriya can curse out anything - just the other day.
He was probably just worried about the average workers populating the headquarters rather than about the upper management. Good stance to have, as far as Shouta knew. The HPSC’s President was a mean piece of work.
Chapter 11: The Request (I'm Not In This One)
Chapter Text
Uraraka, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Iida and, interestingly, Monoma, Shinsou and Hatsume, all piled inside Shouta’s office the day before the summer break was meant to start.
“Yes?” He asked, eyebrows raised at the amalgamation of students.
“We wanted to ask for assistance!” Iida chopped, narrowly missing Uraraka’s head. “As Midoriya’s birthday is approaching, we were hoping to celebrate via going out!”
“....” Shouta must have been dreaming. “How does that involve me, exactly?”
“Well,” Uraraka was tapping her pointer fingers together. “Since when the last time we went to the mall, Izuku got intercepted by that handsy guy from the USJ…”
“Ah.”
Shouta said nothing for a while, deliberating. On one hand, his students’ wellbeing. On another, he would have to socialize on a day off. Maybe he could push the chaperoning off on Hisashi, he’d love that…
“Well?” Monoma rushed him but underneath the arrogance, Shouta could see the uncertainty.
“I will chaperone you all,” he said, on a whim. “If! And only if. You explain how Midoriya turned you into his friends.”
The kids look at him blankly.
“Iida and Todoroki I can understand, after the Sports Festival and what happened in Hosu,” Shouta clarified. “And he’s always been close with you, Uraraka. But you four? I haven’t got a clue.”
“He came down to the labs shortly after the year started!” Hatsume offered without any hesitation. “He’s had sooooo many brilliant ideas on how to improve my babies! I want him to tell me more! And that makes us friends, right?”
“In Midoriya’s eyes, I’m sure,” Shouta said dryly.
“We’ve bonded during our exam,” Yaoyorozu said, a little more certain of herself. “He listened to my ideas and helped me improve them, bringing us to victory. And after that… He was so excited about my quirk, how could I not let him conduct some tests? They’ve helped me immensely, too.”
Shinsou didn’t have much to say. “He came up to me during lunch once and didn’t run away screaming the second he learned my quirk.”
Uraraka snorted at that. “He probably asked you a bunch of questions about it, didn’t he? That’s the Dekiru we know and love.”
Shouta noted the change of the nickname with a surprise. Then, remembering the paperwork Nemuri mentioned yesterday’s morning about one of the kids filling in for a change of name, Shouta suspected he shouldn’t have been.
“He told me my quirk would have been a godsend during the USJ,” Monoma said quietly, the arrogance he usually displayed gone. “That it could have gone worse, but if I could copy Aizawa-sensei’s quirk, it could have gone much, much better. That the only reason we weren’t there is the artificial rivalry between 1A and 1B which UA does nothing to stop.”
That… Was true. All of it.
Shouta did not have the context needed to understand how, exactly, that changed Monoma’s mind so thoroughly, but he was grateful it did.
“Alright,” he said, gruffly, since he hoped at least one of the kids would refuse to share. “Where and when do you need me?”
Chapter 12: The Birthday Party (I Get A Birthday Party?!)
Chapter Text
The birthday party itself was, thankfully, not entirely terrible. The kids had the forethought to rent out a private room, so all Shouta had to do was to sit in the corner and keep an eye out.
He pointedly ignored the behaviours and comments just a little bit too silly to be tolerated from UA students, deciding to let them have mindless fun just this once.
Even if he was chaperoning them, he was here as a pro-hero, not their teacher. Not to mention not all of the kids were his; the entire 1A was there, of course - they wouldn’t have missed Midoriya’s birthday for anything, not at this stage.
At least half of 1B showed up, and none of them were the slightest bit antagonistic towards his kids: a minor miracle. Hatsume seemed to drag in some of her friends from support and business departments, and there even was a number of Gen Ed students.
Shota had no doubts Shinsou was not the one who brought them in. The boy would have been too busy smuggling in the half a dozen cats, of which Shouta immediately commandeered a pretty calico with a missing eye, citing her a payment for the chaperoning duty.
There were some people Shouta hadn’t known from the UA, as well. Midoriya’s mother, a distinct lack of a father, and the couple Shouta strongly suspected to be Bakugou’s parents, for whatever reason. Bakugou himself was strangely restrained all throughout the party, and the self-proclaimed Bakusquad latched onto that opportunity immediately.
A few other family members of the kids came - Shouta could spot at least Atsui’s and Todoroki’s siblings - and a random assortment of people he assumed Midoriya had to have known in some way.
And of course, constantly by Midoriya’s side was All Might in his skeletal form. Not that anyone knew he was All Might, he wasn’t idiotic enough to admit that. Shota was just glad to see he wasn’t stupid enough to use up his three hours for his favourite student’s birthday party.
The party itself seemed to have been a surprise. When Midoriya was led into the room, he was shocked to the point of tears - though, in Midoriya’s case, that really doesn’t mean all that much.
Midoriya seemed a little more shy than usual when talking to his friends, awkward and blustering, but they didn’t seem to mind that at all.
All in all, it was a very pleasant birthday party with just a single hiccup along the way.
When it was time for the gifts, a portal opened above the table - the exact same as the one used by the USJ invaders, - and an unwrapped rectangular case fell out.
It was a game - Portal 13 from what Shouta could see - with a plastic decorative flower and a post-it note stuck to it.
“You might have a shit taste in games, but at least you’re a gamer,” Midoriya read out-loud, before blanching. “Signed, Shigaraki.”
The class didn’t seem as concerned as Midoriya, and even Shouta couldn’t really bring himself to care. The leader of the LoV already implied they’d be moving away from attacking the class, and based on the recent vandalization of the HSPC headquarters, Shouta was inclined to believe that.
“Do you think it’d explode if you tried to play it?” Kaminari suggested, which immediately set both Hatsume and Bakugou on their own separate rants. Bakugou’s was about Kaminari’s stupidity, while the Support menace tried her best to come up with an idea to make it possible.
Other than that, it was almost boring until the end of the part, everyone walking away in the soft shadows of late dusk.
Midoriya stayed behind with a few other people, helping out with the clean-up, so Shouta stayed behind as well. God knows what trouble the kid might find if not supervised constantly.
Of course he didn’t help clean - citing having his arms full with the calico he was going to name Yarning, no, Shinsou, you’re not getting her back - but it didn’t seem like anyone had been expecting him to.
Finally, everyone was ready to leave. Considering All Might was walking Midoriya and his mother back home, Shouta didn’t think it at all necessary to tag along.
“I’ll see you at school tomorrow, Problem Child,” he said, ready for a nap.
“Yeah,” the kid smiled at him, his eyes still a little watery from all the crying. “You’ll see me tomorrow, Sensei.”
Chapter 13: There's Something Wrong With Midoriya (Should I Ask?)
Chapter Text
Midoriya came up to him after class on Friday
“Is there a problem?” Shouta asked, pausing the zipping up his caterpillar-like sleeping bag.
“I, uhm,” the kid hesitated. “Nevermind. No, sir, there’s no problem.”
He left with that, leaving Shouta baffled. That was an odd behaviour coming from the kid.
Still, nothing he could do right now… Except go snoop around and see if the other teachers had noticed anything.
“Did any of you notice anything weird about Midoriya?” he asked bluntly immediately after stepping into the office, because there was no place for subtlety amongst this particular crowd.
“He’s very good at pop quizzes,” Nemuri offered. “Any type of tests, really. But if I ask him anything, it’s like he doesn’t know a thing, even if we’ve just covered it the day before.”
“I didn’t notice anything weird,” Hizashi said, inserting himself into the conversation for no reason.
“I thought he was a little… Happier,” All Might mused, immediately losing interest in his paperwork. “He seemed a lot… Lighter, recently.”
Shota rolled his eyes, crawling towards his desk. Trust All Might to offer useless information; he probably thought Midoriya was happier because of him, too.
“Ever since he started school, actually,” the oaf continued, not getting the hint. “He’s been a bundle of nerves when we started training, but it all puttered off shortly before the entrance exam. It’s like he’s gained a sense of confidence when he… When he took it.”
Oh, yes, nothing helps boost a kid’s confidence than an important exam they’re convinced they’ve failed.
Wait up, rewind.
“Training?” He asked, looking straight back at All Might.
The man only now seemed to realize what he said, precisely.
“Oh, uh,” he blustered, but there was no way out for him now, no way out but through. “I’ve trained him for a few months in preparation for the exam.”
Shouta took a deep breath. And another.
“And not once did it occur to you to help him get that quirk of his under control?” He asked. “The kid’s had zero control!”
“...” All Might looked back at his paperwork, as if it was going to help him. “I… He didn’t have the quirk yet when I was training him.”
“What.”
“It… Manifested during the entrance exam?”
Shouta did not have the energy to deal with that.
So the kid tried the entrance exam essentially quirkless. He jumped up to protect Uraraka from the Zero Pointer, not knowing there would be any power behind any of his punches.
Midoriya wasn’t lazy, as Shouta had initially assumed. He hadn’t been lacking a place to safely practice his quirk before coming to UA, as was his second assumption.
The kid literally didn’t have the quirk until about a half a year ago.
And yet he still kept up - and remained at the top of the class - when competing against kids who had a quirk their entire life.
Kami, this made so much more sense out of this entire messy situation.
“And you didn’t think to mention that before,” Shouta focused back on All Might. “Because?”
All Might just gulped, lacking an answer, but Shouta wasn’t done with him yet.
Chapter 14: You Know These Days When You're Like, This Might As Well Happen? (Holy Shit, I Told Them)
Chapter Text
On Monday, the class was already in panic mode when he entered the classroom.
And it all seemed to be centered around, predictably, Midoriya.
Who seemed to be busy crying uncontrollably, seated in the front of the classroom, his back pressed to Shouta’s desk.
“What’s going on?” He asked, already dreading the answer.
The answer which no one seemed to be able to give to him.
“The- The cereals,” Midoriya choked out, and Shouta blinked. And then just kept his eyes closed. “The cereals will taste delicious yesterday.”
Bracing himself, Shouta opened his eyes, looking through all his students.
“Anyone able to explain that?”
Bakugou scoffed. “Isn’t it obvious? Nerd’s in a fucking timeloop or something.”
Shouta was most definitely not paid enough for this.
But Midoriya was nodding along, happy someone understood his blabbering.
“A timeloop,” Shouta repeated, and sighed. “Alright. Yep. Might as well have happened. How long were you repeating today, Midoriya?”
The boy finally started calming down, wiping his face with a tissue. He took a few deep breaths before answering.
“I- It’s not exactly a loop,” he said. “I bumped into someone on the train, and their quirk must’ve accidentally activated… Or at least, that’s what I think happened…”
“This morning?” Uraraka questioned, her brows furrowed.
Midoriya shook his head. “On Wednesday.”
This was… not ideal.
“You said you think that’s what happened,” Shouta came closer, crouching beside the student. “Which means, you didn’t see them, did you?”
Midoriya shook his head, already aware of what that meant.
“But the trains have CCTV!” Kaminari argued. “We can check the camera records-!”
Jirou slapped him on the shoulder. “There are no recordings from the future, you dunce.”
“Oh. Right…”
Shouta activated his quirk, pointing it at Midoriya. Usually, that didn’t work, but quirks that could mess with time were rare. Who knew? Maybe it would work.
“You already tried that yesterday, sensei,”Midoriya offered a tiny, sad smile.
A familiar sad smile.
“We’ll fix this,” Shouta promised, ignoring the heavy feeling dragging down his stomach. “We’ll have someone watching you on Wednesday and we’ll find whoever it was that used their quirk on you.”
The boy nodded, hugging his knees tighter.
“For now,” Shouta raised his voice, to make sure all of his hellions could hear him. “We have a homeroom and other classes to cover. Midoriya, I’ll let the others know to alternate your schedule and give you workbooks after the tests.”
Hesitantly, Midoriya gathered himself up, dragging himself over to his desk.
“Is that how you always know what to say?” Ashido asked, definitely not sitting at her desk.
“I… I don’t know?” Midoriya said. “I don’t really… Remember, what happened. The big events, yes, but everything else had gone a little fuzzy. I tried checking the news, but… It’s not like we have a regular class newsletter, or anything.”
Ashido gasped at that. “Midori!!!” She yelled. “That’s a fantastic idea! We should totally do a class newsletter!”
Shouta already resigned himself to a chaotic homeroom, texting the teachers’ group chat where the kids couldn’t see him.
Chapter 15: Well, Now It All Makes Sense (Should I Tell Them?)
Chapter Text
On Midoriya’s request, they didn’t tell him they knew. To his credit, he’s much more composed when he told them the same story on Tuesday.
He walked into the classroom a second after Shouta did, requesting to be allowed to make an announcement.
This one was much more composed, much more akin to what his essays looked like. Clearly practiced. And just as fluidly, he asked Shouta to use his quirk on him.
The class somehow managed to not spill their secret - not even Bakugou seemed keen on informing Midoriya his misery would continue.
Though, just yet, he didn’t seem all that miserable. He laughed with his classmates, answering questions about the future events like the weather or whether or not they would get a pop quiz.
Shouta compared that with his memory of the kid. Of the fire steadily growing stronger in his eyes, of the rapidly increasing power behind his punches, of the less frequent visits to the Recovery Girl.
Of how he was just a little too well-informed about some things while not having a clue about others. The first time he met him, before he even knew his name.
...That would have been the last time the kid saw Shouta.
That would have been his goodbye. The last memory he had of his teacher, and it would have been with Midoriya being treated like a stranger, approached with suspicion and distrust.
He pretended to sleep during the lunch period, only a few of his students left in the classroom, the rest having taken Midoriya on a trip around the departments to see - meet for the first time - all his new friends.
Uraraka and Iida were one of the few to stay behind.
“We won’t fix it, will we?” Uraraka was saying, her voice watery. “I remember… I remember the entrance exam. When he helped me escape the Zero Pointer… He already knew my name.”
“Mine, as well,” Iida responded, uncharacteristically somber. “When I was standing there, frozen- He called me by my name, urging me to go and help. And in Hosu… He knew exactly where I was.”
“What I don’t get,” Kirishima piped in. “Is why he broke his bones, still? Like, during the apprehension test, he was going wild, but at the exam, he needed Recovery Girl’s help?”
“His body couldn’t handle it,” Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Didn’t he tell you why he was a late bloomer? His limbs would have exploded if they weren’t strong enough, and obviously his muscle mass increased- decreased- goddammit, one of these, with time.”
A moment of silence followed.
“That means…” Uraraka started. “He was basically quirkless? He’ll be quirkless again, when he passes the entrance exam…”
“Yeah,” Bakugou’s voice was soft. “And he’ll land straight back in the hell he had only just managed to crawl out of.”
“I do not believe it is appropriate-!” Iida started, but Bakugou didn’t let him finish.
“You weren’t there, fucking Four-Eyes!” He exploded. “You have no idea what was done to him just because he was the only one without a quirk!”
Shouta… Shouta really did not like the sound of that.
The other children apparently didn’t, either, the conversation moving on to Hizashi’s latest essay assignment.
Chapter 16: The End (The Beginning)
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
On Wednesday - the very day it all began - Shouta had people watching the CCTV cameras Midoriya would be passing by.
They had everything prepared and ready; once they identified whoever it was that used their quirk on the boy, they’d stop them at the nearest opportunity and Shouta would use his quirk on them, hopefully erasing the effects.
He tried not to think about how, if that had worked, Midoriya wouldn’t have been able to tell them about it the days before.
Shouta gets called in to the precinct shortly before homeroom was meant to start, and at Nedzu’s request, he had handed the dubious honour of handling his hellions to the principal himself.
It wasn’t far; He got there within ten minutes, flashed his quirk… And the person in the holding cell laughed.
“No point erasing my quirk after I’ve already used it,” they purred. “Better warn the kid to spend the time with his loved ones… Because after tomorrow, he won’t be here anymore.”
Shouta did not want to believe them… But he had always been of the opinion that being prepared for the unlikely was better than not doing that.
So he texted Nemuri in the teachers’ chat, and with a few quick messages between them, Yaoyorozu and Iida, an impromptu school event for whatever reason was created.
...Apparently, it’s been in the works for a few days, now.
He got through the school day easily. Uraraka, Todoroki and a few other students stuck by Midoriya’s side as he left for home, chaperoning him to make sure nothing worse would happen than the quirk already used on him.
Shouta, for his part, did his best to distract himself.
He attended the party, of course - even if it weren’t made mandatory for the teachers, he would have wanted to be there for the students.
Apparently, Midoriya’s mother was invited as All Might’s plus one. Judging by the fact she wasn’t crying, Shouta doubted she had been informed about the quirk.
...He didn’t have the heart to tell her.
Shouta was ignoring Todoroki’s soft “I knew it!” just as studiously as he avoided her gaze whenever she looked in his general direction.
By the time midnight approached, Midoriya somehow migrated to the exact sofa Shouta was sitting on, a drink in hand and a slump to his shoulders.
“This was pretty abrupt,” he commented. “But I liked it so far.”
“I’m glad,” Shouta managed. Then, struck by a thought, he dumped Yarning on the boy’s lap. “I need to go do something. Entertain her.”
To his credit, Midoriya did not find it weird that Shouta had a cat hidden inside his sleeping bag, merely starting to pet her straight away.
Shouta does not hesitate, walking off to gather the core group of the so-called Dekusquad - though last he heard, it was being rebranded to Dekirusquad, to fit Midoriya’s change of a hero name. Midoriya’s mother, too, and All Might, as much as he might detest the guy.
They all crowd the sofa besides Midoriya, filling it in under the pretense of watching a movie on the nearby monitor Nedzu graciously offered for their use.
Shouta stands behind the sofa, one hand on the kid’s head, petting his hair as if he was a cat. Midoriya does not protest; he doesn’t even seem to notice, his hand repeating the exact same motion to Yarning on his lap.
Perhaps he’s thinking Shouta forgot he’s not a cat.
He closes his eyes.
Just for a second, just for a blink-
The clock struck midnight, the twelve rings breaking the silence, and Shouta’s hand fell, finding no purchase.
Notes:
I dearly hope you've enjoyed it!
Now, for the final note: if it wasn't clear enough, ever since the Wednesday quirk accident, Izuku had been living out his life in reverse. Which means... A lot of sad things. I made myself cry with that idea, and if you haven't shed a tear, than I must've failed 😂
The reason why this is divided into chapters (despite it being like, so much more work for me) is so that, if you wished so, you could read the fic backwards to get a sense of what it looked like to Izuku. Even if you don't do that, I'd recommend reading this fic twice, to catch all of the tiny time-travel details <3
Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I hope the experience was enjoyable!
(Note from 11/11/22) Hi guys! So I've decided I'm going to post the secret happy ending openly in a related fic, bc why not? Y'all have more than earned it. See the "Inspired by" link or go looking through my profile, whichever you fancy (Do keep in mind I have over 250+ fics LOL). It's titled "Going Against the Flow - Secret Happy Ending" lmao
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