Work Text:
Aizawa sighed as he saw the students file out of the room for the quirk apprehension test , he had an interesting bunch this year , two high profile recommendations, a bunch of not so combat oriented quirks , a few way too combat oriented quirks and a lot of them who had little to no control over their quirks.
He mentally revised the list he had made ,
- Yuuga Aoyama
- Denki Kaminari
- Tokoyami Fumikage
and the one who by all means should not be here
Midoriya Izuku
his eyes wandered to the boy's desk , he had left a notebook out in the open
What could he possibly write within 5 minutes of the first day , Shouta wondered
Since the students would take about 20 minutes to change and get to the assigned field he made the logical decision to give into his curiosity .
The notebook was pretty much half full , so Shouta scanned the headings , most of it was checklists of some sort of insane workout , Aizawa did not let it show but if the kid was doing this even thrice a week he was pretty impressed.
He flipped further and found detailed sketches of 4 people in it , Iida, Uraraka, Aoyama and Bakugo , there were notes written on each and every one of them , Shouta could not control the smirk this time, even if the kid had no potential for hero work he could be an excellent support hero, he made a mental note to recommend him to the support course.
He flipped further and it was on some of the last pages that he found the sketch of the boy himself. He expected it to be filled with strengths and little to no weakness , so to say that what he found surprised him would be an understatement.
On the last page where he usually described how the quirk worked were nothing but questions
Superpower?
Why does it break my bones?
He was able to control it so why can't I?
Too much Power?
Egg in the microwave?
How do I stop it from exploding?
Consequences of breaking bones regularly include permanent loss of usage
Was the boy still figuring out his own quirk? What was he doing for the rest of his life?
Aizawa considered himself a good judge of character, so when he had seen the boy jump at the Zero pointer at the very end of the exam he had recognized the boy who thought that his quirk alone was enough to make him a hero. Contemplating what he had just read however made him change his opinion , the boy wasn't an arrogant brat but simply someone who got into their senses way too late, nonetheless this did not change the outcome of today's Quirk Apprehension test, the boy can try to get in by showing his worth in the sports festival....
Shouta was snapped out of his mind when he heard the door of the classroom open and he was greeted by an emaciated form of all-might who everyone had taken to calling Small-might, the irony of the nickname was that the man was still about 20 cm taller than Shouta.
"Ahh young Aizawa I was looking for you" Small might said clearly out of breath
Aizawa gave him questioning look
"Well I heard from a few teachers about your streak of expulsions on the first day and I realized who you might target , I am here to tell you that it would be a very irrational decision on your part" Small might finished
"Oh and why is that Yagi?" Shouta asked in a furious tone
"Well I know that you will be looking to Expel young Midoriya and I just wanted to say that you don't have the full story about him" Yagi answered still huffing and out of breath
Shouta was furious with the man , not one day of teaching and he considered himself a better teacher then someone who has been doing so for 6 years and counting so Shouta decided to show the man that he in fact did his research
"Midoriya Izuku , Listed as a late bloomer , has a terrible terrible record from his middle school , known for lying and antagonizing his classmates , a through and through problem child and marginally average grades , the only reason he has been accepted into this prestigious school is because of a glowing recommendation from a top ranked hero.
What's more is the boy is a procrastinator and even if he has just started to figure out life he needs to learn that there are consequences to actions.
That's all I know, so now tell me Mr. No.1 am I misinformed ?" Shouta spat out in one breath
"Yes" Yagi replied
"And how are you so sure about that ?" Aizawa asked
"Well the point where you are misinformed is that he is just a normal late bloomer, so let me tell you he is not, he got his quirk way too late, as in 3 weeks ago, So till then the boy was assumed quirkless and you know a lot more about discrimination then I do." Yagi started
Shouta had a look of realization on his face but still let the man continue
"Him being quirkless meant that the teachers of his old school considered him to have no future, that meant even if he scored better than all the students in his class he was accused of cheating and the test was marked null and void, this by extension meant that any and all bullying the boy endured was blamed on him, that's the explanation for his bad record, and before you ask I know this because I was the one who recommended him." Yagi finished
"I have one big question" Shouta replied and continued
"I know a lot of late bloomer cases and as far as I know there is no one who manifests their quirk this late"
Yagi did not take more then a second to reply to that
"well there is actually another person who manifested their quirk that late and are pretty famous"
"Why haven't I heard of this if there is such a case?" Shouta reasoned
"Well because its a national secret" was the quick reply
"If that is so you can tell me I can sign an NDA if you want, tell me the name now" the erasure hero stated
"Oh no need for that you are looking at him and as for my quirk Midoriya has one with similar power if not more but he does not know how to control it" Small-might answered and Shouta short-circuited
"You? the symbol of peace , got your quirk at 14?" Aizawa finally managed
“Even if that is true you seem all caught up with the boy why don't you teach him Mr. Symbol of peace” Aizawa taunted
"Listen up young Aizawa, I know what the Underground Hero community thinks about me, that I am a bull headed hero with all power and little to no brains, I agree with that, that is why I came to you, Yes part of it was to remove your assumptions about that fine young man but part of it was also because I have been training him for 10 months now, he has the potential to surpass me, be a better Hero, with all my strengths and none of my shortcomings, the boy is a certifiable genius Aizawa kun, Imagine a person with the kind of power I have and the brains to back that power up, an unstoppable force of nature and I thought I could help him do it on my own but yesterday I was able to read those questions in his notebook, I have been a hero for decades and I felt I would be able to handle the situation but it seems I failed him as a teacher, So I AM HERE asking for your help" small-might turned into ALL-MIGHT as he finished with a full 90 degree bow.
Aizawa resisted the urge to sigh at such blatant show of respect, who would know All-might kept his ears in the underground community of all places go figure.
Now Shouta considered himself an excellent judge of character but he found himself changing his opinion on two different people twice in the same hour, even though he could not deny the fact that what all-might said held little to no evidence to back his words, but one thing he knew for sure that whatever all-might just said did solve the enigma that was Midoriya, all those reports for instigating fights, the almost comical rise in his marks for the U.A. entrance exam as compared to the marginally average grades at his previous schools and red flags started popping in his mind because if Midoriya was quirkless and knew about his teachers sabotaging him, he would never trust a teacher, much less someone like Shouta and if that were the case he will be on the defensive for 3 years.
That would not do at all, the whole point of a hero school was to train children in a comfortable environment and if Midoriya feared his teachers he would never be comfortable learning here, this will not do he was going to correct that with actions, he considered himself lucky he had not given any expulsion threats to the class.
He belatedly realized that he has been standing there silent for way too long and by extension has kept All-might forced into that awkward position for far too long so he began
"Provided what you are telling me is the truth I am willing to help, but I will still test him for if he does not have the potential you so clearly see, I will expel him, miserable as his situation maybe don't expect any freebies from me, I train future heroes not martyrs." Aizawa finished
All-might returned into his small-might form and the smile on his face seemed way more genuine then the fake one he put on as All-might
"I would expect nothing less of you young Aizawa all I ask is to help him in places where I failed" Yagi finished and left the room
Shouta started contemplating his next move, as far as he knew Midoriya's trust in him is fragile if there is any and one wrong move would break that and he will find himself looking at an emotional barrier even All-might can't break.
Bakugo was proud, he had been this way since he saw the results of the entrance exam, he was first in the practical and the hag started bragging about it to everyone, what was there to brag about? He was the one who was going to surpass All-might so how would he be able to do that if he wasn't even able to beat a bunch of wannabes, he was going to shut that recording off to open up the written exam results but his eyes caught a very similar kanji.
Deku was 7th?
he replayed the recording again and again and by the 5th replay he realized that it was infact Deku with 0 villain points but 60 bullshit rescue points, then he saw the rankings of the written exam to figure out the scholarship he will be offered, he was top 10 so that meant that he was going to U.A. for free but the guy just above him was again Deku and without warning an image of him and Deku appeared in his mind, him destroying the big villain and Deku saving kids and comforting them with a smile, the image looked distorted though,
He realized it had been since forever that he had seen that stupid bright smile,
The last he remembered him smiling was when they were little kids, His 5th birthday to be exact
Things changed since then, he never saw Deku smiling, he was always in his own little world barely paying attention in class so no one was surprised when the teacher accused him of cheating and marked his test null when he somehow got more marks then him, after that his grades were erratic, Okish.. sometimes but close to fail most of the times. He felt bad that Deku was struggling with studies, but their teachers told them that quirkless people have less evolved brains and it's perfectly normal for them to be unable to keep up with their evolved counterparts.
Bakugo took it on face value and never thought to talk to the nerd about that.
He was sorry to hurt Deku when he yap about being a hero but the teachers said it was better that the nerd learnt his place in society before he has to be faced with the reality of this cruel world.
Bakugo took that on face value and ignored the look of betrayal on the nerd's face, better him than this world right?
something did not add up though , the shit stain of a teacher had always told him that Deku was just jealous of him and his stupid awesome quirk and would do anything to ruin him but Deku never told anyone, not even his mom because if he did the hag would kill him, so if he wanted to ruin him he would go to his hag not bottle it up so he decided to ask the school counseller and that slimy bastard told him that it was a way of calling him out, that Deku was not telling anyone because he wanted Bakugo to feel guilty and beg for forgiveness it was a way of looking down at him.
Like always Katsuki believed the man and never apologised, if Deku wants to look down on his he can he won't be seeing that shitty nerd after middle school anyways
or so he thought
He saw the nerd on the beach everyday after the day of the Sludge villain incident and he saw him working hard, harder than he should, stupid nerd didnt even know how to workout right
So while in the gym period rather than hangout and do nothing he started doing the exercises he saw Deku doing and yelled at the extras about proper form and the importance of relaxing.
As expected the nerd took notes and did things correctly the next time he saw him on the beach
For 10 months he saw Deku busting his ass while he was being yelled at by a dead looking man
He saw the nerd change during that period, the light was back in his eyes, a spring in his step and Katsuki beat up his lackeys for one or the other reason so that they never had enough energy to beat Deku up. God forbid he would murder anyone who dared to take that light away from him, darkness did not suit that overly baby-faced nerd.
He saw him happily hug the dead guy on the day of the entrance exam, it was a routine for him to keep an eye on the nerd after he returned from his morning run.
He was hit by the realization that Deku initiated a lot of hugs towards the Dead-man and the dead-man to his credit fairly rewarded him by ruffling his hair and the nerd seemed to melt in the touch, he learned in a youtube video that if someone reaches out for hugs or relished any kind of skin contact there is a condition for that, it's called being touch starved, he kept the information in the back of his mind.
He did not know what possessed him to do this but when he saw the nerd nervously fidgeting at the exam center he put a hand on his shoulder and said “you got this far nerd don’t screw this up”
He did not see Deku after that,
But he did have that vivid image stuck in his head since he saw his result and Bakugou remembered how Deku had always given him a sketch of him in a hero costume on each and every birthday he had even if he was never invited to any of his parties.
It started when they were 4, Deku came with a drawing of both of them in their hero costumes drawn in crayon, next year the drawing felt better, it had more definition and Katsuki was taller then Izuku and also standing farther away from him, as the years passed by, Deku kept moving his own sketch farther and farther away from Katsuki’s, till last year where all he got was only his sketch.
Katsuki realized that those drawings were more than compulsory gifts, they were symbolic of his relationship with Deku over the years and now that he had taken steps towards fixing it he decided he would draw them both together again, he made a rough sketch of the vivid image and got to work.
He finished the painting just in time for the first day of U.A.
He however, did not get a chance to, their teacher was an S rated asshole who would not even let them attend orientation and that meant that the conversation he had to have with Deku would have to wait.
So he stomped out of the changing room and towards the field.
Aizawa sighed it had taken them 42 minutes to arrive at the field, he ignored the argument that he did not tell anyone where exactly field Alpha was and with all the teachers attending the orientation speech they would have to figure it out themselves.
Sad as it was he could not complain about the time he had to plan what he needed to do so he started with his usual by asking Bakugou to show off his quirk by doing the ball throw, he then explained that he will be taking a quirk apprehension test, he told all his students to go all out like usual but changed one thing, he did not threaten expulsion, he just reasoned that knowing the best of their quirk's abilities will help him plan a more effective training program for them.
The tests happened and he noticed Midoriya doing fairly well he was firmly above 5 different people and had the logic to not use his quirk and Shouta was impressed by this. he released the scores and Midoriya sat firmly at no.13 and he smirked this meant that he had beaten those with physical quirks in some exercises.
He was worthy of being a hero
Shouta decided to show his hand and hoped it would work
"Impressive scores, I must admit but don't let this go to your head, I am going to warn you the first and final time, every single one of you can be expelled the moment I come to the conclusion that you have no potential"
"But didn't we pass the entrance exam for that? we are supposed to be good heroes if we do that right" Ashido screamed in reply
Shouta had the shit eating grin on his face, his limited knowledge about their personalities worked and Ashdo took the bait so he began tearing them down
"No, not all of you are destined to be great heroes, just being from U.A. does not make you the top ranked Hero and that is a fact, not to shit on your dreams but most of you have blaring weaknesses,
All-Might and Endeavour are the top ranked heroes but you should know All-might is a powerhouse with no visible weaknesses, what you should also know is that he at once worked for 72 hours at once and was still able to help out in a different city, same with Endeavour, he maybe an asshole but he does decent work.
All of you should know that this career path isn't as glamorous as it is shown as,
"What will happen if you are over your limit in front of a real villain Aoyama, he will not stop for you to recharge?"
"What will happen if Iida runs out of fuel or his engines stall mid-fight?"
"all of you have similar weaknesses expect for maybe 3 students"
"Who can tell me those names?"
A meek hand stood up, it was Midoriya as expected, Aizawa had taken those weaknesses from his notebook after all
"Yes Midoriya" Shouta said gesturing the boy to state his view
"If we are talking about people here who don't have any weaknesses those would be Kaachan, him and her" Midoriya said gesturing towards Todoroki and Yayorozu
"Why would that be?" Shouta asked pushing the boy to explain his reasoning, he had to promote Midoriya to speak up in classes and in front of adults and this was the day that would kickstart his recovery, bringing him back from a place of distrust and making him comfortable to ask someone to help
"Well...umm..Kaachan here has a quirk called explosion, now most quirks use some sort of fuel inside the body of the user and therefore the longer they have to use the quirk the weaker it gets,
For example, Eraserhead here can cancel out quirks just by looking at his opponents but the catch is that if he blinks the quirk returns and therefore the longer the battle goes on, the lesser the time he can cancel the quirk gets,
So if were a villain I would try to stretch the fight as long as I can,
If, however I were to try the same strategy against Kaachan, I would be signing my own death warrant," Midoriya paused
The class let out a collective gasp
Bakugo was standing arms crossed eyes closed, looking proud like an elder brother,
and Aizawa was surprised the boy not only recognized him but also knew how exactly his quirk worked
"Kaachan sweats nitroglycerin and he uses the sparks in his palms to ignite that sweat and create explosions, so the longer he fights the more he sweats and the more he sweats the more vicious his explosions become and with his amazing combat sense, no one stands a chance against him." Midoriya exclaimed with stars in his eyes
"I don't know the exact workings of the quirks of you two but from what I saw, Your heating/fire quirk neutralizes the frostbite you get from overusing your quirk" the greenete started gesturing towards Todoroki and turned towards Yayorozu
"and your ability to plan ahead and know exactly what you need for the situation without overcomplicating it is going to be troublesome for people who face you also on an unrelated note your quirk is so amazing, how do you make all those things you would be so amazing as a rescue hero and a combat hero?"
Yayorozu flushed at the sudden praise
Todoroki looked deep in thought
and Bakugo had an unreadable expression on his face,
"You are correct in your analysis Midoriya" Shouta started, garnering the attention of all his students
"However there is one more person who forms part of that group" he paused
Midoriya looked deep in thought and by that he meant he was in a muttering fit and Shouta thought he heard something along the lines of birdboy (Tokoyami) or tall tentacle person (Shouji) and Shouta decided that he has to be the one to break it to him
"It's you Midoriya, you are the one who has the potential to be one of the greatest heroes, all us have to think about our power usage, they carry a tank of power that fuels their quirk, even Bakugo, Yayorozu and Todoroki have their limits even if they are far higher than the others but you face no such limitations, from what I understand you have an endless reserve of power an ocean compared to the small droplets we all have, on top of that you have that brain of yours, a knack of analysing quirks in a very short span of time and yet you don't use it why?" Shouta finished firmly looking at the greenete
"I can't control it, I just got it and whenever I use it it breaks my bones, I feel like I somehow lucked out on the exam and am taking the place of someone much worthy" his student answered looking down on his feet
Uraraka, Aoyama and Iida all shared knowing looks
Yayorozu looked concerned
Todoroki was as stoic as ever
Bakugo looked like he was assessing his entire life
Surprisingly it was Kaminari who patted the boy on the back
"Hey don't worry about it dude, you totally deserve to be here, I short-circuit myself all the time even after having my quirk for years, I am Denki Kaminari by the way"
"Even dark shadow did not listen to me when we first started out on this cursed path of light" Tokoyami piped up
"I could not turn corners when I got my quirk and It turned out fine" Iida butted in
Izuku looked shocked at the sudden display of support, but if you knew where to look, he was suspicious
Shouta was furious, did people in his life trick him after showing false support? He resisted the urge to murder
"Your lack of control is a problem but nothing that can't be solved, the root cause of the problem is not you but your view point. You never had a quirk when everyone else around you did, that meant you did something akin to worshipping any and all abilities, from what I saw, you were whipping it out as some sort of special move, what you have to understand is simple really" Shouta said
"What you have to do is think of it as a combo move man, something you can spam" Kaminari cheered
"Take me for example, I have a limit of 15 million volts before the electricity I let out starts hurting me and when I got the quirk I was getting electrocuted all the time just because I thought that that's the only voltage of electricity I could let out" Kaminari finished with a grin
"How did you get it under control then?" Midoriya asked like an excited 4 year old who was being told a story before bedtime
"It's simple really, quirks are physical abilities at the end of the day, like an extra limb, if you try you can control exactly how much of them you can use, my quirk counsellor told me to imagine a voltage meter and it has worked since then"
"Umm wait so all I have to do is imagine a voltage meter right"
Midoriya said and closed his eyes, Aizawa was on the ready to stop the boy from being injured but without warning bright green lightning danced around him
"Thank you for your help Kaminari san, the voltage meter works, all I had to do is change the measuring unit into percentages and I am not hurting myself anymore"
"If that's the case why don't you throw this ball using that quirk" Shouta said throwing the ball in his direction
Izuku clumsily caught the ball, not yet used to the power, but his eyes filled with a look of pure determination, he lunged the ball full force in the air, it broke the sound barrier"
600.8 m, The display flashed
"You were saying something about the percentage as a way to measure your power, what percentage are you using?" Shouta asked
"Umm about 6.13403%?"
"what?" Ashido exclaimed
"How did you reach that calculation?" Shouta asked rubbing the bridge of his nose
He began muttering about some very complicated method and to his surprise Yayorozu seemed interested and seemed to be adding in a few bits and pieces, problem child nodded at breakneck speeds and he heard Tokoyami mutter something about maths being a cursed subject
"OI WE DON'T SPEAK NERD SO EXPLAIN"
Bakugo voiced the emotions of the entire class and Yayorozu and Midoriya to their credit had the decency to look guilty
"It's complicated math but it adds up" Yayorozu was the one to speak
Everyone was in awe
"You mean to say you were using less than 1/10th of your power? That's such a cheat code" Mineta whined
"Shouldn't you be happy that we practically have the next top 5 heroes as batchmates?" Tsuyu was the one who spoke this time having a thought full finger on her chin
"I do not believe in rankings, I just want to help where I can, I believe if you are helping someone turn a rough day into a good one you are the best hero ever" Midoriya intervened with a somber look in his eyes
Todoroki was the one who was reevaluating his life choices now
"That is another thing that makes you special, your heart is in the right place, not to discredit your intelligence, all it took was a simple nudge and the impossible became reachable, we will be working on your progress in hero training"
"This also applies to all of you, some of you might not have full control, some of you might think that your quirk has blaring weaknesses but if you ever feel that way ask for help, I will be there especially you Midoriya. Now go back to class and pick your syllabus" The erasure hero finished, shamelessly ripping off All-Might's catch phrase
The tall blonde smiled while watching the whole interaction hiding behind a building.
Another blonde with a lightning streak on his hair realized he had a crush on a certain green bean
Izuku was on his way home from the first day when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder and despite himself he flinched, it was Kaachan,
“Kaachan”, Izuku managed
When did you get that quirk?
“Umm… on the day of the entrance exam, although technically speaking it was there with me all my life it just had a fail safe mechanism that stopped me from hurting myself, but is having a quirk that won’t activate actually considered having a quirk? hmm….” Izuku went into another mutter fit
“OI nerd, slow down, I just wanted to know you haven’t been lying to me about not having a quirk and also I started painting recently, this is what I came up with”
“It's not upto your level but make do, this is the best I could do, also, I'm sorry about….”
And with that Bakugou began apologising for every fucked up thing he ever said to Deku
The conversation went better than expected and Deku broke down in tears at the end of it like the cry baby he was.
“Uh, what are you crying about Midoriya?” came the voice of Yaoyorozu who was walking towards the gate with Jirou and Kaminari
“Mon Ami, are you trying to hurt this shining star?” came another voice of a french prince
“Bakugou, bullying a fellow classmate is entirely unbecoming of a hero” the newly dubbed Robo-cop yelled while running full speed towards them
“Iilda wait up, you don’t just leave someone you were walking with, that's considered rude” Uraraka chided while running full speed towards them
“No...Umm kaachan just gave me this and I got emotional is all” Izuku replied clearly overwhelmed by the amount of people that were willing to walk with him
“Oh that's lovely, are these people you two? Even one of our painters won’t compare to this masterpiece” Yayorozu said while snatching the painting away from Izuku
The continued walking towards the station while Yayorozu called for her driver to pick her up at the station itself,
While everyone fawned over the painting Jirou tracked back towards Bakugou
“Ears, what do you want?” Bakugou questioned
“You know I can hear what most people can’t and by that I mean I heard exactly why Midoriya was crying, it’s good to see that you had the decency to apologise but that information is enough to ban you from any and all hero schools” Jirou said her tone threatening
“Then come with me," Bakugou said his tone low but his expression serious "record that, I have more to say and If I ever track back into that behaviour, give it to Aizawa”
“Why not right now?” Jirou questioned
“You can," Bakugou said "but Deku is willing to give me another chance, why can’t you, I am not one who believes in excuses but when it comes to this, all I can say is that somewhere in my twisted angry brain whatever I did was to protect him.”
“I will stay quiet for now," Jirou agreed, "don’t wanna be called a tattle tail in the first week of hero school anyways, but I will take you up on your offer, I would add another stipulation, Yaomomo, Iida, Uraraka, Kaminari and Aaoyama are coming with too, you wanna come clean? you are going to have to do it infront of everyone and what they do of that information is up to them”
With that Jirou and Bakugou went to her home, soon the rest of them arrived and they all sat there for one of the longest and most heartbreaking evenings of their lives.
It was decided that they would stay quiet about this but anyone of them is allowed to tell Aizawa if they feel Bakugou is going back to his old ways.
And so was formed the group initially dubbed as the Dekusquad but then renamed to Green bean protection squad.
Meanwhile
Shouta Aizawa and All-might had a meeting with Nedzu discussing their plan to raze a certain middle school to the ground.