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Chapter Text

Despite all that hero society and UA stood for, they only pushed Midoriya Izuku even more to become a vigilante. Despite all that he was doubted and pushed down growing up, there was so much that he could do and UA only proved to help him in this mindset.

It really started before UA. He was at home alone, playing some new “hero vs. villain” game with a couple online friends, and one of them started going off about how often heroes failed in their roles. This then caused his other friend to talk about the hypocrisy in judging people’s quirks and immediately labeling them as perfect for ‘heroism’ or ‘villainy.’ This all led Izuku to go off about the mistreatment of the Quirkless and how abandoned they were.

Since that day, Izuku has analyzed ways in which he could help those in need. If he couldn’t be a hero then he would just have to be a legal vigilante. Technically he couldn’t get in trouble with law as long as he didn’t use a quirk, and it’s not like he had one to worry about that anyways.

Of course he had to overanalyze the whole costume and design before setting out. Taking trips to Dagobah beach to find supplies, and even creating a semi-safe work station. He even started building his own support equipment. Microbots weren’t his original plan, but once the idea popped in his head, there was no stopping his endless experiments and tinkering.

This all led to the vigilante, dubbed Medusa, popping up a couple years before the entrance exams Izuku was to take at UA. Medusa fought low rate crimes, hiding under the radar. They were only talked about amongst the Underground heroes who had had minuscule run-ins with the tiny vigilante, and the conversation was mainly in concern over just how tiny they were and how creepy the snakes floating around their head was.

Chapter Text

As Izuku left the room in which the written portion of the exam was held, he deflated from spent nerves. The test itself was not hard in any which way, and the questions were extremely interesting and thought-provoking, but he hated stressing over time and space when writing his thoughts.

He looked at the map of UA posted on the bulletin board in the entryway of the school as he contemplated where to go next. His practical portion was scheduled for the next day at noon, but he had wanted to bring in support items to make up for the lack of quirk. He found Principal Nezu’s office on the map and made the long trek upstairs to the other side of the building.

As he walked, he contemplated the architecture of the building. Each door was huge and he had to crane his head back to see the top of them. Izuku assumed this was to accommodate different mutation quirks, but he hoped the doors were made of lighter material as they had the potential to be too heavy to open easily. After wandering around for about 10 minutes, trusting his memorization of the map outline, Izuku came upon what was supposed to be the principal’s door, only he couldn’t be fully sure because there were no markings to label it as such.

Izuku rubbed his arm as he approached the door. The size of these doors seemed more of an intimidation factor than just to accommodate quirks. He raised his fist and knocked three times then held his breath as he waited for a response.

“Come in!” A chipper voice called out and the door clicked as it opened on its own. Izuku glanced at the hinges as he quietly stepped in, noticing as the door closed that it had some sort of automatic mechanism. Sitting at the desk was a… white creature with beady eyes. “What am I? A mouse? A bear? No matter! I’m the principal of UA!”

Izuku cocked his head. Nezu was infamous as the animal with an intelligence Quirk that opened UA and had been running it since. He bowed. “Hello Principal Nezu, I am Izuku Midoriya.”

“Pleasure to meet you Midoriya! May I offer some tea?” Nezu asked, then took a sip from his own cup of tea.

“Nice to meet you as well. And, yes, please,” Izuku said, taking a seat on one of the plush chairs in front of Nezu’s desk.

Nezu poured some tea then slid the cup towards Izuku. He took a sip gingerly, it was a peppermint blend. “How can I assist you today?” The principal asked.

“Ah, well. I am scheduled to take the practical exam tomorrow and I was wondering if it would be alright to get some support items approved?” Izuku spun his cup around in place as he asked the principal. Having the support items would make or break his performance in the exam since he didn’t have a quirk.

The principal tutted. “What sort of support items are you hoping to bring?”

Izuku looked up at him and noticed a gleam in his eyes. He quickly looked away and drew his backpack towards him. “Well, you see, I created all of them myself to aid in my path to heroics.” He drew out one of his headbands and a handful of sphere microbots. “These are my microbots and a controller that I wear around my head. I can control them with a thought, to aid in just about anything.”

Nezu’s eyes were gleaming in delight as Izuku set his creations on the desk. He reached forward to grab them, before looking up to Izuku. “May I?” Izuku nodded and the principal picked up the headband and a microbot, overturning them in his hands as he studied the pieces carefully. “Would you mind giving me a demonstration young Midoriya?”

Izuku took the headband back from the principal, “of course sir.” He placed the microbot onto the desk again before placing the headband on his head. It immediately woke up and connected to his thoughts, spurring the microbots to life. Izuku sent a thought through the headband and the microbots jumped up and started stacking onto one another to make a tower. Then he commanded more to fly out of his backpack and the bots formed to make two figurines that started dueling with one another. One of the figurines won and used other microbots to restrain the other one.

Nezu watched on in absolute glee. When Izuku slipped off the headband, the microbots all clattered to the table and turned lifeless once more, rolling across the desk. “The bots can be used for offense, defense, support, and more. Practically anything that I can think of to have them do, they will… well that’s the intention. There are still a few bugs that I need to fix with them, but they’re at just the right stage that I could use them in the exam if allowed.” Izuku looked up to the principal with hopeful eyes.

“I believe that these could definitely be allowed. Due to your quirklessness, it is understandable why you might want a support item. And having created it yourself only further proves your efforts to get into the school. You applied to the hero course, is that correct?” Nezu sat back once more and sipped his tea.

Izuku had been waiting for this question. As potentially the only quirkless person to dare to apply to UA, the heroics course no less, it was bound that he would be discussing it with the principal. Though, based on how Nezu already recognized his name and didn’t immediately turn him away proved that he was already better than the principal at Aldera. “Yes, sir. I am hoping to become an underground hero if I can get into UA.”

Nezu nodded along. “Yes, I believe I can see that. I shall fill out the proper forms for these items to be approved for the exam. Were there any other items you would like brought with you?”

“Yes, a contractible staff as well,” Izuku said as he brought said staff out of his bag. He had a belt that he would be wearing as well that the staff fit perfectly into. Nezu waved his hand so Izuku stood up and took a couple steps away from the desk. Then, he pressed a button on the side which immediately made the staff spring to full length. He twirled it in his hand once before hitting the button once more to let it collapse into itself. The handheld was a little longer than the length of his hand, but stretched to five feet when it was at full length. Besides the microbots, this item was essential to his fighting style. He looked at Nezu with an uplifted eyebrow.

Nezu smiled at him. “Yes, I do believe that item might be just fine as well. Anymore exciting creations hidden in that bag of yours?” Nezu looked hungry to see what else Izuku might bring out to show him, but these were the only items he planned to let the principal see.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Izuku scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously as he dropped the staff back into his bag and retook his seat. “Those were the only two items that I hoped to bring with me to the exam tomorrow.” He grabbed the headband and microbots and placed them all in his bag too.

“Well-” Nezu clapped his hands, making Izuku jump and look back up at him. “This was quite an interesting meeting, young Midoriya. I simply cannot wait to see your performance at the exam tomorrow!” He pulled a couple papers out of his desk and placed them in front of himself. “I will get right to work on approving your support items. Everything will be processed and ready to go by tonight in preparation. Is there anything else I might help you with?”

Izuku drained the last of his tea. “No, sir. I believe that was all I wanted to discuss with you.”

“Perfect! I expect an excellent show in the exam tomorrow!” Nezu pressed a button hidden under his desk and the door automatically opened. Izuku stood up and grabbed his backpack before bowing to Nezu and departing from the office. As he left the grounds of UA campus, he couldn’t help himself from sighing in relief. That went much better than his anxiety-ridden brain had thought it would. Now, he needed to put in a couple more hours of experimentation and training at Dagobah beach before he could rest for tomorrow. He allowed himself to smile a couple blocks from the school. Little did the principal know, he had just gotten a firsthand look at the devices wielded by a vigilante that confused the Underground hero community to no end.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Izuku rushed to UA. He had spent the evening playing on the computer with his two online friends in an effort to destress from the written exam and distract from thoughts of the practical exam. His mom had also come home after dinner, so any distraction from her silence was welcome. His friends had ruined the chance to destress from the exams by pestering him with questions. One of them had also taken the exam and they were supposed to meet up today for the practical, but that wouldn’t be happening if he was late.

Izuku picked up speed until he could finally see the gates of UA. He checked the time on his phone, seeing that he had arrived just in time to meet with his friend before they went to the exam opening ceremony together. Only problem was that Izuku didn’t exactly know what his friend looked like. They had only ever played and talked online together, even though it had been several years. All he said last night was that he had purple hair and would look tired. Izuku would have questioned this if he hadn’t known about the boy’s insomnia and bad foster parents, or the fact that Izuku had his own fair share of sleepless nights, always clearly shown in his reflection in the mornings.

Izuku walked up to the front steps and hopped onto the cement guard lining the walkway. He had told his friend that he had vibrant, curly green hair and would probably be journaling somewhere if he arrived earlier. He used the new height advantage to scan the crowd of potential students and spotted a couple incomers with purple hair. Well, one had purple balls on the top of their head, but Izuku dismissed them immediately. There was one girl with purple hair and headphone jacks dangling from her ears, but Izuku dismissed her too. The next student he laid eyes on looked promising as they had a messy mop of purple hair and dark eye bags lining their eyes- maybe he was Insomniac. He looked up and made eye contact with Izuku, eyes widening as he realized that Izuku must be the person he was meeting, then made a bee-line for him.

“Me- Zu?” Definitely-Insomniac asked as he looked at Izuku perched on the wall.

Izuku snickered as he stumbled over the names. His gamer tag was Medusa, but he told his friends, Insomniac and EatMyDust, to call him Zu. “That’s me! Izuku Midoriya, if you will.”

Insomniac grunted. “Shinsou Hitoshi.”

Izuku hopped off the wall. “It’s almost time for the practical, let’s head in.”

They took seats next to each other despite the layout of the seating chart. Izuku did not want to sit next to his school bully for the length of the presentation. He took out his journal as Present Mic stepped onto the stage and called out to the crowd. He let his pencil fly across the page as Mic presented the layout of the exam.

“How is your hand even moving that fast?” Shinsou asked, looking down at his notes. Izuku looked over at him, not even paying attention to the notes his hand was writing out. He had been fully focused on Mic’s speech and let his hand take notes as they willed.

“It stops me from muttering the whole time which I found annoys some people,” Izuku stated, stopping his hand from taking notes as his attention was divided. Mic was calling on some student on the other side of the stadium who was asking a rather dumb question. “Was it bothering you?”

Shinsou shook his head. “It’s pretty fascinating. You took perfect notes that entire time, only looking down when you needed to start on a new page. How often do you do that?”

Izuku scratched the back of his head. “Quite a bit, I analyze hero fights in person all the time and so I learned to take notes without looking so that I could really capture each detail.”

“And you write in code?” Shinsou asked, tilting his head as he looked closer at the text.

Izuku laughed a little. “Yeah, a lot of the information would be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. Plus, some might not be happy with me becoming a hero if they read through my full analysis. I came up with a code when I was writing my third notebook as my analysis was getting deeper.”

Shinsou hummed as he turned his attention back to Present Mic. He was finally explaining about the Zero Pointer robot. Izuku continued taking notes about the set up of the exam and the best strategies to pass the exam. When Present Mic had finished his presentation and everyone stood at once to go to their respective exam areas, Izuku grabbed Shinsou’s sleeve to hold him in place for a minute. He had been about to stand up and get smashed by a mob of students running down the aisle to the door. There were a couple students yelling and bickering about keeping order, but it was not working in this large of a room with so many people. As the last of the rush vacated the room, Izuku and Shinsou headed out and to their respective test areas, wishing each other luck.

Shinsou knew that Izuku would pass this exam easily, and Izuku knew that Shinsou could definitely make it into the school, though it was unsure whether he could make it into heroics. Izuku really hoped he would and twisted his hands thinking about the potential of him and Bakugo ending up in the same class. No. He shook his head a little and cleared his thoughts. As he waited, he placed his headband on and immediately felt the connection to the many microbots he had with him, plus all the ones that he had scattered around Musutafu.

Mic's voice shouted for them to go and Izuku took off into the streets. He was grateful for the approval of his creations as he made quick work of several robots by making his microbots spear through them.

10 minutes till the exam was ending, they sent out the Zero Pointer. It was taller than the mock buildings that they'd made and had no qualms against absolutely destroying them on its way through the testing grounds. Izuku was not about to show off just to get no points so he turned to go down an alley just as he heard a faint cry for help. He looked around through all the students running in the opposite direction of the giant robot, and saw a girl trapped under some of the rubble the giant had made.

Izuku made a split second decision, and ran towards the girl, sending the robots ahead of him towards the robot. He reached the girl as his microbots reached the robot.

"No! It'll crush both of us!" The girl yelled at him.

Izuku scoffed at her objection to his rescue and told his robots to find the control panel. He heard faint metal clacking on metal as he turned back to the girl. The Zero Pointer was about two steps away from them and it had definitely set its sight on them. Izuku grabbed the edge of the concrete block trapping the girl and put all his strength into lifting it. It barely budged, so he called the robots that were twining around his waist as a belt to act as supports and slowly lifted the block up enough to give the girl room to free herself.

"Get out of there and I'll take care of the robot." Said robot was about to take its last step towards them, so he ran towards it, dodging its massive limbs as he went to where his microbots had joined around a small panel on the back of its stationary leg. Izuku took out his contractible staff and used it to launch himself up to the panel, grabbing onto the leg with one arm and his legs. He pried the panel open and pulled down on the power switch just as it was reaching down to smash the poor girl. He sighed in relief and slowly crawled down the robot's leg. Mic announced the end of the exam as he walked over towards the girl, who'd freed herself from her concrete jail. He lifted the concrete just enough to recall his microbots then let it drop, dust flying around. As the microbots found homes within his clothing, he turned to the girl.

She rubbed the back of her neck, "thank you for the save. For a moment there, I thought I was a goner."

Izuku scanned her and noticed she was favoring her right leg. "No problem at all. Do you want assistance making it to the healer? You probably shouldn't strain your leg too much."

She beamed at him. "I would greatly appreciate that!"

He wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her over to Recovery Girl. The heroine kissed the girl's cheek, muttering about the dangers of these exams. Izuku snickered a little and left the two as he headed back towards the entrance of the school. They would be receiving acceptance or denial letters in the mail sometime in the next week, so he was hoping to get some more in-person time with Shinsou.

He opened the app that they used to chat during the games and sent a private message to Shinsou saying that he'd just finished the exam and was wondering if he wanted to hang out for a bit. He closed the app and sat under one of the trees lining the walkway into UA. Deciding there was no time like the present, he took out his journal and started taking notes on the quirks he'd seen being used by the other examinees. He had rarely run into anyone else, so he hoped that he'd be able to get more info on them later.

"-ku. Hey! Dummy!"

Izuku snapped his head up to see Shinsou snapping his fingers in front of his face tiredly. "Oh! Shinsou! Crap, sorry, I was totally invested in my notes again."

Shinsou shrugged. "It's fine. What did you want to do? My fosters don't give a crap when I come home as long as I don't wake them up."

Izuku furrowed his eyebrows at that, but didn't comment. "We could go to a cat café?"

Shinsou's eyes lit up a bit. "I'm down."

Izuku chuckled. "I don't know how familiar you are with the area-"

"-not at all."

"-but, there's one a couple blocks from here." Izuku said as he stood up, stuffing his journal in his bag.

"Sounds good to me." Shinsou said as he followed Izuku away from UA.

Chapter Text

Perched on a rooftop, Medusa scanned the streets and alleys, snakes floating around their head, scanning the area for perceived trouble. They wore a black masquerade style mask with green vine designs that covered the top half of their face with two snakes that curled at the top like horns. Their mouth was covered with a black mask that had two glowing green circles on each cheek. They wore a tight-fitting black dress shirt and dark green cargo pants with multiple pockets holding all sorts of gadgets. Their belt held a staff, rope, and pouches of microbots. Across their chest was a bandolier of daggers and they wore a thick black metal choker with a green lightning design.

Medusa held up their hand as a snake slithered down their arm and they looked into its eyes. The snake looked out towards the street below them and Medusa turned their head, following the direction the snake was looking and saw what caught the snake's attention. There was a burly man, seemingly with some type of mutation quirk, following a woman who seemed to be walking home from a waitress shift.

Medusa watched as the woman turned into an alley and the man looked around before slipping in as well. Medusa sighed then got up from their perch. They took a couple steps back then ran and jumped across the rooftops, ending in a roll. They peeked down into the next alleyway just as the man cornered the woman next to a dumpster and they could immediately hear whispered rejections from the woman.

Medusa tsk-ed and looked at the surrounding area. The two people in the alley were far enough in that no one from the street could see them, and no one looked inclined to wander in anyways. Medusa looked down into the alley again. They shook their head at the gall of the man and sent their microbots to make steps down the side of the building. Medusa used the snakes to make their way down from the roof quietly and snuck up behind the man and kicked their leg out to knock the man over.

"Hey! What the f-" The man called after he recovered from the abrupt fall.

This close, they were able to tell that the man had a grizzly bear mutation. The woman was still cowered against the wall, silent tears running down her face.

"If a woman says no, you leave her the fuck alone. A man as such as yourself should know this," Medusa intoned.

The bear-man got back on his feet and growled at them. "None of your business twerp. Now scram before I knock some sense into you."

Medusa laughed darkly as their eyes and choker glowed a bright green. The man froze in place. Medusa stepped forward and punched the man in the face, sending him back to the ground. They turned to the woman who was now covering her mouth with a hand and looking at them with wide eyes. Medusa's eyes and choker glowed a warm brown color and the woman froze before visibly relaxing.

They reached a hand out to her. "Let's get you out of here."

The woman took their hand and stood. "Th-thank you. Um, what's your name?"

Medusa led her to the mouth of the alley. "You may call me Medusa."

The woman stopped before she stepped out into the street. "Thank you Medusa. I- I don't know what I would've done i-if, if he..."

Medusa placed a hand on her shoulder. "No need to worry about that now. He won't be harming you or anyone else."

The girl melted into their touch and Medusa led her fully out of the alley, waving goodbye as the woman turned to walk home.

Medusa ducked back into the alley after scanning the street. They still had to finish dealing with the bear-man.

***

Izuku climbed up the side of the roof from the balcony he stood on and collapsed on his back on the rooftop. Patrolling for 5 hours was tiring and all he wanted to do was go home and sleep. Yet, he had ventured farther than usual from his apartment and wanted to take a quick break before he made the trek back home. He pulled off his voice modulator mask and grabbed a fruit squeeze from his pocket, slurping on it as he listened to the sounds of the city.

The sound of a pebble skittering on the roof caused him to jolt up and put his mask back on. He stood and turned towards the sound. Across the roof stood Pro Hero Eraserhead, capture scarf loosely held in his hands. "Medusa."

Izuku laughed lowly. "Oh no, you caught me." A snake slithered down his arm and twined around his wrist.

Eraserhead shook his head. "You really are tiny."

Another laugh escaped Izuku. "Is that all anyone can say when they see me? No note about the snakes for hair or my mask or literally anything else?"

"Do you expect people to comment on your quirk?" Eraserhead asked, tilting his head.

That made Izuku pause. He hadn't considered that everyone would assume his microbots to be his quirk. He wondered if he should tell Eraserhead that he was quirkless. Maybe next time. "No, I guess I shouldn't."

Eraserhead huffed. "As lovely as it is to converse with you, I am supposed to bring you in, kid." He took a step forward towards Izuku.

Izuku tilted his head to the side. "And here I thought, we were on pleasant terms." Eraserhead stepped forward again and Izuku made his contacts and choker glow a vibrant purple, stopping

Eraserhead in his tracks. That should leave him confused long enough for Izuku to make a quick escape.

With Eraserhead frozen, Izuku took his leave, jumping over the side of the roof and back onto the balcony below. So much for his break before heading home. He climbed his way down, jumping from balcony to balcony till he was at street level then took off into the streets, winding his way through Musutafu, making sure that he wasn't being followed before finally heading home for the night.

Chapter Text

On Sunday, UA sent out their acceptance and denial letters. Both Izuku and Shinsou got into UA. They celebrated by going out to the cat café again, though this time, they convinced their other gaming friend, EatMyDust, also known as Tenko, to join as well.

They huddled on the floor of the café, with cats sprawled around them, drinking tea and coffee. Tenko wore gloves so that his quirk wouldn't accidentally activate and dust one of the cats, and Izuku and Shinsou were having a great time trying to place as many cats as they could on him as he sat criss-cross trying not to disturb any of them while mildly glaring at the two other boys.

"She likes you!" Izuku called, as the calico cat he'd just draped over Tenko's shoulder started purring. There was a black cat on each of his legs and a grey cat sprawled in the middle of his lap.

"Tell me again why we couldn't have just met up to play games?" Tenko asked.

"This is so much more entertaining," Shinsou chuckled as he tried placing a small grey kitten on top of Tenko's wild blue hair. The kitten curled up and Tenko went still, so as not to disturb it while shooting a glare at Shinsou.

Izuku laughed. "We're here to celebrate my and Shinsou's placements in the all mysterious-never heard of before, 1-U UA class! We couldn't just go about and do something we do everyday!"

"What if they just created that class for kids that they wanted in for publicity and all you do is normal high school things instead of hero training?" Tenko asked, using the arm that wasn't occupied to pet the calico on his shoulder.

"I highly doubt that. If they wanted to do something like that, they would've just thrown us in the general or business courses," Shinsou said, reaching for his coffee on the low-lying table next to him.

"It is interesting that they didn't explain it in your welcoming video though. And what's up with All Might going to teach at the school? Isn't that a little under his pay grade?" Tenko asked, reaching out for Shinsou's coffee. Shinsou smacked his hand away which caused his head to move a little too much and the grey kitten jumped off his head. Izuku grabbed Tenko's cup from a different table and handed it to him.

"I was quite surprised to see his projection come out of the letter. Honestly, I was surprised the projection was there in the first place, but that's besides the point." Izuku stated, grabbing his cup of tea as a Siamese cat crawled into his lap. He cooed at it as he pet its back.

"Maybe he's looking to retire?" Shinsou asked.

Tenko scoffed. "And there goes all of society with him."

"Isn't that exactly what you're looking for?" Izuku asked. He and Shinsou knew that Tenko was a villain, whose 'Sensei' wanted him to defeat All Might, but he was a decent enough person when he was away from his Sensei for a while. As decent as any of them were, that is.

"Shut up," Tenko said, moving to hit him and earning several displeased meows at the movement. Izuku stuck his tongue out at him and earned a sharp glare in return.

"Okay, but back to the original point. What do you think 1-U even is Izu?" Shinsou asked.

Izuku took a sip of his tea, pretending to think deeply about it when he'd already come to his conclusion several hours before. "Hmmm, who's to say?"

"Izuku, I swear to Kami. We all know that your brain has cooked up several theories by now. Spit it out," Tenko said.

"Fine, fine, whatever. It's probably going to be an underground heroics course." Izuku admitted. He finished his tea and set it back on one of the nearby tables before going back to petting the siamese in his lap. "It's the most probable theory that I've come up with at least."

"Here-" Tenko handed Izuku his empty coffee cup. "Has UA always had an Underground Hero course?"

Izuku set Tenko's cup next to his. "Not that I could find. They might have just kept it all under wraps though. Yet, that also doesn't make sense because that would be a whole hero class that is unaccounted for in graduation records."

"That would make sense though, wouldn't it?" Shinsou asked, setting his cup to the side as well. "No one's meant to know an Underground Hero's true identity for the sake of keeping them underground."

Izuku hummed and rubbed his chin in thought. "No, you're right. It just seems so strange. They didn't even tell us to call it anything other than 1-U in the letter. You'd think that they would have us claim to be in a different class if we were meant to keep it secret."

"Maybe they expected us to not go blab off about our placement," Shinsou offered. "I sure as hell didn't tell my fosters anything other than that I got in. They didn't seem to care one way or another as long as I could get to the school by myself."

"That might make sense if it weren't for the fact that UA is so well known, and anyone who gets in uses it as bragging rights." Izuku said, anger filling his eyes at Shinsou's off-hand comment about his fosters. "Then again, that's mainly if you get into classes 1-A or -B." Izuku started tapping his hands against his thighs to get rid of the need to start taking notes. "Everyone I told is you guys and my mom. There's no way in hell I'm telling the school, they'll just blab it off and Kacchan will find even more reason to hate me."

"I say fuck it and tell the school, just don't say what class you're in. Then give Bakubrat some run for his money when he tries anything. We both know you have it in you Zuku," Tenko said, glaring at the thought of Izuku's bully.

Izuku laughed and brought his hand up to rub his neck, "I don't know. I'd prefer to have less conflict. Though I'm sure there'll be plenty enough if Kacchan got into the hero course. We're discussing placements tomorrow."

"I'll be there if he tries any type of shit when we're in UA. Maybe I'll brainwash him into doing something. Hmm, maybe I'll just make him go to the principal and tell him what a horrible person he is," Shinsou contemplated.

"No, no! That's no fun! Do it at lunch and make him stand on a table and sing some trashy pop or country song!" Tenko yelled out, flailing his arms. Apparently the cats were tired of his antics because the ones that were perching on his limbs jumped off and ran to the cat trees while the grey cat in his lap huffed angrily and spun in a circle before lying back down.

Shinsou and Izuku laughed at the look of dismay on his face as Tenko watched the cats run away from him. So much for his act of not liking the cats being placed on him.

"Seriously though," Shinsou said, "if he tries any funny business at UA. I'll be right there beside you and he won't get away with it this time."

Izuku blushed. "That's not necessary. This is all based on ifs and whatnot. There's a chance that he won't be attending UA at all." Though he highly doubted that they wouldn't accept Kacchan with his grades and quirk.

"Maybe I'll just stage a kidnapping to rough him up for all the times he's troubled you," Tenko muttered.

"Tenko!! No! You can't just-" Izuku looked around and made sure no one was paying attention to him before dropping his voice to a whisper. "You can't just kidnap somebody and beat them up!"

"That's rich coming from you, Medusa." Shinsou stated blandly.

Izuku pointed a glare at him. "Seriously you guys. I'll be fine. There's no need to get back at Kacchan for anything. I'm sure he'll grow out of it one way or another...." Izuku tapered off as he thought of Bakugou's mannerisms. "I hope," he added with a pained expression.

Shinsou knocked shoulders with him. "Alright, new topic. We still gonna game tonight or is someone going out again?" Shinsou threw a knowing look at Izuku, who laughed.

"Nah, we'll game tonight. I was out for way too long last night and I have school tomorrow." And I'll probably get enough bruises at school as is. Especially if they find out my school placement, he thought.

Shinsou got a text and groaned. "I have to go. Stupid fosters need me back for some shit or another."

They all extricated themselves from the cats and stood, stretching their limbs.

"Well, just text the group when you're ready to go on. I'll be doing some homework or analysis," Izuku said.

"I'll probably be gaming as soon as I get back. There's no missions planned or anything as of yet," Tenko said as they set their cups on the café counter.

They all left the café and Tenko separated from the group while Shinsou and Izuku headed down the street together.

"Y'know, if you're not opposed to it, we could get an apartment together that's closer to the school," Izuku offered. "I mean!" He started flapping his arms when Shinsou looked over at him. "It's just an offer and we would have to look for a while, but we also have till school starts and my mom would probably help us out, well a little, it would get me out of the house and our relationship has been pretty strained and I guess it only works if your fosters agree and you might not even want to move in with me, but I think that it might help both of us out and-"

"I think that's a great idea," Shinsou interrupted.

"Wait, really?" Izuku asked, trying to hide the blush from his face.

"Yeah. I'm sure my fosters would also be glad to get me out of their sight anyways, so it should take little consideration from them."

"Great!" Izuku yelled. "I'll talk to my mom and start looking for apartments tonight!"

Shinsou laughed. "Don't you have homework and analysis to work on?"

"Meh, I only have like one more assignment of homework, and this is far more important than my analysis. Plus, it's definitely more time sensitive."

"Well, thanks, I guess. For offering, I mean." Shinsou stopped at the area where they would walk their separate ways. "I'll talk to you later, yeah?"

"Of course. We gotta stop Tenko's win streak against us!" Izuku said. He paused for a moment, then rushed forward to give Shinsou a hug. Shinsou stiffened under the contact before letting a hand rest on top of Izuku's curls. Izuku pulled away. "Talk to you tonight!" He called as he ran down the street towards his house. He was going to get Shinsou away from his fosters one way or another.

Chapter Text

Izuku sat quietly at his desk taking notes on what type of apartment would be best for him and Shinsou while the teacher lectured on something or another. Two bedrooms would be nice. Hmm. I wonder if we got a three bedroom if Tenko would like to room with us too . He pushed the thought away for now. He could bring it up during their next gaming session, but he doubted Tenko's Sensei would let him leave the bar they called home.

"Okay, settle down. We're going to go over high school placements now!" The teacher called out over the loud students roughhousing with their quirks. He started going over each student's high school placement by their last name. They had had to send their placements to the school for their records and Izuku was dreading the next couple moments. He put his notebook in his backpack and ducked his head down. "Bakugo Katsuki, our star student, has gotten into UA, heroics course 1-A!"

The students cheered and Bakugo got up with a smug grin on his face, small explosions going off in his hands. "That's right you damn extras! I beat you all and now I'm going on to be the best hero there ever was."

Izuku ducked as one of his explosions got a little too close for comfort. The teacher let his explosions go on for a couple more moments before returning to his list, speaking loudly over the students. When he finally got to the M last names he did a double take of the writing and shot a look up at Midoriya. "It seems-" the teacher got a manic gleam in his eye and Izuku cowered. "Midoriya also has gotten into UA." There were loud explosions as Bakugo turned to him with a rage filled look. "Though there's no class listed here, care to explain Midoriya?"

"Probably just got into the general studies so that they could tell the media that they're accepting of Quirkless kids," one of the students commented. "They don't even actually want you there!"

Izuku cowered as Bakugo set off an explosion near his face. "Hah! You think you're better than me just 'cause you also got into UA?!"

Izuku jumped back in his seat. "Ah! No Kacchan! I- I don't think I'm better than you. A-and I, well, yeah, I got into a different course anyways. I won't be in the hero course." He didn't want the class to question what 1-U was when he wasn't even completely sure, even if his friends thought his hypothesis was right, there was no proof yet.

"Why are you even going if you're not in heroics? You trying to steal my shine?!" Bakugo asked as he set off more explosions.

"Alright let's get through this list," the teacher finally said. Bakugo huffed and collapsed back into his seat.

The teacher finished announcing the placements then went over a general lesson on possible future careers. After class, Izuku tried escaping quickly, only for Bakugo and his cronies to corner him at his desk before he stood up.

"What are you trying to do, you damn Deku?" Bakugo asked as he slammed his palm on Izuku's desk with an explosion.

"I swear! I'm not trying anything! I just wanted to be a hero!" Izuku said, cowering at his desk.

Bakugo huffed, "as if you could ever be a hero, you're just a stupid, Quirkless Deku!"

His cronies cackled behind him. "As if any agency would even sign you on!"

"That's if he even survived that far!"

"You really wanna have a quirk so bad? Take a swan dive off the roof and pray you have a quirk in your next life!" Bakugo yelled as he stalked away.

Izuku continued cowering in his seat until Bakugo and his group were gone. Then, he deflated and packed up his stuff. "Stupid Kacchan, if I actually did you that would never get to be a hero. There's no way I would stoop so low without taking you with me." Izuku left the school, thankful that he only had to endure one more week here.

He decided to detour on his way home so that he didn't run into Bakugo again. He had never before said anything that harsh in all of his teasings and bullying. This was something that he could never take back and he should count himself lucky that Izuku wasn't already suicidal or low enough to listen to him. Izuku laughed a little at the thought of how Bakugo might react if he found out about Medusa.

As he walked through a tunnel that led to his house, he heard a grate open and jumped away. A huge sludge monster crawled out cackling. "Come here you little twerp! You're the perfect disguise for me!" The green sludge monster rushed at Izuku and he yelled out. If only he had brought his gadgets with him to school. But would any of them even work against this guy?

He didn't get to think much more about it as he swung his backpack at the monster and hit him square in the face, stopping his pursuit.

"Ah! You little shit, you should've just let me take you willingly!" The sludge monster grabbed him and the next thing Izuku knew he was choking on the sludge that was shoving itself down his throat and overtaking his body.

Just as his vision went black, he heard a loud yell and harsh winds shove him and then he fully blacked out.

***

Izuku woke up to someone slapping his face. He had a major migraine and he lifted his hand up to fend off the aggressive slapping. "Whah hapden?" He asked in a slurred voice. 

"Oh good! You're awake!" All Might shouted, which didn't help his migrai- wait, All Might?! "I really must be going. I need to take this sludge villain into the police now that I have him locked away!" He proudly shoved a liter soda bottle in Izuku's face filled with green sludge. 

"All Might, wait, I-" He reached into his bag and pulled out his notebook, about to ask for an autograph when it opened to a page that had already been signed. Izuku gaped up at the Number One Hero. 

"I have already signed it!" All Might boomed, laughing. "Now, I must take my leave!" He crouched, getting ready to jump.

"Wait- no!"Izuku yelled and next thing he knew he was clinging to All Might's leg as they flew through the air. 

"You stupid child! Let go!" All Might called as he looked down to see Izuku clinging to his leg. 

"I'll die!" Izuku shouted before quickly closing his mouth as his lips were flapping in a horrible way.

All Might huffed and looked back to his destination. They landed on a rooftop and Izuku climbed off of his leg. "I'm sorry, that was extremely disrespectful and irresponsible, but I needed to ask you a question."

"I seriously do not have the time for any fan antics," All Might said, glaring a little at Izuku. He was thrown off by the reaction. All Might was always smiling on camera, is this really how he was when there wasn't a camera on him? 

"Please, I just need to know one thing and I promise I'll leave you a-" steam started pouring from All Might's body and Izuku stuttered. "leave you a- alone?"

All Might burst in a cloud of steam and suddenly Izuku was staring at a deflated version of the Number One Hero. He started sputtering apologies. Was this his fault? Did he do this to All Might? Did he ruin the Number One's career? But how could he have done this?

"Hush child," All Might commanded. Izuku stopped muttering apologies. "This is why I said I didn't have time for your antics." He sighed, looking defeated. "What was it you wanted to ask since apparently I have time now that I've already deflated."

"I-" Izuku shook his head. "Can someone that’s quirkless become a hero?"

All Might gave him a look and he already knew what the Pro Hero was going to say. He sat against the ledge of the rooftop and pulled up his shirt showing a gruesome scar spanning across his chest. "I got injured five years ago. That's why I'm like this now. I can only hold my form for a couple hours nowadays, but it was never made public knowledge with the help of the Hero Commission and police force."

"Wait, five years ago, you mean that fight with Toxic Chainsaw?" Izuku asked, cutting into his monologue. 

"What? No, I said this wasn't made public knowledge. Keep up. Due to that fight and this injury, I can't perform at my top performance anymore. This is what a hero's life is like, you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself at any moment to save others. Without power, without a quirk, can you become a hero? No. If you want to try, then apply to become a police officer, or a doctor. Both are honorable and save lives everyday. But a quirkless person can't be a hero. It's too dangerous." He finished, standing up slowly and walking towards the roof access door. "It's not wrong to dream. However, you need to be realistic kid." With that statement, he left and the door slammed shut behind him. 

"Stupid Pro Heroes and their stupid bias. Just 'cause I'm Quirkless doesn't mean that I'm not willing to risk my life for others. And to not even check me for a concussion. What the hell just happened. Holy crap, I was just told a national secret." Izuku kept muttering to himself as he slowly sat on the ledge of the rooftop. His mind was slowly spiraling, going over everything that had happened in the past half-hour.

A loud explosion came from the distance and Izuku's head snapped up. That couldn't be- it sounded just like- Another loud explosion popped off, then several small ones. Shit . That was definitely Bakugo, but what would cause him to be using his Quirk so much in town? Izuku's mind raced as his feet carried him down from the roof to the streets. An image flew past his mind of All Might as he left, no bottle in sight. What had happened to the villain? 

A couple minutes later he found out when he saw Bakugo being slowly engulfed by the sludge villain in another alley. Bystanders and Pro Heroes were all standing around just watching or holding off civilians from the scene. Izuku was filled with rage at the fact that everyone was just standing there doing nothing . He raced forward without fully thinking about it and once again swung his backpack at the sludge villain's head. He would not let this villain take over another person. He knew how painful it was to slowly choke as it overtook you, and this was his fault in the end wasn't it? 

The sludge villain looked shocked and angry when he recognized Izuku. "You! Again? I'll kill you!" The villain grabbed onto Izuku and started taking over his body again as it left Bakugo. Bakugo coughed as he tried to regain his breath, but when he saw the villain now taking over Izuku he set off more explosions in the villain's face, making parts of him splatter all over the alley. Izuku sucked in a full breath as the villain was blown away. 

"Stupid Deku! What the hell were you thinking, HAH?! You coulda died, you idiot!" Bakugo yelled as he set off small explosions to keep the villain from reforming. Pro Heroes were finally rushing in to capture the villain in whatever containers they could find. 

"You-" Izuku coughed up more sludge. "No one was doing anything. I couldn't stand there and watch you die."

Bakugo's eyes shifted as realization dawned on him. "I didn't ask for your help," he muttered. 

"Kid what the hell was that? You can't just run in like that! That was seriously dangerous and you could've been killed!" Death Arms started lecturing Izuku as other heroes went up to Bakugo and started praising him for his excellent quirk usage. 

"I- I'm sorry," Izuku stated, not feeling very sorry at all. He looked towards the crowd of people. Many had tears in their eyes and had either thankful or shocked expressions at the aftermath of the incident. A shock of tall blond hair caught his eye, and he saw All Might walking away from the scene. He'd been there the whole time and hadn't done anything...

Chapter Text

Izuku walked home silently with Bakugo. The normal taunts and explosions were gone as they silently processed what had happened. 

Paramedics had rushed in as the heroes were reprimanding Izuku and praising Bakugo. They were both checked on and sent home, though Izuku only got checked on when Bakugo noticed he was being ignored and started screaming and threatening everyone within immediate vicinity. Izuku was wearing his bright red shoes, the shoes he wore every day, the only shoes that quirkless people could comfortably wear. The shoes that showed anyone and everyone that he was quirkless and not worth their time, leaving the heroes and paramedics to chastise then ignore him until Bakugo stepped in. 

Izuku looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Bakugo was deflated as they walked, his head was bowed as he stared listlessly at the ground and his shoulders were slumped. 

"Kacchan?" Izuku asked tentatively. He didn't want to cause his explosive personality to come out again, but it seemed like he was safe from that, at least for now. Bakugo raised his eyes from the ground slowly and when they locked eyes, he looked so tired . "You okay?"

Bakugo scoffed. "What do you think? I was attacked by a villain only to have to be saved by my quirkless childhood friend because the Heroes didn't do shit." He turned to glare at the ground again. "They did nothing and I was going to die ."

"But you didn't Kacchan, you got out." Izuku said softly. Maybe his personality could change; all he needed was something traumatic enough, as much as it hurt Izuku to admit that. "And you did beat the villain. You proved today what a great hero you're going to be one day." 

Bakugo looked at him again. "Why did you save me? I've been nothing but cruel to you since your diagnosis. Just today I told y- you to kill yourself." Bakugo's eyes captured Izuku's with a sharp intensity. Izuku stopped walking and he followed suit. 

"Kacchan, despite everything, I couldn't leave you there to die alone. I saw you and knew you needed help, and no one ," Izuku growled. " No one jumped in to save you. Sure they didn't have the best quirks to fight off the villain, but that's no excuse to ju- just let a kid die." Izuku kicked at the road in frustration. How could the heroes just stand by and hope for help like that. If a Quirkless kid could jump in then so could they. 

"Tsk. You could've been killed right alongside me. Was it really worth it to jump in like that?" Bakugo asked. There was no anger in his voice, but rather apprehension. 

"To be honest, I just jumped in without really thinking. I saw the situation at hand and noticed that none of the Heroes were doing anything and next thing I knew, I was hitting the sludge villain in the face with my bag." Izuku laughed a bit. "I know that a Quirkless like me can't do much, but I got it distracted enough for you to defeat him in the end." He rubbed the back of his neck. 

"You just jumped in without thinking? What about all your analyzing?" Bakugo inquired. "I know you've kept writing in those journals."

"Ah, well." Izuku looked down. "There wasn't much time and all I had to go off of were a couple minutes of my encounter with it earlier in the day." 

"Wait! What? That was your second encounter?" Bakugo yelled, making Izuku flinch instinctively. 

"Heh, um, yeah?" Izuku looked back up at Bakugo who was looking at him with wide eyes. "I- I kinda got trapped by him when I went through the tunnel on the way..." He paused for a second as Bakugo's face fell. As they lived only a block away from one another, they both knew the route he took and why. "On the way home. But! All Might-" He stopped again as he thought of All Might's speech to him and scowled. "All Might beat the villain and put him in some bottles. I may have been the reason why it escaped even, so I'm really sorry about that." 

"If All Might saved you, then why didn't he show up when the villain reappeared?" Bakugo asked, ignoring the last part of Izuku's ramble. 

Izuku glared off into the distance. "He was there," he mumbled. "He just didn't do anything, or maybe he couldn't. But either way he saw everything that happened. I saw him walking away when the other Heroes were yelling at me." 

"It couldn't have been All Might that you saw. The whole crowd would've forgotten about us and started gushing like the damn extras they are," Bakugo countered. 

Izuku shook his head and started walking again. "I'll tell you more if you wanna come to my house, but it was definitely him." 

Bakugo stayed rooted to the spot for a moment before following after Izuku, intrigued by what he might have to say about All Might and why he wasn't gushing over being saved by the Number One Hero. Luckily they lived really close to one another, so Bakugo's mom wouldn't mind if he was over at the Midoriya's. 

They walked the rest of the way quietly and Bakugo followed into Izuku's house, taking off his shoes with Izuku and listening as he called out that he was home. Izuku knew his mom wasn't home yet because she had switched to the afternoon and overnight shifts during the week and the day shifts over the weekends. 

"Let's go to the kitchen, we might have some snacks," Izuku said over his shoulder, already heading towards the kitchen. He grabbed a couple fruit squeeze packs and handed one to Bakugo who had seated himself at the kitchen counter. 

"So what's up with you and All Might? I thought you were his number one fan?" Bakugo asked.

Izuku reached into his bag and pulled out his notebook as he replied. "You say that as if I was a bigger fan than you were," he joked. He flipped to the page that All Might had signed across. "Here's proof that he actually saved me. Though it was more like he gave me a concussion then proceeded to not want anything to do with me after making sure I wasn't dead."

Bakugo picked up the notebook gingerly, staring at the autograph before he processed what Izuku said. "... what do you mean?"

"As I said before, the sludge villain attacked me in the tunnel. It said something about me being the 'perfect disguise' and then proceeded to drown me. My vision started going black and then I was knocked out after hearing a loud yell. I woke up to All Might slapping my face. As soon as he realized that I was awake, he tried ditching to take the villain to the police." Izuku shook his head. "I went to get an autograph and saw that he'd already signed my book and when he went to jump away, I grabbed my bag and latched onto his leg without thinking." Bakugo huffed a laugh at the sight his mind pictured. "He landed us on a rooftop and I tried to ask him a question but he said he didn't have any time for my fan antics . I started mumbling about how I just had one question and then poof -" Izuku shook his hands in the air- "he deflated. He showed me this gruesome injury and started talking about how he got it in this fight that never made it to the public and how he can only hold his hero form for a couple hours now." Izuku paused. "Well, that's actually a national secret or something, but this is what he gets for telling some random kid. Anyways, I asked him what I've asked everyone, if a Quirkless person could be a hero." Bakugo gave him a look that he couldn't discern the meaning of. "Of course he said that there was no way and suggested I become a police officer or a doctor, then he left me there. I was trying to process everything when I heard your explosions and ran towards them. When the Pro Heroes were yelling at me, I saw All Might watching in the crowd, still in his deflated form, but then he just left . He was standing and watching the whole time and he didn't even bother to try to help."

Bakugo rubbed a hand down his face. "What the fuck," he muttered. 

"Anyways, I'm sorry if you're still mad about me rushing in and everything. But-" 

"Stop." Bakugo put a hand up. "Just, stop. I- thank... you. For saving me. Or for giving me a chance to defeat the villain at least. I- I'm sorry. About everything." He groaned. "This is so fucked. Why would- whatever. You know what? Fuck All Might. He's a shitty Hero, no matter what his stats are."  

Izuku gaped at his childhood friend. "But-"

"And I'm sorry for everything else too. You aren't useless Dek- Izuku. You proved that today. You acted like a Hero when no one else would." Bakugo seemed to think for a bit. "I shouldn't have said what I did at school today," he whispered. “I went too far, I just thought that you were,” he ran a hand through his hair, “I thought you were looking down on me.”

Izuku flinched, "it's oh- well, no. You shouldn't say that to anyone, it isn’t okay. If I was actually depressed or something or if I let what you and All Might said to me hit a little harder- I mean, he did leave me on a roof..." Izuku trailed off and considered his next words for a moment. He couldn't say that it was fine, because everyone brushing off Bakugo's behavior or encouraging him is what led to his actions. "But-" he looked up at Bakugo and caught his eyes. "I forgive you." 

Bakugo deflated and laid his head on the counter. "You shouldn't," he muttered.

"Well, maybe not. But that wouldn't solve anything would it?" Izuku asked. "Besides, if we can go back to at least a neutral relationship, that’d be nice. I'm kinda tired of applying burn cream everyday." 

Bakugo flinched. "Shit. I've fucked up." He looked back up at Izuku, apology written over every inch of his face. "I promise, I am sorry."

"I know, Kacchan," Izuku stated. "Just... be better. Be a Hero that anyone and everyone can count on."

Bakugo nodded before standing up. "I will. I should go home, the hag probably saw the fight on the news. She'll flip if I'm too late in coming home." 

Izuku laughed. "Auntie will probably get on you more than the Heroes got on me today."

Bakugo grimaced. "That's a given. And it's stupid they did that you know. If anything, they should've been berating me for quirk usage. Technically I broke a law today."

"Yeah, but we can't get it all right?" Izuku said as he walked Bakugo to the door. "See you tomorrow!" He said as he waved him out the door. Bakugo lifted a hand back to him as he walked back to his house. Izuku shut the door before he went and collapsed in bed. He was utterly exhausted.

Chapter Text

The last week of classes passed by in a blur. Bakugo stopped bullying Izuku and stopped calling him Deku, though there were a couple slip ups when he was annoyed and was ranting. With his end of bullying, came the rest of the school leaving him alone too. There was one instance that someone left a red spider lily on his desk, but Bakugo found out who it was and told them off for it. Even though Izuku wasn’t there for it, Bakugo had looked very smug on their walk home that night with the explanation of “I took care of it.” Their relationship was still tentative, but Izuku grew more comfortable around him and Bakugo had stopped using his quirk as much around him after seeing him flinch away from the sound and heat despite it not being directed at him.

He played games with Shinsou and Tenko every night that week as he'd long finished his finals. When he wasn't in class or playing games with his friends, he was studying fights online and analyzing the heroes and villains. He didn’t go out as Medusa for the whole week as he was nursing a constant headache, probably from the minor concussion. 

It wasn't until late Friday night, after the graduation ceremony and his and Bakugo's joint family celebrations that he finally felt well enough and took to the streets again. A nice Spring breeze blew past Izuku as he once again found himself on a rooftop. The microbot snakes that had woven themselves in his hair, obscuring his natural green curls, didn’t move an inch as if Izuku couldn’t be affected by the weather. 

He ran across the rooftops as the night went on. It was peculiarly calm and he had only stopped a couple robberies, both of people and of stores. He stopped on top of a seemingly abandoned warehouse and sat on the ledge. There were two people loitering about, but they had yet to notice him so he watched them as he took out a fruit squeeze and ate it. As he was watching, another man walked up to them. The three people moved into the warehouse and he cocked his head. He stuck the empty fruit squeeze into one of his pockets, then leaned over the ledge of the roof to look into one of the high windows of the building. It seemed that there was some sort of illegal deal going on as the people who had been loitering outside seemed to be discussing something. One of the people pulled out a case of glass bottles filled with some form of liquid from behind a crate and one of the other two pulled out a wad of yen. Izuku figured that was about as much proof he needed and hoped his contacts had captured enough footage as he pulled himself back onto the rooftop. 

He climbed down from the roof onto the window's ledge and propped it open before sliding inside as quietly as he could onto a viewer's ramp that ran the perimeter inside. 

"That enough?" One of the men huffed as the man that had handed over the case of glasses counted the wad of yen. 

The dealer had a goblin-like mutation with distorted facial features and grey skin. He had long claws on his fingers and fangs protruding from his mouth. He might also have some other forms of extra enhancement, but in what areas, that was currently impossible to tell. The two buyers didn't seem to have mutation quirks, so Izuku had no idea what their danger level was. 

Izuku watched as they finished their deal and the two buyers left the warehouse. Izuku climbed over the edge of the ramp as quietly as he could. He climbed under the ramp and to the wall, using his microbots as added support until he was hanging over the door. As the dealer was happily pocketing the money and going to leave the warehouse, Izuku dropped down in front of the only exit. The man stumbled back, yelping as Izuku rose from his crouch. 

“What the hell!” The man yelled. He charged at Izuku who dodged the blow and tapped a mechanism on his wrist that made his contacts and choker glow a bright pink. He willed the snakes to move in his hair for nothing but dramatic effect. The man had punched a hole through the wall where Izuku had been standing and cursed as he pulled his arm free then rounded on Izuku again. As soon as the man saw Izuku he froze in place. 

Izuku let the effect take hold for a few minutes and then questioned him. “Mind telling me what you were doing here tonight sir?” His voice was several tones deeper thanks to the voice modulator mask that he was wearing. 

The man visibly relaxed and responded, “I sold some dudes a concoction I made with my DNA to give them a rush of adrenaline.”

“And was this in a legal manner?” Izuku asked. 

“If it was legal, I wouldn’t be selling it to them in an abandoned warehouse you prick,” the man said as he started to bristle. 

Izuku clucked his tongue and made his eyes and choker glow pink again. As the man froze up again, Izuku stepped around him and whacked the back of his neck with the side of his hand, effectively knocking the man out. Izuku left the building as the man fell to the floor. 

***

A few blocks away, Izuku found the two men that had bought the drinks in an alley. They were sitting behind a dumpster and were holding the bottles they’d bought up close to their face. 

“This shit better work,” one of them huffed. 

“If it doesn’t we’ll pretend to go buy more and strip the man for all he’s got,” the other planned. 

Izuku rolled his eyes at the two and leapt across more rooftops until he was a safe distance away, hiding behind a chimney, though if he peeked around it he could perfectly see the two men. He pulled out a chunky phone and pulled up the footage he’d caught through his contacts. He started clipping the footage before pulling up a new text string with Detective Naomasa. 

*Unknown Number changed nickname to Medusa*

*Medusa changed your nickname to Detective Needs Help*

Medusa

*sent gps location*

*sent gps location* 

*shared video*

Thought you might want to arrest some people after viewing the footage. Last known locations attached. 

Detective Needs Help

How the fuck did you get this number?! I got a new phone! 

Change my name. 

Now. 

Medusa

No can do. 

You can only change nicknames once. 

I would hurry up with your arrests before they get away ;)

Detective Needs Help

Turn yourself in and stop chasing criminals. You are a criminal yourself, what’s your motive? 

Medusa

You take the fun out of everything! *pout* 

* Medusa changed your nickname to Fun Killer*

Fun Killer

You said you could only change it once!

Medusa

That’s what’s making this so funny! 

Oh look, the heroes finally arrived! Good multitasking. Hope you weren’t trying to track my phone. Tsk tsk. 

Izuku closed the chat and put his phone away as he watched Eraserhead drop into the alley and police cars screeched to a stop at both alley entrances to arrest the two buyers. He hid behind the chimney as Eraserhead started doing a slow scan of the area and hoped that he hadn’t been caught. He slowly crept to the low wall of the roof, keeping low and having the snake flatten to his head, before quickly and quietly escaping the roof and making his way home.

Chapter Text

Inko agreed to Izuku moving out quite easily. It might be saying something about their distancing relationship that there was no argument against it, just an almost relieved sigh and a question as to how much she needed to pay for it. It ended up that they found a four bedroom apartment close to the school and Bakugo was moving in with them as well. The fourth bedroom was for guests, and the potential thought that Tenko might escape his ‘Sensei’ and move in with them. 

The week before school started, Shinsou and Bakugo came over to help Izuku pack and move his stuff out. Bakugo had hung out with Izuku and Shinsou a couple times throughout the break, and were on okay terms, not quite friends but they seemed to tolerate each other for Izuku’s sake. Bakugo’s dad, Masaru, rented a moving van and everyone, besides Inko who was at work, helped to load everything up. Shinsou only had one box of stuff  plus his computer set up to bring with him, so he’d brought it over and it was already in the truck. Bakugo had a lot more items he was bringing, but not nearly as much as Izuku. 

“How do you still have this damn much hero merch after you got rid of all your All Might shit?” Bakugo asked. 

Izuku raised a brow at him. “It’s never been about what hero I bought for, I’ve always bought any hero merch I could. I just used to get super excited about All Might before I met him in person.”

Shinsou chuckled. “As long as the whole apartment isn’t decorated like this,” he added as he looked around the room. They’d already packed Izuku’s room, but there was still a lot of merchandise hanging around the walls. Izuku was only leaving All Might merch behind, and only that which he hadn’t already donated. 

Izuku gave Shinsou a serious look. “Only Eraserhead merch in the common rooms, deal?”

Shinsou reached out and they shook hands. “Deal.”

Bakugo shook his head. “Y’all are a bunch of damn nerds.”

“You’re one to talk. Plus, you agreed to move in with us,” Izuku countered.

“Hey boys! A couple more boxes then we’re full!” Masaru called from the front yard. 

The three boys each picked up a box and headed out of the house. Izuku locked the door behind them and they gave the boxes to Masaru to pack in the truck. They had tried to load some boxes themselves, but Masaru barred them from that activity after he realized that they were leaving extra room that could be filled and were stacking fragiles underneath other boxes. 

They all piled into the front of the van and Masaru soon joined them. It was a pretty short drive given that UA was only a train ride away from school, but now the boys would be able to walk together rather than take a train, and it was a cheap enough apartment that their parents and guardians weren’t worried about it. 

As soon as they got to the apartment, Masaru met with the housing manager to get the keys and talk over any remaining logistics. After ten minutes, he summoned the boys to bring a couple boxes and led them up to their new apartment. It was on the second floor and was a lot bigger than they’d thought it would be. 

“I claim this room!” Bakugo shouted after he shoved his way past everyone to look into each room. 

Izuku rolled his eyes as he set his box down and took a look around the apartment. Shinsou followed him as they looked into each room, including the one that Bakugo had claimed. As they were one of the last apartments in the hallway, three of the rooms had windows. Bakugo had claimed one of them and Shinsou and Izuku claimed the other two. The room without a window was left as the guest room. 

It took them several hours to unload the van as they had to carry the boxes up the stairs and as they got towards the middle of the van they had to start opening boxes to see what was Bakugo’s and what was Izuku’s. Masaru kept mumbling complaints at them for not having marked their boxes. 

Masaru ordered food for the boys to be delivered before he left. He had to return the van back before sunset or he’d get charged for having it an extra day. They quickly said their goodbyes and then set to unpacking their boxes. 

Izuku and Shinsou both unpacked their gaming setups first, but as neither of them had any furniture yet, they set up both computers on the dining table, much to Bakugo’s dismay. 

“Where the fuck are we supposed to eat now?” Bakugo asked, throwing his hands in the air as he came out of his room to see the boys finishing up their set ups. 

“It’s only for a short period of time, Kacchan, we’ll eat on the floor tonight and then go out to look for desks tomorrow.” Izuku waved him off. The doorbell rang perfectly on time and Kacchan cursed at them for taking his table as he went to grab the food. 

True to what Izuku said, they all gathered on the floor and ate their ramen there. They finished at different times, each throwing away their trash before going back to unpacking. Luckily they still had a week before they started school so there was plenty of time to unpack and organize their rooms as well as go out to look for some furniture. Bakugo was given a large sum of money for furniture and Izuku was given a sizable chunk though his mom said not to buy a bed as she’d be bringing his over sometime that week. Shinsou was given a very small amount of money that wouldn’t get him too much. They all decided that they would pool the money together and look for second hand furniture for each of them and see how far they could get until the money ran out. Shinsou tried arguing against this to no avail when Bakugo joined Izuku’s side. All three of them were getting weekly allowances as well, for food and other such necessities. 

“Hey Zu?” Shinsou peeked his head into Izuku’s room. 

Izuku looked over his shoulder from where he was hanging up a hero poster. “Yeah?”

“Did you see Tenko’s texts?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku looked back and forth between Shinsou and the poster and tilted his head. “Yeah, no. Haven’t really been paying attention to my phone.”

“He was wondering if we wanted to play a round of the hero/villain game?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku brightened up. “Oh! Let me just finish hanging this up and I’ll join you in the living room!” 

“Sounds good, I’ll let Tenko know,” Shinsou said as he walked back out to the living room.

Izuku put up the last corner of the poster and walked out towards the main room. He passed by Bakugo’s room and peeked in. Bakugo was lying on his futon, doing something on his phone. “Hey, Kacchan?”

“What’s up nerd?” Bakugo huffed, putting his phone down. 

“I just wanted to let you know that Shinsou and I are gonna play a game with Tenko online, so we might be a little loud,” Izuku said, scuffing his shoe on the floor. 

“Ugh, this better not be a nightly thing,” Bakugo said as he got up to grab his headphones.

Izuku chuckled. “Nah, probably not, especially once school starts up again it’ll be less frequent. Plus, once we have the consoles in our room, it’ll be a lot quieter.”

“Thank Kami you’re both across the hall from me,” Bakugo mumbled. “Go on and play your dumb game, I’m going to bed.” 

“Okay, g’night Kacchan!” Izuku said cheerfully as he closed Bakugo’s door and went out to the living room where Shinsou already had the game pulled up, though it was still on the home page.

“-stopped to tuck the princess in,” Shinsou was telling Tenko. 

Izuku dropped into the chair next to him and put his headphones on as his monitor powered up. “I was just warning him that we might get loud!” Izuku said indignantly. 

“Like I said, tucking the princess in,” Shinsou drawled. 

Izuku rolled his eyes as he heard a beep indicating that he’d joined the voice chat and he heard Tenko laughing on the other side. “Are we gonna play or are we gonna discuss Kacchan’s strict sleeping schedule that he’s held since we were toddlers?” 

“I say why not both,” Tenko hummed, still chuckling. 

“I swear to all the heroes, if you guys make me roll my eyes one more time, I’m gonna pass out and not play,” Izuku replied. Tenko sent him an invite to watch his stream and Izuku joined to watch it even though it was just going to be watching the three of them play. He usually joined so that he could read the comments, since Tenko usually didn’t read them while they were playing.

“As if you haven’t passed out during a game before,” Shinsou retorted. 

Izuku shoved his shoulder. “That was one time .” He pulled up the game they were going to play and opened a queue before inviting both of them into it. 

“Yeah, now if it happens again, I can just slap you back awake,” Shinsou said as he joined the queue, then dismissed Tenko’s invite to the stream. Tenko popped in at the same time Shinsou did and Izuku started the match. 

“If you wake me up, you might find yourself with a new hole and a lot of blood,” Izuku muttered, causing Tenko to laugh.

“I love that that’s what’s said when viewers finally pop into my stream,” Tenko replied. 

The game started and they got quiet for a while except for a few choice curse words at each other and their other teammates. Tenko responded to a couple viewers, and Izuku occasionally piped in his response when Tenko was too invested in the game to see them. 

“EatMyDust, you should come over sometime and we can all play in person,” Izuku invited Tenko, using his gamer tag since he was streaming. 

“That sounds like it’d end in a bloodbath,” Tenko said before shouting at someone about stealing his capture.

Shinsou laughed, “I think it’d be Pomeranian killing all of us for ruining his precious sleep schedule.”

Izuku laughed too. “Is his name now going to be Pomeranian on stream?”

“First thing I could think of,” Shinsou said, shrugging.

“Well, just as a fair warning, Pomeranian’s tired-angry is much worse than his awake-angry, trust me.”

“I’ll take your word for it and try not to make it happen,” Shinsou muttered. “Fucking asshole!” He shouted in the same breath. 

“If you keep shouting, the angry pomeranian will probably come out to bite you,” Tenko laughed. 

“Nah, he should be dead asleep right now. I’m pretty sure he’s either sleeping with his headphones or earplugs in, depending on if he remembered on time or not,” Izuku replied. 

The screen darkened before showing the ‘Victory’ screen. “Fuck, I don’t think I got enough kills there,” Shinsou muttered. 

Izuku patted his shoulder. “We can play another, we don’t have a schedule tomorrow or anything.” 

“Your asses better play another one. It’s been forever since we gamed,” Tenko said. 

“Poor baby Tank misses his gaming buddies,” Shinsou said sarcastically. 

“Oh Kami no, do not call me Tank,” Tenko said, rubbing his hand down his face.

“You just made a big mistake, EatMyDust,” Izuku said, cracking up. “You just admitted you don’t like it so that’s all he’ll probably call you from now on.”

“Fuck no, you guys. Please. Don’t call me Tank. Look what you did Insomniac! The viewers are referring to me as Tank now!” Tenko wailed. 

Izuku had a laughing fit, almost falling off his chair before Shinsou grabbed him and pulled him back up with a smug grin on his face. 

Shinsou peered at Izuku’s monitor and watched the steady stream of comments coming in calling Tenko ‘Tank’ and laughed. “Nah, it’s not his real name,” Shinsou said in response to a couple of the comments. “I’m purely fucking with him. Wait-shit- do you have minors watching you Tank?” Shinsou said. 

“If you’re saying that about the cussing, you literally cussed when you thought about it,” Izuku said, shaking his head. 

“I’m not the streamer! He should be the one thinking about this!” Shinsou retorted. Izuku laughed as he started another queue with them in it. 

“I put a warning on all of my streams about cussing and gore and the likes of that, so if there’s minors here then they’re prepared for it,” Tenko said, shrugging. 

They both joined the queue and got ready for another screaming match of a game.

Chapter Text

The first day of school, Izuku woke up early and made breakfast for everyone. He left plates for them on the now clear kitchen table and went back to his room to grab his stuff for school after eating his own breakfast. When he came back out Bakugo was sitting at the table eating, and Izuku smiled as he set his bag down by the door. He went up to Shinsou’s door and knocked on it. 

“Hey Shinsou! You up?” Izuku called to the silence behind the door. 

There was a grunt and the sound of shuffling in reply before Shinsou opened the door, glaring at Izuku. Izuku laughed and patted his head, “You have half an hour to get ready. Food’s on the table and I was about to make some coffee.” 

“Oh gods, you’re a life savior” Shinsou said, dropping his head down to bonk it on Izuku’s before making his way to the bathroom. 

Izuku rolled his eyes as he went back to the kitchen. “You want coffee or tea, Kacchan?” he offered. 

Bakugo tsked. “Tea. You know coffee will fuck me up.” 

Izuku nodded sagely. Bakugo and caffeine didn’t tend to mix very well. He put the teapot on the stove after checking that it had enough water then got out three cups and the pour over supplies for his and Shinsou’s coffee and a tea bag for Bakugo. 

Just as he finished making the drinks, Shinsou walked out in his uniform and slumped into one of the kitchen table seats, pulling his plate towards himself. Izuku set a cup of coffee in front of him then went to give Bakugo his tea as he had returned to his room. 

Izuku brought his own coffee with him into the bathroom and set it on the counter as he tried to figure out how to tie his damn tie. Why the hell was this part of the uniform? He’d never had to wear one before. 

“Hey nerd, stop that. You’re making it worse,” Bakugo said from the doorway. Izuku looked over at him and saw that his tie was tied perfectly. 

“When’d you learn how to tie a tie?” Izuku asked, pouting.

Bakugo stepped in and took the tie out of Izuku’s hands and undid the knot he’d made in his attempt. “Pa and the Old Hag work in the fashion industry, idiot. Of course I know how to tie a damn tie.”

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, “oh yeah.” He grabbed his coffee and downed the last of it as Bakugo tied his tie perfectly. 

“Now let’s go herd Insomniac out the damn door so we’re not late to school,” Bakugo said as he grabbed Izuku’s coffee cup and stormed towards the kitchen. 

Izuku laughed. “Are you aware that you just called him by his gamer tag?”

Bakugo glared over his shoulder. “His what now?”

 “Insomniac is the name he uses when we play games,” Izuku explained. 

“Yeah, and this idiot goes by Medusa,” Shinsou drawled as he handed Izuku his backpack and went towards the front door. 

Bakugo put the cup in the sink then grabbed his own bag and they all left the apartment, Izuku locking it behind them. “Why the hell did you pick Medusa?” Bakugo asked.

“Why not? She’s got green snakes for hair like how I have wild green hair. We’re both unwanted by society, and have been shunned for something that we have no control over,” Izuku shrugged as he explained the reason for the name. Bakugo still didn’t know about his little escapades, though Izuku also hadn’t given him much of a chance to learn about them as he hadn’t gone out all week, wanting to get used to the new apartment first. 

Bakugo chuckled a harsh laugh. “Pretty depressing dude. Though I will admit it fits.”

Shinsou caught Izuku’s eye and Izuku glared back at his mischievous look. “You should play with us sometime!” Izuku said before Shinsou could damn him with whatever he was thinking of saying. 

“I don’t even have a set up,” Bakugo said. “How would I play?”

“We all know Auntie Mits would buy you a set up as soon as you asked,” Izuku commented.

Shinsou laughed, “I fucking wish.” 

“Yeah and then she’d make me model again for some fucking show to pay it off,” Bakugo countered.

Izuku shrugged and they rounded the corner to UA. They stopped just outside of the gates, staring up at the school. 

“I can’t believe we actually made it,” Izuku whispered. Shinsou quietly nods and Bakugo scoffs. 

“Of course we did, Deku. They’d be stupid not to let us in.” And with that, Bakugo sticks his hands in his pockets and crosses the threshold onto UA campus. 

Izuku looks to Shinsou in time to see him rolling his eyes. “Dumbass doesn’t even know what class we’re in, but still acts all high and mighty,” he says. 

Izuku laughs and they walk into the school together. “To be fair, we don’t even really know what class we’re in.”

“Of course we do,” Shinsou shrugs. “Underground heroics, duh. You said so yourself.” 

Izuku blushed and hid his face in his hands. “That’s a working theory not fact ,” he rushed out. “We don’t have any concrete evidence!” 

Shinsou shrugged again. “It’s good enough for me.”

Izuku gaped at him, but at this point they were already at the front doors, following the sea of students streaming inside. There was a loud buzz of chatter around them, so they settled into comfortable silence and tried to find the 1-U course. They walked along with the other first years, but there was no classroom labelled 1-U, so Izuku suggested finding a teacher to ask. 

“Um, Izuku, what is that?” Shinsou asked as they backtracked through the first year hall and saw a yellow lump slithering along the floor. 

Izuku tilted his head and his mind raced at whether it was a student, a weird new genetic mutation of a caterpillar, a teacher, or something else. “I’m going to assume that it is a person in a sleeping bag,” he concluded. 

Shinsou huffed out a laugh. “And how many possibilities did you come up with before that conclusion?”

“About 50,” he confessed. “Um, excuse me?” Izuku asked the caterpillar person. It was too strange to think about who or what might be in the sleeping bag, so he settled on thinking of them as a caterpillar. 

The person stood gracefully (or as gracefully as he could attempt in a sleeping bag, but at least he didn’t fall over). “1-U is this way, you’re late,” the man said. 

Shinsou and Izuku shared confused looks, but followed the man as he proceeded to somehow walk in a sleeping bag down the hall. 

Chapter Text

There was no way they would have found the classroom on their own. Izuku was thinking that maybe 1-U stood for Underground Classroom rather than Underground Heroics. The person, whom Izuku assumed was his teacher, led them back through the hall to the entrance of the school and they took stairs that were hidden behind another set and led downwards. 

Hitoshi and Izuku shared a look at the top of the stairs, showing both of their confusion. Izuku shrugged and followed the man down the steps and Hitoshi followed behind him. The steps were lit with overhead lights and they soon found themselves in the Ground Zero floor, according to the signs. The man led them to a classroom labelled 1-U and they both slumped in relief. At least with this strange encounter, they wouldn’t be getting lost again. The man opened the classroom door and gestured the two boys inside as he stepped out of his sleeping bag. Izuku turned and gaped at him as he walked past. “You’re Eraserhead!” 

Eraserhead looked up at him with confused eyes. “I am. Go take a seat.”

Izuku nodded his head and rushed to the seat next to Shinsou. There was a podium at the front of the room, in front of a whiteboard, and what was supposedly Eraserhead’s desk in the corner of the room. Besides that, there were two couches facing each other and a low table with a pile of seat cushions next to it. The two boys sat together on one of the couches and Eraserhead took a seat at the other couch. 

“Welcome to 1-U, in which the three of us will be enduring hell together for the next three years.” Shinsou looked at Izuku wide eyed. “Normally you would change teachers in each year of school, but as this is a trial course, you’ll just be dealing with me as your main teacher, and then anyone else that I might bring in for extra assistance.”

Izuku raised his hand and Eraserhead waved for him to go ahead and speak. “Why are we the only two students?”

“Because teaching underground heroes is vastly different from teaching limelight heroes and I didn’t want to deal with a full class of hellions to corral. Plus, you are the only two that caught my eye and both seemed not too stoked for limelight hero work as per your written exams.”

Izuku shrugged at the response. There were a couple questions that he remembered were on the written test that he definitely didn’t answer as a potential limelight hero. “Will you teach us every subject?”

Eraserhead shook his head as he sat on his desk. “No, you will be with other classes for the core subjects and with me for homeroom and underground heroics. We will meet in this room every morning and go over the schedule for the day before starting our work.” 

Shinsou slowly raised his hand. Eraserhead waved at him to speak. “Does that mean that we’ll be with other heroic courses too?”

“Yes, and no. So, each class is on a different schedule just as you’ll be. You’ll have homeroom immediately followed by heroics as that was the only time to schedule it in comparison to the other first year courses. The schedule may change day by day as we figure out the best way to get you into each subject.”

“Sensei,” Izuku said, “won’t the other students question our being there?”

“That’s very likely, but it doesn’t matter. You are there to learn just as they are. Just say that you’re hybrid students.”

Izuku ran what he’d learned through his head thinking over the pros and cons of this teaching style. “Is there an option to take extra classes?” 

“Such as?” Eraserhead asked. 

“Well, I also like making my own support items…” Izuku raised his finger to his mouth. “You said that we caught your eye so that must mean that you either were at the exams or watched videos. Therefore you must have seen my fighting which might be how I caught your eye, so-”

“Zu, get to the point,” Shinsou interrupted. 

“Oh!” Izuku looked up shyly at his teacher. “Sorry. Um, so, you must have seen my support items, all of which I made myself.”

“The bots and all?” Eraserhead asked. 

Izuku nodded enthusiastically. “Yup! I’ve played around with making support items for a really long time now! I kinda take pride in my microbots.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “But, they can also use a lot of work.” 

Eraserhead nodded, “okay, I can talk to Nezu about getting you set up in a support class as another elective course.” 

“Thank you Eraserhead-Sensei.” Izuku said, smiling. 

“Ah, call me Aizawa-Sensei here. No need for hero names unless we’re in the field.” 

“Yes sir, Aizawa-Sensei!” The two boys chirped happily. 

“Okay, are there any more questions on the layout?” Aizawa asked.

They both took contemplative looks before shaking their heads. 

“Okay, there’s technically an opening ceremony, but I hate those. Let’s head out to the training grounds. Your gym suits are behind the podium.” With that the two boys scrambled to grab their suits and followed Aizawa to the gym. 

After changing in the locker room within the gym, the boys met Aizawa in the main area of the gym where there seemed to be an obstacle course of sorts. 

“Alright, today will be a basic physical strength test, similar to those done in middle school. Then you’ll have a break before we move to see how quickly you can complete this obstacle course.” 

Aizawa led them to the other end of the room where there were a bunch of activities set up from places to measure jumping distances to places to measure ball throws. Izuku and Shinsou shared a shit-eating grin that promised an unspoken challenge between the two. Aizawa decided to deliberately ignore the look on their faces and led them through the general physical tests. Izuku ended up winning their self-made competition, though with his late night activities, neither of them were surprised. 

Aizawa led them to the obstacle course next, where they would be going at the same time, so of course that meant that they challenged each other once again and made it into a race. Aizawa shook his head before shouting for them to start. Izuku took a running start and jumped onto the wall that had carved out grooves. His hands quickly found purchase and he scrambled up the wall. When he got to the top, he saw Shinsou making his way up and stuck his tongue out at him. 

“Oh fuck you spidermonkey,” Shinsou retorted, picking up his pace in the climb. 

Izuku laughed and looked towards the next obstacle. It was a stretch of blocks that he was supposed to jump across to get to the next obstacle. He looked to the side and saw that Aizawa had a stopwatch out as well as a tablet. He quirked an eyebrow at Izuku when he caught his eye. Izuku shrugged and looked back to the steps as Shinsou finally gripped the top of the climbing wall. As Shinsou worked to pull himself up, Izuku ran and jumped to the first raised stone. He nimbly jumped across each of them. He barely heard Shinsou whisper “jackass” as he started making his own way across the stones, albeit much more cautiously. 

The next obstacle was jumping walls with bars up in between that Izuku assumed they were supposed to roll under. Izuku laughed as he jumped down from the stepping stone and rolled back to his feet. He barely spared Shinsou a glance- he had caught up to the last step- as he took a running start again and vaulted over the first jump and grabbed onto the bar on his way down. He used his momentum to swing himself around the bar and threw himself over the next wall. This time he rolled under the second bar before jumping up the second wall and grabbed onto the ledge, pulling himself up and letting himself drop to the other side. He rolled under the other last bar and ran for the next section. There was a sort of track to follow that led to a small tunnel. Thanking his small stature, he crawled through it to the other side with no problem. He came out the other side and looked across the track to where Shinsou was climbing up the second wall. 

“Not even a competition at this point!” Izuku called over to him. Shinsou flipped him off as he dropped and rolled under the second bar. 

“This isn’t a competition! Hurry up and get to the checkpoint!” Aizawa yelled. 

Izuku smiled and saluted him. “Yes sir!” He ran towards his next obstacle: dodging panels. As if he hadn’t spent most of his life running and dodging through tight quarters. Izuku booked it through the panels, easily taking the sharp turns to weave through them. He exited the last one and jumped up onto the ropes hanging down for the next obstacle. He quickly climbed up the rope and grabbed the bar with both his hands and swung himself around to drop on the other side. 

He ran on the track again to the next step which were essentially two skateboarding ramps right after another: a kicker and a spine. He assumed it was meant to mimic jumping over a ditch and ran over it and vaulted to the spine ramp, rolling down the side of it. The next step of this run was a rickety balance bridge that Izuku climbed up with his arms out as he made his way across. It ended in two stepping panels that he hopped on before jumping back onto the ground and looking for Shinsou. He was gaining ground, already at the skating ramps, so Izuku ran for the next obstacle. He had to jump through a mock window. Again, he thanked his small stature as he dove through the window, landing on his hands and turning the jump into a roundoff. He spun and turned to the apex ladder in front of him. He took this more slowly in order to show his balance as he climbed up the planks then down the other side. Shinsou was climbing up the steps behind him as Izuku ran up the next ramp, jumping down the two steps before crossing the imagined finish line. He threw his arms up and cheered as he turned to watch Shinsou jump down the two steps behind him. 

Aizawa walked up to them and handed them both a water bottle. “You both did extremely well.” 

Izuku smiled as he took several gulps of water. 

“Don’t drink too much too fast or you’ll get a stomachache,” Aizawa chided. Izuku looked to the side and noticed Shinsou was drinking the water with the same fervor. “Now that that’s done with, why don’t you both change and meet me back in the classroom where I’ll go over your results. Then I’ll give you this week’s schedule so you know what classes you’ll be joining.” 

They both nodded and headed to the locker rooms together. 

“This is gonna be more fun than I thought,” Shinsou said as he shouldered the locker room door open. 

“Don’t say that where Aizawa can hear or he might just torture us through physical training.”

Shinsou laughed. “I honestly can’t even remark against that because it totally seems like something he would do.”

Izuku laughed and headed to the locker he’d used. “Let’s change quickly, I’m interested to see what Aizawa has to say.”

Shinsou nodded and grabbed his stuff out of the locker. “Yeah, let’s hurry to get his complaints and suggestions. Sounds like a great time.”

Izuku laughed and started changing. 

Chapter Text

After Aizawa gave them their scores and his critiques, he gave them their schedules for the week. For the first week they’d be attending classes with 1-A for the most part, which was great for Izuku and Shinsou, because at least they knew someone in that class. 

When the bell rang for break, Izuku and Shinsou walked together through the halls, trying to find where their next class was. Luckily for them they were saved halfway through their break when they heard the familiar pop of an explosion and followed the sound knowing they’d find Bakugo at the source. 

What they did not expect to find was Bakugo holding a short student with purple balls for hair up off the ground, yelling at him. “Who the fuck do you think you are groping the girls in class HAH?!” 

Izuku and Shinsou shared a look and Izuku rushed forward to his friend, pushing through a small crowd that had started forming around them. There was a small group of girls standing huddled behind Bakugo seeming to not know what to do about the encounter. Izuku decided that he could let Bakugo handle the kid while he figured out what happened and he walked up to the girls with a gentle smile. 

“Hi, my name’s Izuku Midoriya. I’m assuming that Kacchan is going off about something that kid did to one of you?” 

The girls shared a concerned look before the tallest one with black hair stepped forward. “I don’t really condone the way Bakugo is handling the situation, but Mineta acted rather… atrociously towards several of us in class today.” 

“I see,” Izuku said, nodding. “Do you know where the teacher went?” 

A girl with short brown hair stepped next to the taller girl. “He left a while ago.” 

Izuku nodded again and turned back to Bakugo who was still yelling at Mineta. He walked over and tapped Bakugo’s shoulder. 

“ What ,” Bakugo snarled before he turned and saw Izuku. His eyes widened at the sight of Izuku’s face. Izuku was angry. No, he was pissed . Bakugo had never seen this side of him. 

“Put him down Bakugo,” Izuku said, voice cold and flat. Bakugo set Mineta on the floor and stepped back with his arms crossed. “Mineta, right?” 

Mineta looked angry, but nodded his head. 

“And you decided it was a good idea to sexually harass your classmates on the first day of school?” 

“Who even are you? And where do you get off lecturing me? Being a hero is all about getting access to girls! They should be happy to be getting my attention!” Mineta yelled.

Izuku blinked. Bakugo growled. Shinsou whispered, “what the fuck.” 

“Are you implying that your only reason to become a hero is to sexually harass women and girls?” Izuku asked coldly. 

Mineta flinched at Izuku’s tone. “Well-”

“I would be careful in how you respond,” Bakugo ground out. 

“Everyone has different reasons for becoming a hero. Mine just happens to be the pursuit of all the hot babes,” Mineta replied with a dreamy look on his face. 

“You’re going to become a hero just to put women in danger? Because that’s what you’re saying. By pursuing the girls in your class without consent you put them in danger. By becoming a hero for the sole purpose of pursuing women you are endangering any and every female identifying person that you encounter. By performing sexual misconduct you are not being a hero, but a villain. You are putting civilians in danger. You are putting other heroes in danger. You are putting your classmates in danger. You are not becoming a hero because a hero isn’t someone who endangers others. A hero is someone who saves others.” Izuku glared at the boy that was now cowering in front of him. “It is a miracle you landed in the hero course at this school, let alone 1-A. You are not worthy of being a hero if the only reason you can think of for becoming a hero is to grope women without consent. Know that this is not going unnoticed and will be reported.” Izuku went to turn away. 

“It’s not like anything is going to happen anyways,” Mineta grumbled. 

Izuku spun back around and Mineta squeaked as he jumped back away from him. “If the school chooses to not do anything about it,” Izuku looked up to one of the hidden cameras in the wall and spoke his next words while looking right into it, “then the school can expect a lawsuit for not following the sexual misconduct laws that it’s bound to.” 

Mineta paled and hurriedly walked away. Izuku turned around once more and walked up to the girls who were gaping at him. He gave them a soft smile again and scratched the back of his head nervously. “Um, would you guys be willing to come file complaints with me?” No one responded.

Bakugo huffed a laugh which caused Izuku to snap his head towards him with a questioning look. “You’re gonna give my classmates whiplash with your mood changes.”

The crowd had started to depart with the situation dissolved and Shinsou walked up next to Izuku and slung an arm over his shoulder. “I, for one, didn’t know you were such a scary feminist Zuku.”

Izuku sputtered. “Wh- but, it was wrong . We already have enough corrupt heroes as is!” 

One of the girls laughed. Izuku looked back to see all of them beaming at him. The one with pink skin spoke up, “I have no qualms about making a report against that pervert.” The rest of the girls nodded along with serious looks on their faces. 

Izuku beamed at them. “Great! We can go at lunch or after school tomorrow! Nezu should be in his office during both times.” 

The tall black haired girl nodded. “I believe that, with our schedule, after school would work best. Having us eat is important with all the training we’re going to do after lunch, so I don’t want to take that opportunity from my classmates.” 

The bell rang and Bakugo turned to Izuku. “Where’s your next class nerd?” 

“Ah! Right! That’s actually why we’re here. We’re joining your class for English!” Izuku said excitedly. 

Shinsou hummed. “We’re really hoping that you know where your next class is ‘cause our teacher did not give us room numbers.” 

Bakugo looked between the two of them and smiled with his teeth. “This is going to be a great class.” Izuku returned the smile and nodded. The rest of 1-A that was still gathered slowly edged away from the two, wondering what their relationship was and just how this next class was about to go.

Chapter Text

Izuku and Shinsou sat by Bakugo as the second bell rang. The classroom was situated in rows so Izuku sat behind Bakugo, with Shinsou seated next to Izuku, near the middle of the classroom. 

“Alright little listeners! Welcome to your English class!” Present Mic called as he walked into the classroom. “Now, most of you already introduced yourselves in homeroom, but we have two additions in this class, so we’re going to do it again!” 

Bakugo tsked and Izuku reached forward and slapped the back of his head. There was a snicker and Izuku looked to the side to see a blonde with a black lightning streak in his hair covering his mouth and ducking his head. Bakugo turned back to glare at Izuku and Izuku shrugged, trying and failing to portray innocence. After Bakugo turned around, Izuku sent a small smile the blonde’s way. 

“… We’ll start at the left and weave our way through the room,” Yamada was explaining. “Please state your name, pronouns, and something you enjoy doing. I’ll go first and then we’ll move to young Uraraka here. My hero name is Present Mic, though you may call me Presentation Michael, as most of my students do, or Yamada-Sensei. My pronouns are he/they and I enjoy hosting my radio show!”

The class started going around and Izuku took notes as he tried memorizing names to faces. Hopefully he’d be able to know their quirks soon, too. Soon it was Bakugo’s turn and he said that he enjoyed cooking. 

It was good that Bakugo went before Izuku so that he wasn’t taking notes when it was his turn to speak up, since he had a full book on him already anyways. “Hello, my name is Izuku Midoriya, my pronouns are he/they and I enjoy doing hero analysis.” 

Bakugo sent him a questioning look and Izuku waved him off. He hadn’t told Bakugo about his pronouns before, so he assumed that’s what the look was about. When it was Shinsou’s turn, he ducked his head and stated his ‘he/they’ pronouns and that he liked playing games. The rest of the class went and Izuku had a page separated out for each of the 1-A students in his journal now. 

“Alright listeners! Everyone will be getting to know each other a lot better as the year goes on, so let’s jump into the logistics of English and what our year is going to look like!” Yamada-Sensei pulled out a stack of papers from behind the podium and passed small piles down each aisle. When Izuku got his, he realized that it was just the syllabus. This was going to be a boring day after all. 

***

The next class they were in was Art with Midnight. She instructed the students to make a page filled with who they were through artwork using the supplies spread out throughout the room. Izuku had chosen a box of colored pencils and was drawing out different items that he thought depicted who he was: notebooks, a quick sketch of his microbots, red shoes, a rough depiction of UA, among other things. When he was pleased that he had added everything that he wanted, he turned his paper over. 

Midnight-Sensei told them that as soon as they were done with their pieces that they were able to use the rest of the class time for whatever they wanted. Izuku chose to pull out his phone and checked his notifications. 

He had an email from Nezu that detailed the information about taking a split-focused course load. Apparently, it was really good that he’d already gotten into heroics because it couldn’t be added as an elective without extensive paperwork and further testing. However, since he was applying to support, it could just take over one of his electives and he’d be able to start today! 

Bakugo flipped his drawing over and turned around to face Izuku. He whispered harshly, “what are you so giddy about?” At the questioning look Izuku sent him, he explained, “your leg is tapping and now that I’ve turned around you got a big ass grin plastered on your face.”  

“Oh!” Izuku said loudly, before quieting his voice as he remembered that other students were still working. “It looks like I’ll be able to focus on both my main course as well as support! I just got confirmation from Principal Nezu!” 

“Why do you want to go into support?” Bakugo asked, tilting his head. 

“To… make support items?” Izuku asked, tilting his own head in turn. 

“Ay! Zu! Give me that pencil and stop waving it around!” Shinsou called, snatching the pencil out of his hand. 

“Sorry, Toshi,” Izuku said, smiling at him. He put the pencils that were spread out on his desk in the box and passed them over to Shinsou. They had been snatching the pencils from each other’s desk throughout the exercise since Shinsou never got up to get any. 

“Also, Zu makes hella support items, Bakugo, just go in his room and take a look around,” Shinsou supplied. 

“Wait, do you three live together?” The blonde with a lightning strike, Kaminari, asked. 

Izuku smirked at him and stage-whispered, “yeah, don’t tell anyone but Bakugo needs to be asleep before 9pm or he’ll start biting.”

Kaminari paled. “Biting what?”

Shinsou piped in, “biting our-”

Bakugo let off a small explosion masking whatever it was that Shisou said. “Shut up the both of you.”

Izuku and Shinsou burst out laughing as Bakugo huffed and folded his arms across his chest. 

“I never should have moved in with you guys,” Bakugo said as he sank lower in his chair. 

Izuku pouted and ruffled Bakugo’s hair. “Awe, it’s only fair that I get to tease you, you owe me remember?”

Bakugo huffed again and swatted Izuku’s hand away, muttering, “whatever nerd.”

Izuku perked up as an idea hit him. He jumped out of his seat and ran to the back of the room where the art supplies were. Bakugo and Shinsou sent him wary glances as he grabbed another box of colored pencils and a small cup of water. Shinsou caught on as Izuku made his way back to his desk and sent him a small smirk as he worked to quickly finish his piece before chaos ensued. He added the last touches before gathering his, Izuku’s, and Bakugo’s pieces and handed them to Midnight-Sensei. 

Izuku sent him a nod of thanks as he opened the box of watercolor colored pencils and dipped an orange one into his cup of water. Bakugo saw the supplies and growled. “Don’t you even fucking dare, nerd.”

Izuku looked up with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Whatever do you mean, Kacchan?” Izuku slowly stood up. Bakugo got up and backed away, right into Shinsou. He set off a small explosion, but Shinsou grabbed his hands and held them up against each other. 

“Can’t have any of that, now can we, Bakugo?” 

“Let g-” Bakugo said, before freezing up. 

“ Now stand still for two minutes with your arms out for Izuku ,” Shinsou commanded.

Izuku smirked as he reached over and dipped the pencil in water again before starting to draw explosions all over Bakugo’s hands. The red-head, Kirishima, came over with a look of glee and held the cup of water for Izuku while Kaminari fanned the colored pencils out between his hands for Izuku to choose between. By the end of the two minutes, Bakugo’s hands were covered in a colorful arrangement of explosions, spanning up his wrists and forearms as Shinsou had rolled his sleeves up for Izuku. 

“Those are so good!” the pink girl, Mina, piped as she came over to see what was happening when Bakugo screeched and pushed away from the group. 

“Dude, will you draw electricity on me?” Kaminari asked. 

Izuku’s eyes widened a fraction as he looked between Bakugo pouting at his desk and Kaminari’s excited eyes. 

“I- sure?” Izuku answered. 

“Yes!” Kaminari shouted as he pumped his fist in the air before rolling his sleeves back and sitting at a desk with his palms flat on the desk. 

The class ended with several of 1-A covered in colorful drawings up and down their forearms and hands. Izuku was smiling his 100-watt smile as he left the class with Shinsou when the bell rang.

Chapter Text

Izuku and Shinsou split up after art as they had separate classes. Before going to English with Class 1-A, Izuku and Shinsou had talked to Aizawa-Sensei about what Shinsou would be doing when Izuku went to his support class and Aizawa had begrudgingly offered to take Shinsou for some extra training for the period. 

Shinsou was more than excited to go find their homeroom teacher when the bell rang and Izuku waved to him as he set his course for the support department. It wasn’t really all that hard to find as all Izuku had to do was listen for the clanking of tools and the yell of “TAKE COVER” before an explosion went off. The door to one of the classrooms was blown off its hinges and Izuku crept up to the doorway, being cautious in case another explosion came his way. 

“Mei I swear to god, it’s only halfway through the first day and you’ve already set off six explosions,” Power Loader said as he came out from behind the desk. 

“I would count that as a success!” a pink haired girl shouted waving a wrench in the air. 

Izuku tilted his head and, after one more glance around the room to confirm that nothing else was about to explode, he stepped inside. 

Power Loader immediately set his sights on Izuku and positively beamed. “Ah! Midoriya! Welcome to the class. Students, this here is Midoriya Izuku, he is a hybrid student and will be popping in from time to time.”

Izuku smiled and waved a little at the class. 

The pink haired girls’ eyes were digging into him and he looked down and shuffled his feet at the staring. “Are you the one with the microbots the teachers were talking about?” She finally asked.

Izuku’s head snapped over to her and he met her eyes; they were gleaming with interest. “I- uh- yeah, I guess that’d be me?” 

Mei’s eyes glowed at his response and she started questioning him at a rapid fire pace. “Oh my god, I need to see your babies. Do you have them? Please tell me you brought them. Do they work like the ones in the pre-quirk era Big Hero 6 movie? What kind of functions do they have? How do you control them? Do you have it connected to your voice, or it only connected to your brain? We can work out a voice plan if they’re only throughout brain waves because what if you lost your headband on the field? Oh! I need to see the headband! Wait, are you wanting to be a hero? I’m assuming that you are since you took the hero practical and you’re a hybrid student and-”

“Mei, shut up and give him a chance to breathe,” a boy with long brown hair, tied back in a messy bun, cut her off. 

Izuku waved his hands, “no it’s fine really! I do have the bots, and I might have gotten a little inspiration from the movie, yeah. I have a headband that connects the bots to my thoughts, but it definitely needs some upgrades. The voice plan is definitely a good idea, I hadn’t thought of that before! I am wanting to be a hero, but I’m hoping to go underground. Here, I’ll get them out-” Izuku responded in just as rapid a pace. 

He reached into his backpack and pulled out his headband and pouch of microbots. Mei’s eyes seemed to zoom in, wait was that her quirk? Maybe her eyes actually were zooming in on the headband and pouch as soon as she could see them. She seemed to be holding herself back from pouncing on him and taking them, so he handed the headband over before he got tackled. 

“Can I try it on? Does it automatically connect to whoever’s brain waves or does it only connect to yours? It’s just a bit more programming, so I feel like you’d have that in there,” Mei asked, not slowing her speech down as he was able to keep up before. 

“Go ahead and put it on, Nedzu already tested it, so it’s confirmed to work on other people. That was one of the first functions I put into it so that I could bring it into the practical exam!” Izuku said excitedly. 

She hurriedly put the headband on and it took a few tries, with her face scrunched in confusion, before the microbots shifted and stood on Izuku’s hand. Her eyes glowed as she finally got the microbots to listen to her commands. 

Power Loader cleared his throat and Izuku startled. “Are you guys ready to join class?” 

“Sorry Sensei,” Izuku mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with the hand that wasn’t holding the still-standing microbots. 

“Don’t apologize to him, he’s just jealous that he wasn’t the first person to test the microbots,” Mei stated bluntly before taking off the headband. The microbots immediately fell back over in Izuku’s hand and he put them in their pouch before taking the headband that Mei was holding out to him. 

Power Loader shook his head and pointed to Mei’s workstation. “You’ll be lab partners, go ahead and take your seats.” 

Izuku and Mei went to their table as Power Loader started going over safety procedures, apparently for the fourth time that day. Mei cracked a grin at Izuku and he gave her a small smile in turn. 

Izuku tried listening along to the protocols of safety gear and evacuation practices, plus what chemicals not to mix together unless they wanted a repeat of the six explosions that they’d already experienced that morning. Mei giggled under her breath at that point, not looking up from the piece she was fiddling with under the table. 

As soon as Power Loader finished his lecture, Mei shot her hand up causing him to sigh as he waved for her to speak. 

“Can we borrow two tablets please?” Mei asked.

Power Loader dug around his desk then walked over with two tablets. “If you break these, you’re paying for the replacements,” he said before walking away. 

Mei handed one of the tablets to him and he tilted his head in question. “Open it up and log into your account, then we can share a drive to make plans for the microbots!” 

Izuku raised an eyebrow at her, but complied with her instructions. Mei named the drive “Izuku’s Babies” which made him sputter. “Why’d you name it that ?”

“Inventions are our babies, duh. This drive will hold all of our plans and ideas regarding your inventions. I just shared the drive for my babies too! It might be a little overwhelming though so you definitely don’t have to look at everything, but with these drives we can collaborate or add suggestions whenever we see fit! It only makes sense since we’ll be table mates for probably the next three years,” Mei shrugged as she continued working on the tablet, opening and closing documents at rapid speed. 

Izuku created a document for his headband and began sketching the design and writing out its functions and blueprints. Before he knew it, the bell was ringing and he’d already created several detailed documents for his creations and was already getting suggestions from Mei.

Chapter Text

On Wednesday, Bakugo went straight to his parents house after school and would be spending the night there, so Shinsou and Izuku convinced Tenko to come over with his gaming set up and soon they all had their systems set up at the kitchen table. It was a miracle that they’d gotten a table that was big enough for this, though maybe next time they would just play a board game to cut the hassle of moving their whole systems. 

Izuku volunteered to make dinner for everyone and decided to make his mom’s katsudon, something he hadn’t had since he was little. Tenko had brought his streaming gear so that they could all stream together, though Shinsou and Izuku weren’t too keen on the idea of being on camera so it was decided they would just be joining with microphones.  

After they ate Izuku’s katsudon, they opened their gaming apps and Izuku started the queue while Tenko started the stream, titling it “EatMyDust, Insomniac, and Medusa Walk into a Bar….” Shinsou facepalmed when he got invited into the stream and Izuku couldn’t stop laughing; Tenko was wearing a pleased smirk at their reactions. They both quickly joined the stream and Tenko fiddled with his camera and microphone set up.

“Of all things you could’ve named the stream,” Shinsou said as he joined the queue. Tenko popped in immediately after. Already, there were several viewers joining the lobby of the stream.

“Did you really expect anything else?” Izuku asked him, clicking for the game to start loading up. 

Shinsou sighed as he shook his head, “no, but one could hope.” 

Tenko laughed at Shinsou’s look of being done with the two of them. The game started up and the boys dropped the conversation as they discussed plans for the round. 

***

They played for a couple hours and convinced Tenko to sleep over, mainly because the viewers were rioting and threatening to cancel him if he didn’t. Izuku had just smirked when Tenko cursed him out for deliberately asking while the stream was still live. 

They all collapsed on the couch after Izuku and Shinsou put their gaming setups away in their rooms. Izuku sat in between his two friends happily as Shinsou grabbed the remote and got the TV set to the streaming service that the Bakugo's let them log into. 

“You guys wanna watch the new All Might movie that came out?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku couldn’t hold back his disgusted scoff as Tenko asked, “really? wait-” 

Both boys turned to Izuku. Shinsou raised an eyebrow. “Okay, seriously Zu, what gives? Spill the tea on All Might. Between that scoff, and more importantly the way you ditched all your All Might merch prior to UA, something has to be up.” 

Izuku squeaked as he looked between the two boys who were both looking at him expectantly.

“I mean, I won’t argue against it ‘cause you both know how I feel when it comes to All Might, but you’re a hero fanatic,” Tenko commented. 

“I- well, uh, he’s just not that great of a hero?” Izuku said, or rather asked. 

“Guilty as charged, what else?” Tenko asked, bending one of his legs onto the couch to better face Izuku. 

“Um, he… may have leftmeonarooftopaftergivingmeaconcussionandtellingmeIcouldn’tbeahero,” Izuku rushed out, staring down at his hands as he wrung them in his lap. 

“Sorry, Zu, but what ?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku sighed. “Remember the sludge villain?” They both nodded. It had been all over the news and they’d been gaming soon after where it was mentioned in passing. “Well, All Might stopped it the first time that I ran into it, but he did so by punching the villain as it was shoving itself down my throat, and I don’t know what knocked me out: the punch or the choking. But, I woke up to All Might slapping my face and as soon as he realized I was awake he tried bolting, but I clung to his leg and we landed on a rooftop and I asked him if somebody that didn’t have a quirk could be a hero and he said no and went on this whole speech about how Quirkless people are weak and it’s too dangerous. He also kinda told me a national secret in the process. Then he left me on the rooftop. When I worked with Kacchan to beat the sludge villain in the second encounter, I saw All Might there and all he did was turn around and leave without having done anything to help.” Izuku slumped in his seat and huffed a breath out of his puffed up cheeks. 

Tenko and Shinsou were quiet for a moment after Izuku finished his recount and this only made him more nervous to know their reactions. 

“So it’s okay if I kill him, right?” Tenko asked finally. 

Izuku whipped his head over to his friend and gaped. “No! I don’t really condone you killing anyone.” 

Shinsou shrugged. “I’ll just have to make sure to be an extra bit of an asshole to him in class now.” 

“We rarely even have him as a teacher, Toshi,” Izuku said, shaking his head. 

“Ah, but Bakugo has him like every day. Therefore, we make Bakugo make his life a living hell.” Shinsou nodded like this was the best plan, no arguments allowed. 

“Kacchan already knows about the whole situation and while he doesn’t like All Might to the same capacity as before, there’s still some hero worship laying there,” Izuku countered. 

“Then we get rid of it, nerd,” Tenko said. “If Bakugo truly is getting better and trying to redeem himself from his past, he should not be worshipping the guy that belittled you and left you for dead essentially.” Izuku winced at the bluntness. 

“Sounds like that’s exactly what happened. Twice. This is ridiculous,” Shinsou stated. “We’ll get him back, I’ll make sure of it.” 

“You’re supposed to be the most neutral in our trio, Toshi,” Izuku sighed. At this point, there was no stopping Shinsou, only hoping that he wouldn’t have to do too much damage control. 

“Ah, yes, a villain, a vigilante, and an insomniac. Maybe I should just go out on some patrols with you,” Shinsou said. 

Tenko laughed. “Yeah, sure, go patrol together.” 

Izuku tilted his head at Tenko, confused, but didn’t miss the way that Shinsou looked away quickly. “I don’t get it. But also,” he turned to Shinsou, “no.”

Shinsou snapped his head over to him and Izuku could see that his cheeks were a little pink. Weird. “What do you mean no?” Shinsou asked.

“No.” Izuku said, shrugging. “You’re not coming on patrol with me.”

Tenko laughed. “Okay, wait.” He poked Izuku’s cheek. “We totally skipped over something important here. If I heard your ramble correctly, you said that All Might spilled a national secret to you?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s big dumb. He didn’t even make me sign a non-disclosure or anything. Apparently, he got in this huge fight like 5-ish years ago and it made him get super injured so he’s missing a lot of his internal organs and can only hold his hero form for a limited amount of time.” Izuku shook his head. “I like that he just told some random 15-year-old that and then left without even stressing that no one should be told. Like, ‘oh hey, here’s this national secret that nobody knows! Have at it kid I’ve never met before!’”

Shinsou burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, but Zu. This is peak. All Might tells a literal stranger a national secret, not knowing that he’s a vigilante, and that that stranger is gonna go tell all of his friends the secret, including a villain that wants to kill him.” 

Tenko tapped his chin. “I mean to be fair, Sensei already told me this. It’s important for our plans, but I’m glad that we’ve gotten it confirmed from the primary source.” 

Izuku blinked. “Wait, how did your sensei know this?”

Tenko gave him a confused look. “Uh, ‘cause he’s the one that injured All Might in that fight?”

Shinsou and Izuku stared at Tenko making him squirm a little. “Your… sensei is the one who fought and injured All Might ?” Shinsou finally asked after a long moment. 

“Yes?” Tenko said. 

“Well fuck, hope we’re not there for the next big show down,” Shinsou muttered. 

“Okay, we’ve gotten like a million miles off topic. Are we gonna complete this slumber party with a movie or no?” Izuku asked, attempting to break the now awkward air. 

“Yeah sure,” Shinsou said, shrugging. He picked the remote again. “Uh there’s a new horror movie?” 

“Sounds good to me,” Tenko said, relaxing back into the couch. 

Izuku nodded and leaned back as well. 

***

In the morning they woke up with Tenko holding Izuku’s legs, and Shinsou had Izuku’s head in his lap, fingers tangled in his hair.

Chapter Text

On Thursday, Shinsou and Izuku were thrown in with Class 1-A to participate in their Foundational Heroics class taught by All Might instead of doing their typical Underground Heroics course. Shinsou was surprisingly giddy at the news, or rather, his eyes shone with glee. 

“I AM HERE… COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A HERO!” All Might said as he burst through the door. Izuku rolled his eyes and laid his head down on his desk as the class burst out in excitement. Izuku didn’t even understand why they were so excited in the first place, they’d already had him teaching them for four days. 

Izuku tuned out his monologue about the class plan until Bakugo spoke up. “Battle training?!” 

Izuku whipped his head over to Shinsou who just shrugged, though Izuku could read the nervous tension in him. 

“But one of the key things of being a hero is looking good!” All Might said, ignoring Bakugo’s outburst and pointing at the wall behind him. Panels slid out of the wall like in an old filing room. The panels had 20 cases, with numbers matching their seat numbers on them. Even Izuku and Shinsou’s seats were accounted for. “Go put your costumes on and meet me at Training Ground Beta!” 

The students excitedly jumped out of their seats and started grabbing their cases before heading out of the classroom. Shinsou and Izuku stayed at the back of the class until the crowd thinned out before going to grab theirs. 

Izuku’s hero costume was very similar to his Medusa persona. He had sent in the costume design partly because he didn’t want to design a whole new costume and partly because he had a bet to win. Shinsou, Tenko, and he had bet on seeing just how long it would take someone to make a connection between the Izuku and Medusa. Granted, only Eraserhead, who happened to be his homeroom teacher, had seen the vigilante in person. 

His hero costume consisted of dark green cargo pants with multiple pockets, filled with first aid supplies, rope, and other gadgets. On his belt were pouches of his nanobots and he was wearing a pair of steel-toed black combat boots. He had forgone his dress shirt in trade for a mesh long-sleeved shirt over a bullet proof, tight fitting dark green tank top that matched his pants. The mesh of the overshirt was a thin and light fabric that would be able to protect him against most brunt force without giving the look of it; it was also much more expensive than he’d be able to buy as a vigilante. He also had a jacket to go with it, though he had forgone it for this exercise. He also wasn’t wearing the bandolier of knives or his choker from his Medusa costume. His headband was sitting on his head, almost hidden under his curls, the nanobots waiting for his commands. He would have to be careful not to accidentally activate them. 

Shinsou was dressed similarly to Izuku since he had asked him for pointers in the design of his costume. He wore dark purple cargo pants and a tank top matching Izuku’s, but also in the same shade of purple. He had commissioned a mouth guard that Izuku had already put into his drive to get comments on from Mei so that they could customize it more for him, but for now it just amplified and mute his voice so he could use his quirk better or discreetly talk into the mic installed which could connect to any earpiece he used. He had the same mesh long sleeve, but he was wearing his jacket over it. Shinsou’s was a bomber jacket style with several inside pockets that held all sorts of goodies. He also had matching boots because Izuku denied his choice of just wearing his converse. 

They walked out to the field with Bakugo who was in a black and orange styled costume with green grenades on his lower arms. They were the first students to step outside into the training grounds and they stood in front of All Might, waiting and avoiding looking at him, as more students started streaming out. Izuku started taking note of all their costumes and the adjustments that he would make to them. Really, he needed to have a long talk with who designed them, specifically the girls’ costumes and Kirishima’s. He wasn’t even wearing a shirt!

As the last of the students joined them, All Might addressed the class. “Now, shall we get started, zygotes?”

“Sir!” One of the boys, dressed in a full armor suit interrupted. “This is the same training ground as the entrance exam, does that mean we'll be conducting urban battles again?”

“Not quite,” All Might said. “Most of the villain fights you see on the news take place outdoors, but statistically most villain takedowns happen inside. So, we’ll be conducting team fights and splitting into heroes versus villains! A pair of villains has secured a nuclear bomb inside one of these buildings and the heroes need to go in and either capture the villains or secure the bomb.”

“How do we secure the bomb?”

“How are we picking teams?”

“Is it a real bomb?!”

“How much can we hurt the other team?”

“How do we capture the villains?”

The class was erupting with questions so Izuku sighed and sat down cross legged. Shinsou walked over to stand behind him, and he leaned his head against his friend’s knees and closed his eyes. 

“ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED!” All Might boomed over the noise of the class. “Each team will be given capture tape and that is what you will use to capture the other team. To secure the bomb, all you need to do is place a hand on it, and no it is not real. It is simply paper mâché. Now! To pick the teams, I will be drawing from this box!” All Might picked up a bright yellow box from in front of him and held it out for the students to see. 

“Isn’t there a better way to choose the teams?” The armor kid asked. Izuku thought it might be Iida, but he wasn’t sure. 

Izuku groaned quietly and Shinsou reached down to ruffle his hair. All Might began to stutter through an explanation and Shinsou laughed quietly at his obvious struggle. 

“Anyways! Let’s pick the teams!” All Might said abruptly. He reached into the box and began listing off the team members. 

Ojiro & Koda

Jiro & Iida

Shinsou & Ashido 

Hagakure & Todoroki

Tokoyami & Midoriya

Kirishima & Kaminari

Shoji & Tsuyu

Uraraka & Bakugo

Yaoyorozu & Sero

Sato & Aoyama

“Now for our first battle! Jiro and Iida as the first villains and Hagakure and Todoroki as the first Heroes!” He handed the two teams earpieces to use to communicate with one another. “Villains, you have ten minutes to prepare the bomb, and Heroes you have the same amount of time to come up with a strategy. Villains into the building, the rest of the class will head up to the spectators booth with me and I’ll let the Heroes know when they are set to go inside,” All Might explained before steering the rest of the class to the spectator booth which had screens all over one of the walls showing camera angles from all over both inside and outside of the building. 

Izuku and Shinsou sat against one of the side walls that gave them enough room to see the screens without too much obstruction from the rest of the class. Bakugo huffed and leaned against the wall next to them as All Might called for the Hero team to move. 

The fight was quick and anticlimactic. Hagakure stayed behind Todoroki as he stepped forward and froze the whole building. Jiro and Iida were trapped within the ice and Hagakure and Todoroki slowly made their way up to them and touched the bomb to secure it. All Might called the four of them back to the spectator booth and the class waited as Todoroki worked to unfreeze the two as well as most of the ice throughout the building. It took about 10 minutes for the group to make it back to the booth. 

“Alright, who was the MVP of this battle?” All Might asked. 

Momo raised her hand and Izuku couldn’t help but scoff at her very revealing costume. All Might waved for her to speak. “Todoroki was as he quickly secured the whole building and melted it back on his way down.” 

All Might agreed with her, though Izuku had plenty of arguments against the whole ‘battle.’

“Next up is Uraraka and Bakugo as the Villains versus Tokoyami and Midoriya as the Heroes!” 

“Good luck, Zu,” Shinsou muttered.

Midoriya smiled at him before he stood up and walked with Bakugo to get the earpieces before splitting off to walk down to the building with Tokoyami, waving to Bakugo as they parted ways. He received only a grunt in return.  

“Is your quirk… um, that?” Midoriya asked, pointing vaguely at the shadow monster on Tokoyami’s shoulder. 

“Dark Shadow. It’s essentially a sentient being and I can communicate with it telepathically,” Tokoyami provided. 

“Nice! Um, nice to meet you,” Izuku said, bowing to the monster. “Do you guys have any weaknesses?”

“Bright light makes Dark Shadow significantly weaker.”

Izuku flinched. “Yeesh, okay, so here’s what I’m thinking we should do…”

***

Midoriya crept through the halls of the building listening for sounds of movement. The bomb was on the top floor, being floated with Uraraka’s quirk and he was one floor below now. He heard heavy footsteps and ducked around a corner, waiting, as he heard them growing closer. He pulled his staff from his belt and silently extended it. Just as Bakugo passed by him, Izuku swiped the bar at the back of his knees, not giving him time to dodge. Bakugo teetered but used explosions to bring himself back upright before spinning towards Izuku. Izuku swung his bar with the way Bakugo spun and knocked him off balance again, earning a scream of rage in return. 

“ Eyes on the target, ” Tokoyami said in the coms. “ Engaging as soon as I have more information.”

Izuku didn’t bother trying to answer, not that he could as Bakugo swung his arm forward and aimed an explosion at his shoulder. Izuku bent backwards to dodge the attack and caught himself with his hands, using them to hold his weight as he kicked his legs forward at Bakugo’s ankles. 

Bakugo fell against the wall. “Goddamit Izuku, what the fuck is this?”

Izuku let out a low laugh as he brought himself back up to stand and summoned his nanobots to fly around him. “There’s a lot I’ve learned since we were last friends, Kacchan.” 

Bakugo went to swing another explosion at him, but Izuku knocked his hand away with his staff. He sent his bots to fly around Bakugo whose immediate response was to start swatting at them with small explosions like they were bugs. 

Izuku dashed forward and kneed Bakugo in the stomach, causing the other boy to lean forward and groan. The bots wrapped around his wrists and started interlocking with one another, tying them behind his back. Izuku brought out the capture tape as Bakugo tried setting explosions off without hitting himself. “I’m not losing to you!” Bakugo shouted, setting off slightly larger explosions. 

Izuku pushed Bakugo up against the wall and had the bots twist his hands to face each other so he couldn't set off any more explosions. He ordered more bots to pin him to the wall as he wrapped the white capture cloth around Bakugo’s wrists. “Let me go! This is stupid! Fight me one on one!” 

“Come on Kacchan, this was a 100% one on one fight. My gadgets are just built with a certain someone in mind.” Izuku clicked his tongue. “I know we’re friends again and all, but you’re still an ass. Except a loss for what it is and grow from it. Learn how to beat me next time if you can.” 

“Oh I fucking will,” Bakugo hissed. Izuku shook his head as he dragged Bakugo down the stairs and raised his hand to his comms. “Bakugo is secured. Engage now.” 

There was a loud crash and a shriek from upstairs. Within a couple minutes, All Might’s voice echoed throughout the building. “HEROES WON. PLEASE RETURN TO THE SPECTATOR BOOTH!” 

Izuku smiled as he untied Bakugo before they walked back up to the spectators booth to watch the rest of the matches. Bakugo fumed the whole way back, though Izuku saw it as more of a pout, with how ridiculous it was. 

When they finally reached the booth again, Bakugo pushed past Shinsou who was standing by the door. Shinsou laughed it off and shook his head before turning to Izuku with a look of triumph before raising his hand. Izuku beamed at him and slapped his hand in a high five before they returned to their spot against the wall, though this time they remained standing and Bakugo was sitting against it. 

“Alright, who was the MVP of this battle?” All Might asked the class. Several hands shot up this time and Izuku cocked his head to see where this was about to go. 

All Might called on Sero to speak. “I think it was Tokoyami because he successfully got the bomb captured despite Uraraka’s solid defense.”

All Might nodded his head. “Exactly! Now-”

“Wait a damn minute,” Shinsou interrupted, taking a step forward. “Tokoyami played his part well, and I mean this in no offense whatsoever, Tokoyami,” he added, looking at the boy and shadow. The duo nodded back at him and he continued, “but that’s all it was: a part. It was all Izuku’s plan, we saw him relay it to Tokoyami and then carry it out. He was able to choose the best route for both of them to capture the bomb and the villains and it worked flawlessly. The MVP of this battle was Izuku.” 

All Might puckered his lips, but Tokoyami interjected before it was possible. “Shinsou is quite right. I would feel most uncomfortable stepping into the light for an act such as this. Izuku made a flawless plan with only the basic details of my quirk and it was only thanks to him that we actually won the battle.”

Izuku’s head flipped back and forth between his friend and his teammate like he was watching a tennis match. 

“Now, I-” 

“We all know that Izuku was the MVP, and if the class didn’t know before because they were too dense to realize what happened, then they surely know now. Give Izuku the damn MVP you quirkist bastard and move on to the next damn battle,” Bakugo interrupted, standing up next to Izuku and folding his arms while fixing a glare on All Might. 

“Bakugo-kun! You cannot disrespect our teacher like that!” Iida yelled, chopping an arm at Bakugo. 

All Might waved a hand, effectively cutting off any further comments. “I have no clue what put that notion into your head, Young Bakugo, but I can assure you that I’m not quirkist-”

“You don’t even remember who I am, do you?” Izuku asked softly, but loud enough to interrupt All Might. He stared down at the ground, not able to meet All Might’s gaze. 

“I believe this is our first time meeting, Young Midoriya,” All Might responded, sounding confused and nervous. 

Izuku’s head shot up and he glared at All Might, taking a step forward. Several of his classmates took a step back and he suddenly had a clear path to the Number One Hero. “No recollection. So insignificant, you can’t even bother to remember? Let me try to jog your small memory,” Izuku ground out, taking another step forward. “Sludge villain, concussion, alone on a rooftop. Ring any bells?”

All Might’s eyes widened. 

“Ah, there it is. Finally recognize me?” Izuku asked. 

“You-” All Might started before closing his mouth. 

“What, shocked that a quirkless kid could fulfill his dream? That he would dare go into a dangerous field?” Izuku asked. “Or are you going to continue what you were saying about my dream not being realistic ? Cause this seems pretty damn real to me,” he said, gesturing his arms around at all the heroes in training who were staring at the two in shock. 

All Might stared at him in shock for a moment before his eyes hardened. “Midoriya gets the MVP,” All Might said, looking bitter. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “Whatever, give it to Tokoyami. I don’t actually care about all that. I’m leaving.” He turned away from the crowd, both of his friends following behind him. 

“Shinsou, where are you going? You still have a battle to participate in?” All Might called out. 

“Then have me battle last, because I’m going with my friend to make sure that he’s okay,” Shinsou snapped before slamming the door on his way out. 

“You should go back and do your battle Toshi,” Izuku muttered as soon as the door was closed, deflating. 

“Like I said, he can have me battle last,” Shinsou said, shrugging. 

“He can wait to use Shinsou in the last battle, it does nothing to the flow of the class, nerd,” Bakugo added. 

Izuku nodded. “I’m going outside then, I need some fresh air.” 

Shinsou and Bakugo fell into step on either side of him, and he couldn’t help the small smile that fell into place as they walked out of the building. 

Chapter Text

Izuku and Shinsou spent the rest of their Thursday classes in the Support Department with Mei and they got permission from Aizawa to continue with Mei’s schedule through Friday as he was still in Hosu and unable to teach Underground Heroics. Shinsou didn’t have much interest in Support, so he was doing his regular classes with Izuku and Mei and then taking emergency first aid courses with Recovery Girl. 

Walking to school that morning was another story though. Izuku, Bakugo, and Shinsou walked towards the gates of UA talking about the English homework, only to stop when they saw the gate swarmed with press. Bakugo scoffed at the display and Izuku and Shinsou made eye contact before nodding. Why not use their scary dog privileges if it meant they would be able to get to class on time? When the press saw Bakugo, several reporters immediately rushed towards him and Izuku and Shinsou stayed hot on his heels, lest he leave them behind. 

“Young man, are you in the heroics course?”

“We heard All Might is teaching at UA High this year, could we get a statement on how you feel about this?”

“Are you in All Might’s class? What is his teaching style?” 

Bakugo growled at the reporters and set off a couple explosions in his palms, leading them to back up a couple steps. “Back off! All Might shouldn’t be teaching here and that’s all I have to say.” 

The reporters immediately went to swarm on him again, but he set off another couple of explosions. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you about boundaries? I can sue you for harassment of a minor, I’ll have you know!” 

The reporters paled and immediately backed off, returning to the larger swarm. Bakugo scoffed at them. “Come on nerds, let’s get to class.” 

“Sugoi, Kacchan!” Izuku exclaimed, following closely behind him as he pushed through the rest of the press before making it to the other side of the gate. Bakugo clicked his tongue, but wore a smug smirk. 

Shinsou shook his head and ruffled Izuku’s hair. “You get impressed by the weirdest shit, Zu.”

Izuku ducked away from Shinsou’s hand and fake-pouted. “Not even!” 

Shinsou laughed, but didn’t push his point further. They made their way to their respective classrooms, Bakugo heading towards his homeroom with Thirteen while Shinsou and Izuku headed towards Power Loader’s classroom.

Surprisingly, no explosions greeted them at the door, something that Izuku thought might be a first for the support department, though he didn’t think it would last long. 

“It’s too bad Recovery Girl couldn’t take me for homeroom too, though she might end up with me in the end anyways,” Shinsou muttered. Izuku laughed and pushed his shoulder before he opened the classroom door and they walked inside. 

Most of the students were already working on building or designing support gear and the classroom was a familiar cacophony of noise to Izuku. He waved Shinsou to follow him and led him over to his and Mei’s workstation. There was already a third stool added to their bench as well as two tablets waiting for them. 

Izuku crossed his arms and leaned them on Mei’s shoulders as he looked at the design she was drawing up. “You ready to finalize the mask or are you going to keep doodling for the bombs you’re not allowed to build?” 

Mei perked up. “He’s here?” She swiveled on her stool, knocking Izuku off her and causing Shinsou to laugh. She spotted Shinsou and immediately scrutinized him from head to toe. “I see why you two have similar costumes. Despite his taller and lankier form, I can tell that you both do the same type of training, even though I already knew that from your mumbling.”

Shinsou blushed and Izuku sighed. “Come on, Mei. Let’s not scare him out of the Support Lab yet please? He’s only in here for one class today, and I would like for him to feel comfortable coming back in for more support items.” 

Mei shot him a confused look. “I didn’t do anything.”

Izuku shook his head and turned to Shinsou. “Here, sit at that stool and power up the tablet. We’ll share the mask documents with you as soon as you’re online.” Izuku sat at the stool in the middle so that he could protect Shinsou at least a bit from Mei. He grabbed his own tablet and quickly pulled up their shared drive, sending Shinsou the files that they’d made for his mask so far. 

“We were thinking of upgrading the mask,” Mei started as Shinsou looked over the files. 

He set down the tablet and looked at Mei with a raised eyebrow. “I thought it was just supposed to be an amplifier with the ability to mute?”

Mei waved her hands dismissively, but Izuku picked up the explanation. “Those were just the ground plans. We’ve been thinking of ways that we could upgrade it to match your quirk and help you when you’re a Pro.” 

“Which is why we were thinking of adding the ability to change voices to the mask!” Mei exclaimed. “You see, there’s a way that we might be able to alter the mask to the point where if you twist this knob here,” she shoved her tablet across the bench to Shinsou and Izuku pointed at the area she was talking about, “then you’d be able to change your voice, and even be able to mimic others!” 

“We thought that it might be another way to help you get responses from people so that you could more easily use your quirk!” Izuku finished, handing the tablet back to Mei. 

Shinsou picked up his tablet again and stared at the blueprint of his mask that the pair had drawn up together looking at all the details. “This is actually really cool, you guys.” 

“Yes! I told you he’d love it!” Mei shouted, raising her fist in the air. 

Izuku laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, but you know that I haven’t made that many support items for others with them knowing that I was the one to design them.” 

Mei playfully pushed his shoulder. “You’re an awesome designer, now let’s get to work on the mask!” 

“Wait, you guys already have my mask?” Shinsou asked, tilting his head in confusion. 

Izuku shook his head. “No, we made another one.” He started digging around in the bins under their work bench, before returning with a mask that had all the functions Shinsou’s current mask did. “This way that while we’re finishing the details on this mask, you’ll still be able to use the other one!” 

Shinsou hummed. “I guess that makes sense.” 

“Of course it makes sense, now give me my baby or so help me,” Mei said, waving a screwdriver at Izuku. He quickly handed off the mask, raising his other hand in surrender. 

“Do you want to look at the other designs we’ve come up with while we work on this?” Izuku asked, already grabbing his tablet. 

Shinsou shrugged, “might as well, I don’t have anything else to do.” 

Izuku nodded and pulled up the drive, handing the tablet to Shinsou before leaning over the work station with Mei and starting to build the extra vocal chords they’d need. 

***

When the lunch bell rang, Izuku and Mei met Shinsou outside of Recovery Girl’s office before they headed to the cafeteria. They’d all brought bentos, not wanting to wait in line for Lunch Rush’s cooking, no matter how good it was. 

“We finished it!” Izuku shouted as soon as they’d set their bentos down, unable to keep quiet about the news any longer. 

Shinsou set his chopsticks down and blinked at the pair of inventors. “You guys had two class periods, how is it already finished?”

“We really only had to do the final adjustments on it in our second period,” Mei said before taking a bite of her rice as she scrolled on the tablet that she’d smuggled out of the support lab. 

Shinsou shook his head. “That’s really awesome, I can’t wait to try it out next time we train. Thanks, you guys.” He picked up his chopsticks again and was about to take a bite when Bakugo plopped down at the table next to him. 

“What did you nerds make today?” Bakugo asked Izuku and Mei. 

“We made Toshi a new mask!” Izuku said, excited to share his accomplishment with his friend. 

“Hey y’all! Can we join you?” Kaminari asked, coming up with Kirishima, Ashido, and Sero. 

Bakugo scoffed and muttered “damn puppies” under his breath, but Izuku just nodded and gave a tentative smile. “Sure, we have plenty of room.” He focused on his food as the group sat around the table. Kaminari sat next to Izuku while Ashido sat on the other side of Mei, and Sero and Kirishima sat next to Bakugo. 

“I thought you guys were gonna be with us for the full week? Where have you been taking classes?” Kaminari asked Izuku and Shinsou. 

Izuku shrugged, but didn’t answer as he took another bite of food. 

“They’ve been with me,” Mei answered, not looking up from the tablet. 

Shinsou glared at the people now sitting around them. “We didn’t want to deal with All Might so we switched classes.” 

“Awe,” Mina pouted. “But that’s only one of our classes! He doesn’t come around for any of the others!” 

Izuku peeked up at Shinsou from behind his hair. His jaw was clenched and he was gripping his chopsticks so hard, they were starting to bend under the strain. 

“They’re cool you guys,” Bakugo muttered, sensing the growing tension. Izuku let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and Shinsou let some of the tension bleed out of him, taking a bite of food. 

“Huh? Us or them?” Kirishima asked, tilting his head. 

Bakugo scoffed and rolled his eyes. “ You guys , Shitty Hair. It’s obvious that there’s nothing wrong with these two nerds.” 

“Wait! That means you just called us cool! He’s warming up to us you guys!” Kaminari called out, causing the other three -A students to cheer. “We’re winning!” 

Izuku tilted his head as he looked at Kaminari. “Winning what?”

Kaminari laughed. “Winning him over! He’s so grumpy to everyone, but he’s still really cool, so we’ve been trying to get him to be our friend.” 

Izuku chuckled at the angry look that this caused on Bakugo’s face. “Awe, Kacchan is making friends,” he teased. “They grow up so fast,” he said, wiping away fake tears. 

Bakugo stood up from the table, slamming his hands down. “Shut it nerd!” 

“And… he’s back,” Ashido mumbled. 

Izuku bit back a laugh and Bakugo huffed as he sat back down and returned to aggressively eating his food. 

“Hey, Midoriya,” Sero said. Izuku tilted his head at him. “Um, is it true what you said yesterday at the battle trials?” Shinsou whipped his head over to glare at Sero and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. 

Izuku tensed up. “Is what true?” He asked quietly. 

“Um, just. You said you were quirkless,” Sero explained. 

Izuku ducked his head, cursing himself for saying that. Mei quietly rested her hand on his knee and gave him a sympathetic look. Izuku grabbed her hand and held it in both of his, squeezing gently as he waited for the backlash that was sure to come. 

“He’s quirkless, what of it?” Bakugo growled. 

“N- nothing! I just thought that it’s really awesome that UA is actually letting in quirkless people. They’re the first school to say that they’re accepting quirkless students, but now they’ve actually done it, too,” Sero quickly explained. 

“I was too shocked about the fact that you guys were arguing with All Might to even try to say something,” Kaminari admitted. “Is he really… quirkist?” 

“Yeah,” Shinsou said through gritted teeth. “He’s said some pretty fucked up shit.” 

“That’s so unmanly!” Kirishima said, frowning. 

“I can’t believe that the number one hero is so… biased,” Mina added. “You’d think that he’d be better.” She shook her head. “You guys really snapped at him yesterday and didn’t leave any room for interference, it was hard to wrap my head around everything that was being said. It was kind of like watching a 3 versus 1 tennis match.” 

Bakugo scoffed. “He was trying to take away Izuku’s MVP, of course we were going to counter it.” Shinsou nodded as he took another bite of food, finally seeming relaxed knowing that the other students weren’t about to attack Izuku.

“I’m totally sorry about that, Midoriya,” Sero muttered. “If I hadn’t suggested Tokoyami, then none of that would’ve happened.” 

Izuku shook his head, looking up at Sero finally with a sad smile. “No, it was bound to happen eventually. I’ve met All Might before coming here, and it was, well let’s just say that I learned why they say not to meet your heroes because of it. Eventually he would find out who I was or at least that I was quirkless.” 

“Yeah, I guess,” Sero said. “But, if I had known it was your plan, I totally would’ve said you were the MVP.”

“That’s what you get for not paying attention, Knockoff Spiderman,” Bakugo said, rolling his eyes. 

“I-” Kirishima started, getting cut off by blaring sirens. 

The group looked around the cafeteria wondering what was happening as students started swarming for the exit. They quickly stood up and grabbed their stuff, Izuku having to nudge Mei and take the tablet away for her to pay attention. 

“Oi!” Bakugo shouted at a blond kid rushing for the exit. He seemed to be in his second or third year. “The fuck is going on?!” 

The blonde seemed to be shaking. “That’s the intruder alarm, we have to leave!” 

Bakugo immediately let go of the upperclassmen and he bolted away. 

“I’m not going in that crowd,” Shinsou said, walking to stand next to Izuku. 

“We can leave and go the other way,” Izuku said, running through the map of the school in his head and grabbing Shinsou’s hand. “Actually, we can easily go to Recovery Girl’s office to wait it out. Follow me.” The group, surprising Izuku, immediately followed him towards the door. They had to fight through a bit of the crowd just to leave the room, but then they turned left and were fine. 

“Are you sure we shouldn’t leave with the other students?” Kaminari asked, wringing his hands together as they went down the stairs. 

“They were all just trampling each other to get to the exit. This way we don’t have to deal with a bunch of dumb extras panicking over an alarm,” bakugo said, rolling his eyes. 

Izuku shook his head, but used his free hand to knock as they finally approached Recovery Girl’s office. He only had to knock once before the door quickly sprung open revealing the short heroine. 

“What are you kids doing down here?” She asked as she scrutinized each of them, likely looking for injuries. 

“We were hoping that we could stay here until the panic settles down?” Izuku asked, squeezing Shinsou’s hand. 

Recovery Girl nodded. “I don’t see why not, just don’t mess with anything.” 

“Thank you sensei,” Shinsou said, bowing. 

The rest of the group bowed as well, repeating the “thank you.” She hushed them and waved them in before closing the door, looking down the hallway before doing so. 

“Just rest here until we get the situation handled. It was only the press that broke in, so we’re perfectly safe.” 

Izuku nodded but silently the way her shoulders were tense and she had looked down the hallway after they’d entered. 

Half an hour later they were sent back to their classrooms after an announcement came over the PA system.

Chapter Text

Izuku walked onto the bus with Class 1-A, Shinsou, and Aizawa. Iida had tried to get everyone to line up and sit accordingly, but the layout of the bus wasn’t what he expected, so everyone just filed in and sat near their friends. Izuku sat with Shinsou and Bakugo in the very back of the bus, with Shinsou next to the window and Bakugo on his other side facing out to the alley. Kirishima and Kaminari sat on Bakugo’s other side, seeming to be glued to his side. 

Mina and Sero sat in front of Izuku and Shinsou, blocking them from the other students, whether that was intentional or not. Izuku was nervous about this trip since he still didn’t know how the rest of the class thought of his quirklessness and their argument with All Might and this was the first time he’d interacted with all of them since. 

“Aye! Any new inventions Midoriya?” Kaminari asked, leaning forward so Bakugo wasn’t blocking his view. 

Izuku beamed at him and nodded excitedly. “Mei and I upgraded Toshi’s mask! There’s a lot of cool new features that we’re hoping to test out today!” 

“Man, I wish you’d designed my costume,” Mina complained. She and Sero had twisted in their seats when Kaminari had inquired about Izuku’s inventions. 

“I mean, I can definitely work on any support equipment for all of y’all,” Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. “It would have input from both me and Mei since she’s my lab partner and she’s in the lab more often, but we could definitely do it.” 

“Wouldn’t that be cutting into time for your own inventions though?” Kirishima asked. 

Izuku shrugged. “I don-“

“It will, but he enjoys making things for others, plus his name will be all over it, so it’s still supporting him,” Shinsou interrupted. Izuku glared at him and pushed his shoulder. 

“Wait! I need something to better control my electricity, can I come in sometime?” Kaminari asked. 

“Oh, we have like five different support items drafted up for you already. There’s so many ways that we could help you conduct electricity! Like-”

“Zu, he asked if he could come in later, not have a full rundown of your premade blueprints,” Shinsou sighed. 

Izuku ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck, blushing. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Just control your rants and stop mumbling, nerd,” Bakugo said, ruffling Izuku’s hair. 

“Wait, do you have plans for all of us?” Kirishima asked. 

Izuku perked up again. “Well, not all of you, but I definitely do for several of you. Mei and I started working on them from the first time I saw your hero outfits and quirks in action. But I also didn’t see everyone fight.” 

“Wait, but you didn’t see my fight,” Kaminari pointed out. 

“No, but I’ve heard you talking about it. Plus I’ve heard about a bunch of your quirks from Kacchan,” Izuku explained. 

“Oi, don’t bring me in on this shit!” Bakugo shouted, causing Izuku to laugh. 

Izuku blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, ducking his head. “Sorry.” 

“Hey, Midoriya,” Tsuyu said, turning in her seat where she sat in front of Kirishima and Kaminari. Izuku turned to her and cocked his head to the side. “I typically speak very bluntly and am very direct. During your fight with All Might,” Izuku reached out and grabbed Shinsou’s hand, squeezing it probably to the point of pain, but he only squeezed back gently, “you said you were quirkless, is that true?” Bakugo and his friends immediately tensed up, looking ready to fight for Izuku’s sake. 

Izuku looked at Bakugo’s- and he supposed his own- friends and felt grateful that not only had they taken to his lack of quirk so well, but they were also willing to support him in any way. Shinsou rubbed his thumb across the back of Izuku’s hand and he sent him a small smile in return, loosening his grip. “Yes, I am quirkless.”

Tsuyu nodded and turned to Bakugo. “Why do you think All Might is quirkist, kero?”

Bakugo huffed and rolled his eyes, even though he finally let the tension bleed from his posture. “I know he is because of how he treated Izuku in a past meeting that I will not be discussing.”

“Why not?” Ochako asked, having tuned into the conversation from the row in front of Mina. In fact, it seemed like the whole bus was listening into the conversation. 

“Because it wasn’t my experience and I wasn’t there,” Bakugo barked out. “Why don’t all you extras learn to mind your own damn business for once, hah?”

“Bakugo! You shouldn’t be calling your classmates ‘extras!’ It’s unbecoming of a hero in training!” Iida called out from the front of the bus, chopping his arm in the air. Izuku stifled a giggle behind hand, leading Bakugo to elbow him in the side. 

Shinsou leaned over Izuku, who had grabbed his side with an oomph, and flicked Bakugo’s ear. 

“You wanna fight, Insomniac?” Bakugo yelled. 

“It is amazing how you yell at any given opportunity,” Shinsou drawled. “And no, I don’t want to fight, but leave Izuku alone.” 

“Wait, if you’re quirkless than how did you pass the entrance exam?” Aoyama asked, peeking his head over the back of his seat. 

Shinsou groaned and squeezed Izuku’s hand twice. “How did you pass the exam?” Izuku asked.

“I- what?” Aoyama asked, looking confused. 

“How did you pass the exam? How did Hagakure or Sato or Koda or any of you pass the exam?” Izuku asked before turning to Bakugo. “Not you Kacchan, I already know. And I know how Shinsou, Ochako, and Iida passed the exam. And I guess not Yaoyorozu or Todoroki, since you two took the recommendation exam. But, how did the rest of you?” Aoyama dropped down back into his seat and Izuku rolled his eyes before taking time to make eye contact with each student still looking at him. 

“I feel like it’s kinda obvious that we used our quirks,” Tokoyami stated. 

“Is that all you used? Cause no matter how strong you are, they wouldn’t let you in just from a show of power,” Izuku explained. 

“Shinsou and I used teamwork to take down the bots and help others?” Kaminari offered, though he phrased it as a question as if he was taking a test and wasn’t confident that his answer was correct. 

Izuku nodded. “Strength, teamwork. These are important and definitely taken into account, but helping others, saving people? It’s not a hero exam if they aren’t testing for heroic qualities,” Izuku explained, pulling from the acceptance projection they’d gotten. “You didn’t have to have every quality that they were looking for, but if you showed enough then you got enough points.”

No one responded as they appeared to stew over Izuku’s points and he finally fully relaxed between Shinsou and Bakugo, both slightly leaning into him to provide comfort and presence. The class’ reaction wasn’t that bad, there weren’t any slurs or yelling or shouting, besides Bakugo’s, but they were still ignorant of many things. 

“We’re here so get off the bus,” Aizawa said, shooting Izuku a pointed look, causing a blush to appear on his cheeks, “Thirteen is waiting for us inside.” Aizawa led them inside the building to a little outlook where Thirteen stood. He went up to them and asked where All Might was to which they shook their head and held up three fingers. Aizawa huffed and they both turned to face the students. 

“This is a place that I built, and am the main maintainer of, specifically for training new heroes in rescue. This,” Thirteen waved their hand behind them at the building, “is the USJ: Unforeseen Simulation Joint!” 

Izuku glanced around at the layout. There were domed off sections throughout the building that seemed to hold different types of natural disasters. He marvelled at how long it would take to plan out such a building and all the time and effort that it would take to build and maintain so many different environments. 

Thirteen went into a detailed explanation of their quirk and how dangerous quirks can be before starting to explain each domed environment and what they would be doing that day. As they were explaining, Izuku looked at each dome, until something caught his attention at the center of the compound. Izuku’s head tilted at the swirl of purple that was forming in the square. 

“Um, Sensei? Is that part of the training?” Kirishima asked, pointing to the mist as people started streaming out of it. 

Aizawa whipped around just as someone covered in hands and a giant monster stepped out of the portal and the mist formed into the shape of a person. “Huddle up and don’t move! Number Thirteen, protect the students!” Students started stuttering out their confusion as the villains rushed forward. “Those are villains,” Aizawa said as he pulled his goggles over his eyes. “Kaminari, try contacting the school, anyone outside really. Thirteen, get them out of here.” He moved to the ledge of the railing. 

“Thirteen and Eraserhead? According to the staff schedule I got, All Might was supposed to be here,” the warp villain commented. 

“Staff schedule?” Izuku muttered. “Aizawa-Sensei, they’re the ones who infiltrated the other day and used the press to cover for them!” Aizawa nodded grimly as the villains came to a stop and huddled at the edge of the square in the middle of the compound. 

“Where is he? We came all this way. All Might was supposed to be here,” the villain with the hands said. Izuku looked at Shinsou, ignoring the shocked responses of the other students. 

Shinsou shook his head minutely. Izuku knew that voice. What was Tenko doing here? Why was he attacking their class? 

Aizawa leapt up on the railing. 

“Sensei! There’s too many, you can’t fight them alone!” Shinsou called out. 

“You can’t cancel out all of their quirks and you specialize in quick binding captures, not head-on battles!” Izuku added. 

“No good hero is one trick pony,” Aizawa said. Then he jumped down into the battle, immediately canceling the quirk of a villain that was about to shoot him. He wrapped them in the capture scarf and knocked them into another villain. 

As Aizawa started fighting a hoard of villains, Izuku turned to the class that was standing there gaping in fear, despite Thirteen’s attempts at corralling them to the exit. “Get out of here!” He yelled at them. 

“I can’t allow that,” the warp villain said as it materialized in front of the exit. Izuku started backing up, tugging Shinsou with him. “Greetings, we are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but we came here today to end the life of the Symbol of Peace, All Might. It seems he is not here, but no matter.”

The villain’s misty form started growing in size when all of a sudden explosions popped all over in front of the villain as Bakugo used one hand to propel himself forward and another to attack the villain. Kirishima had hardened his body and surged forward to attack with him. 

The villain’s form went smaller for a second before surging upwards and over the group of students. “Begone!” The villain called out. 

Izuku grabbed Shinsou’s hand and ducked down the stairwell he’d managed to back them up to. They ran down the stairs towards Aizawa as the villain warped their classmates away. 

“What are we doing?” Shinsou asked, easily keeping pace with Izuku.

“Despite Aizawa easily taking the villains on, this is not his preferred type of combat, he’s going to tire out and need backup. Besides, we need to talk to Tenko and ask him exactly what the fuck he thinks he’s doing here,” Izuku replied as they hit the ground floor. 

Aizawa had already taken out dozens of villains and there were still plenty for him to work his way through. 

“Thank Kami we have our hero suits on,” Izuku muttered as he slid his headband on. Immediately he felt the connection to all of the nanobots he had brought with him. He sent out several of them with capture tape to start wrapping up the villains their teacher had already knocked out while even more went around to try to hit pressure points and knock out more of the villains as he and Shinsou snuck their way around the square. 

“Those are one hell of a support item,” Shinsou admired as he watched several villains go down. 

“Only because I’ve been using them for several years. They took forever to get used to,” Izuku muttered. They made it to the back of the square where Tenko stood with the giant monster. 

“Now what?” Shinsou asked as they peeked over a low wall. 

“Twenty three seconds,” Tenko muttered as he darted forward. 

“Goddamit,” Izuku muttered. 

“So you’re the boss huh?” Aizawa asked as he knocked out a villain and dashed forward to meet Tenko. 

“Seventeen seconds,” Tenko replied as Aizawa shot out an end of his capture scarf at him. He grabbed the end of it with four fingers so it didn’t wrap around him, but Aizawa just used it to pull him closer as he elbowed Tenko in the stomach. 

“You know, I noticed something, Eraserhead. There’s a moment when your hair falls down and suddenly the NPCs can use their quirks again. It’s hard to tell with all the running around, but you’re slowing down, as is your quirk.” Tenko reached down and grabbed Aizawa’s arm just as his hair started to drop. 

“No!” Izuku shouted as he vaulted over the wall they’d been hiding behind. Izuku summoned more nanobots from the pouches and sent them towards Tenko and Aizawa, moving them apart just in time for Aizawa’s hair to fully fall over his face. Unfortunately, Izuku had the nanobots throw Aizawa too far back leading him to have to start fighting the group of villains again. Luckily, there were maybe a dozen or so left of the over 100 villains that had come. 

“Zu-Medusa?” Tenko asked. 

“What the hell are you doing here, Tenko?” Izuku asked, standing in a defensive position in front of Tenko. 

“We’re here to get revenge on All Might for your sake, what do you mean?” 

Izuku sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. “Tenko-”

“Call me Shigaraki here,” Tenko interrupted. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow, but nodded. He looked over to the fight and recalled his nanobots back to their pouches. “Fine, Shigaraki, whatever. I know you’re a villain and all, but did you really have to attack my class and my teacher?” 

“How was I supposed to know that you and a bunch of NPCs were here?” Tenko asked. 

“By looking at the damn schedule that you stole !” Izuku said, frustrated with his friend. “Honestly, this plan was kind of shit. All Might’s not even here, presumably from using up his allotted time like the idiot that he is.” 

“Fuck, well what now?” Tenko asked.

“It’s your plan, idiot! Just, I don’t know, call your warper back and go home, find another time to attack All Might that doesn’t put me and my class in danger and I don’t know, maybe actually make a plan next time?” Izuku asked. 

“Zu,” Shinsou said, walking up leisurely. “Te-Shigaraki. Let me brainwash him, so there’s less suspicion on this interaction, because I already know that Aizawa’s going to question the shit out of you.” Izuku nodded and looked at Tenko, who just waved his hand. “Shigaraki, what are your plans?”

“I already told y-”

“ Call back your warper and leave ,” Shinsou ordered. 

Tenko immediately went rigid. “Kurogiri! Get your ass back here!” 

The warper materialized in front of the small group. “Shigaraki, All Might is not here and one of the students escaped and the heroes will be here shortly, I think-”

“Take me and the Nomu back to base. Nomu, come,” Tenko ordered. 

Kurogiri paused for a moment before dipping his head. “As you wish.” He created a portal and they stepped through, vanishing within seconds. 

Izuku slumped. “What an absolute idiot.” 

“Hey! Are you guys okay?” A shout rang out leading Shinsou and Midoriya to spin around to see Kirishima running up with Bakugo walking behind him with hunched shoulders. 

Izuku waved. “The villains left because someone escaped I guess. Other teachers or Pros will probably be here soon. Did you guys get hurt?” 

Bakugo clicked his tongue and looked to the side as Kirishima shrugged. “I’m doing fine, having a quirk that literally hardens your body does wonders for defense!” 

Izuku tilted his head at Bakugo who still wasn’t looking at him. “Kacchan show me your hands.” 

“Tch, I’m fine, nerd.” Bakugo said, kicking at a rock. 

“Katsuki, show me your hands ,” Izuku demanded. Kirishima looked in between them nervously while Shinsou watched with a smug smirk. 

Bakugo straightened at the tone and rolled his eyes before walking over and shoving his hands in Izuku’s face. 

“Fine my ass,” Izuku muttered, pulling out medical supplies from his belt as he looked at the burns on his palms. His gloves had been torn to shreds. He stole a glance back to the center of the plaza where Aizawa was securing the villains with handcuffs that Yaoyorozu was making for him. He had no clue when Yaoyorozu had gotten there, but at least Aizawa was getting help. Izuku looked back at Bakugo’s hands. “Shinsou, help me get these damn gauntlets off.” 

“Why me?” Shinsou asked, as he walked up. 

“Because if he pisses me off then I can have you use your quirk on him,” Izuku said. 

“Hey, what the fuck!” Bakugo yelled, pulling his hands back. “I don’t need sass from you or help from damn Eyebags!” 

Izuku turned to Shinsou with a raised eyebrow. “Hey Kacchan,” Shinsou said. 

“What the he-” 

“ Shut up and let us help you ,” Shinsou commanded, rolling his eyes. Bakugo’s mouth closed and he held his hands out to them again. Shinsou and Izuku worked to take the gauntlets off carefully so as to not accidentally trigger them. 

“So manly,” Kirishima whispered. 

Shinsou scoffed, but didn’t reply. They carefully set the gauntlets on the floor and Izuku cleaned Bakugo’s hand and wrapped them up past his wrists, knowing that the kickback from his quirk put a strain on them. 

“I AM HERE!” Came All Might’s booming voice. Izuku spun towards the doors which All Might had burst through.

“Too fucking late,” Aizawa muttered as he walked over to Izuku’s small group with Yaoyorozu.

Chapter Text

After all the villains had been transported away and all the students were checked over for injuries, Shinsou and Izuku were summoned by Detective Naomasa for their interrogation to give their statement. The class had gotten lucky and only Pro Hero Number Thirteen had been injured, and they were already being rushed to the hospital. There were a couple students with cuts, scrapes, and bruises, but there were no broken bones, concussions, or other threatening injuries. 

“Naomasa is also known as True Man due to his quirk working like a lie detector. It can be pretty easy to get around with half-truths and vague answers though,” Izuku muttered as he walked with Shinsou over to where Aizawa and Naomasa were waiting for them.

“So we just need to not let on that we know who Shigaraki is, though in honesty we don’t know who Shigaraki is. We know who Tenko is,” Shinsou whispered in reply. Izuku gave a nod in reply as they approached the pair. 

“Alright boys, we just have a couple questions for you in order to get your statement,” Naomasa said. They both nodded at him. “Can you give a retelling of what happened today?” 

Izuku and Shinsou looked at each other and Shinsou waved his hand for Izuku to go ahead. “Um, we joined Class 1-A on their field trip and when we got here it was brought to our and Aizawa-sensei’s attention that All Might wasn’t here despite him having supposed to be. Number Thirteen started giving a speech on how dangerous quirks are and was explaining the layout of the facility when I and a couple others noticed the, um, I think it was a portal? A portal of some kind formed in the middle of the facility and villains started rushing out so Aizawa-sensei went to stop them while Thirteen was tasked with protecting us and getting us out of there. That didn’t really work because Class 1-A froze up, giving the warp villain, I think his name is Kurogiri, time to materialize in front of the exit. Kac- erm, Bakugo and Kirishima attacked the villain which made him mad and then he dispersed the students. But, I was able to get me and Shinsou far enough away when I noticed it materialize and tie up and knock out some villains to help him while we snuck around the edge of the square to where the boss was waiting. When we got there, the villain went to attack Aizawa-sensei so I used more nanobots to push them away from each other and I distracted the villain long enough for Shinsou to use his quirk to make the villains leave.”

Naomasa wrote down everything Izuku was saying while Aizawa just stared at the two boys. Izuku shuffled his feet and noticed Shinsou was rubbing the back of his neck. “Okay,” Naomasa finally said, “how did you distract the villain?” 

“I asked what he was doing there and told him that All Might, very obviously, wasn’t here,” Izuku replied. 

“And how did you use your quirk Shinsou?” Naomasa asked. 

“I asked him what he was doing here and he got mad and replied which allowed me to activate my quirk and have him summon his warper and leave,” Shinsou said, shrugging. 

“Why didn’t you make them stay in place so that we could arrest them?” Aizawa finally asked, crossing his arms. 

“Um, you were still fighting villains, sir, and I didn’t know when other heroes would be arriving. Plus, I don’t really know how long I can hold people, so I thought it would be best for them just to leave,” Shinsou said, rubbing the back of his neck again. 

Aizawa sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Get on the bus you two, I’ll be there in a moment.” 

Shinsou and Izuku nodded before walking back to the bus where the rest of Class 1-A waited. 

***

Izuku and Shinsou queued up their game and Izuku sent an invite to Tenko. It was the night following the attack and not only did they need to decompress with some games, but Izuku was also pissed at Tenko and needed some answers. Bakugo was once again visiting his parents, and he would be there until Monday night, since classes didn’t start up again until Tuesday. 

Izuku opened the chatting app that they usually used and hooked it up so that they could all talk to each other. Izuku and Shinsou were in their separate rooms, not wanting to move all of their equipment again, so Shinsou quickly joined the call as soon as he saw Izuku had opened it. 

“You gonna trash Tenko?” Shinsou asked. 

“No, I just need a couple questions answered, that's all,” Izuku replied, spamming Tenko in the chat so that he would get his ass online already. 

Medusa

@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust

@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust

@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust

Insomniac

@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust

@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust

@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust@EatMyDust

EatMyDust

What the fuck y’all want? 

Medusa

Get your ass on the call and in the game bitch.

Insomniac

we’re decompressing from the attack you performed on our school,

the least you can do is join the damn game

EatMyDust

whatever, give me a second

“Well, step 1 of plan Tear Tenko To Shreds is done,” Shinsou said, laughing. 

Izuku scoffed. “I-”

Tenko joined the call and Izuku stopped talking at the little chime announcing his arrival. “I was in a meeting, you assholes.”

“Apparently not an important one since you joined the call anyways,” Shinsou retorted. 

Izuku started up the game after Tenko joined the lobby. “You wanna tell us what the hell you were doing today?” 

Shinsou laughed as Tenko sputtered. “I told you! I was there to defeat All Might! Get revenge in your name! He’s not a worthy hero!” 

Izuku scoffed. “You’re starting to sound a little like Stain there, Tenko. What even is a worthy hero anyways? Actually,” he amended as Tenko took a deep breath, probably to go off on a rant, “don’t answer that. It was rhetorical. Did your Sensei plan that at all, or did you just ask for that Nomu thing and say fuck it?” 

There was dead silence on the line and Izuku scoffed. 

“You better provide answers before he goes off on your ass,” Shinsou commented as they loaded into the game. 

A long breath crackled through the comms as they all took off in the game to start fighting the villains. “Listen, it’s true that plan was horrible. And I did talk to Sensei about defeating All Might at the USJ.”

“Fuck, heal please,” Shinsou interrupted.

“On it,” Izuku muttered, running his character over to Shinsou’s. 

“Anyways, he helped us with the plan to infiltrate the school to get the schedule and then recruiting the villains to come with us. And yes, he did provide the Nomu, it’s a project that he’s been working on for a while.” Tenko finished. 

Izuku rubbed the bridge of his nose as he had his character heal Shinsou with some potions he had. “So what you’re saying, Tenko, is that your Sensei provided not only the resources, but also the fucked up plans?” 

“Tch, it’s my fault. I’m the one who fucked up the plans,” Tenko muttered. 

“No, the plans were fucking stupid and could have been a million times better from the very first step.” Izuku left Shinsou’s character and got a capture as he ran through the virtual city. “The only way you might have fucked up is by not looking at the schedule you stole and noticing that Shinsou and I were there.” 

“Shit, Zu I need a heal,” Tenko cursed. “And I didn’t even get a chance to look at the schedule, it was given to Kurogiri and they just told me which Pro Heroes would be there.” 

Izuku ran his character over to Tenko. “Why the fuck didn’t they let the boss see the schedule?” 

“Thanks,” Tenko said as Izuku healed him. “I didn’t see the schedule because I got the information they deemed necessary to carry out the mission.” 

“Obviously they don’t know what information is necessary to- fuck, I died- the mission. To make a plan such as this, especially with such a big end goal, you need to go over every single detail and be prepared with backup plans in case something goes wrong. It is now clear that you didn’t go over all the details, and you definitely were not prepared for something to go wrong either.” 

“Fuck off , Zu,” Tenko said. “Listen, the plan failed and we didn’t kill All Might, and we lost all of our recruits. I get it, we need to be more prepared next time.” 

“That’s not the problem,” Izuku stressed. The “Victory” screen popped up and he slumped back in his chair. 

“It’s not?” Shinsou and Tenko asked at the same time.

“I mean, it definitely is a problem, but not really the one that’s most important right now.” They popped into a new lobby and Izuku started the countdown for the game. “Listen. You need to plan better, yes. But your Sensei was the one who essentially ran all this from behind the scenes, and to me it is very obvious that he holds no regard for your life. Like, if we hadn’t known you, then Shinsou would’ve held you captive for the heroes to arrest you, or at least long enough for me to incapacitate you. There are so many ways that you could’ve gotten taken and arrested or gravely injured yesterday, and your Sensei just threw you to the wolves and essentially said ‘fuck it.’”

“Sensei wanted me to lead a mission on my own! I’m going to be his successor, he values me!” Tenko retorted. 

“Bro, you’re so heavily in denial, it’s not even funny,” Shinsou muttered as they finally loaded into a new round.

“Tenko, you need to seriously consider this,” Izuku said as they started capturing villains in the game. “Your Sensei literally set you up for failure in this mission.” 

“He wouldn’t do that!” Tenko shouted. “I-”

“I really don’t care what you think about it currently, but you need to put some thought into the events of today and what was happening leading up to it. And next time, you’re going to tell me what your damn missions are so that I’m not caught unawares in fucking class,” Izuku growled through the comms. 

“Well, so far there’s no plans to do any attacks. We need to start building up the League of Villains, get some stable members,” Tenko muttered before cursing out another player in the game. 

 “Try to make sure they’re partially mentally stable, not just willing to be there the whole time,” Shinsou jibed, laughing. 

“Or at least send their information my way and I’ll check them out first,” Izuku said, shrugging even though his friends couldn’t see it. 

“Oh, you gonna work for the villains now, Zu?” Shinsou asked. Their screens lit up with another victory screen. 

“Nah, just trying to make sure that not only does Tenko not get killed, but that we don’t either. It’d be a real bummer if I never got to see Aizawa’s reaction to my night persona.” Izuku laughed. “Alright let’s get in a couple more rounds. Toshi, we gotta beat his score, we’re too far behind.” Izuku clicked to load them into a new round as Tenko laughed. 

“It’s not our fault that he’s online like 24/7,” Shinsou muttered. 

“Y’all are just terrible players, admit it,” Tenko said, still laughing. 

Izuku shook his head. “Just cause we’re behind doesn’t mean that we didn’t already get higher scores than you in the past two rounds. Don’t get too cocky.”

“You little shit,” Tenko muttered. “Just watch in this next round and we’ll see who has the higher score.” 

“Bet,” Shinsou said as Izuku laughed, switching his character right before they loaded into the game.

Chapter Text

Shinsou paced in his bedroom watching the clock tick by. He had managed a few hours of sleep before he had woken up to the sound of the front door clicking shut. He knew that it was Izuku, knew that he was going out to be Medusa, knew that he had been doing this for years , but something was twisting in his gut. He felt that something was wrong this time in a way that he hadn’t felt since he’d moved out of his foster parent’s home. 

It had already been 4 hours since Izuku left, and it was nearing 6am, the sun was bound to rise soon. Izuku should be back by now. He’d already gone out as Medusa on a couple occasions in the time that they’d lived together, and he was always back by 5am. The twisting in his gut increased as the clock changed to 6am. 

He debated going out and looking for him, but Shinsou had no idea where he usually went, and knowing Izuku it was probably a different place every time. He got up and powered up his computer, hoping that Tenko was online. Opening the chatting app they used, he noticed a green circle next to his friend’s name and opened up a private chat with him. 

Insomniac

zuku’s out 

he should be back by now

am i being paranoid???

Tenko wasted no time and soon there he received a short message back.

EatMyDust

yes  

Insomniac

idk dude

he’s always back by 5am

i think something’s wrong

EatMyDust

ugh

youre so stupid

do i need to stick my portal on him

Insomniac

only if you pick me up first

EatMyDust

be there in 5

Shinsou hastily changed into a pair of black skinny jeans that were ripped at the knees and tugged his combat boots on. He grabbed two of the knives that Izuku had given him and sheathed them around his waist. Just as he was stuffing his phone in his pocket and grabbing a black jean jacket, a purple portal formed and he stepped through it. 

The portal was disconcerting. He felt weightless between one step and the next and he had to swing his arms to regain his balance as he left it. He looked up and saw Tenko snickering behind his hand. “Oh, fuck off dude. That was my first time going through that quirk.”

Tenko rolled his eyes at him, growing serious. “Whatever, let’s just find Zu.”

Shinsou looked around. Tenko had portaled them onto a rooftop that reached further into the sky than those surrounding it. He was just barely able to recognize where they were in Musutafu as he recognized a small shop down the road. He hadn’t been in this area in a while; it was definitely one of the less patrolled areas of the city, which made sense as Izuku wouldn’t need to patrol in the areas that Pro Heroes frequented. 

“Any idea where he might be?” Tenko asked as he scanned the alleys around them. 

“No, I’ve never gone out with him and he’s not exactly forthcoming about his patrols,” Shinsou said, shaking his head. “I swear to the gods if that little shit is bleeding out somewhere, I’m gonna finish him off myself.” 

“As if dude. I see the way you look at him,” Tenko replied. Shinsou whipped his head over to him and saw the smirk on Tenko’s face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shinsou said as he turned his head back to scan the alleys on his side of the rooftop. “We should head to another section, he’s not here.”

Tenko scoffed but pulled out his phone and tapped away on it before two portals swirled into existence. “It’ll be quicker if we take different sections, Kurogiri is searching too.” 

“Alright, text me if you see anything,” Shinsou muttered as he stepped through the portal next to him. 

The two boys portaled from area to area and it was nearing 7am by the time Tenko sent another portal to him right after he’d stepped through his. Shinsou took out his phone, seeing a quick “found him” message. “Please be okay Izuku, I need you,” he whispered to the wind before jumping through the portal. 

Shinsou was becoming used to the disconcerting sense of the portals, and as soon as he stepped through this one he was rushing to Tenko’s side, though that could also be attributed to the adrenaline pumping through him. Tenko was kneeling on the ground and looked over his shoulder at Shinsou with a confusing mix of emotions on his face. Shinsou hurried to his side and saw the body lying in front of him. Shinsou slid to his knees as Tenko stood to move out of his way, whispering something to Kurogiri before the warp villain vanished. 

Izuku was lying on the ground, breaths coming short and quick, hand pressed to a stab wound in his side and his headband was gone, though his mask was still there. “H- hey To- Toshi.”

“Hey Zu,” Shinsou said softly, removing Izuku’s mask. His eyes were a duller green without the vibrant light shining within them. “What-” Shinsou shook his head. “State your injuries.” 

“Well, I think I might have been perhaps maybe stabbed in the side,” Izuku said as some of the light returned to his eyes. 

“If you weren’t bleeding out in a back alley right now, I would so punch you for that,” Shinsou said, scoffing. 

Tenko came up behind him and handed him some first aid materials. He looked over his shoulder and saw Kurogiri was back; Tenko must have sent him on a ‘shopping’ run. “Thanks,” Shinsou muttered to Tenko as he moved to Izuku’s other side. 

“This better not make you into a damn NPC, Zu,” Tenko grumbled as he knelt where Shinsou had been.

Shinsou looked up to glare at him, but saw the worry in his eyes and dismissed the comment as he gently pried Izuku’s hand from the wound and set about cleaning it. Shinsou thanked everything he could think of for having taken extra classes with Recovery Girl instead of joining Izuku in the Support Department the past week. By the end of the week they had already moved up to more intricate processes due to Shinsou having already known the basics, which made it all the easier for Shinsou to quickly stitch together the wound. 

“I’ll never be a NPC and you know it,” Izuku snapped back, having no reaction to his wound being stitched. His pain tolerance was astonishing, and Shinsou feared where it may have come from. “At least we got a good support on our side,” Izuku continued, turning a mirthful gaze to him. 

“Oh shut up,” Shinsou grumbled as he applied a bandage over the cut. Luckily it wasn’t too threatening that they would have to rush him to the hospital. Shinsou’s field work should be good enough, though this was now how he imagined his first experience would be. “What happened , Zu? Why didn’t you text me or something? ”

“Am I supposed to text you anytime I get injured?” Izuku asked, laughing a little before grimacing. 

“ Yes . I know you’re into all this lonesome vigilante shit Zu, but if you need help then I expect you to reach out, to me or Tenko.” Tenko huffed in agreement. 

“I- There were too many, they were gonna take the kid,” Izuku closed his eyes. “I got her away, she’s safe, but they got me when I was headed back home, I-” he shook his head. “I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, it’s my fault.” 

“Well, let’s get you home, Zu, safely ,” Shinsou replied. He helped Izuku up to his feet while Tenko gathered the remaining supplies. Kurogiri summoned a portal and they all stepped through it into Shinsou and Izuku’s living room. Shinsou helped Izuku into his room where he flopped onto the bed. Shinsou shook his head and covered him with a blanket, receiving a grumble, before returning to the living room. 

Tenko handed over Izuku’s mask. “Here, you should keep an eye on him, we don’t know how much blood he lost.” 

“Of course, I wasn’t getting any more sleep today anyways,” Shinsou said, shrugging. “There a chance you can go out and see if his headband is out there? He could just make another one, but it shouldn’t end up in the hands of anyone else.” 

“Yeah sure, I’ll let you know if I find it.” Tenko turned to Kurogiri as a portal formed. 

“Um, Tenko?” Shinsou rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks… for helping me tonight.” 

“No worries, just keep him safe and we’ll game later tonight.” Tenko waved dismissively as he stepped through the portal. 

Shinsou shook his head and went back to Izuku’s room. He sat on the edge of the bed and took his shoes off before resting against the headboard. Izuku was lying on his back, now sleeping, so Shinsou took out his phone to waste his time while watching over his friend. Something tugged on his arm so he dropped it as he swiped through his notifications. Shinsou frowned as he started to wonder might have been tugged on his arm before looking down to see Izuku holding his arm, now sleeping on his non-injured side. Shinsou smiled down at him and pushed his hair out of his face before he went back to scrolling through his phone. At least he was safe now, and Shinsou would set up a system for the next times that Izuku went out as Medusa so he wouldn’t have to worry like this again. 

Chapter Text

They all returned to school on Tuesday, and Izuku and Shinsou were integrated into 1-A so that Aizawa could sub for Number Thirteen until they healed enough to return to teaching themselves. 

Used to Aizawa’s moods already, Izuku and Shinsou sat quietly in their seats and, seeing this, Bakugo followed suit. His silence in the room mixed with Shinsou and Izuku’s silent presences seemed to shock the students so much that they sat forward in their seats and waited for the teacher to arrive. 

This pleased Aizawa who jumped straight into the lesson as soon as he got into the classroom. It wasn’t so much a lesson as it was him informing them of assignments that were going to be due soon in various classes and goals that they needed to accomplish by the end of the term.
“Alright and with that, I give my final announcement: the Sports Festival is approaching quickly.” 

The class erupted in cheers and questions leading Izuku to lay his head down on his desk. 

Mina raised her hand and Aizawa glared at the class to get them to settle down before calling on her. “Should we really be holding the sports festival when we just got attacked by villains?” 

Izuku raised his hand, but kept his head where it was, resting on the desk. He saw Aizawa vaguely wave at him, so he explained the reasoning. “The UA Sports Festival is one of Japan’s biggest events, and it essentially took over for the Olympics which used to be a world-wide event that everyone would watch. A couple villains coming and attacking the school can’t make them cancel it or it’ll make the school look weak and besides, only one teacher got injured seriously, and we still have Aizawa, who is doing fine as we can see.” Izuku put his hand down and closed his eyes to listen to the rest of the conversation while relaxing. 

“Thank you Midoriya. I will also add that this subject was heavily debated, and we eventually as a school decided to not cancel the event and add in an extreme upgrade to our security,” Aizawa added. “There will be a plethora of Pro Heroes attending the event as scouts and they will also be doing rounds throughout the events to switch off who is guarding the school.” 

“What will you be doing, Aizawa-Sensei?” Shinsou asked when it seemed like he had finished his explanation. 

Aizawa sighed as if he was dreading his role already. “Unfortunately I will be up in the commentator booth with Present Mic assisting in the narration and analysis of the events and your actions.” He was definitely already dreading his role. 

Izuku raised his hand without looking up again. At the go ahead from Aizawa, he asked, “Do I have to participate?”

There were small pops of explosions that came from the desk in front of him where Bakugo sat. “What do you mean, damn nerd?! You have to participate!” 

“No, you don’t have to participate, neither do you, Shinsou. It is only required for Hero students as it is essential for them getting offers for internships. You two are going to be doing something different that week that we’ll discuss later,” Aizawa interrupted the explosive blonde.

Izuku waved his hand tiredly and put it down. 

Something poked his arm and he opened his eyes and glared. Shinsou was leaning across the aisle from his own desk towards Izuku. “Are you feeling okay?” He whispered. 

Izuku rolled his eyes, his friend had been fussing all over him since he’d found him in the alley. “I’m fine, Toshi. It was just a scratch as you saw, not even deep enough to warrant stitches.” 

Shinsou raised an eyebrow at him. “Yet-”

“Can we talk about this at lunch instead?” Izuku asked with a pointed look. Shinsou nodded but reached into his bag and pulled something out, interrupting Izuku’s relaxing time again. 

“Here, I brought your pain killers,” Shinsou said, holding some pills in one hand and a water bottle in the other. Izuku gratefully took them from him and drank down the pills before laying his head back down on his desk. The class was talking excitedly about the Sports Festival coming up, and Izuku didn’t really care about it since he wouldn’t be participating in it anyways. 

The class chatted for the rest of the class period and when the bell rang for them to go, Izuku stayed at his desk as everyone packed up to go. Shinsou tapped his shoulder, holding both of their bags. Izuku pushed himself to his feet and they were the first to head to the door where the throng of students blocked it- wait, what? Why was the door being blocked by a bunch of students not in this class? 

“Um, what’s going on?” Uraraka asked. 

“Tch, they’re here to scope out the competition,” Bakugo mumbled, walking up next to Izuku. 

“It only makes sense since we’re the ones that survived a villain attack I guess,” Shinsou said, shrugging while he walked on Izuku’s other side. 

Izuku looked at the two of them curiously. They were acting like guard dogs. Izuku shook his head and walked the rest of the way to the door. 

“Move aside cannon fodder,” Bakugo growled at the gathering of students. Izuku let out a long-suffering sigh and Iida started lecturing Bakugo about calling people he didn’t know ‘cannon fodder.’

“It’s true that we came to scope out the competition, but I must say that I’m not impressed. Is your whole class like this?” A blonde asked as he made his way to the front of the crowd. 

Izuku shook his head and stepped forward to meet the blonde. “Listen, y’all can scope out the competition as much as you like when we’re at the competition and preparing to fight one another. For now, let us go eat lunch.”

“Oh, so you think that just because you fought some low grade villains, you guys are so superior to us and can boss all of us around?” The blonde asked, tilting his head with a mocking smile. 

“More like I don’t want to deal with your stupid complex right now because I’m hungry and this class went through something traumatic and they don’t need to deal with your bullshit,” Izuku said, crossing his arms. 

“You guys just want to hog all the glory of the villain attack and-”

“Just shut your fucking trap and leave us alone. You can try and get all your glory in the damn Sports Festival. I’m interested to see if you have enough bite to back your bark, though I highly doubt it.” Izuku turned to the rest of the class. “Don’t listen to what this idiot says, just prepare for your festival and you’ll prove to them all that the reason why you were able to get pulled into a villain attack and survive is because you’re Class 1-A and are going to be great heroes.” 

The blonde scoffed, but Izuku paid him no mind as he pushed through the crowd and walked to the cafeteria, Shinsou and Bakugo following close behind. 

***

Despite not participating in the Sports Festival, Aizawa trained them harder and harder during those two weeks. It might have been because they’d been attacked by villains and he felt the need to have them more prepared for if it happened again. 

At the end of their quirkless training, Shinsou and Izuku were sweating profusely as they made their way through their cool down stretches. 

“One more rep and you’re both good to go shower,” Aizawa called from where he was also stretching. The past week, he’d been setting them up to spar against him, at first by working together, but after succeeding in a couple takedowns they were now sparring with him on their own. 

“Aizawa-sensei, how are the preparations going for the Sports Festival?” Izuku asked. 

“They’re going fine, we got Pro Heroes from all over the country to come in and help with the extra security. I have a feeling that the villains will be staying home and watching the Sports Festival rather than infiltrating it though,” Aizawa replied as he leaned forward in his sitting position to touch his toes. 

“That makes sense,” Izuku hummed, thinking back to a conversation he’d had with Tenko a couple nights previous where he explained he’s essentially doing exactly what Aizawa had said. 

“And why might they be staying home and watching?” Aizawa asked, seeming curious to know Izuku’s reasoning.

“If they infiltrated the Festival then they would come in only knowing the quirks of those that they’d already attacked, but they probably still don’t know all of them because they couldn’t see all of the fights. Actually they probably only know yours, Number Thirteen’s, and Iida’s. Plus, if they do go to the Festival, there’s all the Pros that are usually there, and they’ll probably expect there to be additional security due to the recent attack. So, if they stay behind and just watch this time, they’ll be able to see the quirks and who are the top students,” Izuku explained. Tenko hadn’t expected there to be extra security, but he also wasn’t surprised or upset as it didn’t put a hold on any of his plans, in fact it made him seem almost proud that they thought so highly of the attack, or something like that. Tenko’s moods could be so strange sometimes. 

“Good work kid. It’s actually really good that you two both decided not to join the Sports Festival this year. I only did it when I was in school so that I could get into the hero course from General, but it’s better if you don’t join seeing as you are both in the Underground track. You’ll want less attention on your skills and weaknesses,” Aizawa turned to Shinsou, “and your quirk.” 

Shinsou nodded grimly. “Aizawa-sensei, do you know who that blonde kid was that confronted Class 1-A when you announced the Sports Festival?”

Aizawa had escaped the class before the crowd had gathered outside the room, so he wasn’t there to see the interaction which led him to tilt his head. “I’m afraid there are way too many blondes in this school, you have a better description?”

Izuku rubbed his chin. “He’s a first year like us for sure, he has a massive complex that is very unhealthy. He seemed to think that we wanted glory and that’s why we got attacked by the villains. For his description, I guess he probably has a very loud personality and has blue eyes and short, cropped blonde hair. He’s about the height of Shinsou, without the gravity-defying hair. I’m assuming he’s in the other hero class as well with the way in which he was speaking, especially ‘cause he wasn’t provoking us in a way that seemed to want to take any hero course spots, but rather just to prove his worth against us.” 

“How the fuck did you get all that,” Shinsou muttered, shaking his head. 

Izuku shot him a bewildered look, but Aizawa spoke before they could start bickering as they were prone to do, more often now too as they grew more comfortable around their teacher. “There’s still a couple blonde’s in 1-B, but I’m going to assume that you’re referring to Neito Monoma. He’s a legacy child, which would explain his complex.” 

Izuku hummed. “His parents probably are putting more pressure on him to prove himself since he wasn’t able to do so in the villain attack. And that will only worsen if Class 1-A is boasted in the Sports Festival and if he loses early on.” 

“Correct there,” Aizawa said. “Legacy children are often pushed hard by their parents to be the best of the best. You might have noticed this with Iida, Yaoyorozu, and Todoroki. All three of them are also legacy children.” 

“That actually makes a lot of sense,” Shinsou muttered. “Todoroki is completely closed off to his class, Yoyorozu is very strict on manners, and Iida is very strict on rules.”

“I don’t know, I think there’s something more going on with Todoroki. He might be closed off because he hasn’t interacted with others much before, but it seems like there’s more to it,” Izuku replied. 

“How do you mean?” Aizawa asked, tilting his head. 

“I’m not really sure yet, I was going to watch for a bit longer before I actually brought it up to anybody,” Izuku answered, shrugging. 

“I’ll keep an eye out too. Once Number Thirteen is back and able to teach again, I’ll ask them if they’ve noticed anything since they’re around him more often.” 

Izuku hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Thank you Aizawa-sensei. I’ll let you know if I notice anything that’s troubling or anything like that.”

“Sounds good, now go shower then head over to English with Present Mic and Class 1-A.” Aizawa stood from his stretches and left the room. 

***

“Are you really not participating in the Sports Festival?” Mei asked as she wrote down more notes in their shared files. 

Izuku shrugged. “Nah, it’s not really an event made for me. Not only am I going underground, but I’m also quirkless. I have a feeling that some of the kids would try to take me out the first round just for the fact that they don’t know who I am or how I got into a heroic course. Not to mention the fact that I riled up that Monoma kid in 1-B.” 

Mei chuckled. “I can’t imagine how that all went down. You have such a cheery expression until something goes wrong and you get pissed. I never want that side of you directed at me.” 

Izuku playfully shoved her shoulder. “Oh shut it, Tinker. You’re the one that explodes the lab at least once a day.” 

Mei groaned. “I never should have shown you those old fairy movies.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, they were perfect to listen to as I worked on my experiments,” Izuku replied laughing. Due to Power Loader not wanting to disrupt the two of them in fear of extra explosions or ‘harmless’ pranks, they were allowed to have three tablets between the two of them at all times. Not that anyone would approach and ask for one when they were working, that was like asking for death. So, they constantly tinkered or edited their blueprints while watching old pre-Quirk movies together. Izuku had never seen any, having only access to what was on HeroTube or whatever happened to be playing on the TV that day. And he’d always been more interested in analyzing the hero fights than watching movies or shows for fun. Currently they were watching Big Hero 6 as they were working on the blueprints for Izuku’s nanobots. They had both watched it before they met and while they tinkered, but Mei had wanted to watch a specific scene today, so they decided to just play the whole movie once again. 

“Oh! I think I got it!” Mei shouted as she scribbled furiously on her tablet. Izuku pulled the sheet up on his own tablet in order to see what she was talking about. “We can definitely change the activation requirements now!” 

Izuku looked at the notes and beamed at her. This was going to work perfectly. 

Chapter Text

Izuku sat at the designated booth for Class 1-A with Shinsou as they waited for the Sports Festival to start. Due to their class not being publicly acknowledged, they didn’t have a designated seating area and were assigned to sit with 1-A  as they were the class that they interacted with the most. 

“Gather around one and all! It’s time to watch the youth excel once again in this year’s Sports Festival!” Present Mic called over the speakers. “ Are you readyyy ?!” 

“Do you think I’d get in trouble if I go talk to the Pros on duty?” Izuku asked Shinsou. 

Shinsou shot him a bemused look. “Really, Zu? That’s what you want to do? The thing hasn’t even started yet.”

Present Mic started introducing the classes as Izuku explained. “I already know all of 1-A’s quirks and there’s some questions I wanted to get answered!” 

Shinsou rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the field as Present Mic introduced Class 1-B. “What about them? Or the General Studies students?” 

Izuku sighed. “Fiiine. There are some notes I can take, but it’s not like that many of the other classes will make it to the next round.” 

A student sitting a row below them scoffed. Izuku and Shinsou pointedly ignored them. “Just pay attention and take your notes, you nerd.” 

“You’ve been hanging out with Kacchan too much,” Izuku muttered, opening his notebook. 

Shinsou gasped. “Oh no, it’s almost like I’m living with him .”

Izuku rolled his eyes. “Sarcastic asshole.” 

“Now for the athlete’s oath!” Midnight called from the stage in the stadium. 

“Woah, when’d she get there?” Izuku asked, already starting a quick sketch of her outfit. 

“When you were complaining about not getting to go harass the Pros on duty,” Shinsou muttered. 

Izuku elbowed him as Midnight called Bakugo up to the stage.  “That wasn’t the best choice of student,” Izuku said, laughing. Shinsou snickered next to him. 

Bakugo walked up to the stage with his hands in his pockets. “Make no mistake about it: I’m going to take first place.” At the calls and jeers from the audience and other students, Bakugo walked off the stage and back to his class. 

“Still as arrogant as ever,” Shinsou remarked. Izuku huffed a laugh as Midnight stuttered for a moment before announcing the first event which was an obstacle course. “Glad we didn’t participate since we already did one of those.” 

“At least we weren’t set up against like a hundred other students,” Izuku laughed. 

The students lined up at the entrance to the obstacle course and Izuku scoffed. “They’re all idiots.” Shinsou tilted his head at him causing Izuku to sigh. “It’s going to be a funnel, it's technically the first obstacle. They have to make it through the funnel without getting-” Present Mic shouted GO and the students all rushed forward- “trampled.” 

Several students had already fallen and Todoroki immediately shot ice out and came out of the tunnel first, Bakugo shooting his explosions to fly above the ice and following close behind. Izuku watched with vague interest as students tried to make it past the funnel towards where Todoroki was freezing robots. Just as the other students were about to make their way through the obvious path that Todoroki left, he called something out and the robots broke apart and fell. Izuku’s hands were flying, taking notes on whatever quirks he witnessed. 

The group quickly approached the second obstacle of ropes strung across a canyon with flat-topped spires standing in the middle as a way to rest during the crossing. Class 1-A had expected ways of getting across the canyon, and Izuku cheered when Mei used her grappling hook to make her way across. She must have brought an invention baby for every situation she could’ve thought of. 

As the top students started making their way across the minefield, Izuku started getting bored. “Are you sure I have to stay for this?” He asked Shinsou leaning his head on his friend’s shoulder and blinking up at him. 

Shinsou sighed and leaned down to bop his head against Izuku’s. “Why don’t you go ask Aizawa?” 

Izuku sat up straight with a bright grin. “You’re right! Oh look, Todoroki got first place, Kacchan is so pissed, it’s kind of funny. Okay, I’m gonna go talk to Aizawa now!” Izuku jumped out of his seat and waved to Shinsou as he ran away from the seating area and out of the stands. 

Izuku listened to Present Mic announce the winners as he made his way up the stairs to the commentators booth. Aizawa made minimal remarks about the students’ performances and Izuku chuckled at how tired he sounded. He came to the door, but was stopped by security guards standing outside. “Hi Ectoplasm!” 

The two Ectoplasm’s standing outside the door crossed their arms and raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re not supposed to be up here,” the one on the left said. 

“Ah, well, I just had a question for Aizawa-sensei,” Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

The Ectoplasm on the right sighed and went inside the commentators booth. He could hear Present Mic pause for a split second before finishing his recounting of the events and leading Midnight to announce the second event. Izuku stared at the remaining Ectoplasm who stared at him back while tapping a foot on the ground impatiently. 

The other Ectoplasm came out of the room and held the door open for Izuku, “go ahead.”

Izuku smiled and gave a small bow to both Ectoplasm’s. “Thank you!” He rushed inside the booth and the Ectoplasm on the right closed the door behind him, returning to his station. 

Aizawa held up a hand before Izuku could speak. He stopped in his tracks and closed his mouth. Present Mic made a couple comments about strategy for the second round, a cavalry battle, before turning his microphone off and turning to face Izuku. “What can we do for you little listener?”

“I was wondering if it would be okay if I asked the Pros on duty a couple of questions instead of watching the festival?” Izuku asked, looking down and kicking the ground, feeling nervous that they might mock his request. 

Aizawa arched his brow. “They’re on duty. That means they’re working. No.” 

Izuku looked up at his teacher. “I only wanted to ask a couple questions about their quirks!” He defended.

“No. Stay here and analyze the students' quirks,” Aizawa said bluntly, getting up from his seat and waving Izuku towards it. 

Izuku gaped at him and looked between his teacher and the seat, taking a step back. “Oh no, I could-”

“It’s alright little listener,” Present Mic said. “Aizawa is grumpy and doesn’t want to help DJ this event, so he’s using you as an excuse to get out of it. You can quietly analyze the students, or make comments about them through the mics.” 

Izuku hesitantly stepped forward and sat in Aizawa’s chair. “Are you sure?” 

Aizawa was already curled up in the corner in his sleeping bag, but he waved a hand at his student. “Just don’t cuss and you’re chill.”

“Did you seriously just say ‘chill’ Aizawa-sensei?” Izuku asked, trying to hold back laughter. 

Present Mic held no such reservations and boomed out laughter. 

“‘Zashi, that was your cue,” Aizawa muttered.

“Shit!” Present Mic turned the microphones back on. “Alrighty-o listeners! We’ve had a bit of a change up here in the commentator booth, and we now have a new guest up here to analyze the quirk use of the first years!” Present Mic covered both of their microphones. “Mind making a small intro?” He whispered to Izuku. 

Izuku shrugged as his face turned bright red even though nobody could actually see him except his two teachers. Present Mic uncovered the microphones and Izuku leaned forward a bit. “Thank you for having me, um, I’m quirk analyst Medusa.” He snapped his mouth shut and closed his eyes as he realized his mistake. 

“And there you have it! He’ll be up in the booth with me for the rest of the events and might make a few comments if he feels so inclined! Now! Let’s get back to the Cavalry Battle, I hope you all have your teams picked!” 

Present Mic didn’t have any hesitation in picking up the speech after Izuku went silent. Izuku tried not to look at Aizawa as he watched the students below and took notes on each of the groups that had formed.

Midnight started reciting the rules of the event and Izuku took the time to pull out his phone and shoot out a message to the gaming group chat.

Medusa

Did I really just announce to the whole world 

that Medusa is commentating for uas sports festival????

Insomniac

Bruh, you just fucked up so hard

pfft omg you’re up there with Aizawa

literally the only person who knows who Medusa is

EatMyDust

im wheezing

you’re fuckedddddd

rip Medusa

f in chat for Zu

Insomniac

f

Medusa

f 

EatMyDust

asdjkl you did not just f yourself

Medusa

im so ded

aizawa is gonna kill me

Insomniac

Maybe you’ll get lucky and Mic will save you

Midnight cracked her whip and called for the students to fight and Izuku tucked his phone away. He would have to ignore his internal crisis and focus on this new project he was assigned with his all and just hope that Aizawa would overlook his mistake in speech. 

Izuku had created a new page in his notebook for each group that the students had formed, and luckily with the screens up in the booth, he was able to get everyone’s names, the name of their quirks, and what class they were in. As students started battling each other to get the headbands, the commentators booth was filled with the noise of Mic’s intermittent comments of the battle, pages fluttering, and Izuku’s pen running across the pages. Izuku didn’t make any comments on the battle.

“And that’s time! Let’s look at the scoreboard to see the final results of who will be passing to the third and final round!” Mic called out to the crowd and Izuku’s head whipped up to the scoreboards. 

Bakugo had snatched the first place headband in the final moments leading his group to be at the top of the scoreboard, next in place being Todoroki’s group as they’d continued stealing headbands throughout the battle in case they lost their big pointer as well as to try to confuse their attackers as to which headband had the most points. Bakugo had won in a streak of luck with which headband he’d grabbed. There was only one group of 1-B students that made it to the next round, with the other three teams being fully 1-A students. Izuku worried about how the other students would be reacting to this, but Present Mic was already announcing that there would be an intermission for the students to get lunch with optional recreational games to participate in. 

“Go ahead and go have lunch with the other kids, but be sure to make it back up here in time for the next event,” Mic said after turning his microphone off. Aizawa grunted an agreement from his spot in the corner and Izuku hurriedly left the room. He pulled out his phone as he walked up to a balcony overlooking the stadium. 

Medusa

Toshi, wanna get lunch and sit with me in the 

commentator’s booth for the next event?

Insomniac

I’ll just get food and bring it to you

What do you want?

EatMyDust

Wow, thx for the invite

Medusa

Fuck off and keep watching in your dusty ass bar

Uh, idk smtg easy I guess? 

Insomniac

:thumbsup:

ur literally not even here Tank, how tf do

we invite you??

EatMyDust

idfk, figure it out

Medusa

Next time we’ll make sure to sneak you in

or idk, maybe just give you a ticket

then you won’t have your ‘Sensei’ breathing 

down your neck

EatMyDust

You’re both assholes, i hope you know that

Insomniac

luv u too

Shinsou came up the stairs holding two trays of skewers and Izuku tucked his phone in his pocket. He took one of the trays with a mumbled thanks and started eating the skewers. 

“Aizawa say anything yet?” Shinsou asked, picking at his food. 

Izuku groaned. “Don’t remind me. I really do not want to go back in that room… or know what they might be talking about in there right now.” Izuku looked out at the field where some students were participating in some sort of ball race, though it seemed more like a game of bumper cars where the students were hitting other students with the balls. 

“You just want me there as a distraction, don’t you?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “I really can’t deal with Aizawa asking about my name right now.” 

Shinsou shrugged. “I figure sitting in the booth will be better than listening to 1-A’s gossip anyways, so I don’t really mind.”

Izuku bumped his shoulder against Shinsou’s, or he tried to but he didn’t really reach his shoulder with their height difference. “You’re the best.” 

They finished eating their kebabs while watching the students participate in a variety of games. Just as they walked away to throw away the trays, Present Mic made a 5-minute warning announcement. They walked back up to the commentator booth where two Ectoplasms were still standing guard. 

“Can Shinsou come in with me? He’s not gonna bother anyone,” Izuku asked them. 

The left Ectoplasm sighed and waved the two boys into the room as the right Ectoplasm held the door open. 

“You know, when we said you had to return to the booth, we didn’t mean with another student in tow,” Aizawa muttered from where he was still sitting in his sleeping bag. 

Shinsou shrunk into himself a little at the comment, but Present Mic shot them a beaming smile. “Oh, come on Sho! The more the merrier I say! And I’m the one in charge of who’s allowed in here, so I say Shinsou is allowed!” 

Izuku laughed a little as he resumed his seat at Aizawa’s microphone. Shinsou pulled one of the extra chairs up and sat next to him, watching as Izuku opened his notebook and started a new page, taking notes on each of the students that had passed to the final event. 

Chapter Text

“It’s time for the final event!” Mic’s voice bounced around the stadium in his enthusiasm. “Of the top four teams from the last event, we have 16 students left. And with that, our final event is a.…” 

Midnight cracked her whip and a screen appeared behind her showing an empty bracket. “Tournament!” She shouted. “Get ready for this spicy one-on-one combat!” 

Aizawa sighed. “There’s a reason she’s only supposed to do the third year’s events.”

Mic pointedly ignored his comment. “Let’s show the pairings!” Izuku noticed that Mic was the one controlling the screen as he pressed a button causing the screen to change and show names in the bracket. “First fight! Our legacy child from 1-A, Todoroki Shoto versus 1-A’s tape champion, Sero Hanta!” 

Izuku tuned out the rest of Mic’s speech as he prepared a new page for each of the tournaments that were about to happen. 

“I feel like you’re going overboard on this,” Shinsou muttered. 

Izuku’s head whipped over to him. “What?” He whisper-shouted, semi-aware that his microphone was turned on. “I’m actually supposed to comment on these battles! I have to give myself enough time to present my thoughts before I speak.” 

Shinsou laughed quietly as he rolled his eyes and looked back to the stage as Midnight cracked her whip and called the fight to start. Sero immediately shot tape out and wrapped Todoroki and worked to throw him out of bounds. 

“A surprise quick attack that left no time for Todoroki to react! Will Todoroki get sent out of bounds so quickly?” Mic shouted.

Izuku leaned a little forwards towards the microphone. “Sero can use his tape to effectively trap people, and he has a great strength to be able to not only hold them, but also maneuver them as well. But, as expected, Todoroki is able to quickly react, though that was a little overboard,” Izuku commented as Todoroki shot out a giant glacier that trapped Sero. He made quick notes in his book about what he’d witnessed, but didn’t miss the beaming smile that Mic gave him. 

“Sero Hanta is unable to move! Todoroki Shoto moves on to the next round!” Midnight called. 

Izuku prepared the next page as they cleared the ice away and called up the next contestants: Ibara Shiozaki versus Kaminari Denki. Their fight lasted a little longer than the first round, but ended in just as much a show of power as it was overboard, though the person who exerted their quirk wasn’t the winner this round. “Kaminari can use some quirk control in order to not short circuit so quickly, though I’m sure that a little more time in Foundational Heroics can help with that if his teacher works hard enough,” Izuku commented, making Shinsou snicker at the low key dig at All Might. “Ibara was quick to block the electric charge and incapacitate her opponent leading her to the win of this round.”

The next round lasted forever in Izuku’s mind. Kirishima against Tetsutetsu from 1-B ended in a tie and Izuku didn’t comment on it as it was decided that there would be a supplementary rematch to be decided after the results of the rest of the first tier fights. The fourth fight was between Bakugo and Uraraka which had Izuku sitting on the edge of his seat and paying rapt attention as he noted down each move they made. Some people from the stands had started booing at Bakugo and calling out against him, saying they should stop the fight, which made Izuku’s blood boil. 

“Ka- erm, Bakugo is ruthless, yet efficient, with his quirk usage. He knows Uraraka’s skill and strength and is on guard against it. He’s doing everything in his power to win and not letting his guard down against her. If you don’t recognize this, then I don’t really understand why you’re here watching the tournament. Each of the students here today are working their hardest to win and prove that they have a right to the first place medal. Uraraka is fighting and standing up to his skill on her own, she knows her limits just as Bakugo does. By booing Bakugo, you are not only demeaning him, but also her as you are saying that she does not have the power or will to stand up against her opponent. So, it would be best if you sat back and just watched the fight quietly.” 

Present Mic gaped at Izuku for a minute after his speech before returning to commentating on the rest of the fight. Uraraka pulled an extremely tricky and stealthy move against Bakugo, but in the end she still lost the fight. Izuku didn’t comment on the rest of the fight as he returned to his note taking, silently fuming. The next fight was between Mei and Iida, during which Izuku commented on the complexities and creativity of her inventions as she toyed with her opponent. In the end she stepped out of the ring and allowed Iida to pass to the next round. The sixth round was between Aoyama and Pony Tsunotori from 1-B. At this point, Izuku was over the crowd’s treatment of Bakugo and returned to his excited analysis of the student’s quirk usages. 

“Pony’s horns are versatile in their regenerative abilities as well as maneuverability. She also has really good control over them for being a first year, which led to her win. Aoyama needs to work on resistance to nausea, though with more training, I’m sure that he’ll be able to overcome that soon!” 

The next round was Itsuka Kendo from 1-B against Ashido Mina. “Itsuka’s ‘Big Fist’ quirk is not a good matchup against Ashido’s acid. Add in Ashido’s quick reflexes and flexibility and we can see how she was able to gain a quick win in this round.”

The last round of the first tier was between Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu. “Tokoyami’s ‘Dark Shadow’ is a sentient being that is very useful on the battlefield. It was able to quickly knock Yaoyorozu out of bounds before she was even able to create anything with her quirk!” 

After the first tier fights were finally over, Tetsutetsu and Kirishima returned to the stage to engage in an arm wrestling contest of which Kirishima won. The second tier fights began immediately after, starting with Todoroki versus Pony. This was another quick win for Todoroki in a similar manner as his fight against Sero and Izuku didn’t comment on either fight, though he did take notes on them. 

Ibara against Iida was the second fight. “Ibara continued to show the versatility of her vines, but Iida’s speed was unable to fight against, especially with the last burst of speed that pushed her out of bounds. It would be interesting to see how he might be able to further his speeds in the future!” 

Bakugo against Kirishima was an interesting fight for Izuku. “Kirishima’s hardening is almost a perfect match for Bakugo’s explosions, though he needs to work on extending the time he can harden and the durability of his hardening. This is yet another thing that will be perfected with time and training!” 

Tokoyami versus Ashido was short and swift. “Dark Shadow once again shows its speed and reflexes as it dodges Ashido’s acid and works around her own quick reflexes to push her out of bounds!”

The semi-finals were over quickly in which the two winners to move on to the final rounds were Todoroki and Bakugo, to no one’s surprise. Izuku had been muttering and taking notes, forgetting that he was supposed to be making comments to the crowd, though Present Mic easily carried on the commentary on his own. 

Being the longest match by far, Izuku was able to gather notes on both of their quirks as well as note that Bakugo was getting more and more frustrated throughout the fight, though it didn’t seem to be about not having a quick win. They weren’t able to hear their conversation from up in the commentator’s booth, but Izuku assumed that it had something to do with Todoroki not putting his all into the fight, if he knew Bakugo at all. Which he did, having grown up with him. Izuku had many theories on Todoroki, with his ice quirk only coming out of his white-colored right side. In the end, Bakugo won the fight, though he was definitely not pleased about it and Izuku knew he was going to be ranted to for hours about it. Izuku decided to opt out of commenting on the final fight with a quick shake of his head to Present Mic, who fluidly commentated about the event as a whole and announced the medal ceremony happening as soon as the student’s injuries were treated. 

“Your analyses were amazing Midoriya!” Mic commented as soon as he turned his mic off. Aizawa huffed in agreement from where he sat in his sleeping bag and Shinsou grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. 

“Oh, it wasn’t that much, and I didn’t even commentate on all the matches like you wanted me to do,” Izuku replied, a blush creeping up his neck as he used his free hand to tug on one of his curls. His hair was getting much longer, he might need to get it cut soon. 

“Nonsense!” Mic countered. “While it’s true you didn’t commentate on all the fights, the ones you did really showed how skilled you are in analyzing fights and quirks! You did exceptional work! I can’t imagine the analysis papers that you write for Shouta, I might just have to assign one in my class just to see the full brunt of your intelligence for myself!”

“Kami, please no,” Shinsou moaned at the same time Aizawa muttered, “or you could just ask to read over one of the papers.”

Izuku and Mic laughed at their reactions. “I would be happy to write a paper for you, Yamada-sensei, even if it wasn’t an assignment!” Izuku offered with a beaming smile as his blush rose to his cheeks. 

“Maybe I’ll come up with some extra credit assignment then!” Present Mic agreed enthusiastically. He opened his notebook and started jotting down some notes which made Izuku nervous. 

Before he could ask what he was writing, Aizawa and Mic’s phones dinged. They both immediately pulled them out to check their notification and Izuku and Shinsou didn’t miss the wary glance that Mic sent Aizawa, who huffed and stood up, stepping out of his sleeping bag. 

“Gotta head to the infirmary, Izuku you’re with me,” Aizawa said, already heading to the door. 

Izuku gripped Shinsou’s hand, both of them standing up. “Um, can Shinsou come too?”

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “You’ll be fine without your friend for some odd minutes. Now hurry up, they need us immediately.” 

Izuku gulped and Shinsou gave his hand one final squeeze before letting go. Izuku bowed quickly to Present Mic who waved at him before turning to Shinsou. Izuku could make a mainly one-sided conversation about DJing the break and what music they should play as he scurried after Aizawa as he walked briskly down to the infirmary they set up for the Sports Festival. 

Izuku wrung his hands, nervous about being alone with Aizawa finally due to his name slip-up and wondering what possible reason they would be needed at the infirmary. 

“Is Medusa the name you’re planning on using as a hero?” Aizawa finally asked, breaking the silence and making Izuku jump. His sensei really didn’t pull any punches did he?

“Um, yes sensei. Besides analyzing heroes, I really like looking into ancient cultures and mythology and seeing how their stories line up with society, especially since it hasn’t been touched much on since the dawn of quirks,” Izuku replied, thankfully not delving into a stuttering mess. 

“What made you choose Medusa specifically?” Aizawa asked, tilting his head. Why wasn’t the hero just asking outright if he was the vigilante or even if he knew who the vigilante was? The tip-toeing around was making Izuku more nervous and he raised a hand to pull at a stray curl again. 

“Um, well, there’s kind of several different reasons, but the main one is that after all that Medusa was put through in her life, she still helped people. She saved women in her society and gave them sanctuary according to some of the myths and while I’m not planning on only saving women, I feel like our stories kind of overlap and want to work as much as I can despite the world deeming me useless for a lack of quirk and still save people and give them sanctuary,” Izuku explained. It had taken him many hours spent researching ancient mythologies to pick the name, but once he had read enough takes on Medusa’s story, he had immediately known that she was the heroine that he wanted to be named after. It especially fit with the fact that she was mainly seen as a villain and he was working under her name as a vigilante, which was close enough in some people’s eyes.

Aizawa hummed. “I had not heard that myth about her. I would like to read more into that side, would you happen to have any suggestions?”

Izuku gave him a hesitant smile. “Um, sure, sensei! I can probably dig up a few and send them to you tonight or tomorrow!” 

Aizawa nodded. “Much appreciated, Midoriya, I look forward to reading what you send. Though, don’t let gathering the pieces cut into your sleep or personal time too much,” he added with a soft glare. 

Izuku squeaked and raised his hands in defense as they reached the floor of the infirmary. “I won’t I prom- is that Kacchan?” He cut himself off from his promise, not that he’d really been thinking of keeping it, as the familiar pop of explosions sounded out through the hallway. Izuku could see Small Might and Recovery Girl talking just outside a door, seemingly arguing about something in hushed tones. 

“What’s the status?” Aizawa asked as they approached the two. 

“Midnight had to seduce him with a minor dose of her quirk after the fight and as soon as he woke up this started happening,” she said, waving her needle cane towards the closed door. 

“I was just suggesting that we slap a muzzle on him and chain him to the post so that we can get this ceremony over with. We’ve just received news about the Hero Killer attacking Ingenium in Hosu, and they need the Heroes out there immediately,” Small Might stated from where he had  leaned on the wall next to Bakugo’s door. 

Izuku gave him a wide eyed stare, but kept his mouth shut in fear that the same suggestion might be thrown towards him if he started yelling at and fighting the Number One Pro Hero. 

Aizawa’s head snapped over to Small Might, apparently having no qualms about glaring at the hero and biting out a response. “Absolutely not, we are not chaining and muzzling a student just to hurry up a medal ceremony .”

Izuku took a deep breath to calm his anger and quietly raised his hand. Recovery Girl put a hand up to stop Small Might’s retort before waving for him to speak. “Um, I can go in and talk to him. I might be able to calm him down enough to go through with the ceremony.” 

Aizawa opened the door and waved him in, whispering, “hurry up so I don’t have to deal with this fucking buffoon.”

Izuku chuckled even as he stepped in the room and was faced with the screaming, exploding, rage-filled Bakugo. He’d take this any day over having to listen to Small Might’s ideas of honestly wanting to chain up and muzzle a student. Was he trying to ruin Bakugo’s chance at becoming a hero or was he just that idiotic? Izuku clicked his tongue at both Small Might’s words and Bakugo’s current behavior as he shook his head. “Kacchan, really?”

“Let me back onto that fucking battlefield where I can properly beat Icy Hot’s ass!” Bakugo shouted at him, letting off more explosions. He was standing next to the bed, as far as he could get without the potential of ripping out his IV drip. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “Bakugo, sit your ass down right the fuck now before I make you.” 

Bakugo’s mouth snapped shut and the explosions died on his palms. He clicked his tongue and looked out the window as he leaned against the bed in a mocking form of sitting. Izuku rolled his eyes. “Listen, you’re going to fucking accept this win-” Bakugo huffed and opened his mouth to argue, but Izuku sent him a withering glare that shut him up- “no matter what Todoroki did or didn’t do. Because you won that fight fair and square and deserve the fucking first place trophy.” 

Bakugo got a satisfied gleam in his eyes and he smirked at Izuku. “Damn right I do.” He frowned. “Damn Icy Hot didn’t put his all into the fight though. He was fighting with only half his power, so it doesn’t count as an actual win.” 

“Then we’ll just have to convince him to do a rematch with you using his full power. But, that doesn’t matter right now because when Aizawa-sensei and I got here, All Might was talking about putting a muzzle on you and chaining you to the arena to ‘get the ceremony over with.’ Of course, Aizawa-sensei shot down the suggestion, but I wouldn’t put it past All Might to go off on his own and do that type of shit without the other teachers knowing. So, I need you to stay calm just to get your medal and then you can rage and do whatever you want after the cameras are off. Otherwise, you won’t get as many internship offers and your first place medal will be all for naught, not to mention the fact that that could have a seriously negative impact on your hero career in general.” 

Bakugo huffed and rolled his eyes. “You better talk some sense into that Icy Hot bastard. He can produce flames on his left side but refuses to because apparently he wants to ‘win with his own power not his ’ which doesn’t make any fucking sense.”

“Kacchan, look at who his dad is,” Izuku said quietly. Bakugo’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion before his eyes widened minutely in comprehension. 

Before Bakugo could open his mouth to say anything, there was a knock at the door. 

Izuku grabbed Bakugo’s hand and dragged him towards the door. “Just let me do the talking or else All Might might get his way.” He opened it to see Aizawa, alone somehow, on the other side with a raised eyebrow, to which Izuku returned a beaming smile. “We’re ready for the medal ceremony now! Sorry, we kinda got a little side tracked.” 

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “Whatever Problem Child, let’s head to the stage. Bakugo, go to room 1-A, they’re waiting for you.” Bakugo huffed and let go of Izuku’s hand after Izuku gave it a quick squeeze and walked off. Aizawa immediately set pace in the opposite direction. 

Izuku went to follow before stopping in his tracks with wide eyes. “Wait, the stage?”

“Yes, Problem Child. We’re going to the stage.” He looked at Bakugo stalking away with a pointed glare. “If that one starts exploding again, I’m relying on you to calm him down before someone decides to do something stupid. Oh, and text Shinsou and tell him we’re on our way to the stage.” 

Izuku huffed a breath and walked after Aizawa. 

Medusa

Aye, I’m currently getting dragged to the stage 

to keep Kacchan in check. Tell Present Mic that we’ll be 

up there soon and to get the crowd ready for the ceremony. 

Aizawa told me to tell you, and I assume that’s what he

really wanted

Also, also

Insomniac

Why tell me? Why doesn’t Aizawa

just tell Mic himself??

Medusa

Aizawa confronted me about the name Medusa, but it didn’t go

quite as catastrophic as I thought it would

Based on Mic’s booming voice, you did what I said

So thanks. And idfk what Aizawa’s thinking, every other

second I feel like he’s about to flay me alive

EatMyDust

What did he do?

And what even happened with Explodo Boy?

Insomniac

Fuck, I knew that was coming when he dragged

you out with him

Medusa

Something about Endeavor’s son not using his full power

causing him to go into a rage fit

Oh fuck, we’re here, I probably shouldn’t walk out on stage while on 

my phone. I’ll tell you about the Medusa situation later! 

Izuku turned his phone off and tucked it into his pocket as he stood at the entrance to the field. “Alright kid, look sharp. We’ll be standing next to Nemuri in case anything happens,” Aizawa mumbled, pulling his hair back in a low ponytail. 

“Now then! Let’s move on to the Awards Ceremony!” Midnight called out waving a hand towards the center of the stadium where three holes opened up in the ground and Bakugo, Todoroki, and Tokoyami were raised out of the ground on pedestals that stopped at different heights, signifying their ranking in the festival. The crowd immediately roared and cheered for the contestants. 

Aizawa motioned to Izuku and they walked out towards Nemuri as the clapping died down and Izuku could hear confused murmurs from the crowd regarding his and Aizawa’s accompanying entrance, but he tried to tune it out as he walked with his shoulders pulled back, looking straight at Bakugo who gave him a proud smirk. 

“Iida Tenya also could have received third place, but he had to leave early due to family circumstances, so please be understanding!” Nemuri called out to the crowd, closing her eyes briefly with a solemn look, before opening them and beaming up at the crowds. “Now it’s time to hand out the medals! And the one who will present the medals this year is… our very own analyst, Medusa!” Midnight waved a hand dramatically to Izuku, turning a soft smile towards him. 

Izuku’s head snapped over to Aizawa, his mouth gaping. Aizawa pushed him forwards. “Up you go, Problem Child.” 

“Wha- bu- I- why me ?” Izuku stuttered out. 

“Because you didn’t commentate on the last 5 battles and I don’t want All Might anywhere near Bakugo right now,” Aizawa explained. “Now get up there, give them the medals, and give some fancy little speech or something. Tell them good job or whatever you want.” 

Aizawa pushed him forwards again causing him to stumble before regaining his footing and nervously walking up to Midnight. The crowd was muttering in obvious confusion, probably expecting All Might since everyone knew that he was teaching the first years. Midnight was standing in front of the third place podium’s stairs, stairs that he hadn’t even noticed, holding a tray on which were the medals. 

“Medusa is one of two hybrid students this year trying their hand at all sorts of pathways! Let’s give them a round of applause for their bravery today!” Present Mic called out through the stadium. Izuku shot a quick, small smile towards the booth as applause broke out around the stadium, loudest coming from the area of the support department’s seating and Class 1-A’s. 

Izuku grabbed the third place medal and walked up the stairs towards Tokoyami. He smiled at the boy as he came to a stop in front of him. Izuku reached the medal up and Tokoyami bowed at the waist giving Izuku easier access to his neck. “Congratulations Tokoyami! Your performance was amazing today and you and Dark Shadow work wonderfully together!” 

“Your words are too kind, Midoriya,” Tokoyami said as he stood up straight. 

“Not even! I can’t even imagine how much stronger you’ll both become in the next three years, I’m really looking forward to the day you become a Pro Hero!” 

“Very well, thank you,” Tokoyami replied, bowing his head. 

Izuku gave him a beaming smile before going down the stairs and grabbing the second place medal. He made his way up to Todoroki who was standing stoically, face blank of any expression or emotion. Izuku gave him a hesitant smile. “Congratulations Todoroki! Your power is extraordinary, despite the fact that you were only using half of your quirk. You must have your reasons for suppressing your quirk-” Todoroki glared at him, causing Izuku to backtrack- “sorry, I’m not intending to make you mad or anything I swear. I just think that it’s incredible that you made it this far using only half of your power. I can’t imagine how strong you’ll be if or when you use the full of your quirk!”

“I will not use his fire,” Todoroki said, clicking his tongue and looking to the side. 

Izuku followed his eyesight and, as expected, found Endeavor in the stands. Izuku looked back at Todoroki. “I will only say one more thing: the fire you hold is your own not his, no matter how you obtained the fire, it is yours now.” Todoroki looked at him with wide eyes, but didn’t move to respond. Izuku sighed and raised the medal and looped it around Todoroki’s head when he bowed it down. Why did everyone have to be so much taller than him?

Izuku gave Todoroki one last small smile before going down the podium and grabbing the first place medal from Midnight. He walked up the stairs holding eye contact with Bakugo as they had matching feral grins on their faces. It was probably the best scenario for the UA staff to have Izuku handing out the medals, as Bakugo most likely would have still been freaking out if it were anyone else. “I knew you could do it Kacchan,” Izuku said as he came to a stop in front of his friend. “You’ve worked so hard to get here, next step is Number One Pro Hero.” Izuku’s smile shifted to a beaming smile as he looped the medal around Bakugo’s neck, standing on his tip toes as he knew there was no way Bakugo would bow to him. “Kacchan, sugoi .”

Izuku went back down the podium and stood besides Midnight as she spoke out to the crowd. It was evident to him now that she had a microphone attached to her suit that connected to the speakers placed around the stadium. “And there you have it, folks! These are the three winners of the first year’s Sports Festival! Today each and every student gave a delicious performance as they fought for the top spot and it was up to fate to see who would stand on the podium here now. Give a round of applause not only for our winners, but for each and every first year that participated today!” 

The crowd erupted in applause and cheering as Izuku walked back to Aizawa and they left the stage of the stadium. The Sports Festival was finally over.

Chapter Text

Medusa strolled through the back alleys and dark streets leisurely. They felt the most calm in this situation, walking the darkest parts of the cities and scanning while on patrol. If only this was their standard patrol and they weren’t being trailed by a needy puppy. 

“You got any food on you? We’ve been out here for hours and I’m starving,” Echo said. 

Medusa grabbed a bar out of one of their many pockets and shoved it towards Echo. “Eat this and shut up, will you?”

Echo opened the bar and took a bite before turning to Medusa. “It’s not my fault that last time you went out I had to get a search party on your ass because you were bleeding out in an alley.”

Medusa rolled their eyes at the taunt and stopped under a fire escape. “Hurry up and finish your bar and meet me at the top.” Without any further hesitation, Medusa grabbed onto the lowest rung of the fire escape and pulled it down before heading up to the rooftop. They walked the perimeter of the roof, scanning the quiet nightscape of the city. Just as they circled back to the fire escape, Echo hoisted themselves onto the roof. 

“How do you spend so long out here when there’s nothing happening?” Echo asked.

Medusa shrugged as they did another perimeter walk. “There’s always something happening somewhere. I keep having to change my routes because the night goers are starting to recognize my presence. This is good as the crime rates are going down in this area, but it means that I need to start spreading my presence to other areas. But, then again if it’s noticed that I’m no longer on my older routes, the crime rates spike again. It’s a hard balance.”

“You can’t watch over the city on your own,” Echo replied. 

“That’s what Underground Heroes are for, and there are some other vigilantes, but it’s hard to find ones that are actually out here to help.” Medusa sighed. “I really didn’t expect it to be so quiet tonight though, I might’ve stayed on this route for too long. There’s one other area I want to check and then we can head back.” 

“Sounds good,” Echo replied, walking towards the fire escape. When Medusa didn’t immediately follow, they stopped and looked back. Medusa saluted them with two fingers before jumping off the ledge of the roof in a backflip. “What the fuck!” Echo yelled as they ran to the edge of the roof. 

Medusa kicked off the ledge of someone’s window and bounced between the two buildings before landing graciously at the bottom of the alley. They looked back up to meet Echo’s wide eyes. “We’ll come on now, we don’t have all night,” they called up. 

“Stupid fucking show off. Stupid fucking vigilante. Why the fuck did I even come out tonight anyways, this is fucking ridiculous,” Echo muttered as they walked to the fire escape and jumped down each level till they reached the alley as well. 

Medusa laughed at the ire in Echo’s eyes when they finally reached where they were resting against a wall. “Oh don’t be like that, you like when I show off.” 

“I don’t wanna hear shit from you,” Echo responded, pointing an angry finger at Medusa. 

Medusa rolled their eyes and walked off through the alley, shoving their hands in their pockets. “Whatever you say,” they called over their shoulder. 

Echo followed behind Medusa as they exited the alley and patrolled through the dark, empty streets. They walked for a couple miles through streets with no sign of activity before Medusa sighed. 

“Alright this is ridiculous. I take you on patrol and nobody shows up,” they said as they threw their hands up in the air. 

“Maybe I’m a good luck charm,” Echo said, smirking even though it couldn’t be seen behind their mask. 

Medusa turned a glare on them. “What am I going to do if there’s no activity! No chance to beat people up! No one to save! My business is ruined!” 

“I could just kidnap your new partner here, will that be activity enough?” A cold voice replied. 

Before Medusa could react a figure covered in hands had trapped Echo, with one hand around their throat, pinky raised, and holding their arm behind their back. 

“Te- Shigaraki!” Medusa cried. “What the fuck brings you out here?” 

“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Echo sighed at the same time, not even bothering to try and escape from their friend. 

“Was out on a mission before a meeting, and guess how surprised I was to hear my two partners yelling around my neighborhood on my way back,” Shigaraki replied, smirking as he released Echo and took his father’s hand off of his face. 

“God, I never want to be that close to those hands ever again,” Echo said, shivering involuntarily. 

“Oh hush, NPC,” Shigaraki said, shooting a glare at Echo. 

“What kind of meeting you got?” Medusa asked before they could start bantering. 

Shigaraki waved a hand nonchalantly. “Just some newbies trying to find a place in my group.” 

Medusa raised an eyebrow. “I thought we agreed that you’d let me vet your newcomers.” 

“Guess it’s a good thing I ran into you then, isn’t it?” Shigaraki asked, shrugging. 

“Fuck,” Echo muttered. “Just when I thought we’d actually be able to go home and get some sleep tonight.” 

“Like you were gonna sleep tonight anyways asshat,” Shigaraki said. 

“Lead the way to your bar,” Medusa said, cutting off Echo’s reply. 

Shigaraki shrugged and started walking down the street, the two vigilantes falling into step beside him. “Whatever, we’re almost there anyways.” 

“Are your missions the reason why there’s been such low activity recently?” Medusa asked. 

“Probably. The NPC low grades are too scared to mess with the LOV,” Shigaraki replied. 

Echo and Medusa rolled their eyes. A couple blocks later, Shigaraki showed them into the seemingly abandoned bar. 

Medusa scanned the room as they entered, behind the bar was the mist villain, Kurogiri, cleaning glasses. There were couches and tables set up around the room, with booths along the wall opposite the bar. There was another figure with a top hat and a mask on, sitting at the bar playing with some marbles, and a buff figure leaning against a wall, scrolling on their phone. 

“Newbies, meet Medusa and… dude whatcha going by right now?” Shigaraki asked, turning to Echo. 

Echo waved their hand in the air. “Just call me Echo.” 

Shigaraki nodded. “Makes sense. Meet Medusa and Echo, they’re some vigilante strays I picked up on my way here.” 

Medusa raised an eyebrow at him at the same time Kurogiri huffed out a laugh. “I have a feeling that’s not exactly what happened,” he said. 

Shigaraki waved a hand, dismissing him. “Doesn’t matter, it’s what I said happened. The newbies are coming by in about 5 minutes, so look sharp or whatever.” Shigaraki led Medusa and Echo to the bar. “Kurogiri, give Medusa a run down on who’s coming, will ya?” 

Kurogiri sighed as he poured a glass of amber liquid and passed it to Shigaraki. “Three people are coming. They’re followers of Stain. We have a mutation type, a fire user, and a morpher.” 

“What’s the mutation?” Medusa asked, placing their elbows on the bar counter and resting their chin on their hands. 

“Lizard I believe,” Kurogiri replied. 

“And the morpher? What’s the activation?” Medusa prompted. 

“Not sure, something about blood, if I’m recalling correctly,” Kurogiri said, tilting his head. 

“And what prompted them to try out the LOV?” 

“They liked Stain, and Stain doesn’t take partners, so they figured they’d follow his ideology but combine it with ours, or something like that.” 

Medusa snapped their head towards Shigaraki, “You’re letting a bunch of Stain followers join your cause? He doesn’t even know what a Hero is or isn’t,” they said, with more anger than intended. 

“What’s up your ass with Stain?” Shigaraki asked, tilting his head.

“Stain recently attacked a classmate’s brother. Medusa did research on the Hero and found nothing wrong with his ethics. The opposite rather,” Echo answered, placing a hand on Medusa’s leg, trying to ground them. 

“That Ingenium guy?” the masked man asked, not able to keep out of the conversation any longer. 

“Yeah,” Medusa bit out. “He’s a good hero, which says a lot coming from me as I’m literally aiding in a villain organization trying to wipe out Heroes.” 

Shigaraki huffed. “Well, I have a meeting set up with Stain next week, so I’ll see what’s up with him then.”

“Don’t expect me to play this gig with him. If he joins, I’m out. Plenty of the heroes he’s attacked had literally nothing wrong with the way they worked.” Medusa rolled their eyes and looked away from Shigaraki. 

“I’ll vet him and see what he’s about. If he’s just killing heroes to kill heroes, that doesn’t necessarily align with what I’m doing.” 

“Necessarily, you say,” Echo repeated. 

“Really sticking to your name,” Shigaraki retorted. 

Echo rolled their eyes. “Listen if Medusa doesn’t like this guy, which trust me, they don’t, I was there when they were researching him, then it’s not worth it to try to recruit him.”

Medusa suddenly turned in their seat to face the two members. “Sorry, we didn’t get your names?” 

“Magne, and that’s Mr. Compress,” the woman said, jabbing her thumb at the masked man. 

“Pronouns?” Medusa asked. “We both by they/them.” 

“She/her,” Magne replied. 

“He/him,” Mr. Compress said, nodding at them. 

Before Medusa could ask about their quirks, the door opened and the three new members walked in. One of them was clearly the lizard mutation guy, while another seemed like a high school girl with messy, blonde space buns wearing a school uniform and the last was a taller male with black hair and burn scars all over his face and arms, stapled to his non-scarred skin. 

“Hiya!” The girl waved at them. 

“Welcome,” Kurogiri replied, bowing to the three. 

Shigaraki waved them in. “Medusa, do whatever you need to.”  

Medusa’s eyes lit up in anticipation and determination, thoughts of Stain abandoned for now despite his being the reason for the newcomers. They stood up and walked over to the three people. “Name, pronouns, and quirk description please.” 

The scarred man raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Medusa. “Dabi, he/him, flame wielding.” Medusa nodded, then turned to the girl. 

“Himiko Toga, she/her, and I can morph into someone by drinking their blood!” She squealed, twirling a knife in her hands and looking like she was ready to stab Medusa at any given opportunity. Medusa raised an eyebrow as if daring her to try before turning to the lizard guy. 

“Spinner, he/him, and my quirk’s pretty obvious,” he said, shrugging. Medusa huffed out a laugh at that before clapping their hands. 

“Perfect! Now,” they said, voice turning sharp and gaze piercing the three. “Why do you want to join the league?” 

Dabi and Spinner looked skeptical at the sudden shift, but Toga just giggled. “We wanna be like Stain and destroy the heroes!” She said excitedly. 

Medusa cocked their head. “Do you even know what Shigaraki’s mission is?” 

“Down All Might,” Dabi said with a huff. 

Medusa nodded. “Essentially. And how do you plan to help him?” 

Dabi rolled his eyes. “He sends us on missions and we finish them. Sounds pretty simple to me.” 

“Do you have fight training?” 

“I can wield blades pretty easily,” Spinner said. 

“My shitty ass father put me through hellish training, so I’d say I’m pretty good in a fight,” Dabi grunted. 

“I like knives!” Toga shrieked. 

Medusa turned to Shigaraki, raising an eyebrow. 

“I don’t care, good enough for me,” Shigaraki said, taking another sip from his glass. Medusa rolled their eyes. 

“Boss says you’re in, don’t step out of line,” Medusa replied. 

“How do you fit into all of this?” Dabi asked, raising an eyebrow at him. His eyes were full of curiosity, even though his face was showing contempt. 

“Consider me an interviewer. I’m not even in the LOV,” Medusa said, shrugging and walking back to the bar to retake their seat between Shigaraki and Echo. 

Echo raised an eyebrow at him and Medusa shrugged. “I’m not going on missions. I don’t like this ‘Sensei’ figure, and I don’t like Stain.” 

Shigaraki scoffed at that but didn’t comment and Spinner looked affronted by the last statement. Dabi, Spinner, and Toga looked around, sensing they were dismissed and made their way around the bar. Spinner sat at an empty booth, notably as far from Medusa as possible, Dabi collapsed at an empty bar stool and asked for a drink, and Toga danced up to Magne and started talking excitedly about her makeup. 

“Anyways, Shigaraki, we should probably head out. We were only doing a light patrol before you found us,” Medusa commented. 

Echo deflated, muttering, “finally.” 

“Now you know where I live, so stop by anytime,” Shigaraki replied, waving dismissively. 

Medusa and Echo stood up and headed for the door, not bothering to say goodbye to the other villains. 

As the door closed behind them and they set off into the night, Echo turned to Medusa. “Are we really training to be heroes, but helping villains and acting as vigilantes at the same time?” 

“ We don’t have to do anything, but yes that’s what I’m doing,” Medusa replied. 

Echo huffed in annoyance. “As if I’d let you do this alone now that I know what you’ve gotten yourself into.” 

Medusa laughed. “Whatever you say, Echo.”

Chapter Text

“Alright, now that we’re back in our blissfully quiet classroom, we have some things to discuss,” Aizawa said as he sat down on the couch. 

Izuku was sitting on one side of the couch and Shinsou was laying down on the couch with his head in Izuku’s lap. Aizawa saw their position and sighed, but didn’t object to it. 

“Is it about the internships, Aizawa-sensei,” Izuku asked, tilting his head. He had a journal out on the arm of the couch next to him, with his right arm hovering over Shinsou, ready to write. Shinsou had a notebook stationed on his knees that were bent up so he could use them as a table. 

“Indeed,” Aizawa nodded. “As neither of you participated in the Sports Festival traditionally, there were not meant to be any internship offers.” Aizawa gave a pointed look to Izuku. “However, due to some circumstances you have received several internship offers, Midoriya.”

Shinsou huffed a laugh as Izuku rolled his eyes. “Those circumstances are simply from you forcing me into two situations I was unprepared for and didn’t want,” Izuku muttered.

Aizawa sighed. “The second one couldn’t be avoided, and the first was upon your own bringing.”

“I just wanted to interview some heroes! And you totally could’ve had literally any of the other heroes there present the medals!” Izuku countered. 

“What’s done is done, either way, you have a pile of internship offers to go through as well as the underground hero list that both of you are also allowed to go through,” Aizawa said, waving a hand dismissively. He reached forward with two folders, one significantly more full than the other. 

Shinsou reached out one of his long arms and grabbed the two folders before passing the thicker one to Izuku. Izuku held the folder over Shinsou’s head as he flipped through the names. There were a ton of limelight heroes, some of them were his teachers like Present Mic and Midnight. The list of underground heroes were more interesting as that was the pathway he wanted to follow, but when he looked down at Shinsou and they made eye contact, he knew they were on the same train of thought. They both set their folders aside and looked towards their teacher. 

“Aizawa-Sensei. Why aren’t you on this list?” Izuku asked. 

Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I want two bratty interns on my week off?” 

Izuku tilted his head. “But if we didn’t take an internship you’d be working anyways, and aren’t you still doing patrols throughout the week?” 

Aizawa sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “Of course I’m still doing patrols, I have bills to pay after all.” 

“I know that teaching isn’t the best, but don’t you get a decent paycheck by being an Underground Hero?” Shinsou asked, tilting his head a bit. Subconsciously, Izuku lowered a hand into Shinsou’s hair and started running his fingers through the unruly purple strands. 

“Limelight heroes get the big paychecks, underground heroes are almost like independent contractors unless they work in an agency, which I don’t,” Aizawa explained. “I get paid plenty enough to live comfortably, especially with the teaching paycheck on top of it, but it’s nice to have some extra funding for emergencies or extracurriculars.” 

Izuku nodded his head, holding his chin with his free hand. “That makes a lot of sense. But if you’re already patrolling and doing underground work, why can’t we just tail you there?” 

Aizawa sighed and rolled his eyes. “There’s really no other heroes on your two lists that you could choose?” 

Shinsou gave a mocking smirk to Aizawa while Izuku just gave a very innocent look. “You’re the best Underground Hero out there, why would we want anyone else?” 

“Fucking Problem Children,” Aizawa sighed. “Sign your damn forms and hand them over then.” 

Izuku cheered, throwing a fist in the air before the two boys quickly filled in their teacher’s name on the form before Shinsou handed them both over. 

“Don’t expect it to be easy just because you’re tagging along with me,” Aizawa said gruffly. 

“On the contrary. We expect it to be 1000x harder,” Shinsou quipped as he settled back into Izuku’s lap, nudging his hand. 

Izuku smiled down at him and continued stroking his hair as a blush formed up his neck and across his cheeks. 

Aizawa sighed. “Okay, onto your schedule for the rest of the week…”

***

Izuku and Shinsou walked into Midnight’s classroom, which they were sharing with Class 1-B. Midnight had two extra desks added to the back of her classroom to fit them in, and each desk had a blank sheet of paper on it. Looking around, Izuku found that she wasn’t in the room yet. 

“Oh, ho ho. Would you look at that?” Monoma cackled. “Two little 1-A brats that didn’t even participate in the Sports Festival have joined us.” 

Izuku snapped his head to look at Monoma and glared at him. “You’re really an idiot, you know that?”

Monoma glared back at him. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” 

“We’re hybrid students, dumbass,” Shinsou stated. “We’re not in any one class, we hop between them all.” 

Monoma raised an eyebrow, curiosity filling his eyes. “Then why’d you get so defensive over 1-A?” 

“Because we were with them in that villain attack,” Izuku snapped. “Nobody needs a legacy child with an inferiority complex attacking them and throwing an attack in their faces not a week after it happened.” 

Monoma gaped at him. “I- I do not have an inferiority complex!” 

Izuku scoffed. “Could have fooled me.” He walked over to the two desks in the back of the room and dropped into one, Shinsou quickly taking the other. 

“Alright little hellions!” Midnight called as she walked into the class. “We’re moving onto watercolor today!” 

The rest of the class quickly took their seats and Midnight smiled as she made eye contact with Izuku and Shinsou. “Do we need to do introductions, boys?” 

“Izuku Midoriya and Shinsou Hitoshi, we both go by he/they pronouns and will be in your classes for the rest of the week,” Izuku said, taking the liberty of introducing both of them. “We know all your names, so no need for a full on class introduction.” 

Midnight nodded, sensing the tension and opting to not acknowledge it. “Alright, perfect! Today’s lesson will consist of choosing a creature that you’ll be painting with watercolor. The main focus for today will just be choosing the creature and running it by me and then starting your initial sketch work. If you feel comfortable enough, you can start painting today as well.” She grabbed a painting of an octopus from her desk and held it up for them to see. “This is what your final projects should look like. You’ll sketch the animal, paint with watercolors, then add finer details with ink. Got it?” 

Kendo raised her hand. “We have to run our choices by you?” 

“Yes. I’ll make sure that the creatures are in line with the assignment. You can choose animals or a mythological creature, though I would suggest a non-humanoid creature if you can as those prove to be more difficult and we haven’t touched on human anatomy yet.” 

Kendo nodded and lowered her hand. Chatter immediately picked up between students as they worked to pick a creature for their projects. 

Izuku took out his phone and started scrolling through different creatures that he might want to draw. 

“Why don’t you just do Medusa?” Shinsou asked, leaning on his hand and scrolling through his phone as well. 

Izuku perked up at that. “That’s not actually a bad idea. I know Midnight said not to choose human-like creatures, but I’ve drawn a lot of people so it’s not something that I’m unfamiliar with.” 

“Great, now help me pick something to draw,” Shinsou muttered, swiping his thumb on his screen again. 

Izuku chuckled, setting his phone down on his desk. “Did you really just give me a creature you knew I might choose so that I could help you choose yours?” 

Shinsou huffed and looked towards him. “Well, duh.” 

Izuku shook his head, smiling. “Why not just do a cat. I’ve seen some of your sketches and they’re really good!” More like they were amazing. Izuku had bullied Shinsou into showing him some of his sketchbooks and his artwork was really amazing. That mixed with his music made it clear that he would definitely be able to have multiple routes of income just like Aizawa and Present Mic did. 

“I don’t know, those were just rough sketches,” Shinsou mumbled, looking away.

“Okay, nope. We’re not doing this whole self-deprecation shit over your art. I’ve seen your sketchbooks and I know how good of an artist you are. Do a cat, not only do you have practice and are really good with them, but you also love cats,” Izuku explained. They both had trouble with self deprecation, but Shinsou had less people offering him praise than Izuku had and that was only because Izuku was a vigilante. 

Shinsou clicked his tongue. “Fine whatever. Let’s just go ask Midnight then.” 

They walked over to Midnight’s desk, but there was already a line of students waiting to get their ideas approved, so they stood at the front of the classroom and waited for the line to die down. 

“What creatures did you guys pick?” Kendo asked as she walked up to stand in line behind them. 

“Cat. It’s simple and I like them,” Shinsou said, shrugging. 

Kendo smiled. “I can’t wait to see it! I’m sure it’ll get approved! I’m thinking of doing a dolphin myself.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I kind of went the easy route here.” 

“I went the complete opposite route, if that brings you any comfort,” Izuku confided. “I’m thinking of drawing out Medusa.” 

“Oh! Like for you analyst namesake?” Kendo asked, perking up. “I was wondering why you chose that name actually.”

“Ah, it’s kind of a long story. I just feel like I relate to her in a sense,” Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But, I actually have a lot of experience with drawing people, so I figured that Midnight-sensei would probably allow me to draw her.” 

Kendo nodded. “That makes sense. It’s really interesting that you guys got in as hybrid students. Are you taking heroic courses as well?” 

Shinsou raised an eyebrow. “Think of the villain's attack and you’ll have your answer.”

Kendo blushed. “Oh, right. Of course, I’m sorry.”

Izuku clicked his tongue and elbowed Shinsou in the side. “Ignore him. He’s just being a dick.”

Kendo seemed to blush further with the choice of words, but smiled at them. “I hope that you guys can forgive Monoma’s behavior. You were right about the whole inferiority complex thing, no matter how much he denies it.”

Izuku nodded his head. “Yeah, we asked our teacher about him. It doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it does explain it a bit more.”

“If he’s truly planning on becoming a hero, he needs to learn to get over his complex or else he won’t be that popular,” Shinsou stated. 

Kendo nodded. “Yeah, we’re trying to work with him on that, as is Vlad-sensei.”

Izuku nodded and was about to speak further on the subject when Midnight interrupted him. 

“Ah, Izuku, Shinsou! It’s a delight to see you both in my class again, what did y’all pick?” Midnight asked. 

Izuku turned and smiled at her, not having noticed that they were already at the front of the line. “Midnight-sensei, we were in your class just last week!” 

Midnight waved her hand, dismissing his statement. “Yeah, but I didn’t see you with Class 1-A earlier, so I thought maybe you two had transferred out for another elective.”

Shinsou tilted his head. “What we would transfer for, we already have our preferred course-load at this point. Plus, we both really like art.” 

Midnight beamed at them. “Oh, I could just pinch your cheeks, you’re so cute!” 

Shinsou took a hesitant step back, rubbing his neck and blushing a bit. “I’d prefer you didn’t.” 

Izuku stepped in before Midnight could further torture his friend, or look too much into his evasiveness. “I was thinking of doing Medusa, sensei. Do you think you could make an exception?” 

Midnight tilted her head at him. “You ever drawn people before?”

Izuku rapidly nodded his head. “I draw people all the time in my note- I mean, yeah, I have some experience.”

Midnight squinted her eyes at him. “Alright, you get a pass. But I want to see your sketch when you’re done so I can tell if I need to switch you to a different creature.” 

Izuku bowed his head. “Thank you sensei!” 

“What about you kiddo?” Midnight asked Shinsou after marking down Izuku’s choice in her binder. 

“Ah, I was just thinking of doing a cat, if that’s alright?” Shinsou asked, head still bowed. 

Midnight nodded. “A sound choice. Alright, you’ve got it. Go ahead and start on your sketches boys, I’m excited to see what you come up with.” 

Izuku bowed his head to her again and they headed back to their desks. They both immediately started sketching out their creatures. Izuku was too zoned out while drawing to notice Shinsou get up and scoot his desk closer until all of a sudden there was an earbud being shoved in his face. 

“Huh?” He asked as his focus was dragged from his drawing. 

“Wanna listen with me?” Shinsou asked.

“Oh! Did you upload your new songs?” Izuku asked excitedly.

“Only a couple,” Shinsou shrugged. “But I thought we could listen to them while we drew?”

“I’d love to!” Izuku exclaimed. He took the offered earbud and slipped it in his ear. He went back to his drawing as Shinsou queued up the songs and pressed play. Shinsou’s soothing, deep voice filled his mind as he sketched out a rough outline. 

Before he knew it, he had finished his drawing and the songs were over. He looked over to Shinsou who was leaning on his hand and watching him. 

“ What’d you think ?” Shinsou signed at him. 

Izuku gave him a small smile. “ They’re really good. I especially liked the second one, I think it might be my new favorite .”

Shinsou smiled and ducked his head. “ How’s your drawing coming along ?” 

Izuku reached forward and tilted Shinsou head up. He nodded down to his paper after making sure he got eye contact with Shinsou. “ You wanna look ?”

Shinsou nodded briefly and Izuku passed his drawing over. Shinsou stared at it with wide eyes, lightly tracing his fingers over small details. “ You have to show sensei, she will definitely let you paint it after seeing this !”

It was Izuku’s turn to duck his head, cheeks flaming. “ It’s just a sketch Toshi .” He looked up enough to see Shinsou’s hands. 

“ It’s perfect, now go show it off ,” Shinsou signed. 

Izuku scoffed but got up, grabbing his sketch and squeezing Shinsou’s shoulder as he went up to their teacher. She immediately perked up and grabbed the sketch out of his hands when she noticed him. 

“If I knew how good you were at drawing I wouldn’t have needed to have you show me a sketch, Izuku!” She exclaimed. 

Izuku winced and rubbed the back of his neck as he felt some of the class turn their attention to him. “It’s just a sketch, sensei.” 

Midnight clicked her tongue. “None of that, now. This is wonderful! I can’t wait to see how it looks at the end!” She lowered her tone of voice. “Hey, I noticed you two doing sign back there, is everything good?” 

Izuku’s eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t think anyone would notice! Yeah, everything’s fine. We just both get nonverbal sometimes, Shinsou more than I, and since we both know sign, it’s easy to keep up communication that way.”

Midnight nodded her head. “Alright, just let me know if I ever need to add sign into the day’s lesson and I totally can.” 

“You know sign?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

Midnight laughed. “Present Mic is hard of hearing due to his quirk, so most of us know JSL. Plus, it’s a good thing to know in the hero industry anyways.”

Izuku nodded. “Well, thank you for the offer, I’ll let Shinsou know too.”

Midnight nodded back and handed him his drawing. He walked back to their desks and grabbed the paints before sitting back down. Shinsou offered the earbud again, this time clicking over to a playlist, and they worked on their projects together for the rest of the class.

Chapter Text

After a hellish week spent with 1-B, and several more patrol routes between Medusa and their newly dubbed partner Echo, it was finally time for their internships. And by internships, Izuku meant that Aizawa dragged them along on his patrol routes and showed them what he could of the paperwork that he had to do following the patrols. 

It became very clear within the first couple days that Aizawa hated paperwork. Izuku wasn’t surprised, given that he’d seemingly jumped at the chance to only have two students in his homeroom class this year. 

Yet, something was stirring, and based on Tenko’s lack of responses, Izuku could only guess that the League of Villains was somehow playing a part in it. That was why they were currently driving to Hosu. And why Izuku found that he never wanted to get in a car with Aizawa behind the wheel ever again. 

“You’re going like 40 over the speed limit sensei,” Izuku complained, gripping the seat in front of him. Shinsou was sitting next to him in the backseat, looking like he was trying not to puke. 

“That’s nothing,” Aizawa grunted as he swerved into opposing traffic to get around a car. 

“We’re in a residential area though!” Izuku continued. 

“Just hush up and let me drive. I don’t need a 16 year old backseat driving for me.” Aizawa swerved again and Izuku lost grip of the seat and crashed into Shinsou. 

“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” Izuku said, grabbing onto his door to stabilize himself. 

“Not your fault,” Shinsou said, reaching towards Izuku. 

Izuku immediately looped their arms together and grabbed his hand. “You gonna be okay?”

Shinsou bowed his head. “As soon as we get out I should be.”

“You’re both being dramatic,” Aizawa said, rolling his eyes at them. 

Izuku went to quip a response when all of a sudden there was a huge explosion causing Aizawa to swerve involuntarily and both of the boys ducked in the back seat. 

“Shit, we’re late,” Aizawa muttered. He floored the accelerator and they drove down the road, weaving in between cars as fast as Aizawa could make the car go. Izuku gave up on trying to not have himself thrown around and instead grabbed onto Shinsou so that, at the very least, they weren’t hurting each other. 

Aizawa slammed the car into a stop just as a Nomu dropped from the sky in front of them. 

“Aizawa, that’s not… is that a Nomu?” Izuku asked. 

“Yes,” Aizawa responded grimly. “Help evacuate the citizens, do not engage with the Nomu.” Aizawa climbed out of the car, not bothering to lock it and immediately engaged with the Nomu, wrapping his binding cloth around its neck and pulling it down right before it was about to grab a civilian. Izuku and Shinsou quickly climbed out of the car and ran towards the civilians, urging them to run and helping others who were injured. 

In a society of Pro Heroes and villains, it was normal to see fights and it even started to become a place to go watch live heroes and get signatures. But these… Nomu… they were monsters; they didn’t have any conscience; this was not a scene to crowd and take pictures of. 

Just as Izuku was helping someone who’d injured their leg, his phone started ringing. He pulled it out to check who it was before sending the call to his headpiece.  

EatMyDust is calling…

Izuku sighed and answered the call. “I’m kind of in the middle of something, right now.” 

“I found a little hero in training- thought you might want to know,” Tenko said. 

Izuku passed the civilian on to another that offered to help them and signaled Hitoshi over. They had cleared the area of civilians, and since Aizawa only said that they couldn’t engage with the Nomu, surely they could help a classmate. “Do you know who it is?” 

“Engine Legs,” Tenko said. Hitoshi ran up to him and Izuku held a finger up. “I just sent you the coordinates, he was trying to fight Stain, but I already dealt with him.”

“With Iida or Stain?” Izuku asked, opening the coordinates Tenko had sent. It was only a couple blocks over. Izuku and Hitoshi started off for the dropped location and Tenko continued talking. 

“Stain, the student seemed surprised, but he was paralyzed, so I don’t think he saw me. I’m also not there anymore so he doesn’t know about this call,” Tenko explained. 

“Got it, thank you Tenko.” Izuku hung up the call and he and Hitoshi ran in full sprint for the location while Izuku explained what Tenko had said. Hitoshi cursed at their sometimes-classmate. 

The dropped pin led them to a dark alley where Pro Hero Native was slumped against the wall and Iida lay flat on his back on the floor. 

“What the fuck,” Izuku said, running up to Iida as Shinsou ran for Native. 

“Izuku! You should not be here!” Iida claimed. 

“Can it Iida, and call me Medusa idiot,” Izuku replied, hefting Iida into a standing position before picking him up bridal style. 

Shinsou helped Native stand as he was slowly coming off of the paralyzation and looped his arm around his shoulder. Then, he pulled out his phone and texted Eraserhead, letting him know that they’d found Iida and Native in an alley after an attack from Stain. 

“How’d you guys find us?” Native asked. 

Izuku waved his hand dismissively. “We came with Eraserhead and were instructed to help the civilians. As we finished our area, we decided to spread out and see if there was anyone else that needed our help and we found you.” 

“You should have continued finding civilians, there was no threat here,” Iida said. 

“Are you saying we should have left two comrades paralyzed in an alleyway?” Shinsou asked. 

Izuku laughed. “Pretty unhero-like behavior if you ask me. What were you doing in the alley in the first place?” 

Iida didn’t respond, closing his eyes.

“I was just paralyzed by Stain when Iida showed up,” Native supplied. 

Izuku rolled his eyes, despite already knowing this information. “Was this a revenge quest for your brother?” Iida kept his eyes closed and didn’t respond. Izuku huffed as they exited the alley. 

“Eraserhead still hasn’t responded,” Shinsou said. 

Izuku shook his head. “You have Manual’s contact information at least?” he asked Iida. 

Iida supplied the number and Shinsou quickly called him, relaying the events and who they were. Izuku set Iida down in a sitting position against the building outside the alley and Shinsou helped Native lean against it next to him. 

“Where’d Stain go?” Shinsou asked as they waited for Pro Heroes to arrive at the scene. 

“Another villain showed up and attacked him, drawing him away from us. Their interaction was honestly really confusing,” Native said. “I’m not sure where they went or what happened to either of them.” 

Izuku nodded. “I’m sure that the police will have fun with that report,” he said, thinking of the different forms that Aizawa had shown them throughout their work study so far. 

Izuku turned to watch as several Pro Heroes came running around the corner and waved them down. 

“Duck!!” one of them shouted. 

Izuku cocked his head just as Shinsou turned around and yelled, “Medusa, move!” 

Izuku went to turn around when all of a sudden there was something wrapped tightly around his stomach lifting him up in the air. He looked around in shock for a moment before realizing that a flying Nomu had grabbed him. “You gotta be fucking kidding me,” he muttered, realizing that he was too high in the air to properly make the Nomu let him go and for him to escape. “I’ll be fine!” He called out to Shinsou who was running along beneath him. “Go find Eraserhead!” 

Shinsou cursed at him before turning into an alley. Izuku glanced back at the Heroes, noticing that they were just standing there gaping. Really, did none of them have anything useful to do? 

Within a couple minutes the Nomu had flown far enough away that he couldn’t see the Heroes anymore and approached a roof, dropping Izuku onto it before landing himself. Izuku rolled to catch his momentum and stood to find Tenko standing with Kurogiri, Stain unconscious and tied up at his feet. 

“I have a gift for you,” Tenko said, gesturing to Stain. 

“How the hell am I supposed to explain this to my teacher?” Izuku asked, annoyed. 

“I don’t know, you’re the brainy one,” Tenko said, shrugging. 

Izuku sighed. “Okay fine, I’ll come up with something.” He shook his head and mumbled, “hopefully.” 

Tenko shrugged. “Can you take it from here then?” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Izuku said, waving him off. “Go on before I get caught up here with you.” Tenko stepped into Kurogiri’s portal just as Izuku pulled out his phone and dialed Aizawa’s number. Tenko had left the Nomu behind and it sat at the edge of the roof, waiting for a new order. 

“Izuku, where are you?” Aizawa asked as soon as he answered the call. 

“Um, not really sure, Hitoshi has my location though. I’m on the roof.” Izuku looked around the skyline. “I’m not in danger, or hurt, but I have a Nomu and Stain up here. Both are unresponsive,” Izuku said, hoping his words would stay true. 

“We’re on our way,” Aizawa said, ending the call. 

Izuku sighed and sat on the edge of the roof. This was not at all how he’d expected the day to go when he woke up. But, Tenko shouldn’t have forgotten the Nomu. He didn’t when they attacked at USJ at least. 

“Nomu, walk over here,” Izuku called out experimentally. 

Nothing happened and Izuku sighed in relief. He turned to Stain when he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head to the Nomu who was now standing in front of him, staring at him with glazed eyes. 

“You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Izuku muttered. How the fuck was he going to explain this to Aizawa? To the police? Why would Tenko even have his Sensei do this? Or was this the even more mysterious doctor’s work? Shit shit shit SHIT . Okay. Izuku took several deep breaths. “Nomu, when the heroes and police arrive, comply with their orders when they address you. Oh, no, uh. Shit. Nomu, from now on comply with any hero or police orders when they address you with ‘Nomu.’”  

The Nomu didn’t respond so Izuku just hoped that the order had gone through. Wait, would the villains be able to call him back. Kami, this was way too complicated for him to think about right now. 

“Nomu, do not follow any orders from, uh, your previous holders, uh, besides me. Yeah, that should be right. Wait, did I hesitate too much? Nomu, take a step back.” Kami, Izuku was losing his sanity with this interaction. When was Aizawa and Shinsou getting here?

The Nomu had immediately taken a step back, but Izuku only half registered it as his thoughts began to run in overdrive. 

“-ku, Izuku. Please for the love of Kami, just respond to me,” Shinsou said. 

Izuku blinked his eyes. “ I’m fine ,” he signed to Shinsou. 

Shinsou let out a deep breath as if he’d been holding it for a while. Izuku looked around and saw they were still on the rooftop, though he wasn’t sure how long he’d been out of it. Aizawa was crouched next to Stain, checking his pulse. The Nomu was still standing just a step back as he’d been when Izuku started going out of it. 

“‘Zuku, hey, you still with me?” Shinsou asked, waving a hand in front of his face. 

Izuku snapped his attention back to Shinsou and nodded. “ I’m here. When did you get here ?” He signed. He couldn’t bring himself to vocalize just yet. 

Shinsou quickly switched to sign when Izuku didn’t switch to vocalizing his responses. “ It’s only been a couple minutes. Do you know how long you were… out ?” 

Izuku shook his head. He quickly glanced at Aizawa to make sure he was still occupied with Stain. “ Insomnia, tank- he- I can control it .” 

Shinsou cocked his head. “ Control what ?” He went to sit next to him, but Izuku reached forward and grabbed his arm and moved him in place to block what he was saying from Aizawa. 

“ The… N O M U. Tank made it so I could control it. I don’t know if it’s all of them or just this one. And I don’t know if it was his sensei or the doctor, but it listened to my commands .” Izuku’s hands were shaking and he wasn’t sure if his signs were legible or not, but from the surprise and worry in Shinsou’s eyes, it seemed like he understood. 

“ We didn’t see or notice anything when we got up here. The N O M U was already standing in front of you and you were… not here ,” Shinsou signed, pausing while thinking of how to describe how Izuku had dissociated. 

Izuku nodded. “ I commanded it to obey -“

“Is he back with us?” Aizawa asked, starting to walk over. 

Izuku nodded to Shinsou and he stepped to the side so Aizawa could see him. “ Do you know sign ?” 

Aizawa nodded. “Yes, would you prefer I sign or vocalize back?” He asked, signing along with what he asked. 

“ Talking is fine ,” Izuku signed. “ Can we leave now ?”

“Mount Lady is on her way so that she can get all of us off the roof together, along with the villains,” Aizawa explained, stopping and eyeing the Nomu. “Has it moved since you’ve been up here?” He asked, turning back to Izuku to read his answer. 

Izuku looked away. “ … I might have… ordered it to move ?”

Aizawa lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” 

“ I called its name and told it to move and it did. I don’t know why it listened to me ,” Izuku explained. 

“Maybe it’s a trap,” Shinsou offered, resting a hand on Izuku’s head before he started playing with his curls. Izuku leaned into the touch and closed his eyes briefly. 

“Hmph. It might only respond to Izuku, but we shouldn’t try anything until more heroes and the police arrive,” Aizawa commented. 

Izuku didn’t open his eyes to see the look he was being given and instead just nodded his head. He honestly didn’t care what happened as long as he could go home and sleep as soon as possible. 

Shinsou sat down next to him and pulled him into his lap. “Rest, Zu. I’ve got you,” he whispered into his ear, sending a chill down his spine as Shinsou’s warm breath tickled his ear. Izuku hummed before relaxing against Shinsou and passing out.

Chapter Text

Izuku opened his eyes and found that he was in a hospital room. He heard his heartbeat pick up on the monitor as he looked around to gain his bearings and he heard the stutter as he realized that he was in a hospital bed, and Shinsou was lying next to him, holding him. 

He sighed and closed his eyes again. What was he going to do about his overprotective friend? He opened his eyes again and looked up to Shinsou’s face; he was sleeping soundly so Izuku figured he’d let him rest as he looked around the room some more. On the table next to his bed lay the belongings he’d had on him when he’d left the previous morning, including his phone. He softly disentangled himself from Shinsou just to reach over and grab his phone before settling back in. Shinsou’s arms immediately wrapped around him again causing Izuku to smile and blush. 

He diverted his attention to his phone and looked at the news coverage of the attack on Hosu. There has been minimal reporting on Stain besides snippets about how he’d been seen being taken away in an ambulance. Izuku frowned as he realized he didn’t really know what had happened to Stain, both by Tenko and the police. Hopefully they would be getting informed soon. 

Just as he opened a new article, he felt Shinsou stir. He locked his phone and looked up at his friend to see him looking back with rose-tinted cheeks. 

“Morning, Toshi,” Izuku said, moving to sit up. 

Shinsou locked his arms around him and buried his face in his hair. “If Tenko ever pulls any shit like that again I’m going to kill him.” 

Izuku chuckled. “I’m fine Toshi, what happened after I passed out?” 

Shinsou finally let go of him and they both sat up against the headrest. “Mount Lady came pretty soon after you passed out and I carried you. I- well, I ordered the Nomu to come with us which caused quite the tricky situation, but Aizawa commanded it too, and the police took it into custody.” 

Izuku raised his eyebrow. “You were able to control it?” 

“Yes?” Shinsou said, cocking his head. “You were signing about transferring control when Aizawa came up to us.” 

Izuku grabbed his chin in thought. “Yeah, but I transferred it to the heroes and police. But I guess since I see you as a hero then it makes sense that you would be able to control it as well. I wonder if anyone I see as a hero would be able to control it. Does that mean All Might wouldn’t be able to? I haven’t seen him as a hero in a long time now. And-“ 

“Midoriya, can it,” Aizawa called. 

Izuku snapped his head to the door and there stood Aizawa and the chief of police. He looked back at Shinsou who just shook his head, hopefully indicating that his mumbles were too quiet to be heard. 

“We’ve come to address the events of last night, woof,” the chief of police said. Izuku cocked his head. His dog mutation must be like Tsuyu’s where she said ‘kero’ at the end of some of her sentences. “As we all know there were two separate attacks on Hosu last night, largest from the League of Villains with their Nomu and secondly from Stain. You both had the misfortune of interacting in both attacks and-“ 

“Um,” Izuku interrupted. “We actually didn’t interact in the Stain attack.” 

“He just meant you helped get Iida and Native to safety and watched over Stain when you found him,” Aizawa explained. Izuku nodded, if they were caught attacking Stain, they and Aizawa could have been in trouble, even without quirk use. 

“Yes, I apologize for the miscommunication. Either way, we are thankful that you managed to secure a Nomu and Stain last night. That is all I came here to say,” the chief finished. 

Izuku raised his hand. “Um, what about Iida, sir?” 

“Iida attacked Stain and used his quirk in doing so, so both he and his mentor are facing repercussions,” Aizawa said, mouth dropping into a deeper scowl. 

Izuku nodded, frowning. “I guess that makes sense.” 

Aizawa nodded curtly and the chief of police bowed. “I will take my leave now, there is much to do,” the chief said before standing up straight and leaving the boys with their teacher. 

“You feeling better, Midoriya?” Aizawa asked. 

Izuku nodded. “I’m sorry about what happened on the roof, there was so much happening at once and I-“ 

“There’s no need to apologize,” Aizawa said, cutting him off. “Though I will enforce a mandatory therapy session for both of you after this event. I should have done it after the USJ, and I apologize for that,” he said, bowing his head. 

“What!” Izuku exclaimed, waving his hands wildly. “There’s truly no need to apologize, Sensei! We’ve been doing fine!” 

Shinsou grabbed Izuku’s hands and lowered them to his lap. “Thank you for the apology Sensei, but Izuku is right, we’ve been doing fine.” 

Aizawa nodded his head. “Regardless, you will still have to attend at least one session with Hound Dog when we start attending classes again. It is also mandatory for Iida, though he has a longer sentence.” 

Shinsou nodded. “We don’t know him very well, but we heard about his brother. Never thought someone in the heroics course would do something like this.”

“Grief is tricky and everyone goes through it differently, even hero course students. Of which you both are, I’ll remind you,” Aizawa said, raising an eyebrow. 

Shinsou ducked his head. “Yes Sensei, I- that’s not quite how I meant it. I just feel like someone should have noticed a change in behavior and where he chose to go for a work study. Surely he had better offers, right?” 

Aizawa clicked his tongue. “I’ll be looking into that. That’s all besides the point, you’ve both been cleared out of the hospital.” Izuku and Shinsou perked up at that. “Which means that you get to help me with the reports from last night.”

“Oh, come on,” Izuku complained, sinking further into the mattress. Shinsou laughed at his antics, but Aizawa wasn’t amused. 

“Would you rather that I give you both detention for running off on your own last night?” 

“No, Sensei!” Izuku said, immediately shooting back up. 

“Good,” Aizawa huffed. “Now go ahead and use the showers here since you have access. I brought your go-bags, so you can also change into fresh clothes,” he said, gesturing to a chair where two duffel bags sat.

Izuku beamed at his teacher. “Thank you, Sensei!”

Aizawa nodded his head and left the room.

“So,” Shinsou said, combing his fingers through Izuku’s hair. “Do you want to shower first?”

Izuku ducked his head to hide his blush. “Um, if it’s not too much trouble. I’m sure we both feel gross, but I’ll make sure to take a quick shower!” 

Shinsou chuckled. “I would have asked differently if I had wanted to go first.” He removed his hand from Izuku’s curls. “Go ahead and shower, I’ll try to find us some coffee in the meantime.”

“Thanks, Toshi… for everything,” Izuku whispered, standing up. 

“No need to thank me, Zu. It’s what friends do right?” Shinsou asked, standing up himself and walking towards the door. “I’ll see you when you’re out.” With that, he shut the door. 

Izuku shook his head and walked over to the chair where Aizawa had left their bags and grabbed his before heading to the shower. Today was going to be another long day. 

***

After they finished showering, Aizawa returned to their room and led them out of the hospital to a car. Luckily, it was a police car and was being driven by someone else. They were taken to the police station where they spent all day filling out paperwork together and figuring out how the government dealt with damages to property and loss of lives in villain attacks. 

Finally, a little after the sun had set, Aizawa led them to the train station to lead them back to Musutafu. Luckily for Shinsou and Izuku, the car they’d driven there had been totaled in the Hosu attack and Aizawa didn’t want to bother with renting another one to get them home. 

Izuku sighed as he collapsed on the train seat next to Shinsou, who was looking out the window. He leaned his head against his shoulder only to be disrupted by Shinsou lifting his arm and pulling him into his side. Izuku closed his eyes for a moment of peace. 

“When we get back to classes after the internships, you two will be back with Class 1-A in regular classes,” Aizawa said as he came to sit across from them. 

Izuku peeked his eyes open and squinted at his teacher. “You already have the schedule?” 

Aizawa nodded. “Due to the attack we were involved in, it’s very likely that I’ll be called back to Hosu at some point whether it’s this week or next. If it’s during the internship, I’m shipping you off to Present Mic’s agency, but if it’s next week then I can just have you join Foundational Heroics with All Might again.” 

Izuku groaned and closed his eyes again. “Please let it be this week,” he muttered.

“Tired of doing paperwork?” Aizawa asked.

Izuku’s eyes shot open and he sat up a bit more. “What? No! I just much prefer your teaching to All Might’s!” 

“He does kind of suck at controlling the class, and I’m not sure his methods of choosing activities is the best either,” Shinsou added, leaning his cheek against his fist. His arm was propped up on the window and he had been listening to music, only half- paying attention to the conversation.

Aizawa grunted. “Fair enough, but unfortunately I do not get to choose when I will be called back, nor do I get to judge All Might’s teaching styles. Though, in the future, I will do my best to make sure that you don’t have classes with him.” 

Izuku bowed over in his seat. “Thank you Sensei!” 

Aizawa grunted again. “Either way. You’ll have the rest of this week with me, next week with 1-A, and then your finals are at the end of next week. We are still working out the details of the finals for all of the hero course students, so I’ll give you more details on that at a later date.” 

Shinsou nodded. “Makes sense. I can’t imagine designing finals for heroics courses is easy, let alone with a whole new class added in.”

Aizawa returned the nod. “Indeed. Now why don’t you two get some rest, we won’t be back home for several hours yet.”

Izuku nodded and laid back against Shinsou who wrapped his arm around him again. He made a grabbing motion towards Shinsou and he could feel the boy’s chest move as he chuckled and handed him one of his earbuds. 

Izuku quickly fell asleep to the sound of Shinsou’s voice as he listened to one of his newest songs.

Chapter Text

Of course, Aizawa wasn’t called back to Hosu until the next week which meant that Izuku and Hitoshi were once again stuck under All Might’s teaching in Foundational Heroics. And of course it was on Monday morning, and was about to set a negative tone for the rest of the week. 

The class was told to gather at Ground Gamma in their hero costumes and Izuku was glad to see that most of the outfits had had severe upgrades since the last time he and Hitoshi had joined All Might’s class. None of the girls were wearing heels, and everyone was significantly more covered, with extra padding over vital areas. He even noticed several additions of support gear, most of which he’d had a hand in working on in some capacity, if not being the main designer. 

“No need to look so smug, Zu,” Hitoshi said, laughing. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “You can’t say that I wasn’t right in dragging several of them to the support department with me to get modifications made.” 

“I will say that I feel more comfortable,” Momo said, walking up to the two. Her new costume was at its base a pair of shorts and a crop top. She was also wearing mesh tights similar to the shirt that Izuku and Hitoshi wore, though the mesh was much stretchier and she would be able to make creations from her legs as well now. She also wore combat boots and a jacket that wrapped around her in a way that was easy to unwrap in order for her to make larger creations out of her chest or back. 

Izuku smiled at her. “I’m really glad that you like the new costume design! I think it suits your style much more!” 

Momo nodded. “It’s a lot more comfortable and protective. The others have also been fawning over their new designs as well,” she added, smiling softly. “We’re all very grateful for your help.”

“I AM HERE!” All Might yelled as he landed in front of the group of students, cutting off Izuku’s response. 

“Must he always enter that way?” Izuku muttered, rolling his eyes. 

Momo sent him a confused look, but didn’t reply and Hitoshi snickered. 

“Today we will be having a race!” All Might boomed, walking up to the students. “Today you will be applying everything you learned during your internships in an effort to rescue a civilian!”

“Sir!” Iida shouted, raising his hand. Izuku rolled his eyes, didn’t he know that he was supposed to raise his hand and wait to speak? “Why aren’t we doing rescue training at the USJ?” 

“Ah, yes, well,” All Might stuttered, causing Izuku to sigh. “The USJ is suited for a very specific type of rescue training,” he finally explained. “Today we are doing a rescue race which is better suited to UA’s Ground Gamma.”

“I see,” Iida said, bowing. “I apologize then, sensei.”

All Might nodded and waved off the other student’s apologies. “No worries kid. Anyways, today’s rescue race will consist of groups of five competing in a race to the center of Ground Gamma to rescue the civilian that sent out a distress signal. The civilian will be me so whoever reaches me first wins the exercise.” 

All Might turned around and started walking away leading the class to scramble after him. “I’ll lead you all to the commentator’s booth where the students that aren’t participating are able to watch the exercise and see how their fellow classmates are taking on the exercise before I go to the distress signal spot.” 

“Aren’t you going to tell us the teams?” Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow even though it couldn’t be seen with his mask on. 

All Might gave a brief glance over his shoulder at him before turning back around. “The teams are already posted in the room, so you’ll see them when we get there,” he huffed. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. He knew All Might didn’t like him, but did he have to be so obvious? 

“Do I get to slap him yet?” Hitoshi whispered to him, causing Izuku to laugh. 

“I feel like that would be counterproductive,” Izuku whispered back, barely holding back more laughter. 

“I feel like we shouldn’t even be in this class, there’s hardly any students we would win a race against,” Hitoshi mumbled. 

“I mean, I’d prefer to be in support, but someone said they didn’t like that class,” Izuku countered. 

“You and Mei together are a combo I never needed to experience,” Hitoshi said, cringing as he thought of the singed arm hair he’d left the workshop with last time. 

Izuku gasped, mocking offense. “How dare, we are a perfect match.” 

Mina gasped. “Midoriya, do you have a crush?”

Izuku gasped at her with wide eyes. “I-what?” 

“You said you were a perfect match with some ‘her.’ Does this mean you have a crush on someone?” Mina explained. 

Izuku was still gaping at her while Hitoshi chuckled. “I- um, I’m gay?” He tried. Hitoshi stopped laughing and snapped his head over to him. “What? Did you really think I was straight?” 

Hitoshi shrugged and looked away, but Izuku didn’t miss the blush creeping up his cheeks. Izuku shook his head at his friend and looked back to Mina who was watching the interaction with an unidentifiable glint in her eye. 

“Sorry for eavesdropping, I totally misunderstood the conversation,” Mina said, shrugging and not seeming very sorry at all. 

Izuku waved her apology off. “It’s not like it was a private conversation. Though since you asked me, I must wonder. Do you have a crush?”

Mina’s pink cheeks went a deep raspberry color as she sputtered. Unfortunately she was saved by them arriving at the commentator’s booth. 

“Alright, everyone look at the teams. I’m going to the distress signal area, and those in the first team will be going back to where we first met. I will have an air horn to signal the start of the race. See you soon.” With that All Might stepped back into the hallway and left the class alone. 

“Really?” Izuku asked as the class hoarded around a piece of paper with barely legible handwriting that was taped to the wall. 

He tried to stand on his tiptoes to see the list, but being one of the shortest in the class wasn’t helping his case. 

“Hey Zu,” Hitoshi said, nudging his shoulder. Izuku looked over at him and a phone was shoved in his face. 

“Toshi,” Izuku whined, grabbing the phone. He looked at what it was pulled up to and gave Hitoshi a bright smile. “Oh! Thank you!” Hitoshi had taken a picture of the list, giving Izuku visual access to it since he was one of the tallest students. It looked like they were up first with Iida, Aoyama, and Sero. Izuku groaned. “Now he’s just being blatantly quirkist. I’m not participating in this shit.” 

“Midoriya! You must participate in all class activities! It is unbecoming of a hero to skip out on an exercise!” Iida shouted, waving his arms robotically. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “Sometimes heroes sit out and do nothing because their quirks or abilities are not of the proper skill to aid in a fight or rescue. Why should I participate when it’s a race between two non-physical quirks and someone with literal engines in their legs and someone who can essentially zip around the city like the pre-quirk superhero Spider-Man?” 

Iida sputtered, enraged at Izuku’s argument. 

“Despite that, won’t All Might just fail you if you don’t participate?” Tsuyu asked, being the ever logical and blunt classmate. 

Izuku shrugged. “Again, I’d fail anyways. And either way, I’m not even supposed to be in any classes with All Might after last time. So I don’t really care about his exercises.” 

“Well if you’re not doing it then neither am I,” Hitoshi added. “If there’s no chance of you winning then there’s certainly no chance for me.” 

“Does that mean I can sit out too? I’m so wired up with Todoroki,” Kaminari asked, raising his hand. 

“This is unacceptable!” Iida shouted. “Everyone must participate in this exercise!” 

“I mean I’d rather just train than do a pointless race where I’m gonna lose,” Hagakure added. “I’m also on Todoroki’s team and with his ice, there’s no way I could outrun him.” 

Suddenly an air horn blasted, interrupting Iida’s next rant and he gaped at the class. 

“Uh oh,” Izuku said. “Looks like no one’s participating now.” Izuku turned to the screens that showed camera feeds of Ground Gamma. All Might was on the roof of a building flat in the center of the training grounds. “If anyone’s interested,” Izuku said pointing towards a field, “I can lead some hand to hand combat training.” 

“I’m down,” Bakugo said, shrugging and causing several students to look over at him, gaping. “What? Beats this blatantly quirkist training exercise.” 

“I could use some hand to hand training!” Mina shouted, raising her hand. 

Izuku looked at Hitoshi. “Wanna help lead?” 

Hitoshi shrugged, “Why not?” 

Todoroki stepped forward. “I could help too. Most of my training was based on my quirk, but I also have a lot of hand to hand fighting knowledge.” 

Izuku smiled and nodded. “Anyone else have training?”

Ojiro raised his hand. “I have martial arts training.” 

“Perfect!” Izuku said. “Alright, let’s head out there and make the most of our time!” 

“You can’t seriously be doing this!” Iida said. 

“Try and stop us,” Izuku replied, walking out the door with the rest of the class following him. “At the very least we’ll get to see how long it takes for All Might to come find us.” 

Iida huffed and followed them. If anything, he could explain what had happened to All Might and make sure no one was twisting the truth. He wasn’t prepared for the extensive training that Izuku was about to put them through as they waited for All Might to find them.

*** 

It took an hour. 

An hour for All Might to realize that the students were not participating in the race and then work on finding his class. 

An hour in which the students could’ve been seriously injured, kidnapped, attacked, or just simply left. 

Luckily for him, they were just training in a different way than he had planned, though it was much to his dismay. 

They were all lectured, but Izuku and Hitoshi just turned around and left. Almost the whole class followed them. They simply went to the changing rooms and changed out of their hero costumes before heading home for the day. The students that stayed behind apologized to All Might before following their classmates. 

All Might brought this issue to Nedzu. Nedzu was simply amused. He refused to give the students detention or punish them whatsoever. In his eyes, it shouldn't have taken All Might that long to realize what was happening and look for his students. This was strike two on his record and added to the case that Nedzu was building against the Number One Hero, though All Might was only made aware of the first fact. 

Meanwhile, Izuku was made very much aware of both of those facts when he was called into a meeting with Nedzu, something of which the rat/bear/whatever proposed to have once a week from then on. Aizawa felt a chill going down his back at that proposal even though he was in a completely different city than them and he didn’t even want to try to think of what caused the chill. 

Of course, Izuku accepted the proposal. One does not deny a proposal from Nedzu, no matter their status. Especially when the white hybrid creature passes you a form detailing your full vigilante career that no one knew about and allowed you to not only keep being a student, but keep acting as a vigilante until you got your hero license. So yes, Izuku was going to have a weekly meeting with the principal as his personal student. And together- together they were going to plan downfalls. Starting with All Might. The Commission. Endeavor. Izuku assumed All For One might be thrown in there somewhere as well at some point, depending on if he got in their way. 

Chapter Text

“I leave you alone for a week and I have a mountain of paperwork to do when I get back,” Aizawa sighed, rubbing his temples. 

“To be fair, you knew how we felt about All Might,” Izuku said, shrugging. He laid down on Hitoshi’s lap where they sat together on the couch in the 1-U classroom. 

“He shouldn’t be allowed to teach any class, least of all Foundational Heroics. Nobody’s learning anything in his class,” Shinsou added. 

Aizawa sighed again. “You two make me wish my mug had something stronger than coffee in it.”

Izuku giggled as he reached up to play with Hitoshi’s hair. “I won’t tell, though knowing Nedzu, he’s probably watching through the cameras, so I suggest you do it in your sleeping bag where he can’t see.” Izuku snuck a glance at his teacher and burst out laughing at the deadpan look he was receiving. Hitoshi was chuckling above him as well, though he tried to hide it. 

“Alright problem children, enough of that,” Aizawa said, red eyes glowing as he glared at them. “You have to start preparing for your finals that are coming up.”

“Are we doing the same thing as the other hero course students?” Hitoshi asked. 

“That wouldn’t be logical seeing as you’re hybrid students in an underground heroics course,” Aizawa replied, raising an eyebrow. “No, you’ll have finals for each of your courses, though you’ll have one less, Shinsou, since one of your electives is essentially just training with me.”

“What!” Izuku shouted, sitting up. “You lucky bitch,” he continued, crossing his arms and pouting. 

Hitoshi pushed his shoulder. “No pouting dummy, you’re the one that decided to take support courses.”

“True,” Aizawa said. “And besides, your finals in all your other classes will be pretty easy in comparison. They should be going over them today to give you time to prepare over the next week.” 

“So, what’s our final in this class?” Izuku asked, dropping the pouting act. 

Aizawa sat forward in his seat. “Nedzu and I are working together on both your final as well as the hero course’s. So far, we have the hero course’s final planned as pairs fighting against the teachers. I will be participating in that final as well. For you two, Nedzu suggested a new final format.” He pulled two sheets of paper out of his sleeping bag and handed them over. “These are guidelines for the final. You will have one day to grab as many ribbons as you can off of the teachers discreetly. All of us will have two ribbons attached to us somewhere in a clearly visible area. If you get caught, you won’t be disqualified, you just won’t get the points for that capture. You also will not be allowed to grab two and give one to the other- you must work independently to get as many ribbons as possible. You have the rest of the week to come up with strategies for the final,” Aizawa explained. 

“Wait, will our final be on the same day as the hero course’s?” Izuku asked. 

“The hero course finals will be hosted on Monday and Tuesday, your final will be on Wednesday. This gives your other core classes that you share with the hero courses to give their finals on Thursday and Friday. The support course final is on Monday,” Aizawa said, crawling into his sleeping bag. 

“Are we allowed to strategize together or does that go against the working together rule?” Hitoshi asked. 

“That’s allowed. You just can’t grab ribbons for each other,” Aizawa answered, turning around to face the inside of the couch. 

Izuku stood up, waving Hitoshi over to the bean bags in the opposite corner of the room. “ We have to plan, but keep it in sign so that Aizawa doesn’t hear us .”

Hitoshi nodded. “ Where do you think that they’re going to place the ribbons ?”

Izuku took his notebook out from who knows where and pulled a pencil out from where it was tucked behind his ear. He looked over the sheet that Aizawa had handed them. It had the list of teachers that were participating, unfortunately Nedzu was one of them, as well as other rules that Aizawa hadn’t explained. He wrote down a couple notes before setting his pencil down and explaining his thoughts to Hitoshi. “Most of them will have their ribbons in obvious areas like around their waist. Some, like Aizawa and Nedzu will probably put them in areas that it’s hard to grab without being noticed so that they can catch us.” 

Hitoshi nodded. “ That makes sense. I’m assuming you’re going to be going after Nedzu’s? ”

Izuku laughed. “ Of course I am .” He looked over to Aizawa who was faced away from them, seemingly sleeping on the couch in his sleeping bag. “ I don’t think Nedzu would let me pass if I didn’t at least try getting his ribbon after the meeting we had. Aizawa’s and his ribbons will probably be the hardest to get .”

“ And you already have a plan ?” Hitoshi asked. 

Izuku gave a mischievous grin that made Hitoshi glad that he wasn’t pit against Izuku for the final before he focused on writing in his notebook for a while. When he was done he handed the notebook over to Hitoshi who took it and read over Izuku’s writing. When he finished reading, he looked up and shared in the mischievous grin. This final had the potential to be very fun. 

***

By Wednesday, Izuku and Hitoshi had a plan for most of the teachers that were participating. Aizawa had given them a list of all of the participating teachers and staff that would have ribbons: Aizawa, Present Mic, Ectoplasm, Power Loader, Midnight, Hound Dog, Vlad King, Recovery Girl, Snipe, Cementoss, and Nedzu. Most of them, they’d had interactions with, or at least been introduced to, but besides the teachers that they interacted with constantly, they only had a very basic plan to get the ribbons. 

“Are you ready for the final?” Aizawa asked in their homeroom period, their first class of the morning. 

“Very,” Izuku said, grinning as he pulled out two ribbons. He’d had his microbots snatch them on his way through the hallways from Snipe and Hound Dog who’d only had them taped onto their clothes. 

Aizawa chuckled. “And you, Shinsou?” 

Hitoshi shrugged, pulling out one ribbon he’d snatched from Snipe and another that he’d brainwashed a random student into grabbing from Hound Dog. Two knocked out together. “I guess, I’d have to agree with Zuku.”

Aizawa let out a full belly laugh at that. “Seems like you two don’t need any prompting then,” he said after calming down a bit. “Alright, listen up problem children. You two still have classes today, though you’re allowed to leave at any point for your final, so we didn’t set you up with any specific class, so just make sure that you check in with each of your teachers at least once today.” 

“If the teachers notice after we leave the class that they’ve lost their ribbons, does that mean that we lose the points?” Izuku asked. 

“Nah,” Aizawa said. “They’ll have to catch you in the act or in your immediate retreat. Otherwise you keep your points.”

“Does that mean that if we’re talking to the teacher and take the ribbon and they notice that we have it as we’re going back to our seats that we lose the point?” Hitoshi asked. 

Aizawa nodded. “Precisely. But, say if you take the ribbon and they don’t notice until after you’ve left class or you’ve already regained your seat, then you’ve successfully captured the ribbon.” 

“Where are your ribbons, sensei?” Izuku asked. He’d already been sitting on his couch when they arrived, and so far Izuku hadn’t spotted them even though they were meant to be in an obvious spot. 

Aizawa twisted his goggles around his neck to show the two ribbons taped onto the back of them. “They’re right here, now go on to your next class and good luck.”

The two boys bid their goodbyes before getting up and exiting the room. 

“What class do you want to go to first?” Hitoshi asked. 

Izuku tapped his chin, thinking for a minute, before replying, “Do you want to get Support done with first? Maybe we can snag some on the way.”

Hitoshi groaned. “I’m not even in Support, do I have to go?” 

“Power Loader-sensei has two ribbons, unless you want to pass up on his and go to Recovery Girl for a medic class?” Izuku asked, teasing the boy. 

Hitoshi nodded, surprising Izuku. “She has ribbons too, so you get Power Loader and I get Recovery Girl.” 

Izuku shrugged. “Fine by me, I’ll see you after this class. Art with Midnight?”

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah, see you there.” 

Hitoshi turned and walked in the opposite direction and Izuku smirked at his back. Unbeknownst to Hitoshi, Izuku had attached a couple microbots to him so that they could discreetly be carried into the medic bay and steal the ribbon from Recovery Girl. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be too upset about the move. 

Izuku turned and walked outside towards the support department building. It was a refreshing walk and if he was able to snag a ribbon off of Ectoplasm as he passed him in the hall, then no one was the wiser, except maybe Nedzu who was most likely watching their progress through the cameras. Izuku pocketed the ribbon as he walked into the support building walking towards class 1-H’s room where he could already hear Mei’s cackling. 

“Sensei! No!” Mei screamed as Izuku opened the door. 

“You cannot mix those two chemicals and you know it Hatsume,” Power Loader replied with a sigh. Izuku saw him carry a bottle towards his desk as he slipped over to his table and took a seat next to Mei who had already started on a new project. 

“You have your final today, right?” Mei asked, not looking up from the wires she was connecting. 

Izuku hummed an agreement. “Yeah, Toshi went to Recovery Girl’s class so that we would both get a ribbon from a class the other wasn’t attending, though he failed to notice that I stuck some microbots on him to grab the ribbon for me.”

Mei chuckled. “Genius!” She leaned towards him and whispered, “so we still making an explosion?”

Izuku nodded. “That’s the plan, Stan.” He grabbed a couple bottles from under their table and handed them over to her. “Think this will be enough?”

“Perfect for smoke coverage without too much damage to our station, so he won’t be able to complain,” Mei responded. 

“He’ll definitely still complain,” Izuku said, laughing as he pulled up some blueprints on a tablet to make it seem like he was working on a project. 

“Oh well, you have 10 seconds,” Mei stated as she poured two chemicals together before handing them back to Izuku to put away. 

Izuku tucked the chemicals away, making sure that they wouldn’t spill before he turned back to his tablet, counting down the seconds in his head. Just as he reached 0, an explosion went off, followed by more of Mei’s loud cackling, and then coughing, as Power Loader began yelling at her. 

Izuku slipped through the smoke as Power Loader rushed over to their table, and snagged one of the ribbons off of the horns on his helmet as he made his way out of the classroom with the rest of the students. Power Loader came out a couple seconds later, carrying Mei and Izuku tilted his head at the sight of no ribbons on his helmet. He reached in his pocket and counted the ribbons there, making sure he hadn’t accidentally taken two, which he hadn’t. He locked eyes with Mei who simply winked at him before Power Loader set her down. Izuku couldn’t stop the quiet giggles as Power Loader returned to the classroom and worked on the clean up process from the explosion. 

“You all are released for the period!” Power Loader shouted from inside the smoke. “Go on break or something!” 

Groans came from most of the students as they turned and walked towards the cafeteria, hoping to get a snack from Lunch Rush before returning to class. 

After grabbing a snack, Izuku split from the group of support students with Mei and headed towards Midnight’s class. Mei had decided not to test Power Loader’s patience and join Izuku and Hitoshi for their art class, despite none of them knowing whose class they were actually sitting in on. 

Izuku peeked his head in through the door and Midnight looked over to him, a smile gracing her face as she recognized the head of green curls. 

“Oh! Izuku! You’re either here early or very late,” Midnight said, waving him in. “Unless, of course, you’re just trying to steal my ribbon.”

Izuku laughed, shaking his head. “Nah, that would kind of ruin the point of stealth for the final. Mei and I pissed off Power Loader, so I figured we’d come here and let him air out for a bit. Toshi will be coming when the next class officially starts.” Izuku looked over at the rest of the students who seemed to be shooting their heads back and forth between Midnight and Izuku during their conversation. It seemed that he had accidentally walked in on a management course’s art class where they were working on drawing logos for their businesses. 

“Alright, well go ahead and take a seat, you can just work on your own stuff until class starts for you,” Midnight said, waving them towards their seats. 

The class went back to designing their logos and Izuku and Mei pulled out their phones to waste time on. Izuku created a note to check off the teachers he collected ribbons from. At this point he should already have 5 points. They needed 7 to pass, but 11 was a perfect score. Luckily, they were only in their second class for the day and they still had two more classes before lunch. That would give them plenty of time to get Midnight’s ribbons and potentially a couple more during lunch. 

“Alright, have a good day kiddos!” Midnight called out as the department of management students started streaming out of the classroom. “Izuku, may I ask why Hatsume is with you today?”

“We may have exploded Power Loader’s classroom again and he was not having it today,” Izuku said. 

Midnight giggled. “How many years will it take him to realize that he can’t get by without explosions?”

Mei perked up. “I don’t think he ever will. But, he doesn’t have any ribbons, so we won.”

Midnight arched an eyebrow. “How did you manage to get both of them? You know you can’t give one to Shinsou, Izuku.”

“I only took one, Midnight-sensei,” Izuku said, raising his hands in surrender. 

Midnight hummed and looked at Hatsume who had gone back to working on her phone. “Hatsume?”

“Uhh,” Hatsume said, slowly tearing her gaze from her phone. “Yes?”

“Did you take the other ribbon from Power Loader?” Midnight asked. 

“Uhh…yes?” Mei repeated.

“And what do you plan on doing with it?” Midnight asked. 

“That is classified information, Miss Midnight,” Mei said. 

Midnight squealed just as the beginning of Class 1-B started trickling in. “You are so cute!”

“What’d you do this time?” Hitoshi asked, walking in behind Kendo. 

“I didn’t do anything!” Izuku said, throwing his arms in the air. 

Hitoshi chuckled as he came to the back of the class and sat next to Izuku, waving to Mei who briefly glanced up to wave in turn before returning to her phone. 

The microbot that had traveled with Hitoshi to the medbay jumped off his scarf at Izuku’s command and climbed up his pants leg, placing the ribbon in his pocket before returning to the pouch. Hitoshi watched with a shocked face and Izuku couldn’t help but take a picture and laugh. He’d be making a meme of him as the pikachu shocked face later. 

“You used me!” Hitoshi yelped. 

Izuku chuckled. “That makes 5 points for me and 4 points for you.” 

“How’d you know I have 4 points?” Hitoshi asked, pulling out his ribbons. 

“Shit, does that mean we’re tied?” Izuku asked, looking to Mei. She pulled out the ribbon she’d stolen from Power Loader and chucked it at Hitoshi who grabbed it out of the air with a confused look. 

“Mei got yours from Power Loader and since I technically didn’t get it for you, and he didn’t notice, it should count as a point for you,” Izuku explained. “Now who else’s did you get?” 

“I snatched Cementoss’ ribbon on the way here,” Hitsoshi said, smirking. “Guess we are tied at 5 then.” 

Izuku sighed. “Bullshit. Okay, so we need-”

“Alright kiddos!” Midnight called out, cutting off all chatter. “Today you’re going to continue working on your finals. Don’t forget that they’re due at the end of the week, so you have two more days.” 

“What project are y’all doing?” Mei asked Izuku and Hitoshi, finally setting her phone down. 

“We gotta do digital self portraits,” Shinsou mumbled, pulling out his drawing tablet from his backpack. 

Izuku pulled his out too and passed it to Mei to look at his final project. She greedily took it and started fawning over the details, talking loudly about how good an artist Izuku was, making him blush. 

Midnight came to the back of the classroom and leaned over Mei’s desk to look at Izuku’s drawing. She didn’t notice Izuku discreetly detaching the ribbon from her whip and pocketing it. “Izuku, I swear, you could have a second career just based on your art!” 

Izuku blushed a deeper shade of red, twisting his hands together in his lap. “I don’t know Midnight-sensei. My art needs a lot of improvement.” 

Hitoshi reached over and flicked Izuku’s head with his drawing pen. “No self deprecation, remember?”

Izuku rubbed the back of his head and glared at Hitoshi. “Why don’t you show Midnight your final then, huh?”

Hitoshi paled. “Um, no, really. That’s okay,” he said, trying to hide his tablet. 

He was too late to try as Midnight swept it out of his hands and started looking over his drawing. “You’re just as talented as an artist, Hitoshi!” 

Izuku stood and started pointing out details that he especially appreciated, giving the distraction Hitoshi needed to sneak the ribbon off of Midnight. Granted, when she was focused on praising her students, it wasn’t hard to sneak the ribbons away. Hitoshi almost fumbled with the praise, but managed to sneak the ribbon into his pocket before Midnight turned back to him with the tablet. Izuku took a seat again as Midnight returned to the front of the class, commenting on other student’s work as she went. Both of the boys let out a relieved sigh when she was sitting at her desk again and Mei chuckled quietly.

“You’re both nervous wrecks, you need to work on that for future missions,” Mei commented before returning her attention to her phone. 

The boys rolled their eyes and returned their focus to their projects for the rest of the class period. Before they knew it, the bell was ringing. Izuku looked to the side to see that Mei was gone from her seat. He tilted his head and pulled out his phone seeing a message saying that she didn’t want to bother him but was returning to the workshop. He chuckled at the message as Midnight bid the class goodbye and Vlad King walked in. 

“Alright you guys, we’re going to do another study period as the final is tomorrow, so take out your guides and study as much as possible.” 

Chapter Text

Izuku sighed as he turned off his tablet and put it in his backpack, taking out his folder for his Japanese class in turn. 

“Hey Shiozaki, can you help me with something?” Hitoshi asked the girl with vines for hair that sat in front of him. 

The girl turned back towards him, “of cour-”

“ Use your vines to grab the ribbon off of Vlad’s vial thing on his back without letting him know and give it to me out of his sight ,” Hitoshi commanded.

Izuku gaped at his friend. His damn quirk worked well in so many situations, especially when he used it to use other people’s quirks. 

Shiozaki sent her vines slithering along the floor and raised them up behind Vlad King, keeping them behind his back whenever he turned to help another student. They quickly took the ribbon off and slithered back across the classroom and handed the ribbon to Hitoshi under the desk. Hitoshi pocketed the ribbon and turned back to Shiozaki. “Thank you, now don’t talk about this until after I’ve left the classroom.” 

Hitoshi released his hold and they held their breaths as Shiozaki came back and glared at them. She opened her mouth to speak, and when no words came out they both let out a sigh of relief. She huffed a breath and turned back in her seat to focus on her study guide.

“That was really good quirk usage,” Izuku complimented.

Hitoshi shrugged. “I figured her vines would be a neat stealth tactic, but she’s not someone that would use them in that fashion.” 

Izuku nodded, trying to settle his focus on his study guide as he sent a couple microbots over to Vlad King to essentially use the same tactic as Shiozaki’s vines to smuggle away the ribbon. Within a minute they’d returned and there was another ribbon in his pocket. With Vlad King’s back turned, Izuku put his study guide away, promising himself that he’d work on it that night, and tucked his backpack under his desk. 

“ Gonna see if I can sneak Nedzu’s ribbon away,” Izuku signed to Hitoshi, who nodded, before he slipped out of the class. Down the hall and three doors to the right and there! Izuku opened a janitor’s closet and slipped inside. On the ceiling was a vent shaft that he popped open and jumped up to pull himself into. Hopefully this plan would work, otherwise he was wasting precious studying time that the other students were gaining. Granted, he had studied further than the rest of the classes, so he wasn’t really worried about the other finals. 

Though, he was pretty far above his class already, so he didn’t really have much to worry about. 

He crawled through the vent shafts, mapping the way through his mind as he slowly made his way to Nedzu’s office. There was a vent just above Nedzu’s desk and Izuku could see him sitting there, camera feeds popped up on his monitors as he took notes. Izuku slowly opened the vent shaft so as to not make a sound and sent several microbots down into the room. Just as they reached Nedzu’s desk chair, he turned and looked up, smiling at Izuku. Izuku froze in place, frozen in fear of having been caught. 

“Nice try, Midoriya, but not this time,” Nedzu said, taking a sip of tea. 

Izuku sighed and recalled his bots, feigning defeat. There were still two bots that had hidden behind Nedzu’s chair that he left there. They would be imperative for his next plan. Izuku shut the vent shaft and crawled back to the janitor’s closet without replying to Nedzu. 

He snuck back into the Japanese class and took his seat just as the bell rang for their next class to start. Vlad King walked out of the class, not having noticed Izuku’s departure and return, telling them to be ready for the test tomorrow. They could hear Mic’s loud greetings to the students and other teachers from down the hall. 

“Did you get the ribbon?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Nah, he saw me,” Izuku replied. He propped his chin on his hand, covering his mouth. “But I have a plan set up.”

Hitoshi nodded. “Have any plans for Mic?”

Izuku smirked. “Of course, I’m going to give him a hug!”

“You- what-“ 

“What’s up little listeners! Ready for a language switch?” Present Mic called out as he entered the classroom. 

Izuku pulled out his English notes and Hitoshi followed suit, watching the boy’s movements. Present Mic led them through a short lesson, leaving the rest of the period open for a study session. 

Izuku jumped out of his desk and walked towards Present Mic’s desk where he had just sat down. 

“What’s up little listener, need some help on your study guide?” Mic asked, smiling up at him. 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, no, actually, I think I’m good on that. There was something else that I wanted to talk to you about.” 

“Do you want a private conversation?” Mic asked, tilting his head with a worried look in his eyes. Izuku nodded and Mic got up and led them out to the hall. “What’s up kiddo?” 

“Well, Hitoshi and I were talking in sign in Midnight-sensei’s class a while ago, um, you might’ve noticed we do it sometimes, and she offered to sometimes also teach in sign for us if we wanted,” Izuku started. 

“If you want me to add sign into our lessons, I would be happy to,” Mic said softly, putting a hand on Izuku’s shoulder. 

Izuku shook his head. “That- that’s not exactly what I meant by this. Usually we’re fine to listen, it’s just we both can get nonverbal sometimes. But, it was more that Midnight-sensei told me why it is that she and some of the other teachers know sign, and I just- I don’t know, wanted to say that I’m sorry that your quirk is causing you damage. I know a couple others that it happens to as well.” 

Mic sighed and pulled Izuku into a hug, giving him time to grab the ribbon off of his belt and slip it into his pocket. He hugged Mic back, enjoying the comforting feeling and feeling slightly bad for using this interaction to get a ribbon. When was the last time that an adult had shown affection towards him?

“You don’t need to be sorry, at this point I have a plan and I’m still able to do my work just fine,” Mic said. He let go of Izuku and knelt down in front of him, turning to show him his ears. “See, I have hearing aids. They’re made specifically with the details of my quirk so that they don’t cause feedback and can turn off when I use my quirk.” 

Izuku looked at the design of the skin-tone hearing aids. “Do you think we could commission another pair?” 

Mic tilted his head. “Who for?” 

“Kacch- Bakugo Katsuki. His explosions have impaired his hearing, but he’ll never seek out help on his own, maybe if you showed him yours, if you’re comfortable, then we could work on getting him a pair,” Izuku explained. 

“I’d be happy to help, now why don’t we head back to class. I know you’re my star student, but studying is still important,” Mic said, ruffling Izuku’s hair as they headed back into the classroom. 

Izuku laughed and ducked away from his hand, heading back towards his seat. Hitoshi raised an eyebrow at him and Izuku nodded his head. He was now at 8 points. He could technically stop here and he would pass the final, but he only needed three more points to get a perfect score. Damn the school to hell if he wasn’t aiming for a perfect score. 

Izuku laughed as Hitoshi went up to ask a question, getting Mic to lean over his paper. He quickly snagged the ribbon and put it in his pocket as he took the paper back, thanking Mic for the clarification and headed back to his desk. They worked on the study guide during the rest of the period, until the lunch bell rang. 

“I’m gonna go find Koda and see if he’s seen any stray cats around,” Hitoshi said, packing his bag. 

“Alright, good luck on that,” Izuku said, laughing. “I’m gonna talk to Mic.”

Hitoshi waved as he left the classroom and Izuku bounced up to Mic. “Hey sensei, I have a question.” 

“What’s up kiddo?” Mic asked, packing the rest of his items away. 

“You know about our final?” Izuku asked, knowing full well that he did. He received a nod in turn; Mic didn’t even check to see if he still had his ribbons. “I was wondering if you could get Aizawa’s for me?” 

Mic tilted his head. “That doesn’t go against the rules?” 

Izuku hummed. “The rules were only to get the ribbons without the other party realizing it, and that we couldn’t grab the ribbons for each other. There was no rule on having others grab them for us.” 

Mic nodded. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t then,” he replied with a beaming smile. 

Izuku beamed and gave Mic a quick hug. “Thank you Mic-sensei!” 

Mic laughed and ruffled Izuku’s hair. “Consider this as payback for making you take his place in the commentator’s booth.” 

Izuku laughed at that. “I guess that’s fair.” 

Mic bid his goodbye, promising to get the ribbon to him before the end of lunch. Izuku waved to him as he walked to the cafeteria. Luckily Cementoss was walking through the halls as well and he was able to take the ribbon that was haphazardly taped to his back. By the end of lunch, he would have 10 points, maybe even the full 11. Hopefully Hitoshi would be able to get as many, though he was already at 8 points, so at the very least he would pass the final. 

Maybe the teachers should have come up with a different final since they already hit the passing mark before lunch started. 

Izuku sent a thought to his microbots that were stationed in Nedzu’s office as he pulled up the camera feeds on his phone. He cursed as he had to enter in new codes to gain access again, but it was quick work to get in and view the feeds. Present Mic was talking to Aizawa in the staff lounge, and Izuku could see that he still had both ribbons. He went to the gallery of camera feeds and found the one he was looking for. Nedzu was watching camera feeds in his office, perfect. Izuku had his microbots move from under the desk where he’d had them hide. They moved down to his shoelaces and grabbed the ribbon as a notification popped up on Nedzu’s screen that someone had accessed the cameras. Nedzu made quick work of locking Izuku out of the cameras, making him laugh as his phone closed out of the program he’d made. He locked his phone and continued to the cafeteria, calling the microbots to escape when the next person entered the office. 

“Oi, Zu! Get your ass over here, I have your bento,” Kacchan called, waving Izuku over to his table where he was sitting with Kirishima, Kaminari, Mina, and Sero. 

Izuku walked over to the table and Kaminari moved over so that Izuku could sit next to Kacchan who shoved a bento at him. “Thanks, I was a little distracted this morning,” Izuku said, taking the box and opening it. 

“How’s your final going?” Kacchan asked, starting to eat his own bento. 

“I practically already passed with a perfect score, just waiting for the last two ribbons to get back to me,” Izuku said before taking a bite. 

“Wait, what’s your final?” Kaminari asked. 

“11 teachers each have two ribbons and Toshi and I have to get as many of them as we can without them realizing,” Izuku explained. 

“Dude, that sounds so much easier than our final!” Sero complained. 

Izuku pointed his chopsticks at Sero. “Nedzu and Eraserhead are both participating.” 

Sero paled. “What the fuck.”

“So you got Nedzu’s ribbon then?” Kacchan asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Izuku smiled into his food and nodded. “I’ll talk about how I got it after the ribbon is in my hands, Nedzu can probably read our lips through the cameras.”

Izuku chuckled as the group at the table looked around the room trying to find cameras. There were some stationed in obvious places, but Nedzu had hidden cameras all over the school. Izuku was used to hiding from cameras, and placing them, so it became easy over the years to spot them. 

“That’s fucking creepy as all shit. What is he even watching?” Kaminari asked. 

“Watching for bullies, attacks, making sure that students aren’t skipping classes or getting into what they shouldn’t, same with the staff, making sure there’s no intruders, really anything that seems off,” Izuku explained. “Having video proof is really helpful. It definitely helped the girls at the beginning of the year when Mineta was harassing them.”

Mina cringed at that and Izuku sent her an apologetic look that she waved off. “Thank you for helping us with that. I don’t think anything would’ve been done if you hadn’t convinced us to file reports.”

Izuku nodded. “Of course, no one should deal with that.” 

“Hey kiddo!” Present Mic called as he walked up to their table. Several students around them turned to see who Mic was coming into the cafeteria for. “I got your package!” 

Izuku laughed as he stood to greet the Pro Hero. “Thank you so much sensei!” 

Mic ruffled his hair and handed him the ribbon, he officially had 10 ribbons. “It was easy enough. By the way, do you know why I saw Shinsou and Koda walking around the halls with a bundled blanket?”

“Ah, that’d be Toshi’s attempt to get Aizawa’s ribbon!” Izuku said excitedly. “He told me he was going to ask Koda if he’d seen any stray cats, so I assume he’s going to use the cat to distract Aizawa while he takes the ribbon!” 

Mic laughed, holding his stomach. “Oh Kami, that’s wonderful and totally going to work! Shouta can’t resist any stray cats, it’s a miracle he gets through any of his patrols!” 

Izuku laughed. “I really hope he can get it. Oh! How’d you get Aizawa's?” 

Mic rubbed the back of his neck. “I just distracted him and swiped it.” 

“Alright, I won’t push for details,” Izuku said, putting his hands up in defeat. Mic immediately relaxed. “For now, at least.” 

Mic tensed up again, just barely, and Kacchan slapped the back of his head. “Oi, leave the teacher alone you fucking menace.” 

Izuku laughed and bowed to the teacher. “Thank you again sensei. I really wasn’t sure if you’d help me.”

“Anytime, kiddo,” Mic said, saluting to him before walking off. 

Izuku rejoined Kacchan and his friends at the table and finished his bento just in time for the bell to ring. 

“What class you going to, nerd?” Kacchan asked. 

“I think we were supposed to go to modern lit, but I’m just gonna stick with y’all and text Toshi where to go,” Izuku said, swinging an arm around Kacchan’s waist. The group around them seemed to tense in anticipation, and Izuku couldn’t really blame them. Yet, Kacchan just huffed in annoyance and swung an arm around Izuku’s shoulder. 

“When you getting a growth spurt, shorty?” Kacchan asked. 

“Hey! Fuck off, asshole! It’s not my fault I’m friends with a bunch of giants!” Izuku complained. 

The group laughed around them. “We have English with Present Mic-sensei next,” Kirishima supplied. “So you can tell Hitoshi.” 

“Oh! Thank you!” Izuku said, pulling out his phone. He sent a thought to the microbots to bring the ribbon to 1-A’s classroom as soon as safely possible while texting Hitoshi that he’d be with Kacchan for another round of English. He received a thumbs up emoji in reply from Hitoshi and turned back to the group. 

They were engaging in mindless chatter about new heroes as they made their way to the classroom where Hitoshi was leaning against the doorframe, waving a ribbon at him. Izuku jumped out of Kacchan’s arms and leapt at Hitoshi. “You did it! You got Aizawa’s ribbon!” 

“Not the only thing I got during our lunch break.” Hitoshi smirked as Izuku ran up to him. He was holding a bundled blanket. Izuku peeked into the blanket and lo and behold, Hitoshi had truly gone out during their lunch break and found a kitten to distract Aizawa with. Izuku giggled as the kitten rubbed its head against Izuku’s hand. 

“Now what?” Izuku asked, seeing out of the corner of his eye that his microbots were coming down the hall, zipping between the student’s feet to make it to him. 

“She’s mine, I’m keeping her,” Hitoshi said firmly. 

“Oi! How the hell are you gonna take care of it? We’re at school all day!” Kacchan yelled, walking up to them. The kitten mewled and hid its head back in the blanket. 

Izuku whacked him upside the head. “Shut the fuck up you explosive asshole. You scared the poor thing.” 

Kacchan clicked his tongue and rubbed his head. “Watch your fucking swing!”

“Then lower your fucking voice!” Izuku shouted at him. 

“Izu? Kats?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Yeah?”

“What?”

“ Shut the fuck up and go in the classroom ,” Hitoshi ordered them. 

The microbots jumped into Izuku’s pocket just as he turned and walked into the class giving the rest of Kacchan’s friends time to coo over the kitten in Hitoshi’s arms. 

Hitoshi released the boys from his hold as he walked into the classroom, still being crowded by Mina and Kaminari. “Y’all shout again and I’m throwing you out the window.” 

“I’d li-” Izuku started, but stopped at the withering glare that Hitoshi sent him. Izuku laughed as he sent his microbots to their respective pouch and pulled out the 11 ribbons, showing them to Hitoshi. “I pass with flying colors!” 

Hitoshi laughed as he sat at his desk, Mina and Kaminari being distracted by a new viral video. He shuffled the kitten into one arm and pulled out 10 ribbons. “I almost got there. I managed to swipe Ectoplasm’s on the way off campus, and the cat trick totally worked on Aizawa.” 

Izuku started laughing. “Are you gonna try for Nedzu’s?” He asked after his laughing died down. 

“I tried swiping it with my scarf, and by brainwashing someone to grab it, but he has them on his damn shoelaces! How the hell can I get them from him?” Hitoshi asked. 

Izuku shrugged. “You have the rest of the day to keep trying so I wouldn’t give up. In the meantime, I can watch the kitten, unless you wanna try using her to get Nedzu’s ribbon as well?” 

Hitoshi lit up. “Wait, that might actually work! I’ll be back!” Hitoshi shoved his ribbons back in his pocket and jumped out of his seat rushing out the door, Izuku laughing as he watched. 

“Damn nerds, the both of you,” Kacchan huffed. 

Izuku clicked his tongue at his friend and roommate, but Mic came in and cut off any conversations. Mic waved to Izuku, not bringing up that he’d already been in an English class that day. Having a free day did help in making it so that Izuku had full freedom, though he did feel bad about ditching out on at least Cementoss’ class. 

Izuku used the period to work on as many study guides as he could. Hitoshi returned at some point, waving around a ribbon and the whole class cheered after Izuku shot up and congratulated him for getting a perfect score on his final. 

Only one class passed lunch and both of them had received perfect scores. Now time for the written finals in the rest of their classes. 

Chapter Text

Izuku and Hitoshi left the school with Koda at the end of the day to make sure they were buying proper supplies for the kitten. Koda was more than happy to help them since it meant that he got to hang out with the kitten for a little longer. 

Surprisingly, the black void of a kitten had been super calm through the rest of their classes and slept in Hitoshi’s scarf that he’d kept around his neck since he was using it for the final. When they had left the pet store, they said bye to Koda and they walked their separate ways. The pet store had only been a block away from their apartment so they didn’t have very far to walk before they were home. 

“We’re home!” Izuku called out through the apartment. He could smell spicy curry cooking from the kitchen. 

“What took you so long!” Kacchan called back. “Took you guys over an hour to get back!”

Izuku chuckled as he walked into the kitchen, Hitoshi following close behind. “We brought home a friend, Kacchan!” 

Kacchan looked over his shoulder from where he stood at the stove with a raised eyebrow. “Friend? You’re alone, nerd.”

Hitoshi chuckled and pulled the kitten out of his scarf and held it up Lion King style. “A feline friend!” 

Kacchan scoffed as he turned back to the stove, continuing to mix the food so it didn’t burn. “How the fuck are we gonna take care of a cat when we’re at school all day idiots?” 

“They essentially take care of themselves, and she seems to be litter box trained already! We’re gonna take her to the vet tomorrow to make sure that she’s all good, but we already bought a bunch of supplies with Koda’s help,” Izuku explained. 

Kacchan nodded. “At least you picked the right person to help you. What’s her name anyway?” 

Izuku froze for a second. 

“Oh shit,” Hitoshi muttered as he lowered the kitten and let her hide in his scarf again.

Kacchan sighed, turning the stove off and plating the food. “You dimwits didn’t even think of giving her a name did you?” 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess we were a little caught up in making sure that we could provide proper shelter for her.” 

Kacchan sighed. “Set the table while I put the food out, nerds.”

They went through the motions of getting dinner set up and once they were sitting at the table and eating, they returned to conversation around the new kitten. 

“What should we name the kitten?” Izuku asked before shoving udon in his mouth. 

“She’s black, we could name her Nyx,” Hitoshi offered. 

“That’s so generic,” Kacchan grumbled.

“It’s Greek and we’re in Japan, how is that generic?” Hitoshi asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“If we’re sticking to Greek lore, let’s connect it to Medusa since this dumbass chose a vigilante’s name as his hero name,” Kacchan said, pointing his chopsticks at Izuku. 

Izuku choked as he tried swallowing his noodles and Hitoshi laughed loudly, disrupting the kitten who peeked its head out of his scarf. 

“There,” Kacchan said, moving his chopsticks to point them at the cat. “She’s got grey eyes, name her Athena.” 

“Athena hates Medusa!” Izuku shouted in protest, having guzzled water to recover from his coughing fit. 

“Or she saved Medusa,” Hitoshi countered. “Depends which myth you’re reading.” 

Izuku folded his arms. “Yeah, but no one reads those versions, they all think Medusa is a monster and Athena cursed her in hatred.” 

“We don’t though,” Kacchan said, returning his chopsticks to his plate. “Plus it’ll be funny whether the cat likes you or not. We can use her reactions to prove which myth is the right one.” 

“This is ridiculous,” Izuku said, returning to his food. 

“And that’s why I’d like to welcome our new fur baby to the family,” Hitoshi said, lifting the cat in the air again. “Athena!” 

Izuku sighed. There was no winning in this household. 

***

“Wait, so it’s gonna be all three of the first-year heroics courses?” Izuku asked. 

“That is what I said,” Aizawa answered. “Due to the events of USJ and the fact that several students were involved in the Hosu attack, it has been decided that the location will be kept only with those going and Nedzu until we arrive.” 

“What if they still find out? How many teachers are going?” Izuku asked, leaning forward in his seat. They had a gaming session with Tenko tonight, so he’d have to make sure that he wasn’t planning anything stupid again. 

“As soon as we arrive, there will be a couple other teachers informed of our location. For now it is only myself and Vlad going as well as the pros that work at the location.” Aizawa adjusted the scarf around his neck. “They are a team of trusted Pros that I’m sure you’ll be excited to work with and it’s a very secluded area.” 

“Is it the Wild Wild Pussycats?” Izuku asked, folding his hands under his chin. 

Aizawa shook his head. “What the fuck, kid?” 

Izuku shrugged. “You said it was a team of Pros in a secluded area. Nedzu and I went on a tangent in our last meeting about Pro Hero teams. There aren’t that many, less if we’re counting ones that you would consider trustworthy and live in a secluded area, so I just figured.” 

Aizawa sighed. “Whatever, just don’t tell anyone, brats.” 

“I literally didn’t do anything,” Hitoshi grumbled. 

“ You used a cat against me and then didn’t even let me keep it,” Aizawa said, pointing a finger at Hitoshi. 

Hitoshi sighed. “I call bullshit.”

“This is karma,” Izuku quipped right before the bell rang. 

***

“Midoriya!” 

“Mido-bro! Shinsou-bro!” 

“Guys, over here! We have a question!” 

Izuku and Hitoshi looked over to the group of people standing by the gates. It was a group of Class 1-A students. Actually it seemed to be the whole class except a certain spiky blonde haired boy. 

Izuku waved at the group and Hitoshi slumped his shoulders as he followed behind. 

“Please don’t drag me into anything,” Hitoshi mumbled before they were in earshot. 

Izuku shot him a shit-eating grin before turning to the group before them. “Hey guys! What’s up!” 

“We were going to the mall so we could get supplies for the class trip. Thirteen told us you were coming too, so we thought we’d invite you!” Yaoyorozu answered. 

Izuku tilted his head. “Do you even need anything for the trip, Yaoyorozu?”

Yaoyorozu blushed. “I mean no, but I, um…”

“It’s fine, we’d love to come!” Izuku said, waving off Yaoyorozu’s stuttering. “Wouldn’t we, Toshi?” Izuku linked his arm with Hitoshi’s and gave him a pleading face.

Hitoshi sighed. “Yeah, sure, whatever,” he mumbled, quickly giving in to Izuku’s puppy dog eyes. 

*** 

Going to the mall with a group of 19 kids was probably not the best idea. Of course, that wasn’t thought about until they were already there. 

“We should split up in pairs or small groups and go to the stores that we need to!” Yaoyorozu called over the sea of teenagers. 

“Great plan! Does everyone know what they need?” Iida called out, chopping his arm into the air. 

The students started chatting around them, calling out everything they needed. Izuku somehow found himself in a group with Hitoshi and Kaminari.

“Wait, what was it you needed, Kaminari?” Izuku asked. He might have been spacing out the whole time they were talking by accident. 

“Just some minor med stuff. Sunscreen, um ace bandages, and some bath stuff,” Kaminari explained. 

Izuku looked around making sure they were alone. “Ace bandages?”

Kaminari rubbed the back of his neck and looked to the side nervously. “Yeah, um in case I… sprain an ankle or something!” He perked up at the end and Izuku raised an eyebrow at him. 

“I have a couple ankle braces I’m bringing that you can use,” he offered, knowing that it was a made up excuse. 

“Oh no!” Kaminari shouted, looking at Izuku. “I mean- I- um”

“Izu stop fucking with him and just say what we all know,” Hitoshi grumbled. 

Izuku sighed. “Sorry, Kami. Afraid we know what those ace bandages really are for. We also know that ace bandages are not the proper way to bind.”

“You- how?” Kaminari asked. 

Hitoshi stepped forwards. “Sorry, Kami. I saw your bandages the other day before you were able to cover up completely.”

“We just met a trans woman too, and she was going off about some kids she met not binding properly so we got a whole lesson on binding from her,” Izuku explained, looking to Hitoshi. 

“We weren’t even supposed to be in there, and all of a sudden she was pulling up a slideshow, it was actually kinda funny,” Hitoshi added, laughing with Izuku. 

“But point being, we’re not letting you get ace bandages Kami, oh gods, what did we do?” Izuku added on hurriedly as he looked back at Kaminari and found tears rolling down his face. 

“No, it’s fine,” Kaminari said with a wobbly smile. “I just- no one’s ever really cared when they found out. I’ve been hiding it from everyone at UA this whole year because I was scared of their reactions.” 

Izuku stepped forward and enveloped Kaminari in a hug. “We’ll always support you, Kami. Whether you tell the others or not, okay?”

Kaminari nodded into Izuku’s shoulder as Hitoshi laid a hand on his shoulder. 

“Let’s go get some proper bindings for you, yeah?” Hitoshi asked. 

Izuku pulled away as Kaminari’s grasp loosened on him. “I don’t really know what to get,” Kaminari confessed. 

“Well, we can get you a binder. I know there’s actually a store here that sells them. And then some sports bras for working out. You can layer up on them to help,” Izuku explained, grabbing Kaminari and Hitoshi’s hands to lead them to the store that Magne had told them about in her slideshow. 

Izuku led Hitoshi and Kaminari through the mall, stopping in random shops to pick up things they needed as well as the proper bindings for Kaminari, making sure he was getting the right sizes. 

He sat and scrolled on his phone outside of one store which Hitoshi had banned him from as he was picking out some ‘appropriate day to day clothes for him’ when his hair began to stand on end. The familiar feeling of eyes following him made him fight to keep his muscles relaxed. He looked up to the store to see that Hitoshi and Kaminari were hunched over and looking at something. He gave a quick glance around before looking down at his phone, working to register everything he’d picked up in his glance. He had spotted Mina and what he assumed was Hagakure walking around on the next floor up with Sero; many couples and families rushing to and from stores; and a man in a hoodie with the hood pulled up walking towards him. He must be the one that set him on edge. He leaned back against the bench in a relaxed position as he slid his hand into his pocket to grab his knife, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice. 

“Hey Medusa,” Tenko said. 

“You gotta be fucking shitting me right now,” Izuku said as he let go of his knife and jumped to his feet to face his friend. “You freaked me the fuck out!” 

Tenko laughed. “Sorry, Zu. Actually no I’m not, ‘cause that was hella funny.” 

Izuku shook his head and punched Tenko lightly in the shoulder. “The fuck you doing here. Isn’t this a little public for you?” 

Tenko shrugged. “Dabi needed some hair dye and I wanted out of the house. Sensei has been biting my head off for not doing a mission for him.”

Izuku narrowed his eyes at his friend. “What mission?” 

Tenko waved him off. “Nothing to concern yourself with, I’m not doing it anyways.” 

Izuku shrugged. “Whatever. If you need our help, you know where to find us.”

“Yeah, apparently at shopping malls. Is Hitoshi holding leather pants?” Tenko asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked through the window of the shop. 

“Oh he better fucking not!” Izuku said, rushing to the doorway. Hitoshi was definitely holding a pair of leather pants. “Those better not fucking be for me Toshi!” 

Hitoshi and Kaminari shot their heads towards him and Tenko. “Hey! You’re banned from the store! Get the fuck out and stop peeking in asshat! You’ll wear whatever I buy you and you know it!” Hitoshi yells at him. 

Izuku gaped at his friend before shrugging and stepping back out to where Tenko was laughing at the scene. 

“He’s got you whipped,” Tenko said as he tried to catch his breath. 

“What are you on about?” Izuku asked. 

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Tenko said, pulling out his phone. Izuku rolled his eyes at him. “Hey, I gotta get that hair dye and scram, but we’re still gaming tonight right?” 

“Of course! Gotta get a couple games in before we leave on our trip!” Izuku said. “Talk to ya tonight, Tank!” 

Tenko shook his head at Izuku as he walked in the direction of the beauty store. Looking back at the boys in the store and finding them holding up a crop top, Izuku decided enough was enough and went to stop his friends from spending too much money.

Chapter Text

“Okay, but do I have to wear the crop top?” Medusa asked as they tied up a man. 

“Yes!” Echo shouted. “Trust me, you’ll look so good in it!” Echo was leaning against the wall, watching Medusa work. 

Medusa groaned and the snakes in their hair moved restlessly. “The both of you are ridiculous. I don't know why I let you pick clothes for me at all.” They sent a text to Naomasa and beckoned Echo to follow as they left the alleyway and ducked around three more city blocks. 

“You… love us and… you know it,” Echo panted as finally came to a stop. 

Medusa rolled their eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Medusa waved them off as they walked down the street. Echo cursed and hurried to catch up to them. “We have to stop by the LOV before going home.”

Echo groaned. “At this point we won’t be home till sunrise.”

“You didn’t have to come out,” Medusa said as they raised an eyebrow, not that it could be seen with their mask. 

Echo folded their arms and gave Medusa a pointed look. “Yes I did, asshat.” 

Medusa laughed as they turned a corner, almost running into someone. “Shit, sorry,” they mumbled as they took a step backwards. 

Dabi raised an eyebrow. “The hell you two doing around here?”

“This bitch doesn’t know what proper sleep is, especially when we have to leave for a school trip at 6 in the morning ,” Echo grumbled. 

Dabi laughed. “Heading to base?” He asked. 

Medusa nodded. “Yeah, I need to talk to Shiggy and Toga.” 

Dabi raised an eyebrow again. “Alright, I’ll just go back with you then, make sure there’s no interruptions on the way.” 

“Thank fuck,” Echo whispered, earning him a slap upside the head from Medusa. “What?!”

“As I said before, you didn’t need to come out tonight. It was a lowkey night,” Medusa said. 

“Is anything ever actually lowkey with you, Medusa?” Dabi asked with a smirk. 

“Thank you!” Echo shouted as Medusa groaned. 

Medusa rolled their eyes. “I really just came out tonight to come to the base. It’s not my fault that I had to stop three altercations.” 

“ It’s not my fault I had to stop three altercations ,” Echo mocked. 

“Really living up to the name there, asshole,” Medusa laughed. 

Echo rolled their eyes at them as they came up to the bar. Dabi held open the door for them and they bowed their heads in thanks as they walked in. They were immediately hit with screaming, laughter, and other loud voices from within. 

“We have guests,” Kurogiri said, raising his voice over the din, causing everyone to shut up and look towards the door. Then there were loud voices anew as they all crowded around Medusa and Echo. 

“Glad to see you! You never shoulda come!” Twice shouted as he trotted up to give Medusa a hug. 

Medusa hugged Twice back and grabbed a knife out of the air just as it was about to hit Echo without leaving the embrace. Echo didn’t even have time to flinch before the threat was gone. They nodded in thanks to Medusa who waved it off. 

“Awww, Medusa~” Toga whined. 

“No stabbing Echo, we talked about this, Himi,” Medusa countered. 

Toga pouted for a second before running up and giving Medusa a hug after Twice let go of them. “What are you doing here? Don’t you leave in the morning? Shiggy’s been complaining about it all week.” 

Medusa laughed as he squeezed Toga back and looked towards Tenko who was glaring at the back of Toga’s head. 

“I came to talk to you two actually,” Medusa explained. 

Toga lit up as she turned to hug Echo who froze at the touch before slowly relaxing and swinging an arm around her waist in response. Toga quickly disengaged from the hug, knowing that Echo wasn’t too keen on touch from others and Twice quickly pulled them away to show them something. 

“Whatcha need NPC?” Tenko asked as he stood to join Izuku and Toga. 

“We’re going on a school trip, there’s no need to pout and call us NPCs,” Medusa said, taking off their eye mask so Tenko could see the raised eyebrow. Medusa and Echo had been coming over to the League’s bar about once a week now, to vet new members or just hang out. They really liked the close knit group that had formed and even started considering them as friends even if they were villains. Most of them had been wronged by society and they could both relate to that, even if they chose different paths of life because of it. 

“Whatever,” Tenko grumbled. 

Medusa rolled their eyes, plenty used to Tenko’s moods and not bothered by them in the slightest, only slightly amused. “We wanted to make sure that you weren’t gonna do any dumb shit while we were gone,” they said to Tenko. 

“We have missions, you know. Not everything’s centered around your little rag-tag team of hero students,” Tenko said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. Medusa noted that he was wearing the artist gloves that they’d gotten for him so that he didn’t have to raise a finger in fear of disintegrating his own arms. 

Medusa raised an eyebrow. “With everything that’s happened this year, can you blame me for worrying that there’ll be more attacks that traumatize my friends?” 

Tenko clicked his tongue. “We’ll be busy with other stuff, we aren’t planning anything involving your trip, don’t worry.” 

“Okay, thank you, that’s all I needed to hear,” Medusa said, nodding. They turned to Toga. “Can you do me a favor while we’re gone?”

Toga jumped up and down in place. “What is it?” 

“I was hoping that I could give you some of my blood and you could go out a couple times in my costume to act as Medusa for me?” Medusa asked.

Toga’s eyes lit up like Medusa had just offered her full access to the blood bank. “I get your blood?” 

“So that you can go out as Medusa,” they reminded. 

“Blood!” Toga squealed, running to get her supplies. 

Medusa let out a long-suffering sigh, causing Tenko and Dabi, who was leaning against the doorframe, to laugh. 

“I don’t know what else you expected, green bean,” Dabi said, coming up behind them to pat their shoulder. “When she hears blood, there’s nothing else on her mind.” 

“Can you make sure that she isn’t just drinking all of it and that she actually goes out as Medusa?” They asked Dabi, looking up towards him with pleading eyes. 

Dabi gave them a cautious look. “What do I get out of it?” 

Medusa laughed and waved Dabi down so they could whisper in his ear. Dabi quickly did so and Medusa took off their face mask so they could properly whisper without it being overheard. “How about if you do this I don’t tell anyone that you’re Touya Todoroki?”

Dabi shot back up to his full height quickly and glared at Medusa who was looking at him with a smug grin. “How the fuck do you know that?” 

Medusa raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you want me to list off all the connections and essentially tell everyone now?”

Dabi backpedaled with a panicked look on his face. “No, no. Whatever, fine, I’ll do it. Toga will go out as Medusa with your blood, guaranteed.” 

“What the fuck does he know about you?” Tenko asked, pouting over the fact that he wasn’t let in on the secret. 

Medusa laughed and waved Tenko off. “No need to worry about it. It’s not important to the end game yet. He’ll tell you when he’s ready.” 

Dabi shot them a grateful look before retreating to the bar and asking Kurogiri for some type of alcoholic drink. 

“Why the fuck do you get to know if I don’t?” Tenko asked, still pouting with crossed arms. 

Medusa stepped forward and hugged Tenko, whispering in his ear, “because I was smart enough to have already put together the clues. Guess I’m ahead of you in the game.” 

Tenko unfolded his arms, pushing Medusa away. “Get off me, nerd.” 

“Oh come on,” Medusa said, laughing. “How about a game to cheer you up? I have to stay while Himi takes my blood anyway.” 

“Yeah, whatever. Ay Echo! Get your ass over here, we’re playing a round,” Tenko called out. 

Echo shot Twice an apologetic look before walking over and joining as Tenko and Medusa plopped onto the couch, picking up controllers. “I’m surprised that you still have the controllers, Shig,” Echo teased. 

Tenko hit his shoulder against Echo when they sat down next to him. “Fuck off. The artist’s gloves actually work, okay?” 

“You’re welcome~” Medusa chimed as Toga ran back into the room and got to work setting up her supplies. Medusa rolled up their sleeve as Echo and Tenko bickered back and forth as they set up the game, Medusa chiming in here and there to tease one of them or request a setting for the game. 

Soon enough, Toga was happily watching blood fill her vials as Medusa, Tenko, and Echo played a game of villains vs heroes, all of them on the villains side. The game wasn’t over for about an hour as they decided to play three rounds, and Toga had collected plenty of blood within the first round. Luckily the time sitting and playing the games had given Medusa time to sit and relax instead of getting up and making their way home right after getting their blood drawn. 

“Do I get to use your fancy snakes?” Toga asked as Medusa stood up and stretched. 

Their team had won all three games, and Medusa counted that as a good enough goodbye gift for Tenko. “Yeah, I’ve already had them cued up so that they can respond to you when you use my headband and the snakes immediately twine with your- or rather my- hair. Hey Shiggy, got any clothes I can borrow so that I can leave my outfit here for Himi?” 

“Yeah, you know where my room is,” Tenko said, waving him off as he started another game. Dabi went over to the couch and took up Medusa’s spot as they walked through the back hallways to Tenko’s room, Toga following like a lost puppy. 

“I’ll be out in a second,” Medusa said as they walked into Tenko’s room and closed and locked the door. They had changed here plenty of times, and made the mistake of not locking the doors only to have one of the League members come in and see them in a half-dressed state. They would not be repeating that again. They walked over to Tenko’s closet and pulled out a hoodie and sweatpants and quickly changed into them before opening the door and allowing Toga to come in. 

She immediately pounced on the bed and grabbed up Medusa’s costume. “Alright, anything I need to know?” She asked, in an almost surprisingly serious tone. Medusa sometimes forgot that Toga was a villain and not just some over-enthusiastic high schooler. She was only a year above him, yet their lives had taken them on different paths. 

“Okay, so you can essentially wear the headband the whole time and it’ll only turn on when you send a thought for it to. This helps it keep its charge up, but it also means that the snakes won’t always be active. Try to keep them in a standing position if you’re going to have the headband turned off while you’re out as Medusa so that it doesn’t just look like you have curly hair. Um, oh! So I messed around with color theory when I was designing them and it actually works really well. I’ll text you the list of colors that I have programmed and what they do when I get home tonight so that you can reference it when needed, though try not to do so if you’re actively fighting someone. Look at the list before engaging and have a color picked out that you can use. All of them cause a shock factor to the people you’re directing at, which is one of the reasons that I like using it. It freezes people in their place and adds to the imagery of Medusa, so to speak.”

Toga nodded along with his explanation as she folded the outfit and held it carefully to her chest. “What about the type of people you go after and your fighting style?”

“Well, unfortunately I don’t use knives that often even though I have a bandolier of them. I have a collapsible bo staff that you can use. I mainly use that and hand to hand, but you can also direct the snakes to attack if needed. Some of them have electric currents and can be used as tasers, so if you order them to stun someone, they should essentially just do all the work for you.” Toga’s eyes lit up at the thought, but Izuku continued. “As for the people that I go after, I wouldn’t say I exactly have a type. I mean, maybe I do. I mostly seek out and go after people that are hurting women and children, but if I see a crime happening, I jump in and stop it. When you go out, you can focus on the first group of people instead of just stopping any crime you see if you’re more comfortable with that, or vice versa.”

Toga nodded. “I’ll probably stick with the first group if I can find anything that fits. And I’ll leave my knives at home when I go out as you.”

“I do have knives as part of my outfit. I mean, you have my bandolier. I just don’t use them that often. But, if you need to use them, don’t worry about it. I have plenty of training with knives that can explain it away if anything happens,” Medusa offered with an amused smile. 

“Who would you be explaining to?” Toga asked. 

“There’s an Underground hero that I’ve come into contact with a couple times, but he’ll be on the trip with me so you don’t need to worry about him. It’s mainly the detective that I’m constantly pissing off. I left my Medusa phone in the pants' front right pocket. You can use that to tell the detective where the villains were last seen or if you tied them up. I would suggest going through each of the pockets ‘cause they each have something that might come in handy at different points,” Medusa explained. “I’m really thankful you’re doing this for me, Himi.” 

“Of course, what else are friends for?” Toga asked with a bright smile. 

Medusa laughed and ruffled her hair as they stood up. “We should probably make sure that no one’s dying out there. Any other questions?” 

Toga shook her head as she jumped off the bed and gave them a quick hug. “Nope! I’ll see you next week though, right?”

“I’ll come visit as soon as we’re back. You have my prized possession anyways, what else would I be doing?” Medusa asked, laughter tinting their voice. 

Toga shook her head with a smile. “I’ll see you when you’re back then! And I’ll take extra good care of your costume and reputation!” 

Medusa laughed and waved as she bounced out of the room before heading back into the main room. There wasn’t any shouting so that was either a good sign or a very bad sign. 

Luckily for them, it was a good sign. They came back into the main bar to find Tenko, Echo, and Dabi leaning forward on the edge of their seats, concentrated on the game they were playing. Twice had left the room and Kurogiri was standing behind the bar, quietly polishing glasses. He nodded to Medusa who nodded in turn before walking around to the side of the couch where Echo sat. They sat on the arm of the couch and laid a hand on Echo’s shoulder. “After this round, we should head home. Neither of us would’ve been sleeping much anyways, but we should at least try attempting sleep before our trip tomorrow.” 

Echo groaned and Medusa responded by lightly massaging their shoulders. 

“I can transport you to the roof of your apartment if you want,” Kurogiri offered. 

Medusa shot a beaming smile at the misty man. “That would be amazing, if you really don’t mind!” 

Kurogiri shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me any. I’d prefer you both are well rested and don’t get into any more trouble tonight, especially given that you’re leaving your costume here with Toga,” he explained. 

Medusa nodded gratefully and looked towards the screen just in time to see it go black before showing a ‘Victory’ clip. 

“Alright, we can go now,” Echo said as they stood and stretched, Medusa’s hand falling off of their shoulder. They reached out a hand that Medusa took and Echo pulled them to their feet. “We’ll see you next week Shig, and we’ll be able to play plenty then since we have an extra two weeks off of school after.” 

Tenko waved them off as he changed the settings on the game to two-player and started up a new queue. “Yeah, yeah. See you two NPCs later.” 

Medusa laughed and ruffled Tenko’s hair as he walked past. “Bye, Shiggy, thanks for the clothes. Oh! And thanks Dabi, for keeping an eye on Toga while I’m gone!!” 

They both waved him off as they walked towards Kurogiri who already had a portal open for them. They gave quiet thanks as they stepped through and onto the roof of their apartment. Only the sounds of their own breathing and the cars below broke the silence. They quietly headed down to their apartment and settled in for the night. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

Chapter Text

Izuku knew that something was wrong as soon as the bus pulled over. Maybe not really wrong in a bad sense, but something was definitely about to happen. 

“Everyone off the bus!” Aizawa called out, standing to glare at all the students. Aizawa and Vlad-Sensei would be the only UA teachers with them as Thirteen had been called away for an emergency at the last minute. Aizawa had brushed it off, and Class 1-A didn’t seem to mind too much about being under Aizawa’s mentorship even if they were slightly scared of him. 

Class 1-A hurried to get off the bus as quickly as possible, complaining about stiff limbs and having to pee. Izuku couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He’d had to sit in more uncomfortable positions for far longer when he went out at night, so sitting in a comfortable bus seat didn’t bother him at all. Izuku leaned down and poked Hitoshi’s cheek. Around five minutes into the bus ride, he had put his headphones on and lied down in Izuku’s lap. At least it gave Izuku’s hands something to do as they played with his hair and he looked out the window. 

Hitoshi grumbled and swatted at Izuku’s hand, causing Izuku to laugh. 

“Any day now, boys,” Aizawa grumbled from a couple seats down. He was walking down the rows as they were the last two on the bus. 

Hitoshi turned his head so that his eyes were blocked from sight in Izuku’s lap, causing him to laugh harder. “Sorry, sensei, I’m trapped,” he told Aizawa with a shrug. 

Aizawa sighed. “Problem children,” he hissed under his breath. “Get him up and moving.” 

“So we can go through whatever hellish training exercise you’ve cooked up?” Izuku asks with a raised eyebrow. He went back to playing with Hitoshi’s hair. “I think I like my seat here much better.” 

Aizawa groaned. “Get up or you’re on cleaning duty for the rest of the trip.” 

Izuku shrugged again with a slight smirk. “Doesn’t bother me too much.” 

“Get off the damn bus, Midoriya,” Aizawa ordered, glaring at him. 

“What are you even having us do? 1-B isn’t here, so why do we have to do it?” Izuku asked. 

“You know what? Fine, sit on your asses, I’m done,” Aizawa said, throwing his hands in the air and walking off the bus. 

Izuku giggled and leaned back in the bus seat, watching the class meet the Wild Wild Pussycats and then try running before they were thrown off a hill. He was suddenly very glad to have fought with Aizawa on not going. 

“Alright, we’re heading to camp,” Aizawa said as he trudged back onto the bus and slumped into a seat. The Wild Wild Pussycats joined them on the bus this time, along with a small child of around 4 to 6 years old. They sat at the front of the bus and conversed among themselves while the boy pouted and glared out the window. 

Izuku shrugged and pulled out his phone to scroll through news feeds while they drove to the camp. 

***

Izuku let out a whoosh of air as he was knocked on his back. 

“You’re doing good kid,” Tiger said, coming over to help him stand back up. 

“You say that and yet you just helped me to my feet for the tenth time this morning,” Izuku pouted. 

Tiger laughed. “No sweat, kid. It’s how we all learn. You’ve landed plenty of hits on me too, and hand to hand is my specialty. I’ve never fought a kid with as much experience as you.” 

Izuku could tell that there was a question hidden in that statement, but decided not to answer it. What was he supposed to say? That he learned how to fight because he was bullied his whole life? That he continued his training because he was a vigilante at night? Yeah, no thanks. 

“Izuku!” Aizawa called out, causing Izuku to whip his head over to his teacher. “Switch out! You’re with Shinsou.” 

Izuku nodded before turning back to Tiger. “Thanks for sparring with me, I learned a lot.” 

“No problem, kid. Keep it up and you’ll be past my level in no time!” Tiger punched his clawed fist into the air before stalking off to give other students some pointers. 

Izuku turned away too, going to the little clearing that was hidden from view in which he knew Hitoshi was practicing his quirk. As he stepped past the trees that blocked the clearing from view, he saw Hitoshi lying on his back in a patch of sun with his eyes closed. 

“You’re just like a cat,” Izuku commented, laughing. 

“Says the one who likes head pats and sunny nap spots just as much as I do,” Hitoshi grumbled back, not moving. 

Izuku choked on more laughter as he pulled out his phone. “Sorry, can you repeat that one more time?” 

“I said ‘says the one who likes head pats and sunny nap spots just as much as I do’- wait,” Hitoshi opened his eyes, but Izuku was already running out of the clearing, saving the recording to his device. “You motherfucker, get back here!” 

Izuku laughed as he dodged around the students practicing their quirks. Hitoshi was quick to follow, but he had nothing on Izuku’s stamina given that he’d only recently started training as much as Izuku did. 

“Oi! Watch it assh- Izu what the fuck did you do this time?” Kacchan asked as Izuku ducked behind his explosive friend. 

Hitoshi ran up and rested on his knees, panting. “You better fucking delete that right now.” 

Kacchan sent him an inquiring glance and Izuku just laughed. “I’ll send it to you later,” he whispered in Kacchan’s ear. “Come on Toshi~” 

“No, fuck you,” Hitoshi said, standing up straight as he gained his breath back. 

“Midoriya, Shinsou, you’re supposed to be practicing Shinsou’s quirk, not your stamina,” Aizawa said as he walked up to the trio. 

“Sorry ‘Zawa,” Izuku said, still hiding behind Kacchan. 

Aizawa sent him a deadly glare, but Kacchan came to the rescue. “I’ll train with them. See if Eyebags can hold two people at once and for how long if he’s up for it.” 

“You should be practicing your own quirk right now, Bakugo,” Aizawa said. 

“He’s been practicing his quirk his whole life, what’s an hour?” Izuku asked. “Besides the legacy students, he probably has the most practice,” he added. 

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “No more interrupting other student’s training. Go back to the clearing and stay there until Shinsou can keep both of you under his control for ten minutes.” 

Hitoshi gaped at their teacher, but with the glare he was sent he quickly closed his mouth and nodded. The three boys quickly went to the clearing Hitoshi had been practicing his quirk in earlier and they settled on the grass. 

“This ain’t gonna work just so you know,” Hitoshi mumbled. 

“You shouldn’t doubt yourself so much Toshi,” Izuku said, scrunching his eyebrows in concern. 

“Why do you think it’ll work?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Beca-” Suddenly Izuku’s mind was blank. He couldn’t see or hear anything. 

“ Stand up ,” Hitoshi commanded. 

It was a strange feeling, to be under his friend’s control. It was like a blanket had been put over his senses, or he was floating in a void. The only thing he knew was his friend’s voice and the only thing he wanted- no, needed was to obey anything he said. 

There was a slight stream of thought just within reach telling him to fight back, to not give in to the orders and Izuku grabbed onto it. He wasn’t one to obey anybody, why would he give in so easily now? He followed the thought of not wanting to obey Hitoshi’s commands, but that was all it was- a thought. How could he break free of the hold? He ran through his thoughts on Hitoshi’s previous quirk usage. Pain . That’s what broke people free. But his body was under Hitoshi’s control. Yet, he still had his mind intact, if he could just send a signal, do something, maybe scratch himself, then he could break free. He put all his thoughts towards scratching his thigh, pleading his fingers to move, to curl, to scrape and scratch with whatever strength they had. 

Suddenly, there was a burst of light and noise and smells. He blinked his eyes as he settled back into himself and found Hitoshi still sitting on the ground, but holding his head. “Shit,” Izuku hissed as he lurched forward to crouch in front of Hitoshi. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I’ve just never had anyone have such strong thoughts of wanting to break free before,” Hitoshi mumbled. 

“What’s wrong,” Kacchan asked as he came to crouch on Hitoshi’s side. 

“Zu broke free like the bastard he is,” Hitoshi said, lowering his hands from his head and looking up at his two friends. “I’m fine, let’s go again.” 

“Are you sure?” Izuku asked. 

“Are you sure?” Hitoshi asked back. 

“Hey-” And just like that, Izuku was surrounded by the void once more, cursing at Hitoshi in his mind. This was very reminiscent of his vigilante persona and it was probably a good thing that Hitoshi grabbed ahold of him before he commented on it. 

***

“Alright kiddos!! For your extra hard work throughout the week, we’ve planned a fun exercise for you!!” Mandalay shouted over the din of the students eating dinner and chatting. Everyone quieted and looked up at the teachers and Wild Wild Pussycats. 

“Tonight, you’ll be participating in a Test of Courage! Class 1-A versus Class 1-B! Shinsou and Midoriya will be joining Class 1-A to make the teams a little more even since the students that failed their exams will have to sit this one out,” Pixie-Bob explained. 

There was a collective groan from the students that failed the exams: Mina, Rikido, Sero, and Kaminari. Monoma was also going to be sitting out, but he was strangely quiet. 

“Hurry up and finish dinner and cleaning, because we’ll start as soon as you’re done,” Aizawa called out. 

This led to a flurry of motion as the gathered students rushed to finish their food and start cleaning up. Within 30 minutes all of the students were gathered outside except for the group that Aizawa had pulled away, some literally, to go do their remedial lessons.

“Alright kittens!” Ragdoll called out. “Class 1-B will be heading into the forest in pairs and will work on scaring the other team. There's a path that loops through the forest and back in a ‘u’ shape. Class 1-A will be sent in pairs every three minutes to walk the path and get tags from the middle. The goal is to make the other team scream the loudest and most often! Are you ready?”

There was a chorus of shouts from the students before Ragdoll took Class 1-B into the forest to give them further directions and make sure they were positioned on the proper path. 

“Okay, everyone step into pairs and we’ll send you out individually as soon as we get the signal!” Mandalay called out. 

Izuku grabbed Hitoshi’s arm and they stepped away from the sea of students as they watched them work on figuring out teams. Iida tried shouting over everyone to make the teams rationally, but in the end, people ended up just going with their friends, or anyone they seemed to be close enough with. 

“Alright, team one! Iida and Uraraka, go in now! Ragdoll is at the middle of the path, just before you turn back to camp with a card so that we know you didn’t just cut across,” Mandalay explained. 

Iida and Uraraka headed into the forest and the other students chatted amongst themselves. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki went in next, followed by Tsuyu and Jiro. The group could hear screams every now and again and there were laughs from several students each time. 

“Think they’ll scare you?” Hitoshi whispered. They had continued standing off to the side, rather than joining with the larger group as most of the other students had done once the groups were decided. 

“I have a feeling I’ve faced scarier things than some teenagers,” Izuku muttered back. 

Hitoshi laughed quietly. “Fair enough,” he replied and they settled back into a comfortable silence. Bakugo and Kirishima went in as well as Ojiro and Hagakure. 

“Midoriya and Shinsou, you’re next!” Tiger called out, startling the pair. 

Izuku nodded and they walked in together with Izuku still holding onto Hitoshi’s arm. He wasn’t quite sure why he was doing it, he really wasn’t anxious or feeling scared. Yet, there was another feeling that something was about to go wrong, and he didn’t want losing Hitoshi in the middle of a forest to be that thing. 

Having walked about 30 feet into the forest with no sign of Class 1-B, Izuku started getting more nervous. It wasn’t until he noticed that there was a fog of purple smoke ahead that he stopped Hitoshi and pointed. “Something’s not right. None of Class 1-B have an emitter quirk like that, no one that’s supposed to be here does, actually.” 

Hitoshi peered around them, and shook his head. “The screaming has stopped as well.” 

“I don’t like this,” Izuku replied as they inched closer to the fog. 

There was another scream, seemingly from the opposite side of the path that calmed their nerves a bit. They continued on and walked into the smoke, keeping an ear out for anything amiss. They didn’t think to count the fact that they were getting tired as odd, and soon both of them were passed out on the path. 

Within an hour, it was announced that they were kidnapped, with no sign of the villains that had infiltrated the camp. All other personnel were accounted for with no injuries and everyone was left to wonder why them and how was that pulled off so cleanly ?

Chapter Text

Izuku comes to slowly, keeping his eyes closed, and doing his best to keep his breathing even as if he were still unconscious. In all honesty, he’d been kidnapped before. It wasn’t something he’d made a habit out of, but when you start making a name for yourself in the underground and start building a territory of sorts, others seem to not like that very much. This time, it seemed that his kidnappers didn’t care enough to even tie him up or gag and blindfold him. That’d make it all the easier to leave, assuming he was the only student they took. There was a weight in his lap, but he wasn’t sure what it could be. He was glad that he and Mei had figured out a way to get his headband to turn on only when commanded to as he was wearing it when he’d been taken. Hopefully he had the pouch of bots with him as well, though if they were anywhere in Musutafu, then there’d be some to come to him from spots he’d hidden them all over the city. 

“I’m just saying that there was probably a better way to do this,” a deep voice said. Wait, Izuku knew that voice. 

Izuku blinked his eyes open and checked his surroundings. Izuku was sitting at one end of a couch with Hitoshi sprawled out leaving his head to rest in Izuku’s lap. He still had the microbots in a pouch tied around his waist, thankfully. They were in Tenko’s bar with the League spaced out around them. Dabi, Toga, and Tenko seemed to be fighting over the fact that Tenko didn’t talk to anyone before kidnapping them and the other members were watching the fight with varying emotions. 

Izuku cleared his throat and glared at the group as they turned to him. Some of them visibly flinched back at his look, but Tenko just grinned. “What in the absolute fuck were you thinking?” Izuku asked. 

Tenko scratched at his neck nervously. “I couldn’t beat the game that came out while you were gone?” He asked hesitantly. 

Izuku sighed and the rest of the room seemed to relax. It wasn’t like he could really fault them anyways if they didn’t know about Tenko’s plan. “What was the purple smoke?” Izuku inquired as he rubbed the growing tension out of his forehead. 

“Oh! We found some kid who wanted to join the League, and that’s his quirk. He was all too happy to join in my plan, but he’s out right now, lives with fosters and all that,” Tenko said and Izuku looked up to see him waving off the question. 

“Okay, and how do you expect to deal with us going back? You kidnapped us, and the heroes are going to find us here or we’re going to have to go back to school when the term starts again,” Izuku explained in an exasperated tone. Tenko was too spontaneous to have as much power as he did. He really needed to think through his plans more. 

“Well- um,” Tenko stuttered. 

Izuku patted his pockets until he found his phone. “Absolute idiots. The fact that you haven’t been caught yet is a goddamn miracle. You see this?” He asked, holding up his phone and clicking the power button to show that it’d been on the whole time. “This is a way to track us. An ability that not only the police can do through the phone company, but also something that Kac- Pomeranian can do.” 

“Pomeranian?” Dabi asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Izuku waved him off as he looked through his notifications, seeing a series of texts and missed calls from various students and Aunts Mits and Uncle Masaru. They were probably checking intermittently to see if his phone was still on. “Nickname for my very explosive friend that is in the limelight hero track. He also makes impulsive decisions and…” he paused as he opened a new app. “Yup, he’s already in town. How long was I out?” He asked, looking up at the League who had varying levels of shock and fear flitting across their faces. 

“A bit over a day?” Toga asked, twirling her knife anxiously. “Um, exactly how explosive is this friend?” 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “I’ll be able to calm him down. I’m just not sure if he’ll be coming alone or not. So, we need to make a plan, because if Pomeranian is coming, then the heroes probably aren’t far behind.” 

“I-”

“Tomura,” a deep, chilling voice called through the room. 

Tenko immediately turned towards a tv that had a blinking red light. Izuku could’ve sworn that the light hadn’t been shining before. Was this Tenko’s ‘Sensei’? It must be. “Yes?” 

“Have the children woken up?” The man asked, confirming that the TV had only just turned on.

“Yes, Sensei,” Tenko responded. “Or no, sorry. Only one of them has.” 

Izuku noted that the rest of the League seemed to be inching away from the television and he grabbed onto Hitoshi’s arm, slightly shaking him. He could carry him if anything were to happen but he’d rather not as it’d only slow them down. 

“Wh-” Hitoshi started, but Izuku slapped a hand over his mouth. Hitoshi’s eyes flew open and he reached up as if to defend himself before his eyes settled on Izuku and they filled with confusion and concern. 

Izuku lifted his hand off and signed to him, “ Sensei ,” before pointing towards Tenko and the television. 

“Fair enough, that boy’s quirk was stronger than we gave it credit for,” the man supplied. Hitoshi stilled in his lap before slowly sitting up and staying close to Izuku’s side, holding his hand. “What do you plan to do with the two kids, then?” 

“Ask them about All Might’s schedule and try to convince them to join us,” Tenko answered. Had- had he just lied to his sensei? The rest of the League were shooting Tenko alarmed looks, but he seemed unbothered. 

The man hummed, perhaps in approval, though it was hard to tell. “Alright, contact me if there’s any updates,” the man said before the light blinked off and didn’t turn back on. 

The tension in the room seemed to bleed out as soon as the television was off. 

“Can we please unplug that?” Hitoshi asked. The room whipped around to him and he gave no response other than squeezing Izuku’s hand a little tighter. 

“Unfortunately, the television operates on its own power and there is no way for us to disconnect it,” Kurogiri said from behind the counter. 

Izuku turned to him, before looking back to Tenko. “I’m sorry, did you just lie to your Sensei? I-” Izuku shook his head, unable to gather enough thoughts to finish his sentence. 

“It’s fine, he didn’t notice. But now I have to ask, do you know All Might’s schedule? And will you join the League?” Tenko asked. 

Izuku couldn’t help the laughter that burst from his lips. “You’re fucking crazier than I thought. I already told you All Might’s schedule, or what I know of it, when I told you my schedule. And no, I’m not joining your group, there’s too many people that idolize Stain.” 

“How dare-” Spinner started, but was cut off by a raised hand from Tenko. 

“There’s literally only one Stain supporter,” Tenko argued. 

“One too many,” Izuku snapped back, glaring at Spinner. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but you might want to turn on the news,” Mr. Compress cut in, looking down at his phone. 

Kurogiri sighed in relief at the interruption as he turned a different television on and flicked through the channels until the familiar view of UA was showing. It seemed that the school had decided to hold a press conference of Vlad-Sensei, Aizawa, and Nedzu. The reporters were badgering them with questions and the teachers were doing their best to answer them with a calm front. 

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and an announcement of a pizza delivery.

“Did anyone order pizza?” Spinner asked. 

“Oh, fuck,” Izuku said as he grabbed Hitoshi and jumped up to rush to the other end of the room as All Might burst through the door, a team of heroes behind him. 

The fight was messy, but the League was holding up well. At some point, Izuku noticed Sensei’s TV blinking on before black sludge sprouted Nomu that began fighting the heroes as well. 

All Might surged forward for Izuku and Hitoshi, but Izuku backed further into the room, not wanting the hero to touch him, even if he was supposed to be acting like a kidnapped victim. 

“This won’t do at all,” the deep voice muttered. Before Izuku had time to even ponder what he could mean by that, there was black sludge pouring from his mouth, choking him just like with the sludge villain, and everything went black once more. 

Luckily, it was only a few moments before Izuku could see again. Tenko’s sensei had used some teleportation quirk to bring not only Izuku and Hitoshi, but the rest of the League to a barren pit. Hitoshi was clinging to Izuku’s arm, coughing and spitting out the black gunk as Izuku took stock of his surroundings. There were heroes that had fallen, assumingly to Sensei. 

“What now?” Tenko called out to his Sensei. 

“Now we wait for the Number One Hero to arrive to save the day,” Sensei answers, chuckling as he looks across the horizon. 

“Wouldn’t it have been smarter to just transport everyone to a safe house to wait for the panic to die down?” Izuku asked, rubbing his throat. 

Sensei tilted his head. “You’re a spunky one, I see why Tomura likes you.” Izuku rolled his eyes at the man’s new name for Tenko. “But, unfortunately my teleportation quirk isn’t as versatile as Kurogiri’s. I can only bring people to me, not send them away.”

Before he had a chance to reply, he noticed a blur of yellow just before All Might came barreling into the crater to punch Sensei. Granted, Sensei caught it, but it was a nice try. 

“Tomura, time for you to go,” Sensei called out before Kurogiri opened a portal beneath each of the villain’s feet and they all quickly disappeared. 

Izuku gaped at them, realizing that he and Hitoshi were not included in the list of people that were allowed to leave this fight. What utter bullshit was that? 

“Midoriya, Shinsou, run while you can!” All Might called, going in for another attack. 

Izuku rolled his eyes as he looked at Hitoshi. “They’re obviously a good match. Does he really think he’s gonna beat him alone?” 

Hitoshi shrugged, but watched the fight nervously. “I don’t know, but maybe we should go.” 

“Think about it though, Toshi,” Izuku said, grabbing Hitoshi’s hands and forcing him to face him. “If we defeat this Sensei guy, Tenko will be free and we can convince him to come live with us.” 

“What about the rest of the League?” Hitoshi asked, worrying his lip. 

Izuku shrugged. “We’ll figure it out. But this man has been torturing and grooming Tenko since he was a child. We need to get him out.” 

Hitoshi nodded and glanced towards the fight again. “What can we do though? He's using multiple quirks and even All Might is flagging.” 

Izuku looked towards the fight to see Sensei heal a cut as black things stabbed towards All Might. Who in the hell was this guy? 

“Oi- Oi!” 

Izuku turned as he heard a faint whisper-shout to see Bakugo standing with Kirishima, Kaminari, and Shouto. He gaped at the group and nudged Hitoshi to get him to notice them too. The group frantically waved them over and Izuku turned to Hitoshi. “Go with them,” he said, activating his headband. 

“You can’t be serious,” Hitoshi hissed. 

Izuku gave him a deadpan stare. “I’m just going to help wherever I can.” 

“You’re going to get yourself killed!” Hitoshi snapped back. 

Izuku sighed. “Toshi, I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“I’m not leaving you. You’re not doing this,” Hitoshi said, eyes filling with unshed tears. 

Izuku pulled Hitoshi in for a hug. “I’m going to come back to you,” he whispered in his friend’s ear. “We’re going to become heroes together.” 

Hitoshi hugged him back tightly before pulling away and wiping his tears. “You’re an asshole.” 

Izuku couldn’t help the giggle that escaped his lips. “Go with them, you’ll be safe and you can come to my rescue if needed. But, I also need you to make sure they don’t rush in after me.” 

“No promises, you have all of us wrapped around your finger,” Hitoshi quipped back. 

Izuku gave him a sad smile. “I’m going to finish this,” he whispered. “Then we can focus on heroics and graduating and opening an agency together.” 

Hitoshi rushed forward and kissed Izuku. Izuku’s mind blanked, and before he could react, Hitoshi was already pulling back. “You better not break your promise. Go kick his ass, Medusa.” And with that, he ran towards their friend group.

Izuku shook his head, mentally panicking because what the absolute fuck? Did that really just happen? There’s no way his best friend, his crush, just kissed him. Izuku shook his head again. He’d deal with it later, he decided as he pushed all thoughts of it to the back of his brain and turned towards the fight once more. 

All Might and Sensei were continuing their fight, throwing quirks and words at each other. Izuku snuck his way across the crater watching them, waiting. He sent out several microbots to track Sensei’s progress. 

“This is for what you did to Nana, All For One!” All Might shouted, throwing a series of quick punches at the villain. Izuku mentally filed away the name, finally having something to call him besides ‘Sensei.’

With the two fighters distracted by this recent attack, Izuku closed the leftover distance and came up behind All For One. The punches All Might was making weren't even pushing him back; he was using a quirk to block them, perhaps some form of regeneration on his arms. Izuku saw an opening as All Might threw a punch before backing away. He ran at the villain and kicked his knees out making him fall to the ground. All Might came in to throw more punches at the villain, but Izuku’s successful attack seemed to only make the man angrier as he threw the black tendrils at Izuku before he could dodge, others heading towards All Might keeping him at bay. 

Izuku only felt his clothes getting wet as his body went into shock and he fell to his knees. He could hear distant calls of his name, but he was staring at All for One, who was looking at him with a mixture of anger and shock. 

“Tomura is going to hate me for this boy,” All for One said before he tilted his head. “Yet, this might be the final push I need in making the best successor out of him as possible.”

“I wo-,” Izuku started, but his voice cracked and he coughed. Bringing a hand up to wipe his mouth, he noticed that it came away red with blood. “I won’t let that happen,” he finished, slower this time. 

All for One laughed. “There’s nothing you can do about it now.” 

All for One gathered all of his black tendrils and poised them to strike at Izuku, but Izuku’s thoughts were quicker as were his microbots. The microbots and black tendrils speared towards their targets at the same time, both embedding. All for One fell to the ground again as the bots in his legs let out a paralyzing agent that Mei had made for Izuku and he’d be forever grateful for. All Might came in with one final punch now that the tendrils were gone and knocked All for One unconscious.

Izuku sighed in relief, and looked out over the field. There was a helicopter whirring overhead, tousling his hair and making it so that he couldn’t hear anything, but he saw All Might, deflated on his knees in the middle of the crater with a shocked look on his face as he watched Izuku. 

Izuku crumpled to the ground, laying on his back, adrenaline rushing out of his body and his friends ran into the crater towards him. He moved his hand to his stomach where the first black tendril had disappeared as All for One fell unconscious, leaving a gaping wound behind. 

The group of teens finally made their way to Izuku and Hitoshi fell to his knees in front of him. Izuku smiled at his friend. “I finished it Toshi,” he whispered, before coughing wetly again. 

Hitoshi had tear tracks running down his face as placed his hands against Izuku's shoulder and side, helping to add pressure to his wounds, though not having enough hands for each one. “I shouldn’t have let you go alone,” he said shakily. 

Izuku smiled and lifted a bloody hand to Hitoshi’s face. “You’re safe and that’s all that matters to me. You’re all that matters to me.” 

Hitoshi choked back a sob and lowered his head, leaving his hair to fall and hide his face. Izuku looked around and saw his classmates all standing soberly above him. Kaminari and Kirishima were holding each other, crying. Todoroki was looking at Izuku with such a sad, pitiful look that Izuku had to immediately look away, though he regretted it as his eyes landed on Kacchan. Tears were running down his face, and he wasn’t standing with the others, but kneeling on the ground, mouth opening and closing as he tried to form words. 

“It’s okay Kacchan, you’re still the strongest, and you always will be. I’ve always known you were going to be a great hero,” Izuku said, slowly so he didn’t cough up more blood. 

Kacchan cried harder at the words, shoving a fist to his mouth to keep it from opening and squeezing his eyes shut. Izuku could feel Hitoshi’s shuddering as he quietly sobbed. He moved his hand to the back of Hitoshi’s head and patted his hair while wincing at the pain of pulling on his injury. 

“I just know that each and every one of you will be the best heroes. Of past and future generations combined,” Izuku continued. 

“We’re supposed to become heroes together,” Hitoshi said, finally looking up to meet Izuku’s eyes. 

“You’ll have to continue on without me,” Izuku said with a sad smile. He could feel his energy draining and he desperately wanted to close his eyes. “Tell Aizawa who I am, will you?”

Hitoshi choked out a laugh at this. “He’ll kill me, then go to wherever and kill you a second time.” 

Izuku choked on laughing and the blood in his throat. “He’ll survive. You’ll survive. Just…” Izuku coughed again, cutting off his speech. “...without me.”

Hitoshi let out another sob, but Izuku could barely hear it as his eyes finally closed and he slowly drifted into a sleep that he would never wake up from. 

Chapter Text

The day was warm, with a slight cooling breeze. In fact, it was the perfect summer day. The sun was shining bright and there were perfectly white and fluffy clouds adorning the sky. Surrounded by friends and family was a comforting feeling on such a day. Seeing everyone gathered should have made it an even more perfect day.

Today was not a perfect day. 

“Thank you to everyone who took the time to gather today,” Nedzu announced to the crowd from where he stood in front of a coffin. “All of the people that loved and supported Izuku Midoriya in his life have gathered here today in mourning. We…” 

Hitoshi wiped at his eyes and looked around at the large gathering of heroes, villains, civilians, and students as Nedzu continued talking to the crowd. Everyone who knew Izuku was allowed to gather and Nedzu had made the funeral a neutral zone since he knew of Izuku’s vigilante persona and the connections he’d made in the underground, though he was smart enough to not announce that to the heroes in attendance. 

As Hitoshi’s eyes scanned the crowd, anger and pain simmered in his chest as the only green hair to be seen was Shiozaki’s vines which she had wrapped around herself like a blanket. His chest was in so much pain that he could barely breathe. It had been this way for a week now. A week of sitting in Izuku’s room, Katsuki sometimes joining him, not knowing what to do now.

“Would anyone like to come up and say a few words?” Nedzu asked the crowd, causing Hitoshi to snap back to attention.  

Mitsuki Bakugou ruffles Katsuki’s hair and walks up to where Nedzu and Izuku’s coffin is. A coffin should never be that small; they always signified a life lost too soon. Izuku may have been in high school, but he had yet to reach a growth spurt and now he never would. 

“I’ve known Izuku since he was a baby, crawling around and causing chaos everywhere he went. We had to constantly keep an eye on him because the moment we looked away, he would somehow have gotten ahold of literally anything and everything,” Mitsuki explained. There was soft, shaky laughter from around the crowd. Everyone could just picture a small baby with bright green curls grabbing onto the closest object to him that he shouldn’t have had access to. He was chaotic enough in his teen years that it wasn’t hard to imagine it in his baby years. “He was always a sweet kid, praising those around him and boasting about their quirks and potential. He had the largest heart I’ve ever seen and-” she cut off as she choked on a sob- “and he will be missed so much. I can only imagine how much he stepped into each of your lives for you all to show up here today and I know he’s smiling down on all of us, wanting everyone to reach their full potential that he saw in us all even if he didn’t talk to you about it personally.” 

Her voice broke again at the end and Masaru went up to walk her back to their small family. Hitoshi looked next to him at Tenko. He hadn’t heard from him at all throughout the past week despite all the calls and texts he’d sent. In the end, he was glad that he came even if he never responded to the last message stating the day and time of the funeral. In fact, the whole League had come out, all standing around Hitoshi and showing their mourning in their own ways. 

Dabi stepped forward and nudged Hitoshi. “Go up there. You have a song, don’t you?”

Hitoshi looked up at his friend, slowly nodding. “How’d you know?” He whispered. 

“Izuku raved about your music all the time. He showed me some of the songs, too. I could tell how much you liked the oblivious idiot,” Dabi whispered back with a soft smile. It was a strange look to see on the man’s face. 

Hitoshi let out a startled laugh as more tears sprang from his eyes. “I should’ve confessed sooner.”

“There’s no way you could have known he was going to die, kid. You can’t keep blaming yourself for it. You know he’d hate to see you like this,” Mr. Compress said, ruffling Hitoshi’s hair. “Guilt like that is a heavy burden that will only wear you down.”

“Go give him your song,” Kurogiri added, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure he’d love to hear it, even if he isn’t here.” Kurogiri nudged him forward with the hand on his shoulder. 

Hitoshi stumbled forward a bit. Luckily, no one had yet stepped forward to say their piece, so Hitoshi walked up to Nedzu and handed him a small speaker. He stepped to the side and looked over the crowd again. Some of the students were giving him pitiful smiles, Toga and Twice were giving him thumbs up with wide grins. Aizawa-sensei, Present Mic, and Nemuri-sensei were all standing together, gazes unfocused as they stared at the small coffin together. Hitoshi had heard about a student dying in their second year at UA and wondered if that was who they were thinking about. 

“Whenever you’re ready, young Shinsou,” Nedzu commented quietly. 

Hitoshi nodded at Nedzu and he turned the speaker on. “Um,” Hitoshi started. His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “I- this is a song I wrote for Zu befo- before everything happened.”

Hitoshi pulled up the song on his phone and pressed play. It was very clearly a love song, one he had planned on playing when he confessed his feelings to Izuku, but now he would never have the chance. As the song played, his mind went back to that treacherous night, waking up at the bar with the League and hearing Izuku playfully making jabs even though he could tell he was truly worried for them; the heroes bursting through the door to save them and Izuku flinching back from All Might’s touch; being teleported to the giant crater in Kamino that still wasn’t fixed and getting to see the League transported to safety; finding their friends there, a welcome relief even though it caused more worry at the same time; the kiss that he’d been wanting to give Izuku for years now, but never in such a circumstance; seeing one of All for One’s quirks pierce straight through Izuku; and the last conversation he would ever have with the first person to accept him for who he was, villainous quirk and all. He snapped back to attention when the song ended, the final line saying: “I love you” before the sound cut out. 

There were tear tracks running down his face again, and he didn’t even bother wiping them away as he took the speaker back from Nedzu and walked back towards the League. Tenko reached out and gripped his hand, the two fingered gloves Izuku had bought him protecting them both. Hitoshi squeezed his hand back and stepped closer as Mei went up to Nedzu. 

“Most of us here have only known Izuku for a couple months, but he was truly the most heroic of anyone I’ve ever met,” Mei started, wiping tears from her eyes. “Most people can’t really handle me or keep up with what I’m saying, but from the first day that he walked into Power Loader’s classroom, he accepted me and kept up with me. We went to each other with blueprints and plans and he always supported me, no matter how crazy my ideas were.” Mei let out a little laugh. “Sometimes he would counter them with even crazier ideas and Power Loader would have to kick us out of class before we caused too much damage to the school.” Small chuckles rang out around the crowd as they all thought of what they’d seen of Izuku’s blueprints and support item ideas. “He accepted everyone he met without a second thought and only scorned people if they did harm to others. He saw potential in us all no matter what job we wanted or our reasons or our quirks. I know for a fact that he loved everyone here.” Mei choked on a sob and went back to her spot in the crowd with her head down. Her moms had brought her and they pulled her close as she neared them.